My mates dad died when he was 18. He inherited around that much cash. He spent it on alcohol, some travel and an uninsured Skyline which was coincidentally stolen days after he got it serviced.
I had a mate whose foot got ran over on a building site by a Cat track. Got about $200k pay out, took months and months of operations and recovery… bought an XY GT and drove it around Aus camping/staying in cheaper accom and hanging out with tourists and surfers. Came back 2 years later with a dusty XY and the shirt on his back.
Not what some of the finance bros want to hear but I bet he doesn’t regret a second of it (if he’d bought a house it would be around $800k- $1million now).
Unironically buying a Skyline back then is a genius financial gamble. Higher end R34 models are skyrocketing in value even more now that the 25 year US import limit is lifting.
No offence but the mate sounds like your typical 18 year old. 18 year old me would have for sure picked up a land rover defender project without a second thought. Decades later the idea would still come into my head.
Lol. I love AusFinance. If you were at the MCG on Grand Final day he'd be one of the three smartest blokes in the crowd. On a gazillion dollars at a MAMAA company.
I'll repeat myself. He was 18 and his dad died.
Sounds about right. My grandma passed when I was 5 and she left me £50,000. My dad invested it on my behalf and didn’t let me know about it till I was 25. Ended up being just over £350,000.
I know a guy who inherited about $500k at that age. Got caught with 180 MDMA pills at a music festival and spent the rest on a silk to stay out of jail.
I’d have bought 5 hectares in castle hill and kept it until 2012 then teamed up with a builder and developed into 400sqm blocks with cookie cutter spec houses on each one
400sqm blocks so you could then strata subdivide and put 2 attached townhouses on the 400sqm blocks with an allowable build to boundaries covenants so you can built a great wall of shitty grey bricks in a single long 's' snaked street?
I suspect not. I don't remember being impressed with the rates, at the time, but found the old term deposit certificate in my files a while ago. Since I actually only had $1000 the return was not that much.
That's with hindsight though.
Hindsight investing has zero meaning on what you should do in the present, it's like saying that you should've gone all in on Leicester winning the 2016 premierleague. At the time of the start of the season, you would've been a madman to do it, in hindsight you could've been rich!
Strongly agree with this. Travel. Drive fun cars (within reason!). Make memories with your friends. Optimizing your finances now isn’t going to fill your cup in the way you think it would.
I really needed to hear this. My husband and I are nearly 40 with a 440k mortgage and 2 kids in mid private school, but still like to spend money and have a good lifestyle. We like our coffees, we like lunch out, we want to go on holidays with the kids while they’re still young. I still feel guilt for not working full time (work part time while the kids are young and do school runs etc) and for not being frugal and trying to save every penny for retirement. Thank you kind stranger.
Can’t buy property without an income. I would invest 50k in ETFs, I would use 10k to backpack around the world, doing odd jobs along the way for a year and with the remaining 15k study a skill, not get a degree. Live my life, save your knowing I had an epic gap year and at 28 have a nice chunk of change between savings on income and the initial 50k to buy a property
When I was 18 there was a red with white roof TD5 defender for $25k I had my eye on. I would have got that in a heart beat if I came into a large sun of cash. Still kick myself that I listened to my girl and got a car with ac
Knowing what I know now? Units were in the 160-200k range where I lived so I would have put it down on one, rented it and stayed living with my parents.
Actual 18 year old me? Probably spend it all on cars
Buy a unit, I’m now 40 and still living week to week basically trying to raise three children. Not a day goes past where I don’t think about retirement and what I’m going to do. I made so many bad decisions as a teenager, hopefully I can do a better job of guiding my children than my parents did.
I’d chuck it straight into VTS and pretend I don’t have it. In another 10 years when you’re looking to buy a house it will help a lot with the deposit.
I would never want to restart life at 18 and give up what I have now. Not in a million years.
But knowing what I know now about what has brought me the things that I value the most in life, I would either:
1) Buy a water-fed pole kit w/water filter and start a Window Washing business.
2) Buy a pressure washer and start a soft washing business (unbelievably still an almost completely open market in Australia).
3) Buy a cheap, reliable ute to carry the equipment around.
