I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?

Just skimming some of the replies here makes me think you will get better advice on the Bogleheads forum [1]. Despite the minimalist appearance it is actually a great place to get sensible financial advice. I would start with the wiki page on managing a windfall [2], then search through older replies to similar questions. This kind of question gets asked there a lot, so there should be some recent threads.

[1] https://www.bogleheads.org/ [2] https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall

> I'm not comfortable investing the entirety into an index fund, given the current socio-political climate.

Over the the long term there is not really anything better to do with it than equities: the Great Depression, World War 2, gold standard retirement, 1980s inflation, etc. Even if you only invested in the peaks, you'd still do quite well over the decades:

* https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market...

Jumping in with a lump sum amount can be quite daunting, so what you can do instead is put in (say) 40K every month over the course of a year or so:

* https://ofdollarsanddata.com/even-god-couldnt-beat-dollar-co...

Certainly better than sitting in cash. If you're worried about volatility, then also invest in some bonds funds: 60% stocks, 40% bonds? If you want more growth, 70/30 or 80/20 maybe.

And while the S&P 500 gets a lot of the press, a total market fund is what Vanguard is steering their own employees to:

* https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bogle-explains-why-vanguar...

See also:

* https://www.pwlcapital.com/should-you-invest-in-the-sp-500-i...

Surprised not to see this mentioned anywhere. In finance, we don’t look at maximizing total return but rather risk adjusted return. Buying a lotto ticket has amazing total return if you hit the jackpot but really bad risk adjusted return.

The thing you should spend some time doing is deciding what your risk tolerance is and how much variance in your portfolio you can stomach. Then you can start talking investment strategies.

> ... I have $450K in cash burning a hole in my pocket.

First, the urge to put money somewhere could be a problem. Examine why you feel this way - closely. It could be you're letting emotions take over and that's rarely a good thing.

Second, you didn't mention debts. If you have any, you might look at the interest rate (including government freebies) and compare that to the most likely return you'll get. If your interest rate is higher than your expected return, paying off the debt wins.

Third, what kind of reserve fund do you have? If you don't have 3-6 months of expenses in a ready cash, consider creating an emergency fund.

Fourth, if you have not maximized contributions to tax-advantaged accounts, consider doing that. If your employer offers a match, really consider that.

Fifth, avoid the temptation to tell others about your windfall.

Sixth, has someone helped you who is now in need? Think hard about it. If so, consider helping them out.

Seventh, be sure you understand the tax implications of receiving the money. How much will you owe, if anything. Make sure that money is securely set aside.

Eighth, if everything else is taken care of, think about the lifestyle you want to lead. Do you have enough money now to retire? How attractive does that possibility sound? Taking that path means taking less risk with the money.

Ever since John Bogle created the first index fund about 50 years ago, the advice of simply put your money in, don't try to time the market, and divide between an allocation of stocks and bonds based on your risk tolerance has performed far better than anything else. This includes periods where the market has been very over-inflated. If you had the worst possible timing and put your money in around the absolute peak before the 2008 recession, held throughout the crash, and left it in for a while, you would have more than doubled it a little over a decade later.

It may be hard to realize, especially at times like this when the market doesn't seem to reflect reality, but when investing on a long time frame the best advice is always simply to put your money in and to not try to time the market. On a long enough time frame, it will all come out in the wash.

The key, of course, is "on a long enough time frame". If you think there's a reasonable chance you might need the cash in two or five years, then you should either significantly reduce your exposure to equities like the S&P 500 or eliminate it entirely. The question then, of course, is what do you put your money into? Well, there are plenty of options. While the S&P 500 returns around 9% before inflation, you have a number of options that are lower returns, lower risk. For that, you have the entire spread from a savings account (1% right now) to short term Treasuries (2%ish right now) to various kinds of bonds. The simplest way to get, say, 50% of the reward for 50% of the risk is to have (for example) 50% in SPY and 50% in Treasuries.

Whatever you do, good luck, and I highly recommend the Bogleheads forum for good advice on any situation.

Take a look at this comment from 'patio11 and response by 'mechanical_fish[0][1]. My investment strategy is remarkably close to what they've described (although I read/learned about it elsewhere - a really good friend). I still buy an odd stock in low single digits as a "token" - if I like the company I should get some stocks - think PTON, TSLA, AMD, GOOG, AAPL etc. However vast majority of everything else is in blend of vanguard index funds.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10111454

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10114707

The answer is: nothing. At least nothing different than what was your strategy before that large sum of money entered your life. If I were you, I'd split up this sum in 10 or 20 chunks and mingle each part with the amount you invest monthly. The reasoning behind the split-up is that it's easy screw up when it comes to investment, so easing in rather than nose-diving prevents you from doing something stupid.

