How do you invest your money?

Bretrick said:
Even funeral companies go bust.
Leaving the possibility of all those prepaid funeral plans left high and dry.
It does happen unfortunately.
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That sort of thing is extremely rare.

The funds are deposited into an individual interest bearing bank account as part of an individual revocable trust.

If the undertaker goes out of business the accounts are transferred to another local undertaker or returned.

If it happens, it happens,

I’ve tried to do my best and that’s about all any of us can do.
 
Aunt Bea said:
That sort of thing is extremely rare.

The funds are deposited into an individual interest bearing bank account as part of an individual revocable trust.

If the undertaker goes out of business the accounts are transferred to another local undertaker or returned.

If it happens, it happens,

I’ve tried to do my best and that’s about all any of us can do.
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I know this to be true Aunt Bea (and Bretrick) because my mother insisted on pre-paying her funeral and we'd get statements from the institute that held her account. The funeral home that handled her services at one time was "the only game in town" and still has little competition, so they are doing good business. Pre-paying her funeral was a God send for me. It made things so much easier.
 

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OldOld said:
And it is much cheaper to purchase cemetery plot and headstone in advance. It's always more expensive to buy anything at the last minute. Our family plot was purchased 20 years ago. The market value has gone up about 5X.
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in the mean time the same dollars 20 years ago in an s&p 500 fund would be up 8x or more if in nasdaq too

you could buy today and have plenty left over.

so buying things like this or even deferred annuities are not the best things to buy in advance compared to other alternatives and buying down the road
 
When I was in the Victorian house, I lived next door to a very old widowed, childless woman (she passed in 1990 at age 100). She always told people, "You'll be remembered in my will.", and she gave the impression that she had great wealth. Everyone was always falling over one another to do things for her to get on her good side. Come to find out, she was near penniless and just had the house and whatever was in it. She hadn't paid property taxes or much else in years, so debt piled up. Of course her property and possessions were sold and the money used to pay off her debts, so there wasn't much left.
Of course, people were mentioned in her will, but not as beneficiaries. There were a lot of angry people. My mom was lucky to her this hurricane style lamp. She did a favor for the woman and asked for it in return.

hurricane lamp.jpg
 
mathjak107 said:
in the mean time the same dollars 20 years ago in an s&p 500 fund would be up 8x or more if in nasdaq too

you could buy today and have plenty left over.

so buying things like this or even deferred annuities are not the best things to buy in advance compared to other alternatives and buying down the road
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Don't firget about the tax in oiur S&P investment. Bur you can certsinly keep your body unburied for 20 years, and invest the burial fund in S&P too.🤑
 
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OldOld said:
Don't firget about the tax in oiur S&P investment. Bur you can certsinly keep your body unburied for 20 years, and invest the burial fund in S&P too.🤑
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taxes are a variable, many will fall in to the zero capital gains bracket by retirement and pay , well zero taxes.

but the rule of thumb is unless you are not going to invest the money over decades , which would make poor financial sense , buying things in advance like plots and deferred annuities are usually going to end up way behind buying them decades later.

deferred annuities are usually the worst deal compared to an spia later
 
OldOld said:
And it is much cheaper to purchase cemetery plot and headstone in advance. It's always more expensive to buy anything at the last minute. Our family plot was purchased 20 years ago. The market value has gone up about 5X.
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I'm not surprised that plots are 5 times what they were when you purchased. I purchased my plot, then went back about a year later and paid for the opening and closing fee. I purchased when I did because a friend and co-worker who did part time work in the funeral business was telling me how much plots went up since he purchased several for his family. Realizing that trend would likely continue, I decided it best to go ahead and buy my plot; that was in 2016.
 
No strategy more like dumb luck.

In 1973 went from a low paying job, no benefits & a lot of part time work to a job that had promise of good wages & benefits. My 1st. introduction to investing I was able to enroll in a payroll plan to buy company stock at a discounted price. That & start a matched 401k up to about 8% retirement account. In the 401k I had to chose from options I knew nothing about so I chose without a clue. Luck was with me my choices were good ones.

Early 1980 my wife started with a major corporation, luck again in the picture. Because we had rough years she helped with DIY projects that saved us money. She applied for the highest paying blue collar job, plant maintenance. A rare thing in the 1980's a lady mechanic. Same deal after her 401k deductions all but $25.00 of her weekly pay went to buy stock in the company she worked for thru payroll at a discounted price.

For both of us the 401k's were converted into Traditional IRA's & self directed IRA's.
Luck again in 1992 our oldest son was working in Las Vegas living in an apartment. He agreed to live in a home we wanted to buy for our planned early retirement. The mortgage amount was about $150.00 a month less than his apartment. He was able to save & invest. We had paid off the mortgage on the 5 bedroom home we had that sat on 8 acres of land. Money was accumulating nicely. More luck. In 1995 I was offered retirement at age 54 with a great management "go away" package. In 1995 the housing market was a sellers market. We sold for 3 times what we bought for.

LUCK LUCK LUCK sums up our investing.
 
mathjak107 said:
in the mean time the same dollars 20 years ago in an s&p 500 fund would be up 8x or more if in nasdaq too

you could buy today and have plenty left over.

so buying things like this or even deferred annuities are not the best things to buy in advance compared to other alternatives and buying down the road
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Yeah, unless
~The person hasn't invested as you have invested. (eg: most of my investments are under Nasdaq and NYSE, not the S & P).
~The market is way down when you pass.
~You've had to use most or all of your assets for nursing home care or other such emergencies.

