[BayMoWe335]

Originally Posted by Malibu1

If any of us knew how to invest, we would be on the Lambo and Ferrari forum and not here.

Not really. I've done pretty well in the market over the years, but I don't have enough capital to make millions in the market.

In my opinion, you need an $8-10M+ net worth to drive a Lamborghini. Even if you started with $500,000 and doubled twice in 5 years, you'd only be at $2m....not nearly enough. And you aren't going to double twice in 5 years in this market with that much capital...very unlikely anyway.

Lots of people will tell you about the great returns they made, but they didn't do it with millions of dollars. "Oh, I made 50% on that trade. 100% on this trade." Going from $1,000 to $2,000 isn't impressive. Going from $500,000 to $1M would be, however. The amount of money you invest changes your strategy. I might put $1,000 into some crazy trade because I'm not afraid to lose it. Try the same trade with $500,000 and see how your behavior changes.

[Sam335ix]

Stock Market, Investment Properties (bought them really low now price has gone up about 40%)Oh and cash is king, nothing wrong with having a good chunk sitting in a few different accounts. Investment properties are pain in the ass, lots of headache and upkeep but its well worth it over time if you are not in the red and the rent is paying your mortgage and then some. 401k maxed out every year the first few months of the year, my company matches dollar for dollar.

[SilverII]

stock market (mainly 401k)
guns
ammo

[Patrick303]

Originally Posted by boostedTIAG335

Clearly. Apple hasn't seen $600 a share for months now. Probably never will again. And correct me if I'm wrong, Facebook hasn't seen $38 a share since their IPO. Meaning, everyone that invested in Facebook lost money. I would be hesitant to invest in Dell too. Can you name the last innovative thing that have done recently? Neither can I.

If you had put that hypothetical $20k into Apple yesterday you'd have already made $1100. Get in the game!

[Patrick303]

Facebook is up 19% in after hours trading today after releasing earnings as well. Moral of the story....don't hire boostedTIAG335 as your investment advisor.

[boostedTIAG335]

LOL sorry, I don't think about holding investments for a few hours at a time. Check back with me once you look at the closing prices for a full year or longer for a particular company.

[RandomHero]

I started multi-quoting every ridiculous response in this thread and realized that pretty much every post aside from 2 or 3 was complete crap.

In this hypothetical situation, are we assuming that the rest of your finances are in line and this extra $20k would not be put towards a tax advantaged investment vehicle (you’ve maxed out your 401k, IRA, and Roth)?

Assuming that you already have an emergency fund and you’re putting away plenty of money towards your retirement, I’d suggest finding something that you know a lot about and investing some of your money in that.
If you decide to take the traditional investment route (trading securities) that’s the Peter Lynch method of investing.

For me personally: I “invest” in pens, watches, and antiques. I have large wealth of knowledge about all three which allows me to take on very little risk, but with the potential for very large returns (comparatively).

I buy below market value and re-sell at market value. It’s very simple. It’s not glamorous, but I spend time at estate sales, antique stores, craigslist, ebay, and everything in between. Technically, I make more money an hour with this side business than I do in my regular job.
It may not be “investing” in the traditional sense, but it takes up very little of my time, I enjoy it, and it’s become so successful that I’ve almost debated on doing it full time.

Now I’m not saying that you should go do the exact same thing, but figure out what you’re good or know a lot about and find a way to make money on it.

Aside from my tax advantaged investment vehicles (401k, Roth, and IRA) I invest very little in the market. It’s impossible to yield a 100% return in 2 weeks without taking on a significant amount of risk (or breaking the law). On average, I make over 100% on each pen I sell and about 50% on each watch I sell. Antiques vary greatly from 10% all the way up to over 1000%.

Investing takes a great deal of time. That’s why I suggest getting into something you know a lot about. You can step a few steps and save time educating yourself. Don’t jump into anything blindly: real estate, securities investing, cars, etc.

The educated and disciplined investor always comes out ahead. Find a way to make your money grow whatever way that may be and capitalize on that.

[upstatedoc]

Originally Posted by RandomHero

I started multi-quoting every ridiculous response in this thread and realized that pretty much every post aside from 2 or 3 was complete crap.

In this hypothetical situation, are we assuming that the rest of your finances are in line and this extra $20k would not be put towards a tax advantaged investment vehicle (you’ve maxed out your 401k, IRA, and Roth)?

Assuming that you already have an emergency fund and you’re putting away plenty of money towards your retirement, I’d suggest finding something that you know a lot about and investing some of your money in that.
If you decide to take the traditional investment route (trading securities) that’s the Peter Lynch method of investing.