A last word of caution: maximized returns come with maximized risks

If you decide to invest it (in an index fund, for example SPY or IWM), I am not seeing any downside to selling cash secured puts. For example, on SPY, you could sell a short 48-dte 30-delta put (strike $312 on Sept 18) for $616 premium. If it is assigned (SPY goes below $312 on Sept 18), you will get 100 shares of SPY for $31,200 but you are no worse off than if you had bought today and also you will have reduced your cost basis to $30,584. If SPY goes up, the shares will not be assigned; pocket the $616 premium and repeat the cycle. Repeat this loop until your entire $450k is invested. This also has the advantage of spreading out your purchases, and thus dollar cost averaging them. Just a thought... I welcome any criticism of this approach :-)

This may be an interesting starting point:

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/windfall

Don’t take financial/tax advice from random internet people.

Go to a fee-only financial advisor something like this https://www.feeonlynetwork.com in your state and take their advice that is a fiduciary. It will cost you a few hundred dollars but that is entirely worth it, we don’t know your whole tax and risk situation.

> I'm not comfortable investing the entirety into an index fund, given the current socio-political climate.

The government is printing an awful lot of money right now.

Keeping your money in cash isn’t a guaranteed return if inflation goes up significantly. You’re much better having it in assets with intrinsic value. (Stocks, real estate, etc)

I would suggest investing the money over the course of a couple years into an index fund, probably S&P 500 or total market.

Even if you invest at the worst possible times (right before crashes) you’ll come out way far ahead of leaving it in cash.

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market...

The normal first question is "do you have near-term need for this money" which it sounds like your answer would be "No, this came to me and now I just need to invest it for a long time".

It sounds like your asset allocation is currently:

- $50k "index fund" (S&P 500?) - $150k land/home - $200k industrial real estate - $450k cash

I would suggest you start at Asset Allocation [1] and as an example read through the "Three Fund Portfolio" [2]. Before this cash, you were nearly 90% real estate. At the very least, you can outperform "cash at a bank" by at least keeping that $450k in a Vanguard or similar Prime Money Market Fund [3]. So as you think about what to do, take the 1.3% or so :).

[1] https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Asset_allocation

[2] https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

[3] https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/performan...

Without knowing more about you - age, health, goals, risk tolerance, other obligations, etc - it's all just random suggestions from the internet.

My random suggestion here is diversify in to a few different equities areas. US, international, etc. I mostly have a few 'general market' funds, but a couple that are focused on tech companies, and they've outpaced the general market over the last several years.

Keep some in cash - ally and others have around 1% return on cash. not great, but it's something. keep maybe $80k or so in there.

put some in general 'broad market' index funds - total market or S&P or something - maybe $150k in that.

find some international funds - put $80k in that.

pick a precious metals fund - put $40k in that. Alternative, take some of that and put in to crypto if you've got an interest in that.

This would leave you with around $150k. Consider some more real estate - perhaps just land and let it appreciate, or a small house you can use as a rental, or more industrial. Or just hold that in cash for a bit longer while you wait and see what happens. You already have $200k in industrial real estate. If you're comfortable with that, and you're getting a return that from area, increase your exposure there.

Watch the investments - readjust portions to your comfort level - perhaps every 3-6 months - as things change. Keeping cash will give you some cushion if there's a downturn, either to weather a storm, or give you some ability to throw a bit more in to a specific market.

There's no rule that says you have to put it all in one index fund right now. You're in a fortunate position, and can afford to take this slowly, and spend time learning more about these various instruments before blindly throwing in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Part of that learning can (and probably should) be meeting with a fee-only advisor who can review your situation in more detail and give you a more comprehensive set of recommendations more suited to those aspects we can't tell from your post (risk tolerance, life goals, etc).

What’s your goal? That’s the first question that needs to be answered here before trying to identify an investment strategy.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Managing_a_windfall

Use this money to max out all tax advantaged accounts available to you (401k, IRA, HSA), and invest the rest in a brokerage account. When in doubt, invest the money in a target date fund at Vanguard or Fidelity that most closely matches the date you plan to start withdrawing from the account. A total world fund/ETF, like VT, is also a fine option.

I'd advise you to stay liquid for a sizeable fraction of that for the next 12-18 months. The world is changing rapidly and access to a sizeable chunk of cash could make all the difference once the smoke clears and it is clear what to do. Also: you could go bargain hunting.

As someone who has been a partner in a fund in the past, I've done a solid amount of research, and for someone who is risk averse, one of the best strategies of the last 50 years has been 33% of your investment in real estate, 33% in hedge funds, and 33% in a portfolio balanced between stocks and bonds. I don't have the study on hand, and I also don't have the time to search for it, but doing research into the hedge fund field will probably yield this study. good luck

This is a good resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

Long term VTSAX or FZROX are probably good places to hold most of that. You could keep $30k in cash for emergency fund.

