‘I haven’t had a vacation in 10 years’: I’m 69, retired, single and have $3.6 million. What should I do with my fortune?
Dear Quentin,
Remember me?
I wrote to you recently to ask whether I had too much of my investments in equities. I’m 69 and will have $6,000 a month in retirement income. The bulk of my $3.6 million is stocks.
I want to have some fun now that I’m retired and my family’s caregiving responsibilities are over, and my mom’s estate is nearly settled. (I am the trustee, which is a lot of work.) I haven’t had a vacation in 10 years, so I plan to have a few splurges in addition to doing some much-overdue house repairs and upgrades. But mostly, my needs are modest — many weeks I spend more on my three rescue kitties and one rescue mouse than I do on myself!
Other than keeping some money in cash, laddered CDs or Treasurys over the next few years, especially while fixing up my house, I see no reason to move tons of money from equities. I don’t expect equities to do as well over the next decade as they have in the past, but I still think they will outperform other options. I have a strong stomach for risk. When stocks crashed during the Great Recession, I held the course and eventually ended up far better than before.
‘I plan to bequeath most of my money to environmental and humanitarian charities, plus a bit reserved for my niece and nephew.’
If I live to be 90 or older, I may still go through one or more down cycles. Other than self-insuring for potential caregiving needs, I don’t really need to draw much from that money, especially after my required minimum distributions — which will be about $40,000 a year — start in four years. I need to make a trust — I have only a holographic will — and am struggling with who to name as executor. I am not going to saddle my friends or sisters with that.
English 
