The Personal Finance Podcast - How to Invest $1 Million (A Simple Strategy To Invest a Lump Sum)

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Starting point is 00:00:56 Find your advisor at IG Private Wealth.com. On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, how to invest $1 million a simple strategy to invest a lump sum. What's up, everybody, and welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of mastermoney.com. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to be diving into how to invest $1 million, a simple strategy to invest a lump sum. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money, newsletter by going to mastermoney.co slash newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify,

Starting point is 00:01:51 Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player, you love listening to this podcast on it. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Now, in this episode, we are going to be talking about what to do with a larger amount of money. Now, there are a number of different reasons why someone would get a big lump sum of money. And for some of you out there, you're going to be saying to yourself, well, how will this episode help me? Well, if you ever stumble upon a larger amount of money, maybe it is for an inheritance and, you know, somebody in your family passes away and they give you an inheritance. This is how I would think about the inheritance.

Starting point is 00:02:27 Or maybe you go out and you sell a business. And so you get this big differentiator in your life where you go out and sell a business and you don't know what to do with those dollars after you sold that business. You put your heart and soul into the business. You spent all your time in your business and you were not thinking about anything else and you don't know what to do with that. money. Or maybe you sold some real estate. Maybe you sold your home or you refinanced the house and or you had an insurance payout for property loss and so you got a big, big payout there. Or maybe you had some big investments that you sold. Maybe you got into crypto early and sold that. Or maybe you had a big cash out or you want a lawsuit or you had a structured settlement buyout. Or there could be

Starting point is 00:03:06 a number of other different reasons why this could happen to you. If you ever got a big lump sum, I'm going to tell you how I would think about that process and how I would systematically look at this to make sure I put this in the optimal place for what I want to do, how I valued my dollars. Now, the big thing overall is you need to understand that you want to put this in the place that is best for you. This is going to be different for every single person out there. Some people, it may be great to invest those dollars. For some people, it may be better to put them into savings bonds. And for some other people, it may be perfect to put it into real estate. But we're going to talk through how to think about this situation.

Starting point is 00:03:46 Because when you get a lump sum, there is no right answer. But there are answers that are more optimal than maybe others. And so we're going to take you through this step by step so that you understand how this is going to work. In addition, we're going to dive deep into lump sum first dollar cost averaging and what to do when it comes to getting that big lump sum. And we're going to think through what should I think about first before I even think about investing these dollars. I'm also going to talk about portfolios and asset allocation, and I'm going to talk about how to customize this based on your risk tolerance, how to avoid fees, and how to continue to learn and stay calm throughout this entire situation.

Starting point is 00:04:22 So this is going to be an action-packed episodes without further ado. Let's get into it. Okay, so step one is anybody that comes into a lot of money. You need to follow this step first before you do anything else. This is a required step for every single person out there who comes into money, okay? is you need to pause. You need to wait and you need to reflect. Because a lot of times when you get a lump sum like this, it is because of a big life

Starting point is 00:04:49 change. So this could be something like, again, you got an inheritance. Well, if you got an inheritance, that means someone you loved passed away or someone who is a big influence in your life passed away and so they gave you this money. And or let's say you sold a business. Well, you gave your blood, sweat and tears into this business. you went out and sold this business and now you got to figure out what you are going to do. These are major life shifts that we need to make sure that we sit back, reflect, and think about

Starting point is 00:05:17 what we want to do next. You need a cooling off period before you actually make a decision because it is very easy to make an unwise decision after a major life occurrence because we did not spend enough time thinking about what we want to do with our dollars next. And so this, my friends, is going to be the first thing that I want you to do. I want you to pause. I want you to breathe. And I want you to ask yourself a couple of different questions. One, what is the purpose of this money?

