48 years old, currently have no investments. My net worth is my car and the clothes on my back, and I don’t ever want to be in this situation again.
(Edit: I don’t need to buy a house or anything whatsoever related to a house, so please don’t mention the “h” word in your response, it’s triggering me for tangential reasons. Let me be clear, I will NEVER care about real estate whatsoever, mmmkay? Just trust me when I say I have a roof over my head and it’s completely paid off, no property taxes, and No, I will never sell it, so the whole h-word" aspect of life is not a concern for me, k?)
Just looking for guidance where to invest this relatively small amount of money every month so in a few years when I’m older & frailer I’ll have enough for retirement. I don’t want it to just sit in my bank account, I want it to grow.
For reference, I’ve been living on approx $1500 per month for as long as I’ve noticed, so I don’t need much per month, and the sooner I die, the less retirement fund I’ll need, but we can never predict when anyone’s death will happen, so let’s assume I’ll live to 100 because I’m ridiculously healthy & an exceptionally good driver, never been in an accident, one speeding ticket in my entire life, no social life so I never get into risky situations, so let’s just plan for the possibility I’m going to live another 50 years.
Max out your yearly maximum of $10,000 in Series I savings bonds, purchased from the US Treasury.
Or, like others are probably saying, create your own retirement portfolio that allows you to defer income tax payments until you retire.
They’re only paying like 3.6% right now. I’ve been earning more interest in a high yield savings account lately and it doesn’t have all the withdrawal penalties.
The current rate is 5.27% Yeah if you withdraw before 5 years you lose the last three months of interest.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/i-bonds/i-bonds-interest-rates/
Mine likely have not updated to the new rate yet. I was just on the Treasury Direct site and am still receiving 3.6%.
Recently purchased bonds are paying 5.27 Older ones pay more like 4. https://www.treasurydirect.gov/files/savings-bonds/i-bond-rate-chart.pdf
They’re structured to pay barely more than inflation - 0.0-0.5% more through most of this century - which means that even the 5.27% rate on todays bonds will fall when inflation goes back to its 2% target. They’re about the safest investment you can make, but you’re not going to increase your purchasing power.
The rates will update every 6 months on both ends, but depending on when you buy, your new 6-month rate may lag behind by 1-5 months after they’ve changed it on their end.