It’s not really common for one to inherit or save $20k, as that is a relatively huge amount of money. Credit cards sometimes hinder us from saving! But if you have that amount of cash in your hands, then good for you!
Now, what you would want to do with that amount of money is not to let it sit around. Because of inflation, you might end up losing money rather than making more of it! This is why the idea of investment comes into the financial picture.
This article’s content will help you with 10 of the best ways to keep your money rolling.
1. Invest With a Robo-advisor
One of the best ways to invest 20k is to do it with a Robo advisor. Doing so will keep you invested in the stock market using broad and various approaches. There are many resources and content online should you know more about what Robo advisors do and how they could help you with stocks, ETFs, personal loans, and credit card budgeting. However, let me give you an idea about what Robo advisors are. For one, they know money cards best.
A Robo advisor, in general, is like a financial advisor. Still, instead of them being a person, your finances are analyzed by a series of computer algorithms that are programmed to adjust, maintain, diversify, and pick out your investment as time passes by.
Just like what a financial advisor would do, all these algorithms are based on the context of your finances, credit card debt, car insurance, emergency fund, your risk level of choice (also known as your risk tolerance), and the duration of your investment plan. Also, you can opt for some regular, taxable investment account. You can set up your own IRA funds ETFs by yourself.
2. Max Out Your Retirement Accounts
If people around you say that it is too early (or sometimes late) for you to plan for retirement, then don’t believe them. With an investment of 20k, you may have the financial buffer you need to increase or max out your 401 k and even your individual retirement account.
Take note of these three strategies:
-
Always remember that you put into an investment for each dollar and know that your employer at work will match a portion of that amount. While we all know that plan terms may differ. But a 50% to 100% match on your contributions as an employee (those which range from 3% to 6%) is something that isn’t rare.
That’s why the tip is for you to be able to contribute an ample amount to earn that full match. You won’t need to worry because if you end up short on your utility bills or credit card bills, for instance, your $20 000 is there to cover for you. Just be sure to read their privacy policy as well. - Another strategy is to open an account with the IRA and make sure to maximize that out. Choose between a Roth IRA to collect tax breaks in retirement should you opt to start financial withdrawals. You can also choose a traditional IRA (different from a Roth IRA) for tax deductions made upfront.
- Lastly, even if you think that it makes sense to raise your best personal 401 k contributions, know that you may also have other goals for investment. This year, to max out both your 401 k and your IRA or Roth IRA, you would need to use a benchmark of $25k if you are aged 50 or below. Also, take note that the annual contribution limit is $19.5k for 401 k and $6 000 k for your IRAs. This is one of the best credit deals ever.
3. Invest With a Broker
Now, if you are those types who wouldn’t patronize Robo advisors’ use because you would want the best credit or to invest on your own instead, that is also a fine choice.
Personal finance brokers, especially with a good investment portfolio, can help you do that–even with mutual funds or retirement funds—people before used to pay high fees to brokers who would trade on their behalf.
Thanks to algorithms, technology, and artificial intelligence, these are now becoming things of the past. All you have to do is to create a brokerage account.
Online brokers now exist, and they only cost a fraction credit of the cost of your regular, traditional brokers. They know credit cards best. They know insurance best. They handle your accounts best.
These online platforms, using a brokerage account, can help you get educated not only with the stock market, the stock exchange, and how its dynamics are but also on investments — namely– how to build your investment options and your other credit investment products.
They can also help plan you with the best online car insurance, emergency fund, life insurance, checking accounts, or even mutual funds.
Some online brokers offer stock trades for free, with additional educational resources that explain how investing works. Others may charge fees, but you get additional options, such as a real-time monitoring system on how the stock market performs.
4. Do a 401(k) Swap
You may already get this idea: if you are not jobless and have 20 000 dollars at hand, which you can use two invest, even for your retirement, it is also the best way to do a credit 401 k swap effectively.
You can easily invest 20k with this method. This is a good advantage to tax-loss harvesting and investing more in life insurance as you age.
Since this type of money comes from your payroll or your work bonus, you can increase your contribution amount, usually up to 75 percent of your paycheck, until you have contributed $20 000 using that money you have on hand — just so that you can replace the income that you have lost.
How Does This Work, Though?
For example, a way to invest here is to imagine that you are a person who makes $40 000 per annum and that you are currently contributing 5% into your 401 k (life insurance) right now.
This amount will be about $2 000 per year, assuming that no employer match is included. Given this context, let’s continue to think that you have come into $20 000 that you’d like to invest.
What’s going to happen is that you could keep that $ 20 000 in some high yield savings accounts and then increase your 401 k contribution, which will make you feel that you are not living off of any less. That’s one way to take advantage of a high yield savings account as well.
Now consider this: instead of paying a five percent contribution, raise them to 50%! After a year, you did not just invest 20 000 bucks, but you have just reduced your taxable income by 50%. From the government’s perspective, you just paid fewer taxes because you earned only half of what you received per annum.
5. Put the Money in a High Yielding Savings Account
In relation to point number 4 above, we would still recommend that you, as an investor, put off 50% of your money in a high yield savings account because going above it might not return greater investment returns.
However, if you are certain that you will need the money shortly, you should feel okay about going above fifty percent; but we advise you to think twice.
There are high-yielding savings accounts that will give you a 1 percent yield per annum (or sometimes higher). This is good for a savings account. But if you want a higher reward for your investment, one way to invest is to invest in stocks, although you will need to have a higher risk tolerance for this.
