2026년 2월 7일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance
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Imagine checking a long-forgotten account and discovering it’s worth multiple millions of dollars. That’s what happened to Sarah, a 50-year-old mom from Seattle.
Sarah, who says she’s been homeschooling her children for 20 years, happened to check in on her employee benefits account from when she worked for a tech giant. That’s when she called into The Ramsey Show to ask for advice.
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Sarah’s account had gone from worth barely anything to roughly $18 million at its current market price, she told Dave Ramsey. Although she didn’t reveal which company it was, some online commenters speculated that it could be Nvidia, the tech giant that has surged tremendously over the past two years.
Regardless, this sudden multimillionaire said she had “no idea” what to do with her unexpected windfall. Ramsey offered some advice.
Diversify and withdraw in a tax-conscious way
Having so much of your net worth tied up in a single stock is “scary and unwise,” Ramsey said. He recommended that Sarah offload some of the shares and invest her money elsewhere. However, given the magnitude of the fortune, selling even a fraction of the account would likely push Sarah into the top tax bracket.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, the highest possible federal capital gains tax rate for someone in this bracket is typically 20% — although there are some exceptions (1).
Depending on where you live, you may also face state taxes on your capital gains from selling long-term investments. For Sarah, in Washington state, that’s another 7% (2).
While Ramsey suggested speaking with an expert tax planner or investment advisor to minimize her tax bill, he was crystal clear on the urgency of the situation. He insisted that Sarah diversify away from a single stock as soon as possible.
“If I’m you, even if it costs me some money, I would rather have the safety than I would the extra 20%,” Ramsey told her.
Read More: Approaching retirement with no savings? Don’t panic, you're not alone. Here are 6 easy ways you can catch up (and fast)
Get in touch with an expert
Consulting a financial planner, per Ramsey’s recommendation, can help you optimize your portfolio so that your net worth isn’t dependent on just one stock or asset.
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You can find fiduciary financial advisors near you through Advisor.com. With no fees to get started, Advisor.com matches you with up to three FINRA/SEC registered advisors suited to your needs.
From there, you can book a free, no-obligation consultation with your preferred advisor.
They can help you build a diversified portfolio that meets your financial goals without taking on excessive risk.
Plus, working with a financial advisor can even result in better returns. According to research from Vanguard, clients who worked with fiduciary experts saw 3% higher net returns on average compared with those who didn’t.
Beyond the importance of diversification, Sarah’s story could offer another lesson for investors: the value of holding instead of folding.
Time in the market is better than timing the market
An often-repeated tenet of investing is that “time in the market beats timing the market." This principle was popularized by investing experts such as Warren Buffett and is based on the fact that most investors struggle to find the right stock at the right time and at the right price.
By focusing on a longer timeline, rather than optimizing around short-term gains, investors can take advantage of the market’s tendency to go up in the long-term.
When investors try to time the market, they can end up buying at a peak and selling in a valley. Investing consistently can help your portfolio better manage the ebbs and flows of the market over time, delivering compound returns.
Buffett once said in an interview with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), “I don’t try and guess when to get in and out of the market (3).”
Rather, Buffett's investing philosophy is best captured by a quote from his 1989 Letter to Shareholders for Berkshire Hathaway: “It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price (4).”
In Sarah’s case, this type of “set and forget” approach seems to have panned out. But in case of a market downturn, she’d risk losing millions.
Instead, a safer approach for many could be to invest regularly in an array of stocks or low-cost index funds, which can offer better diversification and wealth preservation.
Focus on quality, not quantity
Another Buffett ethos is that you should invest in stocks that are priced based on solid fundamentals, rather than investing in a stock simply because it’s cheap.
But digging through stocks and companies takes time and effort. That’s where platforms like Moby can help you find top-tier stocks, delivered straight to you for review. The platform offers expert research and recommendations to help you identify strong, long-term investments backed by advice from former hedge fund analysts.
In four years, and across almost 400 stock picks, their recommendations have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Moby’s team spends hundreds of hours sifting through financial news and data to provide you with stock and crypto reports delivered straight to you. Their research can keep you up-to-the-minute on market shifts and help you reduce the gue…