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Old 12-25-2016, 05:19 AM   #21
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Seriously, I've tired some money managers and some so-called "financial planners." I've done at least as well on my own without having to pay for my own advice. I figure that saving the fees already give me a big head-start in beating the "experts." And that way, when I don't do well, I can blame myself for not doing well instead of blaming myself for paying someone else to not do well for me.

I'm not totally against getting some help, but always keep in mind that it's your money and no one cares more about it than you do. Nor will anyone work as cheaply as you do to invest it.
+1 When I had a FA I still invested much of my investments myself. My returns were better so I took it back.
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Old 12-25-2016, 06:15 AM   #22
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Recently I sold a lot of stocks right before Election Day thinking it was going to negative for market. Boy was I wrong. I am like 50 stocks. 30 bonds and 20 cash. I have a portfolio of about $3.8mil investable. I am just looking as I get older and think about retiring if I should start follow a methodology or a person who has more time to research. I do some research but I also have been making mistakes too recently as I just don't have the sharp brain I used too.
With a portfolio of $3.8 mil, you obviously have done something right. But as we age....many prefer an autopilot approach. Nothing wrong with that.
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Old 12-25-2016, 07:59 AM   #23
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Don't read any newsletters and don't follow the Bogleheads philosophy. Buy individual stocks and, most probably through luck, have outperformed appropriate indexes for years. Wouldn't recommend this approach to others though. Can't go wrong with Bogle approach in long run although I have no plans to adopt. Would be too costly with my imbedded cap gains.
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Old 12-25-2016, 08:05 AM   #24
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Maybe start to simplify by exchanging a few individual stocks for a sector ETF that fits your goals. Start adding cash back in to a few ETFs. Not very exciting, though.
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Old 12-25-2016, 08:24 AM   #25
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I think to do individual stocks "right" requires much more reading of 10-Ks, 10-Qs and other very boring documents than I am interested in doing. While I got paid to write that crap during my career, I'll be damned if I'll waste time reading it in retirement.

I did have an advisor who picked stocks for me in my 20s and we had some winners and some losers. I became an avowed indexer in the early 80s and have never looked back.

While I slice and dice a bit more than I need to for entertainment, but I could easily get away with Total Stock, Total International Stock, Total Bond and Total International Bond if I wanted to and would be perfectly content.
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Old 12-25-2016, 01:14 PM   #26
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I went to a financial planner once. All he wanted to do was sell me an annuity or failing that, take 2%-4% of my portfolio annually as a management fee. I never ran away from someone as fast as that guy.

I've been somewhat of a Boglehead for many years. My portfolio is 2/3 Vanguard Total World Market ETF, 1/3 cash in a CD.
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Old 12-25-2016, 04:15 PM   #27
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I went to a financial planner once. All he wanted to do was sell me an annuity or failing that, take 2%-4% of my portfolio annually as a management fee. I never ran away from someone as fast as that guy.

I've been somewhat of a Boglehead for many years. My portfolio is 2/3 Vanguard Total World Market ETF, 1/3 cash in a CD.
You did the right thing.

BTW, you don't have to look very far to find people attempting to sell all kinds of things for much more than they are worth.
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Old 12-25-2016, 09:38 PM   #28
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It's not a coincidence that so many people on an early-retirement board are Bogleheads.

Learn it. Love it. Live it.

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Old 12-26-2016, 09:14 AM   #29
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I used FAs and brokers when I was busy earning money. Then I opened a discount brokerage account about 20 years ago and started my own investments. After 5 years I moved everything to the discount broker.

Now if I wanted to get into the newsletter business, I would write one. But it seems too much like a job. The best way to get cured is to find a few dogs and watch the number for Buy ratings for them. Or watch Mad Money.
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Old 12-26-2016, 10:44 AM   #30
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I have a hard time stomaching mad money. He is never right. I play my own hunches and blue chips. DCA a bit. Day trade some. I try hard not to lose money. Seem to make but probably more effort than worth. Could just do the index funds at some point.
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Old 12-26-2016, 11:56 AM   #31
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Logic says say it is difficult to do this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by djr59 View Post
I try hard not to lose money.
If you do this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by djr59 View Post
I play my own hunches... Day trade some.
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Old 12-26-2016, 01:27 PM   #32
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Totally disagree. Gotta say I have spent the last 2 days reading the bogglehead stuff and though I see how it works, not sure I see the full value. I actually like investing and it's a hobby. Yeah, I have a pretty extensive portfolio with and I just counted, I own 38 different accounts which hold about 144 different assets, stocks, funds, bonds, cash, real estate.

