Brett_Cameron
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
You guys are hilarious! <finishes the popcorn and burps>
I assume post #60 (me) and maybe #61 offended our new member. I'll try to do better next time (really), though I thought I was essentially pointing out that most members here are more like he/she professed to be, and not most people. I don't see where I was snarky, but I'm probably the least able to judge objectively.
The poll was a result of a recent thread by another new member asking about choosing an FA, and the overwhelming response he/she got to learn to DIY. Unfortunately some noobs come here thinking we'll give them the silver bullet, recommend an advisor, and guarantee Lake Wobegon investment results. My purpose was to gauge the extent of DIY investing here, I knew it would be lopsided and not mainstream, but it's even more lopsided than I expected.
Too bad, I wasn't hoping to upset him/her, but I expect I'll be able to sleep tonight.
I hired a FA when I was ready to pull the trigger just to get an independent confirmation that I wasn't nuts and I could pull this off. Other than that, no. Have been self-directed.
The sweetest words we heard were, "You seem to be doing great. What do you need me for?"
Now, maybe your FAs were much better, but I go back to my point that unless one knows enough about this, they really can't trust the 'sweet words' from an FA. And again, once you have the knowledge to asses the advisor (and that does not take much knowledge), you probably are better off w/o one.
I go back to my point that unless one knows enough about this, they really can't trust the 'sweet words' from an FA. And again, once you have the knowledge to asses the advisor (and that does not take much knowledge), you probably are better off w/o one.
I agree you're better off without one IF you are truly able to DIY, but we realize most people aren't capable, interested or both. For them, they stand a good chance of getting fleeced if they pick one on their own based on an FA's well practiced sales pitch complete with scare tactics and faux complexity. Hopefully any non-DIY investor has a capable family member or close friend, DIY or with a long standing track record with a good FA, to help with FA selection. Otherwise it is a Catch 22 that may end badly more often than not.Yeah, unless you have the knowledge, it's a Catch-22.
Yeah, unless you have the knowledge, it's a Catch-22.
But in our case, we weren't looking for the FA to tell us we were ok. We were looking to see it we had noeglected something important.
We were looking for them to say, "Hey, you screwed up! You should have X but you only have Y."
She did spell really well, though. And the info is accurate, more or less, but just not all that relevant to folks who by and large aren't in the same specific boat as her. Nice recap, Nords.
Yes I think many people can use a financial planner to help them create a financial plan. That means forecasting future expenses. Once the plan has been created, it only needs to be revisited when any of the assumptions change!Trouble was, when I looked back at it years later, I realized their analysis was totally amateurish. They just went by current expenses, they didn't ask about future HC costs, and since our cars were paid for we had (magically) no car expenses! And so forth. Garbage...
I guess I'll buck the trend on this one. For some time now I've used a fee-only (0.75%) FA/CFP who has done quite well with our portfolio; on the whole, better than I did before. He explains his recommendations and let's me do the choosing. I guess like in many other generalizations, there are exceptions.
I guess I'll buck the trend on this one. For some time now I've used a fee-only (0.75%) FA/CFP who has done quite well with our portfolio; on the whole, better than I did before. He explains his recommendations and let's me do the choosing. I guess like in many other generalizations, there are exceptions.
I guess if you get what you consider value for your money.... great....
But do you realize how much you are paying him If you have a portfolio of $1,000,000, then it is $7,500 per year... would you feel that he is giving that amount of benefit?
You might have been doing a lot of things that people say not to do... like chasing yield, the best fund etc. etc.... but doing a couch potato or similar might get you better than the FA can do after figuring his fee...