Starting point is 00:05:46 What do you want this money to do? Is it for retirement? Do you want to buy your freedom so that you can spend your days doing what you want? Is this for a home down payment? Is it to invest in another business? Or is it for general wealth building? And what your timeline is determines your investment strategy. So when you're trying to decide how to invest these dollars, your timeline is going to be a big,

Starting point is 00:06:08 big deal. Secondly, when will I need to access this money? Anything less than three years? We're not invest in that in the stock market, my friends. Anything less than three years is not going into the stock market because it's too volatile. Anything three to 10 years, you can consider a moderate portfolio. And in anything 10 plus years, you can be more aggressive with stock or index funds or anything else. So that is the second question is, when will you need to access this money? Because if you're asking, yourself right now, I don't really know when I'm going to need this money, then you need to continue the cooling off period in the short run until you can figure out what you want to do with this money. Now, where should you put this money during a cooling off period? High yield savings

Starting point is 00:06:45 account is a great place to put it. Just make sure it has enough FDIC insurance to cover how much money that you actually have. The third question I want you to ask yourself, how would I feel if the market drop 30% tomorrow. This is going to check yourself when it comes to your risk tolerance and how you would handle that. Would you panic and sell? Or, you would you feel? Or, you know, Or would you stay invested for the long term because you understand how compounding works long term? You understand how the market moves. You understand how the market shifts. Would you stay invested?

Starting point is 00:07:14 That's the third question. Number four is when you choose an investment, do you understand what you're investing in? So let's say, for example, you decide, okay, I've spent a little bit of time thinking about this and I want to go all in on real estate. Well, do you understand real estate? Do you understand how to run the numbers with real estate? Do you understand that you can lose your shirt if you do not buy the? property properly? What is your understanding of the asset class? The same goes for,

Starting point is 00:07:40 okay, I want to invest in stocks. Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to invest in index funds, ETFs? You have to think through that process first and stick to what you understand. The simplest form to me is index funds and ETFs. That's why we talk about it so much on this podcast, but there are a number of different ways that you can invest these dollars. Number five is you need to hire a CPA and you need to figure out what are the tax implications. You need to understand the tax implications before you move this money anywhere. You need to understand how much you're going to be paying in taxes. You need to understand, do you need to invest in a tax advantage account? Your CPA is going to help you through this process and they're going to give you some tax strategy. So make sure that the CPA you

Starting point is 00:08:18 choose specializes in tax strategy because if you get a very big lump sum like a million dollar lump sum, you're going to be paying some taxes to Uncle Sam. And so you got to make sure that you have someone in your corner who understands the laws. Number six is do I have high interest debt? So anything above a 6% interest rate, or do I have an emergency fund? Both of those things are required before investing these dollars. So do you at least have three months of an emergency fund in place? And do you have any high interest debt? High interest debt gets paid off first. Then you have to have three months of emergency fund and then built up to six months. So if it's a big enough lump sum, you want to make sure that you have six months of expenses in place before you get the ball rolling on anything else.

Starting point is 00:08:56 And then should you invest it all at once or do you want a dollar cost average? Now we're going to dive deep into that here in a second, and we're going to carve out how to think about this. So as this money is sitting and as you are answering these questions, and I want you to answer these questions yourself, if you have a big lump sum and you're listening to this episode right now, what I want you to do is you need to either pull out a piece of paper, pull out the notes on your phone, and answer these questions first. It is very important to have a plan in place before you make any moves, because I have seen way too many people out there will go and they will get a lump sum and they're saying, oh, I'm going to invest in real estate. And they throw it at

Starting point is 00:09:31 something and make the wrong move. Or they'll say, oh, I'm going to go invest in stocks. And they throw it all into one stock and they have no idea what they're doing. Instead, what you need to do is sit back, relax, and make sure you have a plan in place. So I highly recommend three to six months if it was a big life event. And if it was a huge life event, like selling your business or someone passing away, give it six months before you actually make those moves. Clear your head. Make sure you're in the right frame of mind before everything else happens. Let the dust settle. There is no rush. to getting this money moving right away.

Starting point is 00:10:03 Now, if you've been a long-term investor, you're a long-term listener of the personal finance podcast, you know what you want to do next. More power to you. But for most of you out there, who are trying to figure out what to do with a lump sum, just let the dust settle first so that you can figure out what you want to do. Now, a lot of this episode,

Starting point is 00:10:17 we're going to be talking about investing these dollars in the market because that's what most people end up doing when they get dollars coming in, especially when it comes to a lump sum. So we're going to be talking about the differences between investing the entire lump sum and or dollar cost averaging through. this and we're going to jump into that next. All right, so step two is you have this money coming in,

