Laura L Charles wrote:
- quote -

A couple of suggestions from another self-acknowledged amature, if I
may. If you're trying to pick mutual funds for investment and learn
"how to invest", one introductory book that I found helpful was Eric
Tyson's "Mutual Funds for Dummies". If you want to work with a personal
financial advisor, you might consider a member of the National
Association of Personal Financial Planners (see http://www.napfa.org/).
Their members work solely on an hourly fee-only basis, rather than on
the more common "percent of assets managed."

Any CFP should be willing to provide you with his or her "Form ADV",
which discloses important information concerning their training,
experience, fees, commissions, and referral practices. Though it's
probably not fair to over-generalize, I have always been nervous about
getting financial advice from people who actually sell securities.
There's an inherent conflict of interest built into such a relationship.

If you'd care to read a bit about the learning journey I'm on myself
with respect to many of the same issues that concern you, I offer the
following article on my personal website: "Investment Advice for Fun
and Profit -- Theirs, not Yours". See
http://www.lawhern.org/Investment.htm.

Best regards,

Something you may be interested are segregated funds. These are
variable annuities offered by an insurance company that mirror the
performance of mutual funds with added benefits. Any money you deposit
into one of these seg funds has both a maturity and death benefit
guarantee from 75% to 100% depending on the issuing company.
As you mentioned you are planning to retire in 10 years, this may
be an appropriate vehicle: there are funds focusing on monthly
distributions to supplement your income over this 10 year period (with
the principle guaranteed to be returned to you on the anniversary date
in 10 years time) as well as funds which reinvest the distributions
back into the fund, building your asset until it is needed. As well,
the death benefit guarantee ensures a tax advantaged transfer of the
entire principle to your benficiary should something unforseen happen
during the next 10 years.
If this is something you may be interested in I would be happy to
forward you detailed information.
Its nice to see there are lots of helpful people posting their
suggestions, the more input you can get the better informed your
decision will be.


chris

Laura L Charles wrote:
- quote -

Jed,
Other posters are right, you can probably pick funds on your own -
you've found Vanguard, they have some good materials on the site to help
walk you through that, etc. But it sounds like you have more than just
an investment-picking question, there's also the much harder question:
"what kind of account(s) should you put the money into?"

You say you're 53, farmer, and have a small IRA & no other retirement
assets, wife retiring 4 yrs, you'd like to retire in 10. Income more or
less covers expenses, not much left over.

The simplest thing to do is just hold it all in a taxable account -
whether it's CDs or a mix of mutual funds. Depending on your situation
you might want to do something else though.

One thing you would be able to do is use the $250k to fund (for the next
10 years that you're working) some kind of tax-advantaged retirement
account - there's probably a half-dozen to choose from, (IRAs, SEP-IRAs,
401k, defined benefit plans). You're self-employed so have full control
over this. The benefits of doing that are that you'd get a tax deduction
each year you contributed, and the money would grow tax-deferred as long
as it's in the account. Depending on your income level it's entirely
possible that you could gradually stash the whole $250k into a
tax-deferred account, getting a tax deduction each year that you added
money. Together that could add up to a lot of dollars in tax savings.
Whether you'd want to do that - put so much into a retirement account -
is another question, but it's a possibility.

You probably want to meet with a tax-wise advisor - such as a CPA - to
help make this decision. I know that farms have some very specific tax
issues to consider so it's important that this is all integrated and
leads to some benefits for you. But planned right it could be a very
simple bargain: less money for Uncle Sam, more for your retirement. And
again, this has nothing to do with investments, but rather the type of
account you choose to hold them in. Even with the tax-advantaged
accounts you can end up having it at Vanguard.

The farm raises some planning questions too and there may be reasons for
you to put some of this inheritance into annuities or insurance
policies. It depends on all sorts of factors like how long you want to
keep the farm, whether estate tax is an issue (if you pass away "early"
and your wife want to remain on the farm - how would the estate tax be
paid? Even without estate tax would you want to provide cash so she
could remain on the farm?). You might not need much in this department,
or in the extreme, it could eat a lot of the $250k.

