Personal Investments • seeking Advice: what to do with lump sum in today's high market

The answer to this question is always simple. You must determine your goal asset allocation, and then invest in that proportion. If doing that as a lump sum makes you uncomfortable, then you have not selected the correct asset allocation.

need advice on how to best invest for growth especially when equities are all time high price right now.

If you invest into an asset allocation that is right for your risk tolerance and your needs, then any time is the right time to invest, and you don't have to worry that any asset is high or low.

Strategically, it's better to invest the cash now versus investing it over a period of time (dollar cost averaging) regardless of where you think the market is at. It's the better choice more than 2/3 of the time. The standard advice in these scenarios is to pick an asset allocation (AA) and alter your investments to fit that AA as soon as possible.

Regarding changing your investments - in the IRAs you can make those changes now, from individual stocks to total market index funds like, without any tax implications. In your taxable brokerage, you will have to pay capital gains on any appreciation in the share value. The holdings that you'd need to sell don't seem huge ($40k, say half is appreciated, so $20k * 15% = $3k in cap gains taxes) relative to your income and net worth (granted, we don't know your cost basis), so - if it were me - I'd bite the tax bullet now and make the adjustment before that account grows to an amount you can't stomach to take the tax hit on.

We forgo the UTMA and instead invest in 529s, but the math changes from state to state. Our state, IL, allows for state tax free contributions, so we get 5% "back" on contributions. When calculating income and assets for FAFSA the 529s are treated as parental assets whereas UTMAs are treated as the child's asset, so UTMAs reduce eligibility for aid. That said, 529s are usually only recommended once you've maxed out all other tax advantaged space available to you. You can borrow for college but not retirement.

Have about $350k cash and need advice on how to best invest for growth especially when equities are all time high price right now.

I would put 70% of it into the VT (total world ETF), 15% into VGIT (intermediate treasury ETF) and 15% into SCHP (TIPS ETF). I would do this tomorrow and stop worrying about the right time to invest.

Have about $350k cash and need advice on how to best invest for growth especially when equities are all time high price right now.

Since 1950, the US market has hit "an all-time high" over 1,200 times for an average of about once every three weeks. The last all-time low was 1932. A reluctance to invest because the market is at "all time high price" could result in sitting on the sidelines forever. Unless you have a crystal ball, ignore what the market is doing and invest your excess cash according to your chosen asset allocation.

You didn't ask, but I'd look into your asset allocation for the various type of accounts. For example, your Roth IRAs should be all equities and no bonds/FI. Your tIRA/403b/401k should contain the bonds/FI (and equities) required to achieve your desired asset allocation.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-eff ... _placement

Step 4: Place high growth stock funds
If all else is equal (and it often is not, because you may have different options in your 401(k) and your Roth IRA), it is slightly better to have the fund with the highest expected return in your Roth account or HSA, because these accounts are free from Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs),[note 5] are not counted as income for making Social Security taxable, and probably are less subject to the risk of changing tax rates.

What do you want your overall asset allocation to be?

Do you know the amount of capital gains, and whether they are short term or long term, you have in your brokerage account?

What to buy is up to you, but you aren’t going to get much support for anything but a 2 fund (total stock market (e.g. VTI) / total bond (e.g. BND)) or 3 fund (VTI / International (e.g. VXUS) / BND) portfolio. Figure out what you your asset allocation to be. Since you have S&P500 fund in 403(b), then you are going to want to hold that in all your tax-deferred space (trad IRA/401(k)/403(b) and Roth IRA/401(k)/403(b)) and you are going to want to hold VTI in your brokerage to avoid running into wash sale issues.

If you want to be 100% stocks, then the odds say just invest the entire amount now. If you feel that is too risky, then do half now and then half dollar cost average over the next 6 months. If you feel that is too risky, the dollar cost average the entire amount.

If you are bored with playing the individual stock game, that is pretty easy clean up in the Roths. Sell anything not S&P500 and buy S&P500.

To clean up the individual stocks in the brokerage account, it can be a little more nuanced. You need to know your capital gain (or losses) and how much capital gains tax you’ll pay. Use any losses to offset gains. Buy VTI. If you go lump sum that $350k and we have correction, then you’ll have a bunch losses you can use to offset gains in your individual stocks and clean up the brokerage account faster.

When do you need this money? Is it long-term or retirement? 20 years from now?

Do you think the market will not be higher in 20 years?

What are you earning on the cash now? I would also DCA over the next 6-8 months. I would also be sure to max out the 403(b) immediately.

Statistics: Posted by phiren1986 — Sun Nov 02, 2025 9:13 pm — Replies 14 — Views 1441