How To Invest $20K Online – Best $20K Investments In 2023 Compared

What is the best way to invest $20K online in 2023? Well, looking for the best $20K investments can be exciting. But it could also prove overwhelming, especially to beginners, when you consider the already huge and growing number of online investment opportunities fronted by the many experts and analysts.

In this guide, however, we clear the confusion by introducing you to what our analysts consider the 10 best ways to invest $20K online in 2023. Here, we feature short- and long-term investments and low-risk-low-return and high-risk-high-return investments.

Read on to discover our choices of the top $20K investments and tips on how to choose the best online investment.

 

Below, we discuss each of these top investments in detail. We tell you how they work, explore their risk-to-reward ratio, and the type of investor they appeal to the most.

A Closer Analysis Of The Best Ways To Invest $20K Today

Our study into the best $20K investments sought to capture the diverse range of opportunities available online. It also sought to appeal to different types of investors, especially concerning their risk tolerance. Hereinbelow, we have compiled a mix of safe-haven investments, low-risk-low-reward investments, and even high-risk-high-reward investments.

Read on to learn more about each investment and learn if it aligns with your long-term investment goal.

1. Crypto Investing – Overall Best $20K Investment in 2023

Digital currencies are the most lucrative investment assets today. Throughout the last 10 years, they maintained an overall uptrend and outperformed virtually every other asset – some appreciating by more than 1 million per cent. This is the primary reason why they top our index of the best $20K investments.

And there are two primary ways of investing in cryptocurrencies. You could choose to actively trade Bitcoin and the 21000+ altcoins available today or simply buy and hold (HODL) the most promising of these virtual currencies. HODLing is less risky than trading as it involves buying a digital asset and holding on to it for months or years – waiting for its value to explode.

Trading is riskier as it involves timing the market and taking advantage of a cryptocurrency’s volatile price action by buying when it dips and selling as soon as its value rises. When crypto trading, however, you have to put into account such other factors as the influence the often-unpredictable overall market has on the price action/direction of the virtual asset.

Crypto investing is a high-risk, high-reward investment. You will, therefore, need basic analysis and market research skills to start investing and deep trading skills to successfully active-trade these digital assets. Luckily, there is an unlimited resource of free crypto investing and trading tools available online.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

2. Stocks – Lucrative Conventional Way to Invest $20K

Stock investing involves buying shares in a publicly traded company, holding on to them, and hoping their value goes up over time. We feature it among the best ways to invest $20k today because it is profitable when done right, allows for diversification, and there is a rich resource of free educational content dedicated to teaching you how to invest in and trade stocks successfully online.

As is the case with most other online investments, you have the option of investing long-term and actively trading stocks. Investing is more beginner-friendly as it involves buying the stock of a promising company and holding on to it for months or years, waiting for its value gain. If you, for instance, bought Tesla or Netflix stock five years ago, this investment would have appreciated by as much as 2000% and 340%, respectively, by the time both stocks peaked in late 2021.

Stock trading is a tad riskier as it involves leveraging the altcoin’s volatile price action by timing its lows to enter into buy positions and selling as soon as it gains. Active trading gets complicated because you have to watch out for the many internal and external factors influencing the value of the stock and the general market direction.

But we also feature stocks among the best $20K investments today because it is easy to get started. There currently exists a growing number of highly reputable online brokerages that let almost anyone invest in and trade stocks.

These offer both real stocks and CFD trading – which lets you short trades (allowing you to profit from either price direction). Not forgetting that some aspects of stock investing and trading, like Indexes (e.g., S&P 500, DOW 30, and FTSE 100), are hugely diversified and have consistently outperformed bank savings.

Your capital is at risk. Other fees apply.

3. Copy Trading – Passive Way to Invest $20K Online

You may also want to consider copy trading as one of the best ways to invest $20K online today because it allows for passive investing. Copy trading, in this case, refers to the art of copying the trade strategies of highly successful expert traders in a particular field and replicating them in your trading account.

One of copy trading’s key benefits is the fact that it allows for diversification. There currently are thousands of professional online investors and traders looking to share their trade settings, and they specialize in different assets. This, therefore, gives you a choice to invest in virtually any asset, from forex, crypto, stocks, commodities, indexes, ETFs, and even securities.

