Disclaimer: The information on this post does not constitute financial advice.
If you have managed to save up a little bit of money and you are looking for ideas on how to invest it and grow your money, you have come to the right place!
1. High-income deposit accounts
Savings deposits have had all-time low records of interest rates which is why people have been looking for alternatives.
If you want a safe investment, there are some banks that are offering higher interest rates for your deposits, some even awarding daily interest earnings.
You just have to do a bit of research for these accounts, depending on the country you live in and to make sure they are trustworthy institutions and that your money is guaranteed.
2. Stock market
There is also the option to invest your money in the stock market. There are several companies (shares) you can invest in, but also ETFs, cryptocurrency, etc.
With this type of investment, there is always a risk of losing your money but there is also a chance that you will grow your money, namely through compound interest (i.e. your investments will pay you dividends and you can then reinvest those dividends to make more money and so on).
If you want to start investing in the stock market, I suggest you do a bit of research and learn the basics of investing in the stock market and which companies or ETFs might be a good bet.
Some people swear by investing in the S&P500 (which tracks the performance of 500 of the best companies listed in the stock exchange in the US).
3. Peer-to-peer lending platforms
If you've never heard of peer-to-peer lending, these platforms allow people who need capital (for example, to start a business, start a project or just fund the acquisition of a property or material for their company, launch a new project in their company, etc.) to request a loan to the general public who is registered in these platforms.
In turn, you can loan some money to these companies and get your money paid back with interest rates. These types of projects usually have some guarantees but they obviously have some risk, as if things go wrong with the investment, the company or person who requests the money can end up not paying back the money.
However, this can be a good way to invest some money (you can usually invest small amounts) and get a return.
4. Real Estate
I have already written a whole blog post on this topic which you can check out here.
This is obviously an investment that requires a decent amount of starting capital, but you can use that to leverage a loan.
There are several options with this:
- you can buy something in good condition and rent it out or resell it for a profit if you manage to get a bargain and you think it's worth more (but this is a rare situation);
- you can buy a property that needs some construction work done and rent it out after you repair it (this ensures you can ask for a higher rent and also will have less chance of the tenant requesting repairs frequently) or resell it after (the fix + flip route);
- you can buy a property in decent condition that's already being rented out and start making money immediately;
- you can buy a property with several floors or divisions, where you can live in one part and rent out the other part (this is usually referred to as house-hacking).
Just bear in mind that you need to make some calculations to make sure the investment on a certain property will be profitable, as you need to consider eventual repairs/construction work needed and its market value (both before and after the repairs).
It's also a good idea to make sure the route you go is the best for you - some people say it's best to fix and flip in the beginning so you build more capital and only buy and hold and rent out properties after a while when you can buy one or two properties that give you the amount of monthly income you want.
If you don't have the money for real estate investing yet, you can also invest in REITs (real estate investment trusts), which are companies that have real estate that generates income and they divide the income earned from their properties among their investors (shareholders) as dividends.
Whatever you choose to do, just make sure you do some reading on the basics of investing and make sure to diversify your investments.
The old adage of 'don't put all of your eggs in one basket' is still the best rule in this matter, as it can make the difference between losing all of your money or just taking a small irrelevant hit on your investments.
You can try your hand at all of these by investing small amounts to learn more about them and figure out which types of investment you like or just use them all to diversify your investments.
Happy investing!
