# If you had $1,000,000.00 to invest…
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 29, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737 "2021-08-29T18:50:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/61 "2021-09-01T19:45:14Z")
My advisor twisted my arm until I invested and extra $10 G’s in the markets back in mid-March, 2020. My regret? She didn’t convince me to make that 50ish.
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/62 "2021-09-01T19:58:38Z")
Similarly, my mother made a bunch of small investments in the aftermath of the 2008 collapse. For example, she bought something like 500 shares of Ford at about a dollar fifty. It’s about $13 now.
---
### Author:  [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/63 "2021-09-01T20:05:10Z")
Well, I’d wonder what happened to the rest of it. 😉
If $1 million dropped in my lap today, I’d spend most of it upgrading to a nicer house, which I plan to do in any event. I’d keep about 10% to renovate my existing house and turn it into a rental, which I also plan to do anyways. I would wind up keeping a few hundred thousand and putting it mostly into Vanguard Total Stock Market and Vanguard Total International with a small piece in bonds. I could use this to make my mortgage smaller but with interest rates where they are, I’d rather lock in some cheap money while I can since I expect the mutual funds to outperform the mortgage expense over the term of the mortgage, even if not necessarily in the next 2-3 years.
---
### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/64 "2021-09-01T20:17:45Z")
> [@Mallard](#):
>
> My advisor twisted my arm until I invested and extra $10 G’s in the markets back in mid-March, 2020. My regret? She didn’t convince me to make that 50ish.
I’m fully invested so had no cash reserves to deploy, but on March 31st of last year I rebalanced enough bonds from traditional IRA to stocks in my Roth IRA to bring me up to the top of the 22% bracket, while being careful to avoid the high income Medicare penalty. It turned 60 G into 110 G and that’s a tax free gain. I usually convert enough every year to do that, but it made sense to do it early rather than later.
---
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/65 "2021-09-01T20:31:59Z")
buy a modest home and put the rest in index funds and dividend stock.
---
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/66 "2021-09-01T20:32:31Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> After the bubble I swore off individual stocks. Way too much of a crap shoot, and funds are always going to react faster than you can. Investing as an alternative to playing poker, maybe, but that’s not really investing.
That’s really the best advice in the thread; unless you’re super-loaded and want to be an angel investor or something, investing in individual companies is often riskier and lower return than if you had merely invested the same amount in a more diversified portfolio.
I think if I was to have a $1 million windfall, I’d probably invest half, and use the other half as new home money- likely as a combination of down payment and renovation/customization money, with the second one being priority; interest rates are super low, which means now is the time to borrow. But renovations are expensive right now, so better to spend up front on those.
---
### Author:  [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/67 "2021-09-01T20:59:01Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> The stock market is the only business where people panic when there’s a sale. For an investor to be happy about high stock prices is like a driver being happy about high gasoline prices just because their gas tank is half full.
I understand, but in there are very few instances where people intend to eventually SELL the gas that is in their gas tank.
Also, the typical news story. THE MARKET DROPPED BY (very few) POINTS - ARMAGEDDON! Not as dramatic as saying: “Oh, the market dropped by 0.1% today. Normal fluctuation. Yawn.”
Getting back to the OP, it is unfortunate that companies have been dropping “shareholder perks” like Wrigley’s providing packs of chewing gum, or Disney offering discounts to their theme parks. It took some of the FUN out of investing. It might be worth checking out the few remaining offers.
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/68 "2021-09-01T21:38:25Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> The stock market is the only business where people panic when there’s a sale.
I’m so stealing this!
---
### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/69 "2021-09-01T21:52:53Z")
I’d probably do some combination of:
1. paying off all debt (possibly excluding the mortgage, which is at an insanely low rate)
2. maxing out our 401(k) contributions - we’re at an age where we could put a LOT more in per year than we are now. Likely into the same diversified group of investments (cash, bonds, stocks) we currently use.
3. looking into purchasing / building an accessible home somewhere cheaper.
We’re finally at an age where a sudden windfall of 1M would, in fact, be enough to have me thinking we are financially able to retire.
---
### Author:  [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/70 "2021-09-02T04:15:08Z")
I’d put it on Easts to beat Canberra, by 10pm tonight I’d be 710 grand richer.
---
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/71 "2021-09-02T11:57:24Z")
Gee, remember when a million dollars was a lot of money??
I retired the first time and I had a tad over half a million in my TSP (401k equivalent) after a few decades working for the Dept of the Navy. We went to the financial advisor at our credit union - my fund was set up in August 2013. When spousal unit retired in 2017, his small 401k was turned over to the same advisor, and when I re-retired in 2019, my smaller 401k went the same way.
We are very risk averse, but he put us into a variety of funds, leaving one account readily available, just in case. My annuity has more than doubled since 2013, husband’s annuity has doubled in the last 4 years. Even the last fund, set aside for our grandkids, increased by about 30% in less than 2 years. So if I had another million dollars, I’d go to Dave, because he’s done well by us, and we don’t have to know anything about the market or forecasting or global economics. We should be able to enjoy a very comfortable retirement and never be a burden to our daughter. Suits us fine.
---
### Author:  [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/72 "2021-09-02T18:17:12Z")
As it so happens, I rolled over a 401K of a little over $1MM into an IRA 22 days ago, so I can definitely answer this. I put it all into VOO (S&P 500 Index ETF). Given that I am up 2.2%, I am happy so far 😛
I’ll probably diversify a bit after a while and I figure out what I want to do. Obviously, since it was a 401K rollover, I am somewhat limited in my options. Can’t go out and buy a house or the Yankees.
---
### Author:  [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/73 "2022-08-11T17:24:43Z")
This thread randomly came up at the bottom of the page, so I thought I’d just note that currently your $1m would be worth around $400k. Of course, I appreciate you said a 10 year investment horizon, so we’ll see if any of us remembers to check back in 2031. My main point is that it seems to me that in recent years at least, investing at IPO has rarely been a good move.
---
### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/74 "2022-08-13T19:27:35Z")
While the $60,000 of VTSAX I purchased at the end of March in 2020 is now worth more than $100,000; as of yesterday, not including quarterly dividends. It went from $62.75 to $104.64. Of course, back in November 2021 it was worth $113,000, so as my wife puts it, I’m down 13 grand, but I’m playing with house money so plan to let it ride.
---
### Author:  [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2022, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/75 "2022-08-13T19:40:18Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#):
>
> I would not be foolish enough to try & second-guess professionals in the field.
Why not? Monkeys, dart-throwers, and school-children do it all the time.
> **[Three Monkeys and a Cat: The Truth about Picking Stocks • Prosperity Thinkers](https://prosperitythinkers.com/personal-finance/three-monkeys-and-cat-pick-stocks/)**
>
> Have you heard of monkeys picking stocks? The scoop about picking stocks and how Mad Money Jim Cramer's stock picks compared with a stock picking monkey!
---
### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/76 "2022-08-13T19:55:43Z")
My Ford purchase is up 20.5% in a crappy market though. It was undervalued.
Ford also paid 3 dividends already. So the Rivian was indirectly a very good tip for me at least.
---
### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737/77 "2022-08-13T22:54:09Z")
Really fast and flashy pair of shoes, and a sensible Automobile.
No, Wait! Make that the other way around.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-had-1-000-000-00-to-invest/949737.md?page=3)