$500,000 Smackers !

I would spend some time educating yourself as sugested.

I would also determine what your goals are – you are asking the way without specifying any destination!

Do you own a home?

Age?

Family?

I wouldn’t even imagine making any suggestions on that scarce info.

Cheers,

Simon Macks
Mortgage Broker
http://www.mortgagehunter.com.au
0425 228 985

Todays Hot Rate
***3 year fixed – 6.49%***

Comments may not be relevant to individual circumstances. If you intend making any investment, financial or taxation decision you should consult a professional adviser.

I agree with Mortgage Hunter. Spend some good money and time on educating yourself! Don’t rush anything. I would place the money in the bank (Term Deposit or other savings plan with high interest) until you know what to do with it. Then once you have done your research and have a plan, then execute it. But either way, with that much equity at your disposal, you are way ahead of most of the beginners in the field

Regards,
Ozi

You are about to become very confused and attract many experts into your life with many theories and opinions of what and how to do it … poor thing!!

When taking advise ask to look at the bank account and assets of the person giving the advise, this will eliminate about 95% of them, you may find that the little Italian green grocer in the corner store will give the best direction of all.

Welcome to my world … Phil

Hi Resi,

Well, he did ask for people’s opinions………..

What’s your NET worth resi……..[biggrin][biggrin]

don’t worry only joking

Prodigee,

On a serious note, be careful! Don’t do anything until you have solid financial advice. If you don’t know what to do with it then park it in a term deposit and then get professional advice. A balanced share portfolio geared to growth might not be a bad long term option if you’re short of investment knowledge. But this is not a recommendation, I’m not qualified to do that.

Just concerned that you might come to this site in good faith looking for answers and get short shrift. Please do be careful and seek some professional advice before you act. Its far too easy to lose that sort of money through poor investment decisions.

BTW, I am not necessarily advocating a “Financial Planner” when I say “Professional Advice”. Just arguing that you need to be informed before you act.

Best Regards,
Michael.

What are you goals? Do you want cashflow to retire immediately or build it up further by investing in high growth stuff, or a combo.
I would pay off any non deductible debt first, then get some investment property, using 20% deposits and borrowing the rest. Put some in shares, maybe margin lending, and keep about 10% for investing in high return risky stuff.

Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Mortgage Broker
[email protected]

Bazzer,
just a note, one that has been covered extensively on these forums, is that a Financial Planner is NOT looking into ALL options available. Most are paid by an institution to sell you their products! That is their management fees, shares/property portfolios, etc. So you don’t ever actually own anything yourself. If that is the way you wish to go then you are kind of in the wrong forum……
Now that I have made you feel all warm and fuzzy, welcome! On these forums you’ll learn more about property investing than you ever thought possible and some will give you grace and go into shares if you choose to do so!

Cheers

C@34

Hi there
well for a start – keep the news to yourself on how much you have. The good advice above is to educate yourself and stick the dough in a bank for a while until you know how you can best serve your future with the wonderful windfall.

Dont blow it mate. There are plenty of vultures out there just waiting for innocents like you to come out of the woodwork. Imagine how you would feel if you lost the lot. So now take this advice and read some investment books and go to seminars. If you need to see a very good independant financial planner (or 3), and analyse what each of them tells you, because as already stated above – they are out to push their own products but you can obtain some good advice – just keep control of the money yourself. Don’t hand it over to someone else to control for you.

Best of luck – you lucky person.

Jules1

I would agree with those who say stuff it in the bank and educate yourself. Read books, magazines, newspapers, Websites, investment forums (property & shares), and so on. Go to some of the investors’ groups meetings (I don’t know if this forum has any, but they have regular ones over on Somersoft). Find out who the respected experts are, read their books and perhaps go to some of their seminars.

And while you’re doing all that, work out what your requirements and goals are, and thus what types of investments will suit your needs.

And you probably thought having money would make your life easier [biggrin].

For banking in the meantime, you could either put it in term deposits (look up the best rates on Cannex) or in somewhere like ING Direct. BankWest has a good deal going at the moment: an arrangement essentially identical to ING but paying 6% for the first year then reverting to 5.25%, the same as ING.

Cannex is here: http://www.cannex.com.au/surveys.html

BankWest is here: http://www.abetterdeal.com.au, although there seems to be a problem with that Website as I write this.

ING Direct is here: http://www.ingdirect.com.au

GP