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201-Friday Q&A: My Parents Just Bought an Annuity...How Do I Help and How To Invest An Extra $20,000

May 22, 2015

Q&A show today and I answer these two questions for you:

  • Joshua, My parents just moved to Florida last year and got wooed by an advisor that bought them dinner, gave them a free round of golf, etc. and now they're in an annuity and I can't figure out how badly they are getting screwed (not because there's anything inherently wrong with annuities but because the advisor is sadly not a fee-only advisor so I imagine he's taking a big cut of the action). I'm trying to convince them to find a good fee-only advisor to help them get set up for retirement but I'm not sure how to go about finding a good one. Thanks for the help!
  • Joshua, I can't thank you enough for starting Radical Personal Finance; been a fan since you did the interview with Jacob Fisker :) I have learnt so much from you and others in the personal finance community - I'm unable to quantify with an exact figure yet, but I know it's going to compound to a huge amount (possibly millions?) over my lifetime. This morning I just signed up via Patreon to support your show. It's a small amount, but one important thing I've learnt on my PF journey is learning to pay for value rather than simply focusing on cost. I have a question which relates to the investment part of building wealth. How should I invest an idle USD$20,000 that's sitting around in my savings account for maximum returns? I feel I'm sufficiently exposed to the stock market at this stage and diversified enough within and outside the publicly traded securities realm. I don't want to pour money into publicly traded stocks as due to mean reversion, future returns tend to be lower when markets are at highs. Please feel free to suggest the most radical ideas you have - that's why I love the show! Some background on myself: I'm 28 years old living in Singapore. My marginal tax rate is 7% but we are forced to contribute 20% to our own tax-free housing/medical/retirement accounts. Annual take home salary (post taxes and retirement etc contributions) is about USD$50,000. Invested USD$60,000 in semi diversified stocks, ETFs and REITs. USD$20,000 in alternative non-publicly traded investments. Have 6 months emergency fund. Have a 30 year level term insurance for USD $400,000. Time horizon: >20 years. I consider myself an aggressive investor willing to take large risk on small sums of money for the potential return, if the mathematics are in my favor (eg NO lotteries, YES to EM stocks). I know it's hard to provide investment suggestions without knowing the nuances of each individual situation. Right off the bat I know I should be focusing on: increasing my salary/earning potential and starting a side business. Should I be getting more insurance coverage? Should I be maxing out retirement accounts when my marginal tax rate is only 7%? Is there anything else I'm missing? As a goal oriented person (and my goal is to reach FI fast!), I can't stand the fact that my money is idling in my savings account earning a negative real rate of return. Keep doing great work!

Enjoy the show!

Joshua