I don’t know if this is what some people would call life changing money.
safe bet: long term investment for retirement or to buy a house.
dreamer me: study the piano bachelor you always said you wanted to do, even if it’s just the bachelor, and not a master, even if you’re doing it not for the money or fame, but just because you want to play and maybe teach part time, but mostly because is something I enjoy doing, even if teaching the piano is mostly a side job to my main job.
I don’t know what to do. Feel free to read my previous post, because it’s related to this one.
If you’re not sure, put it in a savings or stable short term investment account , like a money market account or a short term CD account. That way the money is doing something while you make sure you’re doing what you want, there’s no real risk, and you can pull the money out whenever you want. You might lose some interest if you pull out of the CD early.
You mentioned wanting to learn the piano for love of it, rather than for professional reasons. If you’re looking at a school the semesters might line line up with a CDs investment cycle, which means you might be able to avoid loosing out on interest. A proper credit union will likely have an account specialist who can help you get things sequenced. They won’t give you financial advice, but they can help you get things timed and setup right.
It’s super important to do what you love. The point of money is, in part, to help you do what you love. Sometimes that’s by providing security, and sometimes by creating opportunity.
If it’s the love that’s driving you it might be worth it to look if you can audit then classes, or follow a different path that costs less money. You don’t get the degree but you might be able to get the same education.
Short-term: put it somewhere safe and don’t touch it. That might look like a combination of index funds and a savings account.
Long-term: figure out what you want to do with it. I’d suggest at least a large chunk of it as a long-term investment.
Save it. You can use it for loved ones in case they need it. I am glad I’ve got some savings. Not even anywhere close to that amount of money, but now I can help a dear friend who’s really struggling at the moment. She knows I don’t need it back anytime soon and I’m happy to help her with rent, food and vet bills for her dog.
Yolo
You can afford 64GB of DDR5.
wise investment 💎🚀🚀🚀🌕
🙌💎🙌💎
Learn piano online. You don’t need a bachelor. As a musician, no one cares is you’ve got a piece of paper, they just wasn’t to know if you’ve got the skills. Check out ‘pianoforall’ on udamy. Its $50. And is all you need.
Invest in s&p500 index. See bogelheads.org for the investment playbook.
Invest in s&p500 index. See bogelheads.org for the investment playbook.
This. If OP got this $150k on Jan 1 of this year and put it in a boring old index fund tracking the S&P 500 OP would now have $168,810. That’s right, $18,810 in growth just from Jan 1 2026.
But bare in mind the economy is all kinds of messed up right now. That being said its the lowest risk way for your money to make money.
But bare in mind the economy is all kinds of messed up right now.
I’ll be the first to say that investing in the stock market is no sure thing. I’ll also say that past performance does not predict future results. I’ll also post this chart which shows the annual returns of the S&P 500 over the last 8 years. Even during the disruption of the global pandemic the returns were substantial.
With the exception of 2022, its been absolutely crazy crazy good! Even if someone invested at the worst time in 2022 absorbing the all of the losses from that year, they’d would have already been cash positive by the end of 2023.
That being said its the lowest risk way for your money to make money.
The S&P 500 is not the lowest risk way to make money. It is maybe the lowest risk way to make the most money. US Treasuries or even an FDIC high yield savings account (or NCUA for credit union) are far safer, but don’t earn nearly as much.
Thnx for adding context and keeping me in check. I’m just a dude not a professional.
No worries at all. I wouldn’t expect anyone to know this unless they follow markets personally or professionally. Even what is said on the news doesn’t lay this out plainly.
The weird part is everyone knows we’re headed for a market correction, but nobody knows when. I honestly thought it would have happened years ago, but it keeps going up. I’m a long term nonprofessional investor, so I’m okay with the downturn for myself when it eventually happens.
In an effort to be a little more liquid, I moved a good chunk of my positions into a high-yield savings recently. The dividends haven’t been bad at all, if you find a competitive one. IIRC, with the way US bonds are trending and everything, HYSA APY might slowly go up too. I am not a financial advisor though, so don’t listen to me.
I think the key pieces of information we’re missing here is how old are you and how life changing is this money for you.
If you’re young and poor, sock away about 2/3 of it in an index fund and 1/3 in a high interest savings. Take out loans and go chase that dream bro. Use the 1/3 in savings to cover your life expenses.
If you’re mid life and poor, use it to bolster your retirement. Defer the dream but chase it once you’re comfortable.
If you’re late life and poor, take lessons from a good tutor, don’t go for the Bach. Use it to subsidize Social security. Consider moving to a cheap country where that kind of money will support you for many years.
If you’re old and well off enough - go self actualize. Time truly is the scarcest resource.
~45k doesn’t get you that far these days depending on where you live. That’s $3750 a month for a year.
It is not life changing in the US… LOL not even close. Find a way to massage that into your retirement account, assuming you’re in the US.
I’m 42 and in the US, I’d call 150K pretty close to life-changing for me. I could afford some large maintenance items on our house, pay down the mortgage by a good chunk, and not have to worry about some upcoming medical bills. Sure I’d still have to work but it would definitely have a huge positive change on my life going forward. 🤷♂️
Edit: and also beef up our emergency fund! All of this would make us ‘feel’ much more comfortable.