Starting point is 00:10:37 you decide you want to invest those dollars. Should you choose lump sum or should you dollar cost average? Now, lump sum investing, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is when you get this lump sum in, let's just say you got a million dollars to make this easy. Well, if you got a million dollars in, lump sum investing would state, okay, when I got my million dollars in, I took my cooling off period and I decided what I'm going to do with these dollars, I invested it all at one. into the market. So let's say, for example, you want to invest it in a Warren Buffett portfolio, okay? Well, if you're looking at a Warren Buffett portfolio, which is 90% S&P 500 stocks and 10% total market bonds, if you were looking at that scenario, then you would invest all of it at once

Starting point is 00:11:16 at the time you are ready to get started investing. Now, conversely, maybe you're someone out there is like, I want to see what the market is doing first. I don't want to invest it all at once. And then the market drops completely tomorrow. So instead, I am going to invest $100,000, every single month over the course of the next 10 months or I'm going to invest $50,000 over the course of the next 20 months so that I can dollar cost average and get the average return of what the market would be if I invested during those times. And so for some people out there, it can be emotionally easier to dollar cost average and they may just feel better about this and it reduces their regret if the market drops immediately after investing. But we're going to

Starting point is 00:11:58 dive in to see what the data says about the difference between dollar cost averaging and between lump sum investing to figure out what is best for you. Let's talk about that. So we did some deep dives on some extensive data and we compare lump sum investing first dollar cost averaging. And the amazing thing is there is an overwhelming amount of studies out there that actually analyze the difference between lump sum investing and dollar cost averaging, specifically when you look at historical data. Now, the overwhelming evidence is that lump sum investing tends to outperform dollar cost averaging in most scenarios, simply because it puts money to work in the market sooner. See, stocks and bonds generally rise over the long term. And if you don't believe me,

Starting point is 00:12:40 when I say that, here's my favorite thing to do. This is my favorite exercise for everybody out there. Take out your stock market app on your phone. Just pull it up right now as you're listening to this podcast, unless you're driving, I don't want you to do three things at once. And pull out that stock market app and put it on the longest time horizon you can put on that stock market app. In what direction does that market go? It goes in one direction, which is up. Go pull up an S&P 500 chart since 1928, and in what direction does that market chart go? It goes in one direction. So the earlier that you can get your dollars invested, the more time that you are going to have for those dollars to compound. This is simple historical data. Now, sure, the past is not indicative of what is going to happen

Starting point is 00:13:24 in the future, meaning that there could be a day in time in the future where the market does not go up. But the only thing we have to go off of is historical data. And so that is what we are going to look at. So let's look at a bunch of different studies. First, there was a lump sum often win study and a vanguard analysis of global data found that investing a windfall immediately outperformed the three-month dollar cost averaging plan by about 68% of the time. Similarly, Morningstar did a study that showed that over 10-month periods, lump sum investing beat dollar cost averaging roughly 72% of the time. And over longer horizons, the advantage grows. In 90% of historical 10-year periods, a lump-sum investor ended up with more wealth than a dollar-cost average investor who dribbled money

Starting point is 00:14:10 in over that time frame. So in short, markets generally go in one direction. They trend upward. And so because that lump sum investing typically will outperform dollar cost averaging in most periods. Now, when does dollar cost averaging win? This is the big question that a lot of people are going to have. Well, DCA has historically outperform lump sum investing in a minority of cases. So primarily when there is an immediate market downturn. So say, for example, you invest your dollars and all of a sudden there's a huge recession the next day after you invest those dollars. That is going to be a scenario where maybe dollar cost averaging could outperform lump sum investing. So roughly one third of the scenarios in one morning star analysis favored dollar cost averaging, mainly. those involved bare markets or sharp corrections. So for example, during the 2000 to 2002 tech bust, an investor who spread a lump sum into the market over that two and a half year downturn saw far smaller losses about negative 1.75% annually than a lump sum investor who put all the money in the market at the peak, which is a 13.8% annual loss. So a lot of times, if you're going to lose money in this scenario, it is because there is a huge, steep,

Starting point is 00:15:21 market differentiator or crazy market correction that happens that is not normal. Now, either study, when you look at the data, is better than cash. So most importantly, either strategy beats leaving the money in cash. And if you're debating between lump sum or dollar cost averaging, at least choose one and just go with it because it's going to beat keeping your money in cash or in a high yield savings account. And so then what about risk adjusted outcomes? What happens with risk adjusted outcomes and how do we think about that? Now, the interesting part about this is that research finds that lump sum's edge persists,

