Making $100,000 USD per month, no idea what to do with it
"I know your ""pain"".  But don't worry about investing the money right now -- leave it uninvested in the short term.  You have other stuff you need to school up on.  Investment will come, and it's not that hard.  In the short term, focus on taxes.  Do some ""mock"" run-throughs of your expected end-of-year taxes (use last year's forms if this year's aren't available yet).  Must you pay estimated tax periodically throughout the year?  The tax authorities charge hefty penalties for ""forgetting"" to do it or ""not knowing you have to"".  Keep an eye out for any other government gotchas.   Do not overlook this!  This is the best investment you could possibly make.  Max out your government sanctioned retirement funds - in the US we have employer plans like 401K or Keogh, and personal plans like the IRA.  This is fairly straightforward.  Avoid any ""products"" the financial advisors want to sell you, like annuities.  Also if you have the Roth type IRA, learn the difference between that and a normal one.  There are some tricks you can do if you expect to have an ""off"" year in the future.  Charitable giving is worth considering at high income levels.  Do not donate directly to charities.  Instead, use a Donor Advised Fund.  It is a charity of its own, which accepts your tax deductible donation, and holds it.  You take the tax deduction that year.  Then later, when the spirit moves, tell your DAF to donate to the charity of your choice.   This eliminates most of the headaches associated with giving.  You don't get on the soft-hearted sucker lists, because you tell the DAF not to disclose your address, phone or email.  You don't need the charity's acknowledgement letter for your taxes, since your donation was actually to the DAF. It shuts down scams and non-charities, since the DAF confirms their nonprofit status and sends the check to their official address only. (This also bypasses those evil for-profit ""fundraising companies"".) It's a lot simpler than they want you to know.  So-called ""financial advisors"" are actually salesmen working on commission.  They urge you to invest, because that's what they sell.  They sell financial products you can't understand because they are intentionally unduly complex, specifically to confuse you.  They are trying to psych you into believing all investments are too complex to understand, so you'll give up and ""just trust them"".  Simple investments exist.  They actually perform better since they aren't burdened down with overhead and internal complexity.  Follow this rule: If you don't understand a financial product, don't buy it.   But seriously, do commit and take the time to learn investment.  You are the best friend your money will have - or its worst enemy.  The only way to protect your money from inflation or financial salesmen is to understand investment yourself. You can have a successful understanding of how to invest from 1 or 2 books. (Certainly not everything; those ingenious salesmen keep making the financial world more complicated, but you don't need any of that junk.)   For instance how do you allocate domestic stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, etc. in an IRA if you're under 40?  Well... how do smaller universities invest their endowments? They all want the same thing you do.  If you look into it, you'll find they all invest about the same.  And that's quite similar to the asset mix Suze Orman recommends for young people's IRAs.  See? Not that complicated.  Then take the time to learn why. It isn't stupid easy, but it is learnable.   For someone in your tier of income, I recommend Suze Orman's books.  I know that some people don't like her, but that segues into a big problem you'll run into:  People have very strong feelings about money.  Intense, irrational emotions.  People get it from their parents or they get sucked into the ""trust trap"" I mentioned with so-called financial advisors.  They bet their whole savings on whatever they're doing, and their ego is very involved.  When they push you toward their salesman or his variable annuity, they want you to agree they invested well.  So you kinda have to keep your head low, not listen too much to friends/family, and do your research for yourself.  John Bogle's book on mutual funds is a must-read for picking mutual funds and allocating assets.  Certain financial advisors are OK.  They are ""fee only"" advisors.  They deal with all their customers on a fee-only basis, and are not connected to a company which sells financial products.  They will be happy for you to keep your money in your account at your discount brokerage, and do your own trading on asset types (not brands) they recommend.  They don't need your password.  Here's what not to do: A good friend strongly recommended his financial advisor.  In the interview, I said I wanted a fee-only advisor, and he agreed to charge me $2000 flat rate.  