What would you do with half a million in savings?

Do in life, what rewards you richly and meaningfully.

That hardly means 'monetarily' so. It could be academia, or it could be racing cars, clearing landmines, climbing mountains, or collecting ferraris.

You have to live your life, responsibly planning for future (the way you want to live it) while recognizing that the blessing of just being here in the first place, could be taken from any of us at any time.

As they say: Enjoy your life continuously because once your are dead and gone, it's for a very long time. So make the most of it.

If your dream is to own a Ferrari, and (as is true for anything you desire) if you can responsibly fit that into your personal plan for life, then go for it.

 

I'd buy a house...... or blow it on hookers and crack.

 

Too many choices and too little info.

late 20's , no family = You can risk.

So start a business if you have some ideas that you like.

or

Buy a Ferrari that will not devaluate too much until you find an idea to start a business.

 

I like this option

 

Help my family

 

Buy a home for 25 to 50 cents on the dollar (compared to= what it was at the peak), and put the rest of the mnoney in nice, safe inverstmants, such as CDs. Being 61, I'm more interested in security than lifestyle..

 

I would buy a unicorn. But, only if it came with a warranty.

 

$70,000 360, yes.
$150,000 430, no.

Besides, the cool factor of the 430 over the 360 is not that great anyway unless you are trying to impress a very specific audience in which case they will probably only be really impressed if you have a 599 GTB anyway.

If undergrad, get a scholarship. If grad, get a sponsorship. I never paid for any of my schooling from college on up. I went to decent schools (my Ph.D is from an Ivy). Getting an advance degree is a great idea, just don't pay for it.

Whatever you did to end up with 0.5M in savings, you obviously did something right. Expanding on that would probably be a good idea so that you can end up with 5.0M in savings in a 5 more years, and then hopefully, the magical $20M in savings in another 5 years after that. Starting your own business in the area where you managed to earn the $0.5M to begin with is probably your best bet.

Read some Warren Buffet. The "right" time to buy anything is when it is mis-priced low. More specifically, there is never a right "time" as much as there is a right "circumstance." The time only dictates the availability of the circumstance. So when the economy is in the doghouse, there are more companies (and other things) being mis-priced on the low side. When the economy is flying high, there are many things that are mis-priced on the high side, which means it's time to sell if you are willing to part with it.

I owe a large percentage of my success to my education. Many people speak of the Bill Gates methodology of dropping out of college and becoming a billionaire as if that is a well trodden path to success. I think they are wrong. Then again, most billionaires don't have doctorate degrees either, so maybe I am wrong too.

Read this, it's from another website:

ALL WE HAVE ARE MEMORIES

I try to summarize my case with a lesson I learned long ago. All we
have today are our memories of yesterday and plans for tomorrow.
Consider these two options: Sitting on the porch at the old-age home
and reminiscing, “Yep, I had a Toyota. Never had a problem with it,
gave great mileage, hardly ever needed fixin’.”

Or, “I had a couple of Ferraris when I was young. Fast? Christ, they
were impractical and needed fixin’ all the time, but what a sound...
the most fun I ever had with my clothes on! Expensive? Like an
unfaithful mistress, but lemme tell you: the women loved them and your
buddies thought you were the luckiest guy on the planet! I wouldn’t
trade those memories for the world.”

WHICH LIFE WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE?

Thoughts of the old-age home porch scenario have directed my life and
led me to do things like racing three times in the 24 Hours of
Daytona, taking my kids racing, owning and racing multiple Ferraris,
and other experiences more “sensible” people have missed.

When I asked the second buyer of the 456 for his perspective on the
first few years’ depreciation, his comment was, “It is good for me,
especially if the car is in like-new condition. Bad for the first
owner.” When I asked him about future depreciation, although at a much
lower rate, his comment was, “Bad for me, but I don’t really mind…
I’ve wasted years of my life waiting.”

 

Now is a great time to buy real estate if you have cash. Find a modest house that you like and buy it with a portion of your savings. The property tax/maintenance will most likely be the same or less than your rent. With another portion I would suggest starting a retirement account. It doesn't take a lot of $ to compound over the next 40 years into something sizable. After all of that I would buy several cars. If you want to spend the $150k on a 430, I would suggest $70k on a 360 and the remaining $120k on two other nice cars. the other option is to put it in the bank and use the interest as fun money. 5% interest on $500k is $25,000. That could help pay for your colege expenses without even dipping into your principal.

 

Please let me know where I can get even close to 5% from a bank at the moment?

Russell

 

Maybe 5% is unrealistic, but I think you get my point.

 

Buy a modest house in cash or at a super low interest rate only(4% area), so no paying off some else's rent.
Most banks are only paying about 2% for CD's MM's etc, so not great choices there.
Look for a business to invest in and keep a very generous nest egg for opportunities that you might come across.
If you want to get into Ferraris, get one that is rare and in demand, 246 Dino or Fiberglass 308 etc..

 

While it is technically true that spending the $25k interest is not dipping into the principle, it may be appropriate to consider inflation. Assuming you could obtain 4-5% interest (not unreasonable for low risk investments over the long term) with inflation being 3-4% over the long term, you really can only spend 1% of the money without dipping into the principle. Hence the $20M magic number.

 

LMAO! I think I just p1ssed myself!

 

Very simple -both . Get a college degree and a $40,000 - $60,000 Ferrari. No one can ever take away your degree and education. A degree will help open doors for you in the future.

 

I would probably avoid taking the advice of a car forum thread having provided virtually no information that is required to assist you in properly answering your question. We are going thru some of the most volatile times in several generations and their is so much money on the sidelines trying to decide where to invest it.....the wind changes directions hourly and the sailing is tough.

Seek out a successful and trusted friend that has been successful in the last few months and try to get some advice from him/her having provided data about where you are and where you want to be in 5, 10, and 20 years down the road.

JMHO. That approach worked for me, but these are very different times.

 

If you had any balls, you'd throw an FCHAT party in Vegas for all of us who hand out the 99.7% of useless tips and advice on this site.

PM me with the dates.

 

Do you live in the USA or elsewhere ?

WIth that kind of $ I would get into gold asap bcus inflation is coming and you could lose 30% of the value of your $ very quickly if you keep it in USD

Late this year to mid 2010 should be a great time to sink some $ into the US stock market as it is nearing a bottom, it dropped into the 6,000s and bumped back up to high 7s but I think it will drop again which will be a great time to buy in. If DC doesnt mess things up too much you could see some serious apreciation after 5 years

Then take out a little and buy a Ferrari

Right now F's are only dropping in value for another 12 months. Do you really want to buy something that is depreciating when you can buy it cheaper if you wait a year or 2 ?

 

I would keep it there and start working on saving for whatever it is you wanted to buy, but keep the cushion of 500m in the bank.

 

Buy a membership and subscribe to F-Chat.........then you can post your question in the correct forum [business].

 

Invest in property.

 

Invest in GE....

 

Agreed. Sounds like a plan--Vegas FerrariCon '09!

 

1. I would buy a property
2. Buy a Ferrari
3. Get your degree if you need it for your job.