If you’ve saved up roughly 10 million dollars for your retirement fund, you should have investment strategies that will generate income for you. That will help you live a comfortable life and provide financial freedom while you retire early.
Knowing how to invest for those specific needs is challenging. Though you have $10 million, you’ve still got to make the soundest investment decisions possible to protect and grow your net worth.
You want the freedom to live your golden years with assurance and the way you want. Therefore, your retirement funds must support that.
We know how hard it is to learn where to turn with your hard-earned income. Whether you nursed a small business through to success or picked the best investable assets and took on more risk, that $10 million can be quickly used up in this day and age. Below, you will find advice on the best way to invest for specific situations.
What to Consider When Investing $10 Million
Whether you’re investing $10 or $10 million, you need a sound investment strategy to protect your net worth. In fact, you require a detailed plan to manage your investments and portfolio. Therefore, it’s wise to identify your investment style, and the characteristics below can assist:
Risk Tolerance
Your risk tolerance determines how much risk you’re willing to take now for the sake of higher returns later. It’s the most important part of your investment style, and you should decide now what that will be.
For example, if you’re a long way from retirement, you may feel more comfortable investing in risky stocks with high return potentials. However, if you’re close to retirement, you might wish to invest in a safer option with less risk to promote financial security.
Time Horizon
Time horizon is the length of time you’ve got to reach your financial goals. We’re focused on when you wish to retire, but your objectives may be different.
Income Requirements
Once you retire, you won’t have an income stream from working. You’ll be using the funds you set aside for retirement. Therefore, it’s crucial to know how much money you will require for living expenses now, which will help you decide how to invest while remaining debt-free in the future.
Liquidity Requirements
Liquidity relates to how fast you will convert the investments into cash. Some people have unpredictable expenses that could be very large, so this is important.
Stocks are generally liquid because you may sell them whenever you want, so many people invest such a large sum in them to pull them out fast. Real estate, however, is much less liquid because that piece of property will take time to sell, even if it’s in excellent condition. The reason is someone needs enough money to purchase the real estate from you.
Investment Preferences
You might have an affinity for specific types of investments or prefer particular companies and funds. You may certainly invest in those, but ensure that you’re basing that decision on facts and not emotion.
For example, you may like individual stocks because your wealthy friends are also into them. However, they may know things you don’t or have a higher risk tolerance than you. Losing your $10 million because you didn’t pay attention to your needs and preferences could hurt you.
Asset Allocation
Most people don’t know or have forgotten how important asset allocation is for protecting their long-term wealth preservation and portfolio. It’s easy to invest a large amount of your assets in real estate, crypto, and stocks. They’re all highly correlated and will rise and fall in tandem.
However, you should also have precious metals, such as silver and gold, in your portfolio. Most people believe precious metals are boring, but successful investors know that gold can protect from inflation and bulk up your savings account in your golden years.
Likewise, you may have much different asset allocations than a friend or a median-college grad. Invest $10 million in ways that will meet your needs later.
All the factors discussed are important when investing in the long term. You should have a solid position for each of them before choosing your investments.
What you decide in each area will steer you to appropriate investments for your needs. It’s possible to use an asset allocation calculator to test your hypothetical portfolio to see a good mix before doing anything else.
Gold IRA Investing
The smartest investors on Wall Street recommend that you put about 10 to 15 percent of your assets into precious metals. Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and that’s his go-to choice.
A gold IRA is the most tax-efficient, safest, and easiest way to invest in those physical precious metals. With one, you can have physical gold in your retirement account.
The investments could be bullion, gold bars, or gold coins. Plus, you can invest in others, such as platinum and silver. Many people add diversification to their retirement portfolios through a gold IRA, which preserves its value in hard economic times.
What’s a Gold IRA?
A Roth or traditional IRA often holds investments in the form of cash, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, and other securities. Your gold IRA can also be Roth or traditional, but it’s self-directed.
Generally, the gold IRA holds your physical gold in the form of bullion, bars, and coins. You may include other precious metals, such as palladium, platinum, and silver, without requiring a separate account. Likewise, gold IRAs follow similar rules for taxes, withdrawals, and contribution limits as conventional IRAs.
We’ve reviewed and scrutinized every company in this space. If you are looking for a gold IRA provider, make sure you read our full list of gold IRA reviews.
However, a gold IRA may also hold other investments that relate to gold. These are called “paper assets” and include things like ETFs in gold-mining companies, stocks, mutual funds in precious metals, and commodity futures in precious metals.
Generally, paper assets are rare for gold IRAs; many investors prefer to only invest in physical metals.
Mutual Funds Investment Options
Mutual funds requiring a higher investment minimum are great options for investors with $10 million because they generally charge fewer fees.
Likewise, a mutual fund will generate income from bond interest and stock dividends, which is money that goes back to your portfolio. If you manage your money wisely, you can get high interest rates. Most brokerage companies provide such funds to investors who meet the high requirement minimums.
A large advantage of mutual funds is that they’re managed by experts. These people use market analysis and research to determine where to invest that money. Wealthy investors get peace of mind knowing that the money is invested wisely by a professional.
Hedge Fund Investments
If you have $10 million, you’ve got more flexibility and can take some risks that aren’t suited for average investors. Hedge funds are in that category.
In a hedge fund, one group of investors uses specific investment strategies that are deemed risky, but they see a potential of generating much higher returns.
Overall, hedge funds include real estate, currencies, commodities, bonds, options, and stocks. The funds ultimately use borrowed money as the leverage, so they generate higher returns than normal. However, these aren’t bound by SEC rules, making them flexible and risky.
Dividend Income and Preferred Stocks from the Stock Market
Wealthier investors who are focused on income generation might also consider investment options that the less affluent use. For example, a stock that yields a dividend will pay a part of the profits to the stockholders.
