I inherited $3 million - investment suggestions?

Create a truly elite running club. Maybe get Rupp, Farah, Jager, Centro, and Lutz all under one roof training together and chasing medals and WR times.

It sounds like you are in a position where you should be thinking about preserving the principal more than earning a return. If i was in your shoes I would put 1/3 into laddered CDs of about $200K each, 1/3 into an S&P500 index fund and 1/3 into a good intermediate term bond fund.

With $3 million I think a wealth management adviser becomes both feasible and advisable. They could put together a well designed portfolio that goes beyond just stocks and bonds. Something that will have a strong floor underneath it when the stock market goes sharply south, yet earns decent yearly returns. They will give you tax friendly investments where the income generated is taxed less than wages.

My mom could use a house and a car if you have some spare thousands.

My advice?--don't ask financial advice on Letsrun.com.

If you are from a small struggling community, reinvest it in the community by buying or starting a small business, do something that improves the quality of life in that community.

if you are from a large city, create a charity that helps homeless people obtain employment.

Retire and hire a maid or butler. (employ someone)

Start a farm, so that future generations of your family will always have an asset that generates income and possible employment.

Buy a lake house, and set it up as a family trust that can't be sold. That way future generations will have means and opportunity to come together.

Set up a fixed trust fund for yourself. Set that base amount (say 2 million) aside, and get $100,000 a year . Money market , Gold . Buy land . Don't gamble on the NYSE.

What is your best 5K time?

Talk with your local high school about doing a scholarship program for the track and field athletes.

Blahbaba wrote:

If you are from a small struggling community, reinvest it in the community by buying or starting a small business, do something that improves the quality of life in that community.

if you are from a large city, create a charity that helps homeless people obtain employment.

^^This.

I always thought that if i had enough money and time, i would work to resolve issues within my community that nobody wants to deal with. The key would be to be completely involved in the process and know who is working on the issues. If you just turn the money over to "a cause", it'll just get piddled away.

Hookers and blow. If you are the type of person who seriously asks the LetsRun trolls for financial advice, that's where your money is likely to end up anyway.

if you were really comfortable even before the inheritance, then I'd say you are done investing - just spread it around to FDIC insured bank accounts, keeping under the limits. You won't make any money, but so what?

unless you want to leave money after your death - then you need a portfolio that will beat inflation. I'd talk to vanguard about that.

as for charity...the main question is how much and if you want it to survive after your death. so maybe you say 'I want to give away a million dollars in the next 10 years' - then save the rest and give it away in your will.

the key is time horizons.

I'd suggest that you hire a fee-only Certified Financial Planner professional. You'll only need to see your advisor face-to-face once or twice a year, so you should be willing to travel to find a good one. As a former CFP myself, I'd probably hire someone else to manage the assets if I were in your position. There is a big difference between managing your own money and objectively managing money. When it's your own money, it tends to mess with your head. It's too easy to make emotional decisions.

if I was in your shoes wrote:

It sounds like you are in a position where you should be thinking about preserving the principal more than earning a return. If i was in your shoes I would put 1/3 into laddered CDs of about $200K each, 1/3 into an S&P500 index fund and 1/3 into a good intermediate term bond fund.

Rule #1 of the oldest endowment funds in the world is the principal yield has to beat inflation every year so the fund maintains current/future value. Beyond that, the yield is used as an endowment.

Your strategy is going to get hammered by inflation since banks are paying below inflation. Bonds are a bad choice. What might be smarter is a dividend asset strategy.

But, the general idea of using the fund yield above inflation as an annual endowment is smart.

pop_pop! wrote:

if I was in your shoes wrote:

It sounds like you are in a position where you should be thinking about preserving the principal more than earning a return. If i was in your shoes I would put 1/3 into laddered CDs of about $200K each, 1/3 into an S&P500 index fund and 1/3 into a good intermediate term bond fund.

Rule #1 of the oldest endowment funds in the world is the principal yield has to beat inflation every year so the fund maintains current/future value. Beyond that, the yield is used as an endowment.

Your strategy is going to get hammered by inflation since banks are paying below inflation. Bonds are a bad choice. What might be smarter is a dividend asset strategy.

But, the general idea of using the fund yield above inflation as an annual endowment is smart.

but OP isn't an endowment meant to last forever. He is one man, who will die in 20 years. and who has way more than enough money for himself. He does't have to beat inflation if he is concerned only with his life. if he gets 1or 2% below the inflation rate in a bank account...so the heck what?

but yeah if he has concerns beyond his lifetime then he needs some actual investments.

Solar and wind! You'll save the world. Trust me, it's just a few years away. Really. This time it's just a few years way.

Sir Octane wrote:

My advice?--don't ask financial advice on Letsrun.com.

My advice. Don't pay for financial advice.

Investment advisors are the modern day snake oil salesmen. Their advice is worthless or worse -- and quite expensive

Move to Costa Rica and your money value increases a lot!

pathfinder wrote:

Solar and wind! You'll save the world. Trust me, it's just a few years away. Really. This time it's just a few years way.

The point here isn't to invest the money but to use it for good. One idea, along the lines of something that is rehabilitating Buffalo right now, is to pick a city with very good solar power potential and to use the money as seed money for larger grants to generate labor intensive local solar operations with vacant post-industrial sites for installing solar on a large scale and training locals up to install rooftop/home solar panels for large #'s of local households, with both enterprises being nonprofit and funded in part by proceeds from sale of the power, a la the for-profit Solar City. You want it to be labor intensive for maximum local effect, and you want it subsidized to make it cheap enough to make a substantial dent in local power use in households.