
Ask HN: What's the best investment you've made? - cmod
Public or private market — what&#x27;s the best investment you&#x27;ve made? How sure were you when you made it that it would pan out as it has? How long did it take to pan out? And have your investments (number of investment, amount per investment) increased or decreased over the last ten years?
======
bflesch
I'm neither a VC nor rich, but the best investment I have made in terms of raw
return was into myself when I started my computer servicing business with a
capital of three hundred bucks right after high school.

It is pretty straightforward to reach a six-figure profit in consulting over a
couple of years, and I'd be glad if I could just "repeat" this performance
with a larger amount of money.

An experienced VC once answered my question about why he is flying first class
and visiting us lame fucks in a third-tier town in Europe for two days and how
he could justify spending so much money on us. He said it doesn't matter if he
flies first class or not because if their investments don't work out they run
out of money anyways, and if they do work out they make so much money that
everything else becomes irrelevant. This put some things in the startup world
for me in perspective, and I am trying to be not too harsh and frugal with
myself since then.

~~~
bbcbasic
He is spending it on himself by the sounds of it.

~~~
lewisl9029
It also sounds like it's not even his own money...

------
jackcosgrove
An apartment building in a gentrifying neighborhood. I was pretty sure it
would pan out, since it's within walking distance of a train stop and had
attractive early 20th century architecture. It's still panning out, as my
equity keeps growing. The mortgage will be paid off in 13 years.

I have not been able to buy another income property since then as I had to buy
a home for myself in the intervening time.

The biggest takeaway from the experience for me is that you should not buy a
home for yourself, then rebuild savings for several years and subsequently buy
an income property. Buy the income property first, and then let the tenants
carry the mortgage. I doubt I would have bought another property if I had
bought my home first.

~~~
nitrogen
Do you manage it yourself, hire a manager, or contract with a management
company? The effort of dealing with maintenance and bad tenants seems like a
big turnoff, and acting as HR for a management staff almost as bad.

~~~
jackcosgrove
I manage it myself. It's less than a part-time job, maybe several hours a
month on average.

------
20years
Best investment I have made was investing in sending my younger brother to a 3
month rehab program. I have made business and real estate investments that
have paid off well but none can compare to investing in my brother.

I was very unsure when I first made it. He is 1 1/2 years clean and doing
extremely well. I don't think he would be with us today otherwise so I
consider it an investment well made.

------
guessmyname
I am more curious to know how did this question is in the front page of the
website with less than 10 points, in less than 5 minutes of posting, and zero
comments (at least by the time I wrote this comment).

And just to answer the question, I am not a fan of investments, after three
failures during the past years where I lost more than 50% of my money after
making the bad decision to buy stock from three banks around seven years ago,
then with all my patience I waited and waited to realize that the stock was
going down by the hour, after five years I decided that I didn't want to lose
more money and sold, and lost exactly 54% of my initial investment.

Way to start my adulthood eh? :D

~~~
exolymph
Ask HN posts rise faster than links, I believe, but maybe dang can clarify.

~~~
Jtsummers
Also, other posts on the front page were stale. Most were over an hour old
with, at the time I saw this one, only one other post under 1 hour.

------
xutopia
The best investment I made in terms of money? Married my wife. Having a life
partner that understands money and makes sure I didn't make stupid money
decisions is the best investment. It pays off in so many ways.

~~~
jaffa214525
Wow, this is an interesting definition of investment. I've always considered
my wife to be a blessing, but you are right -- a good wife is a great
investment as well.

~~~
ar4s
I've thought about it like this for the last couple of years: Finding a good
partner is the most important decision you can make. After all of the
promotions and successful business deals/ventures, if you fail to do so,
chances are you'll lose ~50%. Easier said than done though.

------
GreenPlastic
Philadelphia 76ers to beat the Chicago Bulls a few years ago in the NBA
playoffs. Payout was something like 11-1 and our model had implied probability
at something like 45% for Philadelphia.

Made like 50k.

~~~
adt2bt
Sounds to me like this wasn't your only bet of the year. How long have you
been predicting NBA games (or other sports)?

~~~
fowkswe
They never mention the ones they lost ;)

~~~
SHOwnsYou
I'm inclined to believe him.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Caby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Caby)

------
jontas
I don't remember the exact numbers but in 2013 I bought some tesla calls
planning to sell them in a few weeks and hopefully make a few bucks. I forgot
to sell them and when the contract expired they were in the money (TSLA had
gone up almost 300%). Etrade bought the shares on margin on my behalf, and
when I next logged into my account I was first shocked to see I owed Etrade
about $16,000 and then amazed to see that I owned about $50k worth of tesla
shares (on a maybe $1000 investment, I don't remember what the premiums were
at the time).

So the short answer to your question is, dumb luck and sheer stupidity.

------
justinmares
Best investment (outside of investing in myself) was buying into Ethereum when
they first announced it. In the 2-3 years since, that's been up nearly 50x.

