Wife inherited $600k. questions?

[Spanky]

My wife has already told the lawyers to distribute the assets in a tax free joint MM account until we figure out the best long term avenue. I am curious as to why we would want to keep this seperate. What is the rationale?

You did the right thing. There is no need to make it separate, IMHO.

 

[Cattusbabe]

I agree. My husband was the one who inherited the money. There was never any thought about keeping it separate. Our attitude is that in this marriage everything goes into and comes out of the same pot. It works for us.

 

[jIMOh]

When I came into a windfall, I received some good advice that I like to pass on.

Put the money in a safe place, like Vanguard's Prime Money Market account, and take as much as a year to decide what to do with it.

With that amount of money, Vanguard will also offer you a financial plan for free, based on your goals and objectives.

This question comes up periodically on a website I like, diehards.org, which is a forum for people interested in low cost investing, mostly at Vanguard.

I know T Rowe Price will offer a similar planning service for free. I think some issues to think about:

1) goals- what are you trying to do financially?
2) risks- what risks are you comfortable taking or not taking with money? What would bother you the most if it did not work out financially?
3) people- what other people are around you (kids, spouse, other) which might maninpulate this?
for example- if you have kids age 5-10, consider gifting around 15k to each kid, investing, and using this to teach them about money. If kids are aged 10-18, consider a college account for them. Maybe you had a financial plan which did not include college funds for kids, where as now that can happen.

Before you read how to invest, you need to do some internal searching for what you want out of life financially, IMO.