Ask HN: For you who are rich (net worth $1 million+), where to start?
If you have to start from the beginning, what will be your bet today for a startup.
Which service/product ? Start with your employers 401k plan. If they match your contributions all the better. If they don't offer one do it yourself with a ROTH IRA and max that out each year if you can. Start now. When I first started I looked for high yield / high risk mutual funds that the company offered and participated heavily in the ESPP plan of the company. I picked similar things for my ROTH contributions. This means that I was impacted by the stock market collapse in 2008. It also means that I recovered my losses and was back where I was pre collapse in ~ nine months because we didn't panic and are in it for the long term. I'm 36 and will likely start transitioning some of the investments into 'safer' things when I am around 45 or so. The accounts are checked 2x per year and adjustments are sometimes made but usually we just run the calculator that estimates how much we will have when we are ~55. The company I started this with offered seminars for retirement investing and there is a chart, sort of a guideline, that details how much risk your investment portfolio should have in it based on how long you have to retirement. If anyones interested I'll see if I can dig it up. Not that I plan on retiring, even when I am retired but if I was 70 and my portfolio took the hit it did in 2008 I might not have the time to wait for the markets to correct. Note: I know very little about finance, investing or otherwise. My wife is the financial guru in the family and I have learned much from watching her lead. Please take this as what worked for me and realize that ymmv. Also, it helps to read up on the basics of investing for retirement but i'll be honest when I say that it has been several years since I read anything. [edit] - I might have misread the question. Sorry. This is what I did when I was starting at 24 and would do again if I was just starting out. I doubt that I would pay someone else to do it for me since the fees that are charged when one sells/buys end up taking a significant chunk and any service is going to ad their fees on top of those. I think you view is very good, in any case my question was more about businesses not investments. I respect your point of view and understand that way of thinking. I was curious to see what kind of advices a *llionaire could give. While not there yet, if projections hold up, I could tell you the same thing again in ~5 years. I misunderstood the question - but if your goal is to become a millionaire (and you are in your mid-twenties) and you keep chipping away at things like 401k, ROTH etc you will have a great back up plan, with the magic of compounded interest, should the business attempts not work out. Dear OP, you are asking the wrong question -- a person with 1 mil or even 100k has access to different investment vehicles than a person with 10k or 100 bucks to invest. TL;DR: save at least 10% of your gross earnings and earn compound interest with savings. Split your money between 4 ETFs like RSP, DIA, QQQQ, and VEU. 1. Get on a budget. Save 10% of what you earn or pay off your credit cards first by saving 15%. Read "The Richest Man in Babylon" 2. Mutual funds suck. One out of 10 years will be terrible and they only spend a few years on top. How can you get consistent returns? They have high fees. Instead invest in equity traded funds or ETFs. Read "The Big Secret for the Small Investor" by J. Greenblatt and "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch.
Be a value investor not a trader! Plan to let your investments sit and grow for years.
If you want to buy individual stocks, pick for the list of "dividend aristocrats". These are safe bluechips and you can re-invest the dividends for a compounding effect! 3. The fees and limited investment choices make 401ks a bad deal, even with matching. A self directed Roth IRA will tax shelter your growth, but you have to invest with money you paid income tax on (unlike a 401k). 4. Bank account interest rates are a joke! For savings you get 00.05% CD 00.35% Over 500k in money market 00.3%
Inflation is around 3%! 5. For small investment amounts, a US Treasury savings bond is not bad. There is no charge to buy or sell them and you do not have to pay taxes until you cash them in. I Bonds pay the rate of inflation and possibly a bit more. There are some penalties if you cash these bonds in before 12 months pass. Be aware of things like how much it will cost to buy and sell an investment and when you will have to pay taxes on your earnings. For me it was very hard to save until I created separate accounts to keep my funds in. I have been value investing in stocks and my portfolio has earned 8 - 10 % growth plus 3% in dividends. The dividends get reinvested so my holdings grow like a savings account. Read "How to Invest $50-$5,000" by Nancy Dunnan Mark Cuban's answer: Go out and do some research with everyday business people and find what problem they need solved that you could do. I heard somewhere you have to build something people want and are willing to use/pay for it ;)... PS: I'm not a millionaire.