Married, Kids, Single income... Tryin' hard!

[kork]

So I'm getting nervous. I've got around 115k being transferred into my TDW account and will be there within the next week. Then it's time to make some big decisions. I'm leaning towards a couch potato strategy. I like the idea of rebalancing and essentially forcing buying low and selling high... (my take anyways).

Honestly, investing seems worse than the tech industry. In my industry, things change every 6 months but it's at least somewhat predictable. Investing seems like the only predictability is unpredictability, lol. Right now I'm still trying to figure out why I've read advice indicating that for holdings over 50k, ETFs might be a better choice... why would I not just stick with index funds and then rebalance yearly with a long term expectation of growth? What advantage would ETFs offer?

[Young&Ambitious]

This article does a great job of explaining Index Funds vs. ETF's and the website is a wealth of information.

http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/...funds-or-etfs/

[kork]

Awesome! Thanks Y&A! That makes it soon clear!

[financialnoob]

Just because the money transfers in next week doesn't mean you have to make big decisions next week. Don't rush it if you're not ready.

If you're concerned about unpredictability, you should be thinking about your risk profile. You may want a higher percent of your portfolio in bonds to help offset some of the risk.

It sounds like you have a high income and good money habits so you may not need to take on much risk to reach your goals (whatever those may be). For example, you mentioned you'd rather make $100 a month than have $15K sitting around, but you could do that with your current assets in a HISA without taking on any risk. So you need to think about what exactly your goals are and what it would take to reach those goals.

[kork]

Just because the money transfers in next week doesn't mean you have to make big decisions next week. Don't rush it if you're not ready.

Yes, I was reading another thread and i had the "AH HAH!" moment with one member stating "Relax, the market's not likely going anywhere, anytime soon."

That made me feel better with some breathing room. And I'm going to step back, breathe a bit and decide the best course.