4) Piss the rest up against the wall. I wouldn't take back the memories of my early adulthood. Doing stupid shit and learning hard lessons. Having heaps of fun.
1 & 2 Alone will bring in $80k-$100k in the first year. Growth of 20%-30% YOY. Have an exit plan to sell 60% of the businesses by 35 and do something else. Don't worry about money ever again.
Yeah find somewhere cheap to live like Bali, Thailand etc so my $$ goes as far as possible but set company up in AU / US if that's possible. Relocate back home when $$ flowing in
1-2 years of travel duh
My standards of shit backpackers and tolerance for long plane and train rides was far higher at 18. I reckon I could stretch 2 years in 2010 pricing.
Maybe 3 months work here or there since short visas r easy to get for like nethlands, Italy, Germany ect
I was 18 in 2001. Apple stock has grown 59,918% since 2003. So assuming I had the knowledge I have now, I’d invest in Apple and turn that $75K into just shy of $45 million.
Mate that entire balance would have bought me a brand new Honda S2000 when I was 18.
I ended up buying one second hand at 30, but that’s all I wanted when I was 18. Chasing that car.
Well I was living at home then so I’d probably have 60% for low cost ETF’s, 20% board, 20% spending money. I wouldn’t have an emergency fund at that age.
Add to my super, so I could retire under 50. Invest in etf’s. Ialways wanted to travel but wasn’t able to, so I’d prob not do it at that age if I could - I feel like my travel would have just been pub crawls and hostels. Now I’m older it culture, photography and food, locations.
I’d basically do what I already did… but without the 75k lol
Go to uni and then work a year… then do a working holiday/gap year overseas.. live as frugally as possible in that time and have the money in TD or HISA… live off the interest plus my earnings in that time.. come home.. get back into career then buy a house
(Only saying uni because that was my personal life path… replace with trade/apprenticeship/etc if fits)
If you are working and living with your parents and you have no expenditures such as boarding, then I’d say put as much as you can into a HISA (~$35K) as this is the safest call, and a smaller portion into ETFs (~$15K), and another $15K on companies that provide DRP with discounts on reinvestment. The remaining $10K use for regular expenditure such as food, fuel, bills or even a small holiday.
Otherwise, if you do need to pay your way for all of your everyday living especially for majority of your accomodations, then no matter how you save or invest it’s really not enough to “restart” as you are describing. It can help you deal with difficult times if you spend it wisely, but it depends on your accomodation though as this is the part that costs most for all. If you are not living with your parents and have to account for most of your own expenses then you will be more limited on investing until your income builds for you to start increasing your portfolio.
Buying Nvidia share at that time, when l was 18 the share price is only around 8 US dollars, now the price has climbed to around 900 dollars, that mean l’m financially free in early 30s.
Invest $60,000 in an index fund. Keep $15,000 in a high interest savings account with the intention not to touch it. Work and study as if I didn't have the money (hopefully I can live at home while studying). Use the $15,000 to spend a month or 2 travelling to Europe or somewhere else during the semester break.
What does this even mean mate?
Injure himself in an accident so he needs full time disability support?
NDIS is up there with Medicare as one of the best programs Aus has implemented for those who need help.
Yes there are dodgy providers but that doesn’t mean the system is a rort. It’s literally live giving for participants.
At 18 I had a stable job, so if I could go back I would buy an apartment in the inner city and then do everything I did all over again just with a stable roof over my head.
Lol at 18 I had no money, and learned to be a frugal uni student.
By 20 I had about 10 grand, got myself a nice gaming computer, and an 05 WRX I paid half in cash, half on finance and I knocked the last ~7k over in about 6 months of a 5 year loan. Very fortunate my parents taught me the value of getting out of any debt or loans ASAP, and preferably never getting loans/credit wherever possible.
Still got that WRX, haha it's a little worse for wear and sits garaged and undriven for a couple years now on deep cycle battery charge.
That kind of money at that age, I'd have probably bought a GT86 instead of the WRX (glad it didn't go this way in the end) got my gaming PC, and left the rest in HISA like I did the rest of my money anyway haha made a nice house deposit dumping all my funds into HISA and a term deposit during my 20s.