Starting point is 00:15:51 even on a risk-adjusted basis, which is fascinating. So one Vanguard study noted that if you extend a dollar-cost average plan over a longer period, say 24 to 36 months, the odds of underperforming lump sum get even worse. So in other words, the longer you drag out investing your windfall, the more opportunity costs you incur by sitting in cash. And so the studies show the longer the time horizon, the better off you are going to be when it comes to lump sum investing. And so this is a very interesting point,

Starting point is 00:16:20 because if you are someone who just got a big financial windfall and you plan on investing that windfall for a very long period of time, lump sum investing is going to outperform dollar cost averaging big time. Now, are there reasons to do dollar cost averaging? There absolutely is. If you are someone who is scared of the market or you are new to investing and you feel unsure about what the market is going to do, then dollar cost averaging might be better for you because your psychology can absolutely destroy your performance. If you decide to invest your dollars, all of a sudden the market has a slight dip and you take that money out again. If you just start to pull money in and out of the market, that is never,

Starting point is 00:16:59 ever, ever going to work because time in the market beats timing the market. And so this is a very important thing for most people to understand. If you are brand new to investing, you need to keep your money in the market for longer periods of time. It reduces your risk. And overall, it's going to help you in the long run. Day traders don't ever do it. In fact, 90% of day traders lose money. And so this is not something that you should be interested in whatsoever. Instead, long-term investors are usually the ones that win. People who have kept their money invested in the S&P 500 for 20-year periods or longer historically have never, ever, ever lost money historically. Zero percent of the time you will lose money historically if you kept your money invested for 20-year

Starting point is 00:17:41 periods or longer. And so this is why we here at the personal finance podcast and master money, We are all long-term investors. We are all long-term investors because we can ride out the waves of whatever is going to happen in life. You guys all remember COVID and what happened in the market. You remember the tariff saga and what happened to the market. Who knows what's coming next? Something else will come down the line. The market will go down for a period of time and then it will recover over time.

Starting point is 00:18:07 And if you don't believe that, just look at the historical data. So this is how this is going to go. Now, sure, the future, again, the future could shift, something could change, but it hasn't happened yet in over 100 years. So what I want you to do is if you're still debating in your head, like, yeah, should I dollar cost average? Should I lump sum invest? Choose the one that suits your personality best because it's still better than keeping

Starting point is 00:18:26 that money in cash and leaving it in cash. Because after you have the cooling off period, if you have analysis, paralysis on which one to do, then I would go with the optimal one. But if you can't stomach that, then you go dollar cost averaging because that is just overall easier. And at least we'll get your dollars working for you eventually. And then you keep them invested long term. and you're still going to have a great outcome. It's still going to be a fantastic outcome long term.

Starting point is 00:18:47 You just are losing out a little bit of opportunity cost up front. All right. So that is step two is figuring out when and how much to invest up front. Now let's go to step three, which is building your core portfolio. Well, you have... I remember when I needed to hire someone fast, but finding the right person quickly felt impossible. And if you've ever been there, you know how stressful this can be. That's where Indeed comes in. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Instead of struggling to get your job post noticed, Indeed's sponsor jobs help you stand out and hire faster. Your post jumps up to the top of the page, making sure it reaches the right candidates. And it makes a huge difference.

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Starting point is 00:22:08 situation taken care of. I've got my six-month emergency fund. I have all my high interest debt, anything above a 6% interest rate. I've got all that stuff paid off. Now, it is time for me to build out my asset allocation. So your asset allocation just means what your portfolio is going to consist of, or your difference between stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, whatever you want to have within your portfolio. And so we're going to build your core portfolio. And for me, my starting point is always at one point in time, which is looking at what the greatest investor of all time, Warren Buffett said most average investors who do, which is the Warren Buffett portfolio. So the Warren Buffett portfolio I see as actual middle ground. A lot of people see that as a very aggressive portfolio, and it can

