Steady income from $2m

Chris has health issues and needs a ...

Q I’m a married father of four (two teens, two preschoolers) working casually for about $40,000 a year at the moment. My wife is on a medical pension of $29,000 a year. We are about to see a $2 million lump sum from a property sale that will leave us homeless. Here’s the rub ... I have a medical condition that will progressively disable me over the next 10 years, eventually requiring comprehensive care. How can I invest this lump sum to provide reliable but performing income to house and support my family well enough to get them started in life?

Hi Chris. Of the many thousands of emails and letters that I get, yours is one of the most critical I have ever seen it terms of “getting it right”. There is just so much information I would need to get from you to give you the quality recommendation you need. Clearly $2 million is a substantial sum but a critical issue will be the cost of an appropriate home for you and the future health needs of you and your family. This then dictates how much is to be invested. How long you may work for and other support that may be available to you are also important to consider.

So what I would like you to do is to email me here at Money with your location. I feel that I can best assist by giving you the names of some high-quality fee-for-service advisers near to you. I know that many hours need to be put into planning this decision to give you and your family the best outcome possible, and access to ongoing advice as things change will also be valuable.

I try very hard to give as much information as I can in my answers to readers’ questions but yours needs much, much more than a few words!