Some copy trading platforms like eToro will even let you copy diversified investing portfolios generated by expert traders or automatically by highly efficient trading algorithms. But is copy trading profitable? Yes, the majority of expert traders on such platforms as eToro record profits consistently for months. And on MT4, the most successful copy strategy has posted an ROI of 8000% in the four years that it has been around.

68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

4. NFTs – Digital Investments that Provide Access to Exclusive Benefits

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are a relatively new investment class and a form of cryptocurrency. But unlike digital currencies that can be used to substitute cash when fulfilling online payments, NFTs are digital art – viewed mostly as a store of value. We feature them in our basket of the best $20K investments primarily because they are hugely lucrative and give their owners access to other exclusive benefits.

Take the all-popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, for example. When BAYC launched, for instance, they had a floor price of 0.08 ETH ($190). At the time of writing, however, they have a floor price of 73 ETH ($120,000) – translating to a 60000%+ value gain.

In addition to these, BAYC gives NFT owners access to an exclusive discord channel where they get to interact with other BAYC NFT owners – comprising of A-list celebrities like Steph Curry, Post Malone, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber and Neymar Junior.

You may also want to consider NFTs as one of the best ways to invest $20K because they have proven to be excellent stores of value. Like digital currencies, most have sustained an overall uptrend – outperforming the majority of conventional investments like stocks and real estate. Note, however, as much as 95% of NFTs are expected to be worthless in the next few years. This makes NFTs a high-risk, high-reward investment that calls for expert-level analysis skills.

Crypto asset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.

5. REITs – Best $20K Investment into Real Estate Without Owning a Home

Real Estate Investment Trusts, commonly known as REITs, refer to companies that either own or finance income-generating real estate properties – both commercial and residential. These are modelled after mutual funds and are also comparable to ETFs. They are designed to let you invest in real estate and enjoy all the benefits of property investing without actually owning the property.

Several factors inform our decision to include it in our basket of the best $20K investment in 2023. For starters, it is highly lucrative, and some REITs offer double income to investors. This implies that you get to enjoy regular dividends, and your investment grows in value in relation to value appreciation for the real estate.

But we also feature it here because it is a passive investment. Plus, REIT investing calls for little to no experience. You only need basic analytical skills to analyze the market and vet both residential and commercial REITs to identify the one that appeals to your investing goals the most.

68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

6. Peer-to-Peer Lending – Lend to Individuals and Businesses at Competitive Rates

Peer-to-peer lending is a relatively new form of financial technology that allows virtually anyone to bypass banks or financial institutions and lend cash to other individuals and institutions. And they make it to our index of the best $20K investments in 2023 because they are lucrative, passive, beginner-friendly, and carry relatively low risk.

In most cases, peer-to-peer lending is facilitated by such highly reputable p2p lending platforms as Upstart, Lending Club and Prosper. Upstart’s ROI ranges between 5.60% and 35.99%, Prosper’s ranges between 6.99% and 35.99%, while Lending Club offers an ROI of between 6.30% and 36% per annum.

Such competitive return on investment rates offered by these peer-to-peer lending platforms blows the interest rates offered by banks and some other financial institutions out of the waters.

But you might also want to invest in peer-to-peer lending platforms because they let you determine your risk profile. They categorize borrowers according to their risk profile, with the lowest-risk borrowers paying the least interest on loans and vice versa. This allows you to invest wholly in one class of borrowers or split your investment between both low-risk, low-reward borrowers and high-risk, high-reward borrowers.

7. Bonds – Low-Risk Ways to Invest $20K Online

Bonds, in this case, refer to short and medium to long-term fixed-interest loans given to governments and corporates by an individual. They are one of the safest investment classes available today, primarily due to their interest guarantee. They are often considered a safe haven investment because of their low risk.

Note, however, that with low risk often comes low reward, which implies that bonds aren’t as lucrative as cryptos or stocks. This notwithstanding, several factors inform our decision to consider Bonds as one of the best $20K investments. For starters, bonds are beginner-friendly, and you do not need prior experience to start investing in these assets.

Secondly, Bonds have consistently outperformed such conventional means of storing wealth as bank savings. Plus, there is a special class of bonds that is inflation-adjusted to protect your investment from inflation-induced value loss. Additionally, most bonds offer a steady stream of passive income as they pay interest on loans quarterly or semi-annually.

