Financial advisors

[baz]

Just don't take any advice from that heffer Brock Landers.....your identity and checking account will thank me later.

 

[JDS]

Just don't take any advice from that heffer Brock Landers.....your identity and checking account will thank me later.

Good for him he didn’t come in this thread and embarrass himself any further with some flawed advice.

 

[redrightred]

Seems simple enough - buy index funds/mutual funds on my own - but feel like last time I tried it I wound up under performing. Given where the market is now - I’m questioning if we might not have peaked for a while and if I shouldn’t just park bulk of my $$ with a professional - maintaining a small brokerage account to play with on my own.

That's a pretty valid concern. You can get high yields on money markets and bond funds. A financial advisor is going to tell you to put it in stocks though and talk you into having a good chunk of it in there. If you have money you can just sit on, it is not a bad idea to just sit on it and earn a high yield and not take any chances. There will always be opportunities in the future.

 

[djefferis]

Might just do this - at least with half.

If not CDs/MM - buy some individual short term bonds.

Bond mutual funds SOUND tempting - but too easy to wind up owning a bunch of junk some manager scooped up hoping to boost the portfolios overall yield.

From there - just invest the profits into mutual funds or dividend payers. Let money keep accumulating over 5-10 years. That’s the plan for now - I’m 50 and making good money - if I can keep that up for 10 years AND not need to touch the principle here nor at least half the yield - that should set me up nicely for a slow down at 60 or so.

My only concern at 60 would be health insurance - either I need a part time gig that provides or - or ability to get it from the wife to cover that 5.5 year gap until Medicare.

 

[Franz555]

You have many options. It all depends on how you want to approach investing.....

If you are sitting on $100k or more (non-essential funds) and want to invest it, you can:

• Put it in CDs and get a guaranteed return that will likely (best case) just keep up with inflation.
• Open a Schwabb account, stuff it in an S&P index fund and ignore it for years.
• Get an advisor for 0.5% ($500/yr) and have them invest it across dozens of investment options (foreign stocks, domestic stocks, bonds, fixed investments, mutual funds, etc...) and have them adjust it regularly to account for any potential swings in the economy.

All are pretty much hands-off approaches.
The later option yeilds higher returns long-term, even when fees are included.

Tanko makes a number of valid points here. I have all my investment criteria for Canada....

Registered futures trader
Registered futures Attorney
Canadian Securities Course
Options & CFE

All or none of these could be of use to you. Everyone has different investment needs or requirements. A good financial advisor is worth his weight in gold. Not every advisor takes on clients unless they meet their investment criteria. An advisor earns his fees bases on " Assets under Administration ". Depending on the distribution of assets ( mutual funds etc ) the individual fund may have front end or rear end load.
Coming here , or asking around , may end up being the best way to attain a good advisor. Unless you follow yield curves , inflation trends , market variations etc , doing it yourself is tantamount to instant ruin imo.

Best of luck with your search