u/sgesssp

I will be receiving a $2 million settlement and I’m trying to figure out how to move forward with it. (I’m avoiding giving too many details, for the sake of anonymity). While I figure out how to invest it, I’m researching ways to receive and temporarily park the money in a way that protects it while also growing it as much as possible for a short period. I’m at retirement age so I don’t have a lot of time to let it compound for a lot of years.

Yes, I will be working with a financial fiduciary, but I need to educate myself first and I would love to get advice from other others who are more familiar with the markets.

Should I trust my bank to receive it all of it first, and then move it?

Is there a smart way to split up everything at the beginning to avoid the risk of putting it all in one place just in case?

Has anyone ever done something similar and what worked for you? What do you wish you knew?

Would love any advice, stories, or warnings! Thank you in advance!

I am going through a divorce and used to have a solid plan beforehand. My ex husband and I had a trust in which our properties were listed, and my children were set up to be the beneficiaries. Unfortunately, he did not allow me near the paperwork so I don’t know any more details than that. Now I’m taking a cash buyout to start my life over but being in my late 60s I want to protect this every step of the way just in case for my children.

What is the best way for me to protect my settlement while it’s in the process of happening? And then what’s the best way to protect after when I use it to build up assets again? Do I just put them as the beneficiaries of all the investment accounts or should I create a new trust?

I do need one of my kids to have some power of attorney to help with these things because I can’t do it myself and I trust them.

Edit: I plan to hire people, but first need to educate myself so I can know what to look out for.

Thank you in advance!

I am negotiating a buyout agreement with my narcissistic STBX. It includes two properties, a small business, and a couple of cars. I’m taking a cash settlement and one car in exchange for him keeping the properties. The business likely isn’t worth much - it’s really the value of those properties that make up the settlement. The properties were purchased a long time ago and doubled in value. They are currently paid off.

My question is – how do I protect myself from

1. Any taxes on the settlement
2. From him not upholding his end of the agreement (giving me the money in a timely manner)

He is planning to refinance one or both of the properties and there’s a chance he may not be able to, in which case my lawyer wants to put in a clause to force a sale. In the case that it does get sold, how do I make sure that this all comes into me as an equalization payment and not as a capital gains situation?

Would love any insight or even stories about how these have been handled. Any things that I should know to avoid being taken off guard?

Thanks in advance! My STBX is rather slimy, and I fully expect him to pull a fast one in this final stretch and want to empower myself to prevent that.

Hi, i’m in the middle of a divorce and trying to educate myself about what to expect. My ex filed and it was an abusive marriage (we both have lawyers). Our children are grown, so there’s only a negotiation over assets all of which are community property. We are both retirement age. He’s put forth a cash offer and if I can raise it to 30% more, it will be enough to start my life over and just let him keep everything. Going through trial will expose his abuse, but I’ve done the math and it will actually get me less money and more trauma if we have to sell everything.

In this process, I’ve learned the most out of hearing stories of how things have gone in other cases so I would love to learn from anyone who’s either gone through a divorce or is a lawyer, like if you did negotiations on settlements and what it looked like? How high up did you counter? Was there a breaking point that forced things to trial? what are some things you wish you knew, etc?

Thanks in advance!

My ex and I are both 66 and going through a “grey divorce.” He’s been abusive for most of our life together and has completely financially abused me and then filed for divorce. The one courage I had was to flee the house after he filed because he was trying to coerce me into an unfair agreement.

I have a lawyer and obviously I don’t prefer a trial. Unfortunately, my ex has been the one pushing this divorce forward every step of the way. He filed first and tried to force me into mediation without sharing much about our financial picture. Then when I was taking the time to understand more about the finances, he got impatient and got a lawyer and started filing stuff through the courts. We were at a stalemate and then he went ahead and requested a court date and then also made a lowball offer. All normal stuff. Somebody’s gotta do it. But every step of the way I had an opportunity to do something first and I was afraid so he did it.

Unfortunately, our divorce has been going exactly like our marriage – he did whatever he wanted, and I got scared and went along with it. I admit that I’ve been very passive and reactionary in this process because of the severe trauma.

The important thing is that we have two paid off valuable pieces of real estate and he’s trying to buy me out of both. Which means technically I do have some power that I hope to utilize as leverage for him to agree to a decent settlement.

However, now I’m finally waking up and realizing that the entire process I’ve been on the defensive when I had opportunities to be offensive, but was just scared because of his violence.

Have I completely lost leverage, either with negotiations or with the court, if it ends up going to trial? Is there anything I can do to make up for it?

I’m 66 and spent my life working to have a retirement cushion independently. My husband and I are immigrants to the US and we had a goal to buy a small 5 unit apartment building as our retirement. We didn’t know much about American financial systems so we didn’t do 401k, etc. The building and our paid off house were our 401k.

Unfortunately he was an abuser and he did a narcissistic discard on me at 65, and filed for divorce. He wants to keep everything and buy me out. That’s actually a more preferable outcome for me because I want to move on. I’m trying to figure out how much money I need and HOW to use it so that I can rebuild the two things – stable housing and encountering retirement. I don’t have a 401(k) and I need to retire at some point. Hopefully at 70.

The same circumstance that allowed us to achieve fire (which for immigrants like us really meant an ability to retire period) are not available anymore. For example, the doubling of property value values in Los Angeles. I’m lost on what to do next.

What would you do if you lost your FIRE retirement infrastructure and had to find a home and a new home and source of income? Stocks? A business? Another building?

Edit: I do have an attorney.