8. Robo Advisor – High-Risk, High-Reward Way to Invest $20K in 2023

 A Robo-advisor is an automated investment tool that relies heavily on algorithms when it comes to wealth management. It requires little to no human intervention to create an investment portfolio for investors. When interacting with a Robo-advisor, you will first need to complete an online survey that captures such information as your investing goals, risk tolerance, and capital requirement. Using this data, the advisor will create a customized investment portfolio and manage it automatically – regularly rebalancing it with the aim of maximizing its profitability.

We feature Robo-advisors among the best ways to invest $20K today because it is a lucrative passive investment. Plus, it is also beginner friendly, and you do not need prior experience to start investing with a Robo-advisor. We also include it here because it encourages portfolio diversification – allowing you to invest in multiple lucrative assets.

But perhaps more importantly, we feature Robo-advisors among the best ways to invest $20K today because it is less expensive than a brokerage account or personal finance coach. Some of the most popular and reliably effective Robo advisors, like WealthFront and Betterment, maintain a 0.25% management fee per annum, while others, like Ally Invest and SoFi, have 0.0% management fee options.

9. Brokerage Account – Best Ways to Invest $20K In a Diversified Portfolio

There are two types of brokerage accounts. There is the hands-off managed brokerage account as well as a more hands-on online brokerage account. The primary difference is that the managed account attracts high management fees as it involves hiring an expert to create and manage your portfolio. It, however, is the most recommended to beginners as it doesn’t require prior investing experience.

The hands-on online brokerage, on the other hand, appeals more to experienced investors and traders. You will need to carefully analyze the market and investment opportunities, create an investment portfolio, and manage it by regularly rebalancing its contents to steer it towards maximal profitability.

In most cases, professionally managed brokerage accounts outperform Robo-advisors and such conventional investments as stocks. Most accounts also allow for maximal diversification. And these are some of the reasons why we believe brokerage accounts to be some of the best ways to invest $20K today.

10. Crypto Staking – Earn Higher Interest on Savings than Currently Offered by Banks

Crypto staking is to cryptocurrency, what savings are to traditional finance. There are two primary forms of staking. The first involves depositing your cryptocurrency with a crypto lending platform that pays either a fixed or variable interest. The second involves locking your cryptocurrencies in a proof-of-stake blockchain and using them to secure the network through transaction validation and block generation in exchange for crypto rewards.

There are multiple other variations of staking, including liquidity farming, and they all pay highly competitive interests for the staked crypto. Staking has consistently outperformed conventional investment methods like savings and stocks. But perhaps more importantly, your staked crypto continues to appreciate in value, presenting you with double income.

These, alongside such other factors as staking, are an excellent option for investors looking for a store of value, making staking the best $20K investment in 2023. Other reasons that convince us that staking is one of the best ways to invest $20K include the fact that it is wholly passive and beginner friendly. Not forgetting that stakers get to enjoy such added benefits as voting rights in the networks and DAOs where they have staked this crypto.

How To Choose The Best $20,000 Investment for You

There are multiple factors that you need to consider when choosing the best way to invest $20K in 2023. Below, we discuss some of the most important:

Investing goals

Your investing goal should inform your choice of investment. Remember that your investing approach and choice of assets when investing for retirement is different from that of investing for quick profits. Retirements call for low-volatile assets, while short-term profit investors attract high-risk-high-reward investments.

Risk tolerance

You also need to consider your risk tolerance and only go after assets that not only align with your investing goals but also fit your risk profile.

Fees and other overheads

Some investments carry management fees and costly overheads. Assess the impact such will have on the profitability of your asset before settling on your preferred investment.

Return on investment

You also need to consider the asset’s projected return on investment and confirm that it aligns with your investing goals.

Liquidity

Before settling on an investment, you also need to assess the ease with which it can be liquidated – converted to cash or another asset. It is important that you only invest in liquid assets.

Conclusion – Best $20K Investments Today

There are multiple classes of investments and within each class is an even wider range of individual assets. This makes the choice of the best ways to invest $20K today overwhelming, especially for first-time investors. In the above post, however, we have provided a list of what our analysts and the majority of investors online believe to be the top $20K investments.

They all are massively popular and have been oversubscribed by individuals and institutional investors from all over the world. Perhaps more importantly, all the above-discussed investments are hugely lucrative. They have performed exemplarily well in the past and are expected to sustain this value gain moving forward.

But we didn’t just discuss the best $20K investments in this guide. We also highlighted important factors that you ought to consider choosing the best ways to invest today.  

eToro – Best Trading Platform For Traders And Investors

68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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