I just lost my job. How do you suggest I manage my retirement saving of 600,000 received ? Do I invest myself?

[moneyman]

I am 49 years old with 15 and 12 year old children. I have talked with a CFP's from Waddell and Reed, Ameriprise. Severance (through Jan. 2010) will be paid in a lump sum in May. How should a money manager be paid. My wife is working and makes $45,000 as a social worker. I am in sales. House is paid in full.

[Ariel&John]

dont spend it.

[Lilly]

Check with banks to see what CD's and money market are paying. Have you thought about starting a college fund for the kids? I don't know too much about the stock market so cannot offer any advice in that area.

[doreen k]

If you are confident in your ability to invest the money, you could do quite well by requesting a direct rollover from your retirement plan to an IRA at Vanguard or T. Rowe Price. Fees are lowest at Vanguard, and beyond stock market performance, fees have the single greatest impact on your investment return.

A CFP with either of those brokerages is going to take a significant chunk of your retirement, and there is no guarantee they will invest it any better than you can. If you were to invest about 60 percent of these funds in a broad market no-load index mutual fund and the rest in a fixed income investment, you will balance your risk fairly well for someone your age. Index funds outperform actively-managed funds about 91 percent of the time and at a fraction of the cost.

Alternatively, you can convert it all to a fixed income annuity if you want to be super conservative. Just avoid the variable annuities.

Between now and May, you have a lot of time to become acquainted with all your various options. I recommend you do a lot of reading about investments even if you ultimately decide to go with a financial planner, which by the way, should be fee-paid and not commissioned-paid to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

I recommend the following books. The Motley Fool's "Investing Without a Silver Spoon," “The Four Pillars of Investing” by William J. Bernstein, “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig, and Warren E. Buffet, and “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” by John C. Bogle.

Also, check out the Motley Fool's website at http://www.fool.com. It is fun, informative and free.