I'm 30 years old and I have 165k. What should I do with it?

[Quest]

Quick summary of my current situation:

 

- No debt.

- Most of my survival foundation is in place - social life, romantic relationship, health and fitness, mental health, hobbies, diet, unwiring bad habits, removing my addictions, etc. Last piece of the foundation is LP and finances, which is my primary focus.

- Building my LP in the health and wellness space. Just started working as a personal trainer making 40k per year.

 

I have 165k. It's currently invested. It's done very well over the last couple of years, given the bull market we've seen. That said, a growing part of me feels that keeping it invested and dollar cost averaging my whole market ETF every month for 30 years isn't the highest-leverage use of these resources. Perhaps I should invest some - or even all - of it in myself:

 

- Buying courses to help me become a better trainer (which I'm already doing)

- Hiring an excellent personal trainer for myself to learn from them (and to optimize my health, which is one of my top 3 values)

- Hire a personal nutritionist/dietician to bring my diet to the next level (although it's already very highly refined, given that I've been working on it for a decade). Hiring a great nutritionist/dietician helps me become more knowledgeable in my chosen field, and enables a greater degree of embodiment of the principles I wish to instill in my clients.

- I could hire a guitar teacher - been self-taught for the last 1.5 years and a teacher would expedite progress.

- Could travel. Haven't taken a vacation in over 2 years.

- Retreats for spiritual development

- Hire great biz consultants/coaches to help me build my LP beyond person training once the time comes.

- Have the seed capital to start my own business once I've exhausted personal training.

 

The list goes on.

 

Then there's the balanced approach - keeping some invested, keeping some in cash. Right now I'm about 21k liquid, but half of that is my emergency fund - not for actualization work.

 

The issue holding me back from pulling the trigger and liquidating is that I'm currently able to afford the training I need to advance as a trainer, and most of my survival foundation has already been set, so I don't need to invest in improving that stuff (at least not right now). A part of me just wants to stay invested, continue to invest in courses and trainings to become more knowledgeable in the health and wellness space, and, over time, as my income grows, use that income to invest in the things mentioned above. Why touch my investments if I can pay for these things with income?

 

Looking for different perspectives to help me think this through. Thanks.

 

 

[aurum]

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:46 PM, Quest said:

The issue holding me back from pulling the trigger and liquidating is that I'm currently able to afford the training I need to advance as a trainer, and most of my survival foundation has already been set, so I don't need to invest in improving that stuff (at least not right now). A part of me just wants to stay invested, continue to invest in courses and trainings to become more knowledgeable in the health and wellness space, and, over time, as my income grows, use that income to invest in the things mentioned above. Why touch my investments if I can pay for these things with income?

What are your long-term goals?

I think what you outlined here is your better option.

Stay invested and focus on growing your income with your current income. 

Only touch that money if you truly have something worthwhile, like a solid business opportunity. Otherwise, you eat shit.

165k is nice but you want to grow that number over the years. 

[Quest]

  On 3/10/2025 at 9:12 PM, aurum said:

What are your long-term goals?

I recently sat down and contemplated "what do I want the next ten years of my life to look like?"

This is what I produced:

 

Where do I see my life going in the next ten years?

Building a successful biz/actualizing my LP

Personal dev and consciousness work.

Going to therapy.

Studying math, science, history, politics, sociology/society, psychology, biz and marketing, economics, ecology, etc. - develop big-picture understanding.

Studying/doing philosophy. Studying epistemology. Doing epistemological work.

Studying/doing spirituality. Exploring different spiritual practices and techniques, including psychedelics.

Optimizing my diet and health. Lifestyle refinement.

Building wealth - stocks, bonds, real-estate, gold

Mastering guitar

Travel

[aurum]

  On 3/10/2025 at 9:18 PM, Quest said:

I recently sat down and contemplated "what do I want the next ten years of my life to look like?"

This is what I produced:

 

Where do I see my life going in the next ten years?

Building a successful biz/actualizing my LP

Personal dev and consciousness work.

Going to therapy.

Studying math, science, history, politics, sociology/society, psychology, biz and marketing, economics, ecology, etc. - develop big-picture understanding.

