Hi. I'm 36 years old and I have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). I was diagnosed in April of 2015 and, thankfully, have a slow progression that has allowed me to work until this past November. I am now on short-term disability through an insurance company which will transition to long-term in a few months. Today I applied for Social Security Disability, which I am guaranteed to get with my diagnosis. Together, with the insurance, I will make 60% of my most recent salary. My parents just moved in with me to help with my care, as I will soon be in a wheelchair.
I've been thinking a lot of my portfolio allocation. I have 56% of my money in various indexes (mostly S&P and TMI). I only have 3% in bonds. The other 40% is in various stocks, usually more growth-minded/risky.
The thing about ALS is that I don't know how much longer I will live. I have a very slow progression (thankfully!), the average ALS patient lives 3-5 years after diagnosis. I need my cash to last me an unknown amount of time, but I probably won't make it 10 years. After that, I want to leave as much as I can to my daughter (currently 8 years old).
I'm going to cut my spending and increase my investments...but I'm struggling with my portfolio allocation. I want to maximize my returns, but I know that you should go more conservative as you near the end.
Any thoughts from the experts here on how to go about my investing?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: I’ve already setup my will so my daughter gets everything at age 25 (assuming I’m gone by then). The executor has been instructed to leave everything as it is until that time. Then there are further instructions to her to hire a fee based advisor if she needs help with investing.
Submitted January 01, 2019 at 11:32PM by lenmccart http://bit.ly/2Aq1b4Z
