<prompt> Human: Hi all, So, my dad left his old company and started his own business roughly 6 years ago. At that time, rather than rolling over his 401k or keeping with the existing investment company, he choose to cash it out and put it in a CD. I dont know why... The duration on his CD recently expired, so he was able to roll the lump sum, roughly 50k into a Vanguard account. He has passed the responsibility to me on how to invest the funds. Aside from about 20k in precious metals that he has hoarded from his business, this is his only retirement savings. He does have an emergency fund of roughly 5k, and his business is reliable and pays his living expenses. Aside from his mortgage, he has no debt. He loves what he does, and says he never plans on fully retiring. With all that out of the way, any recommendations for how to invest this lump sum? I am leaning towards a three fund portfolio, of something like 50 largecapindex funds, 25 highyield bond funds, and 25 smallmid cap. With vanguard, the expense ratios are all very reasonable. Am I wrong to try and buy individual etfsmutual funds for him instead of just putting this in a managed IRA or Lifepath plan? Any tax implications I am not seeing? I would love to make this grow for him into a sizable nest egg by the time he hits 70. Edit: Thanks for all the comments! Definitely gave me a lot to consider. I got more information out of him and found out that the employer 401k was rolled into a CDIRA, so there was no tax or penalty charged on the money. At this point I think step one is going to be maxing out a Vanguard IRA, then setting up a traditional Self 401k for his business for the remainder of the funds assuming that he will be earning less by the time he starts drawling on it. My bigger concern right now is that his mortgage is 15 years not 30, and he owes 100k on it remaining. Mortgage payment is 1300. Thats killing his cash flow and I want to try and correct this so we can get him contributing more to savings. Trying to convince him to take on a roommate.  <response>: He loves what he does, and says he never plans on fully retiringSo did my grandpa, he ended up spending the last 10 years of his life retired, with a few of those in a home. Just because you dont want to retire, doesnt mean you wont. Sometimes your body just wears out. I would NOT count on him never retiring. 