Investor wants to learn from past mistakes

Brave woman letting the world know how much money she has.

Instead of focussing on someone who has plenty of money, the tribune should try to see how the common man lives and what he is going through.

steve she is one of the common folks who knows not to live above her means . she does not live in naperville to impress people.

Ditto Larry. I lived in Lincoln Park renting an apartment on 32K/yr. I managed to save a fair amount of money in 7 years. I chose to live within my means which meant no cable, no cell phone, no internet. My car was paid in cash when I moved to Chicago, a used 10 yr old Camry which worked great.

I agree that she is a "common" person. Keep in mind that she is 54 years old and needs much more to live on during retirement. Not everyone is deep in debt.

The thing that amazed me is that she has/had 27 separate mutual funds. That's quite a lot for someone with only 2 to 3 hundred thousand dollars. Even 8 is a lot to keep up with.

At her age, all she needs is a good "fund of funds" type of mutual fund that is geared toward a retirement year--perhaps 2020. She could continue being aggressive, though I think the percentages mentioned in the article are a bit conservative. She could up her mix to 65-70% bonds (10-15% of that being international equities) and 30-35 bonds. My guess is that she's going to need to continue working for a lot longer than she realizes, especially since she has a dependent with a health issue. And yes, that Roth IRA is one of the best investment vehicles around. She should contribute as much as possible to that.