Studying/doing philosophy. Studying epistemology. Doing epistemological work.

Studying/doing spirituality. Exploring different spiritual practices and techniques, including psychedelics.

Optimizing my diet and health. Lifestyle refinement.

Building wealth - stocks, bonds, real-estate, gold

Mastering guitar

Travel

What about family?

You’re going to need a solid income if you want kids.

Most of that other stuff can be done relatively cheap.

[Schizophonia]

Give me them. 

[Quest]

  On 3/10/2025 at 9:33 PM, aurum said:

What about family?

You’re going to need a solid income if you want kids.

Most of that other stuff can be done relatively cheap.

Yeah, I'd like to start a family toward the latter half of my 30s - within the next 5-7 years.

 

That's one of the reasons why getting my income dialed in is so important.

[aurum]

  On 3/10/2025 at 9:51 PM, Quest said:

Yeah, I'd like to start a family toward the latter half of my 30s - within the next 5-7 years.

 

That's one of the reasons why getting my income dialed in is so important.

In that case, I’d definitely shoot for increasing your income until you’re at least 250k a year. 1-2 million invested I think is also a good goal, but that will likely take longer.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Donate to Leo.

[Michael569]

Sounds like your life is already on track and you've optimised many different variables for success. But overall, It really depends on what has the highest intrinsic value to you and what aligns most with your inner compass.

Do you plan to have a family and as an extension of that, buy a house? If so, would you have a support from a family or would you solely have to self fund? That would impact your need for cash in the future. 

Some of that money should be saved as cash on checking account and portion of it should be earning you more in the future. Cash on checking account should be substantial enough so that if you lost all income, got ill or a disaster struck, you could maintain your lifestyle for a year. Some of it on short term fixed funds with annual guaranteed interest (if you prefer to play it safe). Some of it in a few long term index funds, this portion should be untouchable regardless of how the market is doing. Small amount (if you desire) for a speculative endeavours to satisfy the need for thrill (if that's your thing 🙂)

Earning 40k from a LP 40k in your 30s is already a great success and it would be worthy investing into it so that it could become your sole focus and give you the liberty to manage your own time. In the Book , Psychology of Money, Morgan argues that the highest value of money is to purchase freedom over your own time, so think maybe what that would mean for you. Which things bog you down and which liberate you. 

But none of us are financial advisors so always be cautious with your major financial decisions. 

P.S oh and yeah, go travel a bit or at least take a break so you don't burn out 😉

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:55 AM by Michael569

[The Renaissance Man]

@Quest Don't just spend your money on "improving yourself" just because you have it. Don't hire a nutritionist if your diet is already amazing, for example. Don't hire experts if you feel like it's needless. Just because you have money, it doesn't mean you have to spend it.

Sometimes the highest leverage usage of your resources is not about money. What you spend may not be the thing limiting your growth. You may find that by spending an extra $500 per month you're perfectly set, and your growth is actually limited by how you live, where you live, with whom you live, etc.

I'm not saying to hoard your money and start living when you're 60, I'm just saying that not spending money doesn't necessarily mean not leveraging your resources. I'd first think about what I need, then think about the various ways I could get it, and then consider my resources and pick one way.

Extra money means tranquility. Don't take that for granted. Also if you really don't need the extra money and feel like it's wasted, you can give some to charity.

[Applegarden8]

Hello!

Here is what I think. Here are my credentials. =) I have saved up 7k (yeah, I know, what a big amount, compared to 165 k ) I am a regular guitar player that produces music though. 

  On 3/10/2025 at 8:46 PM, Quest said:

- Buying courses to help me become a better trainer (which I'm already doing)

- Hiring an excellent personal trainer for myself to learn from them (and to optimize my health, which is one of my top 3 values)

- Hire a personal nutritionist/dietician to bring my diet to the next level (although it's already very highly refined, given that I've been working on it for a decade). Hiring a great nutritionist/dietician helps me become more knowledgeable in my chosen field, and enables a greater degree of embodiment of the principles I wish to instill in my clients.

- I could hire a guitar teacher - been self-taught for the last 1.5 years and a teacher would expedite progress.