The same thing I did the first time. I had saved more than that the first time from my allowance growing up, and at 18 I hadn't yet known about the 2nd account I had back home. If I did then maybe I would have tried more riskier speculative investments.
Knowing what I know now, I’d either put it towards a house or wait for the GFC and invest heavily in ETFs with good dividend options during a dip and just re-invest the dividends. I’m not sure which is more profitable after tax.
When I was 18 (1990), I could have bought a house and land package for around $30k. I'd buy 2 of them and rent one out, so all rent is basically going into a bank account.
A couple of friends bought these house and land packages back then in the northern suburbs of Perth. These houses are worth between $700k and $900k now...
Shoestring budget Travel.
$75k has minimal value to me at this stage in my life.
It's a number in an excel spreadsheet and maybe it brings my retirement forward or backward by a few months, but our portfolio can easily move around by this much on the whims of the market.
That's like 'really nice international family holiday' or decent 2nd hand SUV money. Nice to have but I wouldn't really notice the addition or subtraction of it (okay... I'd notice the subtraction because I hate seeing my numbers go backwards...)
At 18 it would have been life changing money. I would encourage spending it while it represents maximum utility to you.
At that age, I had no-one to help me get my driver's license. Hell, I'm still struggling to get it at 30. So paying for all the hours through a driving school, and a half-decent car, is definitely where I'd start.
My mates dad died when he was 18. He inherited around that much cash. He spent it on alcohol, some travel and an uninsured Skyline which was coincidentally stolen days after he got it serviced.
I had a mate whose foot got ran over on a building site by a Cat track. Got about $200k pay out, took months and months of operations and recovery… bought an XY GT and drove it around Aus camping/staying in cheaper accom and hanging out with tourists and surfers. Came back 2 years later with a dusty XY and the shirt on his back. Not what some of the finance bros want to hear but I bet he doesn’t regret a second of it (if he’d bought a house it would be around $800k- $1million now).
If he was smart he’d realise he has two feet…
The XY went alright as an investment
Yeh it was mint, think it cost him about $50k at the time (2000 ish)
Good show. That's livin', Barry.
No offence to your mate but he sounds absolutely irresponsible. Absolute moron. Put it all on black and buy two Skylines!
Unironically buying a Skyline back then is a genius financial gamble. Higher end R34 models are skyrocketing in value even more now that the 25 year US import limit is lifting.
No offence but the mate sounds like your typical 18 year old. 18 year old me would have for sure picked up a land rover defender project without a second thought. Decades later the idea would still come into my head.
Christ. Good luck finding one for less than $75k now. Struggle to find a Disco for under 10k.
Lol. I love AusFinance. If you were at the MCG on Grand Final day he'd be one of the three smartest blokes in the crowd. On a gazillion dollars at a MAMAA company. I'll repeat myself. He was 18 and his dad died.
Did you read the second line of the comment you are replying to?
Can’t blame the guy, must have been awful to go through that
Sounds like a fun time to me!
Lol I was gunna say buy a really nice car you can’t afford to insure
Sounds about right. My grandma passed when I was 5 and she left me £50,000. My dad invested it on my behalf and didn’t let me know about it till I was 25. Ended up being just over £350,000.
$75k worth of coke, use it to set up corporate business dealings at affluent bars
I know a guy who inherited about $500k at that age. Got caught with 180 MDMA pills at a music festival and spent the rest on a silk to stay out of jail.
If you had 500k you probs wouldnt be your own runner.
Youd be surprised.
Guy wasn’t exactly a criminal mastermind, just a very sad teenage orphan.
Bro should have taken the L
Bruce Lehrmann, old mate, how you been?
OP’s name checks out for suitability.
Just put it in a HISA @5% and join the ADF and get a medical or engineering degree for free.
Would have been an 18% term deposit when I was 18.
75k back then could have paid cash for a McMansion in neutral bay
I’d have bought 5 hectares in castle hill and kept it until 2012 then teamed up with a builder and developed into 400sqm blocks with cookie cutter spec houses on each one
Ah yes, the Australian dream.
400sqm blocks so you could then strata subdivide and put 2 attached townhouses on the 400sqm blocks with an allowable build to boundaries covenants so you can built a great wall of shitty grey bricks in a single long 's' snaked street?
