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Ask HN: How to invest 100k?

• dshankar 16y ago
  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.
  • deathflute 16y ago
    How can I make short-term investments in early stage startups?
    • rradu 16y ago
      Meet people in the startup community Or sign up for AngelList - http://angel.co/ http://angel.co/
    • geekinthecorner 16y ago
      Before you get to the point of scouting for deal you need to be able to show bank records proving you've grossed $200k/year (or $300k/year if you're married) for the previous two years, or have over $1m in assets. This is because our great grandparents got bilked, and as usual, we're paying for the sins of people who died before we were born. These numbers were set by old white men in 1982 to make sure the only other old white men could invest in this manner. The same rich old white men, and their rich white children are now trying to adjust that for inflation, which would mean something like $450k/year in gross income or $2.5m in assets. Look up Rule 501 of SEC's regulation D. Then smash something. I did.
  • adamjernst 16y ago
    I agree about real-estate. However, early-stage startups are multiple orders of magnitude away from Wall street funds on the risk scale. You're probably 75% likely to lose your entire investment in a startup. Losing > 80% of a balanced Wall Street investment will only happen if another depression hits, and at that point everyone is screwed anyway.
  • _delirium 16y ago
    Start-ups will be hard to invest in if you aren't an accredited investor, though, which most people with only $100k to invest won't be.
• dedward 16y ago
  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)
• stephenbez 16y ago
  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&FundIntExt=INT https://personal.vanguard.com/us/FundsSnapshot?FundId=0540&#... (this fund has a 0.07% expense ratio)
  • Kungfu 16y ago
    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.
• dataminer 16y ago
  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.
• iworkforthem 16y ago
  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.
• garply 16y ago
  Invest in what you understand the best.
• iuguy 16y ago
  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.
• sebilasse 16y ago
  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).