5 Of The Best Investments You Could Make In 2018

If you suddenly woke up with $10,000 in your bank account, what would you do? A lot of people would spend it, while some would try and save it. Others, though, would use that money to make even more money – they would invest it. Investing in something can be a tricky deal, you never know if your investment is going to go belly-up, or if you’re going to become 10 times richer.

Investments take time to grow. In the real world, you won’t double your money overnight unless you gambled it, and anyone will tell you that’s not smart. Finding out which company or person to invest your money in can be a difficult task, and it is dependent on your goals and risks you’re willing to take. Do you want a small return fast, or do you want to sit on your investment for 10-20 years and retire with a nice sum? Here are five of the best ways you can invest your money.

1. Peer-To-Peer Lending

If you need a loan, your first thought will be to lend some money from a bank. Unfortunately, it is a difficult process to get approved for a loan, and the interest rates that come with a loan are stupidly high. Peer-to-peer lending platforms, such as Lending Club, allow you to loan money from a person, not a bank.

Whether you have $10,000 or only $250, you can use that money to lend it to someone else. Average interest rates from Lending Club sit between 4 and 6 percent per annum, meaning that if you lent someone $10,000, you’ll make a profit of $600 each year. You need $1,000 to start and your loans can be automatic or you can manually choose who you lend to.

2. Real Estate

Real estate is a market that has been around for hundreds of years, but thanks to the internet, you can now invest your hard earned cash from the comfort of your own home. Investments in real estate are generally thought of owning a home and renting it out, but thanks to platforms such as Fundrise, you can invest in private real estate assets without having to deal with tenants and real estate agents.

The minimum investment is $500, and while the platform has only been around since 2010, returns range between 8.5% and 12.5%. You can invest in real estate markets in plenty of flourishing cities, such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York, and many more.

3. Health Savings Account

A Health Savings Account offers you another place to store your money. It’s not an investment in a traditional sense, however it is an investment for you and your health. The account is available to families and individuals with high deductible health plans, and the money you contribute to the account is deductible from your federal taxes.

Once you have money in the account, it will grow tax-free until you’re ready to use it for a qualified healthcare expense. The amount you can contribute to the account varies; this year families can add up to $6,900, individuals can add $3,450, whilst those 50 and older can add an additional $1,000.

It can double as a retirement fund as well – when you’re 65 or over, you can withdraw money from the account at no cost.

4. The Stock Market

Investing in the stock market is the first thing you’ll hear when you talk to anyone about investing. And there’s a reason for that – it’s a relatively stable way to invest your money. Unless the commodity or business you invest in suddenly crashes, you’ll enjoy a a steady increase on your investment.

You don’t have to spend large amounts of money in one go either, you can use what experts called dollar cost averaging. Dollar cost averaging can be done over any period of time – six months, a year, five years, or more. When a stock you are interested in is low, buy a quite a few shares, and when the market are high, still buy some – just not as much as when the stock is lower. This results in a lower than average share price over time.

5. Yourself

The best investment you can ever make is by investing in yourself. Spend some money on books, tutorials, and even coaching. Find subjects that interest you and will help you perform better in day-to-day life, and you’ll be a lot better off for it. If you love books, switch from fantasy and fiction novels to non-fiction. Read about something real, something that can help you.

Many CEOs of major corporations read an average of one book per week. We all know CEOs have busy lifestyles, but they still manage to read an average of 60 books per year. Even if you manage reading a book a month, you will be amazed at the results.