~~~
xenihn
I've only invested in two things outside of my 401k: Yahoo and Ethereum. Yahoo
at $50, and Ethereum at $16. I am horrible at investing. I spent $200 on Yahoo
and $40 on Ethereum, since I was just messing around, but damn do I feel
discouraged.

~~~
justinmares
Investing in spaces you don't know or don't have strong hunches is difficult.
I'd recommend just putting money in index funds unless you feel really, really
strongly about an investment and/or have some special knowledge of the space
or company.

Though, in the long run, losing $250 while getting your feet wet in investing
isn't that bad.

------
Apreche
401k + boring old index funds. I started putting in as much as I could since
my first job out of college. Still not even 35, and have already seen plenty
of returns. Will I be the only person in my generation to be able to afford to
retire?

~~~
jaffa214525
You will not be the only one. Join the community at r/financialindependence

------
randomdata
Best investment: Started farming just before the commodities boom.

Worst investment: Still am farming after the commodities bust. Luckily I enjoy
it.

~~~
Jtsummers
How did you get into farming? I have, and am considering, access to a family
farm that presently just breaks even on farm income (poor wheat yield, but
also some portion rented out for cattle), but makes a profit off of oil. I've
contemplated learning and moving into the industry, also as a way to get out
of the city (however small the one I'm in presently may be).

~~~
randomdata
I grew up on a farm, so I had some involvement my whole life. The first year
of my own business, I rented everything, and have slowly started growing from
there.

Having people to give advice has been huge. If I were to do it again, I would
want ensure I have that in place beforehand, be it family members or
otherwise. The developer part of me is so used to being able to find all the
answers online, but a lot of the farming knowledge is simply passed through
the generations.

------
greydius
A cheap state school computer science education. It paid for itself the first
year I worked as a software developer.

~~~
elboru
For me it was English lessons, when I was 16 my mom paid less than 200 dollars
for a year of English lessons in a shitty English school, I didn't want to
study English at the time and I was angry because she did it without asking me
(teenage me was really dumb). My English may not be perfect, but that year of
English lessons pays itself several times every single day with my salary.

------
Mc_Big_G
Student loans. Total investment will end up being something like $200k with
interest included. Lifetime value added to my income will easily reach $4
million. 20X+ return.

~~~
ysavir
I'm assuming you mean that you loan out money to students? Otherwise, that's
likely a skewed calculation.

~~~
Mc_Big_G
No, I mean my student loans. My salary is far above what I would earn without
the degree. The day before I graduated, the best job I could get was a gas
station attendant. The very next day I had an offer for an engineering
position making 5x the hourly rate. Since then, my salary has quadrupled.

------
bgnm2000
Side projects as an investment of time (and learning). I know this is not
really answering the question, but side projects have always gotten me my next
job (moreso than any current place of employment) because they are a living
portfolio and very easy to point to. In addition to showing I can ship a
product. I credit side projects with nearly tripling my salary in just under 5
years.

------
gwbas1c
Index funds, mutual finds, ETFs, ect. Treat stock like vegas money.

The problem with stock is that it's very hard to beat the market, unless you
work full time at researching what you invest in.

Be careful with real estate. What goes up will go down. Don't assume that
"real estate always goes up" when no one can afford to buy a normal home with
a normal salary.

------
Clex
Relevant xkcd [https://xkcd.com/1570/](https://xkcd.com/1570/)

------
BrandoElFollito
40€ invested in a bike helmet. I fell head first on a pointy rock wich broke
the helmet (almost) open but my head was untouched. I left them a FB message
and re-invested in the same model. By any length the best investment in my
life. Other than that, continous self - education.

------
TheLarch
I've made several great investments, including one that is currently paying
out over $6,000/mo. However, these payments are made to someone else, because
I always, always sell early. The markets are a painful place to come to know
oneself.

I do have one tried and true piece of advice: invest in index mutual funds
over managed ones. Their "average" return routinely outperforms most actively
managed mutual funds. Worst case, you haven't paid a lot of management fees to
the person who has lost money for you. (This is less true than in the past
because traders now arbitrage against index funds. Nimble traders exploit the
fact that index funds are mandated to buy certain positions.)

Don't use stockbrokers. If they really knew what they claim to know then
they'd be fabulously wealthy without your help.

Burton Malkiel's Random Walk Down Wall Street is a good read.

------
bko
Mining bitcoin before it's first big spike to about $30. I remember the most
efficient 3d cards were selling at a 50% premium on ebay as they were very
difficult to find.

This was followed shortly by my worst investment, keeping my bitcoin on mt
gox.

Anyone involved in the law suit? Any estimates as to how much we can expect?

~~~
ar4s
Mark is out on bail... But I'm sure his inbox is full (if he's even allowed to
use a computer at this point).

Your next best bet would be Jesse Powell of Kraken, I believe he's the one in
charge of the bankruptcy.

Sorry for your losses.

------
acconrad
I turned $1000 into $1800 in 15 min on an Apple WWDC options play. Not only
did I make $800 I also learned to never mess with options again.

