I guess I just got an offer on my condo on the edge of Portland, OR.
Now what am I going to do with the money? I hesitate having it in my checking account since I am getting my boney ass down to Costa Rica. Have girlfriend I am going to try living with.
I am thinking. . .
Renting for awhile is a given, but what if I was to put the money into a Charles Schwab self-directed brokerage account? At 3% interest, a new mortgage in Portland looks pretty enticing but my mind/body want to be traveling.
Any ideas? I am finding myself in many fortunate positions these days.
I-bonds were paying 7% last November. Not sure if they still are, and can only
invest $10k per year per social security # at Treasury Direct. So not any big deal,
but can get safely get a few bucks back, instead of that $10k sitting in a very low interest
rate CD. I won’t be getting the full 7%, as the I-bond can be sold at a penalty of 3 months
interest after 1 year, but I figure 75% of 7% is a whole lot better than 100% of 0.7%, which is
what I’m seeing 1 year CD’s on bankrate being listed at. Rates are also revised every 6 months, but I’m guessing that there won’t be any big change when the next rate set is done.
As far as stocks, we are definitely down from recent ATH’s ( lol, that’s an understatement ),
but haven’t seen much reason to think it doesn’t go lower or sideways for awhile.
I guess it depends on your time frame and asset allocation. Might be better to earn
next to nothing in CD’s or MM fund than risk your condo capital on stocks ( assuming you’ll be
needing that money at some point for housing ).
Enjoy Costa Rica, sounds like life is pretty good !
ocd, and I don’t expect this to happen on this board, but just wanted to say I’m fully
aware that an I-bond and a CD are not 100% equivalent, and that bonds have risks that
CD’s do not have.
I had a similar event occur last October. I ended up putting a large chunk in a stock I thought I would own.
Ticker “T”. Got in just under 25$ share with a yield of some 8%. I am still wondering if I am crazy or just crazy lucky so far.
Purchase home/condo. Airbnb it with a manager or cleaner to take care of it & when you are ready… enjoy your new house already partially paid for by airbnb guests. Just a thought
Good luck, sounds like good liven ahead. Enjoy the world
Hey, since you are at a loss as to what to do, I can use some to top off a few positions
Seriously, looks like a great time to buy at least something.
Since I care about travel and not houses, if I did not have a family I would totally consider selling my house today for 3.5X what I paid in 2010, investing half, and getting a modestly sized but well equipped RV
I guess I would need a biggish trailer for my books, and I cannot live w/o a desktop with 2 big screens (not for trading, but for work!) but I really don’t care for the rest, lol.
I sold an apartment in November to add funds to my stock portfolio. At the time I though the market was high so I held on to the cash. (Now if only I applied that thinking to the rest of my portfolio and liquidated some holdings, I wouldn’t be crying over my breakfast every morning!) So going by past tech / growth drawdowns - see link, the Nasdaq has some downside catching up to do. If we see another 10% drop in the Nasdaq then I will start scaling in to QQQ or perhaps just GOOG, AMZN, APPL, MSFT. Hopefully I can stop being in shock and paralysis at what happened to my growth portfolio and step into action soon
My sleep well at night rule that I’ve used while retired is not to have any funds in the market that I could conceivably need in the next 5 years. With that I can pretty much ride any economic storm.
I’ve put some “bridge” money (money that will cover me from retirement to whenever we start collecting social security) into a couple of MYGA. They are annuities somewhat similar to CDs but not FDIC insured.
In my case I bought 2 about a year apart and get 2.4% a year on the money and it is tax deferred. Sure you might make more in the market but I’m not willing to go all in on the market and it was a more than anything I could get in a 3 yr CD. I think some rates are closer to 3% now.
Make sure you understand rules/taxes/state insurance/etc. on them if you go that route.
