Karrian Hepburn, branch manager of Scotia DBG Investments in Mandeville, is in favour of maximising money-market returns and other interest-earning instruments first and investing in the greenhouse later.

She offers the following take on Michael's mission.

Michael has some amount of inevitable wealth via the $10 million in redundancy payments and his other assets, such as his two motor vehicles. His timeline would be predominantly short-term to meet his monthly obligations, but also long-term, to secure funds for his family's future and to earn higher returns. The question is, how do we assimilate this information into a portfolio?

The approach that we will take to analysing Michael's case is to apply a strategy known as the GROWTH strategy, an acronym that speaks to goals, risk tolerance, opportunities, timelines and how this translates to a portfolio.

Investment account

Michael would first need to sit with an expert and provide more details in order for the financial adviser to accurately assess what type of portfolio would be ideal for his situation. We can, however, offer some advice to Michael based on the information provided. He could consider an investment account to allow him access to the interest every 30 days, which might secure his principal.

He might have to invest the entire $10 million in order to meet his first goal of meeting his monthly bills of $100,000, including his children's prep-school fees of $90,000 every four months. He could earn approximately $106,250 after tax if he invested the $10 million at approximately 16 per cent per annum, rolling over every 30 days.

I would also suggest that he make some tough decisions, such as selling one of the two cars that the family owns.

He could use the funds from the sale of the car to invest in a longer-term investment, which could give him much higher returns and possibly, to invest in his greenhouse business.

Michael needs to ensure that he does the necessary research, gathers information, prepares a business plan on how he could start his business, if it is feasible, how much capital would be required, and how soon it would start generating income.

It is always important to gather this critical information before starting a new business as this can help to reduce significant frustration once the business is off the ground.

Email Karrian at: khepburn@scotiadbg.com.