Sorry for the long thread, but I am feeling like I am having somewhat of a financial mid-life crisis, like I just don't know what I'm doing (or what to do) anymore, so some of this is just going to be rambling. I just turned 34. Back when I got out of school a little over 10 years ago, I was very diligent (at least I thought so) about trying to spread out wealth and diversify where my money was going, although I have never been very good at it. But lately (like for the past 3-4 years) I've really been checked out on that front and focusing on nothing but my work/career. I have not been diligent about actively trying to grow my wealth, other than through just working.
I have a 401k that I initially didn't max out because I was stupid, but I do now because I'm fortunate enough that a small fraction of my salary will max it out without me really even noticing. I'm not even sure what the balance is. Maybe in the neighborhood of $300,000, but I guess that's not relevant since I can't do anything with it anyway.
I have an equities account with Schwab that I play around in from time to time. I have a bunch of AAPL stock and then a few other reliable ones as my main holdings, and then I buy and sell short term in smaller increments, with inconsistent success. I used to have more in there, but the value has dwindled down to around $150,000 now because I've moved cash out to do other things, plus the market has sucked. I haven't even made a trade in that account in over a year now.
I used to have a backdoor Roth IRA through Betterment with around $70k in it, but the growth was absurdly bad, like it literally only grew $5000 in 10 years even though I was maxing it out at $6,000 a year or whatever the limit was. So I closed it out and put the cash toward a new house, which saved way more in mortgage interest than the penalty cost me. So now that is gone.
I have a couple of rental houses that I own in the range of $250k value that each pay $2,500 a month. I have notes on both of those, but they cash flow plenty to cover the note, taxes, insurance, and all other expenses.
I own a couple of undeveloped properties that have a combined value of about $200k. I bought those for cash, so no note, but they aren't ag except, so I do have to pay regular taxes on them every year. That always sucks, but the taxes have been well worth the appreciation thus far, and they're in a hot market where I could sell pretty much whenever I wanted.
The rental houses and undeveloped lots have been great, but they kind of just fell into my lap from opportunities I became aware of through friends or family. I am not a very knowledgeable real estate investor, and I don't see these as repeatable things that I could just duplicate on demand. With my job, I don't have much time to learn and go search for/look at properties.
I do have a wife and a couple of young kids now. We have one of those Texas Tuition Promise Fund things that is 3/4 paid for. I guess I will pay off the last 2 semesters so that at least one of the kids' tuition will be fully paid for, but I'm not so sure they're that good of a deal honestly. The 6 semesters of credits I've purchased so far have cost me around $8,200 each on average, so $49,000 for 3 years of guaranteed tuition give or take (around $66,000 total after I pay off the rest).. My kids are all still at least 12 years out from college so maybe somebody with college-aged kids will tell me this is a great deal, but it seems like a lot given the current cost of tuition.
My home is paid off as of a couple of years ago. I have no debt at all, other than the two notes on the rental houses.
Right now I am just accumulating cash, and I have about $450,000 that is just sitting in my bank account accomplishing absolutely nothing. I know I am neglecting my future and my family's future by just sitting on this cash and not doing anything with it, and it makes me sick thinking about it. This sounds stupid, but the more I have, the less I want to think about it because I'm just out of ideas. I guess I need to open a 529 and should have done that years ago. But beyond that, what do I do?
Should I find a financial advisor, consolidate my cash with my Schwab account, and let them put it in the market and manage it for me? Should I sell those undeveloped properties and have all of that in cash being managed too? Should I just put it in a CD?
On top of all of the above, both of my parents up there in age and are not doing well (I'm not that old, but I'm the youngest in my family), and I stand to get several million and some more real estate when they both pass. I just don't even know what to do with that.
Any thoughts or direction from anybody would be sincerely appreciated.
I have a 401k that I initially didn't max out because I was stupid, but I do now because I'm fortunate enough that a small fraction of my salary will max it out without me really even noticing. I'm not even sure what the balance is. Maybe in the neighborhood of $300,000, but I guess that's not relevant since I can't do anything with it anyway.
I have an equities account with Schwab that I play around in from time to time. I have a bunch of AAPL stock and then a few other reliable ones as my main holdings, and then I buy and sell short term in smaller increments, with inconsistent success. I used to have more in there, but the value has dwindled down to around $150,000 now because I've moved cash out to do other things, plus the market has sucked. I haven't even made a trade in that account in over a year now.
I used to have a backdoor Roth IRA through Betterment with around $70k in it, but the growth was absurdly bad, like it literally only grew $5000 in 10 years even though I was maxing it out at $6,000 a year or whatever the limit was. So I closed it out and put the cash toward a new house, which saved way more in mortgage interest than the penalty cost me. So now that is gone.
I have a couple of rental houses that I own in the range of $250k value that each pay $2,500 a month. I have notes on both of those, but they cash flow plenty to cover the note, taxes, insurance, and all other expenses.
I own a couple of undeveloped properties that have a combined value of about $200k. I bought those for cash, so no note, but they aren't ag except, so I do have to pay regular taxes on them every year. That always sucks, but the taxes have been well worth the appreciation thus far, and they're in a hot market where I could sell pretty much whenever I wanted.
The rental houses and undeveloped lots have been great, but they kind of just fell into my lap from opportunities I became aware of through friends or family. I am not a very knowledgeable real estate investor, and I don't see these as repeatable things that I could just duplicate on demand. With my job, I don't have much time to learn and go search for/look at properties.
I do have a wife and a couple of young kids now. We have one of those Texas Tuition Promise Fund things that is 3/4 paid for. I guess I will pay off the last 2 semesters so that at least one of the kids' tuition will be fully paid for, but I'm not so sure they're that good of a deal honestly. The 6 semesters of credits I've purchased so far have cost me around $8,200 each on average, so $49,000 for 3 years of guaranteed tuition give or take (around $66,000 total after I pay off the rest).. My kids are all still at least 12 years out from college so maybe somebody with college-aged kids will tell me this is a great deal, but it seems like a lot given the current cost of tuition.
My home is paid off as of a couple of years ago. I have no debt at all, other than the two notes on the rental houses.
Right now I am just accumulating cash, and I have about $450,000 that is just sitting in my bank account accomplishing absolutely nothing. I know I am neglecting my future and my family's future by just sitting on this cash and not doing anything with it, and it makes me sick thinking about it. This sounds stupid, but the more I have, the less I want to think about it because I'm just out of ideas. I guess I need to open a 529 and should have done that years ago. But beyond that, what do I do?
Should I find a financial advisor, consolidate my cash with my Schwab account, and let them put it in the market and manage it for me? Should I sell those undeveloped properties and have all of that in cash being managed too? Should I just put it in a CD?
On top of all of the above, both of my parents up there in age and are not doing well (I'm not that old, but I'm the youngest in my family), and I stand to get several million and some more real estate when they both pass. I just don't even know what to do with that.
Any thoughts or direction from anybody would be sincerely appreciated.