Later, I figured out he normally works on commissions, because he was selling me the exact same products he'd sell to a commission (free advice) customer, and they were terrible products of course.  I fired him fast." "If you are making that much, don't waste your time here. Pay a few hundred bucks for a consultation with a fee-only certified financial planner. (Not one of the ""free"" services, which make their money via commissions on sales and are thus motivated to direct you to whatever gets them the largest commission.) In fact, in your bracket you might want to consider hiring someone to manage your portfolio for you on an ongoing basis. A good one will start by asking what your goals are, over what timeframe, and will help you determine how you feel about risk and volatility. From that information they will be able to suggest a strategic mix of kinds of investments which is balanced for those constraints." If you already have 500k in a Schwab brokerage account, go see your Schwab financial consultant. They will assign you one, no charge, and in my experience they're sharp people. Sure, you can get a second opinion (or even report back here, maybe in chat?), but they will get you started in the right direction. I'd expect them to recommend a lot of index funds, just a bit of bonds or blended funds, all weighted heavily toward equities. If you're young and expect the income stream to continue, you can be fairly aggressive. Ask about the fees the entire way and you'll be fine. "I would be more than happy to find a good use for your money. ;-) Well, you have a bunch of money far in excess of your regular expenses. The standard things are usually: If you are very confused, it's probably worth spending some of your windfall to hire professional help. It beats you groping in the dark and possibly doing something stupid. But as you've seen, not all ""professionals"" are equal, and finding a good one is another can of worms. If you can find a good one, it's probably worth it. Even better would be for you to take the time and thoroughly educate yourself about investment (by reading books), and then make a knowledgeable decision. Being a casual investor (ie. not full time trader) you will likely arrive, like many do, at a portfolio that is mostly a mix of S&P ETFs and high grade (eg. govt and AAA corporate) bonds, with a small part (5% or so) in individual stock and other more complicated securities. A good financial advisor will likely recommend something similar (I've had good luck with the one at my credit union), and can guide you through the details and technicalities of it all. A word of caution: Since you remark about your car and house, be careful about upgrading your lifestyle. Business is good now and you can afford nicer things, but maybe next year it's not so good. What if you are by then too used to the high life to give it up, and end up under mountains of debt? Humans are naturally optimistic, but be wary of this tendency when making assumptions about what you will be able to afford in the future. That said, if you really have no idea, hey, take a nice vacation, get an art tutor for the kids, spend it (well, ideally not all of it) on something you won't regret. Investments are fickle, any asset can crash tomorrow and ruin your day. But often experiences are easier to judge, and less likely to lose value over time." You want CFP or CFA who is also a fiduciary, meaning that by law they have to put your interests ahead of their own. Financial planners who are not fiduciaries can, and often do, recommend investment vehicles that earn them the most commission with little regard of your financial goals. If you already have $500,000 to invest and racking up $100,000 a month you probably qualify for most institutions private client programs. That means that the firm/advisor will look at your financial situation and come up with a custom-tailored investment plan for you which should also include tax planning. I would start with whatever financial institutions you already work with - Schwab, your bank etc. Set up a meeting and see what they have to offer. Make sure you interrogate them about their fees, their licenses/certifications and above all if they are a fiduciary. In my opinion, I would: If the income is from this year, you can tax shelter $59,000 plus somewhere between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on age, in a 401(k) and defined benefit plan. This will take care of the current tax burden. Afterwards, set aside your remaining tax liability in cash. The after-tax money should be split into cash and the rest into assets. The split depends on your level of risk tolerance. Build a core portfolio using highly liquid and non-correlated ETFs (think SPY, TLT, QQQ, ect.). Once these core positions are locked in. Start lowering your basis by systematically selling a 1 standard deviation call in the ETF per 100 units of underlying. This will reduce your upside, extend your breakeven, and often yield steady income. Similarly, you can sell 1 standard deviation iron condors should the VIX be high