If you need your money in the short term, a savings account might be the best place for it, because youre guaranteed to get back the the same dollars you put in (known as your principal).
You are almost right. But you need to minus around 3% of inflation rate. Means, your money uses value or buying power of 3% each year.
When you invest in stocks and bonds, risk is present and you can lose money. The fact that you are taking more risk also means that youll likely earn higher returns over the long term."
Every investment is risky. The trick is to reduce the risk as much as possible. In your case, I would invest into an ETF (exchange traded fund) which depicts a world-based index (e.g. MSCI). If one world region is struggling, lets say the States, it will be compensate by another one, e.g. Europe or Asia. Furthermore, you get dividend payments anually.