What are these?

. . .

For decades my "financial advisor" was the investment option that I chose in the company's 401K plan, and I never gave it another thought....although I did belong to a stock club.

After seeing many folks in variety careers reinvent themselves and become an 'Investment Advisor' after they were laid off by taking a 30 day brokerage house training program I have become very cautious about people peddling stocks and bonds...doesn't matter which firm they represent. I only go with folks that have taken the time to become certified either as a CFA or a CFP....at least that gives me the sense that they are truly committed to investing in themselves vs. being a '30 day wonder' being told what positions the firm feels it's overweight in and should suggest to clients as an attractive buy opportunity

We have accounts with Fidelity and with Schwab (I left three others)...they provide decent advice, but you need to do your own homework....we've had them manage huge parts of our portfolio and we've self-directed it. I've always sensed that they where good on knowing when to sell (because their program algorithms knew when the market was tanking across the board) but just average on what to buy...their statement 'past performance is no indication of future results' has always felt like a CYA statement that held them blameless....like the weather forecast people explaining why they didn't get it right

I have a handful of stocks that I've really liked over the years, solid companies, with strong leadership and significant players in the market that they are in

I'm pretty much self-directed now

I can't overstate the joy comes from having an UTMA account with young grandson that is anxious to learn about investing....and he's come up with some selections that have yielded 20+% gains

Years ago I attended many 'free lunches' put on by 'investment people' that really were only interested in increasing the size of the money they managed, not the individual people....(well that was my sense anyway)....what was sad was the amount of old folks in those rooms hoping the guy had some kind of magic wand.

IMHO, I don't believe that annuities should be something that everyone immediately dismisses....yes there's a nice frontend payment for the seller. We got into a couple of deferred annuities after the 2008 crash because the wife wanted guarantees....earned 7% while the money was sitting there waiting for us to start taking it. no matter how flat the pancake is, there's always two sides to it

nothing beats the power of time and money....so educate your grandkids and reinforce that Bulls and Bears make money, but pigs generally lose

I used to be in the stock market. Nothing exotic - just mutual fund stocks. Lost a LOT of money about 10 years ago. Now I just have CDs. I just had one 6% CD last year mature and a 5% CD this that matured. I still have 3% and 4% CDs. Two years ago the rates for CDs were 3.8%. Now they at .5% so there is nothing out there now but I still like CDs. When there is a good rate I lock them in for 5 to10 years. You can always take the dividends out at ANY time with no penalty. Anyone else involved in your money will have their hands in the till and you still won't be protected from loss. Absolutely don't get an annuity.

My gut feeling is do not use a bank. My assumption is that the costs will be higher and the advice more aimed at the banks benefit than yours. I have talked to a few advisors. The one recommended by the bank teller, and had an office in the bank, was a very nice individual but had no professional certifications and did not seem to have a good grasp of the planning process. Don't even know if he knew the projected return on the investments he would recommend or the tax costs of his plan. I think he was basically a salesman. Had several meeting and his advice was the poorest of all the advisors I meet with. I think I have a good idea of what a planner should be able to do and it was not the banks planner. I also looked at the organization he was employed by and did not see any benefit to using the organization.

Here is a good explanation:
Actively Managed Funds vs. Passive Investing

I would recommend independent and also recommend you talk to Cebert Wealth on 466. Excellent firm and very client oriented. Have done wonders for us.

I've not heard ant comments on Ameriprise. Any advice would be welcomed.
Thanks, Bob

WFA is good.
Various relationship options.

I have used Ameriprise since the early 1970s when it was Olde Discount and am very happy with it for many reasons.

Having had a problem with Fidelity in the late 1960s I dropped it. I also use Vanguard and Schwab and am happy with both of them.

We have used several but have had the best luck and made the most money with Creative Planning. They give incredible personalized investment service and guide with information that is clear and fully directed with us in mind. We use Andy Gryszowka @ 913-303-4454. Good luck!

Stay away from Banks or Edward Jones. Prefer Schwab and if necessary Fidelity. My Financial Planner is in IL been with him for many many years. Turned everything over to him after I lost my stockbroker hubby. I would not go with anyone in FL

Wow, not one good advisor in the whole state. :shocked:

Not since Bernie got put away. Florida's Palm Beach Rocked By Madoff Scandal : NPR

As to asked for the time and built a clock. Sadly many of the issues posted cannot be answered in one line and many try to do that.

