Originally Posted by mmastin (Post 1764469)

Hi, my name is Mike. I read all of the information and as a matter of fact, there is a lot of misconception as to rates of returns and fees.
I've been an accountant for over 40 years and have studied these investments as per my job for 40 years. There has never been any body that has made any where close to 8% return per year. In fact, the largest I've ever seen is 1% per year. The actual way to determine this is simple interest that every one learned in high school. Market value minus your cost basis = unrealized gain or loss divided by the number of years you have had the money invested.
The other thing I want to mention is the actual fees charged by mutual funds are not 1% or .5% per year. It is a deception. The real thing is expenses are always ratio'd against income, never assets, and when you look up the annual reports of each fund, including Vanguard, you will see the "expense to income ratio" is more like 60% of the income. Therefore, they take around 6-7% of your money every year before you make anything. So the market is going down, you still lose an additional 7%. Since the high of the DOW and the NASDAQ and the S&P 500, which is 95% of the market, it has lost as of today 21%, it will take you 30% to gain it back, but what are you gaining back to? A 1% per year rate of return.
These are just facts, not lies, that are presented to you by brokerage firms and mutual fund companies as they do not have a fiduciary responsibility, like accountants or doctors do, which means they can lie to you. There are many lawsuits currently going on that "so called financial advisors" are suing the department of labor not to implement the fiduciary law. In other words, they want to lie to you. These are not opinions. They are facts.
If you have any other questions regarding any of this, feel free to reach out to me via private message.

-- Mike Mastin
Accountant

Originally Posted by mmastin (Post 1764469)

Hi, my name is Mike. I read all of the information and as a matter of fact, there is a lot of misconception as to rates of returns and fees.
I've been an accountant for over 40 years and have studied these investments as per my job for 40 years. There has never been any body that has made any where close to 8% return per year. In fact, the largest I've ever seen is 1% per year. The actual way to determine this is simple interest that every one learned in high school. Market value minus your cost basis = unrealized gain or loss divided by the number of years you have had the money invested.
The other thing I want to mention is the actual fees charged by mutual funds are not 1% or .5% per year. It is a deception. The real thing is expenses are always ratio'd against income, never assets, and when you look up the annual reports of each fund, including Vanguard, you will see the "expense to income ratio" is more like 60% of the income. Therefore, they take around 6-7% of your money every year before you make anything. So the market is going down, you still lose an additional 7%. Since the high of the DOW and the NASDAQ and the S&P 500, which is 95% of the market, it has lost as of today 21%, it will take you 30% to gain it back, but what are you gaining back to? A 1% per year rate of return.
These are just facts, not lies, that are presented to you by brokerage firms and mutual fund companies as they do not have a fiduciary responsibility, like accountants or doctors do, which means they can lie to you. There are many lawsuits currently going on that "so called financial advisors" are suing the department of labor not to implement the fiduciary law. In other words, they want to lie to you. These are not opinions. They are facts.
If you have any other questions regarding any of this, feel free to reach out to me via private message.

-- Mike Mastin
Accountant

Originally Posted by mmastin (Post 1764469)

Hi, my name is Mike. I read all of the information and as a matter of fact, there is a lot of misconception as to rates of returns and fees.
I've been an accountant for over 40 years and have studied these investments as per my job for 40 years. There has never been any body that has made any where close to 8% return per year. In fact, the largest I've ever seen is 1% per year. The actual way to determine this is simple interest that every one learned in high school. Market value minus your cost basis = unrealized gain or loss divided by the number of years you have had the money invested.
The other thing I want to mention is the actual fees charged by mutual funds are not 1% or .5% per year. It is a deception. The real thing is expenses are always ratio'd against income, never assets, and when you look up the annual reports of each fund, including Vanguard, you will see the "expense to income ratio" is more like 60% of the income. Therefore, they take around 6-7% of your money every year before you make anything. So the market is going down, you still lose an additional 7%. Since the high of the DOW and the NASDAQ and the S&P 500, which is 95% of the market, it has lost as of today 21%, it will take you 30% to gain it back, but what are you gaining back to? A 1% per year rate of return.
These are just facts, not lies, that are presented to you by brokerage firms and mutual fund companies as they do not have a fiduciary responsibility, like accountants or doctors do, which means they can lie to you. There are many lawsuits currently going on that "so called financial advisors" are suing the department of labor not to implement the fiduciary law. In other words, they want to lie to you. These are not opinions. They are facts.
If you have any other questions regarding any of this, feel free to reach out to me via private message.

-- Mike Mastin
Accountant

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 1764586)

am pretty sure that Warren Buffet makes over 1% per year.

Originally Posted by tvbound (Post 1764594)

I'm pretty sure, that you are absolutely correct.

I have to say though, I found it amusing reading Mr. Mastin's convoluted and amazingly incorrect analysis regarding investing.

Originally Posted by Rlord (Post 1766786)

I'm in a similar situation but we sold and bought a home recently in the Villages. Things are crazy in the stock market and it may be overvalued. Thinking about selling everything and going into cash since the market has regained and because of market uncertainty .

I've put stop loss limits on some big gainers like Amazon and I'm selling aggressive covered calls in hopes of getting income on the looser stocks that I own. Also selling puts to create income instead of going to cash. Some sectors are doing fine but I will continue to be vigilant.

Originally Posted by TNLAKEPANDA (Post 1767223)

50/50 annuities and index funds. The annuity returned 14% between 2/19 and 2/20.

Originally Posted by Stuart Zaikov (Post 1764794)

Was scratching the remaining hair on my head constantly while reading it.