401 Rollover --need advice asap

[Guest charxyz]

Hi

I need help - I recently retired, did a rollover from 401 to traditional IRA Money Market until I decide which investments to move funds. I am an extremely conservative investor.

Since the market is not stable, I would like to put

25% of funds into a 3 yr cd paying 4.4

25% of funds into a 4 yr cd paying 4.6

50% of funds into a 3 month cd (paying almost nothing)

I would like to make a decision in a few months about the 3 month cd.

Any thoughts or advice??

Also , any thoughts if i move the available amount out of my brokerage firm to an investor in 3 months?

thank you for any help

char

[masteff]

The general advice would be to not sell out of the stock market while it's down. The market is well below it's long term trend line, so when the market recovers it will move up. The problem is that no one can predict the timing of "when".

Since you only recently retired, you have many years of retirement ahead of you. Life, hopefully, doesn't end at retirement (or else we've all been saving for the wrong reasons). Point being.... some part of your money should still be invested in the market so you benefit from long term appreciation and dividends. So maybe part into CDs and part into a mutual fund. Something like a blended mutual fund, that contains both stocks and bonds, would be a good option. Or even just the S&P 500 index.

Remember: it's buy low, sell high... not the other way around.

[JanetM]

You are asking for advice in a vacuum. We would need to know you age, financial situation (are you getting pension, SSA $, rental income) other assets, insurance coverage and risk aversion.

You could consult a fee-only planner to review the complete picture and see if you are doing the right thing.

[GMK]

The previous posts are good advice.

For investments in CD's, consider staggering the dates they pay out, if possible, so they mature in different months throughout the year, maybe quarterly, maybe monthly. That way, some of the money is available if you need it that month, and you don't have to wait until the one magic month to get at your money.

[Guest charxyz]

Thank you All - for your comments.

Sorry - I didnt provide complete financial picture when I posted my original question.

I'm in burbs of Phila area and having trouble finding a fee-only financial advisor but will keep on searching. (For personal reasons, I would like someone with over 15 yrs experience.)...I suppose I'm interested in your financial thoughts so that I have my ducks in a row when I find a financial advisor.

Sorry - i did not provide my finan situation previously-- here goes:

Status: single female , age 63, recently forced into retirement.

Income: 600/mo pension and 900/mo SS.

Monthly expenses approx. 1,500.

Savings approx. 50,000 in Mutual Funds in stocks and losing value rapidly.

Asset: own home, valued at approx. 150,000.

Debt: credit card at approx. 2,000.

IRA is 90,000 recently rolled over to a 4 yr and 3 mo CD

Risk Tolerance: none , since I will prob live till 90.

Thank you again for any further thoughts on my 401 rollover to 'CD' investments.

Regards,

Char

[JanetM]

Char, have to been on CFP site. Here is the search page for a CFP.

http://www.cfp.net/search/

Another site is napfa.org

Peter @ FGC are you out there? Maybe you can suggest someone to Char.

[GMK]

In my opinion,

Step one is to pay off the credit card debt.

Look at your credit card bill to see how much interest you won't have to shell out every month thereafter. Keeping the $2000 in savings will never earn enough to pay the credit card interest.

And then pay the total balance due each month.

[masteff]

Status: single female , age 63

Risk Tolerance: none , since I will prob live till 90.

These two items are actually contradictory. If you expect to live for another 27 years, then you have a fairly long investment time line. What's tricky is that you need a mix of current income and future income.

Right now, your biggest enemy is inflation. You need part of your money to grow at least as fast as inflation so when you need that money in 27 years, it will actually be able to pay the bills you need it to pay.

This is why many sample portfolios for someone in their 60's includes a small portion of stocks, say 20-40%. This exposure to stocks will allow part of your money to grow and help you fight inflation. Therefore, I would strongly encourage you to keep part of your money in an index fund. Don't try to pick a fancy fund with fancy investment strategies, just a plain simple S&P 500 index. So as the market recovers, then a portion of your money will grow and in 20+ years when things cost more than they do now, you'll be able to afford it.

(Oh, and GMK's right on... pay off that credit card and don't run it back up. You're on a fixed income and the interest you're paying to the card company is eating away at money that could go to better purposes later on.)