The other comments suggesting the bogleheads forums are also right. Most of the other comments are a total disaster I’d be cautious about following any of the advice here (it’s also surprising to me how bad it is).

I also personally do some individual stock picks of companies I know in the field I’m in, but that’s still quite risky and not advised unless you like this kind of thing (Amazon, Apple, PTON, Nvidia, previously tsla). I hold long term for capital gains.

Long term index funds are the best bet, even if the market goes down you can wait it out if you’re young. If the current conditions scare you, you can “dollar cost average” entry which just means buying $X amount each month/week until you’re fully invested. Long term this kind of thing doesn’t matter though.

Are you looking to use the cash soon? If so you may want to not invest it. Being forced to withdraw is where the problems come from.

Don’t listen to anyone on here about bitcoin. That’s gambling, if you want to do that know it’s gambling and expect to lose everything.

Personally I would hold the cash until there is blood in the streets. That is the time that fortunes are made. We arent quite there yet, possibly next year.

In 2000 investors were screaming at buffet because he was sitting on billions in cash. They were saying he had lost his touch, he should pay a dividend etc.

Then in 2001 the crash happened and he was able to get some great deals.

The time to buy is when everyone else is saying dont buy, things have fundamentally changed.

There's an amount of money you could plausibly need to avoid life consequences. You get laid off or your business fails, and you have to dip into savings to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.

Figure out how much that is, and leave it in cash or other extremely safe assets. This is a highly personalized number and it's hard to give good advice for it.

For the rest of your money, you now know that you'll basically never need to sell it. The only thing that matters here is the total return over thirty-plus years. This is broadly-diversified stock index funds - the standard boglehead advice works great here. There's always a risk that today's stock price is the best you'll ever see, so the historically superior plan for how to get money in the market is to just dump it all in and ignore the current price.

So yeah. Enough cash to make you "safe", rest in the stock market and ignore the current price and any price movements over the next three decades.

Never take financial advice from internet

Wow no one asked if you have a partner or children or plan to. It isn't clear how old you are, what you want to do with your life, if you have a secure job, if you want to travel, if education is worth it, if you parents/family needs help or if you want to own your own business. Without these things any advice is probably wrong.

"I have about $50K in an index fund, own land worth $150K (paid off) and another $200K in industrial real estate investments."

1. I don't like Index funds. They were a great investment in the past. They may be a disaster in the future.

2. "buy land they stopped making it" Mark Twain

3. "industrial real estate" could be top, could be a disaster, depending on what "industrial" means. Technology heavy REIT (IT, server, g5 infrastructure) could be okay.

You could go contrarian and keep it cash. You could diversify in foreign currencies. In the end, HN is not the right place to ask. I just recently invested in some Asian utilities companies. They pay 5-10% divendends. Have a telecom investment that pays 45% dividends. No kidding.

One word of wisdom: Do not do VC investments. I sunk a ton of money there. In for a penny, in for a dime and it will start sucking a tremendous amount of time out of you.

Go out and get a copy of "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" by Andrew Tobias. It's entertaining enough to keep you interested, fairly short and it's stood the test of time - first published in 1978 and updated a few times. You can read it easily in a weekend.

This is my advice: make sure to spend enough time to educate yourself about financial investments. My rule of thumb is to spend one hour per $1,000 you have in assets.

So, with $450k in cash, dedicate 450 hours of the next 1-2 years to build a solid education for yourself. Don't simply follow the specific advice that you feel makes more sense.

If you think this is a lot of time... 104 weeks in 2 years = you need to spend ~4 hours per week to educate yourself. Read 2 hours for 2 evenings per week. That's it.

Too much? Ok, cut it in half. 225 hours in two years. Still a great effort that will pay you back for the rest of your life.

This is above any specific tactical move or decision you can make.

If you are not willing to do this, then accept the fact that whatever decision you will make, you will have a higher chance to regretting it.

Right now one should have a significant position in gold/metals for a couple of years to hedge governments severely inflating their currencies to fight the crisis/reduce their obligations.

Quality stocks and real estate, typically hold their value as well during volatile times. Do not panic during short term crashes. These should be bought on ten-year+ time frames.

As things improve over the next few years you can start selling the gold and buying other hard assets again. If approaching retirement, it will be time to start moving into more conservative income options like dividend-stocks, bonds, etc.

The one thing you don't want to do now is leave a bunch of cash sitting around. It will get hammered.

This is a big question that doesn't have a single answer, and might be the wrong question to ask. I recommend Bogleheads or buy an hour with a fee-based financial advisor.

How about your return on happiness. Why not consider where you would want to spend your retirement and invest in making that place a reality. Forget ROI... think happiness.

Don’t feel bad about doing nothing. At some point the world will be more financially rational. You shouldn’t have fear of missing out when things are so topsy turvy.

