I know I'm going to get ripped for this but....

B

bulbar

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
109
I'm in Houston. I'd like to find a CFP to run early retirment models for me so I can have a second opinion on the numbers I've been running with *****, etc. If anyone knows a good FP in the Houston area, please let me know. Preferably fee-only.
 
Don't be surprised, though, that MOST FOFP's in NAPFA price on AUM, which tends to raise the ire of most of us. You'll need to shop pretty hard (at least I had to) to find one that will do a one-time hourly number crunch for you. Oh, I tried, but never got one to do my one-time crunch.
 
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If you have a Vanguard account, they will do a low cost plan for you that includes looking over your retirement funding. If you are at Flagship level, it's free.

Don't expect too much from any CFP. They can't see the future any better than FireCalc, *****, i-ORP and ESPlanner can. Having 50 pages of glossy guessing isn't worth $2,000 IMHO.

I hate to tell you this but there is no magic bullet that will guarantee retirement success or eliminate our fears.
 
2B said:
If you have a Vanguard account, they will do a low cost plan for you that includes looking over your retirement funding. If you are at Flagship level, it's free.

Don't expect too much from any CFP. They can't see the future any better than FireCalc, *****, i-ORP and ESPlanner can. Having 50 pages of glossy guessing isn't worth $2,000 IMHO.

I hate to tell you this but there is no magic bullet that will guarantee retirement success or eliminate our fears.
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I agree with that. Just want someone to do a one-time number cruch for me.
 
Fidelity did one for us for free. We have 401K accounts there. I don't know what their criteria is for free or if there is one.

They just use the RIP and told us a bunch of stuff that is often the opposite of what you will hear on this or other ER forums - TIPS are a bad investment for every portfolio (bad for them as there is no commission), we would need 80% of our pre-retirement income (not true for households already saving more than 20% now, have kids that will leave the nest, will pay less in taxes, no longer have commute and job costs, etc.), our expenses will go up because we will travel much more and have more expensive hobbies (gee that didn't happen), we need stocks for growth (we actually don't - their own planner tool showed that), and more ideas along those lines that seemed self serving.

Free means no cash outlay but their advice is still geared towards considerations that maximize their profits.

What it did show was that my own spreadsheet numbers were reasonable and showed us how to use the RIP for ourselves after that. But I don't think the personal consultation added anything to our personal retirement knowledge base.
 
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bulbar said:
I agree with that. Just want someone to do a one-time number cruch for me.
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Vanguard will be cheaper than anyone you find locally.

When I had my plan done, I was asked to specify an after tax retirement spending budget that would also increase with inflation. I threw out a high end number from FireCalc that gave me a 95.6% result (estimated taxes included) and got a 93% success rate from Vanguard.

Other than that the recommendation was to effectively move to Total Stock Market, Total International Stock Market and Total Bond Index. I've stayed with my original AA including small cap and REIT funds with CDs as my fixed income.

The secret to success is being willing to reduce spending if the market goes significantly against you especially in the early years. There is no absolute guarantee no matter what you'd like to believe in. Annuity sales people feed off this insecurity but I believe their products make most retirees less secure.

You can also plan on spending less as you age. It's a rare 80+ year old that's chasing around the world on fancy vacations or spending at the same level they were in their 50's. Most CFPs don't put that into their plans but FireCalc has the Bernicke option and iORP has the "Spend While You Can" feature.

I commented on your other thread. You need to decide whether you want to retire or go OMY (or more) to create a greater illusion of safety. Spending money on a CFP won't really tell you anything you don't already know.
 
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target2019 said:
That's a reasonable request. But you'll still end up with a crunch that has assumptions similar to the tools you've been using.
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Actually, I would in fact give them the exact same assumptions I'm using so I can compare the numbers they get to what I get using my early retirement software. Using EarlyRetire Pro mostly but also the free on-line calculators too.
 
2B said:
Vanguard will be cheaper than anyone you find locally.

When I had my plan done, I was asked to specify an after tax retirement spending budget that would also increase with inflation. I threw out a high end number from FireCalc that gave me a 95.6% result (estimated taxes included) and got a 93% success rate from Vanguard.

Other than that the recommendation was to effectively move to Total Stock Market, Total International Stock Market and Total Bond Index. I've stayed with my including small cap and REIT funds.

The secret to success is being willing to reduce spending if the market goes significantly against you especially in the early years. There is no absolute guarantee no matter what you'd like to believe in. Annuity sales people feed off this insecurity but I believe their products make most retirees less secure.

You can also plan on spending less as you age. It's a rare 80+ year old that's chasing around the world on fancy vacations or spending at the same level they were in their 50's. Most CFPs don't put that into their plans but FireCalc has the Bernicke option and iORP has the "Spend While You Can" feature.

I commented on your other thread. You need to decide whether you want to retire or go OMY (or more) to create a greater illusion of safety.
Click to expand...


Thanks. Yeah, I need to decide but getting someone to check my numbers is part of my decision process.
 
bulbar said:
Thanks. Yeah, I need to decide but getting someone to check my numbers is part of my decision process.
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Go for it. After getting your numbers looked at here, I am confident you won't get any great insight that hasn't already been mentioned.

With your budget and assets, you will be told you are marginal. To be totally confident of success you need to have several really good stock market years, be willing to reduce spending if necessary or die early. That's my plan except for the last option. I'd like to avoid that.
 
