If you had $10,000 laying around...

[particlewave]

What would you do with it?

$10k isn't much these days, but I'm looking to do something aside from blow it on crap that I don't need. Was thinking of investing, but haven't the first clue where to start.

So, $10,000 that you don't need(assume that all bills, etc. are paid)...what comes to mind?

I know this is off topic, but who cares?

[litespeedp]

Former girlfriend has invited me to come see her in Italy this fall!

[particlewave]

Europe is in my top 5 things to do...

[Paul]

Roth IRA, start putting money away now for retirement, all of us that are 60 plus wish we would have started at your age. Pay your taxes now on retirement income so that it will be tax free when you retire. Taxes will be much higher by the time you retire.

[Topless]

Possible choices I would consider

1. Down payment on property I could rent in the future.
2. Buy Berkshire Hathaway "B" shares and forget about it for 10 years.
3. Pay off any existing consumer debt.
4. Rainy day fund in a low yield MM account.
5. Load up the IRA

[rondocap]

Weird. I just googled the same question, BEFORE I logged on the forum 10 minutes ago.


Common subject or psychic connection?

Ha

[Jager]

Save it for a rainy day... Something will come along eventually, believe me.

If you think you want to invest it, but don't have experience, select a mutual fund that invests in categories that are of interest to you (real estate, stocks, bonds, precious metals, municipals).

[Deserion]

Speak with a financial adviser. I'd definitely be putting that away, but where would depend entirely on your risk tolerance.

[Joe B]

Does this actually have anything to do with Boxsters ? Buy a $10,000 Boxster maybe?

[01SBox]

Invest, oh young man, in thy youth....Ecclesiates 11:9

open an ameritrade account, and invest in the 4 most aggressive funds you can find. You can recover from investment mistakes when you are in your 20's a hole lot easier than your 50's...so go nuts.

[TeamOxford]

VWELX

Since 1929..................

[tnoice]

Don't go to the Internet for financial advice.

Go to a financial advisor that will look at your finances in a big picture, macro prospective, so that they can give you specific advice rather than generic, one size fits all products or mutual funds. This big picture analysis would look at what you have in savings, what debts you have, and what investment accounts you have and how they are taxed when you pull money out in the future. Any other advice that does not take those components into consideration, is simply oral dissentary.

[black_box]

take a long trip....

money spent traveling is spent well.

[Porsche Chick]

If I had $10K, I would have a lot of options;

-I would add take the $10K and my 2009 Boxster, and trade them both in for something even zippier, either an S or a 911. I like my Boxster, but I could stand to go a little faster.

-If I wanted to invest, I would split it between a mutual fund with a high rating by Morningstar, and a simple index fund, probably the Dow 30. (Most advisers, mutual fund managers, etc., have a hard time beating the index, and if they do, it's usually by only a couple of points. Which is spent on their fee. Unless you have access to an exotic investment vehicle, like derivatives, you'll have a hard time beating the index too. Be sure to reinvest dividends, because most stock charts include those when figuring their "gains".)

-If I wanted to invest, and have something nice to wear, I would buy the largest (natural, not irradiated) pink or white diamond I could afford, from a diamond dealer, NOT a jewelry store. I'm sure you guys haven't noticed this, but diamonds really do tend to keep pace with inflation. Check Rapaport for diamond price trends.

-I would spend a month in France, renting an apartment, flying cheap, and eating cheap.

[thstone]

Really depends on how old you are and what your financial situation is.

To boil it down; if you have kids under 18 yrs old, invest the money for their college - you can never have "too much" money saved for college unless you're walking around with Krugerrand's falling out of your pockets.

If you don't have kids or they are already grown and gone, do something that you've always wanted to do but never had the money.

Or, I guess you could just save the $10K for an IMS bearing failure engine rebuild.

[particlewave]

.................

[CoBeerToad]

$10k put into a retirement type account will turn into a sick amount of money down the road. But where is the fun in that. Me, I'd put it into the house. A remodel job or two will also pay out dividends down the road and you will get to enjoy it as well.

[Troutman]

Originally Posted by black_box

take a long trip....

money spent traveling is spent well.

So true...You are investing in yourself, memories from travels are always with you and worth so much more than investing with stocks etc..
You never know what's round the corner, have a balanced approach to short term and long term, if it ever happens.

Good Luck.

[fatmike]

Originally Posted by particlewave

I'm 34, my child will be starting college in 5 years, and I am currently in college with 2-3 years to go. Tuition eats up most of my pay, but I've managed to squirrel away a little bit again and am tired of it sitting when I know that there are better things that I could do with it.

All good advice and most are ideas that I've mulled over. The best advice that I saw was speaking with a financial advisor. Thanks for the opinions!





It was just a hypothetical.......And I did that already
I'm thinking of selling her, though...more to invest.

This is actually a pretty easy question. In order:

1 - Have 6 months of living expenses in a savings account. If you don't have this already, do it and maintain it.
2 - Pay off any high interest debt (credit card, car loan, etc.).
3 - Fund a Roth IRA annually. Invest in a mix of bonds + stocks. I recommend the Vanguard Total Stock Market fund and the Vanguard total Bond market fund. Maybe 35% bonds/65% stocks. Keep the funds forever, add every year and don't look at them more than once a year.

Only after you've done all three of those things should you even contemplate some of the other suggestions on this thread.


/

[Johnny Danger]

This is what I would do !


Diabolik - the 'money orgy' scene - YouTube