Below are the details. I (mid-forties) am wanting to retire in the next 1-2 years. What should I do with my investments that I currently have with EJ?
1.8 Million with EJ, with about half of it invested in the Stock Market and about half in the Money Market.
Paid off house (current value around 550K). No other debt.
When I exit the business, I will probably be paid around $500K. My current salary is $200K.
What would you do with your money to maximize your earnings?
I’m trying to figure out the best steps to retire soon. I think I will need around $100K a year to live on for the foreseeable future.
Married with 2 upper teens with high likelihood of scholarships (1 for sure).
Please offer your financial guidance
byu/FinancialZelda inpersonalfinance
Posted by FinancialZelda
10 Comments
Not married? No kids?
First, get rid of EJ. They charge high fees and if you’ve been with your salesman for a long time you’ve probably given them a few hundred k.
2-2.5 mil might be a moderately lean budget depending on your expenses.
Why is half your cash not invested?!? Do you have any idea how much you missed out on in the last 3 years?
Good news is you have a lot of assets and a 500k payout would certainly help you … but 100k a year won’t last in your assets
$100k including health insurance?
3% withdrawal on $2.3M = $69k so you have a pretty good gap if you want to live off investments alone.
If this EJ guy is the reason you have half your money in money market accounts I would dump him. That’s not doing you any favors if your goal is to retire early.
Have you worked out the numbers to see if you have enough for the next 40 years? You need a flat fee only certified financial planner who doesn’t sell anything except his time.
Is any of this 1.8M in retirement accounts that you can’t access until you are 59.5 without paying a penalty? What’s your healthcare plan? A plan for 4 people ain’t gunna be cheap.
How are you planning to cover medical bills until Medicare cuts in? One uncovered hospitalization can cost $100k+.
What about the kids college, sports, marriages?
$2.3M probably isn’t enough.
Why not just scale up the business so you don’t have to do the work?
Easy. Ditch EJ immediately. Choose Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab.
get out of edward jones today. their advisory fees are typically 1.35-1.50% AUM. on $1.8M that is $24-27k/year going to them instead of you. retiring in 1-2 years means that is $50k+ of fees in your transition window alone.
path: open a vanguard or fidelity account, do an in-kind transfer of the EJ holdings (they cannot block this), then sell anything that is EJ proprietary (most of it) inside the new account and rebuild into low-cost index funds. ~3 weeks of paperwork, life-changing fee savings. you do not need an advisor at this asset level. vanguard PAS at 0.30% is overkill and still 1/4 of what EJ charges.
“but my EJ guy is so nice” – the niceness costs you a beach house.