It's a bit late in the cycle, but you can still make a few bucks in gold. As soon as your friends & family start talking about investing in gold, sell.

Go through wiki and threads on https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance.

You may also find interesting to read through https://www.reddit.com/r/fatfire if you'd like this to be your starting point towards retiring.

Step 1: Choose a diversified equity index based on your time horizon and risk tolerance. You can also choose a mix of indices.

- underlying principles: Diversification, reduction of exposure to idiosyncratic risk (as opposed to systematic risk), Modern Portfolio Theory

Step 2: Invest $8,653.85 a week for the next year in your indices of choice.

- underlying strategy: dollar cost averaging

Step 3: If the market tanks in September because school re-openings ravage the country, invest the rest of your money at an accelerated rate.

Step 4: Continue to reinvest income steadily for the rest of your life. Never liquidate a diversified index because of a recession (this ruins the whole investing strategy).

Step 5: Gradually readjust your portfolio into lower risk indices before/during retirement based on your risk tolerance. Warning: Even if you have low risk tolerance, you must have a strategy to live off your earnings for the rest of your projected life span. Generally speaking, the lower your risk tolerance, the longer you have to wait before retiring (because bonds are guaranteed to provide low returns) or the larger your portfolio needs to be upon retirement.

I’m a big fan of boring. I like parking stuff in either Wealthfront or Vangaurd account, picking a diversified strategy, and leaving it alone.

The markets are extremely overinflated as of now. We will see an adjustment by the middle of 2021 at the latest.

I would wait until the news starts to sound so horrible you can’t help to do anything but invest.

As many have mentioned, placing it in an index fund is a good idea. I would go for that! But just wait until the market has the next downturn, invest, and don’t look back.

I have read all the comments here, and although the 8-12% per year returns you might get from the stock market are tempting, my investment strategy has always paid off by at least doubling but usually tripling my money every 3 months... buy low and sell high. examples: buy a house in gated community or on the water on a tax auction or foreclosure auction offered by the court house and never bid higher than a third of the appraisal value on any deal, then sell it for what its worth on zillow. number two, buy jet airplanes or helicopters on auction sites and same thing never bid higher than a third. The reality of these auctions is once you bid higher than 50-100k, the small fish drop off and you either win or its a much smaller bidder pool. you're more than likely to win deals that are 5x to 10x cheaper than what they go for on the retail market.

Get some land, plant trees and all sort of vegetables, and live there basically in this small heaven.

That's my plan at least

Right now is a challenging time to invest.

In general I would lean towards well managed active funds versus pure index funds. The markets are in a time that a good active manager can get you some added return.

With that said I'd probably lean towards something like the all-weather portfolio. See:

https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/all-weather-portf...

Note: this portfolio does cost you some potential upside in good market conditions but with less down risk.

Disclaimer: I am a big fan of Ray Dalio who came up with the all weather portfolio. I have 7 figures in such a portfolio. For the equity and bond portion I use Vanguard active funds.

The first rule of money is, "Don't lose it".

As to what to do with it? If interested in shares, a rule that I like is to invest in companies that make products that you like. Also, hopefully, you can make some assessment about the management of the company. If they are bringing a new product to the market, can you use your expertise to evaluate that product?

Michael Burry argues that Index Funds distort the market. Think lemmings. Better to use one's own judgement.

Is the sun always going to be shining? No, rainy days always come. In life, you will have both lucky and bad breaks. So make the most of your lucky ones.

And don't think you are a genius, when you make a lucky investment. Back to rule #1.

If you want to get rich and are reasonably intelligent/motivated, the best investment you can make is in YOU. With that much money you have the freedom to not earn income whiling attempting to start a business or join a higher risk venture.

Great to hear you are able to have these kinds of decisions to make!

Maximize return needs input * when do you plan to use the money? * what does maximize mean to you (more money is not always what people mean: Examples maximize social good, maximize for long term use in a trust, etc)? * what are your goals?

There are many other questions that could be asked.

Recommend you hire a fee only financial planner.

Also take a personal finance class to help you understand the different types of investments you have (cash, index funds, real estate, land, etc) and to learn how each type of investment is measured over time.

Hope you find your path to your goals :)

Globally diversified low-cost index funds. Meaning not just US, S&P500 etc, but also Europe, developing markets, Nordics, «small cap» (ish) companies.

That’s the portfolio I’m using, anyway. No currency hedging and slightly underweight (but not majorly so) wrt. the US.

Some US-based index fund strategies include only the US, but that leaves you less diversified. Though with better returns, historically.

Not sure why you’re leaving index funds so underweight in your strategy; curious what options you’re considering. There aren’t a lot unless your strategy is more along the lines of wealth preservation.

My advice is unconventional. Why maximize your return? Money is a renewable resource, but time is not.

