@resjudicata Meh, they deserve it. Perhaps others will see this down the line and it will be helpful in one of two ways:
1. They inherit/win/make (see: SHIB) a large amount of cash and actually don’t know what to do with it.
2. They see the post and realize this is all possible while being enlisted.
@resjudicata Plausibly. I won’t assume anything, nor do I have the time to do the math right now.
If they were single for the majority of the time he could do damn near close. If they made small, good investments this would also be reasonably possible.
Even if we did assume they had some amount of financial boost along the way, the idea that this could encourage someone who has just enlisted to become financially savvy, is still good.
@resjudicata No inheritance or anything. My wife worked making roughly $15/hr before staying home with our three kids since daycare was so damn expensive. We've saved money where we could and managed to invest between $30K-$36K per year for more than a decade, the majority of which has been a bull market.
@resjudicata No, no flex. I was hoping that someone had some advice which I had not considered or some sort of investment/business idea which I could use the money for. I just hate having the money sitting around not earning anything.
@nick220 I would honestly just throw it into a normal brokerage account with about the exact same funds as you have in your IRA. Keep it diversified, but not too conservative. Depending on your goals in life, you still need some pretty good growth on this money to retire very comfortably.
@holywalk Yeah, that's kind of what I'm leaning towards. Most all of my investments right now are either S&P 500 index funds or Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index (VTI). I was holding about 20% in a bond fund in early 2020 but rotated that money into VTI when the market tanked during covid.
@nick220 I was in a similar-ish position when I received a small inheritance. I paid off my student loans and threw the rest in a Vanguard brokerage account. It's all in VTSAX with the admiral shares and I'm just letting it ride until I need it or until I FIRE.
@nick220 The problem is your time horizon. Do you really want this money as a down payment in 6 years? Long term the market is great. 6 years it's a crapshoot. You can reduce that risk by going half bonds half stock index to trade off potential gains for risk.
If you're not going to need this money in 6 years for a new house, then you already know how to put it into an index fund. Don't try and time the market because no one knows if we're about to fall off the cliff or double. Time in the market is more important than trying to time the market.
@paulx2016 Exactly. Until I figure out the 5-year plan, I questioned throwing this into the stock market right now. That's the only reason I had contemplated paying down the mortgage faster, it would act as a value store of sorts, similar to a bond (somewhat). Perhaps the answer is to invest half, put the other half toward the house. I dunno, I'll stew over it some more. Thanks!
@nick220 Start building a strong dividend portfolio. You want some passive income to help cover between your military retirement and when you will be eligible to take out the funds in your ROTH. If you DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment) for the next 6 years you could add over 2K in dividend income on top of your military retirement. It could give you the option of not working after your military retirement.
I started doing this at around my 7 years to retirement mark. I am still a few years away but I have 50k in passive income from dividends (that I still reinvest). You can definitely get to 2k a month before you retire. Good Luck
@johnnyvee333 I've been half hoping the market would take a 20% dump right now so I could load up on some high yield equities/ETFs and take advantage of increased yields. $50K in dividend income is awesome. What kind of yields are you getting to achieve $50K/year?
@nick220 People have been talking about a 15-20% dump for the last 10 years. I am not saying it isn't going to happen but folks that didn't get in 10 years ago missed a hell of a Bull run.
@johnnyvee333 You're 100% right. I'm still surprised how quickly it bounced back after the initial covid drop. I'd probably just feel better dollar cost averaging into the market over several months as opposed to just investing a lump sum.
