Vanguard IRA Account
Hi Terry,
I’m 75 and have been going through a divorce for more than 4 years. I have a Vanguard IRA account that is now at $39,000. It is in 4 out of 5 risk with total investments in stocks. I talked to a rep at Vanguard and they only give free advice if you have $50,000 invested. I don’t know how or know anything about changing how the funds are invested. The rep suggested 30% in stocks, 65% in bonds and 5% in short term reserves CDs. He said I would need to research on how to & what to invest in. I don’t know how to do any of this and am afraid if I change something I’ll lose even more than I have already. I have $119,500 in a Marcus by Goldman Sachs savings account that says they raised the APY to 3.00% in November. I also took your suggestion and put $1000 in Treasury bills the beginning of October and $10,000 in I Saving Bonds in July. My big question is the Vanguard – should I change anything? A friend gave my partner a name who is a Fidelity Advisor but I don’t know if he will help me because I have Vanguard. I work part time to meet my expenses and don’t want to pay a large amount of money for an advisor. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you – I listen to you on WGN when I can and also read your Chicago Tribune column.
Terry Says
OK, the good news is that you have a whole lot of money in safe investments — chicken money.
As for the stock portfolio, here’s a wild guess — and remember “free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it!”
And also remember, that if you look back there is a 50/50 chance you could be wrong about the decisions you make today.
Still to let you sleep well at night at your stage of life and in your situation, I would put about 40% in the Fidelity Balanced Fund (FBALX), and 20% in the S&P 500 stock index fund.
Then I would put the rest in the Fidelity Government securities MM fund. That fund yields only about 1%, but will keep some money liquid for your RMDs.
That rep probably didn’t have the big picture of your other savings, so was pretty low on “stocks’ — and I think interest rates could go higher so I’d stick with the bonds in the balanced fund. You need some long-term stock exposure to keep up with inflation. So don’t panic in a market decline, just stick with the plan!
