Excellent plan!Would greatly appreciate advice/thoughts on below:
I’m female (turning 45yrs old in 2 months) and only have 4k saved for retirement in my portfolio at Vanguard (VTSAX). Awful and it feels terrifying and is making me feel tremendously stressed out. It is literally all I ever think about. It is 100% my fault and stupidity with bad decisions in my life and I feel disgusted with myself. I need to FIX this problem because I cannot continue like this. My plan is:
I live in a house that I had gutted/fully renovated which, when sold, would get me about 600k liquid cash as almost 95% of mortgage has been paid off (I’ve been meeting with realtors because I wish to list my house in 2025). I am extremely unhappy where I live because of the climate and would be much happier if I lived in cooler weather again where there are four seasons. My plan is to buy much cheaper house as my new primary residence for hopefully in the 200s range (it would be fixer upper). I LOVE fixer upper full gut jobs and have been through a few). I would put about 100k or 150k cash down on the new house and would have about a 100k or 150k mortgage I will pay off in 2 years.
If I pocket 600k cash from the sale of my current house (this is nontaxable as it’s from sale of my primary residence where lived more than 2 yrs) then I want to invest a large portion of those funds into my 3 fund portfolio at Vanguard being VTSAX / VTIAX / VBTLX (asset allocation to be determined).
If I can accomplish the above I will not only be much happier living in cooler climate again but I will be far less stressed knowing that I have invested at least 400k or possibly 500k or worst case 300k into my vanguard portfolio that will grow compounding interest so that in 20 years when I’m 65 I will hopefully have about 2M in my portfolio. I will of course be feeding portfolio along the way. I have Roth, Traditional IRA and Brokerage account at Vanguard.
This house I currently live in is all I own. It is all I have. But this house, I am miserable living in, is also tying down all my equity. Equity I feel should be invested for my future and retirement so that I will be OK when I am older. Considering the equity in this house is all I have, this is very scary move for me to invest majority of it into my portfolio at Vanguard. But it now feels far scarier knowing that my primary residence I am miserable living in is also sabotaging my ability to retire in the future! Because this (ridiculously too expensive) roof over my head is tying down ALL my equity I feel should be invested for my retirement instead.
If all went well with my above plan, I would have a cheaper roof over my head (mortgage fully paid off) and in climate I am MUCH happier living in and I would have a good sizeable amount of funds growing in my portfolio at Vanguard.
Any thoughts or advice on my plan above would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I need to find flat fee financial advisor for (advice only) on my above plan mostly because it is scary to invest so much of my nest egg at Vanguard. I read Bogleheads guide to investing etc. I guess I know the very basics but that’s about it. I’m trying to find advice from fee only financial advisor but it seems difficult?
I guess what I’m really seeking is reassurance on my above plan.
1
Sell home. Cash gives you options. Lot's of options. Freedom to go anywhere and rent based on your occupation.
2
With 600k in hand, you do not need to pay part of that hard earned money to a Financial Advisor Salesperson in fees and commissions and so forth. The financial industry is highly predatory, everyone wants you to pay them to "help you with your money". Right?
3
Putting the 600k in a 3 fund low cost index fund portfolio is wise......but....
however.......
It depends on your future plans, where you live, rent, income/work, if you have any debt right now, etc.
4
What are your income streams right now?
Expenses?
etc.
5
Selling your existing home and having cash in hand is assumed. Can you do that asap?
6
Now.....ask the "bogleheads"...."I have 600k from the sale of my home"..."my situation and goals are this and such and so forth"..."so, now what?".
7
To do that, we need more information.
You can make a new post or edit this one using the pencil icon to include this data.
Portfolio Review Request
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewt ... =1&t=6212
8
Are you no longer going to do "flippers"??
9
Renting for now is fine and gives you options to find places to "settle" and work, etc.
10
Again...are you ever going to feel like taking some or all of your 600k and doing flipping again????
11
If not....then what?
Okay?
j
I early retired FIRE at agae 58, 14 years ago. DW and I bought a "flipper" at a bank auction fo 300k in cash. It was a million dollar home with severe water damage and needed everything, in and out.
We put in from 2-300k over the next 12 years, and then another 300k in property upgrades, buildings, etc. The property is now worth at least 2 mil and is our retirement home. It came out so nice and is on 20 acres that we decided on that instead of flipping. So, you never know how things will turn out.
Statistics: Posted by Sandtrap — Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:36 pm