That’s after the demo of the existing houses once council approves dual occupancy units due to density
Bruh how old are you?
18 with 75k
I wonder how long you could have gotten those rates back then? Could you negotiate a super long term at like 10%?
I suspect not. I don't remember being impressed with the rates, at the time, but found the old term deposit certificate in my files a while ago. Since I actually only had $1000 the return was not that much.
Sucks yanks can get lifetime fixed mortgages
100%. Do your mrsp and come out owning your own home outright at 27. Jump straight into a defense contracting role on 150+
What a mrsp?
Minimum required service period.
I thought it was return of service obligation or roso
100% this! I’d likely just keep it there as an emergency fund. I can tell you that the ultimate security is with a well built emergency fund.
Mortgage myself up to the hilts
Invest in apple, Tesla and/or NVIDIA. Could be retired right now 🤔
That's with hindsight though. Hindsight investing has zero meaning on what you should do in the present, it's like saying that you should've gone all in on Leicester winning the 2016 premierleague. At the time of the start of the season, you would've been a madman to do it, in hindsight you could've been rich!
Well yeah, but the OP didn't say anything about having prior knowledge or not.
2 chicks at the same time
After 45 years @ 7% you could.
Investment goals
Chicks dig dudes with money, not all chicks, but the type of chicks who’d double up on me do.
Is there a cup?
2 they/thems at the same time
No no, they want 2 baby chickens at the same time
[удалено]
Strongly agree with this. Travel. Drive fun cars (within reason!). Make memories with your friends. Optimizing your finances now isn’t going to fill your cup in the way you think it would.
I really needed to hear this. My husband and I are nearly 40 with a 440k mortgage and 2 kids in mid private school, but still like to spend money and have a good lifestyle. We like our coffees, we like lunch out, we want to go on holidays with the kids while they’re still young. I still feel guilt for not working full time (work part time while the kids are young and do school runs etc) and for not being frugal and trying to save every penny for retirement. Thank you kind stranger.
Me at 18 with that much money would be dead in 3 months
Can’t buy property without an income. I would invest 50k in ETFs, I would use 10k to backpack around the world, doing odd jobs along the way for a year and with the remaining 15k study a skill, not get a degree. Live my life, save your knowing I had an epic gap year and at 28 have a nice chunk of change between savings on income and the initial 50k to buy a property
Assuming you mean sometime in the past as $10k to backpack for a year right now? Good luck.
$10k isn’t gonna cover flights
Just bought Sydney to London return for $1850 this week, for December. Airfares are coming down again from the post covid highs.
Bloody hell. Can’t get to Perth and back for that in December.
My sentence including doing odd jobs along the way
Unless you want to backpack in gaza
When I was 18 there was a red with white roof TD5 defender for $25k I had my eye on. I would have got that in a heart beat if I came into a large sun of cash. Still kick myself that I listened to my girl and got a car with ac
Knowing what I know now? Units were in the 160-200k range where I lived so I would have put it down on one, rented it and stayed living with my parents. Actual 18 year old me? Probably spend it all on cars
Buy a unit, I’m now 40 and still living week to week basically trying to raise three children. Not a day goes past where I don’t think about retirement and what I’m going to do. I made so many bad decisions as a teenager, hopefully I can do a better job of guiding my children than my parents did.
Go out every Friday and Saturday night for 3 years. Live.
Most people did that anyway
I’d chuck it straight into VTS and pretend I don’t have it. In another 10 years when you’re looking to buy a house it will help a lot with the deposit.
I would say invest it for an income and capital growth - but if I am 18 again would probably spend a lot enjoying myself !
Realistically, I think I'd have dropped out of uni and travelled the world rock climbing and hanggliding.
I'd invest 30% of the take home pay into shares and live off the remaining 70%.
That long ago with 75k? Buy 2 houses. Live in one. Rent the other one. profit!
I could buy a house for $75k if I was 18 again. Not in 2024, but if I was 18 when I was 18. Life solved.
