[rsmurano]

My guess, 95% of the population doesn't know anything about where their money is or how its invested but these same people know which golf clubs they use, what tennis racquet they use, or what bike they ride! Most people know the trivial stuff in life but the most important information you need to survive in retirement, they know nothing.

I have helped dozens of friends over a decade learn more about how their money is being invested and how well a hired broker is doing with their money. These friends assumed the people from the fancy brokerage houses were doing very good on making them money since they pay for their services. The majority were wrong in their assumptions. What my friends found out about their investments was:
1) just because you pay a broker a fee doesn't mean you were making money
2) most friends didn't know if they were in stocks or etfs/funds (active/index)
3) how much money did they make this month, ytd, 1 year, 5 years
4) did they have loaded funds (up front or at sales time)
5) what have they been paying their broker the past year? 5 years? 10 years?
6) people assume if the broker is a nice guy, he is doing good for you

For example, I have had multiple friends find out they have been making little to no money while the stock market has been doing very well for years. They went in to talk to their brokers to take their money out and these brokers told them: I was going to call you so we can make some changes! Where were they the last few years when things were hot?

Everybody needs to know, how their investments are doing the last 6 months, ltd, or during the last year, whether they use a broker or invest themselves. There are multiple sites online that will give you this info and each time you visit your broker, have him tell you what type of gains has made for you and compare the 2. You will be surprised on what you find out.

You also need to make sure your investments don't have any load fees before you buy them. This is 1 area that brokers make their money off you. A 5% load fee is absurd when sometimes this fee might cost you money if your investments didn't do well.

The worst thing you can do is go with a friend that likes his broker because they he is a nice guy. Do your homework when you sit down with them, find out all the fees they charge, how they would invest your money, what stocks and funds will they invest in, then go home and check these stocks/funds out on how they did, what fees do they have, do they pay a dividend, and what's the risk for owning this particular stock/fund??? If you want to pass out, calculate what the broker fees you will be paying him for the next year, 5 years, and 10 years.

I have done my own investing for over 3 decades, I can tell you which stocks/funds I have, what fees they have, what their performance has been from the past month thru the past 10 years, and much more info.

[Stu from NYC]

Agree this is why I run a spreadsheet of our assets so I can easily see results in dollars.

Most advisors not worth their cost.