Alice has fallen down the rabbit hole!

[unno2002]

To anyone considering something like $1 million In life insurance, such as to fund care for a family member:


I would do term policies, with multiple companies.

Remember the company "Executive Life"? It went bankrupt.

[MBAustin]

Welcome and thanks for your honest story. Congratulations for figuring it out on your own. You got lots of good advice already - keep reading and ask more questions, most folks here are very nice and helpful as well as knowledgeable.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi My husband's 401k used American Funds. All of the equity funds had a 5.75% load, the bond fund and the MM fund at 3.75%. I posted about it at the time - about what crappy fees they had. We're happy to be free of them.

Yeah, "craptastic" was a good adjective for that plan. I've never been in one that limited the company contribution to $1,000, so I'm guessing they didn't negotiate a very good deal for their employees. Companies with more clout can usually offer classes of the major fund groups with a lower fee structure. Whatta deal for the employer. Get rid of the cost of funding a DB pension plan and replace it with a max of $1K per employee (but only for those who contribute that much themselves), and roll out a plan sold by a relative of someone in HR.

[Chuckanut]

Since you brought up Alice going down the rabbit hole you might read the book Alice in Quantum Land.

Quantum physics is weird, difficult to understand and often defies logic. Niels Bohr said "if quantum physics does not profoundly shock you, you don't understand it." This is also true of the advice from most investment advisers. When you finally understand what has happened to your money, you are profoundly shocked.

Investing one's money for a descent return should not be as difficult as quantum physics.

A few days here or in the Bogleheads group will teach one 95% of what's needed to wisely invest one's assets.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rodi the MM fund at 3.75%. l

Seriously?!?!?! A load charge on a money market fund? Surely you jest.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwm31 After being trapped in their offices for almost three hours with them assuring me they were good Catholics who went to church every single day (I'm not kidding). . .

Jesus had a few words for them.

"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. . . . And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others." Matthew 6:1 and 6:6 (NRSV)

[lwm31]

Many, many thanks to all who posted. Every single post was helpful and now I don't feel so bad. I'm just going through the anger phase. There's a piece of the pie out there for everyone and I don't get why some people just never have enough. To quote something else from the Bible, "The love of money is the root of all evil." I sure do get that now. Planning to educate myself more, do it myself and hopefully I will be an asset to the forum someday!

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwm31 ...hopefully I will be an asset to the forum someday!

You already are.

Readers of the forum can benefit from your experience which you were kind (and brave) enough to share. Far too many people are unwilling/unable to reveal their financial mistakes (and we ALL have them) so others may learn from them. Thank you.

[2B]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwm31 Planning to educate myself more, do it myself and hopefully I will be an asset to the forum someday!

You already are an asset to the forum.

People have learned a lot less after paying a much higher price than you have. I've given up with arguing with people I run into (not on this forum where I will argue) about avoiding load funds and FAs. They will sing the praises of what I think are horrible rip offs. I'll now only bring up the concept of managing their own money using index funds. I'll suggest Millionaire Teacher and leave it at that. I tried to salvage my own brother who moved his significant 401k to a full service FA at a bank! That's one step above EJ but still way down the list of good service for reasonable fees.

[Wishing]

I was in your shoes last year. Decided to dump EJ and jump to Vanguard. The move was very simple although EJ did attempt to block the transfer. Just took one irate call to the home office to let them know I meant business, and they backed off. I sleep better knowing that my Ed Jones guy isn't vacationing on my dime ;-) The great folks here steered me in the right direction - the advice here is priceless.

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lwm31 Many, many thanks to all who posted. Every single post was helpful and now I don't feel so bad. I'm just going through the anger phase. There's a piece of the pie out there for everyone and I don't get why some people just never have enough. To quote something else from the Bible, "The love of money is the root of all evil." I sure do get that now. Planning to educate myself more, do it myself and hopefully I will be an asset to the forum someday!

There is a lot of love in South Jersey. Coincidence : we had dinner courtesy of an EJ last night. Such a load of crap spewing about. But we had a nice meal. The lesson I am reinforcing is that spouse should never fall into the trap. Gather all the data and get peer review how to proceed.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by target2019 Coincidence : we had dinner courtesy of an EJ last night. Such a load of crap spewing about. But we had a nice meal.

I've been joking that I want to start attending those "free gourmet dinners" so I can ask impertinent questions. We get enough of those invitations. Some even have the nerve to start out noting that this might be for you if you have $500K or more to invest.

Then again, it might not. ;-)

[Rothman]

Grew up in Jersey, still think every beach should be like Cape May. You can't change the past but you can change the future. Would you buy American funds today? If the answer is no you should move, of course the front end loading is gone but again that's true regardless. I like fidelity, do all my own moves online including buying some vanguard index funds. I'm index and ETF guy and as my signon suggests just love Roths, tax free growth forever!