For me personally: I “invest” in pens, watches, and antiques. I have large wealth of knowledge about all three which allows me to take on very little risk, but with the potential for very large returns (comparatively).

I buy below market value and re-sell at market value. It’s very simple. It’s not glamorous, but I spend time at estate sales, antique stores, craigslist, ebay, and everything in between. Technically, I make more money an hour with this side business than I do in my regular job.
It may not be “investing” in the traditional sense, but it takes up very little of my time, I enjoy it, and it’s become so successful that I’ve almost debated on doing it full time.

Now I’m not saying that you should go do the exact same thing, but figure out what you’re good or know a lot about and find a way to make money on it.

Aside from my tax advantaged investment vehicles (401k, Roth, and IRA) I invest very little in the market. It’s impossible to yield a 100% return in 2 weeks without taking on a significant amount of risk (or breaking the law). On average, I make over 100% on each pen I sell and about 50% on each watch I sell. Antiques vary greatly from 10% all the way up to over 1000%.

Investing takes a great deal of time. That’s why I suggest getting into something you know a lot about. You can step a few steps and save time educating yourself. Don’t jump into anything blindly: real estate, securities investing, cars, etc.

The educated and disciplined investor always comes out ahead. Find a way to make your money grow whatever way that may be and capitalize on that.

I think I like this guy.

[991brothers]

Commercial Property and stocks

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by upstatedoc

I think I like this guy.

I also hear that investing in IRAs is a good idea. I hear they're up like 20% this year?

[MidwestGolfBum]

Originally Posted by RandomHero

I started multi-quoting every ridiculous response in this thread and realized that pretty much every post aside from 2 or 3 was complete crap.

In this hypothetical situation, are we assuming that the rest of your finances are in line and this extra $20k would not be put towards a tax advantaged investment vehicle (you’ve maxed out your 401k, IRA, and Roth)?

Assuming that you already have an emergency fund and you’re putting away plenty of money towards your retirement, I’d suggest finding something that you know a lot about and investing some of your money in that.
If you decide to take the traditional investment route (trading securities) that’s the Peter Lynch method of investing.

For me personally: I “invest” in pens, watches, and antiques. I have large wealth of knowledge about all three which allows me to take on very little risk, but with the potential for very large returns (comparatively).

I buy below market value and re-sell at market value. It’s very simple. It’s not glamorous, but I spend time at estate sales, antique stores, craigslist, ebay, and everything in between. Technically, I make more money an hour with this side business than I do in my regular job.
It may not be “investing” in the traditional sense, but it takes up very little of my time, I enjoy it, and it’s become so successful that I’ve almost debated on doing it full time.

Now I’m not saying that you should go do the exact same thing, but figure out what you’re good or know a lot about and find a way to make money on it.

Aside from my tax advantaged investment vehicles (401k, Roth, and IRA) I invest very little in the market. It’s impossible to yield a 100% return in 2 weeks without taking on a significant amount of risk (or breaking the law). On average, I make over 100% on each pen I sell and about 50% on each watch I sell. Antiques vary greatly from 10% all the way up to over 1000%.

Investing takes a great deal of time. That’s why I suggest getting into something you know a lot about. You can step a few steps and save time educating yourself. Don’t jump into anything blindly: real estate, securities investing, cars, etc.

The educated and disciplined investor always comes out ahead. Find a way to make your money grow whatever way that may be and capitalize on that.

Everything he said is awesome! I flip cars and do some commercial RJ45 wiring (it helps that I'm already in the IT world). Pick things you enjoy and you will be able to make money from it if you think hard enough.

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by Team Plutonium

Love it!

Cliff notes: we are all wrong buying real estate, we need to by pens.

Thank you.

LOL, let’s hope not. I’d prefer to avoid the competition

Real Estate can be a fantastic industry to get in, don’t get me wrong, but it takes a good bit of capital to get started, and you can get yourself into some serious trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing. It can be one of the best or worst investments if you’re not careful. Eventually, I WILL get into real estate investing, but at 25 years old I'm currently saving for my first house (let alone other properties).

Pens work for me personally. I actually got into pen collecting by accident. I bought a Parker 51 Fountain pen for $1 at an estate sale and realized it was worth about $100.

My best estate sale find ever:
Two 1 ounce gold coins, 8 silver eagle coins, 12 proof sets- Bought at a garage sale for $20. I sold both gold coins for $1850 each back when gold was trading at around $950/ounce. That’s a $20 investment that was worth over $2000.

