Money Markets are a great place to park money while you work out your plan - if you are investing more than $250k - be aware of FDIC insurance limits.

Always looks at the fees and expenses of any investment - especially if you are working with a planner - fees add up and they come off the top (gain or loss).

Consider the tax consequence of anything you do - investments with tax-free gains are great.
Deferred taxes mean exactly that - you, or your heirs will pay those taxes at some point and the rules over that are changing quickly. The government knows how much "tax-deferred" money is stashed away by boomers - and they want it sooner rather than later...

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Instead of a money market, I would suggest putting it into XBIL which is an ETF of 6 month Treasury bills. Wait until February to figure out where the market is going.

This would be a safe bet against losing your money while the stock market figure its way after the election and the aftermath of the Biden economy.

You can lose money in a bond etf. e.g. the rates on new bonds go up (due to the economy and/or Federal Reserve), which causes existing binds to lose value. People bail out of the fund to put their money into other investments, so the fund must sell some of those bonds to pay out the leavers. This is a realized loss borne by those who remain in the fund.

If nobody left and the etf held each bond to its maturity, nobody would lose capital. But people do flee the etf and money is lost.

I much prefer to buy t-bills and hold them to maturity. Zero chance of loss.

I'm still getting 4% with AMEX HYSA, and I'm sure some others are above that. I'd park it there and put a plan together with my finance guy.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Stick it in a money market fund and get 4.7%-ish and do nothing with it for a few months.
Do some research and then do some more research. If you can find one or 3, pay a few hundred dollars for an hour or 2 of some fee only planners time to give you an idea of what to do or what they would do given your ages and your overall picture. Clean up your own estate plan.

Good advice

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
I'm still getting 4% with AMEX HYSA, and I'm sure some others are above that. I'd park it there and put a plan together with my finance guy.

Yep. I'm earning 4.85% on my high yield savings currently. (Was 5.1% until a few weeks ago.)

quote:

Originally posted by btanchors:
Bob, were any of the funds inside of an IRA or 401(k), or were they just in a standard brokerage account or bank account? The right answer partially depends on the answer...

I don't know off hand. My wife did say that it was tax free. Could I stick it in a Roth IRA?

quote:

I don't know off hand. My wife did say that it was tax free. Could I stick it in a Roth IRA?

Bob

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My CPA saved me thousands of dollars over the years. This is the sort of question for a CPA. Dollar cost averaging between two mutual funds paid for two college educations. It is not a question of where to put the money, it is a matter of educating yourself. Investment is not that complicated.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Stick it in a money market fund and get 4.7%-ish and do nothing with it for a few months.
Do some research and then do some more research. If you can find one or 3, pay a few hundred dollars for an hour or 2 of some fee only planners time to give you an idea of what to do or what they would do given your ages and your overall picture. Clean up your own estate plan.

This is excellent advice. MMF rates are high right now due to the Fed raising interest rates. It buys you time to do some research and make informed decisions.

Get some professional advice and not from a commission earning money manager.

My vote is bury it in a Hills Brothers coffee can out in the back yard. Nope, you won't make any interest on it, but it'll always be there and you won't have to pay any taxes on it. The less Big Brother knows about your wealth the better.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
My vote is bury it in a Hills Brothers coffee can out in the back yard.

I would convert it to gold first. Worms won't eat gold.

quote:

Originally posted by bob ramberg:
My wife did say that it was tax free. Could I stick it in a Roth IRA?

Inheritances are not federally taxed below $13 million, so to you the money is tax free in receiving it. If it is in an IRA you will have to withdraw it within a few years, and it does count as regular income then. Your state may tax inheritances.

You can put money into a Roth but be aware of the 5 year rule. You have to have a Roth for 5 years before you can withdraw money without penalty. Since you are over 59.5 yrs old you can Roth convert and then withdraw whenever you like (the other 5 yr rule), but iirc you must still meet the first rule of having a Roth for 5 years.

