Hello,
I've been following this board off and on for several years and thought I'd finally introduce myself. I am 35 years old, married with a five year old, and own a home in Chicago. I am self-employed and did quite well last year (2015) and am now finding myself having a nice "problem" in that I finally have some extra money to try and invest. The problem, however, is that I have no guaranteed income and can make $150k one year and $40k the next depending on how my business goes. As a result I have always been afraid to place my money anywhere that is not liquid and it is simply sitting in a savings account. Here's a general overview of my financial situation:
-roughly 100k in savings
-own a home in Chicago valued around 400k, owe 280k on it
-20k in student loan debt
-my wife makes roughly 65k/year and our family is covered by her insurance
-several years ago when i first became self employed i took a 401k from my employer and rolled it into an IRA that is now valued around 25k
-my wife has a 401k and pension through her employer valued at roughly 160k last i checked.
To be honest I'm really happy that I'm able to even be here asking about this. I had a very strong year in 2015 and one year ago I was debating taking from my IRA just to pay the mortgage. Because I have so recently been in that situation I have a really hard time with the idea of putting all my money into retirement plans. I'm also a horrible hypochondriac (totally different story) and am convinced that there is no way on earth that I will live to retirement age anyway, so I'm sure that contributes to my reluctance.
I'd really love to hear and and would appreciate any advice. I'm considering meeting with a financial advisor but it seems to me as though he/she will simply try to sell me life insurance and tell me to contribute more to a retirement plan. Anyway, let me have it. Thanks!