Newbie Here

[Hurri]

Hi,
Newbie, freshly retired as of 01/2015. 62 yrs old. Divorced. I was actually forced to retire because of health issue. Short term disability insurance had run out and didn't have long term disability insurance so I took early retirement option to keep from losing house which I had to refi during divorce to give her half. I was not ready or really wanting to retire until at least 65 ys. old because ex got half of everything when we divorced 5 yrs back. I was able to buy her out of retirement pension.
Currently drawing pension and SS disabilty but still having a rough time seeing daylight. Probably should try to find a part-time job but not sure I could handle it. Have approx $260,000 in 401K with fidelity and they driving me crazy wanting to handle investing it. Anyone have pro's and con's of doing so? Currently not taking any investment payout of 401K. Just letting it roll over with some GE stock and other bonds.
Advice will be listened to.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Welcome!
So your 401k is currently in cash? When do you expect to start drawing from it?
You may want to spend some time reading about simple DIY investing with mutual funds for the part that you won't need in the next 3-5 years.
If your health permits, a part time job would certainly be worthwhile, but not sure how that affects your SS disability.

 

[MRG]

Don't let Fidelity(read anyone) manage your money without understanding their fees! Many here are index investors, Fidelity has a great selection of them as Spartan funds.

 

[Whisper66]

First step is to get a feel for how good / bad your financial situation is. Suggest sitting down for an hour or so and play with Firecalc ( FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator ) using your knowledge of your assets and expenses. Make sure to read the screens so you understand the underlying assumptions (such as %stocks / bonds and rates of returns) and be sure you are comfortable with them in your situation.

Could also request a retirement financial plan review from your financial company (Fidelity or Vanguard or whoever) and see if their results seem to agree roughly with what you are thinking based on your Firecalc results.

Once you play a bit with your numbers, feel free to post some details such as various asset values, income sources and expense rate expected and folks on this board will be very open / honest with their suggestions.

 

[ivinsfan]

First step is to get a feel for how good / bad your financial situation is. Suggest sitting down for an hour or so and play with Firecalc ( FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator ) using your knowledge of your assets and expenses. Make sure to read the screens so you understand the underlying assumptions (such as %stocks / bonds and rates of returns) and be sure you are comfortable with them in your situation.

Could also request a retirement financial plan review from your financial company (Fidelity or Vanguard or whoever) and see if their results seem to agree roughly with what you are thinking based on your Firecalc results.

Once you play a bit with your numbers, feel free to post some details such as various asset values, income sources and expense rate expected and folks on this board will be very open / honest with their suggestions.

+1 if you don't feel your health can handle a return to work, there are many options for cost reduction, lifestyle reductions, etc. Lots of good ideas around here when you are ready to share.

 

[ownyourfuture]

First & foremost, I hope you get over your present health issue soon.

I understand you mentioned that things are really tight right now, but I'd still give this a try.

This depends on the size of the city you live in, if you live in a city at all.
If you do, I'd look in the good old Yellow Pages.

Before I retired, I needed quite a bit of tax advice & a small amount of financial advice. I contacted seven different people/firms. The first six all brought up the dreaded LTR (long-term relationship)

They would help me, but they wanted to take over everything. Put me in load mutual funds etc.

I finally struck gold with the last guy. He was willing to work with me.
I simply wanted to set down with someone who was a CPA, could answer some tax questions, and make out a hypothetical tax return with income amounts I would receive after retiring.

He did all this for about $140

Hope this helps