No More Alternative Income Reports |
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Today, I've decided to formally end my Alternative Income reports. I don't think too many people will miss them since I haven't done the reports in around months. Some might wonder why I stopped doing them. Well, a wise friend of mine once said that if he ever hit the lottery, he wouldn't tell a soul for six months, while he set up proper estate planning. Nearly six months ago, I found myself in that exact situation. So behind the scenes here , I've been taking his advice and implementing his plan.
With that fortunate bounce of the ping-pong balls, I had been more preoccupied with making sure that it was protected than blogging about my Alternative Income. The few thousand a month that I make is really just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things.
As for the overall estate planning, I should give some details on how I managed it. First, I opted to take the money as a lump sum payment and of course significant taxes were taken from it. The rest of it was divided up in the following ways:
- Spending Spree - 5% - Earlier this week I had a problem of not being able to figure what I wanted for my birthday. This is a direct result of that spree. Once I got a new computer and a few other toys it was time to be a little more responsible.
- Speculative Investing - 5% - This is the money that I put into speculative investments. For instance, some of that money went to Lending Club and some of that money will be used for me to expand this website and expand my web presence elsewhere.
- Annuity - 30% - Putting 30% of the money in an annuity gives us a guaranteed stream of income which will help us live our lifestyle. Think of it as an emergency fund on steroids
- Domestic Stocks - 20% - A simple purchase of Vanguard's Total Market Index ETF (VTI) filled this easily
- International Stocks - 20% - A simple purchase of Vanguard's All-World ex-US ETF (VEU) covered this well with no duplication of the above
- Various Bonds - 20% - The Vanguard investing tripod stands strong with the purchase of Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND).
One of the more challenging issues was making sure that I didn't put too much money in one banking institution. The reason I wanted to spread it around was in the rare circumstance of bank failure, I could still count on FDIC insurance to help out.
How would you have handled a sudden windfall like winning the lottery?
Related posts:
- Alternative Income Streams Progress – January 2007
- Alternative Income Streams – November 2007
- Alternative Income Streams – February 2008
- Alternative Income Streams Progress – Mid November
- Alternative Income Streams – March 2009
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- Alternative Income Streams Progress – January 2007
- Alternative Income Streams – November 2007
- Alternative Income Streams – February 2008
- Alternative Income Streams Progress – Mid November
- Alternative Income Streams – March 2009
14 Responses to “No More Alternative Income Reports”
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Regarding FDIC, some banks will offer you a financial instrument that entails THEM splitting the the amount between banks. Basically, you give Bank A a million dollars. Bank A puts 100K into an account in Bank B for you, 100K in Bank C, etc. This keeps the amounts under the FDIC max with no extra work for you. I forget the exact name if it.
Something to look into.
Hmmm?…Interesting day to post this.
@kosmo @ The Casual Observer
You are referring to CDARS
http://www.cdars.com/
@Andy
Nice I forgot about what day it was and was thinking i should start buying lottery tickets
At least I got someone ;-).
did you use any of your lottery winnings to get your tank back out on the road?
I realized that I didn’t really want a tank anyway.
For those wondering what Cos is referring to see:
Budgeting for a Tank
@ Investor Junkie – Yeah, that’s it.
I’ve always wondered why the FDIC didn’t just impose a global limit per investor, regardless of how many accounts they have. Using CDARs or manually opening accounts at several banks is a pretty obvious workaround.
I think the FDIC wants you to strongly encourage you to diversify your holdings in case a bank does fail.
We won back in July. We spent the money by paying the house off and paying off our two cars. And we spent some on fixing our house up. We also gave alot to charity. And of course the govt got about 1/3 of it.
As I was reading, I was thinking how ironic it was that a guy who writes about careful planning, budgeting, and gradually accumulating wealth would hit the lottery. Then it hit me just what day it was. Perfect deadpan delivery!
Thank you, Jon. Steven Wright is one of my favorite comedians – I learned the deadpan from him :-).
aahhhh mannn I just realized I was had. Durn. Forgot what day you posted this on.
Alternative income reports are the win. You need them here man, thanks for the prank!