Is it even worth trying to invest $15K?
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
I’ve been investing since the early 1980s and it always worked for me - allowing me to retire early.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
It's not much money to invest, but if you don't need it and don't have any big ticket purcases in you future I'd suggest opening a brokerage account and buying shares in an index fund.
Given the situation these days, even index funds aren't a sure thing, but it's about the best thing I can think of for that amount of cash.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Without knowing more about your situation, the standard advice would be something like:
- Pay off any debts, credit cards, etc that you have.
- Top off your emergency savings. This should be somewhere between 3-6 months of expenses.
- Put the rest if any into retirement, probably an IRA.
Two points though:
- Take some and have fun with it, maybe $2k-4k. Get some nice clothes, laptop, take your SO to a very fancy restaurant.
- $15k as pocket money for a 19yo?!? That’s a generous brother in law.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Why not? Keep in mind investments can include yourself with education not just shares, stocks, and bonds.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Yes, absolutely.
I'd probably take something like 10% of it and go ahead and enjoy spending that, you can get some cool stuff for 1.5k that you can enjoy right now.
How you want to invest the bulk of it depends on your plans, but don't forget that things like a reliable car or a computer you might need for future schooling are also "investments" of sorts into your future.
I'm not so knowledgeable about all the different sorts of investments out there, so maybe someone else can help out there. Knowing what your medium-long term goals are will help them fine-tune their advice though. Are you planning on any sort of post-secondary education or job training?
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Index fund. Just stuff it in an index fund with a Roth IRA if you don't have any debt to pay off. Ignore it for as long as you can and treat it as your emergency "get out of jail free card" for when life sucker punches you later on. It happens to everyone, so having this in savings for maybe decades first is gonna be worth it.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
I invested a lot less. Go ahead. Long-term investment usually pay off if you don't need the money
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Holy shit yes. Compound interest is a hell of a thing.
Find a financial advisor that is a fiduciary, not just some rando on a bus ad or trying to do Bitcoin yourself or using a buddy’s friend or whatever. A fiduciary is legally obligated to work in your best interest, even if it means they lose money themselves.
I would also recommend using someone not related to you or in your social life at all. It’s someone you meet with once a year and their only job is to make you money as fast as possible because they get paid based on how much their clients invest.
Then you can just watch the line go up.
And if you can, make a monthly contribution to that account as well. Even like $50 a month makes a huge difference over the 40-50 years you’ll be investing.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
I put 5k in an index 7 years ago, now it's 8.5k. average return for indexes is better than trying to do it yourself (gambling). Usually around 7%.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
How much liquidity do you want? How much volatility can you endure?
- High yield savings account
- CD
- Index fund
- retirement fund
- stocks
- crypto
- gambling
I personally would put it into a simple bank app like SoFi and split it up from there
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Put $5K in a blue chip stocks or vanguard etf
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Yes, absolutely.
This flow chart is helpful
https://imgur.com/personal-income-spending-flowchart-united-states-lSoUQr2
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
Sounds like you don't need it, consider giving it to a charity that can actually do some good with it.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
My suggestion is put it into the S&P pretty good returns
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
I started with like 3k a few years ago, and even with the stupid mistakes I made while learning, it's had significant growth.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
The short answer is: any amount of money is 'worth' investing.
$10k at 6% for 40 years is $100k. That might let you retire a couple years early. Conventional wisdom, among people, let's say 40+ years old, is going to focus on retirement, wishing they'd started saving earlier, and the incredible power of 40 years compound interest.
At 19, though? You've probably got college and the potential for student debt coming up. Your first car. The down payment on a house. All of those things can be considered "investment," too. They might have much better benefit to you, both in the short term and the long term. Or, if your BIL is ready to drop $15k as 'pocket money,' maybe you have enough family support that none of those things will be a concern. Hell, maybe you have enough family support that working a job from which to retire isn't even a concern.
This is a marshmallow problem. Do you want to buy a car, take a fantastic trip somewhere, or just gamble like a big shot right now, or would you rather have less college debt, buy a nicer house, sooner, or retire earlier? Nobody else can tell you what you'll enjoy more.
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Without knowing more about your situation, the standard advice would be something like:
- Pay off any debts, credit cards, etc that you have.
- Top off your emergency savings. This should be somewhere between 3-6 months of expenses.
- Put the rest if any into retirement, probably an IRA.
Two points though:
- Take some and have fun with it, maybe $2k-4k. Get some nice clothes, laptop, take your SO to a very fancy restaurant.
- $15k as pocket money for a 19yo?!? That’s a generous brother in law.
No sense paying off debts early if their interest rate is lower than the profit you would get by investing. This is dependent on timescale though.
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The short answer is: any amount of money is 'worth' investing.
$10k at 6% for 40 years is $100k. That might let you retire a couple years early. Conventional wisdom, among people, let's say 40+ years old, is going to focus on retirement, wishing they'd started saving earlier, and the incredible power of 40 years compound interest.
At 19, though? You've probably got college and the potential for student debt coming up. Your first car. The down payment on a house. All of those things can be considered "investment," too. They might have much better benefit to you, both in the short term and the long term. Or, if your BIL is ready to drop $15k as 'pocket money,' maybe you have enough family support that none of those things will be a concern. Hell, maybe you have enough family support that working a job from which to retire isn't even a concern.
This is a marshmallow problem. Do you want to buy a car, take a fantastic trip somewhere, or just gamble like a big shot right now, or would you rather have less college debt, buy a nicer house, sooner, or retire earlier? Nobody else can tell you what you'll enjoy more.
I don't have any big purchases in mind. My sister got me an apartment and car last year for my 18th birthday with her husband's money. We're Swedish (he's Chinese and my sister lives with him in China) - so free university for me; I don’t have any debt or anything like that. Sister has retired our parents and is supporting our family financially. But this is the first time he gave me money directly.
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My brother-in-law gave me $15K for my 19th birthday and called it “pocket money.” I’ve never invested before, so I’m not sure if I should put it somewhere or just enjoy spending it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]- Yes, you should invest money in things you believe will have valuable in the future.
- Don't invest in large lump sums. Dollar cost averaging is a preferable strategy.
- Paying off high interest debt or variable rate debt is a smart thing to do before investing money.
