Need Advice ASAP
 

We have $200,000 of cash available next week from real estate balloon payment. I believe current stock market down condition may be perfect place for this money. We will not need this money for income and looking at leaving it for our girls.

Will be talking to a TIAA CREF rep in a week and we are thinking about putting money in a indexed fund tied to the S&P.

Any advice?

IMHO, I would wait a little while, I do not think we have seen the bottom yet, and this drop is so big, even if you start buying on the upswing, you will probably still make out well.

The TIAA CREF person is going to probably try to sell you an annuity because they will get huge commission (around 10 percent). Not a good investment. My advice would be to put the money into a Vanguard money market fund. Then, over time, I would transfer the money to a balanced portfolio of short and intermediate term Vanguard bond index funds and the Vanguard S&P 500 stock index fund. But, I would definitely not invest it all into stocks at this time. Way too volatile and unpredictable. My opinion.

Agree, if you decide to buy an index fund, don't put it all in now. Perhaps put in a small portion in now and add to your position over time if/when the market continues to trade off. It doesn't feel like we are near the bottom yet. Personally, I am another very bad day for the stock market away from where I plan to start gradually buying into an S and P index fund.

I would not use TIAA or any other investment person. Just go to Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab and put 10K in a total stock market fund and 10K in a total bond fund. Than add another 10K to each on down market days until you have 100K in each. Than just re-balance back to 50/50 as this market jumps up and down.

This is a bad place to get investment advice.


You don't know the poster, the poster does not know you.


Too many "look at me and my great timing decisions" on this board.


Ask friends & family you trust and do your own due diligence.


Good Luck.

When I need my shoes fixed I go to a Shoemaker when I need advice on investments I do not go to TOTV

Advice as soon as possible
 

Every suggestion above are excellent suggestions. And further more, you need advice but NOT ASAP, because you need a plan. And mr helpful is correct, not here, with a financial advisor, and preferably, and independent one who is not going to sell you annuities.

BTW, certain retirement annuities you can't transfer money out except over 5 years to another retirement account or investment account, so an independent advisor is your best bet, but ASAP if you have the impulse to do something immediately because you see a for sale sign on the front lawn, but haven't received the inspection report yet!

sportsguy

Most shoemakers will do a good job at fixing your shoes for a fair price. But, when you go to a financial advisor, you may or may not get good advice, and you may or may not get a fair price. Often, you will get neither. That is the problem with the financial advisor business.

If you want to invest in an index driven fund, invest in an ETF. Not a mutual fund. Lower management fees, thus higher return and you sell at the price you set, not the next day's value. I like putting in a limit price and waiting to get an email that it sold. Kind of like putting your line in the lake and taking a nap.

Spend it and enjoy it
 

You earned it so enjoy it and if you want to give it to your girls, then do it now and enjoy it with them

Look for a fee based financial advisor. Looks for the best over all plan for you and what you are looking to do.

With the uncertainty in this market now and who knows for how long, I would consider putting half in a municipal bond. They pay a coupon every six months any they are tax free from federal and possibly state if the bond is in the state where you live. Then I would put the other half into the market very slowly.

I've been an investor since I was in my early teens--made a ton of $$, during the 2008-2009 crisis--right now BP has been hammered, pays over 10%, if you reinvest your dividend in compounds your return, another good investment @ this time is BA, and finally GUT pays over 9%, in monthly payments , but you get a 5% discount from market price when you reinvest the dividend

A big mistake a lot of people who are not investors--is they tend to be too conservative, and finally a really good growth stock is UN

Not a fan of Financial Advisors...
 

...unless you really havent done this before and dont have some basic ideas about investing. You will pay commissions and fees, often ongoing, for mixed results. Warren Buffet's sage advice for normal people is to put your money in a good index fund and leave it there. Few advisors, or mutual funds for that matter, actually manage to "beat the market" over the long term. I thought the advice from the first several advisors on this thread were all basic, sound and conservative approaches. If their guidance is not understandable to you, ie if you are truly novice at this, then perhaps an initial session with an advisor, or at least a continuing ed class or the like, before you do any investing, is needed. Stay with bonds, mutual funds and ETF's for broad and diversified exposure. If you want to do a bank in the interim, Synchrony Bank (online) has been offering around 2% on savings accounts. Good luck. Stay conservative. I agree that the market needs to settle out quite a bit yet. If you go in, go bit by bit.