Where to invest a large amount of cash now is the question:
My thought process: Selling assets now appears not to be a requirement to maintain your current lifestyle, so I am going to assume that your goal is to purchase assets which are income producing without having to sell them for your current living expenses.
Second, I am going to assume that you will want to use any income but pass the assets on to your offspring/descendants, family members, etc. Putting the assets into a trust, if you don't have one, would help with any probate or distribution delays. Federal inheritance taxes kick in at nearly $12M in CY2022, and not sure how big your total estate is, but I am going to assume for now that you are below that.
Third, to avoid probate and any lawsuits, etc, make the trust very clear about the disposition of the assets. A friend of mine, who is a lawyer, took his father's estate, who had dementia, which was partly some dissolved LLCs, to the NY supreme court about dissolution valuations, and lost. So, selling now for cash is always best and having a clear trust directions for distribution is key. That is the legal piece which is not my expertise, but should be reviewed if not already in place.
Finally, where to put the money for income. From reading your posts, you manage your investments yourself. No better way as noone else can take advantage of you, and you take full responsibility for any mistakes.
In the equity markets, you cannot avoid systemic risk, (example is the banking crises or the congress voting not to increase the debt limit) without market timing, and I assume you are not into market timing. So, i would have you think about the three main income producing sectors of the equity market for tax free dividends, because you don't appear to need the future assets:
* real estate investment trusts, which pass through income, ETFs
* high yield dividend stock ETFs, which are value stocks, with dividend growth, which are tax free
* Utilities, which also throw off dividends and are the power backbone of the country
we are SOL without them. . .
Thought process: most to all of these investments are becoming more valuable as time marches on, as each are stable, and have long term scarcity or demand growth valuations
Real estate, as you have been invested, you know well
Equity high dividend stocks are low qrowth, stable value stocks, not alot of
appreciation but stable earnings with dividend distributions and dividend increases
Utilities generate electricity and that demand is only going to get larger with the clean
energy movement
* Real estate ETF in vanguard (VNQ), yield 2.91%
* Vanguard Whitehall Funds - Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF (VYMI) - 3.0 to 4.0% annual estimate
* SPDR Series Trust - SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF (SPYD) - 3.8 to 4.8% annual distribution yield. invested in about 70-80 companies for diversification.
* Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD) - 3.71% current distribution yield
* Vanguard Utilities Index Fund Admiral Shares (VUIAX) - 2.8% current dividend yield.
I would consider:
10% VYMI just for diversification and with the dollar high, you are buying from the better FX position. USD down, foreign investments UP. .
The rest i would split evenly to any preferences, remembering that there is overlap as the SPYD or SPYHD has utilities and reits in them and is more diversified.
The dividends are tax free, except maybe the international, but there are ways around that. Targeting 3-5% dividend rates are the sweet spot for income earned. higher is suspect, like GE taking on LTD to maintain dividends. . (stupid mgmt decision from several points of views, a tangent i don't want to go down)
In closing i have made assumptions with my intuition from your posts. Those implicit assumptions can be wrong, which would make this post completely irrelevant and worthless. Otherwise, for the most part, this is my optimal strategy, which I am using along with some market timing, which I need to pay more attention to. .
good luck, and when we move down permanently, would love to share a dinner to discuss investments. . .
finance guy