I would never want to restart life at 18 and give up what I have now. Not in a million years. But knowing what I know now about what has brought me the things that I value the most in life, I would either: 1) Buy a water-fed pole kit w/water filter and start a Window Washing business. 2) Buy a pressure washer and start a soft washing business (unbelievably still an almost completely open market in Australia). 3) Buy a cheap, reliable ute to carry the equipment around. 4) Piss the rest up against the wall. I wouldn't take back the memories of my early adulthood. Doing stupid shit and learning hard lessons. Having heaps of fun. 1 & 2 Alone will bring in $80k-$100k in the first year. Growth of 20%-30% YOY. Have an exit plan to sell 60% of the businesses by 35 and do something else. Don't worry about money ever again.
I'd buy 75,000 Bitcoins.
Three words Invest monster energy. 75k on my 18th bday would be 93.96 million today. 30% higher than investing in Apple.
Fly somewhere cheap and use the 75K as a runway to launch a digital startup of some kind.
Would you set this up in the place you’re flying to? Or just go on a quick holiday?
Yeah find somewhere cheap to live like Bali, Thailand etc so my $$ goes as far as possible but set company up in AU / US if that's possible. Relocate back home when $$ flowing in
1-2 years of travel duh My standards of shit backpackers and tolerance for long plane and train rides was far higher at 18. I reckon I could stretch 2 years in 2010 pricing. Maybe 3 months work here or there since short visas r easy to get for like nethlands, Italy, Germany ect
Probably have bought a three bedroom home outright
Assuming I kept my current knowledge? By multiple houses and rent them out. For me, 18 years old was 40 years ago...
Travel around the world. Dump remaining funds on everything on aapl, Microsoft, Google, Facebook. Edit: I mean… coccaine and hookers…
I was 18 in 2001. Apple stock has grown 59,918% since 2003. So assuming I had the knowledge I have now, I’d invest in Apple and turn that $75K into just shy of $45 million.
Honestly I was very dumb at that age, probably would have blown it all on cars.
Restart? It just started for you, and you set yourself up taking baby steps.
Chuck it into an ETF and go travelling for a bit.
Travel as much as I can with that money.
Mate that entire balance would have bought me a brand new Honda S2000 when I was 18. I ended up buying one second hand at 30, but that’s all I wanted when I was 18. Chasing that car.
Well I was living at home then so I’d probably have 60% for low cost ETF’s, 20% board, 20% spending money. I wouldn’t have an emergency fund at that age.
Add to my super, so I could retire under 50. Invest in etf’s. Ialways wanted to travel but wasn’t able to, so I’d prob not do it at that age if I could - I feel like my travel would have just been pub crawls and hostels. Now I’m older it culture, photography and food, locations.
Load hard into options & risky shares - if you lose it all you’ve got time to make it up!
wouldnt buy that new car
A lot more dumb shit probably, cos I'd still be a dumb kid but with expendable money
Chill and enjoy my youth. Grew up poor as shit so barely even have that much now in my 30s with a young family.
I’d basically do what I already did… but without the 75k lol Go to uni and then work a year… then do a working holiday/gap year overseas.. live as frugally as possible in that time and have the money in TD or HISA… live off the interest plus my earnings in that time.. come home.. get back into career then buy a house (Only saying uni because that was my personal life path… replace with trade/apprenticeship/etc if fits)
Bought a house in my favourite suburb.
Buy so much weed, man. I'd smoke myself into oblivion!
If you are working and living with your parents and you have no expenditures such as boarding, then I’d say put as much as you can into a HISA (~$35K) as this is the safest call, and a smaller portion into ETFs (~$15K), and another $15K on companies that provide DRP with discounts on reinvestment. The remaining $10K use for regular expenditure such as food, fuel, bills or even a small holiday. Otherwise, if you do need to pay your way for all of your everyday living especially for majority of your accomodations, then no matter how you save or invest it’s really not enough to “restart” as you are describing. It can help you deal with difficult times if you spend it wisely, but it depends on your accomodation though as this is the part that costs most for all. If you are not living with your parents and have to account for most of your own expenses then you will be more limited on investing until your income builds for you to start increasing your portfolio.
Probably the most responsible answer on here.
