Why not put this money in some safe "blue chip" companies, eg CBA, BHP which are sure to be here in few years time.

Then you can invest the dividends into the small caps when you get your next best idea.

@topowl I'd recommend getting tax advice on your windfall (you may need some of it to pay a tax bill on it), and some tax advice on your long term financial plan with your portfolio, as it sounds like this cash injection will accelerate your plans. More small caps or large caps or etfs will have implications.

@feteguru 's idea is sound. Consider the addition of some blue chips or core etfs to your small cap portfolio for a multitude of reasons. A200 or VAS are obvious start points for your research.

Thanks for the reply !

I guess in a nutshell, my thoughts are that a well selected small cap portfolio is safe.

Have 10-15 companies in my IRL portfolio and about 10% weighting in NDQ to get some exposure to the U.S,

I know they're not going all going to be bangers, but the upside on the ones that hit should more than make up for those that don't long term.

A couple of my companies are pretty low volume, so I guess I'm concerned with the potential future scenario of investing a windfall into my portfolio all at once... could be shooting myself in the foot my sending the price up.

@topowl as i think i have written several times before, depends on your other assets (more wealth can handle more risk), your age and future earning ability, younger and high expected earnnigs can handle more risk, and perhaps most importnat your abilty to handle voloatiltiy in share prices. that said, hopefully smalls are more towards the lower end of valuations. 2021 was a poor time to add for instance. i usually do soem kind of dca in. hope that hepls

Not to be the cash Nancy but at the moment there is some merit to putting a bit of the windfall away in a term deposit or higher interest savings account. A windfall is a windfall and not knowing anything else about your financial position a nice little buffer there can serve as a wonderful psychological booster. Yes, inflation but hey if you throw it all into the market and everything drops 15% then take another 8% off that too. Ya get me? (not my position IRL though I am almost 100% invested)

Still means you can average in but unless you have a deep knowledge on where to "place your bets" you can probably take advantage of volatility towards the downside if and when better opportunities present themselves to you rather than going "Ah, crap. All my big money is gone".

I do like the idea that you're not thinking about going and buying a used Porsche. (unless it's a 70's Targa, in which case hit me up. I want to go for a drive)

From personal experience recently, I had a Ranger that I had purchased outright and thanks to Covid prices was still worth every cent I paid for it 3 years ago. So I saw it sitting parked out the front 5 days a week as I was only using it on weekends and decided I would rather have the money in my pocket. Still needed something to fill with tools and do tip runs while we do some work on the house but was able to get a much cheaper van that does 90% of the same job but with a little less comfort. Put $40k back in my pocket and I probably held on to most of it for about 6 months but gradually fed into the market, especially around those wild times where people were selling heavily into tax time (presumably to lock in some losses) and have had some wonderful short-term boosts. 10/10 would do it again as everything I bought I planned to keep for 2+ years but was happy to take a 3-month 30% jump in some.

You do you, but since interest rates are no longer 0.85% for a term deposit, I would seriously be considering a nice cash buffer of 20-50% of the windfall at this point in time. Dry powder could be a wonderful resource in the next 24 months.