If I were you, I'd spend the money to enjoy my time with others I care about and donate the rest to others in need.

Any answer here that includes the word bitcoin will be downvoted to oblivion, but it was the right answer 10 years ago and it is still the right answer today. Ignore and downvote at your peril!

How old are you? What are your career and life goals? How much risk are you comfortable with?

Finally, keep im mind: "past performance is no indication of future returns." This is more and more true.

Buy land in Portugal or Malta and leverage it to get a EU Passport.

I have always regretted investing spare cash while feeling a sense of self imposed time pressure. I would sit on it until there is an opportunity you are excited about.

I recommend listening to https://www.schiffradio.com His guidance has really worked for me.

This may be frowned upon but :

I am in a nearly identical situation, within a few percent of your dollar amount.

Ive been looking for a while for a partner for a lifestyle business, something along the lines of a maker space but open to a wide variety of ideas, most of them somehow variations on buying a large commercial space cash and using the free rent to build a business that creates community.

Me email is in my profile, feel free to get in touch, if you'd be interested in brainstorming.

Hire a good CPA they'll be able to execute strategies to reduce your tax burden and shelter the amount you pay on what it is earning you with what you do decide.

Buy oceanfront real estate in Panama and rent it out.

Residency comes with this.

You may use both if things in USA gets from bad to worse - from political, economical, financial and social aspects.

If you're against a broad market index fund right now (which I think is fair, not so much because of the socio-political climate, but because of the high implied valuations of the companies within it), I'd recommend putting about all of it in Berkshire Hathaway as a set-it-and-forget-it type thing. It's effectively a cheaper index fund with better-than-average companies.

Why in the world would I recommend a single stock? For one, Berkshire is a "financial fortress" with virtually no debt, $100B+ in cash, and about a collection of dozens of wholly owned subsidiaries: GEICO, See's Candy, BH Energy, BNSF Railway, etc. Berkshire's so conservative that, although Buffett and Munger have acknowledged leverage could boost their returns, they refuse to take on obligations that would even create a 1 out of 100 year risk of failure. More importantly, I believe it's cheap at current prices (a little under $200 for each class B share). When you buy Berkshire, which has a market cap of ~$500B, you're getting $175B worth of stock $125B in cash, and the all the subsidiaries for $200B. And I'd bet the intrinsic value of those subsidiaries exceeds $200B by a substantial factor.

Risks: (1) The biggest problem is that Berkshire is already quite big. That makes it difficult to compound capital at large rates. But compared to the S&P 500 or the even-bigger tech companies, I'd rather be buying Berkshire, at least at today's prices. (2) Buffett and Munger's advanced age. This to me is not as huge of a problem as people make it out to be. Todd Combs (GEICO), Ted Weschler (investment manager), Greg Abel (non-insurance ops), and Ajit Jain (insurance ops) are extraordinarily talented... to say nothing about the leadership in the subsidiaries. And Berkshire's built such that it would be a great business even without these top-notch managers. (3) Time. This isn't a problem if you're happy to hold Berkshire for 20+ years. But markets are emotional beasts and stock prices can decline rapidly and unpredictably. Berkshire isn't a bond nor does it pay a dividend. So don't buy Berkshire if there's a risk that, 5 years from now, you'll need to sell or if you're the kind of person who can't deal emotionally with large short-term declines in stock prices.

Disclaimer: NOT investment advice. Just my personal opinion. I've been buying up more and more Berkshire in the past few weeks.

Just as some general advice, imo that’s enough money to visit with a fee-only financial advisor for some planning. I don’t think my numbers are wildly off for location but you could probably spend like a grand (.22%) to get a solid plan in place that you can ride for a while. Or like others have said, roboadvisor. I don’t think target date fund makes sense outside of a retirement vehicle but maybe that’s an option.

You don't say much about how much time you want to spend managing your investments. That is an important consideration. On one end of the spectrum, you may have several hours per day to track your portfolio along with market indicators and news -- On the other end, you may not be qualified, or have the time to spend.

No investment advice offered here will be worth anything until you decide where you are on that spectrum.

So $450K is both a lot of money and not a lot of money. Yes you could maybe buy a house with it, but with the current economic climate of foreclosures just over the horizon, I would probably wait for the market to bottom out to do it.

If it were me, I would start looking for vacation properties which are selling as a steal. Then when the real estate market recovers, sell it. And enjoy the wealth that comes with it.

Since you’re looking to maximize return, not risk-adjusted return, you should buy Bitcoin and roll deep OTM weekly put options on large cap ETFs.

> Given this spread, what should I do with the cash?

There isn’t a single answer.

Depends on factors such as:

- your goals (e.g. would this be for future retirement, for paying your kids’ education, etc.)

- your age

- your risk tolerance

- etc.

