“Wilson, What Should I Do With My Money?”
A friend asked me this question over coffee a few months ago.
He had spent the better part of two decades working, saving, and being disciplined with what he earned. Now he had real capital to deploy. The question wasn't whether to invest, but where, and how, and into what
“Wilson, what should I do with my money?”
It’s a question I get often. The answer depends on three things most people don’t ask themselves before investing: how much capital you have, how much time you can give it, and how much active involvement you actually want.
This article is the first of a three-article series on serious capital deployment, written for both U.S.-based investors and international and diaspora investors. The job of this article is to map the landscape. The next two articles go deeper into one specific path that works well for a lot of readers.
What This Article Assumes
A note on what this article assumes about the reader. My background includes Series 7 and Series 24 licenses (Series 7 is the general securities license that lets a person sell most investment products, and Series 24 is the supervisory license for managing other licensed representatives). From that background, the standard advice for anyone with capital is the same: build the foundation before you grow on top of it.
The financial planning industry uses a common framework called the financial planning pyramid. It includes an emergency reserve of three to twelve months of essential living expenses, adequate insurance coverage including health, life if you have dependents, disability, and property, high-interest debt under control or eliminated, retirement accounts funded to at least the level that captures any employer match, and a basic estate plan with a will and updated beneficiary designations.
This article isn’t personal financial planning. It assumes you’ve already addressed that foundation, or are working with the right advisors to do so, and you have capital beyond that foundation that needs to do meaningful work. If you don’t have the foundation in place yet, that’s the first conversation to have, and it’s a different conversation than this one.
How Much You Have Changes What You Can Do
Different amounts of capital open different doors. The advice that makes sense for someone with five thousand dollars is not the advice that makes sense for someone with five hundred thousand. Most generic investing content ignores this.
Here’s a rough map.
At five to ten thousand dollars, the priority is building the base. Index funds (index funds are baskets of stocks that track a broad market like the S&P 500), retirement contributions if you’re U.S.-based, high-yield savings, and investments in your own skills make sense. The goal is to keep adding to it.
At twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars, the menu widens. Index funds and robo-advisors (robo-advisors are software-driven services that build and manage investment portfolios automatically without a human advisor) still apply. Co-investing in a rental property, starting a small business, or buying into a franchise becomes possible. Decisions start to matter more because mistakes hurt at this size.
At fifty to one hundred fifty thousand dollars, real options open. Real estate syndications, owning a rental property, co-investing in a small business acquisition, and meaningful participation in a healthcare practice or professional services firm all become realistic.
At one hundred fifty to five hundred thousand dollars and above, institutional-quality access opens up. Multiple real estate deals, accredited-investor opportunities (accredited investors are people who meet certain income or net worth thresholds set by U.S. securities regulators), direct commercial real estate, business acquisition as a primary path, and private credit. Diversification starts to matter as much as returns.
The amount you have is the first filter. The more important one is the next.
The Question Most People Skip: Active or Passive
The bigger question isn't where to deploy your capital. It's whether you want to be actively involved or not
Active means you become part of the work. You make operational decisions, often daily. You hire people, handle problems at inconvenient times, and stay accountable for weekly outcomes. It often means leaving your main job or substantially reducing the time you give to it.
Passive means your capital does the work and you do not. You commit money, sign documents, and step back. The operating decisions are someone else's. Your involvement is limited to evaluating the opportunity at the start and reviewing updates along the way
Both paths can build real wealth. Neither is better in the abstract. The right answer depends on what kind of life you want to live, how much time you have to give, and how much energy you want to spend on the next ten or twenty years of wealth-building.
Once you decide which path fits, the menu of options narrows considerably. Most of the noise in financial content comes from blending these two paths into one conversation, which leads people to choose investments that don’t match how they actually want to spend their time.
Active Paths
These are the paths where you trade time, effort, or operating capacity for returns.
