I found what my FA is investing me in.....??

[mannyahles]

Meeder (Nationwide) is actively investing my money. I have looked back at the past 4 quarterly statement and I have seen changes. Here is what I am currently invested in. Look at the Expense Ratios of some of the funds!

I attached the word doc. I also highlighted all the ER.

I had chose an aggressive portfolio and my FA has 50% of my portfolio in Flex aggressive Growth ER 2.84%
and 30% in Flex Dynamic Growth ER 2.68%.

I see with Nationwide they have also invested me in several Vangard funds that have a really fair priced ER. Time to fire the FA and take control!

[FIREd]

Your FA has your money invested in no less than 66 funds

[mannyahles]

I guess. I downloaded the file from Nationwide. I guess having 50% and 30% invested in 2 areas limits how much you can spread around.....?

[NW-Bound]

Amazing! One can throw darts to select mutual funds, whose managers then throw darts to select stocks.

In the 2000 heyday, I read that there were more mutual funds than publicly traded US stocks, at least of worthwhile corporations, meaning not counting penny stocks. I don't know if this is still true.

[FIREd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannyahles I guess.

That's a problem. You need to know what your money is invested in. The other problem is that you have way too many funds. How many "large value" funds, "large blend" funds, and "large growth" funds do you need? A handful of funds would give you all the diversification necessary. But worse, the funds you are invested in are very expensive and you are not getting compensated for those expenses. You say that 50% of your portfolio is in the Flex aggressive growth fund and 30% of your portfolio is in the Flex dynamic growth fund. Both have outrageous expense ratios, both have a sub-average 10-year performance and both are "large blend" funds. Why do you need both? Do you know that both funds invest in other mutual funds instead of investing directly in stocks? In essence, you pay the FA to pick a fund whose manager you pay to pick other funds whose managers you pay to pick stocks. With so many layers, no wonder you are paying the expense ratios you do. Do you also know that both funds invest in roughly the same funds and therefore probably have similar portfolios? With 66 funds, one would think you would be well diversified. But you are not. More than 80% of your portfolio is in large US stocks!

As you said, time to fire the FA.

[easysurfer]

The question is, actively investing your money or actively churning your money?

[mannyahles]

When the school district had Meeder (Nationwide) present the 457b I blindly signed up. I decided it was better to do something rather than nothing and had always planned to dive into evaluating my portfolio when I had more time. Well, I don't have more time but I can see retirement coming sooner than later. So I am happy to have started investing and I will become more selective with my investments and money.

Thank you all again for your help. I feel with this forum and more reading, I will have a brighter retirement.

[walkinwood]

Every minute you spend posting on or reading this forum is one less minute you're spending on reading the books recommended. You'll drive yourself crazy if you don't step back and educate yourself. I recommend starting with one of Bogle's books since he is very good at simplifying the complex.

It isn't hard and it will not take you a long time, but it does need focus.

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FD Your FA has your money invested in no less than 66 funds

I've heard of using a dart throwing approach to investing, but I think your FA had a Gatling gun in his/her hands the day your portfolio was constructed.

Good grief!

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannyahles .......... I decided it was better to do something rather than nothing and had always planned to dive into evaluating my portfolio when I had more time. ..........

If I was a teacher and some student gave me this excuse, I'd kick their butt (figuratively).

What did you say you do for a living?

[mannyahles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover If I was a teacher and some student gave me this excuse, I'd kick their butt (figuratively). What did you say you do for a living?

Ouch! I AM a teacher and every teacher knows they are always a learner.

Anyone that doesnt believe in that philosophy is a FOOL!

We stop learning the day we die!

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 I've heard of using a dart throwing approach to investing, but I think your FA had a Gatling gun in his/her hands the day your portfolio was constructed.

I believe this particular type of asset allocation is known as "spray and pray".

[Rustward]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannyahles Meeder (Nationwide) is actively investing my money. I have looked back at the past 4 quarterly statement and I have seen changes. Here is what I am currently invested in. Look at the Expense Ratios of some of the funds! I attached the word doc. I also highlighted all the ER. I had chose an aggressive portfolio and my FA has 50% of my portfolio in Flex aggressive Growth ER 2.84% and 30% in Flex Dynamic Growth ER 2.68%. I see with Nationwide they have also invested me in several Vangard funds that have a really fair priced ER. Time to fire the FA and take control!

Manny, is this a list of funds that your account is invested in, or is it a list of available funds?

What is the meaning of ">>" in the first column of the report?

One last question: Does your 12/31/2010 statement show your overall return for the year, and if it does would you mind posting it?

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannyahles Ouch! ...........

Think of it as tough love, Manny.

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FD Your FA has your money invested in no less than 66 funds

Brings back memories when I was invested in about 25 different funds. That was before I discovered indexing as a strategy. With all those funds, that was more of an exercise in keeping up with all the paper statements (this was before online banking, etc) than seeing how well they performed.

The day I decided to consolidate the funds and be an indexer with was quite liberating. Plus, I probably saved many trees too

[mannyahles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustward Manny, is this a list of funds that your account is invested in, or is it a list of available funds? What is the meaning of ">>" in the first column of the report? One last question: Does your 12/31/2010 statement show your overall return for the year, and if it does would you mind posting it?

That is a list of all the funds I can invest in. My FA has me currently invested in 23 funds. Two which have the real high ER at 50% and 30%.

[ronin]

Those 50% exp. ratios will kill you!

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mannyahles That is a list of all the funds I can invest in. My FA has me currently invested in 23 funds. Two which have the real high ER at 50% and 30%.

Don't you mean 0.50% and 0.30% for the expense ratios?

23 funds is crazy. There are 2 possibilities here...and I'm really trying to get my hands around this.
Either your 403b plan is administered by someone buying yachts by the dozen, or this data is not quite right.
Which is it?

[Gone4Good]

Here's one of those funds, which, I imagine, only exists because Financial Advisers exist to put people into them . . .

Fidelity Flex Growth

It's a fund of funds that charges 2.8%. Maybe, maybe, I could understand that for a fund that held a portfolio of hedge funds, but this one holds run-of-the-mill mutual funds, including the Russell 2000 Growth Index ETF and PowerShares QQQ.

From the prospectus, it looks like they layer 180bp of fees onto the fees already charged by the underlying funds. Basically this is just a vehicle designed to separate uninformed investors from their money.

I'd ask your FA why he put you in this and not the underlying funds, which would have saved 1.80% per year. And as a follow up, I'd ask why you should continue trusting him with your money when he's been so careless with it?

[NW-Bound]

Eh? Unless one has only, say, 10 individual stocks or less in his portfolio, he is "spraying". Ditto for anyone who owns an ETF or a mutual fund. Even a highly specialized sector ETF like semiconductor, energy, raw material, etc... has something like 50 to more than 100 stocks. The highly regarded, and justifiably so, Wellesley has nearly 700 positions.

So, it is all about spraying, whether one uses a shotgun or a machine gun. We are all spraying lead, my friends. We can talk about the different nozzle patterns like what they have on sprayheads of paint sprayers, but the truth is that we are all sprayin'.

So, I prefer to do my own spraying. Might as well do it myself to cut out any middle man. I have 90 positions now. Used to be as high as 130. Heh heh heh...

PS. I seriously doubt that prayin' helps, but it probably would not hurt. Heh heh heh...

PPS. I said "it probably would not hurt", because there is really nothing certain. There is indeed a risk that excessive praying for materialistic things like stock returns may just anger you are praying to.