I just got a lump sum of 33500. I am 57 with no savings or retirement. No debt. How to invest?

My brother is handling my parent's estate, so I don't know what income I wil have from that for retirement.

Public Comments

1. Call a stock brokerage co., set up an appointment. Buy a mutual fund. Lean toward medium risk fund.
2. You should invest about half of it in real estate. For example, look into purchasing a duplex & then renting it out. That way you will have money coming in, & still have money in the bank if for some reason one becomes vacant. Talk to a reliable realtor to help you out.
3. Forget about buying a duplex. Any good one would cost a lot more than $33 thousand, which means you would going into debt big time, low rate morgages don't work anymore. Go to www.troweprice.com or www.vanguard.com (or call them) and check on their "target Retirement" funds. They will invest in stock funds for growth while you are working and gradually move the money into bond funds (still with some growth funds) for when you retire and need income.
4. Being very close to retirement, with no savings, you need to invest it safely. And you're going to need income. That means CD's money markets and short term bonds. A small part of it should go into stocks, for growth, probably no more than 25 percent.. A noload growth and income fund is probably a good choice. Check out Vanguard or T. Rowe Price.
5. If you are earning at least 5000/year from the sweat of the brow, however you decide to invest it, 5000 per year of it can be sheltered from tax by an IRA, up front with a traditional, or the income cash flow therefrom with a Roth.
6. CAREFULLY!! I would suggest finding a broker who you can TRUST, then finding methods to help you make your OWN decisions. Check out these educational videos: http://ino.directtrack.com/z/73/CD1/ http://ino.directtrack.com/z/81/CD1/ http://ino.directtrack.com/z/83/CD1/
7. IMO forget Real Estate with 30k it will be hard to move the needle. I like blocks of $4-5k for a portfolio your size Healthcare: Johnson and Johnson JNJ; nice dividend undervalued by $10 per share a bunch of stage three drugs coming up for FDA approval. Also HCSG nations leading provider of health care linens, have some early shares up over 400%. Managed care WLP and UNH. Medtronic MDT will spin off its external defib unit sometime this year. Look at the MLPs. Pipeline and oil and NG storage companies. Master Limited Parterships are really undervalued, safe boring plays including BPL; ETP; TPP; NS; SUG; MMP. These might face some year end tax loss sale but most have really nice dividends and should take off in January. Safe boring and profitable. Consumer: HSY Hersey's is super cheap; also like CTAS the uniform people. and Oil: Oil will hit $100pbl in the next 12 months. Look at HES; OXY the only two left on my buy list after a great summer for the NA oils. Try a scottrade account and pick up morningstar research and you can do it all on you own. Keep your winners and sell your loosers but mostly buy undervalued companies. Good luck!