Driving for Uber, Lyft, or DoorDash. A reliable way to generate cash flow if you have time and a car. Won’t make you rich at the individual driver level, but real for people building a base. The same idea can scale into a bigger operation if you have the capital and the appetite for running a business. Buying a fleet of cars and hiring drivers. Leasing vehicles to rideshare drivers. Running a small car rental. All of those are real businesses, but they cross over into active business operation rather than a side income.
Launching a course or training program. Real money for people with genuine expertise to teach. Requires building an audience, creating the product, marketing, and ongoing customer support. Not passive at all, despite how it’s often pitched.
Starting or buying a franchise. Buying into a proven business system. Requires substantial capital, often one hundred thousand dollars and up, and the willingness to actually run a business. Some franchises produce strong cash flow. Many don’t. The evaluation work is significant.
Starting your own business. The classic entrepreneur path. Highest potential upside. Highest failure rate. Years before meaningful returns, if they come. Best suited for people with a specific opportunity, real industry experience, and the temperament for sustained risk.
Buying an existing business. A path most people don’t consider seriously enough. You buy something that already has revenue, customers, and operations, and you grow it from there. Less risky than starting from zero, but still requires active management and capital. This path deserves its own conversation, and I’ll be writing a separate series on it.
Fix-and-flip real estate. Buying a property, renovating it, and selling it within six to eighteen months. Can generate strong returns. Also requires real construction knowledge, contractor management, market timing, and the willingness to deal with problems that come up at the worst times.
These are the active paths most people consider first. There are many more. Real estate development, agriculture, small-scale manufacturing, professional services, e-commerce businesses, content creation at scale, equipment rental, and dozens of other categories all exist. The point of this list isn’t to be exhaustive. It’s to illustrate the range of options for someone who wants to trade time and effort for returns. If your situation fits something not on this list, the active versus passive framing still applies.
On a personal note, my spouse and I started a healthcare business from scratch which we run together. In 2025 I led the acquisition of a similar business in the same industry, which doubled our size and revenue. Active paths can absolutely build wealth, and they often build it faster than passive paths when they work. They also demand time, expertise, stress, and the willingness to handle problems that don't go away on weekends. Operations don't pause when you want a quiet weekend, and regulatory complexity is constant
For most people who aren’t already entrepreneurs by temperament, the realistic question isn’t whether to start or buy a business. It’s how to put their existing capital to work without it becoming a second job.
If that’s where you are, the passive paths are the next part of the conversation.
Passive Paths
These are the paths where your money does the work for you. You commit capital, hold it for a period, and receive returns without operating the underlying asset.
Stocks and ETFs. The most accessible and most discussed option. Index funds tracking the S&P 500 have historically returned around seven to ten percent annually over long periods. Volatile in the short term, more predictable over decades. ETFs (exchange-traded funds) are baskets of stocks or bonds that trade like a single stock.
Bonds and treasuries. Lower risk, lower return. U.S. Treasury bonds currently offer around four to five percent. Useful for a portion of a portfolio. Not a wealth-builder on their own.
High-yield savings and certificates of deposit. Useful for the cash portion of your portfolio. Not a serious wealth-building tool, but real for preserving capital and beating inflation modestly.
Real estate investment trusts. Publicly traded companies that own income-producing real estate, often called REITs. Easier to buy and sell than direct real estate. Useful exposure but not the same as owning real estate directly.
Private credit funds. Funds that lend to businesses at higher rates than banks. Returns of eight to twelve percent in many cases. Often limited to accredited investors. Harder for foreign investors to access without the right structures.
Real estate syndications. Group investments in specific properties, where a sponsor sources and operates the deal and investors provide the capital. You receive a share of the income during the hold period and a share of the profit at exit. No operational role.
Direct real estate ownership. Buying property yourself. Can be relatively passive if you use a property manager, or quite active if you self-manage. Builds equity over time, generates monthly cash flow, and provides tax advantages that few other assets offer.