Also, pre-paying is like I mentioned in my reply #60 just makes it easier on the one(s) who have to plan. Not everyone is financially savvy and having to worry about taking care of things while grieving makes handling financial matters even harder.
@OldOld
 
Knight said:
No strategy more like dumb luck.

In 1973 went from a low paying job, no benefits & a lot of part time work to a job that had promise of good wages & benefits. My 1st. introduction to investing I was able to enroll in a payroll plan to buy company stock at a discounted price. That & start a matched 401k up to about 8% retirement account. In the 401k I had to chose from options I knew nothing about so I chose without a clue. Luck was with me my choices were good ones.

Early 1980 my wife started with a major corporation, luck again in the picture. Because we had rough years she helped with DIY projects that saved us money. She applied for the highest paying blue collar job, plant maintenance. A rare thing in the 1980's a lady mechanic. Same deal after her 401k deductions all but $25.00 of her weekly pay went to buy stock in the company she worked for thru payroll at a discounted price.

For both of us the 401k's were converted into Traditional IRA's & self directed IRA's.
Luck again in 1992 our oldest son was working in Las Vegas living in an apartment. He agreed to live in a home we wanted to buy for our planned early retirement. The mortgage amount was about $150.00 a month less than his apartment. He was able to save & invest. We had paid off the mortgage on the 5 bedroom home we had that sat on 8 acres of land. Money was accumulating nicely. More luck. In 1995 I was offered retirement at age 54 with a great management "go away" package. In 1995 the housing market was a sellers market. We sold for 3 times what we bought for.

LUCK LUCK LUCK sums up our investing.
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“ Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” 😉
 
for most of us this discussion applies to it’s the reverse .

our portfolio takes the money we accumulated over a lifetime and generates the income we use to buy what it is we need .

we don’t save what’s left over in retirement, rather we draw out an income that’s safe to take so we can live on it

the idea is to have a pensionized income from your own assets that can be consistent and able to be counted on thru good and bad times for as long as you live
 
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Whatever my investment advisor of 25 years decides. He has made me a nice tidy amount over the years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do not have the aptitude to figure it our myself, nor do I want to.
 
spectratg said:
Whatever my investment advisor of 25 years decides. He has made me a nice tidy amount over the years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do not have the aptitude to figure it our myself, nor do I want to.
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I have interviewed 5 fiduciary advisors in the past year. None of them can give me any information that I don't already know. Some even gave me false info. And all of them tried to sell me annuities upfront. Their annual fee are >1.2% of your asset.
 
why bother than ?

i guess you didnt try fee only .

advisors are usually fee only because they are not licensed or trained in other products or they would be selling them and not fee only.

it makes no sense for a fee only guy to have all those licenses and training and then not make a better living off them by working on commission.

so my guess is you didn’t want to pay the fee so you saw commissioned advisors
 
spectratg said:
Whatever my investment advisor of 25 years decides. He has made me a nice tidy amount over the years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I do not have the aptitude to figure it our myself, nor do I want to.
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You owe it to yourself to understand how your money is invested and how those investments react to changes in the economy.

Your investment advisor can get another client easier than you can get another nest egg if something goes wrong.
 
i can out portfolios together in my sleep but we didn’t see a financial advisor for investment advi
Aunt Bea said:
You owe it to yourself to understand how your money is invested and how those investments react to changes in the economy.

Your investment advisor can get another client easier than you can get another nest egg if something goes wrong.
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you are 100% correct .

i couldn’t fathom not taking an interest in my life savings .

i would want to know everthing some advisor is doing with it .

they are salesman and don’t care about you .


people put more time in to learning about a car or refrigerator or even a vacation than they do about some of the most import financial aspects of their lives.

hn pepoole say their advisor is doing well for them , bywhat yardstick are they even measuring against .

they wouldn’t have the knowledge to know good from mediocre
 
mathjak107 said:
why bother than ?

i guess you didnt try fee only .

advisors are usually fee only because they are not licensed or trained in other products or they would be selling gem and not fee only
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I was replying to @spectratg. I believe he has a advisor to manage his investment and pays an annual management fee.
But if you are referring to project based fee only advisors/planners, it usually cost >$1500 per project or about >$200/hour based on whatever hours he tells you.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Yeah, unless
~The person hasn't invested as you have invested. (eg: most of my investments are under Nasdaq and NYSE, not the S & P).
~The market is way down when you pass.
~You've had to use most or all of your assets for nursing home care or other such emergencies.

Also, pre-paying is like I mentioned in my reply #60 just makes it easier on the one(s) who have to plan. Not everyone is financially savvy and having to worry about taking care of things while grieving makes handling financial matters even harder.
@OldOld
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My parents bought all their plots, headstones, etc. and it really made things easy when they died. Four years ago I bought an urn plot along with the plaque and paid for all the opening and closing cost too. The only thing my kids will have to do is have me cremated. Like you I want to make everything as easy as possible for my kids.
 
mathjak107 said:
why bother than ?

i guess you didnt try fee only .

advisors are usually fee only because they are not licensed or trained in other products or they would be selling them and not fee only.

it makes no sense for a fee only guy to have all those licenses and training and then not make a better living off them by working on commission.

so my guess is you didn’t want to pay the fee so you saw commissioned advisors
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I didn't bother.
 
mathjak107 said:
well if the guy is trying to sell annuities to someone then he isn’t a fee only guy
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They all said they are fiduciary (i.e. don't get commission from the products), meanwhile, try to sell me annuities.
Welcome to the real world.
 

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