Conflict of interest is sadly common. A family member was my accountant. A definite mistake. He started selling securities. Apparently legal. To me it is a conflict of interest. I bought a tax free bond from or through him. I discovered that I could have bought the same bond at the same time and paid less for it-raising my return. Reminder, family, reminder I paid him to be my accountant. I asked him about some bond or stock accounting issue and his reply was you did not buy it from me. I should have but never did. I later discovered we were paying him for accounting services almost twice what it should be.

Sadly, I could not even trust family.

Same guy, sold my mother at 86 years old, I discovered after she passed a tax freed bond fund with a 2% load and a 12b fee. I've had people tell me there is no such thing.
There is and my dirt bag relative sold it to my mother. I expect it is a criminal act.
I chose not to pursue it. Due to being a small theft, mom did not have much and it being family.

There are no do-overs. The commissions are very high on annuities, the reason why they are aggressively sold. Depending on the type of annuity you buy part of the steady income is your own money. The money you paid for the annuity coming back to you, plus the return on where they invest your, now their money.

Simply put, no annuity sales person will ever say state the reality. If, you put in 10,000 and the commission is 20% including all the fees, you now have 8,000 trying get the financial return of 10,000.

Free anything. You get nothing for nothing. When you sign up for any of these free books. Somehow they are making money. One common way they make money is they have a list that is salable. Name, e-mail address, interested in investing.

There are many free investing books. Some are even printed hard cover. Free only 14.95
to cover shipping and handling and I don't want to state the book or who is doing this but the DVD also being offered is another 14.95 to cover shipping and handling. The free book is only $30.

Bernie Madoff was a very interesting con. The moral is of course if it sounds to good to be true it is not.

I knew someone who fell for it. Bernie was paying out more than normal market returns. He is/was Bernie Madoff people including the government who were supposed to investigate for fraud. They all knew him and knew him or thought he was honest.
They simply did not look. To get into his too good to be true you had to know someone.
People want to be in an exclusive group. I got in, you, well if you are nice to me, oh and buy me an expensive diner I will vouch for you.

Madoff is now back page news. His wife was on TV complaining that she is being shunned. Her exclusive beauty parlor does not want her business. Bernie used to a lavish life style is in jail. If, I recall his son committed suicide.

Years ago, some group called Wall Street something or other got my name. They would call regularly trying to sell me weird investments. I researched them on the internet
moving addresses all kinds of complaints. I recall reading the two partners were arrested and sent to jail.

If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

Back in the early 1970's a fellow where I worked in Rochester, NY got involved in trading naked commodity options with a firm named Goldstein Samuelson. Seemingly he was making money hand over fist so I asked a friend of mine in NYC to check out their offices, which he did, even meeting my colleague's broker, Charlie. The GS office was located on the "seedy side" of Wall Street according to my friend. Anyway, I put in a few thousand and started trading, using an expensive commodity trading newsletter. On paper I soon multiplied my money so I asked the broker to send me a check for some of it. It was like pulling teeth but I finally got most of what I put into the account back. Eventually of course the firm went out of business. Later I discovered my colleague lost a lot, possibly even his house which he had mortgaged to trade more contracts. To get "even" I actually traded commodities for a while but when I found myself every evening on a payphone under a Moosehead in a hunting lodge in Maine during deer season checking on the recommendations of my newsletter service I cashed out. It was just too much. Potatoes and Copper got me better than even. When I quit my local (legitimate) commodities broker asked why I was quitting as I had done so well. I just told him it was too much stress for me.


