re: Looking for some advice (Investing)

Just FYI,

If you inherit money, it is usually yours alone and not joint property, unless you comingle the money intentionally or unintentionally.

Deposit the money in a newly opened bank account that is yours only (not joint).

Move it to a newly opened investment account that is yours only (not joint).

Don't deposit any joint money into the above accounts, keep them for this inheritance only.

This is your money to invest for your retirement.

Not investment advice, but maybe life advice.

Set up interviews with three fiduciary FAs. Ask them what they will specifically do with your money, how they get paid, what guarantees they can give you, and how is it any different than you investing your money in a 80/20 VTI-SCHD or VOO-VTV yourself.

Take that information and discuss pros and cons with your wife. You need to see what each of your risk tolerances is and how comfortable you are with not touching the investments at the first sign of a recession or selloff or terrible news.

Then you can make an informed decision on what to do. Most on here are seasoned investors and have scars of lessons learned. Easy for is to say just VTI/VONE/VOO and forget it. But you need to know yourself and make the best decision for you and your wife.

Good job on no outstanding debt besides student loans and seeking input. And good luck!

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I like him. He discourages me from taking money out of the brokerage, and he gives guidance on tax advantages with retirement strategies.

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For the last couple of years my position has been this:
- grow your money on your own.
- seek retirement/tax management advice from a professional.

This could look like an annual appointment though.

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Were finishing our lease before buying a house. Don't really want to cut into this inheritance to use towards the house.

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How do you plan to fund the down payment? Set some extra savings aside. First year in a house is inevitably going to be more expensive than you expected. Plus, with a mortgage and home to maintain you're gonna want a bigger emergency fund.

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Don’t know what the interest rate is on the student debt but I’d be claustrophobic about paying it off.

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Its more than the inheritance. Law school is expensive. I wish I could just wipe it out but I can't.

An AUM advisor is going to take 1% every year. That isn't worth it, IMHO, when you can just fire and forget a S&P 500 fund.

Caveat: The market is overbought right now and there is likely a correction coming. Are you rational enough to realize that if you are down 25% (meaning, your $100k drops to $75k - on paper) that if you wait, you will recover and keep going?

You have 28 years. In no realistic model should your $100k not be around $620k to $750k at age 65. Virtually any other option will either result in you losing actual value to inflation (cash, HYSA) or you'll effectively be
gambling (Crypto, individual stocks, etc.)

With sudden influxes like this - if there isn't an obvious one like a 12% (or worse) auto loan, 5-figures of consumer debt, etc., then a simple, one time buy of a S&P index fund is literally a no brainer. With 28 years to go, you have an easy buy of a significant retirement upgrade.

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OP: QQQ is the Nasdaq 100 (all the biggest tech stocks are heavily weighted toward the top).
It's higher risk, higher reward, and more volatile because of it.
It is up 88% over the last 5 years while the S&P is up 70%.

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Bro, don't you even tech bubble?

The only really important decision is what to do with the debt. If the terms of the loan aren’t bad, I’d be VERY cautious about aggressively paying it off.

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Set up interviews with three fiduciary FAs.

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I don't like that advice. These guys are salesmen. They will talk a good game and you will definitely hire one if you start interviewing them.

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They are absolutely salesman. I guess I go into things like this knowing I’m not going to sign up for anything. Did the same thing for my roof and A/C and vehicles. I’ll tell them I’m not signing up for anything and I just want info and I’m meeting with others. If you hard sell me, I’m walking to the door. I just want the info.

Part of the reason I said this is because it’s good for the wife to hear this and you can say, “see, they are doing the same thing I was going to do, but it’s going to cost us more money with no guarantee.”

But I agree with everyone else, it’s usually easy enough to invest yourself without paying unnecessary fees. I think we just need to realize everyone isn’t as savvy as the posters on this board.