Starting point is 00:22:49 be for folks who maybe are at retirement age. But if you are someone who is trying to build up your portfolio over time, the Warren Buffett portfolio is a great starting point to think through exactly where you want to land. So the way that this works is that it's 90% S&P 500 index. And fund. It is 10% short-term U.S. Treasury Fund. Okay. So that is how his portfolio consists. And we did an episode recently. We re-ranked the 10 best portfolios in order of which ones perform best to worse historically. And when we looked at that, the Warren Buffett portfolio actually scored number two in that performance. Number one was what I call the simple path to wealth portfolio, which was just holding the total stock market or VTSAX for a long period

Starting point is 00:23:32 of time. So you only hold one stock. It is every stock in the stock market, but it is one index fund, which is VTSAX. So that is where you could start. It is a simple low cost, proven to outperform most actively managed funds portfolio is just looking at a Warren Buffett portfolio. Now, that's just a starting point. This is not advice. This is me telling you, you need to do your research and look into these further, but that is the starting point. Option B is something like a Boglehead portfolio. So there's a book out there that you can read. It's called the Boglehead's Guide or retirement or something like that. And they talk about the three fund portfolio a lot in that book. And so the way that this works is they do 50% in the U.S. stock market. So you can look at the SMP 500, which is VOO, or you can look at VTSAX,

Starting point is 00:24:14 which is the total stock market index fund, or you can look at VTI, which is a total stock market ETF. All of those are things that you can look into for the U.S. total stock market. Number two, for a true three fund portfolio, is 30% international stocks. Now, your boy has been critical about international stocks in the past. Why? Because international stocks, if you look at the performance compared to the S&P 500, have drastically underperformed the S&P 500. And I feel as though if you have too much international stocks, they will bring down your portfolio. Now, why do I say that? Because there's a number of different reasons. One argument is all the U.S.-based companies. So if you look at the top 10 in the U.S., it's going to be Apple, Amazon, Tesla,

Starting point is 00:24:54 NVIDIA, all these massive companies, they all do a ton of business internationally as well. where if you look at the top 10 companies on the international fund, they are going to have companies like Nestle. If you compare the top 10 of each of these funds, I'd much rather hold the S&P 500. But I am not against you holding international stocks if that's what you want to do. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:25:16 In fact, I have a small amount of international exposure just to balance it out a little bit. Some people want way more balance, and a lot of people out there would argue with me about this. My friend Rob Berger, for example, would argue with me about this. But this is going to be something I think that we really need to make sure that we're diving deeper into. And then lastly, is 20% in the U.S. total bond market.

Starting point is 00:25:35 So if you want some bond exposure, making sure you have that in your three fund portfolio, gives you a nice balanced portfolio here. So that is something to think through as well. Now, option C is you can get real crazy with it. And you can do something like a core three fund portfolio, but have some expanded other funds as well. So some people like to add things like REITs or a real estate investment trust. You can add small cap value.

Starting point is 00:25:58 you can add emerging markets. You could add a bunch of different things in these portfolios, and you can look at it getting smoother returns and greater global exposure. So if you're trying to figure out, hey, which portfolio should I go with? I would listen to that episode, but we also have a course called Index Fund Pro. And in Index Fund Pro, I literally teach you how to invest in Index Funds in ETF. So if you go to Mastermoney.com slash courses, you could check out Index Fund Pro there if you want to. Now, Index Fund Pro, fun fact for all of you who are thinking about Master Money Academy, is going to be in Master Money Academy. You get Index Fund Pro when you join Master Money Academy

Starting point is 00:26:33 in addition to Master Your Money Goals and all of our other courses that we are working on right now. All of those will be in Master Money Academy coming up. So overall, that is going to be where you land is building that core portfolio. Those are three suggestions for starting points. If you want to know about more suggestions, check out Index Fund Pro and or you can check out our other episode.

Starting point is 00:26:53 We rank some of those portfolios in order. And then Index Fund Pro can teach you how to do that. well. Now step four is to customize with purpose-driven investments. So here's a couple of things that I want you to think about when you are looking at your portfolio. You can allocate a smaller portion of this portfolio to things that you understand well, enjoy managing, and can handle emotionally. So let me give you some examples about this. Let's say, for example, you've always wanted to own real estate. You've always wanted to own rental real estate and you want to make that part of your portfolio. Well, if you wanted to own and directly own real estate, manage tenants, managed toilets,

Starting point is 00:27:31 call for repairs, all those different types of things, there's nothing wrong with having that as a part of your portfolio. Or maybe you've always wanted to own individual stocks. You love the concept of Apple or you love Nvidia, or you love Berkshire Hathaway, which is Warren Buffett's company, or you love Google or Alphabet or whatever you want to invest in and you want to own some individual stocks. You have fun picking individual stocks. That's a place that you can look at.

