These 5 Investments Could Earn Enough to Cover an Annual Family Vacation

Hanging out with Mickey Mouse, or playing volleyball on the beach? Whatever your ideal family vacation is, heading off for some fun and sun while funding it from your investments shows some serious skills.

Imagine if you could do this yearly. Less work, more play is the dream. 

For a family of four, the average vacation costs just over $4,500. If you’ve managed to set aside some funds, you can easily dip into them to pay for an entertaining family trip. But, here’s the thing. With a little smart investing, you can make your savings go further. 

Why use your savings when you could be contributing to your family vacay with your returns on investments. Unlike traditional investment methods, such as investing long-term in the stock market, many alternative assets deliver short-term results—and they can potentially be much higher. You can receive regular passive income in the form of interest or dividends. So, rather than waiting until you’re old and gray for a magical getaway, you can chill on your annual family vacation knowing your investments are serving you well. 

Want to know where to invest your cash? These 5 investments could buy your annual golden ticket to family vacation heaven.

This is an IOU with interest. A bond is a type of loan you, the investor, give to a company or organization. You're then paid back at a later date with interest. As an investor, you grow your initial investment through this interest, which is paid to you daily, monthly, or annually. 

While bonds were traditionally given to governments and large corporations, many smaller companies can now take advantage of them as a means of accelerating growth. Want to support a flourishing American business while earning some coin for your vacation? Worthy bonds give you a 5% fixed return on your investment, paid daily. There are also zero fees when you want to cash in your bonds. 

You can begin investing with Worthy bonds from just $10 and once a penny interest is earned, the 5% return kicks in. So, how much can you really make?

Let’s say you made an initial investment of $5,000 and then contributed another $500 monthly. Over 1 year, you’d make $929.04 in interest. That would cover the cost of a 2-day ticket to Disneyland for 2 adults and 2 kids. 

What else? There’s a low level of risk with these bonds. Worthy Bonds is registered with the SEC and secures investments with business assets. That means if a company was to default on their loan, their inventory would be sold to cover the loan.

Want to make a difference in your local community and make a dollar? Lend money to a local brick and mortar to help them to grow. 

With Mainvest you can read through the financial statements of local businesses, speak to their owners, and choose your favorites to invest in for just $100. In exchange for the loan, the business shares a percentage of its revenue with you. While the initial investment isn’t returned for several years, investors can begin earning monthly payments from the revenue split. So, if you invested $12,500 with a targeted return of 7%, you would achieve an annual payment of $875. That could cover flights to Hawaii off-peak. 

Lending to small businesses comes with medium risk. While businesses share their revenue until you meet your targeted return, they may not be raking in enough revenue to get you there. If this happens, you'll be owed a balloon payment, or the business will be in default.

What do Mike Tyson, Elon Musk, and Kanye West, all have in common? They all own cryptocurrency. Investing in digital currency can give you an incredible return. In just five years, Bitcoin alone has grown by around 8900%. But did you know that you can also earn interest on the crypto you hold? BlockFi gives you a fixed 8.6% annual percentage yield which is paid monthly. There are no hidden fees, and you only need $10 to get started. 

Interest is paid out at the beginning of every month in either Bitcoin, Litecoin, USD Coin, Ether, or Gemini Dollar, and you start earning straight away. Say you purchased $20,000 in Bitcoin to own 0.41 BTC. With BlockFi, you would earn $1,720 in interest in one year just for storing your Bitcoin there. That amount could fund a fun road trip for the whole family.

Investing in crypto comes with a high risk, especially as you’re not guaranteed to gain your initial investment back if the market crashes. However, many cryptocurrency platforms don’t offer interest on investments. BlockFi as a platform earns money via withdrawal fees (customers can use one free withdrawal per month) and interest on lending crypto to trusted borrowers. They use risk management to aid the protection of investments within their holding, enabling customers to withdraw their assets when required.

Imagine the hard work that goes into flipping property or renting out a home. There’s construction and maintenance to think about, not to mention keeping track of tenants. There's an easier way to earn money from real estate.

Fundrise allows you to invest in their diversified real estate portfolio with as little as $10. Fundrise then seeks to add new assets onto your portfolio without any additional investment being made. Over time, your portfolio can grow, with dividends being paid on a quarterly basis. 

Investing $10,000 with a target return of 9% would generate an expected return of $791 in a year (this is minus the 1% fee). That’s enough to cover the cost of 3-day family tickets to San Diego Zoo. While there is a risk to any real estate investment, this platform's affiliate, Fundrise Advisors, LLC, is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has already worked with more than 130,000 investors.

You may not be the next Lady Gaga or Bruno Mars, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start making money from music royalties. Royalty Exchange allows you to purchase intellectual property, such as music, and earn money from royalties when the song is played. 

Unlike other investments, yield-generating music royalties are independent from markets, making them an attractive form of investment due to their low-risk. Royalty Exchange delivers quarterly dividends to investors. However, if you decide to sell your investment, you’ll have to pay either $500 or 1% of the final asset sale price. 

Let’s look at some math. If you were to invest $20,000 with a target return of 10% over 1 year, you would generate $2000 in dividend payments. That’s enough to fund your suite on a 7-day family vacay in Mexico. Enjoy a margarita on a white, sandy beach in Mexico, knowing you’re making cash every time you hear your music assets.