Think of the value of that training manual.

:eclipsee_gold_cup:

Very true but do wonder how much do both of the founders contribute.

Will say the smartest investors I have ever heard of.

Exactly what I'm talking about..............picking those brains day in / day out.

AAPL is now nearly 50% of BRK. Back in 2016 Todd Weschler, one of Buffett's lieutenants, had acquired $1B of AAPL. This is the story of what thereafter caught Warren's attention and got BRK into far more AAPL. How A Lost iPhone Led To Warren Buffett Investing Billions In Apple

When you go with an investment advisor, they charge their fee on all the money you give them to manage, it doesn’t matter I f they invest in bonds, funds, money market, or stocks.
Also, don’t get confused with advisor fees and fund expenses, 2 different fees. You have to know what you are doing when investing. For example, I helped a friend that just gave an advisor that was a friend of a friend and this person was paying almost 5% in total fees, and on top of that, they were making no money on their investments.
Each fund you buy has many fees that can cost you more in yearly taxes (for example, high turnover) or when you sell. Sometime, look to see exactly what expenses you are paying for a managed fund compared to an index fund, it will blow you away, and that doesn’t include your advisor fees.

The only way to make money is investing in the stock market, working and saving your money in your mattress or savings deposit box will just lose you money, and your money still needs to grow after you retire

Your first sentence is not true with Fidelity Investments. They will only apply their percentage fee to the funds that they actively manage. If you have "buy and hold" investments in bonds, money market funds, or index funds with little trading activity, Fidelity does not charge a percentage fee on those funds.

What I have learned for myself - may not be what's best for you though: Diversified funds covering all sectors is basic to investing. When one sector is up, another is down. The funds are diversified themselves and managers of the funds are buying stocks before they become "buy" stocks and selling stocks before they change to "sell". You can't time the market. In retirement, you need to have three years in cash. There is much more to financial planning than investing. When to take Social Security? Creative tax strategies. Estate planning. Insurance needs may include umbrella coverage, especially in later years. Paying for advice may yield more in return than cost of the advice. Each person has different goals, risk tolerance, etc. Either self educate or hire a fiduciary (or neither). It's all up to you.

Cost should not be the deciding factor, but the after fees and taxes on gains return. . a 25% return with 5% taxable gain and a 2% fee vs a 20% return with a 15% taxable gain and a 0.5% fee are not the same after tax return. :read: Its highlighted as the typical consumer puts a heavy weight on cost savings, as their only differentiating and controllable choice.

Vanguard has trademarked a mutual fund tax strategy, which reduces/eliminates taxes annually on certain mutual funds. So before you say "Great!, they minimize the annual tax bill, but that increases the taxable gain bill when sold, meaning a larger portion of the sale price are taxes and less return of capital. So the increased amount will be taxed at the capital gains amount, for index gains and the saved tax gains each year. So pay a small amount annually or pay a larger amount when sold. Of course doesn't matter inside an IRA/401K or other qualified plan, but the after fees and taxes return is the correct metric to evaluate any investment.

Is that easy? not always, because it's not always published what the turnover and the annual taxable gains are, as it's inconsistent annually, and not required by law. . or i haven't seen as a tear sheet item.

good luck all

former finance guy

Once a finance guy, always a finance guy.

The only way to avoid losses is to market time by selling when risks and valuations are high, and buying when risks and valuations are low. This behavior is in fact what you are paying a mutual fund manager to do on your behalf. not the same with ETFs, now you become the portfolio manager.

A portfolio manager rebalancing a portfolio is in fact a market timing exercise, by eliminating the poor performers and buying the better performers at fixed time intervals. . .

The number one reason why the mutual fund industry sells the notion that you can't time the market is to convince you that they can manage your money better and give it to them please. . .

always ask yourself "who is making money" from what I am hearing. . . my dad was sold a mutual fund, and after 15 years, there were no gains. .

chat again later. . and yes, everyone should watch "The Big Short", to realize how financial alchemy or sausage is done. and more than once. There are some great scenes in that movie, especially the woman from the rating agency wearing light blocking glasses, the ones which you get after your eyes are dilated, who admitted to always making up numbers.

its on 24 x 7 , now more of a curse :Screen_of_Death:

We can agree to disagree on this. Do not believe anyone can consistently time the market. I do maintain invest in a good basket of diversified no load mutual funds and as long as they perform keep them.

Good portfolio managers can do a better job than I can.

Over the long run have found this works for me.

This sounds good, but there is a huge fallacy in the statement. We know what a medical or dental "professional" had to do to become that "professional". There was additional schooling, there were boards to pass, continuing education.

What are the requirements for someone to become a financial "professional"? The answer is absolutely nothing! Most do get certifications such as the CFP and if you want to sell securities one needs to pass the Series 7 or General Securities Representative License test....but its a pretty low bar.

To put a doctor or dentist on the same shelf as a finance advisor is silly. I'm not knocking financial advisors, but due diligence examining their credentials, certifications, and education would be prudent.

We have gone to a number of financial seminars where so called financial advisors try to get you to allow them to manage your money.

They will rarely tell the crowd their qualifications of doing this and I will always ask either to the entire room or by myself.

Have gotten answers that they were former math teachers and have a program that will advise how to allocate funds and time the market or in one case a former salesman decided he had the knowledge to invest others money.

Or they take the easy way out and push annuities.

Always amazes me that I typically am the only one to ask such a question.

Some people for whatever reason(s) are better off using a financial advisor. They do not have the time, the interest, the capability or any combination thereof to manage their assets. The problem for them is finding an honest and capable individual who understands their situation and can assist them at reasonable cost, preferably fee only, not fee-based or AUM.

The problem is finding a good advisor to help them. The best FAs handle only very large accounts, as in hundreds of millions of dollars and the best of them are not taking new accounts. Over the years I have read the CVs of FAs at most of the popular retail brokerage houses. They are anything but impressive. I have yet to find one to manage my securities when I am no longer able to do so. Most of my assets are in real estate so I have a trust company lined up to handle them. This particular trust company will coordinate with one's estate attorney, accountant and FA. It does not have in-house FAs so I suppose I need to find one. Good luck to me!