How would you invest $10,000 if you had that much money lying around? What a great problem to be stuck with, right? However, if you have never really been into investing before, or you have never had more than a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars to invest previously, the thought of investing such a large sum of money can be a little daunting. After all, most investments come with varying levels of risk vs reward, and knowing which is the best option for your situation can be a tough call.
Investment Options
Firstly let me say that I am not a financial advisor, so the following is my opinion only and does not constitute a recommendation for anyone. However, if you do like the sound of any of these investment options, it might be worth while investigating them further, or contacting a professional in order to see how feasible any particular investment option would be for your situation.
I have broken the investment types into the following categories:
Online Investments
These are the most interesting investments to me, plus, I have found a lot of success with them.
- Starting your own business online - Starting your own business (online or bricks and mortar) can be tough, but you can also make some serious money if you can find the right product or service to market. I opened an online store at the start of 2014, and the results have been incredible. This is definitely one type of investment that I recommend people give a try.
- Niche websites - I could spend a lifetime talking about this topic. Essentially niche websites involve building a website around a topic and ranking in in the search engines in order to sell ads or a product or service. Niche websites are completely dependent on traffic from search engines, so be aware that if the search engine changes their algorithm your site might be impacted. The major plus side to niche websites is that it doesn't cost much to get started and you can make heaps of money from it - I know someone that was making over $10,000 a month from his.
High Risk Investments
I personally like quite a few of the high risk investments because of the massive returns you can get. Again, this comes down to risk versus reward. The higher the risk (the chance of losing your money), the higher the potential reward (the chance of making a massive return on investment). For me I really enjoy investing in penny stocks and also investing in Forex markets. Both of these investments are definitely high risk, but the returns can be gigantic.
More recently I also looked into binary options as an investment choice, but at the moment I just don't have enough experience in that market yet to be confident investing any more than a few hundred dollars in there.
Recap
- Penny Stocks
- Forex
- Binary Options
Medium Risk Investments
If I was a betting man then I would bet that over 75% of people will invest their $10,000 in the medium risk area. I think this because most people want decent returns, but don't like the stress or time commitment of actively managing a high risk investment like those discussed previously. My investment strategy involves only a very small portion of our investments in this area, but as I get closer to retirement, I plan on migrating the bulk of my money into the following:
- Real Estate Investment Trusts
- Listed Index Funds - These are funds that are setup mimic the greater stock market movements. So if the market goes up by 2%, you would expect your index fund to do the same.
- Top/Blue chip stocks - Things like the top 100 ASX stocks or the Dow 30
One thing that I recently investigated was peer to peer lending (I recommend Prosper) which can return some fairly good returns for a moderate amount of risk.
Lowest Risk Investments
Low risk to me (at least pre GFC) is things like bonds, term deposits, high interest savings accounts and managed funds. If you are the type of person that has money, but isn't interested in actively managing that money, then these are the most obvious investment choices for you.
None of these is going to make you rich overnight, and in fact, I highly doubt they will ever make you rich, but they are good for earning that little bit more than the inflation rate. So theoretically you should end up further ahead than you would if you were to stuff your money under the bed or into the back of the freezer...
Recap
- Bonds
- Term deposits
- High interest savings accounts
- Managed funds
Unusual / Obscure Investments
- Antiques - The market for antiques is huge, provided you know how to spot something that will increase in value. I've never tried this myself, but I have watched enough episodes of bargain hunt to know the right item can bring in lots of money.
- Collectables - Things like cars, comic books and coins are all hugely popular with collectors. Some people can make small fortunes by collecting the right things. I even heard of someone selling a card from a board game for $100,000!
- Renovate your house - Renovating will require some skill and there is no guarantee that you will increase the value of your home, but some people do very well out of it. I personally am not anywhere near handy enough, so it isn't something I would try.
Other Uses for $10,000
If you have credit card or mortgage debt, then it might just be best to put your $10,000 straight into paying off those items. Paying off debt is essentially the risk free option, and it will often outperform many of the low risk options I specified earlier, but it isn't going to make you a millionaire.
Investing in yourself is also another great way to spend your money. Things like degrees or learning a skill can go a long way in increasing your future income potential and might end up being the best investment option for you. It certainly isn't the easiest option, and it will take up a good portion of your time, but it might be exactly what you need.
$10,000 Question Time
No, i'm no Santa, and i'm not handing out $10K... How would you invest a cool $10,000?
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Although please note: I only recommend products or services that I believe will be of use to my readers.
The post What is the best way to invest $10,000 appeared first on MPB Personal Finance .