enough. Point is, you have the money to deploy a professional-type, systematic strategy that is non-correlated, and income generating. You already did the leg work by putting your money in a Schwab account. They have some of the lowest fees on index funds you can buy. I would keep things dead simple. Decide if you want some of it to be an IRA or not, and then plow your funds into a broad stock only index fund such as SCHB, SCHX, or SCHV (you could buy all three, but there would be no need to whatsoever). You will get around 2-2.5 % dividend yield, be diversified, and have extreme low fees. Fees are key to getting good returns in funds. Of course..set tax money aside as well. "What I would do, in this order: Get your taxes in order. Don't worry about fancy tricks to screw the tax man over; you've already admitted that you're literally making more money than you know what to do with, and a lot of that is supported, one way or another, by infrastructure that's supported by tax money.  Besides, your first priority is to establish basic security for yourself and your family.  Making sure you won't be subjected to stressful audits is an important part of that! Pay off any and all outstanding debts you may have.  This establishes a certain baseline standard of living for you: no matter what unexpected tragedies may come up, at least you won't have to deal with them while also keeping the wolves at bay at the same time! Max out a checking account. I believe the FDIC maximum insured value is $250,000.  Fill 'er up, get a debit card, and just sit on it.  This is a rainy day fund, highly liquid and immediately usable in case you lose your income. Put at least half of it into an IRA or other safe investments.  Bonds and reliable dividend-paying stocks are strongly preferred: having money is good but having income is much better, especially in retirement! Quality of life.  Splurge a little.  (Emphasis on a little!)  Look around your life. There are a few things that it would be nice if you just had, but you've never gotten around to getting.  Pick up a few of them, but don't go overboard.  Spending too much too quickly is a good way to end up with no money and no idea what happened to it.  Also, note that this isn't just for you; family members deserve some love too! Charitable giving.  If you have more money than you know what to do with, there are plenty of people out there who know exactly what to do--try to go on living and build a basic life for themselves--but have no money with which to do so.  Do your research.  Scam charities abound, as do more-or-less legitimate ones who actually do help those in need, but also end up sucking up a surprisingly high percentage of donations for ""administrative costs"".  Try and avoid these and send your money where it will actually do some good in the world. Reinvest in yourself.  You're running a business.  Make sure you have the best tools and training you can afford, now that you can afford more!" "Your #1 problem is the Government both in it's form as a taxation outfit and as a 'law and order' outfit.  You'd be very surprised at how fast a bank seizes your bank account in response to a court order.  Purchase 100 Mexican 50 Peso Gold (1.2 oz/ea).  These coins are cheap (lowest cost to get into) and will not be reportable on sale to taxing authorities.  That money is out of the banking system and legal system(s).  Do not store them in a bank! You need to find a tax strategist, probably a former IRS agent / CPA type. With the rest remaining money...  There's an old saying, Don't fight the Fed.  As well as ""The trend is your friend"".  So, the Fed wants all savers fully invested right now (near 0 interest rates). When investing, I find that if you do exactly opposite what you think is the smart thing, that's the best thing.  Therefore, it follows: 1) Don't fight the Fed 2) Do opposite of smart 3) Do: Fight the Fed (and stay 100% out of the market and in cash) We're looking like Japan so could remain deflationary for decades to come.  Cash is king..."
"The ""hire a pro"" is quite correct, if you are truly making this kind of money. That said, I believe in a certain amount of self-education so you don't follow a pro's advice blindly. First, I wrote an article that discussed Marginal Tax Rates, and it's worth understanding. It simply means that as your income rises past certain thresholds, the tax rate also will change a bit. You are on track to be in the top rate, 33%.  Next, Solo 401(k). You didn't ask about retirement accounts, but the combined situations of making this sum of money and just setting it aside, leads me to suggest this. Since you are both employer and employee, the Solo 401(k) limit is a combined $66,500. Seems like a lot, but if you are really on track to make $500K this year, that's just over 10% saved.   Then, whatever the pro recommends for your status, you'll still have some kind of Social Security obligation, as both employer and employee, so that's another 15% or so for the first $110K.  