Heres my current life situation:
For the first time in my life, I've looked into what is required for me to retire. I discovered FI, the 25-times formula, Index Funds etc. My wife is good with math and understands the whole thing, but is even more risk-averse than I am.
We are not far off from FI. So now we are more educated, I want to take our bank savings account and invest in an Index Fund. Index Funds sound perfect for us. We like that the risk is spread out over the whole market, and we don't want to pick stocks or care about stocks. We just want to "set-and-forget".
The only issue is that I hear stuff about how the stock market might be about to crash/go down. We understand that the idea is just to stay in for the long term. So once we put the money in we are quite happy to stay in and ride out any fluctuations. There's no risk that we will panic and try to sell.
My only issue is:
My current job is stable and we can live off the income, so there's no pressure either way. Its just a question of getting bang-for-my-buck.
- I am age 46, my wife is 55
- We both have well-paying jobs
- Zero Debt, paid off our home mortgage
- Our son is employed and has moved out of home
- We are financially conservative/cautious
- We have never owned shares/investments except for some stocks picked up in employee share schemes
- Otherwise our money is just in the bank (long term savings) and we both contribute to our retirement accounts.
- My wife retired two years ago, I'd like to retire in 5-8 years (or earlier)
For the first time in my life, I've looked into what is required for me to retire. I discovered FI, the 25-times formula, Index Funds etc. My wife is good with math and understands the whole thing, but is even more risk-averse than I am.
We are not far off from FI. So now we are more educated, I want to take our bank savings account and invest in an Index Fund. Index Funds sound perfect for us. We like that the risk is spread out over the whole market, and we don't want to pick stocks or care about stocks. We just want to "set-and-forget".
The only issue is that I hear stuff about how the stock market might be about to crash/go down. We understand that the idea is just to stay in for the long term. So once we put the money in we are quite happy to stay in and ride out any fluctuations. There's no risk that we will panic and try to sell.
My only issue is:
- Is now a smart time to sink all our savings into an index fund?
- Would it be better to wait for a dip in the market and THEN buy the index fund?
- But that kind of thinking is why our money has just sat in the bank earning very little interest. Am I just making another excuse to avoid committing our money?
My current job is stable and we can live off the income, so there's no pressure either way. Its just a question of getting bang-for-my-buck.