Putting it into the stock market isn't suicide at the moment. It depends on your goals. If you are looking at investing long term and have the balls to ride this through your could make some very good money. If you are doing it in the short term, yes it is suicide.

I'd put $5000 into a managed fund or index etf and put the other $5000 towards travel/rebuilt motor. Then put a little into the managed fund/etf each month, reinvest your dividends and after 10 years you'll have a nice amount sitting there.

As you can probably tell I study Finance