Starting point is 00:27:52 Maybe you are really into crypto and you want to invest in Bitcoin and you want to invest in Ethereum. I wouldn't really look at meme coins or anything else outside of that couple of those. But you want to invest in Bitcoin and have that as part of your portfolio. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to look at angel investing, if you have enough money in windfall coming in where you can angel invest and you want to invest in some small companies and get your hands dirty with some of that. You can absolutely do that. But keep it as a smaller chunk of your portfolio. Now, real estate is the only thing I would say. If you understand real estate, you can make that a huge part of your portfolio if you want to. But everything else, you want to keep it as a

Starting point is 00:28:25 smaller chunk. In addition, you can also invest in small businesses. We've talked about this a number of different times. There's a huge opportunity right now with a lot of folks out there retiring who were part of the baby boomer generation. A lot of businesses are going up for sale. And you could acquire some billion dollar business for literally 10% down with an SBA loan. And so these are all great examples of ways to invest your dollars over time. So don't keep it all in one sandbox. If you understand some of these other concepts, you can absolutely diversify into some of those as well. I have no problem with that. But if you're just looking to invest in the market, building out the proper portfolio is going to be a big, big thing. Next, we're going to talk about fees. So if you've never heard me talk about

Starting point is 00:29:09 fees within portfolios before, we are very anti-feas when it comes to your investments here at Master Money in the Personal Finance Podcast. Why? Fees are a multi-million dollar decision that you need to decide to avoid, especially if you come into money. Now, if you've never been in the world of having money before, what you're going to notice is that when you come into money, all of a sudden, the sharks begin to circle. So if you win the lotto, or if you get an inheritance, or you just get a big lump sum of money and you've never had it before, the sharks are coming and they're going to start to circle. And so what I want you to do is think through and understand the investments that you're looking at before you invest in them. Now, you may say to yourself, hey, I want someone to help me with

Starting point is 00:29:49 this. I want someone to help me through this process and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. You can get a certified financial planner to put together a plan for you. That is fantastic. Getting a CPA to help you with the accounting side. That is fantastic. There is nothing wrong with that, but you just need to know what to avoid and what to make sure that you are looking for when it comes to fee traps. There was a lot of different fee traps out there. One is commission brokers. So there are going to be brokers out there who come to you and say, hey, if you just give me 2% of your portfolio, I'll manage this entire portfolio for you and you don't have to worry about a single thing. I'll handle it all for you. Well, if you give somebody 2% of your portfolio,

Starting point is 00:30:28 it is going to reduce the value of your portfolio over the course of 30 years by 50%. A2% commission does not sound like a lot, especially when it comes to AUM or assets under management. That is a massive amount of money in the long and grand scheme of things. Not to mention the opportunity cost that you lose out on when it comes to compounding those dollars instead. Just think about this for a second, okay? Let's say, for example, that you have 2% assets under management for someone to manage your portfolio for you, and you have a million dollars. Every million dollars is $20,000 that you were giving to someone else to manage that

Starting point is 00:31:02 portfolio for you every year, every single year. So let's say, for example, they've got you in a 2% fee portfolio, and then all of a sudden you also have another 1% in mutual funds that they put you in. I've seen this happen a number of different times before. So every million dollars that you have, you are now paying $30,000 per year to these advisors. That's $30,000 that you're paying to them in addition to $30,000 that is not compounding for you. And so that is a big, big difference for a lot of people. Now, you're going to hear a lot of folks out there that are going to come to you and say,

Starting point is 00:31:36 ooh, buy cash value life insurance, buy MPI, buy all these different insurance products that do not make sense for a lot of people. If someone uses the word investment and insurance in the same sentence, then you need to run. This is not something that you want to be involved in whatsoever. Insurance is not an investment. They are two separate things. And the only person that's going to make money in that scenario is the person trying to sell it to you because they get a big old fat commission. Okay.