Last, some of the answers seemed to imply that you'll settle in April. Not quite. You are required to pay your tax through the year and if you wait until April to pay the tax along with your return, you will have a very unpleasant tax bill. (I mean it will have penalties for underpayment through the year.) This is to be avoided.  I offer this because often a pro will have a specialty and not go outside that focus. It's possible to find the guy that knows everything about setting you up as an LLC or Sole Proprietorship, yet doesn't have the 401(k) conversation.  Good luck, please let us know here how the Pro discussion goes for you." Currently my online savings account pays an interest rate of 1.25%.  With 100K, I can earn about $104 per month in that account.  No risk, no timing, no fuss. So in theory you can make money by small changes in the valuations of stock.  However there are often better, risk free options for your money; or, there are much better options for returns with much less risk, but more than that of a bank account. "What could a small guy with $100 do to make himself not poor? The first priority is an emergency fund. One of the largest expenses of poor people are short-term loans for emergencies. Being able to avoid those will likely be more lucrative than an S&P investment. Remember, just like a loan, if you use your emergency fund, you'll need to refill it. Be smart, and pay yourself 10% interest when you do. It's still less than you'd pay for a payday loan, and yet it means that after every emergency you're better prepared for the next event. To get an idea for how much you'd need: you probably own a car. How much would you spend, if you suddenly had to replace it? That should be money you have available. If you think ""must"" buy a new car, better have that much available. If you can live with a clunker, you're still going to need a few K.  Having said that, the next goal after the emergency fund should be savings for the infrequent large purchases. The emergency fund if for the case where your car unexpectedly gets totaled; the saving is for the regular replacement. Again, the point here is to avoid an expensive loan.  Paying down a mortgage is not that important. Mortgage loans are cheaper than  car loans, and much cheaper than payday loans. Still, it would be nice if your house is paid when you retire. But here chances are that stocks are a better investment than real estate, even if it's the real estate you live in." "I don't understand the OP's desire "" I'd love to have a few hundred dollars coming in each month until I really get the hang of things. ""  When growing your wealth so that it will be large enough in retirement to throw off enough profits to live on ... you must not touch the profits generated along the way.  You must reinvest them to earn even more profits.  The profits you earn need not show up as 'cash'.  Most investments also grow in re-sale value. This growth is called capital gains, and is just-as/more important than cash flows like interest income or dividends.    When evaluating investing choices, you think of your returns as a percent of your total savings at any time.  So expecting $100/month equals $1,200/year would require a $12,000 investment to earn 10%/yr. From the sounds of it the OP's principal is not near that amount, and an average 10% should not be expected by an investment with reasonable risk. I would conclude that 'There is no free lunch'.  You need to continually save and add to your principal.  You must invest to expect a reasonable return (less than 10%) and you must reinvest all profits (whether cash or capital gains). Or else start a business - which cannot be compared to passive investing." "This is clearly a scam, and you should stay away from it. Anyone reading this knew that from the title alone - and it seems that you know it too. Don't ""test"" whether something is a scam by putting your own money in it. That is exactly how these scammers make money, and how you lose it. How their scam works is irrelevant. The simple fact is that there is no way you can safely earn 20% return over the course of a year, let alone in 1 day*. You know this is true. Don't bother trying to figure out what makes it true in this case. There is no free lunch. Best case scenario, this is a hyper-risky investment strategy [on the level of putting your money down at a roulette wheel]. Worst case scenario, they simply steal your money. Either way, you won't come out ahead. Although I agree with others that this is likely a Ponzi scheme, that doesn't really matter. What matters is, there is no way they can guarantee those returns. Just go to a casino and throw your money away yourself, if you want that level of risk.  *For reference, if you invested $100 for a year, earning 20% returns every day, you would have 6 million trillion trillion dollars by the end of the year. that's $6,637,026,647,624,450,000,000,000,000,000. that number doesn't even make sense. It's more money than exists on earth. So why would they need your $100?" You can't have even a hundred dollars without it being invested somewhere. If it's cash, you're invested in some nation state's currency.       