5 ms·
Ask HN: What would you do with $100k USD?
If you had $100k and wanted to build wealth, how would you invest it?
Would like to avoid the obvious like investing in stocks, crypto, 401k, etc.
Would you invest in real estate (how so?), would you open a franchise (which one?), would you build an app (what's it do?), would you do something else?
- bcrl 5y agoI would put up another 100 km of fibre and add another 300 customers to my fibre network.
- shoo 5y ago> 100 km of fibre $1k / km -- sounds pretty cheap. Is that running the fibre aerially between someone else's poles?
- bcrl 5y agoYup. The lesson I've learned over the last several years is that I'm selling "better internet sooner". The strategy is to build fast and acquire the customers now, before the incumbent is able to fulfill this unserved market.
- rTX5CMRXIfFG 5y agoBuild an environmentally sustainable pig farm
- typeofhuman 5y agoWhy is that? Because of the cost of bacon? Seems like that might cost more than $100k.
- notdang 5y agoI think it's a reference to the movie where they affirm that 16 pigs can make a body disapear in 8 minutes.
- theandrewbailey 5y agoI would pay off my house first. Not sure what I would do with the few thousand left over.
- typeofhuman 5y agoI own my home and have no debt. Been focusing on that for years. Invested in stocks, maxed 401k. Now I don't know what to do next. I need to broaden my knowledge of ways to grow money. Also, I have no business ideas lol.
- schmookeeg 5y agoI see money as life-fuel. I personally don't have the need to own a vast fuel-storage farm and just greedily watch it grow -- instead, I look for ways to spend on personal growth. Travel, education, and experiences have been a huge return on investment for me personally. Once you get into the wide world, the ideas may flow naturally, or your ambition, or both may calm and you may find a new direction best suited for you. Failing that, though, one of my hobbies is aviation, and it has a very unique ability to consume any and all cash you may have, in unlimited amounts. So if you've accumulated a smaug pile of gold, and are looking for the fastest way to blow it all, well, time to go flying! :) $0.02
- hpagey 5y agoHave you thought about buying a business? Take a look at websites like microacquire and see if that fits your lifestyle.
- newsbinator 5y agoI just tried to sign up to see listings on microacquire and they won't let me pass without inputting a LinkedIn profile. I don't have a LinkedIn profile.
- typeofhuman 5y agoI put in a dummy address and it worked fine. I don't know why they made it required.
- notdang 5y agoIt doesn't need to be your Linkedin Profile
- typeofhuman 5y agoThank you! I had never heard of that site or one similar. I will look into the opportunities.
- jimmyvalmer 5y agoI would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities... -- Samir Nagheenanajar
- runjake 5y agoFor those lost, this is a quote from the must-watch movie Office Space[1] (which was painfully accurate, though its probably a bit dated now). While you're at the TV, also watch Idiocracy[2], by the same writer/director. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Space 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
- vgeek 5y agoWould Peter's neighbor Lawrence's answer also be applicable here?
- giantg2 5y agoRaw land if you're interested in using it eventually or for recreation. Renting could be an option, but probably better to use it as vacation rentals rather than permanent due to all the uncertainty around rent payments during the pandemic (and potentially after).
- salawat 5y agoCommunity centric investing. Sometimes, people lose sight of the fact that money is meant to move. It can come back to you and enrich your life in other ways. Fund a local group doing a good job solving a community problem. Doesn't even have to be big. The business you facilitate doing that chains to other transactions, and odds are you'll start transforming some of that fiscal capital into social capital.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- akavi 5y agoWhy do you want to avoid investing in stocks? (Also, a 401k is an investment vehicle, not an investment in and of itself)
- typeofhuman 5y agoI've reached my diversification and contribution goals. 401k point noted. I was just trying to be concise in my comment.
- ddorian43 5y agoYou open another private account and invest in stocks again.
- codegeek 5y agoI personally would buy a small business (SAAS or otherwise) and then grow it.
- wittycardio 5y agoHow would you go about trying to buy such a business?
- codegeek 5y agoYou can start with websites such as flippa.com (lot of noise but you can get a few gems once in a while), microacquire.com (focussed on smaller saas, better quality but is premium), empireflippers.com and a few others. I have personally done transaction in flippa many years ago AND doing 1 in microacquire at the moment.
- aronpye 5y agoI think cooperatives are an interesting idea (0). Maybe you could start one to provide a service in your community like fiber broadband, etc. For a higher risk option that’s not been mentioned you could look at peer to peer (p2p) lending. (0) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative
- rdtwo 5y agoDown payment on a house. Gets you 5% of that starter shack in the Bay Area for 2mil.
- muzani 5y agoThat's 4 years runway in my country, living a comfortable life. I'm certain I could build an app that makes more within that period of time. Or even if it's not a profitable app, it would be substantial research into... something. There's an untapped customer market of Solo RP. Basically people who take something like D&D and become the player and the GM, but most don't enjoy playing both roles. It's not necessarily D&D; there's hundreds of tabletop rules that people just want to experiment with but can't find interested friends. Video games don't really work because they're railroaded and don't give as much agency. There's some basic tools like Mythic GM emulator, which is basically a set of rules to make things surprising. This is something that can be done 10x better with just an app, and done 100x better with an app + GPT-3. From that, you can branch into a new genre of gaming based around AI. Some will bring up AI Dungeon, but the downside there is that AI is terrible at maintaining state. The game is good at simulating a date between you and your possessed spear. But 15 mins later, it will forget about your demonic spear boyfriend. Humans are great at maintaining these states, and making the call whether this should be a big part of the game they're playing or not. AI Dungeon is poor at conflict resolution - you stab the dragon once with your magic spear and there's maybe a 50% chance of instantly killing it, because it's not tracking injury or difference in strength, or even plausibility. Humans and RP systems handle this much better. Can something like this make over $200k? I'd bet on it. AI Dungeon certainly did.
- subrat_rout 5y agoIt all depends on your level of risk tolerance. Would you want to play safe where you do not want to loose money at all? Invest in inflation protected Treasury bonds. Currently I-bond is paying 7% return. Would you want to play risky where you do not mind loosing a chunk of the size? Invest in a few obscured cryptos after doing some due diligence where there is a chance of 10-100x return. Want to play safe where moderate risk is tolerable? Invest in real-estate but it also depends on market and country. People think buying a franchise will make them an entrepreneur but remember franchise is nothing but a job disguised under thin veil of entrepreneurship. In Franchise business, someone else has a major control over your business and you have to play by their playbook rule. In addition, there is a very little room to scale. However, if you are person with some developer or marketeer skill then this is the best route to go. If you have few ideas then you can test those by developing a prototype and putting in hand of customers and getting feedback. But be aware that for each prototype you should not spend more than 5-10k. If you have sufficient time in your hand then other non conventional investments can be buying farm lands and trying organic farming, providing micro-loans to entrepreneurs etc.
- sircastor 5y agoI’d use it as down payment on a duplex or quadplex in a midsized city and rent it out for investment income. Find a city you think is on the upswing & growing. Find a local realtor and tell them you’re looking for an investment property. You don’t have to make a lot of money on it. Investment devaluation makes it tax neutral-ish.