We just set up a whole retirement plan with him. He gets a 1% fee right now, so I haven't told him about this money. The way I figure it, I'd rather do this on my own and save a ton of money.

Wow.

I mean, really. If this is a guy you trust, stick with him. He will probably do better than you can on your own.

Just saying.

that's what I'm thinking...

Best move ever.

That's the advice I've given to my daughters. Just take a small chunk of money out of every paycheck and put it into a couple Vanguard Funds and don't even think about it. Amazing how much it's grown over the years It's advice I got from my dad, even though he didn't listen to his own advice and died broke!

Doing that was a great idea for us. It dropped our monthly expenses so much, and we truly enjoy that freedom.

And both of our vehicles are paid for as well.

How about muni bonds? That tax free income is nice.

I'll have to look into that.

Look into state-based Municipal Bond Funds. Those are often tax-free in state income tax too.

Real estate and stocks are all up now. I'd put it in the bank and buy some, not all on the drops.

Doesn't sound like you have to hurry.

It's just that I'd rather not have it sit in the bank where it pays, what, .00001%?!

those unexpected thinks and piece of mind. Not much interest, but I sleep well. Most of my investments are in high dividend stocks and that adds to my retirement income. Going into my 20th year of retirement.

Imagine if you were a billionaire.

Thom Hartman always says there’s only so many pairs of shoes or pants a man can buy.

I hope we get back to taxing excessive wealth.

you’ll need more money in retirement than you think you will.

Smart to invest/save for a rainy day IMO. Besides, we can only imagine the worst if the U.S. slides into a corporatocracy — privatized social security, Medicare, etc.

Well-allocated Mutual Funds sound great.

I'd really suggest taking 10-20% and investing in something futuristic-- and maybe good for the world.
I'm waiting for Xampla (pea protein plastic!) to go public so I could put $1000 into that.

https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business/breakthrough-cambridge-science-turns-pea-protein-into-microplastics-without-the-plastic-9108956/

While the economy grows over time it is also subject to recessions, and the market has its upsie-downsies too.

Any of us would be well off if we'd bought just 10-20 shares, when we thought they might be growth stocks, of McDonald's, Microsoft, NVidia, Tesla, Boston Beer, Netflix, Amazon, etc.

I have an article on Amazon from WAPO in 1999 with the headline Amazon is loaded with debt and could fail.

My point being 5% of corporate America makes 95% of corporate profits. It's a pyramid and a hierarchy just like everything else. That's why there are these high fliers. You get a fair amount of big names in most mutual funds. Some prominent post last week said there are now more ETFs than stocks. It means something but it is one to ponder.

Diversity is fine when part of a strategy. To me the question is always what will be the Amazons and Alphabets of tomorrow. But there are other ways to diversify and other strategies as well.

Read a lot. Watch current market trends. Consuelo Mack WealthTrack is usually on my weekly list. A few times a year I don't like the guests, but for a steady stream of personal finance awareness, it's a must for me.

I know it’s not pleasant to think about, but a significant percentage of us will require some sort of assisted living or long term care in the last stages of our lives.

If this isn’t sorted out, it could deplete a large fortune rather quickly.

I had a client that lived to be 103 and he spent over $90,000 a year the last 6 years of his life in an assisted living facility plus he had a personal assistant come in 6 days a week.

The last few years of life can be very expensive.

Thanks.

Excellent point

Elder financial planning attorney. You need to work out projected income and assess the projected costs for Assisted living and for full on Nursing Care.

Most likely you will need to put all non retirement assets into a special trust. The problem with Long Term Care insurance is it only really covers if you are incapacitate not just infirm. The other issue is the whole juggle if one of a couple needs assistive living but not the other. Another issue is they usually only sell policies that will cover maybe 3 years total not lifetime. Be wary of what the sales people say, it isn't a simple claim to get paid out like for life insurance.

You should seek out CCRCs, continuing care retirement communities. And you really want a nonprofit one. Otherwise you could have to switch from Assistive living to a Nursing Home and could get separated from your spouse.

Most are a rip-off, where the premiums are not set in the contract and they can raise the premiums at will and you are forced to pay the premium or cancel the contract losing all the money you had already invested in it.

We found one a couple of years ago through a broker that is actually a life insurance policy with a long term care rider. It was a one time payment, with an additional rider that we pay for 7 years that allows the payments for LTC to be made indefinitely, should we need them.

If we never use the LTC, the life insurance part at least grows a few percent a year, and becomes inheritance for our children.

But it was taken off the market a few months after we purchased it. The broker said that is typically how it works -- a good one will appear for a while, and then it'll be gone.

One time payment, long term care amount that's pretty generous, and even if I use it all up there is still a residual insurance amount. If I need to go into assisted living this will start paying for me. Of course, I already have my current income (SS, investments, annuities) and this would simply supplement.

My financial advisor has also told me that my plan went away not too long after I bought it.

I am fortunate to have a very good advisor.