Where would you invest ~$250k right now? Family member inherited money but no debt/obvious needs

Where would you invest ~$250k right now?


Ok some context probably needed here given $250k is small for some people on this site. A close, older (early-mid 60s) family member inherited a decent amount of money. They are middle/upper middle class so this is a big lump sum payment for them and really don’t need the money for any pressing reasons. Kids through college, house paid off, medium to low COL area, they are still working and enjoy what they are doing.


So life changing money somewhat for them but not “F U” money. Retirement accounts near $700k but also has a military pension + other government pension so no real need to draw from principal when he retires in a few years and can explain the low-ish balance considering he is near retirement age. Principal should still accrue for awhile given his pension situation and low COL. Pretty sure he can fund his lifestyle on his pensions plus social security in a few years (hell, knowing him, he'll probably still save money since no house payment+major costs, etc.)

House worth around ~$300k (maybe closer to $400k in this market…mind you, tier 3 or 4 metro area, not NY/Bay Area house prices haha), maybe $100k in brokerage accounts (not sure exactly), 50 acres of farmland that is cash rented out (so small cash flow each year but the land has decent value). Misc other assets.

No credit card debt, house paid off, etc.


He considers himself lucky with the inheritance and has no idea what to do with the money and was asking me. Selfishly, I want to buy my own small business/search fund someday and would love to have him help me fund that (and he would be down for a portion) but I’m not quite ready for that and don’t want to take over his inheritance.


He wants to buy undeveloped land (no interest in being a landlord at this time) which I don’t think is a terrible idea. My initial suggestion was just to put most of the money into a boring Vanguard market fund or Schwab robo-advisor and buy more time to figure it out.


I’ll have to look into the rules but he might qualify as a “high net worth individual” - not sure if retirement accounts count towards that number and not sure how they would value his military/government pensions. This would open up some doors for different investment opportunities.  A deal I worked on with a fundless sponsor was looking at capital commitments of as low as $50k so had something in mind for him since he said he doesn’t mind being slightly riskier with the money. I think he would love being a private investor, even at tiny equity slugs, haha.


Any thoughts or what would you advise in this situation?


Thanks!


Tl;dr – middle class/upper middle class family member inherited $250k that they have no obvious use for. Don’t want to blow the money but decent risk appetite since already have a decent nest egg.

 

Working in LO equities. While people will say market is overheated right now (for good reasons), timing the market rarely ever works. For example, had a conversation with a friend in 2017 and she was telling me her dad moved 50% of their retirement to cash given the 7+yr bull market....they missed out of a hell of a 4yr run and will likely get even more angsty as it feels like we're even closer to a downturn. I don't know anyone who over multiple cycles has been able to predict when they turn

My advise is to buy some good funds. Passive indexers will say VOO / SPY, but I personally do believe in top-tier managers being able to beat the index (don't take my word for it, check out the returns). Check out the funds at T Rowe, probably the best mega asset manager in the United States (disclaimer: I do not work at T Rowe, I deliberately excluded my fund here to avoid bias)

All said though, given the age of the family you also need to consider a debt allocation (vs. equity only), I'd look at PIMCO (probably best mega debt manager in U.S.). Best of luck

 

I would recommend Maxonrow, a cryptocurrency with a very strong use case (Identity technology for crypto assets aml and kyc with legal validity, focused in institutional clients)one of their advisors is the UN expert in Blockchain technology Massimo Buonomo. They already have agreements in place with one of the most important universities of Taiwan and with the Capital Markets Authority of Montenegro ( CMA). A serious and pioneer project with a strong use case that hasn't arrived to the big exchanges yet and is currently flying under the radar trading at cents.

 
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