If that currency is USD, you have lost about 6% so far this year.       But what if you were in the stock market? It's been doing pretty well, no?       Thing is, American stocks are priced in American dollars. You have to put those variables together to see what a stock has really been doing. Most people when asked what would they do with $X dollars say:  Pay debt (their own / loved ones)  Buy a nice house  Buy a nice car  Travel   460 million is plenty to do all those things. With the rest I'd start a bond ladder and try to live off the interest How can I use $4000 to make $250 per month for the rest of my life? This means the investment should generate close to 6.25% return per month or around 75% per year. There is no investment that gives this kind of return. The long term return of stock market is around 15-22% depending on the year range and country. "It's hard to know what to tell you without knowing income, age, marital status, etc., so I'll give some general comments. ETFs come in all varieties.  Some have more volatility than others.  It all depends on what types of assets are in the fund. Right now it's tough to outpace inflation in an investment that's ""safe"" (CDs for example).  Online savings accounts pay 1% or less now. Invest only in what you understand, and only after everything else is taken care of (debt, living expenses, college costs, etc.)  A bank account is just fine.  You're investing in US Dollars.  Accumulating cash isn't a bad thing to do." The standard advice is that stocks are all over the place, and bonds are stable. Not necessarily true. Magazines have to write for the lowest common denominator reader, so sometimes the advice given is fortune-cookie like. And like mbhunter pointed out, the advertisers influence the advice. When you read about the wonders of Index funds, and see a full page ad for Vanguard or the Nasdaq SPDR fund, you need to consider the motivation behind the advice. If I were you, I would take advantage of current market conditions and take some profits. Put as much as 20% in cash.  If you're going to buy bonds, look for US Government or Municipal security bond funds for about 10% of your portfolio. You're not at an age where investment income matters, you're just looking for some safety, so look for bond funds or ETFs with low durations. Low duration protects your principal value against rate swings. The Vanguard GNMA fund is a good example. $100k is a great pot of money for building wealth, but it's a job that requires you to be active, informed and engaged. Plan on spending 4-8 hours a week researching your investments and looking for new opportunities. If you can't spend that time, think about getting a professional, fee-based advisor. Always keep cash so that you can take advantage of opportunities without creating a taxable event or make a rash decision to sell something because you're excited about a new opportunity. Alright so you have $12,000 and you want to know what to do with it. The main thing here is, you're new to investments. I suggest you don't do anything quick and start learning about the different kinds of investment options that can be available to you with returns you might appreciate.  The most important questions to ask yourself is what are your life goals? What kind of financial freedom do you want, and how important is this $12,000 dollars to you in achieving your life goals.  My best advice to you and to anyone else who is looking for a place to put their money in big or small amounts when they have earned this money not from an investment but hard work is to find a talented and professional financial advisor. You need to be educated on the options you have, and keep them in lines of what risks you are willing to take and how important that principal investment is to you. Investing your money is not easy at all, and novices tend to lose their money a lot. The same way you would ask a lawyer for law advice, its best to consult a financial planner for advice, or so they can invest that money for you. What is your investing goal? And what do you mean by investing? Do you necessarily mean investing in the stock market or are you just looking to grow your money? Also, will you be able to add to that amount on a regular basis going forward? If you are just looking for a way to get $100 into the stock market, your best option may be DRIP investing. (DRIP stands for Dividend Re-Investment Plan.) The idea is that you buy shares in a company (typically directly from the company) and then the money from the dividends are automatically used to buy additional fractional shares. Most DRIP plans also allow you to invest additional on a monthly basis (even fractional shares). The advantages of this approach for you is that many DRIP plans have small upfront requirements. I just looked up Coca-cola's and they have a $500 