I got no issue with performance numbers.
This past year is around 15%
Last few years have been 16,15,41,27 and 8 percent respectively.
So I am not doing anything wrong in my view.

Now that I am almost 58yo and thinking about retiring I am just looking at what I should do to get income because to be honest, I don't need 15%, I need 5%
If I take $4mil and get 5% I can live quite well!

So I just did a year end analysis and I should adjust my portfolio concentration.
When I back out my DW company stock which I am limited at selling and just look at liquid assets my breakdown is 45% stocks, 15% bonds, and 40% cash. Yes, cash is high, too high, so what do I do? I am thinking about starting to buy bonds, but with prices dropping pretty rapidly perhaps I should wait. I just put a decent amount of cash into 3% CD at AFCU. But still have some to invest and plenty to live on if I need to tap it which I won't since DW is still working.
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Old 12-26-2016, 01:43 PM   #33
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Originally Posted by djr59 View Post
Totally disagree.
This board thrives on disagreement!

It's clear you enjoy keeping all those investment plates spinning and you don't want to give up your hobby, so no more recommendations here for less labor intensive investment options. Have fun and good luck keeping up those nice annual returns!

And on we go...
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Old 12-26-2016, 02:07 PM   #34
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Totally disagree. Gotta say I have spent the last 2 days reading the bogglehead stuff and though I see how it works, not sure I see the full value. I actually like investing and it's a hobby. Yeah, I have a pretty extensive portfolio with and I just counted, I own 38 different accounts which hold about 144 different assets, stocks, funds, bonds, cash, real estate.
I think the only person qualified to give you advice is yourself. There are a few stock pickers on here, but the indexing folks aren't qualified to give you advice. Go on over to the stock picking forum and you'll have more joy.

I will offer one bit of advice......5%/year is too much income to be taking from your portfolio.
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Old 12-26-2016, 02:13 PM   #35
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.....Yes, cash is high, too high, so what do I do? I am thinking about starting to buy bonds, but with prices dropping pretty rapidly perhaps I should wait. I just put a decent amount of cash into 3% CD at AFCU. But still have some to invest ....
You might consider target-maturity bond ETFs as a CD substitute. They are like buying a proportional interest in a diversified corporate bond portfolio that matures in a stated year. They pay a terminal distribution for the maturity value of the portfolio in the maturity year. The 2023 corporate version is probably fairly comparable to your 7 year CD and pays 3.1% based on the most recent trading price.

I own both the corporate and high yield flavors. YMMV.

Product List - Exchange Traded Funds | Guggenheim Investments - Investment Management for Financial Professionals
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Old 12-26-2016, 02:37 PM   #36
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I will offer one bit of advice......5%/year is too much income to be taking from your portfolio.
I think he meant he just needs 5% return.
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Old 12-26-2016, 02:50 PM   #37
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I think he meant he just needs 5% return.


Correct. 5% return plus ss income will be. Ore than enough.


Also thanks for the Guggenheim funds. I will take a look. I have some corporate individual bonds. I also think I would benefit from some tax free funds. I was in the vanguard New York tax free bond fund but got out as it started to drop. yield for a tax free was very decent.
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Old 12-26-2016, 03:06 PM   #38
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90% invested in individual stocks. Have had 2-3 advisors over the years but their service wasn't worth the cost. We live off of the dividends + SS and the investments have been stable for a long time so very few costs. I am in the early stages of migrating to ETFs for simplification - DW has absolutely no interest in investing so need to position accounts so that they are set and forget.
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Old 12-26-2016, 03:11 PM   #39
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Correct. 5% return plus ss income will be. Ore than enough.


Also thanks for the Guggenheim funds. I will take a look. I have some corporate individual bonds. I also think I would benefit from some tax free funds. I was in the vanguard New York tax free bond fund but got out as it started to drop. yield for a tax free was very decent.
...So what percentage of your portfolio will you take as income each year?
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Old 12-26-2016, 03:14 PM   #40
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If I can get a 5% yield I would t take any or just what I need to cover expenses. I have 2 goals. One is to make sure my wife has enough to live on as she 11 years younger and two to leave a decent amount to my 2 kids. If I can pull $150k a year out and not touch principal then I think I will have a nice retirement!
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