Hi all,
Incoming long, potentially frustrating post because of how incompetent I am going to sound, but here we go...
I am completely dense when it comes to finances and I am in the process of trying to play catch up in knowledge. I am trying to read as much as possible, learn, etc. Up until this point I have just pretty much listened to what my family members have told me, as well as what some of my partners have told me. But, I feel overwhelmed right now and feel as if I am not doing a good enough job securing my family's future. I am on the brink of hiring a financial planner and someone to manage my money, but I want to give this whole self-directed investing thing a chance before completely giving up. So here we go.
A little background: I am in my early 30s and I am an attending. I have no student loan debt, and the only debt I have is for our house and a car I recently bought (I got a very good interest rate). I am currently maxing out my 401k. Along the way I have created multiple retirement accounts (again, per my family's recommendations) which I just recently consolidated. I have close to $40k in a Roth IRA, but this money is NOT INVESTED. It is sitting in a "cash" investment earning exactly 0% interest. I have another $28k in a traditional IRA, also earning 0% interest. I am maxing out my company 401k at this point, with that money invested in a target date Vanguard fund. I also have an individual investment account, to which I am contributing close to $4k a month. This $4k is split between a diversity of mutual funds, including large, mid, small cap funds, foreign markets, etc, with a tilt towards being slightly aggressive given my age (I got these recommendations from a partner of mine). I also have an HSA which I have been maxing out as well, but that money is also NOT INVESTED right now.
So here is my issue. I have a lot of money literally doing nothing for me (between my traditional, Roth, and HSA), but I am too scared and too uninformed to invest this money without guidance. This literally weighs on my mind every single day and I feel really lost and overwhelmed. Because the amounts I am dealing with are fairly significant, I am paralyzed by fear of making a wrong investment choice and having it cost my family and me dearly. As I said before, I am on the verge of hiring a financial planner and shelling out the 0.5-1% a year to get some help, but I really feel like I am doing myself a disservice since I feel like I should be able to understand this stuff, and I am throwing away a significant amount of money.
Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all...
Incoming long, potentially frustrating post because of how incompetent I am going to sound, but here we go...
I am completely dense when it comes to finances and I am in the process of trying to play catch up in knowledge. I am trying to read as much as possible, learn, etc. Up until this point I have just pretty much listened to what my family members have told me, as well as what some of my partners have told me. But, I feel overwhelmed right now and feel as if I am not doing a good enough job securing my family's future. I am on the brink of hiring a financial planner and someone to manage my money, but I want to give this whole self-directed investing thing a chance before completely giving up. So here we go.
A little background: I am in my early 30s and I am an attending. I have no student loan debt, and the only debt I have is for our house and a car I recently bought (I got a very good interest rate). I am currently maxing out my 401k. Along the way I have created multiple retirement accounts (again, per my family's recommendations) which I just recently consolidated. I have close to $40k in a Roth IRA, but this money is NOT INVESTED. It is sitting in a "cash" investment earning exactly 0% interest. I have another $28k in a traditional IRA, also earning 0% interest. I am maxing out my company 401k at this point, with that money invested in a target date Vanguard fund. I also have an individual investment account, to which I am contributing close to $4k a month. This $4k is split between a diversity of mutual funds, including large, mid, small cap funds, foreign markets, etc, with a tilt towards being slightly aggressive given my age (I got these recommendations from a partner of mine). I also have an HSA which I have been maxing out as well, but that money is also NOT INVESTED right now.
So here is my issue. I have a lot of money literally doing nothing for me (between my traditional, Roth, and HSA), but I am too scared and too uninformed to invest this money without guidance. This literally weighs on my mind every single day and I feel really lost and overwhelmed. Because the amounts I am dealing with are fairly significant, I am paralyzed by fear of making a wrong investment choice and having it cost my family and me dearly. As I said before, I am on the verge of hiring a financial planner and shelling out the 0.5-1% a year to get some help, but I really feel like I am doing myself a disservice since I feel like I should be able to understand this stuff, and I am throwing away a significant amount of money.
Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all...
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