Financial Choice - Looking for opinions.

[omegaaf]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

[FreeMoney]

Buying and running miners is like a part time job and will make small-business-ish returns, on $5k, that's not much.

$5k worth of bitcoins right now is about .002% of all the coins that will ever exist. If you expect world changing things from Bitcoin that is the way to bet on it.

[FreeMoney]

If you want a very small risk of large loss and considerably less upside potential go with gold/silver.

[Adrian-x]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

Bitcoin gave me hope again, my only question was to invest if FPGA, ASIC or GPU's. I have chosen GPU's when they are no longer considered efficient I'll use them for heating. I get about 0.4% return on my investment every day.(no regrets)  I have seen a sweet FPGA - DDWRT setup, which I may explore when it is time to reinvest. My advice diversity and be creative.

[pretendo]

Are there even bitcoin ASICs?

[Adrian-x]

Are there even bitcoin ASICs?

Maybe never, but they may some day be standard in pc's. We will have to wait.

[flower1024]

atm their are three companies claiming to develop asics.
the first one to deliever is blf.

as they already have delievered the best fpga's i am looking forward to their new products.

just click my sig

[justusranvier]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

None of the above.

Learn useful skills and start a business. There are a lot of things you can do that much money, from learning to weld to starting a small aquaponic farm. The best assurance of long term financial security is being willing to get your hands dirty and do some actual work.

[Lethos]

When I was about your age, I inherited that sort amount of money. Yeah most of it was wasted, it went on a good time and fun things.

But I did start my business with the rest, got servers now and a programming business and enough surplus cash to have fun toys like FPGA's, which yes provide a little income. Bitcoin is more than that to me now.

Point is, at that age most are still going to be reckless with money, if you've got a skill, and it requires a bit of start up cash try use it towards that. Try is the word here, it won't be easy since you are convincing yourself to invest in yourself, rather than something others are all convinced will make themselves money.

Bitcoin right now is right in the middle of a change, Terrible time to buy GPU's, FPGA's are not really a great time either due to ASIC's coming out soon. ASIC are available on pre-order but you won't see it for months most likely. Personally none are a good option right now.
So if you don't already have the hardware to mine, wait it out or take a risk and go with a ASIC and see how long down the list of pre-orders you end up.

Could buy bitcoins, but unless you are a savy investor the best it will be to you is long storage betting it will rise in value.
Depends if any of your skills can be used in the bitcoin community or not.

[omegaaf]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

None of the above.

Learn useful skills and start a business. There are a lot of things you can do that much money, from learning to weld to starting a small aquaponic farm. The best assurance of long term financial security is being willing to get your hands dirty and do some actual work.

Im planning on the business part, but right now Im in college and a job I just wouldnt be able to handle a job without killing someone by the end of the day. a 0.4% return per day is a lot, with my 6990 im getting about 0.2-0.3 BTC per day, at 750-850 mh/s. If I used the BFL 40GH/s Id be making more per day than what id get actually working, and thats my dilemma, If i were to get a couple of those, Id be making double, triple what i would working.

[DeathAndTaxes]

If you have any debt use the $5K to pay down debt. 
Much easier to make money when you aren't continually giving other people all your money.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

None of the above.

Learn useful skills and start a business. There are a lot of things you can do that much money, from learning to weld to starting a small aquaponic farm. The best assurance of long term financial security is being willing to get your hands dirty and do some actual work.

Im planning on the business part, but right now Im in college and a job I just wouldnt be able to handle a job without killing someone by the end of the day. a 0.4% return per day is a lot, with my 6990 im getting about 0.2-0.3 BTC per day, at 750-850 mh/s. If I used the BFL 40GH/s Id be making more per day than what id get actually working, and thats my dilemma, If i were to get a couple of those, Id be making double, triple what i would working.

Except you won't.   If BFL delivers on those specs expect difficulty to increase at least 1000% probably closer to 3000%.  Combine that with the subsidy drop that 40GH/s "monster" will likely generate less than a 2GH/s GPU rig does today.  Now I am not saying "don't buy a BFL ASIC".  If the above happens GPU mining will be completely obsolete and at least with a 40GH/s rig you might be making 1% a week or so but don't think it is a just as easy as buy 3 rigs and make 100x what you do now.  Mining is a fixed sum game.  The same limitations you have now (in terms of time, resources, capital) will exist in the future too.

[Lethos]

If you have any debt use the $5K to pay down debt. 
Much easier to make money when you aren't continually giving other people all your money.

Good advice. Also your comment about how difficulty is fundamental to returns in mining.

[Fjordbit]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

I'm guessing from "GIC" you're Canadian, so it does effect your options. However, I would say, absolutely not to GIC/government bonds. The yield is too low right now and you could lock yourself into a losing investment.

If you want to go low risk secure, then I would say to put it into an RRSP that has something similar to Vangaurd Stable Value Fund. Contrary to the title, there is an interest payment, but there's no risk of loss (aside the basic systemic risk of the whole financial system collapsing). This is very liquid, though, and the interest rates will go up when the economy improves. Right now it's outperforming GICs by almost 3x. I personally keep a large amount of my retirement funds in something similar. The rest is in Bitcoin.

