Written by money managers, perhaps?
Went through my accounts tonight, Iām about 37% cash.
Wish I knew what to do with it. :-?
Maybe I should start building a dividend portfolioā¦
@1214mom We have a āWealth Managerā as a perk of DHās job. They do our taxes and give us pretty pie charts and projections of how long weāll live without going broke. I read somewhere that by the time you do enough research to hire a good financial planner you just can do it yourself. Some financial suggestions ours suggest are good, others not so much. So would we pay for this? Probably not because DH has done well with managing the big picture and the WM does the grunt work.
@aMacMom , DW gets Private Banking as a perk of her employment, which includes a financial analysis, wealth managers, access to funds not usually available, etc. When Iām hankering for graphs and Monte Carlo analysis, I fire up ESPlanner and update the data. Annual renewal is something like $40 or $50 bucks, and after the initial setup, itās pretty easy to keep it current and do what-ifs.
I think we have private banking at one brokerage firm but I tend to use a fee-only FA for financial planning and money management. The private wealth management guy comes up with thoughtful and tax-conscious ideas that almost always are complicated and fee-laden. Iām concentrating on making money but trying to be thoughtful (big picture), tax-conscious and sensible/safe (which means low fees and limited risk).
Alas, we are are packing up the houseboat ā we are loading our SUV and someone will pick it up tomorrow, put it on a truck and drive it back east. Next year we will stay longer. I donāt think a houseboat is a good RE investment, though I will investigate. You donāt own the land, but I guess own the rights to the slip. In lieu of property taxes, you pay to connect (and for utilities) and excise tax. Overall, it seems per sf costs are lower, but the question is whether the houseboat is a depreciating asset, like a car or RV, or an appreciating asset, like a house. Any thoughts?
@shawbridge, I have no personal experience, but Iāve never heard anyone refer to a houseboat, or any boat for that matter, as an appreciating asset.
I recommend contacting a realtor specializing in houseboats. Here, some docks are structured like condo associations and the boat owners own the dock and the land under the boats:
I plan to have each of my kids invest the amount of their earnings from last year (very small amounts - 3K and less)) into the Vanguard 2060 retirement date fund.
It sounds like itās āfreeā if the set up e-delivery of related information, and itās easy, which is what Iām after?
Anything else I should consider, recognizing Iām just trying to start good habits but want it to be easy?
Thanks
Is that for a Roth IRA, @1214mom?
@doschicos, yes.
@1214mom ā I had my son open a Vanguard account the last time he was home. I donāt think he had to pay anything? He is home again this week and I asked him to fund it. l donāt think he was on the phone all that longā¦and he said that they will ātestā or verify his account with a small deposit first. Some of this info may have gotten lost in translation, but am keeping my fingers crossed that he handled the paperwork correctly.
@CT1417, the process does seem pretty easy. As long as they do things electronically, there is no maintenance fee, and I can actually send them a check to fund it. I called fidelity also, but their choices were more limited bc of the small dollar amounts.
DH got both our Ds into a Roth Ira. Theyāve already begun investing. D2 always gives us the latest on her investments. D1 is characteristically private. But Iām really glad they are thinking about this already. I know I sure wasnāt at that age.
We are encouraging our kids to max out their Roth IRA contribution by offering 1-for1 matching. The offer is only good while their (summer) earning is still so low! 
We give our kids a Roth IRA contribution at Christmas time. Our thought is to encourage a savings habit and start it early. The plan is to have them ramp it up once they are working full-time.
My D just opened a Roth. So proud of her to want to start good habits early.
For the Tesla buyers, the May 2016 Consumer Report rates the Tesla Model S P85D** (says powertrain has changed since last test) it on the ultraluxury cars chart (p 68)
Last year, I funded the Roth. This year I was going to have him self-fund it, but I was impatient and wanted to see the compounding start so I contributed. Next year, barring a low- or non-paying job, itās on him (and frankly, he should have enough left after discretionary spending regardless).
Thanks, @BunsenBurner. It may be that it is an appreciating asset if youāre a co-owner of the dock. I will investigate.
I set up Roths for both lids and have in effect contributing for them. ShawD is now working part-time and will start full-time likely in the fall. I will help her set up automatic saving including the Roth. ShawSon has one more year in school. He is solely focused on startups. For the summer, he is choosing between two ventures that need him as CEO. one has friends and family funding and getting engineers to do the tech would not be hard ā as the technical part of the problem is not the hard part of success. The second would garner VC funding with a really technically strong team, which he thinks he has. If what they produce is good enough ā not a slam dunk ā there are obvious buyers on exit. But, jobs like this wonāt involve Roth contributions.
Fidelity doesnāt allow IRAs for kids under 18 but Vanguard does. Just an FYI.