As with the active paths, this list is illustrative rather than exhaustive. Other passive options exist, including precious metals, art and collectibles, royalty investments, infrastructure funds, agricultural land, and various structured products. The categories above are the ones most readers will actually consider. The point is the range of choice, not a complete enumeration.
The Narrowing
For investors who want a passive path, the realistic comparison comes down to two main categories: capital markets (stocks, bonds, ETFs, and related public securities) and real estate.
Capital markets are accessible, easy to buy and sell, and well-understood. They’re also the most heavily covered, most heavily competed, and for non-U.S. investors at the individual level, the most exposed to friction. A thirty percent U.S. withholding tax applies to dividends and interest for investors from non-treaty countries, which materially reduces net returns. Currency conversion costs accumulate on every transaction. At very high capital levels you can hire professionals to navigate around all of this. Below that, you absorb it.
Real estate sits in a different category for a few specific reasons.
You’re investing in a physical asset. There’s a building. People live or work in it. They pay rent every month. That income doesn’t depend on stock market sentiment in the same direct way that publicly traded assets do.
The income flows in U.S. dollars throughout the hold period, with currency conversion happening essentially twice for foreign investors: once when capital is wired in and once when proceeds are distributed at exit. There’s no thirty percent withholding tax eating monthly distributions the way it eats dividend payments on stocks.
Real estate uses borrowed money in ways most passive investments cannot. When a property is purchased with bank financing, a relatively small amount of equity controls a much larger asset. Gains on the full property value flow to a smaller equity base, which amplifies returns.
The legal structure for foreign investors is well-established. A non-U.S. national can own a U.S. limited liability company (an LLC is a legal entity that owns property in its own name and limits the personal liability of the people who own it). That LLC can hold property, maintain a U.S. bank account, and receive rental income. This is the standard vehicle used by international investors at every level, from individuals to sovereign wealth funds.
Real estate has built more individual wealth than any other asset class over the long run. That’s not a guarantee of future performance. It’s a statement about how the structure of real estate ownership compounds over time when done with discipline.
None of this means real estate is risk-free or right for everyone. It does mean it deserves serious consideration alongside stocks and bonds for anyone thinking about building wealth at the levels we’re discussing.
Choosing Within Real Estate
If you’ve followed the filtering this far and landed on real estate, there’s still one more decision to make. Real estate is several paths, sitting at different points on the active-to-passive spectrum.
Fix-and-flip is one of them, but we’ve already covered it as an active path. The same is true for most direct ownership strategies that involve self-management. What follows are the passive-leaning real estate paths worth considering for investors who don’t want to operate the asset themselves.
Buy-and-hold rental properties. Buying a single-family or small multi-family property, renting it out, and holding for years. Builds equity through mortgage paydown and appreciation. Generates monthly cash flow. Can be semi-passive if you use a property manager, but you’re still the owner of record and you handle major decisions. Requires capital, presence, and patience.
Direct commercial real estate ownership. Buying larger commercial properties like apartment buildings, retail centers, office buildings, or industrial properties. Capital-intensive. Requires either active operational involvement or a strong operating partner. Typically for investors with significant capital and direct industry experience.
Real estate syndications. Joining a deal as a passive investor. A sponsor finds the property, structures the deal, secures the financing, and runs the operations. You commit capital, sign documents, receive distributions during the hold period, and receive your capital back plus your share of the profit at exit. Hold periods are typically five to seven years. No operational role.
For most international investors and most busy U.S.-based professionals, the syndication path is the most realistic and scalable way into real estate. It captures the benefits of the asset class, including the physical asset, dollar-denominated income, leverage, and tax efficiency, without requiring the lifestyle commitment of active real estate work.
That’s the path the rest of this series will focus on.
For Diaspora Investors Looking to Invest Back in Africa
Everything above has been about deploying capital in the U.S. The article has walked through the realistic options and shown why, for someone who wants their money to grow without becoming a second job, real estate ends up being the strongest fit.
