# If you had $1,000,000.00 to invest…
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 29, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737 "2021-08-29T18:50:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/41 "2021-08-31T04:42:21Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> What do you mean “if”?
Spot on. You invest your second million the same way you invest your first $1 million. Or $10,000. Or $1,000.
The OP is ambiguous, but if you don’t have any investing experience and the new funds are a windfall, then the [three fund portfolio](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio) is a good start.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/42 "2021-08-31T05:02:29Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> That might be changing. And not because I buy into the idea that everyone’s leaving the Bay Area for Texas, lol. I think environmental concerns are going to really start having an adverse impact on California’s economy.
It is changing. Climate change is real. Fires have been bad every year, the drought goes on, and we’ve been getting some humid summer days. If that continues, its impact on the economy will be felt soon.
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> > [@Bullitt](#):
> >
> > It depends. As the saying goes, location, location, location.
> >
> > The SFBA CA is a good investment for real estate.
>
> I live there, and I’ve made a bundle on my house, but I wouldn’t buy now. We’re definitely back in bubble territory with frantic bidding up prices and DOMs typically under a week. And these are not bargain houses, often over $1.5 million. If the value of my house fell by $300K or so it might get back to crazy but not insane terrtory.
I bought my house at the end of 2004. Its first year it appreciated about $100k. And then a bubble hit. I rode it out and it’s done nicely. There will be bubbles but I’m in for the long haul.
Slow and steady, slow and steady.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/43 "2021-08-31T06:19:10Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> Spot on. You invest your second million the same way you invest your first $1 million. Or $10,000. Or $1,000.
I don’t agree. You can take a lot more risks for potentially better returns with your second million versus your first $10,000.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/44 "2021-08-31T10:49:11Z")
I would not be foolish enough to try & second-guess professionals in the field.
🤨
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/45 "2021-08-31T11:53:57Z")
Does paying off debt count as an investment? If so, I’d pay off my mortgage, various student loans, car loans, and so on. I’d keep the remaining 400K or so in an E-trade account. I’d buy about 10K or so of high yield stock in big name companies. The other 390K would stay as cash in the account. I’m of the opinion that we’re in a stock bubble, and that a 2008 style crash is coming. Once that plays out, then I’d buy into the market.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/46 "2021-08-31T12:06:29Z")
I’m starting to think that I may never pay off my mortgage. At 2.2% it is ‘cheap money’. Why pay that off early when I can earn 8-10% steadily with an index fund? When I die, the kids can pay it off with the money I’ll leave for them.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/47 "2021-08-31T12:15:26Z")
I’d buy more of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. I’ve already got all of the bond fund and cash that I need, so everything else goes into stocks. Rather than basing my allocation on set percentages I base it on the number of years of withdrawals in each bucket. I keep two years in cash, seven years in bonds, and the rest all goes into stocks. It’s like **Voyager** said up there, the more you have the more risk you can afford to take.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/48 "2021-08-31T13:14:11Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> I’m starting to think that I may never pay off my mortgage. At 2.2% it is ‘cheap money’. Why pay that off early when I can earn 8-10% steadily with an index fund? When I die, the kids can pay it off with the money I’ll leave for them.
Exactly. Additionally you probably get a tax benefit from said mortgage.
We purposely took a 30 years loan. It gave us extra money to invest. We’re at 2.375% and that really is pretty close to free money. $40k went to completely redo both bathrooms of our new home and the rest was invested.
* * *
> [@Oredigger77](#):
>
> I’d drop it all into the [Rivian IPO](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-27/rivian-is-said-to-file-for-ipo-seek-about-80-billion-valuation). I think they are poised to kick tesla’s ass which should be at least a 10x over IPO in the next 10 years.
Thanks for this. Very interesting and I’m going to keep my eye on it. It also convinced me to finally pull the trigger and buy some Ford stock. They are the #2 investor in Rivian after Amazon.
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/49 "2021-08-31T18:03:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> I don’t agree. You can take a lot more risks for potentially better returns with your second million versus your first $10,000.
I guess it would depend on how you get there. Certainly, saving and investing to get to your first million is quite an accomplishment, and if that is how you accumulated it then you understand just how much work and effort it takes. In that case, the second million doesn’t just magically appear, you need to keep the first million invested on your way to making your second million (edit: well, you don’t need to, but it sure helps). But if you interpret the OP to be that you suddenly had $1 million, and already had enough to cover your needs, then yeah, I agree you could just do whatever you want, risk be damned. But that almost makes the thread mundane and pointless, except that the answer is to bet it all on Black.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/50 "2021-08-31T18:22:31Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> I guess it would depend on how you get there. Certainly, saving and investing to get to your first million is quite an accomplishment, and if that is how you accumulated it then you understand just how much work and effort it takes.
I wish I could say that making a million takes genius and incredibly hard work, but all it took was having a job that paid a decent amount, not getting laid off ever (since that eats into savings,) not wasting money on crap, and learning from your mistakes. I screwed up badly in 2001, I didn’t screw up in 2008. A bit harder than being given it. Oh, and living long enough helps.
