Wife and I are wanting to set up a recurring monthly investment into a fund that we hope to just be slush fund 30+ years from now (currently 33 & 30). Already maxing out all retirement accounts we have, and just have additional each month that we want to unconsciously put away. We know the starting monthly amount we're able to contribute, but are total rookies (take it easy on me) and have no idea what vehicle to utilize.

Suggestions?

Slush = emergency fund?

I would find a high yield savings account or build out a CD ladder once it gets to a larger amount.

Thanks for the response. Slush meaning more like "gravy on top" in retirement. We have emergency funds already established and regularly maintained in an interest bearing savings account. Idea for this account would be for us to do something big for our family later in life (take big trips, buy a ranch, something to that effect) outside of replacement income. Time horizon is still relatively on our side, so have a higher tolerance for risk right now.

Look into investing in something that pays yours NOW. Dividend stocks, real estate, bonds.

Lots of info out there, good luck!

when you say you have maxed out all your retirement accounts, have you also maxed out things like your HSA?

something to consider might be to get a little bit of diversity... as your retirement funds are directly tied to the market... why not branch out into a different type of investment opportunity (maybe an REIT or something else separate from the market)?

I Bonds. Just keep rolling them over.

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/i-bonds/

Presuming your ROTHs are maxed out already ofc.

KC_Ag14 said:

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Wife and I are wanting to set up a recurring monthly investment into a fund that we hope to just be slush fund 30+ years from now (currently 33 & 30). Already maxing out all retirement accounts we have, and just have additional each month that we want to unconsciously put away. We know the starting monthly amount we're able to contribute, but are total rookies (take it easy on me) and have no idea what vehicle to utilize.

Suggestions?

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You will thank me later

open up a free Fidelity Brokerage- put your slush fund (that's really not a slush fund) into SPY

if it's not up with a profit over the next 30 years, you will have bigger problems than your retirement account.

I know and like the Vanguard platform. Buy mostly total market etfs like VTI or comparable, then dabble in some sector etfs or individual stocks like maybe dividend-paying pipelines. Don't buy the same stuff you've already bought once in your retirement accounts. Then buy some rent houses in town, so im told

Vanguard Mutual Funds!!!

KC_Ag14 said:

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Thanks for the response. Slush meaning more like "gravy on top" in retirement. We have emergency funds already established and regularly maintained in an interest bearing savings account. Idea for this account would be for us to do something big for our family later in life (take big trips, buy a ranch, something to that effect) outside of replacement income. Time horizon is still relatively on our side, so have a higher tolerance for risk right now.

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Big trips are not all that expensive, though not cheap. You say retirement is maxed and emergency funds are in place so if a ranch is a goal, I'd make that leap sooner rather than later (once you have extra funds in an amount to make the monthly payment). Doubt the prices will ever go down, plus you and your wife and children (when they come along) get 20 or 25 years of enjoyment of the place.

I-bonds is not good advice.

Put it into VOO or VTI and forget about it for a while. Eventually things will get big enough and complicated enough to need advice and guidance. For the next 5-10 years just funnel as much as you reasonably can into it each and every month regardless of what the market is doing

Everybody's got opinions, so here's mine...... I would invest in index mutual funds. Whichever brokerage you go with will have them. QQQ and SPY are popular too. I'm also partial to the apartment REITS. I would focus on REITS that own apartments in high growth markets like the Southern states and maybe coastal (stay away from the ones that have heavy NE and Rust Belt).

Don't listen to these people on here, I know exactly what you're going for - home run cherry on top type of investments.

If you're maxing 401k, back door IRA, and HSA you're already massively exposed to the stock market.

Instead, do some digging around and try to find private placement investments (I.e., private equity). You won't be able to just auto-invest but you can park cash in a savings account monthly and wait for those opportunities to come up and stroke $50k + checks.

Deals like these are how people get rich. Deals of IRR over 30%. Turn that 50k into 100k in 3 years and then keep snowballing it.

You're already doing the long play on your retirement accounts, hitting a few doubles, singles, and maybe a homerun (3-4x your money return) and you'll have a ton of cash and "ranch money"

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Don't listen to these people on here, I know exactly what you're going for - home run cherry on top type of investments.