minimum, but they will reduce the requirement to $50 if you continue investing $50/month. The fees for DRIP plans also generally fairly small which is going to be important to you as if you take a traditional broker approach too large a percentage of your money will be going to commissions. Other stock DRIP plans may have lower monthly requirements, but don't make your decision on which stock to buy based on who has the lowest minimum: you only want a stock that is going to grow in value. They primary disadvantages of this approach is that you will be investing in a only a single stock (I don't believe that can get started with a mutual fund or ETF with $100), you will be fairly committed to that stock, and you will be taking a long term investing approach. The Motley Fool investing website also has some information on DRIP plans : http://www.fool.com/DRIPPort/HowToInvestDRIPs.htm . It's a fairly old article, but I imagine that many of the links still work and the principles still apply If you are looking for a more medium term or balanced investment, I would advise just opening an online savings account. If you can grow that to $500 or $1,000 you will have more options available to you. Even though savings accounts don't pay significant interest right now, they can still help you grow your money by helping you segregate your money and make regular deposits into savings. "He wants to send me money, as a gift. Do you know this friend? It could easily be a scam. What I don't know is that how much money can he send and what are the taxes that would be applicable in this case? There is no limit; you have to pay taxes as per your tax brackets. This will be added as ""income from other sources"". I'll probably be using that money to invest in stock market. If the idea is you will make profits from stock market and pay this back, you need to follow the Foreign Exchange Management Act. There are restrictions on transfer of funds outside of India." "This may sound very ""tongue in cheek"", but the best thing you can invest in is to raise your income in order to increase your retirement savings.  How much are you able to contribute to retirement now?  I think you would be lucky to do $150/month and most months probably less than that.  However, if you were making like 60k/year, and allowed a little lifestyle bloat, you could probably easy put away 20k/year.  Once you are able to do that the savings you can manage now will be quickly eclipsed.   Often times when people consider ""having their money work for them"" they often neglect to factor risk.  Prior to investing one should have a proper emergency fund in place.  That is 6 months or so of living expenses in a nice safe savings account.  Those earn about 1.25% these days, which is pretty meager, but it does earn something.   Once the emergency fund is in place, one can invest with impunity.  Without it, you will have to liquidate investments if economic calamity strikes you.  This could be done at a loss furthering the harm done by the calamity.   Increase your income and create an emergency fund.  Do those things first." "Victor addressed the card issue with an excellent answer, I'd like to take a stab at the budget and income side.  Your question clearly stated ""I am left with no extra money"" each month. Whenever I read such an assertion, I ask the person, ""but surely, X% of people in your country get by on a salary that's 95% of yours."" In other words, there's the juggling of the debt itself, which as Victor's math shows, is one piece of the puzzle. The next piece is to sift through your budget and find $100/mo you spend that could be better spent reducing your debt. Turn down the temperature in the winter, up in the summer, etc. Take lunch to work. No Lattes. Really look at the budget and do something.  On the income side. There are countless ways to earn a bit of extra money. I knew a blogger who started a site called ""Deliver away Debt."" He told a story of delivering pizza every Friday and Saturday night. The guy had a great day job, in high tech, but it didn't lend itself to overtime, and he had the time available those two evenings to make money to kill off the debt he and his wife had. Our minimum wage is currently just over $7, but I happened to see a sign in a pizza shop window offering this exact position. $10/hr plus gas money. They wanted about 8 hours a weekend and said in general, tips pushed the rate to well over $15/hr. (They assumed I was asking for the job, and I said I was asking for a friend). This is just one idea.  Next, and last. I knew a gal with a three bedroom small house. Tight budget. I suggested she find a roommate. She got so many responses, she took in two people, and the rents paid her mortgage bill in full. Out of debt in just over a year, instead of 4+. And in her case, no extra hours at all.  There are sites with literally 100's of ideas. It takes one to match your time, interest, and skill. When you are at $0 extra, even finding $250/mo will change your life."