What Would You Do With $250,000 Right Now?

What would you do with $250,000 right now? Imagine waking up one morning to see a Genie at the foot of your bed with milk and cookies. She grants you the wish of converting your future earnings or current illiquid net worth into $250,000 cash.

For example, say you were to work for 20 more years and earn a median income of $60,000 a year before taxes. Instead of methodically saving 20% for the next two decades, you can get all that money right now. Would you take it? I bet most would say “yes” since it's your money and the present value of a buck is greater now than later.

The big question is, what are you going to do with the $250,000? The stock market is volatile, bonds are bubbliscious, and savings interest rates are less than 2%. Perhaps you'll use some of the money to pay off your debts, further your education, and help out your loved ones. Or maybe you'll invest the money in your start-up company and watch it grow into the multi-millions.

Finally, maybe you'll do absolutely nothing with the $250,000 and just keep it liquid for a rainy day. The political landscape is uncertain right now, with President Biden planning to raise income taxes and capital gains taxes.

Genies are appearing in front of many homeowner's beds thanks to Janet Yellen and the Fed's low interest rate policy. Few people would have ever expected the 10-year yield to drop below 1.5%, but it has.

Cash-out mortgage refinances are tempting people night and day now, but the party can't last forever.

WHAT I'D DO WITH $250,000 OF MY OWN MONEY (REMEMBER, IT'S NOT FREE MONEY!)

Look for attractive 5%+ yielding 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom rental properties. Rentals properties are very attractive in 2021 because interest rates have come way down. The value of rental income has gone way up because it takes a lot more capital to generate the same amount of risk-adjusted income.

Decide which municipal bond ETFs to buy. Examples: CMF, CXA, HYMB, INY, ITM, PVI, NYF, PWZ, PWA, SHM, SMB, SFI.

Invest $50,000 into Financial Samurai to make it grow more. At the very least, you guys should sign up for my free weekly newsletter. 100,000 people have subscribe so far for more nuanced personal finance content.

Look for offshore high yielding, but stable assets given the USD will likely continue to remain weak or depreciate.

Send $50,000 to my parents to help contribute to their home remodeling project. Good luck guys!

Invest $100,000 in real estate crowdfunding so I can earn more income passively.

Invest $10,000 in NFTs and crypto. Although these are highly speculative investments, you just never know. It's always good to go fortune-hunting with 1-5% of your investable capital.

Invest In Real Estate For More Passive Income

With $250,000 in surprise cash, I'm a buyer of real estate. I strongly believe rents and real estate prices will be going up for years to come. The housing market is strong and will continue to strengthen.

Check out my two favorite estate crowdfunding platforms. Both are free to sign up and explore.

Fundrise: A way for accredited and non-accredited investors to diversify into real estate through private eFunds. Fundrise has been around since 2012 and has consistently generated steady returns, no matter what the stock market is doing.

CrowdStreet: A way for accredited investors to invest in individual real estate opportunities mostly in 18-hour cities. 18-hour cities are secondary cities with lower valuations, higher rental yields, and potentially higher growth due to job growth and demographic trends.

Both platforms are free to sign up and explore.

I've personally invested $810,000 in real estate crowdfunding across 18 projects to take advantage of lower valuations in the heartland of America.

With $250,000, I can generate around $25,000 a year in passive income through real estate. As a busy father now, I love earning income more passively.