For diaspora investors, there’s an additional question worth taking seriously: should some or all of that capital go back into African markets instead?
This isn’t a side question. It’s a real option that some readers are actively weighing, and the answer isn’t obvious. Investing in African markets means deploying capital into businesses, real estate, agriculture, hospitality, fintech, and other ventures in the countries you came from. The opportunities can be excellent. The risks and the discipline required look different from U.S. investing.
The honest issue with diaspora capital deployed into Africa is that it often follows passion or the crowd rather than discipline. A family member’s business that needs funding, a friend’s startup that sounds exciting. the company or sector everyone in the diaspora community is talking about.
Personal connections can absolutely be legitimate opportunities. Some of the best African investments come through trusted relationships that outside investors would never have access to. The problem isn’t the personal connection itself. The problem is when the personal connection replaces disciplined evaluation rather than supplementing it.
The disciplined approach to African investment looks the same as the disciplined approach to U.S. investment. Evaluate the opportunity on its actual economics, not just on the emotional connection. Verify the operator’s track record. Understand the structure. Confirm the governance. Plan for capital movement timelines, which in many African markets can be longer and less predictable than the deal itself. Build in oversight so the investment isn’t a one-time decision but a managed relationship.
This is exactly the kind of advisory work NYIS does, applied to opportunities across U.S. real estate, African operating ventures, fintech, healthcare, and the creative sectors. The choice isn’t between following your heart back to Africa or staying entirely in U.S. real estate. The choice is between disciplined deployment of capital wherever the strongest risk-adjusted opportunities sit and undisciplined deployment that produces the kind of losses most diaspora investors have either experienced or watched relatives experience.
For diaspora investors thinking about this honestly, the conversation we’d have is the same one we’d have with any other serious investor. What’s the actual opportunity? What’s the structure? Who’s the operator? How does the capital move? What does oversight look like over time? Those questions don’t change because the destination is Lagos, Nairobi, Douala, or Dakar instead of Atlanta or Dallas.
What’s Next
This was the landscape article. Foundation, capital level, active versus passive, the narrowing to real estate, the choice within real estate that lands on syndication for most readers, and the parallel question for diaspora investors weighing U.S. deployment against investing back home.
The next article looks at how investors actually access U.S. real estate from a structural standpoint: the LLC vehicle, the U.S. business bank account, the legal framework for foreign and U.S.-based investors, and the tax considerations that matter at the individual investor level..
The third and final article in this series covers the actual investment decisions: which asset classes and strategies work, why markets matter, and what separates serious sponsors from the rest. Together, the three articles give you the framework. Translating that framework into actual capital deployment is the work that happens between you and the right advisor.
You can find everything we publish on our insights page at nyanuinvest.com/insights.
If you’re thinking through how to deploy capital and you want a disciplined conversation about your specific situation, I’d welcome a direct outreach.
Wilson Ningamai Nyah is the Founder and CEO of Nyanu Investment Services, a Washington, D.C.-based investment and advisory platform focused on disciplined capital deployment across U.S. and African markets. He previously led digital product at Navy Federal Investment Services and helped build a digital investing platform serving over 100,000 users and managing over $200 million in invested assets. He and his spouse run a healthcare business they built from scratch, and in 2025 he led the acquisition of two healthcare operating companies and two real estate assets, doubling the size and revenue of their business. Wilson holds an MS in Finance from Johns Hopkins University and holds FINRA Series 7 and Series 24 licenses.
This material is provided for informational and strategic discussion purposes only. The asset classes, strategies, markets, and considerations described are illustrative and depend on individual circumstances and current market conditions. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Nyanu Investment Services does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice, does not take custody of client funds, and does not operate as a broker-dealer. Prospective investors should consult their legal, tax, and financial advisors before making investment decisions.