Disclaimer: this ain’t advice. I’m not telling you what to invest in. I just like clickbait titles.
Alright, now to tell you what to invest in.
When You Have $0–1000
Get a job.
Literally zero? You don’t even have money to invest. How are you eating?
If you don’t have $1000 saved, you either have a bad job or bad money management.
If you have a bad job, spend the little money you have learning a better skill to get a better job. Maybe that’s a certification, or buying a course online. Realistically, most info is free, so you probably won’t need to spend much.
One thousand is your cushion for day-to-day expenses. As much I love taking an absolute dump on Dave Ramsey, he’s not wrong about this.
When You Have $1,000–10,000
Now you can begin.
Are you trying to play it safe, or don’t know what to invest in? Then put your money in a safe, long-term storage vehicle (AKA beats inflation).
Dollar-cost-average into Bitcoin or an index fund. This is Boomer-tier advice (which isn’t legally advice, as a reminder) because you don’t have enough to do much more with. The only thing you really ought to consider is spending it on training to skill up and earn more.
When You Have $10,000–100,000
Now it’s interesting. You can start investing in stuff without risking all your capital.
- Write tiny angel checks to nascent startups (I’ve done this for less than $10k)
- Start a side hustle. Could be a techy SaaS tool or a normal “buying vending machines” one
- Write covered calls for better returns than normal index funds
- If you can live cheaply to create a long runway, you could consider going full time on your own proper startup
- Borrowing cash, buying a house and renting it out (works great with multiunits)
- Do something fun, like investing in an indie film (done this too, lol)
The answers in this range vary widely depending on your life circumstances. Starting a family? The house one makes sense. Single and hungry? Go for that startup.
You’re essentially plotting a life path with your choices because you’ll probably keep going down the path of whatever you’re already doing. Most people do (in both good and bad ways).
No pressure.
Assuming people reading this want to become rich, I would lean towards the ones that create scalable equity (investing in startups or starting your own).
If you can’t do that yet, the safer ones are great ways to still bring in income while maximizing downside protection (because you’re buying an asset you can sell again later).
When You Have $100,000–1,000,000
Life circumstances will again start dictating this one.
- If you’re older or otherwise just want income and downside protection, real estate is never going away. Investment properties (again, bringing in income not just sitting there) are golden.
- You can write more meaningful angel checks (which these days are closer to $100,000)
- Essentially, the answers are the same as the $10-100k range, just on a slightly grander scale.
This isn’t as much as some think it is. It can feel bigger if you’re supporting a family, but the price of assets themselves rises exponentially.
At least you can buy a house outright, though.
If you liked whatever you invested in previously, why not take a step towards a more vertically integrated approach?
- E.g. if Bitcoin made you rich, and you still believe it’ll go up significantly, why not invest in a Bitcoin mining rig (or rig farm)?
- If you love software and want to keep doing it, though you don’t have any ideas of your own you want to work on, then start an agency and get paid to recruit an awesome team. When the time comes and you have something of your own to build, you have a whole team to call upon.
What this level gets to be is preparation for the next one.
When You Have $1,000,000+
If you’re at this level, I’d be surprised if you’re taking advice from a blog post (remember, “not advice”). You probably already have your own strategy, which is obviously working for you.
But here, you want to think more directionally than tactically.
- What industries do you know well?
- What strategy is working for you (e.g. real estate, build equity, diversify)
- Can you keep doing whatever you’re doing, but start removing risk?
- Maybe there’s a project you’ve wanted to do for a while. Perhaps now’s the time to automate your systems and then go work on that
If you’re not bored with your main work, why change it? If you need more money, surely you can raise it from outside investors (since you’ve already shown yourself able to earn and manage this much).
If you seriously love work, and you’re still hungrier than ever, resist the urge to hand over management of your money to someone else.
Focus creates wealth. Billionaires became billionaires by concentrating their wealth into 1–3 things they truly believe in.
Double down on yourself.
For real, this is not advice. If it was, you’d be paying me, and my rate is high.
