Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
It may not seem like a big deal, but for the few of you who knew how financially naive I was when I first made the scene here, you'll appreciate that I officially dropped my AllianceBernstein money manager this week. My initial weaningplan was to leave about $200k under his management for large value stocks while I took back the rest. It was odd:
Me: Brian, I think I've decided to take a more active role in managing my retirement money.
Brian: You wanna pick stocks.
Me: Well, no actually, I want to create a diversified group of investments in indexed mutual funds at Vanguard.
Brian: I know that our growth portfolio lost 2% in the last 6 months but that's because we are positioning for growth stocks to really take off this year.
Me: Lost 2%? I hadn't realized that - the web reports don't sort it out in that way... Anyhow, I'd like to leave about $200k with you in value stocks, and I'll roll over the rest.
Brian: We require a $400K minimum balance.
Me: Really? Sorry to hear that. Guess I'll have to roll over the whole thing.
Brian: That's fine, but at least don't make a decision until I send you some reports. We're confident that growth funds will make a big comeback this year.
Me: Thanks, Brian. I'll think it over. Bye.
Paperwork is done, funds just waiting to be fed. In all fairness, they did well by me - beat most of the indexes, but not after their 1.6% management fee (that wasn't clearly laid out on their web site, either).
It felt like a big step but strangely enough, I have absolutely no worries over this decision.
Me: Brian, I think I've decided to take a more active role in managing my retirement money.
Brian: You wanna pick stocks.
Me: Well, no actually, I want to create a diversified group of investments in indexed mutual funds at Vanguard.
Brian: I know that our growth portfolio lost 2% in the last 6 months but that's because we are positioning for growth stocks to really take off this year.
Me: Lost 2%? I hadn't realized that - the web reports don't sort it out in that way... Anyhow, I'd like to leave about $200k with you in value stocks, and I'll roll over the rest.
Brian: We require a $400K minimum balance.
Me: Really? Sorry to hear that. Guess I'll have to roll over the whole thing.
Brian: That's fine, but at least don't make a decision until I send you some reports. We're confident that growth funds will make a big comeback this year.
Me: Thanks, Brian. I'll think it over. Bye.
Paperwork is done, funds just waiting to be fed. In all fairness, they did well by me - beat most of the indexes, but not after their 1.6% management fee (that wasn't clearly laid out on their web site, either).
It felt like a big step but strangely enough, I have absolutely no worries over this decision.