"A new breed of commodity options which has proved quite popular in this country was the ingenious or misguided, depending upon one's point of view, creation of Harold Goldstein, the founder of the largest of the new naked commodity option firms. Beginning April 28, 1971, Mr. Goldstein parlayed, in less than two years, an investment of only $800 into Goldstein Samuelson, Inc.," a corporation with more than
100 outlets throughout the world selling over 175,000 options valued at $88 million.' 2 As a result of the phenomenal success of this enterprise,
other firms offering similar options were quickly formed.13 Although the majority of these firms, including Goldstein Samuelson, have been forced out of business, either because of bankruptcy or as a result of increased regulatory pressure, a small group of second generation firms, some operated by the promoters of the original companies, have begun to
appear in states which have not attempted to regulate trading in naked
14 options.
The financial bonanza began to evaporate for Harold Goldstein and the other naked commodity option dealers in October 1972, when the Oklahoma Securities Commission gave Goldstein Samuelson notice of its intent to issue a cease and desist order against the firm for violations of the state securities law.15 Public hearings were held in November 1972, and an order was issued barring further sales of naked options in late February 1973.16"

https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/v...9&context=wmlr

After I had changed jobs and moved I dumped and lost a few thousand in cheap mining stocks through a Denver outfit in the late 1970s. The broker was a coworker's old college roommate. I was young and foolish. Luckily I had new a boss who was a stock market genius who got me on the right track. Live and learn, sometimes the hard way.

///

Good for you!

They have some of the highest fees but you can't see them as they are in the return. . . And yes there are fees but you have to compare the returns to the fees, unless you are doing strickly index funds. . . My dad's trust is in Wells Fargo, and you can tell he is a CFP with a commission plan.

If you listen carefully, you can hear a person's motivation. And anyone working for and paid by their institution is not a fiduciary. . . sales rep with a certification

financeguy

Schwab or Fidelity
 

The best deal is to use Schwab. The second best is Fidelity. Both have offices in TV. You will be assigned to a broker. For certain, Schwab's brokers do not work on commission, an important fact as commissions and fees add up quickly. I don't know if Fidelity's brokers work on commission. If they do, the charge can't be much.

Put your money into "no-load" index funds, which do not charge an annual fee. These funds mirror the overall markets. There are index funds which mirror every sector. Thus, you can have one for the S&P 500, U.S. Treasury bills, emerging markets etc. Personally, I'd just put money in an S&P 500 index fund and forget about it. There will be ups and downs, periodic crashes and surges. However, over the course of modern history, the S&P has produced a 10% gain which is compounded every year. It is the best protection against inflation, which is almost certain to be caused by our present government.

The extra benefits of dealing with Schwab include a no-cost checking account and free ATM services. Schwab doesn't have its own ATM's, but reimburses its account holders for the charges when they use the ATM of another bank. If you travel overseas, this is a real benefit as overseas banks charge outrageous fees when you use their ATM to get a few bills in the local currency.

Other benefits at Schwab include no-cost stock trades if done by computer, easy access to your account on your computer or phone and no-cost wire transfers.

Yes, you can pay to have them in other forms-Kindle,DVD, hardcopy

I can only assume you did not bother to try to download the FREE ebooks or to read them.

NEVER BUY AN ANNUITY... ever

I just went with Linn Financial.

It sounds like you are new to the investing; if this is the case, my advice is to DO NOTHING until you've taken a little time to at least become a little educated about finances & investing.

I know it can be overwhelming, but you don't need to become an expert in a day. The absolute worst thing that could happen is you end up working with a stock broker or financial firms like Edward Jones. They will be super nice and sound so sincere, but they are in sales, and their first priority is to sell you whatever product or investments make them the highest commission!!

As others have stated, if for whatever reasons you're not willing to take the time to become educated, if you go with Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard, you're very unlikely to get taken advantage of in a truly harmful way.

A GREAT resource is the community at Bogleheads.org - Index page

Getting started - Bogleheads

This is a investment-related public forum. No one is allowed to sell anything or promote any products or services. Forum members are VERY helpful to new investors.

As others have previously mentioned, RUN AWAY from anyone trying to sell you a variable annuity!!! However, a SPIA (Single Premium Immediate Annuity) can be a reasonable option for certain people depending upon their age and goals. But you definitely need to become educated before buying any annuity.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Another box checker
 

Has no bearing on the earnings motivation of said CFP, that's what you are missing. Many pass the test, most work for a corporation with an incentive plan.

finance guy

Very interesting. After what amount of time educating yourself did you decide to do your own investing, months, years?

Debfrommaine,

I know you did not direct your question to me, but if I may barge in here, I would like to suggest a way for you to get your feet wet — tiptoe in.

