Advice on Creating Portfolio/Investments

[Sponxx]

I started saving later in life (long medical degree and training salaries)
Single income, 4 kids ages 8 to 15
At 45, I have a 401k + employer matched account that I max out every year and also a separate taxable IRA account, trying to get it to 100k (it is diversified, but could be more protected)

I have a rental home (~500k), that is 11yr out from being paid at 2,75% interest, and almost covered by the rent.
My current home we bought 2yrs ago, more expensive, a lot more years left (28) at higher interest to cover (5.7%). So when rates drop 'll look into refi
I have $15k in a HYSA, almost 18k in crypto (~9k in BTC, 7k ETH and LTC, rest is XRP and XLM, and I will try to move stuff to XRP and XLM)
I have no precious metals

I'm at least 25 years from retirement (in the medical field most retire at late 70s) and plan to add a spousal IRA, which we don't have yet.
I try to add ~500$ to 1k a month to my brokerage account but I'm hesitant to put much more in the market with the all time highs.

What else should we be doing to prepare, what else I'm I missing and what should I be looking at for safe or cash flow investments.
My salary is fairly stable, but at the same time it is hard to "make much more by working harder" and I'm worried we are headed for some tough times and maybe a currency collapse.

[Kenny Powers]

Welcome. Sounds like you're doing well.

Advice I would give would be- do not listen to the naysayers and forge ahead on equities.
Do not pay an advisor to underperform the market year after year. When they mention they protect investments on down years, ask them to prove it. My experience with advisors was underperforming in up years and under performing in down years.

When MAG 7 are all down on any given day, buy VOOG or QQQ. TQQQ if you are a bullish like me.

On the rental- Just curious and feel free to not answer- Why does it lose money? Is it a part time rental/ your vacation home? Does it appreciate enough to make up for the loss? If not part time, it should be earning a profit every year or it is an oportunity cost. If not your vacation home, one may consider selling and investing that money earning 50k+ compounded annually. That'd make a huge impact on your portfolio.

MAG 7 is not going anywhere and should be the principal chunk of any portfolio in my opinion.

I'm a college drop out. I had 18 years of under performance by very high level advisors at Smith Barney then Morgan Stanley. Firing them was the most important move I ever made and I've beat the market since. Don't pay an advisor 1-2% or more to manage investments that underperform the SP 500 by a few points year after year.

[tec]

I've had a financial advisor for 30 years and have been very happy with him. I have much more now than when I retired 18 years ago. Before him I tried to pick stocks and mutual funds on my own with poor results.

[Kenny Powers]

That probably sounds rude. I apologize. Not my intent and should not have posted that under your comment. Harbor a bit of animosity towards advisors. Not sure if it shows.

[tec]

No problem Kenny.

[Kenny Powers]

What is living in your posd these days?

[98aggie77566]

Dollar cost averaging…the market may look expensive today…in 10 years it will look cheap.

If it doesn’t, we are all in a pickle.

[Sponxx]

Thanks all for the advice.
I can give more specifics if needed, but seems that besides polishing a bit my plans, I am on somewhat on the right track

On the rental- Just curious and feel free to not answer- Why does it lose money? Is it a part time rental/ your vacation home? Does it appreciate enough to make up for the loss? If not part time, it should be earning a profit every year or it is an oportunity cost. If not your vacation home, one may consider selling and investing that money earning 50k+ compounded annually. That'd make a huge impact on your portfolio.

Happy to answer that.
It was a bit of both:
Opportunity cost - We bought a bigger a house and the neighbor on the previous (now rental) had always wanted to rent ours, vs the one she rented. We went a bit under market rate, the house never went on the rental market and we have long term renting. She is trustworthy, pays on time, lives alone, no pets, about to retire. The house is deteriorating less, as we are 6 (4 kids) and she is single.
We are saving on realtor fees and potential downtimes.
I have to do the exact math, but the difference between rent and costs (mortgage/fees/insurance) is about $100/mo, and depending on taxes and insurance costs,

[Sponxx]

As soon as I finished writing the above, I went over my numbers again. The rent "not covering costs" was when we had 26 mortgage payments a year (my employer did bi-weekly so it matched). Now we are at 24, and I changed the mortgage to that earlier this year.

We are actually about $200 up per month with current schedules, not counting the 3k that I needed for roof fixing - but I will see about tax deducting that as an expense. So it is actually making a bit of money, plus appreciating.

[Kenny Powers]

Paying 2x plus per month is so smart.

[Sponxx]

Currently I am not able to pay 2x a month, reset everything to line up with new salary schedule.
Will have to look up how finances look up and if feasible

[Kenny Powers]

I meant that paying 24 payments per year vs. 12 is more efficient. https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-f...181618068.html

[Sponxx]

My plan is to put 7k (or max) for spousal IRA, likely move them from the HYSA (not making much, but better than Savings account)
With next year's return, throw as much possible to her Spousal IRA.

I have now added the $200 extra the rental house is making to the principal on our current one, and in the long run it may save close to 100k in interest,. Would I be able to generate that in the market if diverted there? unclear, but we will not "feel" the monthly impact of $200, and it will add up long term.

[older 37]

You young people are very lucky. I was in my mid fifties before they had IRAs and the first few years since my wife was a home maker , we could only save tax free $ 2000 per month for me and $200 a month for her so we split it and put $1100 in both .