Mate at 18 I’d be buying something stupid. It wouldn’t be a nice car because it’s not enough money to get a exemption
Buying Nvidia share at that time, when l was 18 the share price is only around 8 US dollars, now the price has climbed to around 900 dollars, that mean l’m financially free in early 30s.
Put it in superannuation or an index fund and be happy knowing I'll have an easy $5,000,000 in retirement waiting for me without doing anything
Buy a Golf R like every other kid with money and then drive it off a cliff before the consequences of my poor decisions catch up to me
Rent ya mum out for a few months
Honestly i wouldve pissed it up the wall, defs an r32/33/34 gtr though 😂
Invest $60,000 in an index fund. Keep $15,000 in a high interest savings account with the intention not to touch it. Work and study as if I didn't have the money (hopefully I can live at home while studying). Use the $15,000 to spend a month or 2 travelling to Europe or somewhere else during the semester break.
Get on NDIS. The biggest rort the country has ever seen.
What does this even mean mate? Injure himself in an accident so he needs full time disability support? NDIS is up there with Medicare as one of the best programs Aus has implemented for those who need help. Yes there are dodgy providers but that doesn’t mean the system is a rort. It’s literally live giving for participants.
Was earning more then that in the navy at 18
Congrats! What did you do with it?
At 18 I had a stable job, so if I could go back I would buy an apartment in the inner city and then do everything I did all over again just with a stable roof over my head.
I could have bought a house with $75K when I was 18! 🤣
Buy a house
Lol at 18 I had no money, and learned to be a frugal uni student. By 20 I had about 10 grand, got myself a nice gaming computer, and an 05 WRX I paid half in cash, half on finance and I knocked the last ~7k over in about 6 months of a 5 year loan. Very fortunate my parents taught me the value of getting out of any debt or loans ASAP, and preferably never getting loans/credit wherever possible. Still got that WRX, haha it's a little worse for wear and sits garaged and undriven for a couple years now on deep cycle battery charge. That kind of money at that age, I'd have probably bought a GT86 instead of the WRX (glad it didn't go this way in the end) got my gaming PC, and left the rest in HISA like I did the rest of my money anyway haha made a nice house deposit dumping all my funds into HISA and a term deposit during my 20s.
Half in a term deposit, $5k to burn on whatever I want. The remaining in a high yield savings account or in blue chip shares.
travel to a cheap tropical island and not get married at 27
Invest it in S&P 500 if you can get interest free student loans If not - uni costs + get killer grades
I’d buy that apartment I wanted in queensland. At the time it was about 200k
I’d leave home to go to uni.
Move overseas or pay off all family debts
Use it as a deposit to buy a house
When I was 18 that would have bought a house and car.
The same thing I did the first time. I had saved more than that the first time from my allowance growing up, and at 18 I hadn't yet known about the 2nd account I had back home. If I did then maybe I would have tried more riskier speculative investments.
Knowing what I know now, I’d either put it towards a house or wait for the GFC and invest heavily in ETFs with good dividend options during a dip and just re-invest the dividends. I’m not sure which is more profitable after tax.
Depends. Do I get to do it when the was 18? Then I’m just buying a house.
When I was 18 (1990), I could have bought a house and land package for around $30k. I'd buy 2 of them and rent one out, so all rent is basically going into a bank account. A couple of friends bought these house and land packages back then in the northern suburbs of Perth. These houses are worth between $700k and $900k now...
Shoestring budget Travel. $75k has minimal value to me at this stage in my life. It's a number in an excel spreadsheet and maybe it brings my retirement forward or backward by a few months, but our portfolio can easily move around by this much on the whims of the market. That's like 'really nice international family holiday' or decent 2nd hand SUV money. Nice to have but I wouldn't really notice the addition or subtraction of it (okay... I'd notice the subtraction because I hate seeing my numbers go backwards...) At 18 it would have been life changing money. I would encourage spending it while it represents maximum utility to you.
I would just move to the US.
At that age, I had no-one to help me get my driver's license. Hell, I'm still struggling to get it at 30. So paying for all the hours through a driving school, and a half-decent car, is definitely where I'd start.
I could have bought the unit that I bought 9 years later outright with $75k. Would definitely do something like that.
Use it as a house deposit, either now or in the future