Just trying to pry here…..
What would you do with $35 k cash now that you would like to leave it and reevaluate 5 years,10 years from now?
Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner and this is not financial advice.
The answer depends on long-term plans, risk tolerance, years to retirement, and what percentage of total saved/investment assets that $35K represents.
If that $35K is essentially noise and you are OK with potentially losing it all, parking it in a blend of alternative currencies (i.e. crypto) might provide the greatest upside and total return a couple years down the road (caveat: could also end up at zero). I'm not a crypto/blockchain/digital currency expert, so I couldn't recommend any specifics, but there are a lot of informational channels out there on the internet if you poke around. I'm personally not in crypto, but that's more because I am a Luddite and have a hard time wrapping my mind around the technology and mechanics of it all. I do think there's a future for these alternative currencies and the technology (blockchain) that backs them, but they're certainly not all going to be winners (in fact, most might go bust in a downturn). Perhaps I'm just too much of a wimp to put my money there.
If you want a more traditional "alternative" asset or investment with potential for very high returns in the future (but you're also OK with losing it), find a young entrepreneur or small business owner you like and trust and seed them with the money for a percentage of equity in their business. Like crypto, there's a lot of volatility and inherent risk in backing a business. You'll also have the annoyance of establishing a rough enterprise value and negotiating a fair purchase price for a share of the business. Plus your equity in this situation will be relatively illiquid and you won't be able to realize the investment as readily as putting your money in public equities or other more heavily traded products.
If you're looking for a solid mix of overall growth/return with some safety (i.e. not likely to go to zero, though there's still risk and volatility), a growth equity index (ETF, mutual fund) will likely provide the best blend. You can even find some slightly leveraged ETFs (ex. TQQQ, aka ProShares UltraPro QQQ) if you're looking to play a bit more with risk and juice returns.
If you're looking for relative safety (i.e. can't or really don't want to lose the funds) but still want to grow with the market and/or not get hammered by inflation, a basket of blue chip stocks or a mutual fund/ETF that trades in blue chips and/or relative value equities that have a history of weathering downturns might be the answer. Also, an ETF that closely mirrors an index like the S&P (ex. SPDR/SPY) would work in this spot, as well.
All that being said, no investment in equities or products that track equity indices is truly "safe", as a major downturn or catastrophic selloff of the markets can (and likely will) negatively impact them. And if you're interested in more "off-the-grid" or SHTF investments for times when civilization is coming apart at the seams (hard not to think this way during a 2+ year pandemic and the preamble of a major regional/global conflict), anything that provides a ready supply of food, clean water, shelter, and protection (i.e. guns & ammo) is probably the best place to put money.