The tax implications get complicated with RMDs, considering other sources of income, Social Security taxation, and IRMAA. If it is in an IRA, your future RMDs just got larger. A financial advisor who works with retirees can run scenarios to find the least-tax method of packaging the money (ira, roth, roth conversions, pay more tax now but save later, fill your current tax bracket bucket, etc).

quote:

You can put money into a Roth but be aware of the 5 year rule. You have to have a Roth for 5 years before you can withdraw money without penalty. Since you are over 59.5 yrs old you can Roth convert and then withdraw whenever you like (the other 5 yr rule), but iirc you must still meet the first rule of having a Roth for 5 years.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You need some professional advice on this. Should not cost much. The IRS is not forgiving,when it comes to money. I have a small business that requires a one page form be filed every year. The IRS sent me a demand letter for 8 thousand dollars because the form was not filed on time. My CPA explained that the IRS had waived any penalty because I was in a federal disaster area that year. My CPA sent the IRS a letter and a year later I received a two sentence letter absolving me of any fiscal responsibility.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Stick it in a money market fund and get 4.7%-ish and do nothing with it for a few months.
Do some research and then do some more research. If you can find one or 3, pay a few hundred dollars for an hour or 2 of some fee only planners time to give you an idea of what to do or what they would do given your ages and your overall picture. Clean up your own estate plan.

This is excellent advice. MMF rates are high right now due to the Fed raising interest rates. It buys you time to do some research and make informed decisions.

Get some professional advice and not from a commission earning money manager.

Not enough facts spelled out to provide sound advise. Agree with all of the above. I am a CPA! Get help. Recommendations from trusted friends as to whom to talk to would be a good place to start.

I would suggest that people start researching for themselves. Maybe you will get some good advice for free here, but more than likely they cannot possibly know your situation to make the right call. Perhaps they might not even want to give free advice if they get paid to manage money.

I waited too long to get serious about it, but, at 50 I started learning. I wasted a lot of years where I could have made more. But, I was socking money away in my 401k.

Nothing against those here who do it for a living, but with headlines like below, I guess not all experts are real experts.

There is a plethora of info out there, you can even follow some very wealthy investors on places like “X where some free advice is given out. Rick Rule offers free training as do some others.

I’m beating the returns of co-workers who are paying for their money to be managed. I keep getting calls from places like Fidelity, from people wanting me to give them my money. When I tell them my returns and asks them if they can beat what I am currently getting, they always say no.

Fund managers struggle to beat S&P

80% of fund managers cannot beat S&P

What are the tax implications of this?

quote:

Originally posted by bob ramberg:
Could I stick it in a Roth IRA?

I'm pretty sure IRA contributions must be compensation (wages, salary, tips, professional fees, bonuses).

quote:

Originally posted by bob ramberg:
Thanks all for the sound advice. One more question, Which machine guns?

Since you asked…

Take a look at the Machine Gun listings on Gunbroker to get an idea of what models you could get and their prices. For calibers that don’t break the bank (or your shoulder), you can’t go wrong with a Qualified or Fleming HK sear in a MP5 setup or factory Colt M16A1 or M16A2. Either way gives you 9mm and 5.56mm options. Thinking about resale, both are also very popular to MG buyers and their values keep increasing.

quote:

Originally posted by bob ramberg:
Thanks all for the sound advice. One more question, Which machine guns?

If I had Elon money I’d buy every transferable I could. But in your case? Transferable factory HK MP5 and Colt AR-15/M16 and oem maker UZI’s would have most liquidity /desirable in the future. Those are big ticket items and don’t move fast.

Entry level NFA Mac 10 can be had for about 10k.

If still working, dump anything you can into 401k. Set election to the highest percentage possible until you've met contribution limit and catch-up provisions. Supplement your income as needed with inheritance. Also take a good vacation, you deserve it.

It is a shame you don't have a good advisor and your investments are spread across multiple accounts and probably at various brokerages.

First consideration: it is good to have a portfolio that is well-diversified to reduce your risk.

Second: It is important to know your investment objective. Given your age I can only guess you would like to preserve your wealth so that it outlasts you and 2nd generate income to live off of.

Third: What plans do you have in place? Long-term health care policy? Stay in your home or move into a retirement community? Move into assisted living? Memory care contingency?

With all of that and making assumptions you want to preserve wealth and generate income off it.

My recommendation would be to look at income-producing exchange-traded funds ETFs.

A few options:
- Utility ETFs why? Utilities produce revenue which = dividend income for you. Also, utilities tend to be stable and less impacted by economic changes. Any of these would be a good choice. Because of what I've already said, plus they all have a low expense ratio.

- The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Symbol: XLU
- The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund Symbol (XLU)
- Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF Symbol: RSPU