The income generation comes from the payout that happens every quarter, year, or month. Some dividend payouts will not recur, though.
Payouts are often in cash form, but some companies might pay dividends in shares. You will need to talk to the holding company to determine what option you have.
Preferred stocks can also pay out dividends, and the rate is often fixed. Shareholders of preferred stocks will get dividend payouts before those with common stock. Likewise, they can be traded in the stock market.
In most cases, you will buy this type of stock from the holding company, financial advisor, or an online broker. The latter two will scour the stock market to find the best options for you, and it generally takes a brief call to get started.
Just remember that your dividend income can become substantial when you have more money to work with. For example, if a stock pays out $0.10 a share each quarter, and you’ve got 100,000 shares of it, you’ll get a payout each quarter of $10,000.
Private Equity Investments
Private equity focuses on investment partnerships that manage and buy companies before selling. These firms operate the investment funds for the accredited and institutional investors. The funds might acquire public or private companies or invest in buyouts, so they don’t hold a stake in the company.
In a sense, private equity companies purchase firms and overhaul them so that they earn a profit once the business sells. Capital for those acquisitions comes from outside investors, and you can be a part of that.
Overall, the private equity industry has significantly grown. When interest rates are low, and stock prices are high, it’s a very popular choice. However, it could be very risky.
Investing in ETFs (Exchange-traded Funds) and ETNs (Exchange-traded Notes)
If you want less risk, you may consider ETNs. Exchange-traded notes are bonds issued by financial institutions that promise the ETN holder a percentage return on the index fund over a specified term. These index funds mature, and the note issuer will return the principal amount to the investor. Why do investors consider them for income? There are three primary reasons:
1. Predictable Cash Flow
The note issuer is guaranteed a specific return on those index funds after expenses. Therefore, the return of it follows the return of the index, which generates your predictable cash flow.
ETFs have similar results, but ETNs generally have more certainty for cash flow purposes.
2. Niche Investing
ETNs allow you to invest in a niche. The FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) oversees broker-dealers within the United States. Some ETNs will follow familiar indexes with a broad market coverage. Likewise, they could be in a niche. These niche index funds track asset classes that aren’t as well-known.
Overall, investors have more opportunities to profit from under-the-radar market sectors.
3. Tax Efficient
Exchange-traded notes are more tax efficient. Unlike trading an ETF or mutual fund, which features tax implications, ETNs don’t hold assets connected to the note.
Therefore, an ETN investor isn’t subjected to short-term capital gains taxes. You’re only taxed once, and that’s when you sell it and receive a profit.
Real Estate Investments
Real estate investing is costly. If you’ve got 10 million dollars available, you have a large advantage over average investors. It requires more activity and management than investing in ETFs or stocks, but you’re rewarded with predictable and lucrative returns. However, identifying appropriate properties is difficult.
Therefore, you’ll need help from a Realtor with experience in investment properties. They can be condos, single-family homes, commercial real estate, or apartments. Ask yourself which property type sparks your interest.
That interest will lead you to opportunities for real estate. If you buy an investment property, you may have to upgrade or renovate it before selling. The goal here is to boost property value and sell it at a profit.
Most people stay away from real estate investments because they don’t want to be a landlord. You get a rental income each month, but you must deal with building repairs and tenants.
One way around that is to hire a management company to handle those things for you. Then, you get a truly passive income, but you might be spending money to make it happen.
You could also invest in REITs (real estate investment trusts). The REIT is the company investing in a handful of income-producing properties. You own shares of it, so you can add that to your portfolio. Then, you don’t have to deal with tenants at all.
Family Trust
A family trust will protect your cash holdings from external problems. The trust beneficiary could be a holding company, too. Passive income generated will be directed to the trust, and the payment can continue growing with your investment opportunities.
Trusts can use a lifetime capital gains exemption, which protects your family from dealing with capital gains taxes if they sell a small business that’s connected to that trust.
Here is an example: You run a farm as a small business that generates income. All of that money is put into the family trust and the holding company. If your loved ones sell the farm to investors later, it’s a dividend.
The cash from that sale is moved to the trust. Therefore, the lifetime capital gains exemption protects those profits, and they aren’t taxed.
With that exemption in place, you will only pay taxes on half of those gains. The other half is deductions. While this sounds confusing, the idea is that the family keeps more money from that sale and lowers the taxes owed from it.
Speak to a Financial Advisor
It’s human nature to want to invest $10 million for long periods, but there are many options available. Whether you got it from hard work or a single lottery ticket, you may want to do more than buy sports cars and throw caution to the wind. Therefore, it’s best to work with a financial advisor and learn about the investing options you have for your money.
Putting in large sums of money into stocks and other investments can be a great way to protect your cash until retirement. However, you must be wise about it, and a professional can help you determine what to do based on your needs and requirements.
Conclusion
If you’ve accumulated 10 million dollars, and that money is sitting in your bank account, congratulations! You’ve amassed a significant net worth by working hard or being lucky. Regardless of the reason, you’ve got many ways to invest that cash.
We talked about the many options to generate income, and they can stay in your portfolio for a long time.
Some investments are excellent for beginners because they’re simple to understand and use. Others might be complex, so you will need the help of a financial advisor or be more experienced in investing.
Every kind of investment has rewards and risks attached to it. Before deciding on an appropriate asset allocation, you must understand the negatives and positives associated with them. That’s the way to make good choices for your money and portfolio.
About Tim Schmidt
Tim Schmidt is an Entrepreneur who has covered retirement investing since 2012. He's also a published author, and his views on investing have been featured in USA Today, Tech Times, The Huffington Post, Nasdaq, and many more.