I turned $415k into $530k in 2 years from real estate from an insane booming
market. Combine that with Brexit dropping interest rates to make for a rock-
bottom refinance, and the mortgage is paid off via rent, so it's a passive
income stream that has only expanded on it's profit margin since the refi.

I've also had a x10 startup exit but at small money ($3k -> $30k) but I'd
consider that a net loss given how much time/reduced salary I put into it.

I think the key learning is diversification has won out - for every loss I've
ever had, it was hedged against the multiple income/investment vehicles which
have put me in the green over the last 7-8 years.

------
tomcam
Bought a domain name for $5,000 and sold for $350,000. Bought another domain
name for $10, sold for $45,000

~~~
cmod
Amazing. Care to share the names?

~~~
tomcam
First one: NDA'd. Second one: chijia.com

------
c0l0
Probably my collection of Magic: The Gathering trading cards, if I were to
sell them these days. ;)

The best investment that I actually converted to cash was AAPL that I bought
in 2009, and sold in 2015.

~~~
greydius
I sold my collection years ago for about $1000 altogether. I started playing
during 3rd Edition, had 4 of each dual land, a handful of older cards, and 4
of pretty much every card worth a damn from ice age until around when 7th
edition came out. I doubt that $1000 came close to even breaking even on how
much I spent on the game. However, if I still had those cards today, it would
be a very different story. I never considered the cards an investment, though.
I just liked playing the game at the time.

------
the_watcher
There are two that immediately come to mind for me. The first, and clear
winner, was buying $200 of FB at ~$24, as I was currently running Facebook ads
(which ultimately totalled $2M that year) that were wildly successful. It
panned out extremely fast, as the rise in stock price had just begun when I
purchased. I sold enough to break even when it tripled, sold a bit more around
$100, and still have a bit.

The other one is somewhat tongue in cheek, but the ultimate ROI was
essentially infinity. In 4th grade, I bought a pack of Pokemon cards. I got a
Blastoise. I sold it to a classmate for $32. I then bought another pack. It
contained a Blastoise.

EDIT: To clarify, I purchased that $200 in FB very early in my career, when it
was a very major purchase. I own more than the original purchase now, as I
bought more later, but I'm speaking solely about the original investment.

------
forgetsusername
> _what 's the best investment you've made?_

Bought stocks in late 2009/early 2010 when everyone said the world was melting
down. I think I got into SPY around ~115, and it's almost doubled since. I
just wish I had more money at the time; my return isn't so sexy in absolute
terms.

------
8note
I did a computer science degree. it's taken about 2 years from when I started
it to pay off in spades

------
thisisforyou
Coding bootcamp. Paid itself off in <4 months.

~~~
20years
Very cool! What bootcamp?

~~~
thisisforyou
Prime Digital Academy in Minneapolis, MN. Luck played as much of a part as
anything else. The tech scene here is very much an applicant's market, and I
doubt I would have gotten as high a paying job, as quickly, in another city.

------
pbhowmic
Apple in 2005. I was taking an investments class in community college and this
was the investment decision I made as part of a homework assignment/project.
Of course, sold too early to buy a house and ...

------
jonnyrockit
The best investment I ever made was purchasing an old banged up Porsche 911T
from a movie studio and keeping it garaged for nearly 13 years. I sold it for
nearly 70 times the amount I bought it for.

------
alasdair_
Bought a two bedroom flat when I was nineteen in a notoriously bad part of
town, that was right at the edge of a gentrifying wave (and within walking
distance of university). Got a flatmate who paid my whole mortgage and 50% of
the bills then sold it when I finished uni for 3x what it cost me after doing
minor repairs and a bunch of cosmetic work.

------
lazyjones
My best investment was buying back shares from our VC investor after a few
years, shortly before our startup took off. The investor lost interest in the
Internet due to other failed investments (ca. 2002) and I was confident enough
to pay off the price of the shares using my salary.

------
thejacenxpress
Bought 150 shares of Apple in the late 90s (before it had a 7/1 split)

------
byandyphillips
Using my own money to attend conferences when my company didn't have a budget.
I think spending money on your education/self improvement is the best thing
you can invest in.

------
ryanSrich
Tesla at ~$30/share.

~~~
Jtsummers
Slightly under. I'd been watching it and the price dropped from ~35 to ~28. I
had the extra cash in my brokerage account, so I bought in. Did not expect
that return.

~~~
ryanSrich
Yeah it's been pretty crazy. At the time I was considering Nokia over
Tesla...glad I made the right choice.

------
arielweisberg
My career. Every move to drive my career forward that involved doing things
that were hard and scary rather then doing the same thing familiar things
indefinitely.

------
ryanfelton
Fresh out of college, putting as much as allowed in my 401k.

------
davidw
Learning to program.

------
hkmurakami
Shorting JPY when the LDP came back into power. I was dead certain that
currency devaluation would be a major policy for them.

------
onestone
The Ethereum crowdsale. I sold a small part of that recently, at ~60x profit.

------
allendoerfer
Have bought an expensive domain name for my business.

Also the worst investment yet.

------
sfbay
Yet to make one.

