Ask HN: I have 1k to invest, what would you recommend? - softwareqrafter
======
itamarst
Do you have money saved for a six month emergency fund? If not, put this money
in a bank account.

If you do have an emergency fund: don't ask on Hacker News, they'll tell you
to do crazy stuff like buy Bitcoin. Head over to
[http://bogleheads.org/](http://bogleheads.org/), or just read the extensive
wiki.

------
quickthrower2
There are a lot of suggestions but you haven't provided enough information to
make a solid recommendation.

What rings out for me, is why do you only have 1k to invest? There could be a
lot of reasons ranging from living in a low income country to having been
recently divorced.

How old are you? What is the ultimate purpose of the money? Is it for
retirement in 40 years time, or to buy a car next year?

Are you likely to have more $1k's in the future to invest. Is it cash in the
bank or coming from your salary this year.

What country do you live in. What is your tax bracket?

Can developing your skills earn you more money?

Do you have debt? Is is tax deductible? High interest?

Do you like to gamble on a long term payout (maybe a cryptocurrency would be
good) or would you really HATE losing that money at any cost (perhaps a
savings account).

Etc.

As a general recommendation, if you don't know what to do with $1k - keep it
in a savings account (or offset your mortgage if you have one) until you know
what to do.

------
chatmasta
Put $300 toward the administrative cost of opening an LLC or your local
equivalent. Put the remaining $700 into a bank account for the LLC.

Use that money to buy hosting, domains, etc. for side projects. Try to build
something that makes money, but don’t worry too much about that. Just having
the administrative structure ready will make it much easier for you to find
productive ways to spend free time. That could mean freelancing or building
side projects. The important thing is that once you’ve got the LLC you can
just focus on code, and you have a legal umbrella under which you can release
any new projects you decide to build.

~~~
GFischer
That sounds like putting the cart before the horse.

I wouldn't spend on an LLC or domains before he has to.

I do agree investing on trying to build something, but there are a lot of free
resources before having to spend money.

~~~
jasonrhaas
Agree with this as well. It's fun to set up up the LLC and domains and
everything, but without an actual product or business its not necessary.

------
tedmiston
Keep it in the bank for now and spend some time reading r/personalfinance,
starting with the wiki.

Once you evaluate your current situation, which some of these questions others
have asked or alluded too, the general strategy for how to optimize savings is
pretty easy. Everything else is just how much risk you're willing to incur for
potentially greater returns.

------
mindcrash
Don't invest in either bitcoin or stocks.

If you don't have a emergency savings account I fully agree with itamarst
below and invest in a emergency savings account.

If you already have a emergency savings account I personally would use it to
either:

1) Invest in myself (e.g. materials for self study, like a Pluralsight
account)

2) Invest in goods which improve my quality of life (e.g. a new development
box, kitchen peripherals, whatever), or:

3) Invest in bricks (e.g. my house)

------
muzani
1k investment would give you very low returns most of the time. Like $50 in a
year.

So you might as well put it into a high risk investment.

~~~
hndamien
Bitcoin unfortunately probably has the best risk return profile for this
amount of money.

------
richardknop
Probably invest in yourself.

1) Buy books about programming / machine learning / etc and read them. Add
some online courses to get some practical knowledge.

2) Flight ticket & hotel to go to some interesting tech conference and do some
networking (this can lead to opportunities later).

3) You could also buy some new hardware for development, if your current gear
is getting old and clunky. This also is good long term investment.

~~~
jackgolding
I agree. If you are in the first 7 years of your career especially this will
do wonders for you.

------
SirLJ
Educate yourself about the stock market, it will take much less money and will
help you in the long run... who knows you might even get really interestedly
and could change your life... I am building stock trading robots and it really
gave me my freedom and the FY money everyone should have to be able to pursue
their dreams...

~~~
subrat_rout
In one of your previous post you mentioned using python. May I know your
roadmap of learning the python and using it? Not asking you to divulge your
trading strategy.

~~~
SirLJ
I am not a developer, so maybe there is a better way, mine was to look into
examples provided by the API providers... For sure my code is messy and not
optimal, but it works and that is what matters to me...

~~~
subrat_rout
Fair enough, thank you.

------
akulbe
Get a subscription to O'Reilly Safari Books Online. $39/mo. or $399/year.

Easily one of the best investments you can make in your technical education
and continuous learning.

It will also help you with leveling up so you can make one of those
products/services other commenters have mentioned.

------
thatsheelpatel
Start a side hustle!
[https://www.sidehustlenation.com/ideas/](https://www.sidehustlenation.com/ideas/)

IMO that money is far better spent in a way that allows you to develop skills
in areas you're passionate about while making money.

------
oblib
Since many with more knowledge than I are saying the stock market is
overvalued and Bitcoin is vapor based I'll offer you invest in something you
can add value to and resell or keep for your pleasure.

~~~
blumomo
Can you give an example?

~~~
oblib
Restoring furniture, old cars and motorcycles, growing food, tools for any
kind of trade work, buying and reselling almost anything of value.

One might just sit on the cash and wait for a bust in the stock market and
then jump in.

------
kleer001
Think more in terms of monthly streams not individual value. Think of dollar
cost averaging instead of timing the market.

------
brentm
If you want to play it safe and not spend a lot of time deciding where to put
it, Wealthfront.

------
Grazester
High yield dividend ETF if you are risk averse or if you want to gamble then a
cryptocurrency

------
FilthyAnalyst
If you want to be safe buy 4 $SPY you'll have to go a little over a grand as
they are at $265. Historically very few assets beat it over a given 25 year
period. For some fun buy Litecoin or 10 NVDA Jan 12 2018 217.5 calls.

------
4073cc
Bitcoin and Litecoin

~~~
oblib
"1,000 People Who Own 40 Percent of the [bitcoin] Market"

That, right there, is just one problem with Bitcoin, and it's a big one.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-
bitco...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-
whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market)

~~~
eberkund
How is that any different from US dollars?

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2017/jan/16/w...](https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2017/jan/16/worlds-eight-richest-people-have-same-wealth-as-
poorest-50)

~~~
oblib
US dollars are mostly invested in financial securities which have hard assets
like factories and real estate.

Bitcoins have no hard asset backing them up. They are based on "irrational
exuberance".

~~~
quickthrower2
The market can stay irrational longer than your FOMO regrets can resist buying
in.

------
mdotk
Ethereum

------
companyhen
[http://coinmarketcap.com](http://coinmarketcap.com)

30-40% BTC

10-20% 3-5 other alts

:)

