Lets say you had up to 100k to invest, what would be the best return for the money!

Stock market?

Begin a small business?

Buy a small business?

Buy and sell antiques?

Restore classic MB's, buy and sell MB's? Would be fun, but!

Sell roadside roses.........What?????

I've got to begin thinking of doing something to become employed once again in the not so distant future. I've been pondering the idea for a few years. Presently, I'm caretaker to my parents, but things are changing with there health more and more. When my job here is done, I will need to once again be gainfully employed. I'm 50, I have time to research and prospect. Going to work for someone else isn't where I want to be!

Any insight, or ideas, will greatly be appreciated.........BB

Thru years of dealing and collecting I've found antique firearms appreciate the most.

There are many and multifarious models and types but generally early Winchester repeating rifles, Colt single actions,Smith and Wesson Schofields & Russians and fine,premier grade double shotguns by such makers as Parker, Purdy,Churchill et,al. are the safest bet.

This is presupposing said guns are in fine condition and you did not overpay in the first place.

Antique and classic cars,while fun,fluctuate too much up and down and many other "collectibles" have their brief fashion,only to plunge later.

Guns, like commercial Real Estate are probably the most sound place to put your money to work without risk,IMHO.

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Real Estate, mainly vacant land parcels of 40 acres or more. They are a little safer than smaller parcels since most anti development restrictions start @ 40 and less.

Like any journey, financial planning works best when you have some ideas of where you want to end up. At age 50, at what age do you think you'd like to "retire?" What kind of income will you need, both now and in the future? What would you like to do, what are your passions, what are your strengths and weakness?

Real estate -- hard to go wrong if you do a little homework.

Do you think investment means putting the money somewhere and raking in the dough? Take that 100k, borrow $1,000,000! Now we're talking.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I didn't want to say that but for us that prefer to go through life checking our underpants every hour or so, it can be a lot of fun.

The down side is I know very few people that can hack it and most of them seemed ready for an adventure at first. I think I make more money buying people out when the hit the panic button that the investment itself.

My heart rate is picking up just thinking about it, I can't wait for morning.

Aviation is the place you want to be. Anyone can make a small fortune in aviation. Guaranteed.

There is only one requirement. You must start with a large fortune.

You almost can't go wrong with real estate. I'd like to venture that way myself with some investment properties in the DC area.

Once you've got your first property, you can leverage your equity to use on a downpayment on a second property that you then rent out for profit, and so on. I have a friend on Capital Hill that does that. He lives in a 1.2 million dollar home and his $3,000+ mortgage is payed by the profit he makes off his rental units (all located within two blocks of his house too!).

But one definitely must have the composure to get through the rough times. I'm not sure I have it yet.

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

Help me help you.

Invest in me and my bank account, the returns are phenomenal. You could also buy me a house in california with 2 bedrooms, 2 garage spots atleast and a large lot. Make sure its not in a residential n'hood.

Peter

Kuan is on the mark, see what you can leverage. Give yourself a plan for what you need to accomplish in a year. Some ideas include opening a sandwich shop such as a Quiznos. Shops in good locations make 500 sandwiches a day at about $7 per pop. Plus a bottle of pop with almost every sandwich. There are a lot of take-out food franchises available. Volume is the key.

Another idea is a cable manufacturing company where you make and sell custom A/V cables. A florist shop is another. A coin op laundry is another. A manufacturer’s outlet store is another. None of these take a whole lot of training and are not too expensive to operate. One of my former customers set up a phone in chat site. In 3 years he grew from a 1 room, 2 person operation to using an entire floor of a downtown high rise with offices in about 20 cities. He retired shortly after that with tons of money in the bank and a nice house in Seattle, one in the Cayman islands and another by Snowbird. Another customer has done really well running a bookstore. I know of folks who make paint brushes and even hand made brooms and they make over $100K per year, and even better, only work about 4 months out of the year. Another person I know runs a smallish tropical fish shop. Another manufacturers performance components for a couple brands of hand guns. There are scads of good possibilities. Look around and find something of interest. Play with the costs and needed returns to pay for it all and you’ll find something.

Real estate can have an awesome return but the frequency is not very high. Plus lots and lots of sweat equity is an integrated element in any house restoration project. Not that that's a bad thing. Real estate gets the best return when you can buy more expensive property in the first place and/or do a major renovation. With 100K down this is definitely a good possibility.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I read once that the two businesses in the US that have generated the most amount of millionaires are:

1. Print shops

2. Dry Cleaners

Food for thought.

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.