If you're maxing 401k, back door IRA, and HSA you're already massively exposed to the stock market.

Instead, do some digging around and try to find private placement investments (I.e., private equity). You won't be able to just auto-invest but you can park cash in a savings account monthly and wait for those opportunities to come up and stroke $50k + checks.

Deals like these are how people get rich. Deals of IRR over 30%. Turn that 50k into 100k in 3 years and then keep snowballing it.

You're already doing the long play on your retirement accounts, hitting a few doubles, singles, and maybe a homerun (3-4x your money return) and you'll have a ton of cash and "ranch money"

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The only problem with private REITs is a potential lack of liquidity when you want to exit.

Agree with you if he's maxed out on everything else he should find an alternative investment like IBonds or private REITs or something.

Correct. Lack of liquidity but that's not what he's going for.

I work in PE and see regular people make life changing, eff you money on deals all the time.

Just do VTI every month for the next 360 months and don't think about it.

Isn't a large part of getting into PE backed deals the ability to show a net worth greater than $1MM? They don't let just anyone come in unless you know the company that's starting up.

Lots of different ways to show you're an"accredited investor".

And there are also crowdsourced PE opportunities out there. I invest with some guys and the minimum checks are $50k. Not bad.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Lots of different ways to show you're an"accredited investor".

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The Accredited Investor moniker is defined by the SEC. Yes, there are a couple of different ways to qualify, but not sure there are ways to just "show" that you meet the definition when you don't. Happy to learn though.

With that said, some PE deals are allowed to take on a certain percentage or value of "qualified investors".

BDJ_AG said:

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ChoppinDs40 said:

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Lots of different ways to show you're an"accredited investor".

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The Accredited Investor moniker is defined by the SEC. Yes, there are a couple of different ways to qualify, but not sure there are ways to just "show" that you meet the definition when you don't. Happy to learn though.

With that said, some PE deals are allowed to take on a certain percentage or value of "qualified investors".

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Agreed and yes on the "qualified" investor. With the run-up in property values, I imagine someone who is topping off two 401ks, IRAs, HSAs and still has extra cash flow will meet the $1mm net worth... or the $200k salary.

Plus, and this is not legal and or sound advice, but... accreditation rules are there to protect the investor... if you knowingly lie that you're not accredited, well, that's on you and you won't be able to "do anything" if the investment goes belly-up. That SEC rule is, in my opinion, to protect the deal guys in case someone contributes every asset they own and doesn't have the "knowledge" that it's a dumb idea and ends up getting sued.

KC_Ag, good for y'all on reaching this milestone. Just to recap usually the order of operations for topping off retirement accounts is as follows:

-401k to % match by company
-HSA to max, invest it, do not touch it for medical
-401k to max
-IRAs to max
-529 if you've got kids

Here's where it gets interesting. Maxing all of those out is like 60k a year in investing. You are correct anything on top will be gravy. But what you've traded for in tax savings through those accounts you lose in flexibility. You can keep adding a ton more money through backdoor roth IRAs but thats tying up even more money in time restricted vehicles. Still a good option if your just looking to add to a stock portfolio and you already have the house/cars/toys you want.

So for your general account, just be aware you're going to be tax exposed. There's some good ideas on this thread. Low cost ETFs that track the S&P500 like VOO or SPY. Some diversification advice to get into private equity markets or real estate investing (tough sell right now, especially if you want to be hands off).

My personal take would be to invest in oil/gas opportunities. Pick a super major like Chevron or XOM, pick a shale company like OEG, FANG, or pioneer, and pick a canadian oil sands play like CNQ or SU. Also I like the NASDAQ top 100 ETF called QQQ. Good time to buy as they are all down 20-30% but still solid companies that aren't going anywhere.

Whatever you do, do NOT go chasing fad stocks. No checking r/wallstreetbets. Don't monkey with options if you don't know what you're doing. No chasing small cap pharm companies betting on their FDA status.

Do the boring stuff. Sock the money away. Don't think about it.