There are two rats that eat your cheese. One agency comes annually to almost all of us (except the *very* low income ones), with a question and a statement. The question is, "How much did you make?" and the statement is, "We want part of it" ... ...except that there are some who earn substantial amounts, whose tax-accountants and tax-lawyers can help them avoid much of the fee. That's the rat of income tax - that eats annually into your income. The other rat is called inflation. Just after World War II, which ran from Aug. '39 till Aug '45, when cars were really hard to get, as there'd been none built for civilians during the war, Dad had a new Ford "Monarch" on order for many months, then the dealer told him that it would cost him $1,600.00 ... but that the (honest) dealer could sell it to another customer for him, if he chose, for $2,000.00, tomorrow. Dad said that he'd take it. When we invest where the guarantee is that the number of dollars invested won't go down ... there's another guarantee: that the number won't increase, either, apart from the rent on the money. And in almost all of the more than 80 years that I've been alive ... each of those dollars would buy less when we got it back than when we gave it to the borrower. Many people spend more time planning their vacation than learning how to manage their money effectively ... ... some stupid, that, I say. And many of the governments, deep in debt, can't afford to have interest rates go up. Plus ... many of them are printing money ...which means that inflation will go up. When my jacket shrinks enough through repeated washings ... it gets darn hard to breathe! ole joyful

Djsaw, No one has talked about 'lifestyle and money'... Jkom put it in a very technical way. I am putting a bit of a human story behind it.... but saying the same thing. The fact that you are not working right now and living off the dividends is a big red flag for your future. You have kids and your living expenses will only grow not lessen. Unless there is enough money to meet all your future needs, ie college, mortgage, new car, travel etc, you need either a job that pays well enough or an investment strategy that will give you enough to live on without eroding the principle. There may or may not be enough money for that as is. (I have no idea from your post.) This is where you need to talk to someone that can really figure out what you want for yourself and your kids with the money that is there. Most people with a young family need about $5mil to $10mil nest egg to have an upper middle class lifestyle without needing to work for life AND risking the principle. "Not risking the principle" is a very important concept because you do not have the earning power to bring it back up if you lost it. (If your wage was a $1/2 mil to $1mil a year then no big deal but you are not there...) People like Donald Trump and Ted Turner can pull themselves out of near bankruptcy but most of us cannot recoup the lost principle. I have seen multigenrationally wealthy families have this happen to them due to risky investments. If I had your money, I would want to have certain things that money can buy; a house in a good school district, enrichment for my kids, good after school care for my kids if I was working, nice vacations etc. Notice I did not list designer handbags or fancy cars. One of the joys of having money is that you can have some opportunities that enable you to enjoy life more fully and perhaps get your kids a small head start with good education and opportunities that may help them in life. We are all driven by Darwinian instinct to put our kids ahead of someone else's kids. This does not mean materially owning more things. However, there are things money can buy you to achieve that. As an example, I have piano lessons for myself and music lessons for my kids that cost about 6 to 8K per year. I get a great deal of joy out of my music. I budget about 10K to 20K for travel every year because I want to see the world and I want my kids to see the world. These items add up to a significant amount of money and I could not do these things if my salary was 50K a year, a median salary for a family of 4 in the USA. For example, if there is $1 to 2 mil in you portfolio and you have 50K to 75K before taxes to live on, then that is not a 'great income' to have a nice life style. However, if you supplmented that by having $50k salary, then you may be able to do things that you thought not possible with either the income alone or just the earnings from the inheritance alone. This is why you talk to the financial advisor/planner to help you achieve your lifestyle goals, whatever they maybe.... You are extremely lucky. I wish you the best.

scott- I don't know if you are affiliated with these sites, but GardenWeb generally frowns on postings of a commercial nature...

Ok, I had a long post almost set and my battery died. And I have to sleep. Here's a reply to a similar question, my appologies it's not 100% tailored to this post. "Ok, first things first. You need to decide roughly how much risk you are willing to take. This would be based on your age/closeness to retirement, what percentage of your savings this money represents, your risk tolerance, etc. Then you have to decide if this is as good time to jump in. You don't have to wait for an ideal time, but if you think we are due for another "adjustment" in the economy in the next year or less, you would want to wait for the adjustment to occur then get in. If you think we are going to continue to head upward, then by all means the sooner the better. Now this is not on a day to day or even week to week basis, but overall trending. Nobody knows the answer to this, this is where even the most conservative investors have to gamble, especially when investing a lump sum. When you buy a little at a time, like paycheck deferral, you get "dollar cost averaging" where you are buying shares regularly as the price goes up and down, so some shares you own you bought a lot cheap and some you paid more for a few. If you just want to toss the money in someplace relatively safe-ish and leave it there, the Vanguard Total Market Index is a great choice. Leave it there for a while while you educate yourself on financial matters. You don't need to agree with them, but listen to Ric Edelman, Bob Brinker, or Dave Ramsey on the radio for a while. Listen to the way they think about things, the lingo, the thought processes. You will pick up a lot. At the very least, you will know enough to ask good questions if you seek professional assistance, what to look for in professional assistance, and much more. If this money is all your savings, I'd keep at least $1k easily accessible in a bank as an emergency fund, for actual emergencies. Then most advocate for 3-6 months living expenses in a safe investment. Then anything left you can take enough risk to grow and invest somewhere based on your risk tolerance." -----the important points here are to not rush into anything. Your not losing ground, so either leave things alone for a little longer or dump the gains into a Vangaurd total market index while you figure something else out. Spend time listening to the people mentioned above. You will pick up a ton of stuff. Maybe enough to pick some funds on your own, but certainly enough to understand most of what an advisor will tell you and ask good questions. And definitely see an independent fee for service advisor. This is a serious chunk of change, and you need to make sure you understand the tax stuff a bit as well as make sure you avoid any hidden penalties, or loopholes, or whatever else might be a problem. Sadly, regular people trying to be smart and save their money get hit with a lot of obstacles.