Come on man… would you get to stop working? Would you bot have a house maintenance issue in the future?
Income is all about the flow, not the peaks.
Nothing would change for you.
I agree it is all about the flow, I even said in my comment I’d still have to keep working. It would help tremendously and take some pressure off us which mentally would feel like a breath of fresh air.
Believe it or not, I get where you’re coming from on this. I guess I’d just love to have 150K is all. 🤣
Does that change your life?… no.
When it comes to money, one must be a realist at all times.
Depending on your age, it’s ABSOLUTELY life changing. If you’re 20, drop it into an index fund, and most likely you’ll never have to save another dime for retirement for the rest of your life.
Lololololol, sure pal. First off, yes you will have to keep saving and secondly the amount you put away regularly, which is currently 19k, and according to your bullshit wont have too, wont move the needle of your life at all…
But hey ,you keep telling yourself that.
S&P500 lifetime inflation-adjusted return is 7-8%. meaning, if one put away 150K in the S&P500 at age 20 and worked for 40 years, putting away nothing else but gaining that inflation-adjusted 7-8 (conservatively call it 7), and then pulled out a measly 4%, allowing the remaining growth to account for inflation, they’d be pulling an inflation-adjusted income of >80K, ignoring any other income.
I’m not saying one shouldn’t put anything else away or strictly count on matching historical S&P return, but yes, putting away 150K at 20 could absolutely mean you don’t need to put anything away again.
It will not change your financial situation at all…
Yes, it will be great for a retirement account, but it doesn’t change your fucking life one iota.
That’s the crazy weird ass thing about money. That’s what we all need to fucking wake up to.
It’s all about the flow not the big amounts……
Having the whole retirement situation handled at age 20 has the potential to completely change someone’s life.
Every large decision you’ll make in your life will be influenced by money. Your risk tolerance is influenced by money.
At 20 year old with a 150k safety net can make different choices than the same 20 year old without those savings.
Having confidence that their retirement is funded can completely alter the trajectory of someone’s life because they took more risks or chose a career on passion and not for more income.
Okay, since you decided to come in here and be a complete dick, here:
With inflation adjustment of 3% an actual 8% return over 40 years turns into 5% which turns into over a million dollars in today’s spending power.
With more likely historical averages of 10% adjusted for inflation down to 7%, you wind up with over 2 million dollars in today’s spending power.
You want to keep being a shithead, go argue with the calculator.
Ok shit stain, fuckhead I am a realist, you are a cluelessly lost moron…
will you get to stop working,. No.
Wiil you get to never worry about money again, no…
Will you be allowed to stop manageing your debts… no…
Will you not have to save for your kids coolege, no…
But hey little pimple, live your horshit.
NOTHING FUCKING CHANGES. Your life doesn’t change at all…
It’s sounds like you’re going through some shit right now, man. Hope it gets better for you.
Read what wrote out loud. This is a sign that you might wanna get back on those meds buddy 🙏
If invested in a diversified portfolio, you could safely withdraw 4% ($6000) every year for the rest of your life and still have $150k.
While this is probably true, 4% rule will leave you with money left 95% of the time over 30 years, not for your lifetime. So if you’re going to withdraw money from this for longer than 30 years you should probably adjust your withdrawal percentage to less than 4%.
You can withdraw/shift allocation to more stable assets during bullruns and live off these stable assets until the rest of your more volatile assets have made gains again.
I know this is cherry picked days, but it’s happened many times over the last hundred years. From 2000-2013 the market was essentially flat due to crashes in 2000 and 2008. Are you going to have enough stable assets for the market being flat for 13 years? no. Plus you’re talking about timing the market and knowing when these bull runs will start and for how long, which is just guessing. Not the best idea with your life’s savings.
That just means no extra money during these times.
You don’t need to try timing the market.
You operate with thresholds instead: the $150k have become $150k + x -> move x to stable assets and wait until the next time there’s x extra.
What’s not working is trying to have a reliable, stable source of extra incoming.
Skimming gains is possible though.
Beanie babies
You need to talk to a financial advisor.
Investing the money doesn’t mean you cannot also learn the piano.
It’s too much money to immediately convert to retirement savings. There are yearly limits.
Put it somewhere like gold, but not USD.
Hookers and cocaine.
My suggestion might be more controversial than investing it into stable market funds.
$150k is an awkward amount of money. It’s not enough to support you for life unless you become extremely frugal and move to a developing country. If you’re under 40 invested it and forgetting about it would make your retirement more comfortable, but that assumes a stable market moving forward. The way the world is changing and the markets are behaving though, there is no guarantee of stable growth. Past performance is not a good indicator of future behavior, especially moving into the future.
Instead you could invest that money into things that will make you (and your family) more self sufficient and resilient to an unstable future. You could do things like invest in solar and other off grid tech for your home, buy acerage as far north and as close to a natural water source as you can, and many other things as well.
Obviously no one knows what the future holds but all indicators point to instability, scarcity, and generally hard times for all us little people. Guarding against that will make your life just as comfortable as letting the money grow, just in a different way
If you don’t own your property, investing in energy infrastructure sounds like a bad call.
Do this. If you invest keep keep it diverse and liquid. Even German defense stocks are worth dirt in a world on fire. Like come on guys, we all knew infinite growth markets were a fairy tale.
