What do I do with $30,000

Hi guys,

I just turned 22 this year and I am about to finish my masters in June. I have failed to secure front office positions and I am looking at re-applying. I am fortunate enough to have no student loan or any other debts and will incur minimal expenses after graduation as I will be moving back to my parents place.

I have managed to accumulate a tiny sum of $30,000 during high school, college, grad school.

What do I do with it?

I currently have about: 5k - Term Deposits 5k - In Stocks 20k - Idling in cash at banks earning little to no interest.

Any thoughts on how to grow this or where do I start?

No models and bottles please.

40 Comments
 
alexpasch

Short $30K of XLY and buy $30K of XLE. Hold for 5 years, then send me thank you email.

Hope he didnt take your advice....Guy would have lost his ass had he did it

 

Open up a Roth IRA and start contributing. Perhaps one of the only legal ways to not pay taxes on capital gains.

 
ibhopeful532Open up a Roth IRA and start contributing. Perhaps one of the only legal ways to not pay taxes on capital gains.

^Do this.

 

I agree with Alex except for the fact that, from what I can tell from your original post, you have no current source of income. Otherwise I would say dump it all into stocks.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgeeI agree with Alex except for the fact that, from what I can tell from your original post, you have no current source of income. Otherwise I would say dump it all into stocks.

Well it says he's graduating in June. I don't think he's taking money out between now and then and presumably he's going to get/have a job after June.

Btw, a sligthly better modification of my suggestion is to do long $30K of XLE and short $15K of XLY. This will give you a nice pairs trade but will also give you a net long exposure instead of just market neutral. In any case, it's just meant to give you an idea, nothing more. My view is that unless you are managing a decent bit of money and focusing a lot of your time on selecting investments, your best bet is to use ETFs and keep things simple.

 

NYC (quens/bk) rent + util - 1000/mth NYC living cheap - 1000/mth Total: 2000/mth

Take 20k, go out to NYC for 10 months and find yourself a job by networking, interning. Use the rest as networking/entertainment expenses.

 
monkeysamaOne really great hooker or 30,000 really really bad ones.
this
-Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement.
 

At the moment you don't have a job secured so this is your security money.

Keep this in cash or cash equivalents. Once you have a job, make sure you have 6 months of living expenses in cash/cash equivalents. Once all that is done THEN start worrying about how to allocate your money.

All of this asset allocation sounds great and all but nothing in the world provides the security of cold, hard cash. Make sure you have enough.

 
baddebt88At the moment you don't have a job secured so this is your security money.

Keep this in cash or cash equivalents. Once you have a job, make sure you have 6 months of living expenses in cash/cash equivalents. Once all that is done THEN start worrying about how to allocate your money.

All of this asset allocation sounds great and all but nothing in the world provides the security of cold, hard cash. Make sure you have enough.

This. If you really want to speculate on property you'd be better off buying long term call options through etrade because at least you can cash out at a moments' notice. Nothing like having to take care of an apartment with a tenant and a mortgage....ugh.

 

I have been saying this for the last month and have made a tidy sum for myself, but it is still a long way down for Netflix. Buy putts!!!!!

 
StudiofanI have been saying this for the last month and have made a tidy sum for myself, but it is still a long way down for Netflix. Buy putts!!!!!

On what basis?

 

Interesting...alex, can you describe your $30k long $15k short trade a bit more...just a few paragraphs explaining why you think each side is a good trade? It looks like if you put the trade on you are describing you are betting that energy prices continue to rise (ok) and against consumer spending (ok), but any specific reason why these etfs now?

XLE has already had a huge run-up and couldnt XLY just be flat, grow gradually as unemployment slowly declines?

or are you of the mindset that the declining U #s are just s temporary dip before we head back down into another recession?

 

Alex, tried to put on the trade you suggested but got this message when trying to short sell XLY: "This stock is either ineligible to be shorted or shares must be borrowed externally. Lenders of hard-to-borrow securities charge a fee in the form of interest. Clients who wish to short a minimum of $50,000 of a hard-to-borrow security and are willing to pay a fee to cover the cost of borrowing those shares, may contact Securities Lending at 800-355-2448 to determine the fee amount."

any way to get around this?

 
WallStreetOasis.comAlex, tried to put on the trade you suggested but got this message when trying to short sell XLY: "This stock is either ineligible to be shorted or shares must be borrowed externally. Lenders of hard-to-borrow securities charge a fee in the form of interest. Clients who wish to short a minimum of $50,000 of a hard-to-borrow security and are willing to pay a fee to cover the cost of borrowing those shares, may contact Securities Lending at 800-355-2448 to determine the fee amount."

any way to get around this?

Wow, so alex's comment was actually legit.

Also, Thanks for all the comments people.

I actually bought a couple of NOK ADRs. I think NOK did the right move despite what most ANALysts said.

I really should have bought BP ADRs when it hit an all time low at ~$26/27. Its now hovering around $48!!

Waiting for steve jobs to RIP, jonathan ives to move back to the UK and AAPL to fall.

You really think NFLX will continue to drop?

 
PIGS

I really should have bought BP ADRs when it hit an all time low at ~$26/27. Its now hovering around $48!!

I picked up BP Jan 2012 30 calls for ~.87 when shares were trading around $28. Decent play.

"Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on 'income distribution', the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: it is earned." -Thomas Sowell
 

go get some life experience and travel the world. trust me, the lessons you will learn as much more valuable than any return you may get with that money.

 

Put about 10k into an S&P 500 index or Dow 30 index fund. Then put about 20K into individual stocks including Coca-Cola (KO), McDonald's (MCD), Ross Stores, Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Proctor and Gamble.

 

Invest in high grade coke and tiger blood, you can be charlie sheens personal dealer. Just price gouge the hell out of him.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Invest in BIP.

Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. -Niccolo Machiavelli
 
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