The most important thing you can do right now is figure out together with your wife what you both want in life. Make some lists and put everything on there no mater how outrageous or boring then put it away for a few weeks and come back to it and read it over. Cross out the stuff that in reality you do not want but keep the outrageous stuff you do. Then make a plan on how you are going to get there. You both have a nest egg that can help get you started on where you want to go so consider yourself as lucky and use the opportunity. Coming into a lot of money makes people act differently some just spend it like crazy others become scared of losing it and become paralyzed. You and you wife need to understand that it is just a tool that is yours and you are in control of how you use it. If you want to be a trader ask yourself why. Starting out you really need to enjoy it because the money will not consistently be there until you climb a steep learning curve. You are realizing now that scared money is lost money so you need to develop a methodology that suits you. You have the free time to do this now, if you choose, with little to no cost other then your time. The market will away be here and new opportunities always are occurring so donât worry about what could have been ( AIG puts) or missing the opportunity of a lifetime you need to understand the opportunity and the risk to be able to take it. This means you need to be prepared for it. Use your education to study what makes sense to you and then test it, then try it. Rinse repeat. The advice others have given you on having others manage some of it might be right for you but you also have some education that should allow you to setup a decent diversified portfolio. If you need help making a plan hire a fee only advisor to draw one up just avoid the âput you in diversified fundsâ guy who is in it for the agent bonus and the fat trailers.