Originally Posted by Gunfighter

TLDR: love direct real estate ownership, choose syndication with caution, alts are great if you have liquidity after maxing your tax advantaged accounts.

After hitting your "number" an allocation to alts can be a fun way to swing for the fences or just try outperforming the market. If you are well ahead of the curve toward your number and have liquidity after maxing out your tax advantaged accounts alts have a place as well. Alts are illiquid for years. The secondary market is brutal, in fact some alts buy secondaries at a steep discount from people who need liquidity. Often times though after hitting your number wealth preservation and sequence of returns becomes a driving metric. Rather than aim for the 10% market average with the potential for big fluctuations, (U)HNW investors often aim for lower but more predictable returns. Some alts fall into this category. Startups have an incredibly high failure rate, for that allocation a VC fund that backs multiple businesses is a way to chase the dopamine. My allocation was a little more conservative by choosing an offering that is funding acquisition entrepreneurship rather than startups. Oil and gas is another intriguing alt, but I haven't made any private placement investments there.

Direct ownership of real estate is my preferred investment. It's tough to go wrong with cash flowing real estate acquired with long term fixed rate debt. I got burned in a few MF syndications that were acquired with low interest variable rate debt, another was a loss because the syndicator was a bad operator, and another was a fraud. Many worked out well and continue paying distributions. I should have known better and the experience has shaped my underwriting criteria. If you have 50K to invest, a rental house is probably a better choice than a syndication. You control the asset, get better financing terms and have potentially better tax benefits. Once you have enough to get into NNN commercial investments you can make a choice between direct ownership or investing in a few syndications. A syndication adds counterparty risk that isn't present in direct ownership and you generally lose access to 30yr fixed rate debt available in rental houses. If you can devote the time and acquire the skills required to be a value add real estate investor the returns are amazing. When a direct owner, be sure to account for the value of your own time. This is a trap that can lead you down the path of building a job vs an investment.

The best advice is to choose the asset allocation that suits you rather than aiming for what the masses declare to be the "best". Trip likes finding value stocks, that suits him well. Most pilots are better suited to VTI or Bogleheads 3 fund. That's most of my brokerage investments. I like real estate investing and development. Most pilots can't tolerate the decade plus it takes to scale a real estate portfolio. Choose what fits you best and be grateful your problem requires looking for places to put your money instead of where to find enough to pay the bills.