Earned it the hard way don't want to mess up now

[ShilohS1]

Currently speaking with Fisher Investments and would appreciate any information on your experience with them. I have seen many good comments on Vangard and Fidelity and one that caught my attention on USAA. I would appreciate your help on this!

 

[marko]

My advice: learn as much as you can about your investments and investing. Looking back on myself just 8 years ago, it was frightening...damn frightening... on how much I didn't know.

 

[pb4uski]

Do a search on "Fisher" in the search box towards the top of this page.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Do a search on "Fisher" in the search box towards the top of this page.

+1. And then run like hell.

 

[phil1ben]

If you earned it the "hard way" why would you trust someone else (that you barely know) to invest your money who has little interest in the ultimate outcome. Who knows the level of this persons education or experience. If you lose 20% in a year, it is just another day in the office for them. Now that you are retired (or close to retiring) spend the time to learn how to handle your own finances. Always remember that the amount of return is DIRECTLY proportionate to the amount of risk. There is no getting around that rule. If someone promises you an 8% return in this economy there must necessarily be a moderate amount of risk. Understand the risk and make informed decisions.

 

[braumeister]

Go here:
Retirement Planning Resources - Early-Retirement.org Links Directory

and here:
Investment Books

and start reading.

Honest, this isn't rocket surgery. You can be your own financial adviser with a little effort. You can be your own highly successful FA with just a little more effort.

 

[ShilohS1]

New to site, wanted to be sure you got my thanks for your help. When I clicked on the thanks button I received no indication it was sent and I do appreciate all who responded

 

[Midpack]

"By the time you know enough to choose an investment advisor, you don't need one..." I'd try real hard to learn more and only resort to hiring Fisher or anyone else if you really can't learn.

You may already realize that most folks here are DIY investors, largely using low cost, index/passive mutual funds to fill out their portfolios. You'll also find most here are not rocket scientists, but we've learned how to invest and provide decent real returns for ourselves without paying an advisor - they're usually costly.

 

[GrayHare]

"By the time you know enough to choose an investment advisor, you don't need one..."

+1

 

[NanoSour]

I'm curious...where did you find any information regarding Fisher on USAA?

 

[Sarah in SC]

I think he saw info on here regarding Other companies including usaa. Not that he found stuff about fisher on usaa.

 

[growing_older]

If you do talk to Fisher, you will get mail from them for years. They are a very persistent marketing company.

 

[ShilohS1]

My thanks to all!

And the reference to USAA came from a discussion where the person asking questions asked about multiple investment groups and USAA and Fisher were just some of the groups in the discussion. Looks like I have my homework cut out for me! To the fine individual who gave me links for additional books to read, thanks for the assistance!

 

[2B]

If you want a very simple overview of index investing, I suggest you read Hallam's Millionaire Teacher. A more indepth review (but still an easy read) is Bernstein's Investor's Manifesto. Trying to digest the entire Bogleheads library list will be a bit overwhelming.

As for Fisher, he's one of many "celebrity financial advisors" that are around. He's got his Forbes column and manages to get in the financial press in other ways every so often. He's written a number of books that don't really say much except advertise his "brilliance." From what I can tell, he tends to be pretty aggressive. I saw an article where a retired widow lost a fortune when Fisher's firm loaded up on aggressive equities going into the 2008 dive. She successfully sued to recover some cash but I don't know if she was made whole.

I have no interest in dealing with any financial advisor and recommend that to everyone that cares to ask (or gives me an opening to voice my opinion). In some cases a fee-only FA is a reasonable place to get some advice but I'd recommend not investing through them. Vanguard has FAs available for free or at a reasonable cost if your account isn't large enough for the free planning. Even with a fee-only advisor, you need to understand enough to know what they are talking about.

 

[seraphim]

A fun, easy and free book is Frank Armstrongs 'Investing for the 21st century'. You don't even have to read the whole thing. The first 6 to 10 chapters is sufficient. It's online free as a PDF - just google it.

 

[Ready]

Fisher Investments is a huge firm. One might think from seeing all of Ken's advertisements that if you sign up with the firm you will be receiving advice directly from Ken. His advertising is specifically designed to hide how big his firm is, and to make him appear like a personal advisor who has your best interests at heart.

In reality he is a billionaire living in Northern California making a fortune off the fees his firm collects from managing other people's money. Most of the people who work there are just entry level financial advisors who are learning on their first job. You will not find their advice any better or worse than any other average investment house that looks to make commissions off other people's life savings.

I did download his free brochure just for the fun of it. Very basic common sense information that I already knew, but perhaps someone new to investing might learn from. However, I would think very carefully before giving these people any of your money.

 

[Onward]

Sounds Fishy.