Ask HN: What should I do with half a million dollars? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What should I do with half a million dollars?

2 pointsbkohlmann7 comments

I'm a 30 something MBA startup intern with a military background and one more year of school (with scholarships and funding).

My wife works as an independent contractor, and we have a young kid.

I've been a saver my whole life, coming from a very modest background. We have a comfortable, but by no means life changing, stash.

I'm currently invested in full-market ETFs and a few (small) rental properties, including one Airbnb.

How can I best leverage this accumulated capital? Should I just stick it out with recommended ETFs? Despite my conservative and financially savvy inclinations, I'm searching for other opportunities.

Any thoughts?

Don't try to figure out what to do with a half-million dollars. Try to figure out what to do with 50K. Take it as a learning experience and then grow from there. Absolutely do not risk it all on one thing.

If I had 1/2 mil, I would do 2 things: 1.) Invest in real estate (grad student housing, to be exact) for the cash flow for re-investment, and, 2.) Hire a few junior-level programmers to help me flesh out a handful of projects that I have been wanting to work on, but haven't had time to work on on my own.

First of all, congratulations on your achievement. It would appear that you have successfully followed the strategy of spend less than you earn.

The best return you can get is when you invest in yourself and your own business. So perhaps that could be the third component of your diversified investment strategy. Real estate is always a solid one. I don't have much experience with ETFs - but from what I hear they are somewhat exposed to stock market volatility.

Keep on keeping on. You seem to be doing fine. You have a good base with real estate and broad market ETFs.

Is this half million dollars your retirement savings, or extra cash on top of retirement savings?

Extra Cash on top of retirement.

With a wife and a kid. Hmnn.. I think you should get a decent job.

do a startup

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