Making your money work for you is by far the best way to set yourself up for financial stability in the future and build your wealth over time. Contrary to popular belief, though, you don't need immense amounts of money to start investing successfully. In reality, investing an amount less than you would pay for a new car can produce considerable returns down the line. Here are three of the best ways you can invest a nest egg of $10,000 in 2018 to help improve your financial life.

1. 3 Smart Ways to Invest $10,000 in 2018
Making your money work for you is by far the best way to set yourself up for financial stability
in the future and build your wealth over time. Contrary to popular belief, though, you don't need
immense amounts of money to start investing successfully. In reality, investing an amount less
than you would pay for a new car can produce considerable returns down the line. Here are three
of the best ways you can invest a nest egg of $10,000 in 2018 to help improve your financial life.
Try Peer-to-peer lending:
If you've ever had a simple savings account, you've put money into a pool of capital that is used
by banks to make loans. As you may have noticed, though, interest rates on savings accounts
have dropped so low as to be almost negligible. Luckily, there's still a way for you to profit off of
the interest paid on personal loans. Peer-to-peer lending is a model under which individual
lenders use online platforms to make loans to pre-qualified borrowers. Lenders can fund small
portions of the requested loan, with some platforms allowing amounts as low as $25 per loan.
Once the loan is made, the borrower pays it back gradually with an interest rate based on his or
her credit profile. Though returns vary by the interest and default rates, many investors have
successfully produced yields of 8 percent or more using peer-to-peer lending. Because the loans
are repaid gradually with monthly payments, peer-to-peer lending is a great investment in terms
of producing reliable liquid cash flow.

2. Bulk up Your IRA:
For the average investor saving for retirement, few vehicles are as useful as an IRA, or individual
retirement account. These accounts allow you to deduct your contributions from your taxes or, in
the case of a Roth IRA, pay tax on your contributions but pay no taxes when you withdraw the
money. At the moment, the annual IRA contribution limit stands at $5,500, meaning that
$10,000 would allow you to make the maximum contribution in 2018 and nearly the maximum
in 2019. If investing toward retirement is your goal, using your money to enlarge your IRA is an
excellent idea.
Try Fundrise's eREIT:
With $10,000 to invest, you likely won't be able to get into traditional real estate investing.
Financial innovation, however, has caught up with the property market and allowed average,
retail-level investors to put money into large commercial property developments. Fundrise, the
company responsible for this innovation, has created a product known as an eREIT, or electronic
real estate investment trust. Fundrise investors can put amounts as low as $500 into its eREIT,
which is then used to partially fund medium-sized commercial real estate investments. The
interest paid on the funding is used to produce the return to investors, which has ranged from 8-
12 percent over the past few years. If you want to get into real estate investing and don't mind
trying out a new financial product, Fundrise's eREIT may be a good option for you.
These are just some of the great ways to invest amounts of up to $10,000 in 2018 and beyond.
Before making any investment, always make sure to consider whether or not it is in line with
your personal financial goals and risk comfort level. Even if an investment is good on paper, it
may not be the best one for you if it doesn't conform to your individual appetites as an investor.
Yorkville Advisors, LLC is a privately owned hedge fund sponsor.