Robert, Can you please provide more background on yourself- age? working? will the funds be needed in the next few years? Are the funds ultimately for retirement?
Seb, I believe Bobbie is correct. If your wife's employer has good investment options, then it might make sense to rollover those funds to avoid the RMD for now.
Ann -- Do whatever you just did to post your question :)
Robert, people used to ask my contractor husband to give them an estimate over the phone re: painting their house. Of course he couldn't as he had no idea of what they were talking about. Well that is kind of like your question. We would need a lot of context for a good answer. Why not spend a little on an hourly fee only advisor so you can get a good answer? That said, be sure to have keep a good cash emergency fund. Then perhaps use a target date fund for the remainder. Vanguard has good ones.
Zane, if you're truly looking for low-risk, then you might try shopping around for a good savings account. Many online banks now offer rates in the 1.00% range. It's still not great, but it beats the 0.10% or some other ridiculously low rate many other banks are paying right now. With that said, keep in mind that even a savings account has risks over the long-term if you're talking about retirement investments. In this case, it's the risk that your savings won't keep up with inflation and possibly lower your future standard of living.
Zane the best rates I've found are at Ally Bank of Capital One 360 but we are still talking perhaps 1% (Ally offers a good rate on checking as well). Why not dollar cost average (invest an equal amount monthly...this can be set up to be automatic) into funds over the next year to ease the pain of a potential market decline? Be sure to keep enough cash for any purchases/needs in the next few years as well as an emergency fund.
That's about all we have time for in this edition of Maximize Your Money. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question, and we're so sorry we weren't able to get to everyone.
Anita, one caution. If you do meet someone who says they do know exactly what you should do without doing a plan, be very careful. Sometimes an "advisor" is selling a product that they think is the perfect solution for anybody or anything.
And, a big thank you to all of the NAPFA planners who were on hand to take questions today!
Please join us for our next chat on September 15. We're looking forward to answering more of your questions.
That you Kiplinger for making this possible!
Seb, ask your wife's employer if her coverage would change it all if she was enrolled in Medicare part A. That will help determine if it makes sense to enroll now or wait until she stops working. As for Medicare Part B, Kiplinger has a good resource with some more information that might be helpful... http://www.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/T039-C000-S004-should-you-enroll-in-medicare-if-you-still-work.html
Robert, people used to ask my contractor husband to give them an estimate over the phone re: painting their house. Of course he couldn't as he had no idea of what they were talking about. Well that is kind of like your question. We would need a lot of context for a good answer. Why not spend a little on an hourly fee only advisor so you can get a good answer? That said, be sure to have keep a good cash emergency fund. Then perhaps use a target date fund for the remainder. Vanguard has good ones.