When I tell that story, some people ask me if I’m still kicking myself for selling them at that price after gold eventually went to almost $1900/ounce. I took a 10,000% gain in February 2009 in a market that was down over 50% from its high point in 2007. I’m pretty comfortable with those numbers

I’ll buy pretty much anything and everything if it is worth my time and effort.

Here is one of the funniest things I ever sold. It was a mobility scooter that I bought for $30 at an estate sale. I bought two $25 batteries for it and sold it for $330.


All of this took time, and I’ve been buying and selling for years now. I started buying and selling truck parts. I didn’t have any money to mod my truck back in high school so I learned to buy things on craigslist and sell them at a higher price.

A few years later I started going to garage sales to look for furniture for my college house. Oddly enough, I found the gold coins at one of the first garage sales I ever went to.

I then progressed to estate sales and antique stores. I’d look for things that were very old and had engravings or that where signed. I’d plug that name into ebay and see how much it sold for. If it was something that I could turn a respectable profit on, I bought it. That was how I learned to significantly lower my risk before buying anything.

If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to share some more pointers. Investing is investing to me. There are people who have made fortunes from the stock market, real estate, cars, jewelry, stamps and everything in between.

By the way, Bill Gross sold his stamp collection for $9million. I'd dare to say that he's one of the best investors of all time.

[yarviinn]

Considering how the economy is right now, I wouldn't get into commercial property. There are so many vacant spots especially in my city that they are offering ridiculous incentives upon signing a lease.

Having $20k to invest in is a pretty good start. Buying stocks would be ideal with $20k, but you risk a lot with it (pretty much a casino). Obviously, the market will have its up and downs, but if you're smart with buying/selling/trading, then do it.

401K would probably be the best, but if you don't really care about your retirement, opt into investing in homes.

Purchase a decent one between the $90k-$130k range.

Buy, fix/renovate, rent. It will pay itself off in 10-13 years.

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by yarviinn

Considering how the economy is right now, I wouldn't get into commercial property. There are so many vacant spots especially in my city that they are offering ridiculous incentives upon signing a lease.

Having $20k to invest in is a pretty good start. Buying stocks would be ideal with $20k, but you risk a lot with it (pretty much a casino). Obviously, the market will have its up and downs, but if you're smart with buying/selling/trading, then do it.

401K would probably be the best, but if you don't really care about your retirement, opt into investing in homes.

Purchase a decent one between the $90k-$130k range.

Buy, fix/renovate, rent. It will pay itself off in 10-13 years.

You live in California, one of the hardest hit states by the housing market bubble. While the OP is also in California, many real estate markets throughout the US are booming right now and have ton of room to grow.
Here in Austin things are growing like crazy. Residential and Commercial properties are in extremely high demand, and I see no signs of a pullback any time soon. Small older buildings are being knocked down every week to make room for new high rises and office complexes.
In Oklahoma where I lived previously, the housing market was largely unaffected (in comparison to CA, NY, and FL). Prices may not appreciate at an alarming rate, but occupancy remained very high and investing in rental properties has been extremely successful for many people I knew (even through the recession).

Saying stocks is risky is the equivalent of saying all cars are fast. It’s a blanket statement that isn’t true.
There are plenty of conservative companies to invest in that may not yield large returns, but in the past have maintained a strong track record. McDonalds is an excellent example. Look what they did during the 2008 recession. They’ve also increased their dividend every year for over three decades.
Generally, in a bear market people flock to consumer staples and/or utilities. Usually, they aren’t hit as hard in a recession. People will always need to heat their homes and people will always eat cheap fast food (especially in a recession).

Now if your method of selecting equities is similar to throwing darts at a dartboard, then yes, it can be just like going to a casino. Investing is like poker. Even the pros lose eventually, but you can significantly increase your odds through discipline, patience, skill, and knowledge. Arguably, many equities are a safer play than bond funds right now. Interest rates have risen significantly over the past few months and fixed income mutual funds are getting hit very hard right now.

You mention that a 401k would be the best bet after first saying equities are pretty much like gambling in a casino. A 401k is not an investment. It’s a tax advantaged investment vehicle to save for your retirement.

I’m not sure what you’re actually advocating. Every sentence in your post contradicted itself.

[Mr Tonka]

I don't know about real estate in Cali, but here in FL, also hit super hard with the housing bust, residential rentals are awesome right now. If i had an additional $20K sitting around i would buy two or three rental properties.