What about the socio-political climate makes your risk averse to investing into an index fund? And are you referring to all index fund, which can vary on many dimensions such as region, cap size, type (e.g. equity, bond), etc.

Real estate. Great hedge against long term inflation. And a mortgage allows you to borrow 5X at low interest rates, with rental yields generating a profit. Example: you can borrow 2M at 2% (interest only) and rent out at 3%. Real estate rising 3% on average means a capital gain of 70K a year, which is a 16% yield on your 450K investment.

Knowing very little of your goals, risk tolerance etc I'd say start with https://rparetf.com/rpar . You can always exit it and do another strategy if you find more tailored advice

Else consider one of the Vanguard TargetDate funds if you have a target date to retire.

Figured this would be as good a place as any to plug this retirement planner I wrote a while back: https://lunchmodel.com/retirement

It's probably a little complicated for a layman, but I think it works pretty well, and is quite flexible.

I'll just leave this bit of advice

Very few fortunes are lost by spending or excesses, they are mostly lost by bad investments and bad financial decisions

* It might be better to take your time and think long and hard before making any investment decisions

We are at a point of unbelievably crazy valuations and in the midst of a global pandemic

a lot of stuff is going to go tits up

Since people are handing out general investment advice, is it possible to invest in a country? e.g., if I think Central African Republic is going to be the next South Korea over the next 20 years, how would you invest to reflect that without just investing in a specific business operating in CAR?

I am in a similar situation. I ended up investing overseas on a good real state deal with high yields. The tax side of things was simplified by the type of investment (debt investment). I think the pandemic created or accelerated a bunch of business opportunities, some of them out of the US.

Question, out of curiosity - How do founders manage those troves of cash after selling their startups for billions (sometimes even in cash)? I'm aware the amount is a mix of cash and stocks paid over 3,4 years. But, in some transactions the cash portion is not less than ~$300M.

In your position I would save 90% on the safest type of account you can get (big bank, insured). The remaining 10% I would spend trying to bootstrap some business. There's a big chance of failing, but if you fail you will still have a nice amount to reboot.

If you have spare time in your life, go to your banker, ask for 450k loan, buy 2-3 houses, keep 200k cash, rent the houses, if stock markets loose 50% of its value, invest 100k on sp500 index.

There is almost nothing that can beat renting houses if you are a non finance expert

My advice: take advice from people who have invested that kind of money before, and no one else.

Wait for the next crash and then buy up stocks and rental properties (apartment buildings) at a discount. See 2008 for reference. While you are waiting for the crash, you could put some of your cash into gold, which will do well when the US economy crashes.

I'll give you a proper Hacker News answer:

Invest it in software companies who develop in Haskell and Rust.

In my circle a lot of people just use robo-advisors (wellfront, betterment, etc.)

The whole point is that it doesn't cost much and it saves you time on learning about finance.

If you are interested in learning finance, then of course this might not be the best approach.

I can recommended keep investing what you understand best. Trying to invest in something you don’t understand is one way to minimize returns.

Another advise is to go long in the investment with some risk spreading according to your tolerance.

'land worth' is absolutely not 'cash', it's way less liquid, and 'cash' means ~'immediately' available liquid money.

I wouldn't call the REIT cash either, but maybe that's more debatable.

Find a good financial advisor that can tech you all you need to know to figure out what to do here.

Looking at where you have the money there is no rush to figure anything out. It's invested pretty well. Well enough to give you time.

Are you looking for financial return only? If not https://www.givewell.org/ searches for charities that improve lives most per dollar.

I'm going to bet that there are tips at the bottom of this thread that actually work and were written by someone who has made a lot of money off it, but it's hard to sift through them and find out what works.

A nearly even allocation between: SPY, GLD, TLT, HYG, VXX (or equivalent sector standins) Has a very good very stable yield for many, many decades.

To have anything better, one must learn a lot about investing and keep after it.

Don't worry about maximizing your return. Worry about frittering it away. Do you already have the habits to be frugal-ish and control costs, or do you start spending more when you have more in your pocket?

Call Vanguard, setup a Personal Advisor account, and let them do their thing.

Money printer go brrrr, means invest in housing. It’s the only investment that gives you 500k of tax free profit.

Also, you know your city, the local market and what the possibilities are much deeper than any corporation.

I recently bought muni bond funds and SLV to hedge on inflation. PMO pays a nearly 5% dividend which is tax free. I'll take that over a 1% savings account (with taxes) any day.

Buy Bitcoin. You can do so with paypal here https://emeraldledger.com/buybitcoin

Personally I would put half in foreign stocks (like EFA etf) and half in gold. The dollar is dropping against foreign currencies and they are all dropping against gold. Every central bank is printing money like there is no tomorrow: with good reason we are in the midst of a deflationary shock.

But couple the money printing with record low interest rates (and negative interest rates), this creates a special situation where gold (and other hard currency like bitcoin) outperforms. With a negative real rate on bonds, you will lose inflation adjusted purchasing power in bonds even if you come out positive. There are not a lot of great options right now.

You can develop something on that land. Or, go for some more real estate (maybe get some multifamily), but leave ample reserves given the climate.

Life is short, make sure to leave room to enjoy it.

Invest in yourself, that money could buy 45000 books (assuming 10$ each) and after reading them all you could even be a billionaire

Look in to opportunities for syndicated real estate investing.

You could also pursue investing in multifamily homes given you live in the Midwest.

Since you have $750K in assets, you could consider investing in a social enterprise or giving to charity. I support GiveDirectly because their model -- direct cash transfers -- is very efficient.

Otherwise, as other people have said, it depends on your time frame and the amount of risk you are willing to take on. If you can wait 5+ years, a fund blending index tracking with some bonds (for stability) is an excellent option.

5-10% of your total into BTC and ETH, 1-3% into smaller but high potential projects like LINK, MKR, KNC, etc.

If you are interested in investing in a chatbot app targeting middle east and LATAM, please let me know.

I would sit on it until the situation gets more clear, good deals should be coming and cash is king

Wait 6 months for the market to crash. Then buy things like Coke, McDonalds, etc.

What can you do, what do you know? If there were a clever answer that fits everybody, all the banks would already have poured all available money into it.

You maximize your returns by beating the market. You beat the market by being more clever than the market. Where do you have the resources to beat the market?

I know a great financial advisor in the Dakotas if you'd like a referral.

if you are trying to maximize returns, i would say crypto. you could have doubled your money in ethereum in the last few months.

if you are maximizing stability, probably guaranteed return products around 2-3%

Red, go for red! (Unless it's a tuesday - then definitely black!)

Dollar cost average into Bitcoin with swan swanbitcoin.com/swym

Use it as down payment for three condos in Austin TX and rent them.

The most secure thing you can do with that money is buy gold/silver and pay to have it stored in a secure vault. Honestly, that is more secure than keeping dollars in a bank account or US treasuries. Also, gold/silver are appreciating.

consider watching www.tastytrade.com. They advocate self directed investing using options. My wife and I live in the midwest as well and we like the approach.

My allocation

  20 % in physical gold
  10 % in Bitcoin
  10 % in gold mining stock
  30 % in cash
  30 % reserved for the coming stock market crash (to pick up cheap blue chip stocks)

Source: gut feeling

Buy a house, live in it.

Your return = time to do what you want.

OOC what is industrial real estate investment?

I'm not sure where you should put it, but with 150k land + 200k industrial real estate, you should definitely not put anymore into real estate.

I’d put $100k in bitcoin, $100k in large cap tech stocks, and keep $250k in cash in the highest interest bearing FDIC account you can find.

I'll handle it for you.

Buy gold

put every last penny into bitcoin, and I'm not kidding

Put it all in TSLA. By some accounts, predicted to reach $3,000 per share.

YOLO Tesla call options - Pretty obvious. Or Kodak, both great companies.

Start putting $10k/year into Series I bonds as inflation protection.

Buy Bitcoin (BTC).

Investing is a very specific and esoteric skill.

20% Stocks

20% Bonds

20% Real Estate

20% Cash

20% Bitcoin

r/wallstreetbets

buy gold

#1: go buy those night vision goggles you've always wanted and take a vacation. Life is short and you should have some fun. Once that's done, do the below:

Expect inflation over the next 10 years, so keep the land & real estate investments (good hedge against inflation). Also, there are strategic ways to use these for tax purposes...talk to a good tax lawyer.

Treat 10% as "gambling" money with investments. Try to pick some stock market sleepers.

Spread 60% across a few American Funds and/or Vanguard selections, depending on your risk tolerance. Also, max out a Roth IRA every year starting now.

Keep 7-10% in a savings account that's accessible for emergencies.

Put 7-10% into bond funds.

Take whatever's left and put into a down payment on more real estate, either for a personal property or investment property.

This is a really complicated question and nobody in this forum is qualified, nor is it even legally permissible, to give you such feedback. You should seek out a financial advisor.

Invest in structured investments, the same ones used to buoy annuities. All the upside, less risk overall than most investments.

I'm not seeing many replies that take into account we are in the m̶i̶d̶d̶l̶e̶ beginning of a pandemic which is what was asked.

Hookers and blow

Bitcoin

Bitcoin or a 10x moonshot.

More real estate.

Gold.

Various index funds.

QQQ all the way.

The hottest investment in the next year I think is going to be secluded properties away from large cities, especially if they come with fiber internet (think Montana, Idaho).

All in chainlink

my hot stock tips free of charge $NXRT $VVNT $ALRM $NVDA

Make sure you have a store of value in your asset allocation (gold, silver or Bitcoin) to hedge for inflation.

