Fidelity recommendation

[Alex]

It sure seems very complicated to me. Why would anyone use 20+ funds when it is proven that as little as 3 funds are enough to beat 90% of investors (the coffee house portfolio is one of them)?? IMHO, you need at most maybe 8-10 funds to give you exposure to all of the asset classes. Tell Fidelity to shove it!!

[samclem]

I think bpp gave some good advice on this one.

Regarding newsletters--I don't think you should bother with them, for two reasons:
1) On average, their recomendatons do no better than the market as a whole. Sure, SOME claim to be better, or can show charts sindicating some of their portfolios have done well historically. But, you can't tell how many other portfolios the've had over the years and have quietly abandoned, etc. There's very little evidence that newsletters are, on the whole, worth a nickel. But, many people swear allegiance to various newsletters and feel they really have the inside track.

2) You don't sound like you have enough time to wait breathlessly for the next hot tip the newsletter would crank out, then act on it. You have other things on your plate right now, and probably will have for some time.

So, this would not be a good time to take on a new hobby.

I'd recommend that you invest in an appropriate Vanguard Target Retirement Fund. Your investements will be simplified, your costs will be very low, your returns will be far better than most individual investors get, and you'll have time to read more and learn about investing--if that's something that interests you. Then you can get fancy or tilt the allocations a little. In the meantime your money will be in a safe and sane allocation and you won't be lining some broker/advisor's pockets with funds you can't afford to give away.

Everyone has their favorite books, look around on this site and you'll find many good recommendations. My recommendation would be Willliam Bernstein's book "The Four Pillars of Investing." I think this is a superb starter book, it is readable and helps people to avoid the most costly mistakes many investors make. The table of contents, introduction, and Chapter 1 can be read for free at this web site. The web site itself has a treasure of articles written by Bernstein--well researched, interesting if you like statistics.
http://www.efficientfrontier.com/t4poi/t4poi.htm

Best of luck! Whatever you decide to do, there are folks here to help out.

[mathjak107]

all depends on the newsletter. i agree about most of them,they are more fortune teller than financial advice. having read quite a few over my 20 years of investing most are long gone. two though that i would recommend without any reservations at all are the 2 we are mentioning. no fortune telling, no claim of knowing the next upturn, just good solid planning of well diversified portfolios that cover all the bases and avoid chasing the hot money.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathjak107 . . . and guide you every week with any updates.

It just didn't sound, to me, as if johnb needs another thing to check/do every week. That's aside fom the whole debate about the worth of the advice.

[CRABBY JERRY]

MATHJAK107. I subscribed to the Fidelity Insight and Fundsnet newsletters for a few years before I felt confident enough to start moving money into the growth portfolio for both my investing money and also retiring monies. I also put my father in-law into the income and perservation portfolio. I wish I had done so sooner as we have been happy with the results. Maybe I could do better but I feel better if I loose money with something I do rather than paying for some hotshot to loose it for me. Thanks for the positive vote on my choices. Jerry

[mathjak107]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem It just didn't sound, to me, as if johnb needs another thing to check/do every week. That's aside fom the whole debate about the worth of the advice.

there is maybe 3 changes a year on average. very few ,most are minor shifts like selling half our small cap fund recently for a more stable large cap but non the less every friday there is a nice market summary for the week and any changes. reading an e-mail is easy enough......

[mathjak107]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRABBY JERRY MATHJAK107. I subscribed to the Fidelity Insight and Fundsnet newsletters for a few years before I felt confident enough to start moving money into the growth portfolio for both my investing money and also retiring monies. I also put my father in-law into the income and perservation portfolio. I wish I had done so sooner as we have been happy with the results. Maybe I could do better but I feel better if I loose money with something I do rather than paying for some hotshot to loose it for me. Thanks for the positive vote on my choices. Jerry

i use 2 different newsletters because theres to much over lap between the same funds in only using 1 newsletter between the different models.

fidelity strategic real return is a fund used in all models of fidelity insight as an example so to avoid having so much of it i use the growth model from fidelity insight for my long term model and i use fidelity monitors income and preservation model for short term as well as their growth and income model for long term money just for diversity

this year the growth and income model is actually ahead of the growth model as the growth model got slightly more defensive and is holding more money in strategic real return just in case inflation kicks up higher than expected and the other 75% of the model takes a hit.

same strategy i guess that pulled us thru the 2,000's with only a 14% drop. We had 25% in fideliy strategic income which not only cushioned the drop but rose too thru the time frame but also served as a source of buying power for more funds later on.