

Ask HN: How to invest 100k? - Kungfu

What would you do if you had 100k to invest? I'd like to see what people would do with that much money. I know this has been asked quite a bit.<p>Would you:
1. Invest into real estate and rent
2. Invest in a franchise/business
3. Invest into wall street such as stocks, mutual funds, options or futures.<p>I'm just wondering what you would do. If you would split it up and put it here or there or all into one thing.<p>Thanks.
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dshankar
In my opinion, 100k is too little for real estate/rent.

I would put 60k in risky, short-term investments such as early-stage startups
and some Wall Street funds. The rest 40k would go into long-term safe bets.

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deathflute
How can I make short-term investments in early stage startups?

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rradu
Meet people in the startup community

Or sign up for AngelList - <http://angel.co/>

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dataminer
I invest in antiques toys, watches and watch parts and some metal by buying
antique silver coins and gold coins. With advent of ebay, antiques have become
quite liquid. However, just as with any other investment vehicle, antiques
require due diligence and knowledge of the market. I have almost doubled the
investment in current year. This year's home run was three sets of Rolex
Submariner 6536 watch parts sold for $6000 which were bought for $400.

My biggest loss was a Rolex Moonphase Watch I bought on ebay for $14000 last
year, which turned out to be a very good fake and even confused a couple of
Christies Specialists. So I learned my biggest lesson, if it is too good to be
true walk away. Rolex Moonphase in Steel Case with Black Dial usually goes for
> $250000 and I should have known better before paying $14000 for it.

Here is my advice on investing your money, start slow, study your market, keep
a diverse portfolio, target 10-15% per year return, if you reach that you are
already ahead of inflation and increasing your networth. With practice you
will get better at it.

Getting good at investing takes time and effort, but its well worth it, for me
antiques were a hobby which turned into good investments, for you it might be
stocks, land, startups, commodities etc. But same principles apply to all of
them, you have to be passionate about your investments, know your market,
learn from your mistakes, never put all eggs in one basket and walk away if
its too good to be true.

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stephenbez
When do you plan on using the money? The answer will be different if you need
to spend it in 2 years or if this is saving for your retirement in 30 years.

What is your risk tolerance?

What other sorts of investments do you already have?

If it was me, and it was a long term investment, I'd put it in a S&P 500 Index
fund.

[https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsSnapshot?FundId=0540&#...</a> (this
fund has a 0.07% expense ratio)

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Kungfu
Yea, i dont have any of the money now, but soon i will get a job to where i am
hoping to save around 180k. I was thinking of investing the 80+ into some kind
of index and the rest will be for more risky investments.

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dedward
Today,I would keep it liquid, in safe banks, possibly SOME in actual gold (no
I'm not a gold freak). A foreign bank with better reserve policies might not
be a bad idea. Maybe some Euros or some other currency as a hedge, but that's
it. Not to sound too paranoid - just put it in a bank or two that have decent
financials, within FDIC limits.

Stay out of the risk game for a bit.

Then plan to spend the next 48-36 months watching and studying the real-estate
market, and stay out of debt. When the shit hits the fan and prices hit rock
bottom, those with liquidity will be king.

Right now is not the best time on dumping money into risky investments (unless
you really are prepared to take that risk - dumping 60k into really risky
startups is more likely to cause you to lose 60k than anything else. it's
called risk for a reason)

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iuguy
I'd split it to create a diverse portfolio of investments, some high risk high
return, some low risk but long term. If I couldn't get a return exceeding the
cost I'm paying on the mortgage, I'd put the cash into the mortgage to lower
my outgoings, then take the difference and invest that instead.

The rationale behind that approach is that you'll save money by not paying
interest, the amount you save is largely dependent on what you owe and the
interest you're paying, but you're probably paying more mortgage interest than
what you'd get out of most savings.

I'd also buy some precious metals (Gold, Silver etc.) and a safe. Not a gold
bug, but it'd be good to fall back on if I need the funds, plus it will
appreciate over time.

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sebilasse
Maybe use a core satellite approach.

The large chunk (70-80%) goes into the core-part, which consists of Exchange-
traded (index) funds, such as MSCI World. If you live in the US, I would not
invest everything in S&P 500, as you already have enough of US exposure living
there. Maybe 30% US, 30% Emerging Markets (MSCI emerging markets), 30% Europe,
10% something else.

Then with the satellite (20-30%), you can gamble a bit. Like investing in a
startup, or in special market, (a index tracker in a special sector or in an
emerging market for example).

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iworkforthem
I would say with 100k you can looking at investing in startups. Think YC also
invest some 13k on each startup entrepreneur, I guess you can work along that
line.

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garply
Invest in what you understand the best.

