All Forum Posts by: Ryan Roth

I feel it depends on your investing horizon but I don't mind the stock market as long as you don't plan on using the money right away.  I personally like index fund investing in funds like VOO.  I do like real estate but I am not sure $20K is enough to get started. 

Similar to what others have said... You first need to identity your goal for the money.  IE - your timeframe.  If it's short term, CD's are probably still the best.  Shorter term CD's actually have higher rates than longer term so staying in the 3-6 month range is best.  

If however you don't have any specific goal or timeframe, I generally default to "long term".  Long term money, you could invest into a taxable account so you have access to it whenever you want. Similar to a checking or savings. But by putting it into a broadly diversified index fund like others have mentioned, you'll get the higher "expected" returns of the stock market.  

As for not feeling like it's the right time, I would urge you to focus more on the goals than your feelings.  No offense meant by this... I've been a financial planner for 17+ years and one of the main things I've learned is that the more I think I know what's going on, the less I'm actually correct.  You really have to believe you know more than BILLIONS of investors... 
The stock market is up something like 80% of the days long term. The old saying is "Time IN the market, not TIMING the market."  

I'm happy to chat if you ever want to reach out... 

I recommend you invest between your two ears as much as possible, whereas 20 K is not going to get you very far in and of itself.

As others hinted 20K does not leave you a lot of room and would narrow down what strategy you can use. House hack is the only option but even that might not be feasible. Connect with a lender/agent locally to get a feel for the area/what you can qualify. In the meantime learn and figure out how to increase income/savings. If you have other money besides the 20K then this is a different story