What to do with 5M in cash?

Rufenian said:

Not too sound rude but the returns seem small in comparison to an SP500 Index; Since mid-2014, the S&P 500 has produced a total return of 233.6%.
Investing in a trust like JAM/ATT/PCT would have made better returns and probably cost less in fees.

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Could the returns that @Gordon Gekko mentioned be net of dividend income over the 10 years perhaps?

The thing about past performace comparisons is that, unless someone posts a link to the source of the figures quoted no one else can make head nor tail of them. They're just illusory. In this case, the number and geographical location of the shares is definitely not on a like-for-like basis, one may be net of all charges, and possibly net of taxation.

I guess I've just recently finished 'A Random Walk on Wall Street' and I'm biased towards Indexes and thinking about when in 2008, Warren Buffet made an open bet that no fund could out-perform the S&P 500. I think only one person took him up on the bet, and did not win. So investing in funds, or self directed equity portfolios carries a statistical likelihood you will lose money compared to the market index.

€1m for a house and car (Personally I would go more on the house,. You can buy a very mediocre house in nice Dublin for €1m)
€3m invested in an etf (Diversified equities). You should be safe to draw an income of 4% €120k, fully fund wife's pension
€1m to actively invest.

In 5 years time if your active investments outperform your etf maybe readjust the allocation.

cremeegg said:

€1m for a house and car (Personally I would go more on the house,. You can buy a very mediocre house in nice Dublin for €1m)
€3m invested in an etf (Diversified equities). You should be safe to draw an income of 4% €120k, fully fund wife's pension
€1m to actively invest.

In 5 years time if your active investments outperform your etf maybe readjust the allocation.

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Thank you for the sound advice. It fits my personality a lot more.

Yes, the house prices are extortionate, we will try to get one for under 1M in S. Dublin however, just to save on tax/property fees afterwards and also not to alienate us from our friends and family who do not have the same capital. Wife is worried to spend over 1M too.

Which ETF do you reccomended? I've been holding IWDA (Developed World) and bought JAM earlier more of an experiment see which one comes out better.

Do you think actively investing the 1M is liable to brand me a 'trader' by Revenue and then incur Income Tax rather than CGT (since I wouldn't be working)?