The second million is even easier. And yes, if you have plenty to live on already you can invest the $1 million windfall a bit more aggressively. I’m not sure there is a big difference between million two and million one - there is a big difference between million anything and $10,000.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/51 "2021-08-31T18:24:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> Exactly. Additionally you probably get a tax benefit from said mortgage.
> We purposely took a 30 years loan. It gave us extra money to invest. We’re at 2.375% and that really is pretty close to free money. $40k went to completely redo both bathrooms of our new home and the rest was invested.
I paid off my mortgage when the new tax law went into effect, since the interest payments were relatively low and didn’t get us to the new standard deduction. That increased the effective interest rate of the mortgage, and getting rid of it made sense - and also improved cash flow.
But if you get to deduct the interest it’s a different story.
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### Author:  [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/52 "2021-08-31T18:27:24Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#):
>
> They are the #2 investor in Rivian after Amazon.
This is one if the reasons I think Rivian is positioned to beat Tesla they have a lot of backing in understanding how to make cars at scale. Skipping over the production issues Tesla has and moving to large scale production will improve their growth curve.
They also have an off take partner in Amazon who is buying a bunch of their vehicles for electric delivery so they have a solid initial cash flow. They are also targeting the most popular types of vehicles in trucks and SUVs so their acceptance by the general public should be quicker too.
Really, the only question I have at this point is if Ford will buy them once they get their initial brand awareness to replace the electric F150 or merge the platforms or if they will run out of cash before getting enough of their vehicles into the public to sustain as their own brand. With what they’ve already raised plus the IPO actually going to fund the company not just an early investor cash out I think the second one is looking solved.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/53 "2021-08-31T18:39:14Z")
About saving and investing for that first million: start early! It can be fun in later years watching that nest egg grow dramatically. I’ve been fortunate, and in the last five years my egg has become two eggs. It can become four eggs in less than five years.
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### Author:  [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/54 "2021-08-31T18:55:56Z")
One _million_ dollars? (Cue. Dr. Evil) Now you’re talking.
I started a thread a couple of years ago where my position was, if you had one BILLION dollars, that amount would be so much money as to bend reality, change your life–maybe not for the better–and there would be a very strong temptation to make this money become the focus of your life from then on. So therefore, one billion was just too much money.
But one million dollars? Easy. I would invest it in my retirement fund, which I raided in order to buy a house / keep on living after “employment changes.” Invest it properly, you know, such that it grows a little, but not in a risky fashion.
I have a house now, but no retirement. Would like to rebuild it ASAP, so yes, that cool million bucks would be almost an exact fit.
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/55 "2021-08-31T19:03:16Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> I’m not sure there is a big difference between million two and million one - there is a big difference between million anything and $10,000.
I think I should have said how you invest your second $10,000 after your first $10,000. I certainly didn’t mean to compare $10K to $1 million.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/56 "2021-08-31T19:55:00Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> I think I should have said how you invest your second $10,000 after your first $10,000. I certainly didn’t mean to compare $10K to $1 million.
Okay. That I agree with. I wonder if anyone has done research on how the willingness to accept risk growth with money. Is it linear?
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/57 "2021-08-31T20:28:30Z")
Listen to the experts. The stock market is fine.
> **[The mood on Wall Street just got better really quickly | CNN Business](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/08/31/investing/stocks-fear-greed/index.html)**
>
> Investors may still be nervous about the Delta variant and Afghanistan. But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell eased many worriers on Friday when he signaled that the central bank is not going to hit the panic button anytime soon over inflation...
But bear 🐻 in mind, experts say a crash is coming.
> **[History Suggests a Stock Market Crash Is Likely: 5 Data Points of Concern |...](https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/08/28/stock-market-crash-likely-5-data-points-of-concern/)**
>
> If history has a say, trouble may be brewing for equities.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/58 "2021-09-01T05:09:02Z")
When the market crashes, or has a correction, that means prices drop and if you keep contributing you’ll be able to buy more shares (index fund, my suggestion).
There are no guarantees but if you stay in it for the long haul you can weather a storm and, if you keep buying, come out the other end in a good position.
I check my statements, and the markets, basically quarterly.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/59 "2021-09-01T06:47:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Still, while a million is nice, I don’t think they could do much different for you than the standard diversified portfolio.
As it happens, there is something you can do with $1,000,000 that you can’t do with even $999,999: be an [accredited investor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor) (well, you can also get there by having a high sustained income). Accredited investors can put their money in things that ordinary investors cannot (such as venture capital). High risk, high reward. Most of my money is in broad-spectrum funds but I put some into riskier things.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/60 "2021-09-01T12:35:03Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> When the market crashes, or has a correction, that means prices drop and if you keep contributing you’ll be able to buy more shares (index fund, my suggestion).
>
> There are no guarantees but if you stay in it for the long haul you can weather a storm and, if you keep buying, come out the other end in a good position.
The stock market is the only business where people panic when there’s a sale. For an investor to be happy about high stock prices is like a driver being happy about high gasoline prices just because their gas tank is half full.
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