While investing in the stock market is still a great option for your retirement, you may want to look at other areas to put your money to work. These other assets can be used to elevate your retirement further, build your wealth, and help protect you against economic downturns.
By investing without the stock market, you are diversifying your investments and including assets that don’t exactly follow the stock exchanges. And before, many of the options here required a lot of upfront money or were only for the accredited investors. But now with technology and financial laws altering, more people have a chance to diversify their investments beyond the stock market.
1. Real Estate
You want to look at real estate that does not rely on the stock market or follow the exchanges. One of those ways is to invest in rental properties. While it can be time-consuming and some initial upfront cash may be needed, the long-term results can help you grow your net worth.
2. Investing in Fine Art
Typically, investing in well-known art has been only for the mega wealthy. Seriously, you’ve probably seen the price tags on art by the likes of Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, and others that go well into the millions. Additionally, the other options to invest in art included art funds (for accredited investors) or taking a chance on a new coming artist and hope they get popular years down the road.
3. Start Investing in Gold Bullion
If you have been around investing and investors, then you probably have read or heard about investing in gold bullion. This can be in the form of gold bars or coins. Many times, precious metals are another option to invest outside of the stock market, like silver and gold.
There ETF funds on the stock exchanges that do include gold as well, but you can invest in physical gold too (which can be a better option). Typically, you’ll see the prices and demand for gold rise during a bear market, as gold can quickly be sold for cash during an economic collapse.
4. Invest Conservatively in a CD Ladder
Generally, when people see investing in a CD or “Certificate of Deposit” they scoff or push it off to the side. Mostly because CD interest rates are low and can take years to payout. However, the interest is usually higher than just putting your money into a savings account.
The other benefit is having your money invested relatively safely over time with guaranteed interest. Plus, you can keep stacking them as long as you want.
5. Invest in an Online Business
With website investing, you acquire a web property to earn income, build it up to earn more, or to flip later on for more. Think of a website as digital real estate that can appreciate in value overtime like actual real estate would.
These could be niche blogs, large content websites, domains, or even buying a domain and designing the website to then sell. You can buy or sell online websites via marketplaces like Empire Flippers, Flippa, on your own, or even find some on domain registrars websites (for example GoDaddy’s domain marketplace).
6. Peer-to-Peer Lending (P2P)
Instead of investing in assets, with Peer-to-Peer lending (P2P), you’ll fund various loans that individuals need for various reasons like personal loans, debt consolidation, or refinancing. The reason this is attractive to the borrower is it removes the banks out of the lending. This also keeps the fees and interest rate for the borrower lower.
But as an investor, you are still getting decent returns of anywhere from 4%-7% (Based on historical returns from LendingClub and Prosper). And as an investor, you see your money return monthly as borrowers make their monthly payments with interest.
7. Digital Currencies
Whether you like to admit or not, digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and many others are not going away. The U.S. government is interested in regulating it and more businesses are accepting digital currency. However, it’s hard to know the real value and where in the future it may go, which makes investing in digital currencies challenging.
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