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If you have saved up $10 million for your retirement, and you have investment strategies that can generate income, that can give you the means to live comfortably for decades.
However, knowing how to invest for your specific needs can be a challenge. Even though you have millions of dollars, you still have to make sound investment decisions.
You want the freedom to live out your golden years the way you want with the assurance that your retirement funds can support it.
If you need advice on the best ways to invest for your particular situation, then please keep reading this article.
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Things To Keep In Mind When Investing $10 Million
Sound investing applies whether you want to invest $10 or $10 million. You need to create a detailed plan for managing your investment portfolio. You should identify your investment style based on the following characteristics:
Risk tolerance
This determines how much risk you are willing to take on for the sake of higher returns. This is the most crucial aspect of your investment style that you should decide on.
For example, if you are still a long time away from retirement, you might feel comfortable investing in risker stocks that have high return potentials. On the other hand, if you are close to retirement, you might want to invest in safer options.
Time horizon
This is the length of time you have to reach your financial goal. For this discussion, it is when you want to retire.
Income requirements
After you retire, you will no longer get an income stream from work. You will be using funds set aside for your retirement. Figuring out how much money you need for your living expenses will help you decide how you want to invest.
Liquidity requirements
This relates to how quickly you can convert your investment to cash. For some people with unpredictable expenses that can be potentially sizable, this is important.
Stocks are relatively liquid because you can sell them any time you want. Real estate is less liquid because a piece of property requires time to sell.
Investment preferences
Perhaps you have an affinity for certain kinds of investments or prefer certain funds or companies. You can certainly invest in them, but make sure that you are basing your investment decision on financial facts and not emotions.
Asset allocation
Most people either don't know, or forget about the important of asset allocation to protecting your portfolio for long term wealth preservation.
It's easy to invest too large a percentage of your assets in stocks, crypto, and real estate. These assets are all highly correlated and rise and fall in price in tandem.
Don't forget to add some precious metals in the form of gold and silver to your portfolio. Many people think precious metals are boring, but the old and successful investors know that gold is a form of savings and protection from inflation.
Each factor above is important when you are investing for the long term. When you have a solid position in each of them, you can start to choose your investments.
What you decide on each factor will steer you to the investments that fit your needs. If you want to test a portfolio hypothetically, you can use an asset allocation calculator so you can see the mix before you invest.
Investing in a Gold IRA
Wall Street's smartest investors, like Ray Dalio founder of the world's biggest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, recommend that you have 10% - 15% of your assets in precious metals.
A gold IRA is the easiest, safest, and most tax efficient way to invest in physical precious metals.
With a gold IRA, you are allowed investing in physical gold in a retirement account.
These investments can be gold coins, gold bars, or bullion. You can also invest in other precious metals such as silver and platinum. A gold IRA is one way for people to add diversification to their retirement portfolio which can preserve its value during inflation.
What Is a Gold IRA?
A traditional or Roth IRA usually holds investments in the form of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, cash, and other types of securities. A gold IRA can also be traditional or Roth but is self-directed.
The gold IRA holds physical gold in the form of coins, bars, or bullion. You can include other types of precious metals such as silver, platinum, and palladium. Gold IRAs follow the same rules around contribution limits, withdrawals, and taxes as conventional IRAs.
A gold IRA account can also hold other investments relating to gold. These are referred to as "paper assets." These include stocks and ETFs in gold-mining companies, commodity futures in precious metals, and mutual funds in precious metals.
However, paper assets are rare in gold IRAs because most investors prefer only investments in physical metals.
Mutual Fund Investments
Mutual funds that require a high investment minimum are good options for investors with a lot of wealth. The reason is that they often charge fewer fees.
Also, mutual funds can generate income from stock dividends and interest from bonds, which is the money going back into the portfolio. Many brokerage companies offer these funds to investors who can meet the high minimum requirements.
A big advantage of mutual funds is that they are managed by expert fund managers. They use research and market analysis when deciding where to invest the money in their fund.
For wealthy investors, having the fund professionally managed gives them peace of mind knowing that their money is being invested wisely.
Hedge Fund Investments
When you have $10 million, you have more flexibility in taking some risks that are not suited for the average investor. Hedge funds fall into that category.
In a hedge fund, a group of investors uses investment strategies that are considered risky for the potential of generating high returns.
Hedge funds can include stocks, options, bonds, commodities, currencies, and real estate. The funds use borrowed money as leverage, so they can potentially generate returns much higher than returns for the average investor.
