I don't see a threat for this so i will start here
What places and what type of investment is good to start up if you some cash to invest?
Well the thread says real estate but your question seems general. With that being said, and the fact that I saw someone mention crowdfunding, I'm going to stick within that realm. If you have money to spend and want to explore your options, seriously look into crowdfunding. They have equity, p2p, consignment, real estate, rewards based, and donation based.
Equity is pretty self explanatory as you get equity for supporting the companies. With P2P, it's a loan you and others come together to give. Im assuming you know real estate as their have been a few pages of answers. Rewards based is like Kickstarter, where you get rewards for supporting them (rewards could be exclusive prototypes, different drafts of a screenplay their producing, etc. Donation again is self explanatory, people need help so you help them and don't get much besides the feeling good for helping (sometimes tax breaks for different cases, but some are considered gifts too).
Then you have consignment which I currently use the most. In these ones, you purchase inventory for smaller brands on consignment because their demand is way higher then their supply. Brands choose consignment because it's cheaper then banks and gives them marketing as well. People use consignment because they can take money from their savings account and purchase inventory. The inventory for many of the brands is purchase order backed so that just means the brands will receive their money after net-30,60,90 even if all the inventory isn't sold. This means they are able to payback easier because they have an expected date. I'll include a link for you after this because it explains alot better than I can, well a lot faster then I can!
https://www.kickfurther.com/learn-buyers?utm_medium=forum&utm_source=Crowd_funding&utm_campaign=forum_user_channel&utm_content=inline_text