Great suggestions ... I am just working within my TD Ameritrade account so I have control of all things and I'm just using a Financial Advisor for consulting.
Since you didn't mention that until now - ask yourself how I knew you were getting bad financial advice, before you told me you had a financial advisor. The key is "expense ratio" or annual fee. You can look up "GIREX morningstar" and see the expense ratio.
UNAVX – Already distributed $16,500
GIREX
VARBX
Look up these funds online: they are charging about 2% each, which is very high. Some have "load fees". Unfortunately there are many mutual funds that pay financial advisers who recommend their fund. Some of the load fee goes to the person who told you to buy that, even though that's a conflict of interest.
If you had a Vanguard account (which is free to open), I'd suggest Vanguard LifeStrategy Income Fund (VASIX). That fund is intended for your 3-5 year time frame, and holds just 20% equities. It holds both stocks and bonds, domestic and international. And yet for all that, you only pay 0.11% per year in fees (the "expense ratio").
TD Ameritrade has $0/trade for stock and ETF purchases. So you could also buy ETFs there:
20% VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF), 0.03% expense ratio
80% BSV (Vanguard Short Term Bond ETF), 0.07% expense ratio
But let me review why you need to fire your financial advisor:
* they are suggesting 100% equities for money you need in 4-5 years. That's bad advice.
* they suggest funds with 2% expense ratios, which costs you 2% of your money every year
* you are paying "load fees", which cost you 5% and often pay the adviser, even though it's a conflict of interest