I'm totally confident that there are dozens of people here that I would trust looking at my numbers as much as or more than some random person who has some letters after his name (CFP).
 
bulbar said:
Actually, I would in fact give them the exact same assumptions I'm using so I can compare the numbers they get to what I get using my early retirement software. Using EarlyRetire Pro mostly but also the free on-line calculators too.
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Understood. I was referring to assumptions in their model. It's a good topic, too.

Have you seen this list?

The Best Retirement Calculators - Can I Retire Yet?
 
sengsational said:
Don't be surprised, though, that MOST FOFP's in NAPFA price on AUM, which tends to raise the ire of most of us. You'll need to shop pretty hard (at least I had to) to find one that will do a one-time hourly number crunch for you. Oh, I tried, but never got one to do my one-time crunch.
Click to expand...

Not to sidetrack the thread, but this is something I was truly surprised at.
A few years ago, I had a similar thought and looked at all the reasonably local planners from NAPFA. Not a single one would work on an hourly basis -- they all had some sort of "percent of AUM" formula (although some were quite creative about how they worded it). One of them even made a point of insisting that it be my total net worth, not just the amount they managed.

So after a couple of weeks of this I too gave up and went back to my DIY methods (which have been just fine and probably will remain so).
 
2B said:
Go for it. After getting your numbers looked at here, I am confident you won't get any great insight that hasn't already been mentioned.

With your budget and assets, you will be told you are marginal. ....
Click to expand...

And then, after paying someone for this 'insight', you will be even more marginal! :LOL:

Seriously, if you have made good estimates and put them in a calculator like FIRECalc (using the historical analysis, not some assumptions on returns and inflation), and have double-checked things with people here on the forum, what is someone else going to be able to tell you?

-ERD50
 
Insecurity is a great seller.

I have wondered at times do I have enough to ER ?
I used the basic 4% rule, and saw I can easily live off 4% of investments. Then I did some other online calculators and since all of them said I was fine. I took the plunge.

I never thought of using a CFP for an insight, probably because I knew one who was a nice guy, but a slime at getting his hands on peoples money, so he could "win" free trips.

Good Luck.
 
I think it was Twain that said that an expert is someone that lives at least 50 miles away. Cast your net wide.
 
I wouldn't expect you to be criticized for this; after all it is your money, your comfort, and your choice.


Ha
 
Bulbar - I did the same thing early last year. I used a planner from the Garrett Planning network. They are truly "hourly only." Here is a link to their site:Find An Advisor

It gave me piece of mind to have someone confirm my numbers. Gave me some decent advice on portfolio allocation and choosing cheaper funds as well. The downside is that these professionals tend to be extremely conservative and thought I was craze that I could manage my expenses so that I could retire as early as I plan to. In the end, she confirmed my plan, but I think I will probably be in a position to retire early than she thinks!
 
bulbar said:
Thanks. Yeah, I need to decide but getting someone to check my numbers is part of my decision process.
Click to expand...

Why indeed expect to get ripped for that? Sounds solid to me. Wish there was someone for me too, but it's nowhere to be found around these parts.

Paying a permanent % of AUM for it, that will likely get you a good rip (off) :)
 
phil70 said:
Bulbar - I did the same thing early last year. I used a planner from the Garrett Planning network. They are truly "hourly only." Here is a link to their site:Find An Advisor
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Please elaborate! How much did it cost? How long did it take? What was your final product like?

I'm surprised that the advisor was surprised you were managing your own finances. Isn't that why you went to a fee-only planner? If you were using someone to [-]churn[/-] manage your account they would be telling you they were your FA.
 
It cost $2500. (I'm sure I'll get "ripped" for that, but I was happy to pay it to get the objective confirmation of our plan.) I got a plan for me and my wife through retirement, using Garrett's planning software. They use Monte Carlo simulations (controversial as they are) as well as "canned" assumptions about inflation, healthcare etc. Their healthcare inflation assumption is 6% per year until you die, so I think they probably estimated more than $100k in annual healthcare costs for us at some point.

Portfolio and asset allocation review, with recommendations of cheaper funds to get us allocated the way we wanted.

The key benefits were (i) push-back on some of the rosier assumptions in our own plan, (ii) advice on things like Roth vs. regular, 529s, etc., (iii) using different model to test the results I have gotten using other calculators.

I was happy with the result. I don't plan on paying for this every year, but as a one-time expense, I think it was worthwhile.
 
bulbar, I hope you have better luck than I did finding someone. I tried both the NAPFA and Garrett web site (Garrett had the same people as NAPFA in my area). I too wanted someone to look at what I had saved/invested. I'm still working and accumulating. I thought someone whose area of expertise was finance would have ideas/suggestions. Instead I found people that would not work on an hourly basis and wanted a ongoing commitment. The one person (recommended by a friend that has a small business) that I tried cost me $800 and spreadsheets, they wanted me to verify, that had many mistakes. I can't see having mistakes since I've given them clear cut spreadsheets and they are only copying the information. Shouldn't their assistant or the FA have verified? They were worried about $6000. that they said I hadn't accounted for but it was there in their mistakes. Anyway, I hope you find someone.
 
2B said:
I'm surprised that the advisor was surprised you were managing your own finances. Isn't that why you went to a fee-only planner? If you were using someone to [-]churn[/-] manage your account they would be telling you they were your FA.
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Maybe I am under the wrong impression, I thought the hourly fee only financial advisor was someone that I could hire for a few hours of work. Not someone I wanted to hire to run my accounts. Are you saying that none of the FA's give 1 time advice?
 
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