Can you put any of your income in an additional IRA or Roth not connected to your employer? If you can I would put as much as you are allowed in a Roth.

When you find a financial advisor I would invest in mutual funds and do the three main ones, Stock, Bond, and government bonds. If one goes up another may go down. If you want to do individual stocks pick one that has the reinvestment option. Put a substantial amount in cash or CD's so if you want something you can have it. But first take some of the money and do something for yourself like a vacation or hiring someone to do something that you have wanted to do but did not have time. Currently I am looking at the walls that are needing painting so something like that.

To many it will sound silly but purchase US Savings bonds. They are still promising that they will double if held to maturity. Any money you use is already taxed so you would only pay Federal taxes on the interest.

Mutual funds keep coming up as a good option so I'll explore that further. Thanks to both of you for responding and giving me some ideas. I've made an appointment next week for a free consultation - looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Just be sure that whoever does the "free" consultation isn't selling anything. New rules were just announced, but won't be in place until 2018. Be sure to read up on the new rules so that you'll be more aware of how the industry does business.

The reason for mutual funds is that they hold stocks/bonds, etc. from several companies rather than just one. It helps spread your liability. The reason for the three groups I suggested is that when stocks go down bonds go up. It then reverses when bonds go down. Government type is generally stable but does not earn much in a mutual fund. There are all types of mutual funds for you to choose. Another suggestion is to select one that you can add and withdraw money at any time without a penalty. Do not worry when things go down which is the reason to spread your risk. Always remember Taxes.

I find it amazing that advice is being given as to types of accounts and types of investments without anyone asking the OP what his or her age is.. or is it believed that "(approximately a million years ago now)" is telling?

I'm here and still reading along. My consultation got moved to later this week so I'm appreciative of all the advice.

Hi Patrice. DH and I are in our sixties. At this point, we are ultraconservative to the point of not caring whether the money in our investment accounts grows substantially--we just don't want what we have to do the type of vanishing act seen in earlier market downturns. We let our funds ride out those times, and they did come back, but our time frame for dipping into the funds is much shorter now, hence our tolerance for risk is much lower. When we spoke to an advisor at Fidelity a few months ago, he suggested that we might be most comfortable with laddering CDs. We began to do that immediately and plan to purchase a CD each month until we have 12 one-year CDs. The CDs are doing better than our money market accounts. Interest rates are still terrible and do not outpace the inflation rate, but for now we are happy with this low-stress approach.

Thanks Probookie. I have a few jumbo CDs and the rate of return is so horrible that I'm willing to get just a little bit crazier than that. ;) I understand everyone's tolerance for risk is different, but the rate of return on CDs is so bad that I can't fathom tying anymore money up in them right now. Appreciate the post though. :)

What a person decides to do with their money is up to them. Most of the suggestions have been of a general type that covers all ages. A person has to choose their own investment style. My main suggestion was to spread with investments covering a range of options. One thing that I did not mention was to keep some money free so you have options.

In general, higher returns are from investments with higher risk. So you need to decide how much return you need and how much risk you are comfortable with. Treasuries are considered safe. Bonds are rated as to their safety. Some municipal bonds have quite high ratings.

I am in my late sixties and having seen my parents living on borrowed money I decided early on that I would not do that. Recently my husband who has dementia lost the use of his legs. Not having things in place I had to obtain a guardianship. In doing this my attorney asked if I could live only on what I owned. I set up a separate bank account for this and found that I could barely get by. I am lucky I could cash in my E bonds to cover the rest of my expenses, car payment, house and car taxes, and insurance on them. Every time I changed jobs I put the retirement funds in CD's. Most things do not pay more than a couple of dollars of current interest. Having invested in the E bonds I could cash one a month for years.

The reason I suggest the Roth is that when I finally start withdrawing from my 401 we will be in a higher tax bracket unless I decide to file separate. Roth's were not available during most of my working years or I would probably have them. The downside of spreading things is that when I die some things might be missed since most of my things are handled electronically.

The downside of spreading things is that when I die some things might be missed since most of my things are handled electronically.

Then part of your will/succession planning/whatever you want to call it is documentation of all of those assets -- company, account numbers, IDs/passwords, etc.

My wife knows how to get into my computer and find the (encrypted) document that lists all our "stuff". My password manager program will get her into our investment plans on the Web.

Electronics may make a lot of investment simpler, but you can't just leave your loved ones with the digital equivalent of a shoebox of receipts and transaction forms. It really does not take long to put together a system that protects what you so much energy into creating.

And what happens if she dies close to you?

Then we extend it to dear daughter. DW actually put the master password in her book of secrets that DD knows about, and, DD being in the 30-year-old range, wouldn't have much of a problem finding the doc on my computer and is no stranger to password managers. Not worried about this.

Spend as much time as you can on bogleheads.org and look into Vanguard mutual funds.

steve_o Your comment exactly. I have 2 protected files on my laptop literally titled, "If I Die #1" (instructions) and "If I Die #2" (spreadsheets) for my husband which lists all financial information, insurance, account numbers, contacts, what bills come out when etc. We talk about money but he'd really rather not be bothered so he'd be screwed if I were to pass away. Come to think of it, we are getting ready to get wills and POA's drawn up for the first time so I should probably just put it in there for our executors.

I hope you are aware that POA's die with you. Therefore no need for your executors to have them. They can only be used before you die. Having gone though several computer's from the floppy disk on if the documents are important I make hard copies and computer backups.

Is your computer connected to internet?

What's the possibility that someone could make off with some of your assets?

Or hold your material in the computer for ransom?

Or block it, so that you can't get the stuff out at all?

What avenue do you follow if your computer dies?

Wouldn't it be wise to have paper-based back-up?

ole joyful

Joyful that is something that people seem to think never happens. Having gone through floppies, disks, etc. I know technology changes. With each change some things will no longer be transferable from one computer to the other. Having had a couple of computers just die and been unable to recover the information on them without paying more than the cost of a new computer I now print off the important stuff. USB's are good but with my last computer I noticed that the slots have changed sizes. This is especially true if you switch to or from a Mac.

Glad to see you back. I am glad that you are feeling better.