If you were going to get a large cash retirement balance where would you consider putting it? This along with what we have saved is well enough for us to be considered FI with a cushion that enables us to live a nice but not extravagant life.
Scenario: no debt including house. Have done a lot of the big updates on the house last few years (roof, appliances, windows.) Two years of living expenses in CD's in bank. Kids gone, educated and married. Newer paid for cars. Two adults 55 years old. Very marketable skills so can stay in the workforce and get work if needed. I will probably stay doing part time work as a nurse "just in case" the economy remains in the toilet.
This will be almost 50% of our net worth. Current retirement fund allocation approx 40% stocks, 60% bonds. Well diversified as you can be today.
Options I can think of : going to a big house like Vanguard and doing 50:50 allocation no load funds, going to a bank and putting it all in CD's at low interest (but no loss of principle), doing some of each.
I thought we had it all figured out, and actually did well as we had stuck to our asset allocation and as the market rose kept pulling money out. Last year or so has us perplexed and I know no one really knows what will happen next week.
I don't trust annuities- who knows if the companies will be around. Don't want to be a landlord. Have consulted a financial planner but don't have a good feeling, probably because he almost seemed shell shocked with the recent events of the market. I can bet he has been chewed out recently. He really didn't have any advice to change the investments we already had.
Any ideas we haven't thought of? I read here frequently and have learned a lot from everyone's successes and failures. None of us could have imagined the recent past financial fiascos but we can only move on and make the best decisions we can to protect ourselves.
Scenario: no debt including house. Have done a lot of the big updates on the house last few years (roof, appliances, windows.) Two years of living expenses in CD's in bank. Kids gone, educated and married. Newer paid for cars. Two adults 55 years old. Very marketable skills so can stay in the workforce and get work if needed. I will probably stay doing part time work as a nurse "just in case" the economy remains in the toilet.
This will be almost 50% of our net worth. Current retirement fund allocation approx 40% stocks, 60% bonds. Well diversified as you can be today.
Options I can think of : going to a big house like Vanguard and doing 50:50 allocation no load funds, going to a bank and putting it all in CD's at low interest (but no loss of principle), doing some of each.
I thought we had it all figured out, and actually did well as we had stuck to our asset allocation and as the market rose kept pulling money out. Last year or so has us perplexed and I know no one really knows what will happen next week.
I don't trust annuities- who knows if the companies will be around. Don't want to be a landlord. Have consulted a financial planner but don't have a good feeling, probably because he almost seemed shell shocked with the recent events of the market. I can bet he has been chewed out recently. He really didn't have any advice to change the investments we already had.
Any ideas we haven't thought of? I read here frequently and have learned a lot from everyone's successes and failures. None of us could have imagined the recent past financial fiascos but we can only move on and make the best decisions we can to protect ourselves.