Point being that the investment-picking isn't the big issue, so much as
the planning. I'd suggest putting the money somewhere safe and not
committing it anywhere until you figure out the alternatives, especially
with the help from a tax expert who knows farming in & out.

-Tad

- quote -


My favorite financial writer is Scott Burns of the Dallas Morning News.
He wrote a couple of articles this spring with some suggested model
portfolios. See if you see something you like in these two articles.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...153f93882.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...15ffddd1b.html

Dave

One approach is to not do anything worse than a balanced fund which
gives a generic balance that is a good first approximation that most
folks fall short of. Examples are
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=2y&s...fpacx&c=%5EDJI
although at least one is closed and the headliner ffnox probably needs
additional short term ffrhx or the like. Note the Vanguard one gives
the worst graph, although this only shows cap gain, not dividends.

Later there are endless ways to refine and personalize to your needs
and tax situation, although sometimes to worse results. Main problem
to above may be some of them heavy on too long bonds.

I think that you should invest a conservator plan. You could search
some founds of investments that you can earn little but with security
beacuse with the your retiring is better carry on without kiddings.
Think in your life condition and your age. Do you need of risks to earn
more money? Or do you deserve a quite life with your wife and with the
"security money"?
But, If you don´t know what think about your money is better read some
articles or books about investiments to you decide your financial life.

1.
Does your state tax inheritance? If so, find out the rate and plan on paying
this out of the $250k. Googling can often turn this up.

2.
What is the interest rate on the loan for the windmill? If it's high, and if
possible, you may want to pay for it in cash.

3.
As a start to retirement planning, I suggest trying some of the free online
portfolio allocation tools I list at
http://home.earthlink.net/~elle_navorski/id4.html . This will give you some
ideas about how much of your money should be in stocks; bonds; etc.
(Allocation-type questions come up so often here and elsewhere that I threw
together this list of allocation tools recently.) Even if you do decide to
use a financial planner, trying some of these tools first will better
prepare you for your discussions with him/her, and so save time and thus
possibly money.

Glad to hear you know about Vanguard. It has competition these days but its
web site is a good place to learn more, even if you don't eventually go with
Vanguard. (I myself am not currently a Vanguard customer but I would
consider it in the future, based on reports from friends and relatives and
looking over its funds.)

In article <16913-42C8CA30-595[at]storefull-3314.bay.webtv.net> ,
Elflc[at]webtv.net (Laura L Charles) wrote:

- quote -

That is enough money to get the attention of most financial
planners. The trick is to find one that isn't going to rip
you off. Many will by selling you what makes them the most
money. You really need to ask around, and maybe figure out
where the rich guys in town take their money.

Your other option is to simply park the money and don't do
anything with it over the short term. That will give you
time to read a few books on the subject, get educated a
little, and make your own decisions.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

Hello..new here but have learned alot from reading all your posts.
I recently inherited $250K from my uncle and need to know how to invest
it for my retirement..I am 53 and would like to retire in approx. 10
yrs. This now represents all my money except for a small IRA valued at
about 30K. I am self employed..a farmer..and have no other retirement
funds. Eventually I will sell my farm but that won't happen until I am
quite old as want to live here most of my days. However..I don't want
to do this backbreaking work too much longer..altho it has been a good
life. I currently make enough money to make ends meet and have no
debts..my wife will be able to retire at 62 in four years so that will
help us along..plus..we are supposed to be getting a windmill on our
land..this could fall thru..but it would be at a fixed annual payment of
6K for the next 25 yrs. Ok..my question for you all is this..what
funds..if any..should I put my money in..should I go to a financial
planner..or just pick out some funds myself at probably Vanguard. Can
you recommend any funds you think would be a good choice for me..thanks
so much..Jed