Another way to start investing is to do this with your money through the best Robo advisor in the utmost conservative way possible. For instance, if you save for a house, you choose to take your money out of your high-yield savings account and put it onto that best Robo advisor.
6. Try Out Peer-to-peer Lending
Peer lending is a method of loaning money to others who need it. It is a great way to invest. You can lend to someone who needs investors for their business idea, their student loans, for instance, or some would want to pay the debt on their credit cards or bank account. In other words, it just seems like you’re providing personal loans to other people. Some people would do this best online.
Now, the benefits you can get from peer lending is that your investments can give higher returns as compared to having to invest in stocks. When you invest your money here, however, the risks are so much higher.
Because according to experience, people would not usually pay back the personal loans on time, or in some cases, you might not make money because, as you start lending to them, they might not pay the personal loan back at all.
Before you engage in peer lending, be sure to heed to investment advice first (such as Robo advisors), and make sure that you have the personal capital to lend. Remember: based on data, the more risk you are taking, the more yields you receive.
Read more: Is It a Good Idea to Take Out a Loan to Invest?
7. Start Your Own Business – 100% Recommended!
Pre-discussion notes: The recommended percentage allocation of investing 20 000 bucks for this is 100%; however, take note that this involves a high level of risk.
Starting a business can be stressful sometimes, but always know that this is a very lucrative line of work and that most times, it is also very fun. All you have to do is to be certain about your plans and what you are doing.
Where does this start, you might ask? It starts with a solid and clear business plan. Without this, starting such a business might just put your investment goals and funds into waste, and might only live for a short term.
Sometimes, you can look for business partners or financial advisors to help you analyze the risk. Compared to other methods on how to invest, you will need to have personal capital and time, and a lot of energy to keep your best personal business going. Some businessmen would say that sometimes they would even work for more hours than a regular employee.
Just get started! The fund’s payoff can be great, and these investments may be good in part for the long term as long as there’s a money market for your products. If you are equipped with the right information and do things the right way, you could end up profiting from your products–with or without business partners on your side!
8. Pay for an Education
You might remember your parents telling you when you were younger that the only thing that other people can never take away from you is nothing but education. Well, a lot of people have testified to the validity of that quote, and the principles behind it stay true –even up to this day. If Robo advisors could talk, they might even suggest the same thing!
Even if you invest in stocks, you can lose all your money in the stock market. You can go bankrupt on your bank account. You could even stumble into debt on your credit cards or even on your checking accounts. But if you have a strong foundation in education, that foundation will never go away.
If you do not have a bachelor’s degree, be an investor in your education, and consider getting yourself through college. Access to this may be hard as you might fall into student loans. If you do already have a college degree, consider getting a higher form of education. For some schools, student loan services are usually available even for graduate degrees.
If you have the college fund to access higher education, consider this one of the best ways to invest in your future. Know that when you invest 20k into this, it might not cover all your fees, but this will surely be a good investment portfolio.
9. Be an Investor in Your Education Today!
Invest in an employer-sponsored retirement account. Once again, one great way to invest your 20 000 bucks is in your retirement account. You can get ample tax advantages when you invest 20k into accounts such as 401(k), the traditional IRA, or Roth IRA.
The first investment for many people is the 401(k) plan, co-sponsored by your employer. This can help you get started with your investments since the transactions are automatic.
One thing to consider about investing in 401(k) plans is the high management fees. With this, your investments might grow more slowly than the other types. This gets worse if the set of options you would otherwise choose and invest 20k on is not offered.
10. Invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts
REITs (also known as real estate investment trusts) serve as an alternative real estate directly when it comes to real estate investing. Some would offer the most attractive services, products, and other information regarding money market accounts and stock trading.
REITs have been very popular in forms of real estate investments since the 1960s. Think of REIT as somewhat to a huge lending club of real estate assets whose location is freely traded on the stock market.
Similar to real estate, REITs can invest in more options and locations. Also, as additional information, know that real estate is categorized into the following:
- Retail
- Residential
- Lodging and Resorts
- Specialty
- Industrial and Office
- Health Care; and lastly,
- Self Storage
To invest money in REITs can be done easily by any investor (and sometimes guided by best online financial advisors), regardless of their credit score, because of the availability of mutual funds and ETFs. If you are a beginner, you can think of getting index funds based on REIT as a start. You can also check out a crowdfunding website or sites online that offer such services–including ETFs.
Personal finance success stories in real estate prove that it is an excellent avenue for long-term stocks investment. Know that purchasing property accounts best more of a sizable monetary investment (sometimes higher than 20 000 bucks).
However, always remember that you can start investing in REIT, as this is a strategic alternative in owning real estate. This is because REITs provide good gains from expense ratio as you get passive income, a growing nest egg, and a diverse investment portfolio. Imagine how you will continue to earn from stocks or ETFs–even up to your retirement accounts!
Conclusion
Invest your $20k into good use by planting them into the right avenues. Some advisors are available best online, as compared to the traditional financial advisors. You can trust them to Robo advisors who know insurance best or credit cards best. They can handle your accounts best as well! Aside from these, they can educate you with stocks!
Aside from those, other ways to invest can be chosen as well. From education to stocks, to real estate, to ally invest, always remember that you will benefit in the long run as long as you invest your money carefully and properly.