- Could travel. Haven't taken a vacation in over 2 years.

- Retreats for spiritual development

- Hire great biz consultants/coaches to help me build my LP beyond person training once the time comes.

- Have the seed capital to start my own business once I've exhausted personal training.

Understanding what is exactly that you desire to do is the hardest question. And you can lost a lot of money answering that. And you can spend even more without answering that.

Any training, personal trainer, music teacher, dietitian or biz consultant. Any of that is a calculated cost (music teacher not so much maybe, but), I think the first rule in personal development is that whatever you have been advised and you keep paying for, you have to try it and implement to the best of your ability. Or it's a waste of money as you buy it. You will simply not complete, not do the time consuming legwork to implement such subtle things in your life, subtler than you have already implemented since you write "refined". What do you need? What do you need that you can buy? Can you buy it? Or you can actually do it yourself by slowing your life down and get very cost effective but time consuming alternatives like seminars, books, programs, and yes, few consultations. If you really want to achieve pristine health, it has to be done by you, otherwise you will pay people to say that you are not implementing what they are saying and you not trusting them. Yes, you can maybe get accredited programs in nutrition or get certification, maybe that is a good thing, but will you live up to it yourself to sell it to your clients? If you not have implemented, why your advice is worthy and so on? It's the same with personal trainer?

You should approach it like a company in a pragmatic way. What is your design qualification for this purchase and how it will be implemented in your life step by step and when etc? What do you need from personal trainer and nutritionist? Be specific.

Retreats for spiritual development/ vacation could be the best for you IMO, combining that with travel.

About the guitar teacher. Well, mostly you just gotta practice and know what you want. What are your goals? I don't think you want to play world class, otherwise playing the instrument, recording, composing, rehearsing, building a brand musically is your top priority.

About the business. This might be most expensive coaching you get. Again. What for? What is it that you can't answer? What can't you access that you can access in seminars, startups, books etc. Are you looking for somebody you pay and they will tell you, well, you need a business idea and business plan, probably not.

Take my advice with caution, I am creative idiot with life out of balance, failing to implement my health and having to undergo surgery. Working in a place I don't think I can escape from and transition to music. I am happy, but I am incredibly unfulfilled and when my coworkers say that I seem to like my work or that I am performing well, it insults me.

Edited Tuesday at 06:19 PM by Applegarden8

[Twentyfirst]

Take 5k and splurge on fun without guilt 

No difference in your life between having 160 and 165

But that guilt free spree will make a difference in your life

[Human Mint]

Spending on education is highly important. But be really careful not to be scammed, you can easily spend that amount into something not worthwile.

I am quite clear into what I need right know, but I don't have the money. If I could invest in it then it will set me for growing an income in the future with my own brand/business. Not that I am not investing in it already, but money would bootstrap me in this stage. If you already have an idea of your LP, then a good bet is to invest part of that money into buying the needed infrastructure, which could be for example the space you'll work in for the next decade. For example, if you are a personal trainer  then maybe a good investment is constructing you own gym in the house to have direct access without restrictions. You'll practice more easily, and you can take a virtual class and study the rest of the week. Then as you progress it can become the place in which you produce your work. Maybe your passion is opening your own gym, that's a completely different approach. This is why you really need to be clear in what you're good at doing, what's your primary skill that you can do better than others. If you open a gym but you're mediocre managing it then it will be a futile investment.

If you're taking courses and feel like continuing then go ahead, you probably need it anyways to advance your LP and come with creative ideas and inspiration. What you'll work on with passion is something that requires lots of investment, networking, education. And you'll never be 100% sure how it will unfold because things change as you experiment.

Edited 14 hours ago by Human Mint

[Human Mint]

  On 3/11/2025 at 6:17 PM, Applegarden8 said:

Hello!

Here is what I think. Here are my credentials. =) I have saved up 7k (yeah, I know, what a big amount, compared to 165 k ) I am a regular guitar player that produces music though. 

Really good work btw. Lot of potential, although I personally would have enjoyed more chords and armony in between the breakdowns. Your work reminds me of The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, particularly a song called Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox.