What should I buy/invest with my money?

53x12 · 2015-10-10T15:22:13+00:00

Open up a Roth IRA with Vanguard. You'll thank yourself down the road.

The catch is you can't withdraw until you're 59. But if you were 19 and made a 3k contribution to the S&P in 1975, today it'd be worth $35,000

alwaysthrowmeaway · 2015-10-10T23:57:54+00:00

I am seeing a lot of good investment advice here. I am 30 and just realizing that I should of been investing in myself more before. If you want to save the money /r/personalfinance is a good place to ask.

some ideas for spending it on yourself:

private dance classes
personal trainer
photography - camera and classes
new clothing? -- you can always do better
language tutor (maybe not good idea as a student you don't have a ton of free time)
Travel -- go somewhere cool while you are young!

NOCTheHustle · 2015-10-11T09:13:23+00:00

So I'm actually going to disagree with a lot of what is said here because you are 19 and currently in a situation where your life it stable. While emergency planning is a good idea, I think it is a waste of the resources at your disposal. What you need to be doing is developing your hustle, which in its own way is a form of emergency planning. Let me explain what I mean.

A hustle is a thing that you can do that brings in side income for you while at the same time has the room for expanding into something more serious should you choose to invest more time and capital. It doesn't have to be the thing that you will do for the rest of your life, but it is the thing you can do without anyone's permission.

A hustle usually comes from one of five places and is often a mix of them

Some innate talent that you have that allows you to offer a good or service (baking, programming, handyman etc)
Access to a cheap source for some good or service (local stores that throw things out, knowing people with talent and little ambition and becoming a middleman, knowing about bargains others don't)
A willingness to get dirty
Connections (knowing someone that can give you an inside track on something others may not know about or have access to or knowing about some need of a group or community that is not being addressed)
Being a first adopter of some new product or service others do not know about. (Somewhat related to 4, but more about being first in on new things.)

The thing about developing a hustle is not only do you get the chance to earn money, but it is a true learning experience. First, there is the obvious benefit of learning what it is that you actually enjoy and don't enjoy doing. You will find yourself learning exactly what it is about the things you like doing that you actually like and the things you hate about what you dislike doing. This will make you better aware of yourself and help you choose a career path that meshes better with your personality. Second, you learn about the minutia of getting things done. Every endeavor comes with a new set of unexpected challenges that you will have to overcome. You know that cliche about learning to expect the unexpected? This is what they are talking about and how you develop the skill. You take on projects and learn to see failure points. You learn the art of doing the little/boring things correctly and consistently. Third, the more you do whatever you chose the better you will become at both spotting opportunity and identifying pitfalls. Finally, it will introduce you to the world of what people are really like when money is on the line. One of the most important business skills to develop is to learn how to mitigate risk and protect yourself from and identify "scumbags". On the other side of the coin you will learn what a decent honest person is like and how valuable they are.

Pick some things that would fit each of the categories above, think about how you could monetize them, and see what kind of time and monetary investment you need to get each done. Gauge your community's need for the things you want to provide and set on multiple courses and see what sticks. What you pick for your hustle today might not be what you want to have as your hustle in a year or two. But the skill of hustling and the ability to spot opportunity will be one you will carry everywhere.

A good starting point is ask yourself if you had to earn $100 in one week without getting a resume job how would you do it?

tl;dr: Use your money to develop ways to make more money not dependent on a resume job.

Tiway22 · 2015-10-11T09:22:18+00:00

5k is not a lot. Hold on to it.

ChiefBigLeaf · 2015-10-10T15:23:13+00:00

Start saving an emergency fund. Having thousands put aside in case of an unpredictable life event is one of the realest types of outcome independence. You never know when you might break your femur and have to pay a doctor, a feminist could sue you for eye raping her on the bus and you could need to hire a lawyer suddenly, your car could spontaneously break down and require thousands in repair work. In all these situations you'd be glad you had $5000 put aside just in case of something like that.

favours_of_the_moon · 2015-10-10T18:41:18+00:00

Put 10% in silver.

Title	What should I buy/invest with my money?
Author	Rpthrowo
Upvotes	5
Comments	15
Date	October 10, 2015 3:14 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/3o84wi/what_should_i_buyinvest_with_my_money/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/what-should-i-buyinvest-with-my-money.188658 https://theredarchive.com/post/188658

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