New expert investor who's not sure what he's doing

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ER Eddie I calculated that it has cost me about $1250/yr to keep that money under management (vs. just index fund).

it's just money....

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound One has to do it in order to learn it. Else, it looks so easy.

you mean I can't just watch squawk box every morning when I work out?

[NW-Bound]

I do not have access to CNBC anymore, but liked to watch the cute gals in the morning.

Some people claim to make good money following the bald and beefy guys in the afternoon show (are they still on?), but they are not cute to me, so I did not watch them as much.

[ownyourfuture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Goldman Sachs has a panel of experts offering their opinion on which countries should do well each year. Their predictions for 2016 were off. I did not follow them before that, and have not remembered to see what they say for 2017.

That doesn't surprise me.

[ER Eddie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big_Hitter it's just money....

Yeah, and I've got to weigh $1250/yr against the intangibles. For instance, I am no financial whiz kid, so the idea of managing 100% of my money makes me a bit apprehensive. I get some peace of mind from knowing she is handling 30% of it. There is some increased diversification, since we have different approaches. And I can call on her for advice and input, too. So, it might be worth the trade off.

[NW-Bound]

I never have had an FA. I prefer to conquer greed and fear on my own.

I guess if an FA provides good hand-holding to talk people out of panicking and selling low when the sky was falling, he/she is worth the 1%, particularly if he/she is managing a lot of smaller accounts. I know I would not want their job. I would be swearing and cursing at my clients who wanted to bail out at the bottom, or people who complained that I did not get them enough dot-coms like the ones their brother-in-laws were bragging about.

[Big_Hitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I never have had an FA. I prefer to conquer greed and fear on my own. I guess if an FA provides good hand-holding to talk people out of panicking and selling low when the sky was falling, he/she is worth the 1%, particularly if he/she is managing a lot of smaller accounts. I know I would not want their job. I would be swearing and cursing at my clients who wanted to bail out at the bottom, or people who complained that I did not get them enough dot-coms like the ones their brother-in-laws were bragging about.

this is my first FA - golf club buddy - can't swing a cat at my golf club without hitting a FA, attorney or doctor

this guy seems trustworthy - he's older than I and still has kids to get thru school so I know he'll work hard

I had to sit for essentially CFA part 1 so I know about portfolio theory, fixed income investments, how they are priced, the risks, how to read financial statements, etc but we had a pile of cash/funds in different places I wanted to consolidate and we got a good deal on the refi with these guys so we moved the money (was that a run on?)

[Big_Hitter]

good point about having a 3-4% withdrawal rate and forking over a huge chunk of it each year to a FA - my initial withdrawal rate will probably exceed that until we start drawing pension/ss - DW already draws a pension but not SS.

[Trooper]

One of my favorite lines -- it may be a member on this forum's signature -- is "Stop looking for the needles; instead buy the haystack"

[Boho]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boho ...I won't buy if there's just one sell recommendation...

I'm totally going with this as a general principle. I'm afraid of the stock market and I was putting extra effort into minimizing risk, at least for the short term, so I was looking for international treasury bond ETFs. I found a list. I cross checked with a list of the best bond ETFs according to U.S. News & World Reports. Six of the treasury funds from the first list were listed in the second list and three got a gold ribbon. I looked up the Morningstar star rating of the top two. One got two stars out of five and the other was unrated. So, I'm not buying any of the international treasury bond ETFs.

[redduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boho ...I guess if I had to pick another question it would be what country's index fund do you think would make a good investment for the coming years, not including the U.S....

I'll take a shot at answering your question: ELBONIA might be just the country that would make a good investment for the coming years.

[Boho]

Avatars are so small here that you can't read the full book cover that I designed, so here.