How to Invest $500,000

1. Investing in a Gold IRA

If you are not anchoring your investments in real physical gold, then you’re leaving money on the table. Gold is a key instrument of diversification and can help smooth out volatility over time.

Simply placing your bets on stocks over time isn’t enough. As most people learned in 2008, financial crises can easily melt aways such investments. 

Yet historically, gold has proven to be a consistent store of value – despite it being around longer than stocks. Stock trading started in the 1700s while gold trading actually started around 1500 BC.

Despite being around for a shorter period of time, stocks have gone through multiple crises one of them being the infamous Wall Street scandal of 1700s that saw Cornelius Vanderbilt lose a significant chunk of his wealth.

And even though things have significantly improved over time, it’s important to be aware of the threats that face paper assets. We’re talking about:

• Ballooning government debt
• Quantitative easing
• Spiraling inflation
• Geopolitical tensions
• A gradually weakening dollar

So, if you have got some 500K to invest you’re better off diversifying within tangible assets such as gold.  Why so? Because tangible assets have intrinsic value. Stocks are not tangible assets!

Now that we’re talking about precious metal investments it’s important to learn how to handle such without burning your fingers. Luckily, there is an IRS-approved process that you can consult and it entails following a laid down process and buying IRS-approved bars and coins.

And while it’s possible to follow the process all by yourself, it takes experience to know which pitfalls to avoid. Just to give you the perspective, a single mistake in the creation or funding of your IRA account can easily land you some penalties and unnecessary taxes. This is why it is important to work with an experienced and trusted team so you can get your gold IRA right (right from the onset).

There are many IRA brokerage firms out there but when it comes to precious metals, we have come to respect what Goldco provides.

Here’s What You Need to Know About Them

GoldCo has been around since 2006. They have a powerful track-record that’s characterized by an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a 4.9-star rating on Trustpilot.

Not only do they provide brokerage services but also provide you with the insights you need to make the right moves.

And the best part? They provide you with buy-back services so you are always guaranteed of a ready market for your precious metals.

2. Index Funds

Index funds are a smart way to invest. The idea is that you don't need to outsmart the market. Rather, you just need to match it.

Therefore, instead of trying to pick companies that will outperform, index funds track a particular market or group of companies.

If you want to invest in the stock market, for instance, you might buy an index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which is made up of 500 large U.S. corporations like Apple and Microsoft.

Index funds are designed to provide the average return of a particular market or sector usually with lower fees than actively managed funds. As such, they're ideal for people who aren't interested in picking stocks themselves but still want exposure to stocks or other assets such as bonds.

3. Hedge Funds

A hedge fund is an investment vehicle that uses multiple strategies, including the use of derivatives and leverage, to obtain positive returns in markets that are either falling or flat. The name comes from the fact that hedge funds attempt to protect investors from financial losses that come from market downturns.

How do you invest in hedge funds? There are several ways to invest in hedge funds. First, you could invest directly with the fund by purchasing shares of the fund. 

Second, you could invest indirectly by investing in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or mutual fund that invests in hedge funds. 

Third, you could invest through a private investment company that specializes in managing assets for qualified investors like yourself.

That said, hedge funds come with a major risk and it has to do with the lack of transparency regarding its investments and trading strategies. While some funds will share information about their holdings, others will not provide any information at all. 

As such, it can be difficult for investors to determine whether or not they're making money off their investments.

That said, investing in hedge funds is worth the risk.

4. Real Estate

Investing in real estate is a great way to make money. There are many different types of investments, but most people think of buying and selling houses when they hear the phrase "real estate."

The good news is that it's not too late to get into the market. You can still buy homes and make a profit from them even if you're just starting out or have only a little money to invest.

Here are some tips for investing in real estate.

Start small

Don't go out and buy a house that costs $500,000 without any experience or knowledge of how to buy and sell homes. Start small so you can learn what you're doing before investing more money into your business.

Get educated

Become a student of the real estate industry by reading books on investing in real estate, watching DVDs on how to buy and sell houses, attend seminars and the like. The more you know about how things work, the better off you'll be when it comes time to put your money into action.

Buy at foreclosure sales

5. Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are a great way to invest in a diversified pool of stocks, bonds and other assets. Mutual funds allow you to invest in multiple stocks while only paying one management fee.

In addition, mutual funds charge one set fee for every time you make an investment. This is called the expense ratio. The lower the expense ratio, the more money you keep for yourself.

Mutual funds are generally available through brokers and financial advisers who make money on commissions from sales, so it's important to review any fees they may charge before deciding whether or not to sign up with them.

6. Start a Small Business

For most people, this sounds like an insane idea and understandably so, because it is not easy to start a business, let alone one that earns a profit. And even if you do start a profitable business, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to keep it going as time goes on. 

There are plenty of examples of people who started successful businesses only to lose them for one reason or another. 

Still, if you have 500K sitting around and don't have anything better to do with it than earning interest in a savings account, why not give entrepreneurship a shot? Even if your first idea doesn't work out as well as you hoped, there's always next time and the more ideas you try out, the greater your chances are of coming up with something successful.

7. High Yield Savings Account

If you're looking for a safe place to stash your cash and earn a decent interest rate, look no further than a high yield savings account. These accounts typically offer higher interest rates than traditional savings accounts, but they're still FDIC-insured and have some restrictions on withdrawals.

High yield savings accounts are just like regular savings accounts in that they're FDIC insured and earn interest at an annual percentage rate (APY) based on the amount of money you have saved in them. The difference is that high yield savings accounts also offer higher interest rates than traditional savings accounts.

In fact, some banks offer APYs of 2% or more while others offer APYs as low as 0.01%. This means that if you have $50,000 in a high yield account with an APY of 1%, you would make $500 in interest over the course of a year which is more than twice as much as you would make in a regular savings account at many banks.

However, there are some limitations to these accounts. For example, you may have to maintain a certain balance or meet certain requirements in order to earn the highest interest rate.

Also, many of them come with monthly fees if you don't meet the minimum balance requirement or fail to make at least one transaction per month.

8. Invest in Stocks

Buying stocks is one of the simplest ways to invest in the stock market. It's also the most common way for people to invest their money, and it's how most of the world's biggest companies get their funding.

Stocks are shares in a company. When you buy a stock, you're buying a tiny piece of that company often about 0.00001% and putting your faith in its future success. A stock can be purchased through an investment fund or directly from an individual company. 

With that in mind, you'll probably want to buy stocks through an investment fund because they often have lower costs and more diversification than buying them individually.

A stock doesn't actually give you any rights or ownership in your company; this isn't like buying into a co-op or other type of business structure where you have some say over what happens at the company itself. 

Rather, when you buy a share of stock, all that means is that if the company does well and becomes more valuable due to increased sales or profits or both, then your shares are worth more too.