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Old 11-20-2019, 12:07 PM   #161
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Originally Posted by dirtbiker View Post
...so I hired a CPA. I found out I was missing out on a few minor tax credits that more than covered the cost of the CPA. Since then I've just paid to have my taxes done. So much easier too!
I hired our CPA to do our taxes a couple of years before I cashed out on my company options. It was enough money that I didn't want to mess up the taxes and end up owing more that I expected. The worked out well.

Over the years I've thought about doing my own taxes again, but each time the CPA points out something that saves us enough money to pay his bill and then some. He had some great ideas for optimizing college expenses and he's the reason we now have over $70K in our HSA invested in vitsx among other things.
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Old 11-20-2019, 01:39 PM   #162
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Originally Posted by mpeirce View Post
I hired our CPA to do our taxes a couple of years before I cashed out on my company options. It was enough money that I didn't want to mess up the taxes and end up owing more that I expected. The worked out well.

Over the years I've thought about doing my own taxes again, but each time the CPA points out something that saves us enough money to pay his bill and then some. He had some great ideas for optimizing college expenses and he's the reason we now have over $70K in our HSA invested in vitsx among other things.
I don't expect I'll ever do my own taxes again. Every filing year my taxes seem to get more complicated. As much as I'd hate to miss out on any taxes, exemptions, etc., I'd hate even more to not pay enough and get audited...
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Old 11-20-2019, 07:00 PM   #163
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I do. Always have.
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Old 11-21-2019, 03:34 AM   #164
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Getting near the time when we must head into the belly of the tax beast, or call upon our chosen knight preparer to fight.
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Old 11-21-2019, 04:24 AM   #165
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I am curious ... how many folks totally manage their finances themselves ... no FA or service?

We currently have a FA (Raymond James) managing just my IRA. (~$440K).
I also have a 401k and pension that I will be getting plus my wife has a 403B and pension. His fee is 1.3%. I am not excited about that and am thinking of moving everything into Vanguard index funds when I retire next year ... no FA. I would like to be a hands-off investor.
Don't sweat it too much. Do your due-diligence; it's not as difficult as the industry likes you to believe. This is coming from an ex-registered advisor for one of Raymond's competitors before strictly as a trader.

There's been a paradigm shift in the retail investor space if you haven't noticed with all the robo-advisors and what not...This goes for everyone.
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Old 11-22-2019, 03:37 PM   #166
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I manage our finances by myself, no advisor. I do have Block Advisors do my taxes.
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Old 11-22-2019, 03:43 PM   #167
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Used one when I was nearing the end of my working years to be sure our retirement plans and timing were solid. After I retired I tired of paying the 1%+ in fees for something I knew I could handle. Been very happy with that decision so far.
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Old 11-22-2019, 03:46 PM   #168
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I do, but now retired hired a fee only FA (on retainer) that does not manage our assets. He just gives us advice and we take it from there.


I always do our taxes but this year with moving during tax season and selling our home and my husband's retirement and dealing with medicare and my health insurance, I am on overload, so I will have to very quickly find a CPA in our new state to do them because I can't handle it this year and I assume I won't want to ever again as we start drawing down our assets and doing Roth conversions and all that good stuff.



They were always kind of simple in the past.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:01 PM   #169
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Had an Amex FA about 22 years ago... then I read about Bogleheads sometime later and the rest is history.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:10 PM   #170
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When I first wanted to start putting savings into stocks, rather than just the bank, I didn't know how/where (and still don't) to purchase stocks/bonds. I was told I needed to go through a financial professional associated with a bank or financial institution as a conduit to get it done. So, I have always had a financial advisor, but he has never "advised" me to really do anything. When I first brought him money, we talked about my goals and he gave me his opinion on what distributions to make. But he has never called to suggest rebalancing, or advise that buying or selling one stock or the other would be beneficial. He really just administers my account and sends me distributions when I request them. So not so much an advisor, as an administrator. He recently joined Raymond James and my accounts moved from Wells Fargo to Raymond James. I get an invoice every year for like $75 administration fee, but I don't know how much more he gets in % of my account. He says just a pittance. I will probably not be adding any new money, now that I'm not working anymore, so it will just sit and draw/lose interest. How would I go about taking it back and administering it myself? And would that not require selling all and reinvesting the cash elsewhere. If so, that sounds like it could incur big losses, since I know nothing about when is a good or bad time to sell and I've always heard accumulation over the long haul is how to grow investments, so never to cash out. Obviously, I am clueless about how investing works.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:18 PM   #171
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I set my DW up with a trusted planner. Her IRA is 1/5 of our portfolio. Ameriprise. he charges 1.25 to manage. I don't like paying and I manage mine 4/5s via Vanguard but in the case of something happening to me I wanted her to have something to rely on with a little trust. We attend the quarterly updates ad meets.. I sometimes get a few ideas but for the most part its just to listen and insure she is OK.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:24 PM   #172
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I do. Took my pension lump sum when they terminated the plan. Had an investment guy for 3 years and went back to diy at Vanguard, saved 25k + per year and simplified the portfolio.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:27 PM   #173
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Retired at 56. Never have used any type of financial advisor.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:27 PM   #174
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Originally Posted by Fermion View Post
I pay a fund manager 4% a year to manage our portfolio. He just happens to be me.
Hahaha I'm doing the same.
Tax is another thing,like mechanical stuff, I don't get any close. Always hire someone lol
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:32 PM   #175
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I do manage our portfolio. But I was a RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) in my previous life.
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:44 PM   #176
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DIY.... but I am a retired CPA and worked in the finance industry... but it's not rocket science and I think that anyone with a good head on their shoulders can easily DIY.

Ditto...
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Old 11-22-2019, 04:54 PM   #177
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I have always done my own taxes without feeling I've ever missed anything. The one time I did use a CPA was when I first moved to Texas, then moved my parents from Oregon a year later, built my first house, and had to figure tax differences between Oregon and Texas, since Oregon has Income tax, Texas does not. Also, my parents had sold their only home in Oregon and I didn't know what tax implications there might be there or if there might be deductions I could take for the moves, building the house, temporary housing, employment changes, offsets of taxes between Oregon & Texas, etc. My parents had always had a CPA do theirs in Oregon.


All he did was take the receipts I gave him and filled out the forms based on what I gave him, which was what I already knew I could deduct or needed to claim. I was expecting him to ask me some questions to determine if I might have deductions I didn't know I could take or something. He did not ask one question. Just filled out the 1040s, with what I had instructed him to do, and then charged us over $400 (that was in 1991). I could have done everything he did for free. I was looking for some more knowledge than I had to be sure there was not more I might could have done.


I went back to doing my own, the last few years using Turbo Tax, and have never had a problem finding answers for myself, even when I was self-employed for a couple years and working out of a home office. Unless you are buying/selling real estate, having to figure capital gains over a long period of time, or other such complicated tax issues, CPAs are an unnecessary expense and mostly overrated just to file income tax.
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:35 PM   #178
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I've been doing it since the end of 2005. I enjoy it; and, paying 1% a year for someone else to do it would impact our lifestyle.
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:41 PM   #179
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Why would you want to give away the FUN of trying to beat the market to a FA?!?
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Old 11-22-2019, 05:46 PM   #180
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My Paternal grandparents AND my Maternal grandparents were devastated when their banks locked their doors, froze all accounts and foreclosed on all mortgages.

They made it through the Depression by owning rental houses, with no mortgages on them.

My grandparents would climb out of their graves if I ever used an FA.
I wish my grandparents ever had enough to understand such things, much less be concerned about what I might do.
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