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Hello all, I saw the thread DPOW started back in January and the great advice he was given; I read all of it. I wish I had that much already invested but, here goes:
Unfortunately, my brother passed last September and I've been in a fog of grief while still having to go to work; obviously at 66 1/2 I have to keep making money.
* I have no 401K as I lost jobs before and after Covid.
* All I have is what's in my bank accounts
* I don't own
* I took social security a little early when I was unemployed and now get over $1,500 a month.
* I still work full time so my health ins costs are fairly nominal (less than what Medicare would be)
I'm trying to be smart about this, as my brother told me I was and that I would be okay. Well.
He left me his bank accounts and then I got a letter from a distant relative who said I was eligible to receive the inheritance my brother had been expecting because I was his beneficiary.
I now have $135,000 with a bit more of the inheritance money coming, I don't know how much (my relative is relying on an accountant to do the heavy lifting and they are slow as molasses). I don't want the money sitting in my savings account making its piddly percentage.
While I made an appointment online for next Friday with a Fidelity advisor, the appointment screen said have your log-in and password ready. The site won't let me set up an account without putting money into an account. The whole point was to get advice of where to put the money before opening an account. Oh well.
If anyone has suggestions, I'd be very open. I was thinking of finding a high-yield savings account (5%) at an online bank and perhaps putting a good chunk into "Mystical Tiger: So my very simple investment advice would be to buy Schwab Dividend Equity. Ticker: SCHD. It's actually an exchange traded fund, which is similar to a mutual fund."
Then I could go from there with the Fidelity Advisor meeting and also begin the process of further educating myself.
Sounds good. Learning is what you need to do. I am surprised you can not set up an account without putting money in. I would try again. I think Schwab will let you open an account. Both co's have lots of educational information. As you learn use a money market account. But at some point you should be in stocks. I would look at indexed ETF funds as opposed to individual stocks.
In all honesty, if you have 0 savings aside from inheritance at 66.5, the first investment strategy to look at is how do you budget your money. Stocks can go up or down on any given day, but the #1 determinant of a positive outcome is how long you can stay invested. The financial pain comes from forced selling.
You may be in for a nasty surprise come tax time if you're still working full time while on social security.
So my main concern for you would be how long can you truly stay invested? If the answer is only a couple of years, you may want to look at a money market or CD to at least get some return for your money. You can have some in equities, but it's a coin toss as to whether they will be higher or lower in 3 years. It's pretty much always been higher after 20.
Well, I have $135,000 in the bank I haven't put anywhere yet. I know in general it isn't a lot to start with, but more money than I've ever had in my life.
I will probably work part-time if I can't retire. I don't know how long I can go on physically, psychologically 40 hours a week; maybe a few years, so I will try to have some sort of extra income coming in and add that to any investment. I'm not looking at short term.
Sounds good. Learning is what you need to do. I am surprised you can not set up an account without putting money in. I would try again. I think Schwab will let you open an account. Both co's have lots of educational information. As you learn use a money market account. But at some point you should be in stocks. I would look at indexed ETF funds as opposed to individual stocks.
It's been a while since I opened an account at Fidelity, but at the time you could open the account and find it after then you can trade. My wife did it more recently and she opened her brokerage account with $10.
I would that take things slowly with this new found money. No offense but it seems like you're not experience dealing with large sums of money and the last thing you need is to make bad decisions. You could have the money in SPAXX making around 5% while you figure out what you do. You really need to have a good budget set up so that you didn't squander away this new money.
First thing is to identify what you need to do with this money.
1) Have no debt, no credit card, no car loan, no student loan. Have 3 month emergency fund.
2) Advisor will ask you your risk tolerance. Since this is all the money you have probably can't risk much of it. This will limit what you can put money into. For the long term don't know how you can meet inflation outside of COLA from social security.
3) Set up your budget. Can you save $100/month by not spending it.
4) Best thing is to learn how to save & invest. You can do it. Don't buy anything that doesn't make sense to you.
Well, I have $135,000 in the bank I haven't put anywhere yet. I know in general it isn't a lot to start with, but more money than I've ever had in my life.
I will probably work part-time if I can't retire. I don't know how long I can go on physically, psychologically 40 hours a week; maybe a few years, so I will try to have some sort of extra income coming in and add that to any investment. I'm not looking at short term.
You should probably get some financial advice from someone that you know and trust; not a financial advisor who wants a cut of your inheritance.
For me, I sold a house back in Nov 2022, and decided to put that money into certificates of deposit (CDs). I have owned stocks and a few bond funds for years, but now that I am near retirement, I wanted that new money to be protected from market price fluctuations.
So, for example, $135,000 put into a CD with a coupon rate of 5% would produce $6,750 of annual income without any danger to the principal (the $135,000). That annual income is $562.50 per month which on top of your social security puts you over $2,000/month. You can buy these CDs through an online broker (Fidelity, Schwab) and pay no fee.
But as other posters have stated, you need to set a budget and stick with it.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think you have enough to be investing in equities, given your assets and income level. I would seriously consider a high yield money market account, like Marcus.
I would put the money in short term treasuries. I wouldn't invest this in equities.
You can buy them on the secondhand market from Fidelity very easily. Yielding around 5.38% right now.
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Hello all, I saw the thread DPOW started back in January and the great advice he was given; I read all of it. I wish I had that much already invested but, here goes:
