@wazoodog
It's good that you are receptive to the idea of parting away with your FA now... I have been watching you going back and forth with some posters here and did not want to intervene even if you were somewhat against their advice because the more they were piling on, the more more you weren't open to listen to them... At the end, I am glad you are receptive to their advice although a couple of posts were a little bit too 'forceful'.
Investing money were a mystery 15+ years ago, but now everything is more transparent with index funds... One can argue it's better to invest in index funds in term of risk since most funds have outperformed the market in the past 10+ yrs...In addition, these funds perform consistently better than most of these big hedge fund managers in Wall Street.
I wish someone has told me about index funds 10+ yrs ago; I would have been sitting well right now. I have 2 rental properties and I probably will sell one soon and put the profit (~280k) in index fund (set it and forget except adding money to it every month).
Listen to your colleagues! they are giving good advice.
It's been an interesting discussion for sure. Theres been a lot of good information volunteered up by fellow colleagues here and I found myself reading Bogleheads forum more interesting than I thought I would. I appreciate the information people offered up, even if forceful.
That said,I cant help thinking that those same people dont completely understand why people who use an asset manager do so, despite the fee. Theres a fundamental difference in how we think of investment strategy.
People are allowed to spend their money foolishly. The level of foolishness is relative. At the end of the day, there are plenty of us who found an upside despite paying someone an AUM percentage. Most likely, we dont fixate on the fee and how much more we could have made..we're just content we are moving in the right direction instead of watching our savings deflate due to inflation. A lot of people have no interest in reading and researching this topic, but dont feel confident doing DIY unless enough time has been invested. Nothing is free. Its paid through either time spent learning or something else.
Personally, I came into a few windfalls courtesy of being in pharma...and I just kept it in a savings account for 2 years watching it do nothing (or worse, devalue because of inflation). I was skeptical about engaging a CFP, but at the end I decided even with the fee it was better than what I had been doing. I thought reading anything about investing was tedious. I know a few of you post on the investment thread a lot and genuinely find the topic interesting but that's not me. So yea, using a CFP was the best decision I made at the time.
People dont use an asset manager expecting them to beat or even match the market in specific years. I have my own trading account hitting a 300% gain to support. They use their services because a good asset manager can deliver consistently even in a down market and at worst, wont lose the principal. And yeah, some people are just old school and like the personal touch and find the fee worth even that.
Personally, I have a few friends and acquaintances that are non-certficied financial advisors and I've never used their services. The one I ended up using was referred to by a former boss. Majority of his clients are from pharma - and a lot from 1 big pharma in particular. I trust the guy and hes done me well. If I was a Boglehead, i would have done better DIY. But humbly speaking, I'm not a Boglehead. More than that, hes helped me in other areas besides investing...and when I'm gone it gives me peace of mind to know that all my wife has to do is give him a call and it will be made easy for her. For that, the fee has been worth it.