However, I don't think that this is really a good use for this money. There are a few things you can do with it:
- if you have any interest paying debt, pay that down.
- use it for a down payment for a home. Building equity is better than paying rent. Be smart about the purchase and realistic about your income and ability to perform repairs. The past few years have made people wary of buying property, but we have now moved through the worst of the effects of the bad loans, so personally I feel it is an ideal time to buy.
- buy personal supplies while they are on sale. Some famous investor (Warren Buffet? can't find a reference right now) when asked "what's the best investment a poor family can make with $100?" responded "An item they use daily on sale." Grocery stores often will discount common things you use to 50% off. Buy a 6 month supply.

Ok, that's the simple stuff. I would also say take $1000 at least and load an offline bitcoin wallet with that amount in bitcoins. It's a risk, but in all likelihood, that will outperform anything else you do with it.

You could also buy some gold or silver (I think silver is a better deal right now, but market conditions vary), but pay attention to the spot price versus the price you are buying. A lot of sellers on the internet will have you taking a 25% loss or more at the time of sale. You can get junk silver on ebay for pretty close to spot if you don't mind keeping a few bags of mismatched spoons.

If you want to go a little more active, you might try using it to buy items cheap at garage sales and putting them up on BitMit or ebay. Doing this too much on ebay will trigger Paypal requiring a business account and ebay performing Revcan reporting.

[matthewh3]

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

You could look at bitcoin mining stocks and bonds on the GLBSE instead of mining yourself.  Also you could just buy bitcoin with the rest and store it in a offline/brain wallet.

[allthingsluxury]

Why not diversify in a mix of Gold, Silver and Bitcoins. I would put my heaviest weighting in Silver if you have a high tolerance for ups and downs. But I believe it has the most to gain. If you wanna play it safer put your greatest asset allocation in gold. Honestly I think this would be a good mix for today's times.

[Fjordbit]

You could look at bitcoin mining stocks and bonds on the GLBSE instead of mining yourself.  Also you could just buy bitcoin with the rest and store it in a offline/brain wallet.

This is terrible advice. Most of the mining stocks are very badly priced from an ROI perspective, and carry a thick layer of third party risk. Read and understand this thread before thinking about doing this.

[matthewh3]

You could look at bitcoin mining stocks and bonds on the GLBSE instead of mining yourself.  Also you could just buy bitcoin with the rest and store it in a offline/brain wallet.

This is terrible advice. Most of the mining stocks are very badly priced from an ROI perspective, and carry a thick layer of third party risk. Read and understand this thread before thinking about doing this.

Yeah that link is about fixed rate bonds.  RSM for example is not a bond but a stock.  You buy a share ownership of the company, all assets and profits.  RSM is currently offering 1(GH/s) for BTC4.875 and will be saving 50% of profits to purchase more ASIC's.  So that the (MH/s) per share rate grows faster than the long term growth in network difficulty.

[omegaaf]

If you have any debt use the $5K to pay down debt. 
Much easier to make money when you aren't continually giving other people all your money.

I am completely debt free.

Long story short, Im inheriting $5000, with this I am looking to turn a profit, should I invest it in bitcoin miners, or should I invest it in GICs and government bonds, or perhaps play with it in the stock market? Note: I am getting a bit ballsier with money, knowing how worthless it actually is.

Also, Im 24 years old, and I have to start thinking about my financial security for my future.

None of the above.

Learn useful skills and start a business. There are a lot of things you can do that much money, from learning to weld to starting a small aquaponic farm. The best assurance of long term financial security is being willing to get your hands dirty and do some actual work.

Im planning on the business part, but right now Im in college and a job I just wouldnt be able to handle a job without killing someone by the end of the day. a 0.4% return per day is a lot, with my 6990 im getting about 0.2-0.3 BTC per day, at 750-850 mh/s. If I used the BFL 40GH/s Id be making more per day than what id get actually working, and thats my dilemma, If i were to get a couple of those, Id be making double, triple what i would working.

Except you won't.   If BFL delivers on those specs expect difficulty to increase at least 1000% probably closer to 3000%.  Combine that with the subsidy drop that 40GH/s "monster" will likely generate less than a 2GH/s GPU rig does today.  Now I am not saying "don't buy a BFL ASIC".  If the above happens GPU mining will be completely obsolete and at least with a 40GH/s rig you might be making 1% a week or so but don't think it is a just as easy as buy 3 rigs and make 100x what you do now.  Mining is a fixed sum game.  The same limitations you have now (in terms of time, resources, capital) will exist in the future too.

1% is still amazing for someone who cannot work, that extra 1% can make the difference. Right now im making .3BTC a day with a single graphics card setup(and surprisingly its only at 75 degrees). if I were to add a 40GH/s ASIC that would triple the amount im making now. I know it will never be linear scalability but it would be enough to at least pay my internet bill which would let me have a bit more spending money in reality to do something with my knowledge.

At tops, what would you expect to get out of a single 40GH/z ASIC?

[Fjordbit]

Yeah that link is about fixed rate bonds.  RSM for example is not a bond but a stock.  You buy a share ownership of the company, all assets and profits.  RSM is currently offering 1(GH/s) for BTC4.875 and will be saving 50% of profits to purchase more ASIC's.  So that the (MH/s) per share rate grows faster than the long term growth in network difficulty.

I understand that. I really mean that was terrible general advice. If you gave a specific stock, then we could talk, but "look on GLBSE for mining stocks" is more likely to lead him wrong than get him to a good ROI.

I'm not sure if I like RSM. They are issuing $2k in share dilution to buy a $1300 ASIC, and then they have the reinvestment clause. It is one of the better offerings out there, but I'm still not convinced. And you still have 3rd party risk.