The funds are not bound by the SEC rules that other securities are subject to. So, they are more flexible.
Investing in Dividend and Preferred Stocks
Wealthy investors who are looking for income generation should also look at investment options for the less wealthy. For instance, stocks that yield a dividend pay out a part of their profits to stockholders.
This is the income generation. The payout can occur every quarter, every month, or every year. Some dividend payouts do not recur.
Payouts are usually in the form of cash, but some companies pay out dividends in shares instead of cash.
Preferred stocks also pay out dividends. The dividend rate is usually fixed. Shareholders of preferred stock get their dividend payout before shareholders of common stock.
Keep in mind that if you have a lot of money to work with, your dividend income can be quite substantial. For example, suppose a stock pays out 10 cents a share every quarter, and you have 100,000 shares of it. Every quarter, you can get a payout of $10,000.
Investing in Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs)
Wealthy investors who desire less risk can look into exchange-traded notes or ETNs. An ETN is a bond issued by a financial institution that promises the investor, the ETN holder, a percentage return on an index over a term.
When the ETN matures, the note issuer returns the original principal amount to the ETN investor. Why should wealthy investors consider ETNs for income? There are three reasons.
Reason #1
The note issuer guarantees a specific return on an index, after expenses. So, the return of the ETN follows the return of a specific index that generates a predictable cash flow. ETFs deliver similar results, but ETNs offer more certainty.
Reason #2
ETNs offer you the opportunity to invest in a niche.
According to FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that oversees broker-dealers in the United States, some ETNs follow the more familiar indexes that have broad market coverage, and some ETNs follow indexes in a niche, that track asset classes that are not as well-known or indexes that are newer, more complex, or more exclusive.
This may provide investors with opportunities to reap a profit from market sectors that are not under the radar.
Reason #3
ETNs are tax efficient. Unlike trading an exchange-traded fund or a mutual fund which comes with tax implications, ETNs do not hold assets that are connected to the note.
So, as an ETN investor, you are not subject to any short-term capital gains taxes that ETFs or mutual funds are subject to. In ETNs, you are taxed one time when you sell the note and get a profit from selling it.
Real Estate Investments
Investing in real estate is costly. If you have $10 million at your disposal, you have a big advantage over the average investor.
It requires more active management than investing in stocks or ETFs, but you are rewarded with lucrative and predictable returns. Identifying investment properties can be a challenge.
Therefore, you should seek assistance from a realtor with expertise in investment properties.
Investment properties can be single-family homes, condos, apartments, or commercial buildings. Ask yourself what type of property sparks your interest as an investment opportunity.
Your interest will lead you to your opportunities. If you purchase an investment property, you might need to do some upgrades to it before you sell it. The goal is to increase your property value so you can sell it at a profit.
Many people steer clear of real estate investments because they do not want to be a landlord.
Dealing with tenants and building repairs can be a hassle, but you can hire a real estate management company that can deal with these things on your behalf. You can also invest in real estate investment trusts or REITs.
A REIT is a company that invests in a group of income-producing properties. By owning shares in the REIT, you add the property owned by the REIT to your portfolio. You would not deal with any tenant issues at all.
Consider a Family Trust
A family trust protects your cash holdings from various external problems. The beneficiary of the trust can be a holding company.
Passive income that is generated can be directed into the trust where the income can keep growing with investment opportunities.
The trust can use something called a "lifetime capital gains exemption" that can protect your family from incurring capital gains taxes when they sell the small business connected to the trust.
Let's illustrate this in an example. You run a farm, and it is a small business that generates income which is put into the family trust and holding company. If the farm is sold to investors in the future, it will be sold as a dividend.
The cash from the sale is directed into the trust. The lifetime capital gains exemption protects the profits from getting taxed.
With the exemption in place, you only pay taxes on half of the gains. The other half becomes deductions. While this all may sound rather confusing, the idea is that your family keeps more money from the sale while minimizing the taxes owed from the sale.
Conclusion
If you have accumulated $10 million and the money is in your bank account, you have many ways to invest it. The options discussed above will generate income for as long as you hold them in your portfolio.
Some investments are good for beginners because they are simple. Other investments might be more complex and only suitable for experienced investors.
Each kind of investment has its level of risk and reward. Before you decide on an asset allocation, understand the positives and negatives of each investment option so you can make the best choices for your portfolio.
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I started BMOGAM Viewpoints as a way to compile all my views on investing in one place. I own my home, have some real estate, and own a few stocks like most people, but what really drives my interest in investing is I have a strong love of precious metals, especially gold.
