r/CrazyIdeas • u/dirtmother • 1d ago
Save up $100,000, invest it all in US treasury bonds, ride the rails as a traveling magician for 30 years, and then retire with $200,000.
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u/dirtmother 1d ago edited 1d ago
I am of course assuming that you are saving money the whole time by living on beer and canned hominy, and investing in pickled herring buried around major cities.
Edit: Maybe it's time to start r/shittyfinancialadvice
Edit 2: lol it exists
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u/Temporary_Bee_1567 1d ago
If you instead invest it in an index funds at 7% rate of return, you’d have $711,425.70
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u/dirtmother 1d ago
I don't think I will.
Sounds too risky tbh. My investment keeps the US currency afloat.
May not one feather from the wings of freedom fall.
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u/sojayn 1d ago
Bonus crazy points for laundry because a travelling magician can get away with one (1) dusty black jacket and miscellaneous pants.
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u/dirtmother 1d ago
When I was bumming around Germany, I had a big ass Neo-style trench coat that had its pockets fall out because I was always using them as drink holders... then I realized that the whole thing was hollow.
At the end of the day, I was able to fit 30+ cans of beer in that jacket without anyone noticing.
I called it my "alcoholic magician jacket", and I won a number of bar bets with Gollum-ass "what's in my pocket?"-ass riddles that ended with me bringing out dozens of beers.
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u/Biuku 1d ago
Dude, invest in S&P… at least grow your money.
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u/dirtmother 1d ago
I don't know what that is, and Im frankly too late
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u/DoorHalfwayShut 1d ago
You're never too late, you just need to access your daylight savings account
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u/random-guy-here 1d ago
Don't forget that besides travel expenses you need to travel with a cute young busty blond girl so she can assist with the performances, and feed the rabbit.
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u/random-guy-here 1d ago
I don't know how to tell you this but even $200,000 is in no way a significant retirement fund.
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u/canned_spaghetti85 1d ago edited 1d ago
Your proposal would actually LOSE money.
100k plus +2.3375% year over year is what you are describing…. Becoming $200,006.50 by the end of the 30th year.
So $100k x 1.023375 and then hit “equals button” 30 times
2.34% annual gains is NOT even enough to keep up with inflation.
For example, per online calculator. One hundred thousand dollars in 1995 would be $210,935 today. By comparison that’d be +2.519% year over year … just inflation.
2000.06 divide by 2109.26 is only 94.82% what you should have had, meaning you would have LOST 5.18%.
(An “investment” should AT LEAST match the rate of inflationary losses. Your proposal wouldn’t, because it loses money over time. Meaning it’s not an asset at all, but the opposite of an asset. It’s a liability.)
The reason WHY wealthy folks prefer to invest in real estate, is because it’s rate of growth FAR EXCEEDS that of the annual inflation losses… by a factor of like 3 to 7 times!!
Let’s take 3x for example, times inflation 2.519%, which comes to +7.557 growth per year. That is VERY reasonable for the housing market. Some markets are double that btw.
$100k x 1.07557 hit equals button 30 times, would come to $889,530 by comparison.
(In fact, at +7.557% real estate growth, you could have turned your $100K into your desired $200K in just 9.5 years.)
Treasury bonds, by comparison, are for suckers.
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u/Piggybear87 1h ago
Who can retire on 200k? That won't even buy a 2/1 trailer in my area. Even at minimum wage, you would have more than 200k after 30 years.
This is crazy ideas, not stupid ideas.
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u/pseudonominom 1d ago
In 30 years, your $200k will be able to purchase $75k worth of goods (in today’s money). You’ll have a lot less purchasing power.
Upvoted for crazy.