If you know what you're doing you can get 1500 to 1800sf houses or condos for as little as $40k and easy at $60k right now. A mortgage on a $60k property will cost about $350/ month and rent for between $750 and $1000 / month. Your $20k will get you 3 properties of this value and earn you as little as $1200 / month while someone else is paying the mortgage on your investment which is going up in value every year. Of course, you'll have to plan for some vacancy, account for insurance, property taxes and maintenance. But with $12k in revenue a year, these expenses should be covered.

In FL, there has been no better time to buy rentals. Rates are low, prices are more than reasonable and rent demand is as high as it's ever been. Very few investment opportunities offer a relatively safe investment with as high of a return while putting a little coin in your pocket every year.

My current rentals all rented with in a few days after putting out a for rent sign in the yard. No other advertising and we'll get 15 calls a day from people looking to rent. If the places we had were less valuable they would rent even faster. The cheapest one we have rents for $1300 / month and it took all of 3 days to rent.

Of course the hard part is buying them right. Finding them at the right price while not needing much work to get rentable is the trick. All the other crap is easy, finding the right rentals is where the work is.

Real estate has been, is and will always be one of if not the most viable investment vehicle for normal people. Look at the purchase price for any home that was purchased 20 years ago. You buy a house *now* for $60k and the likelihood of that property being worth $250k or $300k in 20 years is almost guaranteed. Name another investment you can layout $6k on now, have it produce a small, yet ever increasing amount of net profit each year and give you 4200% return when you're done with it. All without having to be Warren Buffett. Ask the most successful franchise inventor Ray Crock, what McDonald's was really about...real estate.

[NemesisX]

Originally Posted by BayMoWe335

Not really. I've done pretty well in the market over the years, but I don't have enough capital to make millions in the market.

In my opinion, you need an $8-10M+ net worth to drive a Lamborghini. Even if you started with $500,000 and doubled twice in 5 years, you'd only be at $2m....not nearly enough. And you aren't going to double twice in 5 years in this market with that much capital...very unlikely anyway.

Lots of people will tell you about the great returns they made, but they didn't do it with millions of dollars. "Oh, I made 50% on that trade. 100% on this trade." Going from $1,000 to $2,000 isn't impressive. Going from $500,000 to $1M would be, however. The amount of money you invest changes your strategy. I might put $1,000 into some crazy trade because I'm not afraid to lose it. Try the same trade with $500,000 and see how your behavior changes.

I swear you're 1 of just a small handful of people on this board who is sensible about what it takes to comfortably afford an exotic

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by NemesisX

I swear you're 1 of just a small handful of people on this board who is sensible about what it takes to comfortably afford an exotic

You don't NEED 8 to 10 million to comfortably drive an exotic.

There is more than one way to skin a cat....

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by Team Plutonium

Agreed. Now, I'm certainly not in the position of getting one, but I could've easily run one via my cooperation as a company car and write-off the costs as part of the operating budget. Pretty cheesy of course, and I'd have to hide it from my clients, but that is one way to obtain one.

An audit would be extremely hilarious too... and the investigating agent would hate you, but there is nothing wrong with doing it that way.

Yep, a steady business with consistent, adequate cash flow and the dishes are done. You even get the depreciation to help with the tax burden.

I guess some people wouldn't call that comfortable though.

[Scott_H]

I flip houses in SoCal for a living - There are much fewer opportunities now than there was a couple of years ago, but if you know the marketplace and buy sensible projects you can still make decent returns.

On a side note, I wouldn't even attempt flipping houses without an in depth knowledge of both real estate markets and building/construction. You will also need many multiples of $20k to get started

[Kahmati]

I sell Real Estate as a career and I would say real estate! I don't flip but I do buy, live in a portion of the home, rent ,and sell.

Here in Canada our interest rate was 2.49% ( prime - 1) now about 3.29%

I wouldn't invest in Condos right now but land is always so precious. I am actually in the same situation @ 20k looking to boost that to 30k by year end and invest out of the Greater Vancouver Area like Mission, Abbostford where I can buy a 9k sq foot lot

But the main reason why I say Real Estate is because you get money for a small interest fee and can invest in something potentially 400k+ and grow with the market, can rent a portion, renovate. But sales here are still strong and prices didn't really go down here and actually starting to rise in some parts.

I also never get sick of precious metals ( Gold, Silver)

[M3Denver]

Anyone say hookers and blow yet ?

Forex
Some stocks blue chip mostly w some ipo in rare earth
Land
And precious metals.

And

Hookers and blow

[bing240sx]

inventory and family