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I recently received 100K inheritance that I’d like to invest in index funds.
I am a novice investor and am trying to decide if I should put it all in now. Or invest 10K a month for the rent of the year. I’m 47 and not wealthy. But I do already have an emergency fund. |
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This is really a question of preference for you. Are you more comfortable doing $10K at a time? Then do that. Are you more comfortable putting it all into a fund now? Then do that.
You say you're a novice. I'd give yourself a month to start reading up on investing. Head over to the Boggleheads website. There is a lot of good info there. Or even start with Investing for Dummies. Personally, I like the $10K at a time approach. I'd have too much stress putting $100K in all on one day and then seeing any amount of drop the next day. But that's me. There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way between the two options you propose, despite world events. |
| Definitely go to Bogleheads.org. Plenty to read, and if you post your circumstances, you will get varied opinions and the rational behind each. |
Great advice! Take it $10K at a time. Use vanguard or troweprice (low cost funds with good websites for information) and really just stick to index funds. Most advisors only get you 2-4% more than index funds anyways/. in the real world, people are not consistently beating the market by much. Once you educate yourself and feel comfortable, you could pick your own mutual funds, but I wouldn't venture beyond mutual funds. Pay the low fees and let the experts do the work---you are in your 40s and haven't learned investing yet, so you likely don't have much interest (and that is fine, no need to waste time trying to figure it out when that's literally what mutual funds are for) |
| Invest $1000 per week for the next 3 months. Now is a great time to do it with the market being turbulent. You will learn a lot about your risk tolerance. And I'll go big, I will go VOO. |
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History generally shows that time in the market beats timing the market. In other words, put your money in the market as soon as possible and on average you will be better off than putting in a little at a time. However, given how volatile the market is right now, I would probably break it up into 3 chunks over the next month or so. If the market dropped a lot on a day (say more than 500 points) I would likely put even more than a third in.
Will you not need this money for at least 3-5 years? If you need it sooner for anything, I would think again about putting it in the market. |
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If you are unsure put it in a CD for 1 year. In the meantime learn about the market and your risk tolerance.
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| Put it all in this weekend while the market is down. |