Starting point is 00:32:03 So these are things that you want to make sure that you were avoiding at all costs. Avoid any funds with high fees. If someone wants to put you in a fund with a high fee, and I mean anything above a 0.5% interest rate is probably too high for you, then making sure that you are avoiding those is going to be a big thing. Now, if you need advice and a lot of people do, and I am very pro getting advice from professionals, but you got to make sure that you are structuring it in the correct way. So you can use things like fee-only advisors. So what they do is they will put a financial plan together for you for a fee, a one-time

Starting point is 00:32:34 fee that you pay up front, and they will put your entire plan together for you and put it into motion for you so that you can manage your finances that way. and or you can pay hourly for one-time help. So you can come to someone and say, hey, this is my situation. I just need to talk to you for an hour or two. Can I pay you hourly to come and help me? And that is another situation where you can really get the help that you need for way,

Starting point is 00:32:59 way less. Again, I am telling you, let's say, for example, that you invest $5 million, okay? If you have a $5 million portfolio, it is going to reduce the portfolio by literally 50% if you have a 2% fee. And you could have had a lot more. money in your portfolio than what you actually had. And it's sad because a lot of people fall into this. Now, if you want to pay an advisor, yeah, 0.7% to manage it all because you just don't want to

Starting point is 00:33:22 think about it. It stresses you out. It brings you stress and anxiety. Hey, more power to you. There's nothing wrong with that. Just know what you're paying. Just know how much you're paying. If that's what you want to do, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you want to optimize and you want to reduce some of those expenses, then there is something where I don't want you paying two or three percent fees overall because that is a huge, huge number. You can find an advisor to help you for way cheaper than that. Okay. So overall, just keep thinking through that, keeping those costs low, making sure you stay diversified and stay the course, even when the market drops is going to be a big, big thing. And advisors can't help you with that, but just make sure using fee-only fiduciary advisors,

Starting point is 00:33:57 a CFP can help you put together a financial plan and or pay hourly over time for help. Love all three of those options. There's a lot of great tools out there too now that will help you when it comes to, if you want to pay someone hourly, I've seen tools out there like nectarine and some other ones where you can pay an advisor $150 for an hour, for an hour of their time to go and chat with them. So a lot of good stuff out there. So step six is to continue to learn and stay calm. So I'm going to recommend a couple of different books for people out there. One is by Rob Berger.

Starting point is 00:34:26 It's called Retire Before Mom and Dad. That is a great book to get you started on your personal finance journey. The Bogleheads Guide's Investing is another one I mentioned. The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins is by far when. of my favorites. And then the little book of common sense investing by Jack Bogle, all are great books to start your investing journey, specifically if you were looking at the market at index funds, those types of things. Because you want to continue to learn and you want to understand what you're investing in over time. These are going to teach you how to keep your cost low. These are going to

Starting point is 00:34:55 teach you how to stay diversified. These are going to teach you how to stay the course and keep you motivated as you begin your investing journey. And so overall, this is how I want you to think about a windfall is I want you to go through these exact steps when you get a bigger financial windfall. You don't need some special advanced strategy just because you received a lot of money. Instead, the best portfolios are boring. They're diversified. They're low cost. And they are just in this thing for the long term. Then what you want to do is get your psychology right. And the more that you learn and the more that you understand, the better off you will be when it comes to your money psychology. That is how you master your money psychology is just learning more. And then investing a windfall is

Starting point is 00:35:33 about process, not perfection. So again, take some time to cool off, figure out exactly what you want to do next, figure out where you stand financially currently, and then take care of those things first, then decide, do you want to lump sum invest or do you want a dollar cost average, then decide from that point on how to build your core portfolio and understanding that core portfolio is going to be a big thing. Make sure your fees are low, make sure you're continuing the course by learning and having a financial education. Those are the big things that I want you to do today. And I really hope this episode was helpful for each and every single one of you. If you guys have any questions, again, please reach out to us via the Master Money newsletter.

Starting point is 00:36:10 And I am here to help you. My entire goal is to serve you. And so we want to bring you as much value as possible with this podcast. That is our entire goal. And I hope we did that today for you. And again, we'll see you on the next episode. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Playojo. The online casino. with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws.

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The Personal Finance Podcast - How to Invest $1 Million (A Simple Strategy To Invest a Lump Sum)

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