Traditional investment advice says, “Buy what you know.”

I realize there may not be a comfort level with choosing individual stocks and that most people probably use funds or ETFs.

But picking just one stock and buying a few shares and then following it can be a good introductory experience. You will learn something about your risk tolerance because you will see how those ups and downs affect you. But don’t invest a really big amount — just some play money.

I think dividend paying stocks are worth learning about. But a lot of people think that is boring because dividend stocks usually do not take you on a rocket ride.

Dividend investors are in it mostly for the dividend — to get paid along the way. But that dividend must be sustainable so the stock must be chosen carefully — based on more than just the percentage yield.

If the yield looks too big, it could be that the stock is in trouble — or it could be that there’s an opportunity to buy on a low that you think is probably temporary — so you need to have an understanding of the company you are buying into. It’s good to be able to catch a dependable stock when it is taking a little hit.

But if a company cuts it dividend or it looks like it’s going to happen, that is not a good sign for a dedicated dividend investor who might see it as a reason to break up with a stock — even if it has been long held and previously dependable. GE is a glaring, ugly, clear example of this happening, starting in 2009 under CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

With all dividend stocks, as with every stock, the share price will vary, but if you pick the right stock, you will get paid quarterly — with 1/4 of the stated annual dividend.

You can take the dividend as income or you can reinvest it — your choice.

(OK, I don’t know if anybody is reading this, but I just wanted to try to help you and now I have to be somewhere at 4:00 so I can either delete this whole thing or come back later for Part II. I was getting ready to give you a suggestion about how to find a stock that you might feel comfortable with.

Since I have “invested” several minutes in this post, I think I will let it stay and return later for Part II?)

Boomer

Well said.

People can spend a lifetime building a nest egg and should devote a sufficient amount of time learning how to invest it.

Thanks to you and everyone who has responded to my post. I have learned a lot, even stock "words/terms" that I never knew before my post. Yes, educating one self is critical and by doing so it brings confidence. For instance, I did have monies in stocks before but when the market went down, my fear went up and out I went, mistake. I hope to gain enough confidence now to invest, as you suggested and others too, even one stock on my own, watch it and learn. Likely we will use Fidelity with the bigger monies and my goal is to understand how the stock world works in a way I can comprehend and leave it in for the long term. I look forward to Part 2, thank you!

Start reading a personal finance magazine like Kiplingers to teach you on the subject.

They have quite a few recommendations of no load mutual funds with good long term track records.

I still would tell you to use index funds, not individual stocks. Maybe for some “fun” money a few stocks are OK. GoogleYale University endowment fund. Many billions of $$$$. Very successful returns for over 50 years. They basically use 4 Vanguard index funds for the majority of their money. Total stock market fund, total bond fund, total international stock fund and total international bond fund. If you do just these 5 things you can be a very successful investor, have very good returns and have a very low risk portfolio.

Learn about your risk tolerance
Learn about asset allocation
Understand expense ratios
Use those 4 funds for the majority of your money.
Rebalance once a year on your birthday

It really is that simple. As you grow more comfortable and see how this simple plan works, you can branch out just a little and add a small amount of complexity with a few other low cost funds and maybe boost your returns. But get started with just those 5 actions.

I would recommend that you meet with Parady before you sign up with anyone. Best thing we ever did.

Go with an independent fiduciary company and create a revocable trust.
They don’t try to sell you anything, They will do a risk analysis with you and your spouse and structure you portfolio accordingly.

Parady will most likely try to sell you an annuity.

barf

Great money maker for the "advisor" not necessarily a good deal for the buyer.

As a wise man once said annuities are not bought they are sold.

Parady used to have 3 or 4 full page adds in the Sun everyday. Didn’t it make you wonder how they were able to spend that much on advertising? I bet they sold a lot of very high commission Annunities. Personally that would be the very last place I would go. When someone tells you they can get you higher returns, there is only one way they can do that. TAKE MORE RISK WITH YOUR MONEY. That is the only way they can push returns. Sell you annunities, take more risk, use high commission products and then they can afford those ads. And why not, it’s your money at risk, not theirs. And the same logic applies to most other financial advisors. Expenses always hurt returns. So lower expenses is almost always better for you.

Parady is a heavy pusher of annuities.