Buy QQQ https://www.google.com/search?q=QQQ

If you seek out average advice, expect average results.

You are going to get a bunch of people talking about equities, Bogleheads, bla bla bla. Read the book “Expected Returns” and start pulling threads.

We're currently printing, and will be printing more money. This is not investing advice. I'd put it in crypto or gold, or foreign stocks which are not undermining their dollar.

Take $200k and build out an equal weight portfolio of a bunch of different tech stocks. Take $160k and use as a downpayment on two different turnkey rental properties. Invest the remaining $90k in a decent index or mutual fund, different from the one you already have.

Surprised I'm the first person to mention Ethereum. And by the amount of people bashing Bitcoin. I suspect those are mainly emotional responses by people who are unhappy they knew about cryptocurrency for years and missed out on profits. In my opinion it's foolish to not dedicate at least 5-10% of a portfolio to high risk assets.

Maximise what return? Money? Gratitude? Ego?

- If you'd like to make a dent into ones life, help someone out with a low income to achieve their goals. Like paying for a drivers license or buying a okay car so mom can bring her kid to school. With that kind of money you can help a lot of people. - If you want to use money to feel safe, put some money on therapy, to know you never needed it in the first place and to get to know yourself. Buy a piece of land for everyone to live on your family and friends. - Ego? Spend it on cars? Parties, everything that was unreachable and plaster your confidence. - Want more money? Invest it in arms, wind energy, or start your own fund in the balkans.

Up to you

I’d buy more cash flow generating real estate.

As others have noted, we are printing cash and all assets valued in our currency are likely to be impacted.

Unlike gold, real estate should be able to generate cash and not cost you cash to hold.

They aren’t making more land. With rising sea levels there will likely be less land.

Midwest is a great place to invest. So is the south east.

If you want more information about what we do in these areas checkout our website:

http://www.accredited-capital.com

We are working to create returns for investors while also making a local impact by increasing levels of home ownership in areas that have routinely been overlooked by Wall Street.

Depending on your situation, these investments might also not be subject to tax.

Email me for more info if interested lcampbell (at) accredited-Capital (dot) com

If you want to learn a lot about startups and feel like meeting with a lot you could distribute it in multiple $20k-$30k bets in up and coming startups you believe in. If you aim at landing cash in 20-30 startups with that cash many of them will go to $0, some will be a break even or moderate success, and 1 or 2 might be a likely winner of the entire strategy. Angel investing isn't for everyone and also there are many better ways to see a "more guaranteed" return on investment but little as interesting as getting a front row seat to the future. If you are purely after risk adjusted returns then just make sure you are allocating to beat inflation, mitigate hyper inflation and into something you know or want to know a lot about. Many great investors out there to learn from but if you want the "starter" guide Angel by Jason Calacanis is a pretty decent book to read.

Cash out refi everything you can. At 3%, 30 year fixed, with fed target inflation rates of 2-3%, you’ll need a < 1% real return to make money on the transaction (ignoring fees).

If you can’t get that with passive investments over the next 30 years, the banks will have bigger problems than your loan.

Despite your risk aversion, consider putting some in a robo advisor (mix of bonds, index, foreign index, etc), to hedge against a spike in inflation, or a crash of just the US economy. The dollar has been falling recently. The robo will auto rebalance as the economic climate shifts.

As for the cash holding, you can at least get 0.35% at Wealthfront in a cash account. (Does anyone know of a higher return cash account?)

Bond yields are slightly higher, but not much these days.

I’m in a similar position, and am also betting on a crash soon.

I have been putting 2-5% into a robo every few weeks (when the market flinches). It’s been a bad strategy (I should have gone all in a month or so ago), but it’s better than 100% cash. If the market hasn’t crashed in a year or so, I’ll be all in.

I bet against the market for most of the Obama administration (because the bailout / zero interest rates didn’t seem sustainable). Clearly, that was a mistake.

You can’t beat the fed, and right now, the fed is printing unlimited money to prop up ETFs and issuers of junk bonds. Also, investors are holding record amounts of cash, and are slowly putting it back into the market in seek of yields.

Good luck.

For now, steer clear away from index funds, stocks, property investments, etc. Things are looking to get ugly in the near future.

Maybe bear ETFs or put options against stocks that have performed well over the year if you're really looking to drop money into something, but that's pretty risky in itself.

Also, be cautious if thinking about any crypto investments in the next month or so. Short term is way over bought for BTC, but towards end of fall into winter when the price corrects a bit could be a good time to invest a conservative amount.

Just holding and waiting out the coming storm is the safest way to go at the moment imo

1. Read this: https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/bitcoin-stock-to-flow-cro...

2. Buy and hold Bitcoin for a while. (longer is better).