Hey all, thanks in advance for the advice. Really hoping to not screw up posting as I am a long time lurker first time poster!
I am a mid twenties single guy living in a big american city. I am a graduate student in a pretty stable, lucrative, professional field (although thats not the only reason I do it). Fortunately, my tuition and a portion of my living expenses is covered with scholarships, but I do have a loan for the rest of my living expenses (currently ~22K, will probably closer to 40K by the time I graduate).
Unfortunately, I lost my grandmother last year. She was very old and sick, died peacefully, so thank you in advance for the "I'm sorrys" but it is not necessary. She was a good saver, and I was her only heir, so I have inherited a sizable (~70k) account at merryl lynch edge with her.
I am very grateful for this opportunity to get a head start on my finances. I have been a long time reader of MMM, and started my own Roth IRA years ago in college (although I've been unfortunately unable to contribute recently as I've had no income!). I want to achieve FI as early as possible to be able to do my profession, medicine, more for love and for people who really need it rather than just for a paycheck, as I see so many other doctors doing. I also really value my free time and time with family, so I would like to achieve FI for that reason as well.
Consequently, my thinking is to try and save this money as much as possible. I know the conventional thinking here is emergency fund-->pay off loans/max out retirement accounts (depending on circumstances)-->save as much as you can for retirement. Furthermore, I know vanguard with an appropriate risk/volatility level for your investment timeline and stomach is quite popular. For my ROTH IRA I have a Vanguard global index fund, reflecting my increased risk tolerability. I hardly ever check it, and I'm fine with that.
Originally I was thinking about transferring this account over to vanguard. I was thinking about using it to live on for the next couple of years as well to minimize my loans. However, I am getting cold feet. I have never even been near this much money before, and I guess my thinking now is to stick with Merril Lynch at least for the time being. My (admittedly emotional) rationale is that if it was good enough for my grandmother, its good enough there for at least a little bit.
My question is, does anyone have any experience or insight with them? What kinds of questions should I be asking? I know investment advisors are often looked down upon, but I believe I'll be assigned one for this account. My goal is to not get taken advantage of, allow the money to grow, to achieve FI as soon as possible, but I would kind of feel like a fool if I transferred it over to vanguard tomorrow in a small cap index fund and the market tanked tomorrow. So I think for now I want to stick with Merril Lynch
Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!