I'm intentionally making this a broad question. I'm not looking for "invest in XYZ and make a million dollars a year forever and live on an island." It's more of, "what overarching principles do I need to follow?" Here's my situation: When I was 18, I was given $300k and an annuity with a 3% increase each year for the rest of my life. Now, I have around $400k and the annuity is around $2500/month. I've worked most of the time since I was 18, except maybe 1 year when I was in school full time. I plan on going to trade school next year, but still working part-time, and after trade school I'll probably start around $40k per year and max out around $70k per year. I haven't bought lavish things with the money, except my car, which was $30k 5 years ago, and should last me at least another 5 years. I listened to The Intelligent Investor audiobook this year, and the main thing I got from it was, "You can invest in individual stocks, but professionals do that and seldom beat the market. It's best to invest in index funds." Which I want to do, but the market seems so inflated right now. I know they say don't time the market, so I'm thinking of starting a vanguard account with the minimum starting amount and maybe putting in 500 a month. I've looked at real estate for the purpose of flipping and/or renting, but I saw kind of the same thing. A house assessed at 100k needed 20k in work and was selling for 80k. It seemed like too much risk. And Real estate agents would tell me just how great of a deal it was, and I'd make a killing, but why has the house been on the market for 4 months then? I've heard of people going to financial managers, or wealth managers (is there a difference?) and when I was 18 my parents took me to one, who offered to introduce me to her daughter (no joke), so that kind of turned me away from that. I got my first credit card this month at 23, mainly because for years my parents told me how bad they were and I shouldn't get one, because they burned up so many. I plan on getting another one next year to help build more credit. I was scared for years of doing anything with my money, like building credit, investing, etc. Now, I'm trying to set goals and make decisions that will benefit me in the future. As far as goals,I can see myself buying a house, for me, in the next 2 years, and maybe in 5 or 6 I'll need a new car. If I came across a house that would be a good rental, I could see myself buying it, as part of building more income for myself. I'm sorry if this is all over the place, I'm not the best writer. My main goal is to be in the best financial situation possible, I guess. What do you think?
Submitted November 22, 2017 at 11:52AM by Bogeelicious http://ift.tt/2zYKNZz
