Head in the diaper pail

[jenann]

This is the first time ever posting in any forum so there will be many mistakes. I am 55 and have been doing daycare for the past 30+ years. I would like to retire in 4 years. I have been saving/investing for most of my adult life and feel like my style has been like playing darts. Most of the posts seem to come from very educated people in my opinion. I have never had a financial adviser do to my ignorance combined with distrust. My husband isn't much help and he has his own accounts which is around $350,000. We are very frugal and don't have any house, car, etc. payments. My children are all adults.  Here is what I have so far and it's just all over the place.

Fidelity:  SEP IRA - FCNTX            $406283
              Traditional IRA FSKAX     $38017
              ROTH IRA- FSKAX/FXAIX  $118179
              Individual acct.  SHRAX   $14005

Vanguard: ROTH IRA - VTSAX        $39181
                Individual acct. VTSAX   $21166

Franklin Templeton (Legg Mason)
    Individual - Clearbridge value   $79562

Miller Value Funds
                  ROTH IRA- LGOAX         $67302
                  Individual- LGOAX         $54130

Exxon/Mobil
                  Individual stock            $14618

Health savings account
                 VTSAX                            $14700

                                           Total = $867144

My main concern is that I have all these different accounts that are all over the place.  Together,  my DH and I could live off of $60000 per year. I'm not including SS in this amount. We do have an emergency fund that is included in DH portfolio. We are in somewhat of a low tax bracket because both of us are self employed. Should I pay for a financial adviser of am I doing fine on my own?

                                                         

[cool7hand]

Welcome! It looks like you're off to a great start. If I'm understanding your request, you're looking for help with how to invest your money.

First things first. Don't hire a financial advisor. Most require you to pay them 1% of your assets that they are managing per year! Google how many years this fee adds to one's attempt to retire.

The harder question is how to organize your investments. This post might help: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/investment-order/.

In addition, most people here try to consolidate the platforms where they have their investments to make the work easier. For example, my wife and I have the bulk of our investments at Schwab. We also have an account managed by an entity required by my wife's job, which we'll rollover to Schwab when she FIREs in June. Other folks use Vanguard or Fidelity. We like Schwab because (1) the low fees and (2) there we also have access to Vanguard and Fidelity products.

Once you decide what platform is right for you, you need to decide on investment mix. Most people here use index funds or ETFs. Some just dump everything in a broad stock ETF like SCHB. Others use a 40% bond/60% stock ETF mix. My wife and I use Ray Dalio's All Season's (aka All Weather) Portfolio popularized in Tony Robbins' book, Money Master The Game. Borrow the book from your library or give it a Google.

Maybe reading this reply and some others, doing some research, and coming back with more targeted questions might be how to approach your next steps?

[Sibley]

For basic investment knowledge, I recommend J Collin's stock series. He has a bias, towards index investing, but the information about how the stock market works, etc is clear and understandable. You can form your own opinions about index investing, but it's quite popular around here.

https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

[bmjohnson35]

Welcome and congrats on a very respectable portfolio.  I don't feel qualified to make any specific investment recommendations, but I will say that I find it easier to manage two major accounts.  We also have a few other financial accts, but the amounts in those are small and we will likely close them out over the next year or so.