The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: Are you happy with your retirement investments? Do you use or do you plan to use an investment advisory firm?
Talk about it.
34 comments
Yes / No
Same: yes/no
Was doing pretty good until the company I work for was bought out. They used to match up to 6%. Now it’s only 3%. This new company took all kinds of things away. Rotten shame.
I sure hate it when that happens. It feels just like getting demoted.
I’ve had bad results with Advisors, lot of churning, not real good advice … A diversified collection of Mutual Funds, Utilities, REITs, and Bonds are pretty easy … Just do the Homework and weigh your risk tolerance
Agreed…alot of tired “sales talk” intended to simply generate commissions with a dose of indignation should any questions come up
Gebertx – you left out on vital component. CASH. Always have $6k – $10k cash at the ready. Most people don’t thinks about cash. Always have a cash money market at your disposal
I’m still buying lottery tickets, and I’m still waiting on that big payout.
After this week…? hehe
Not for the last couple of days. The Chinese are always a problem.
Might end up in Jail cheaper than the retirement home. The long term care insurance getting to expensive. Right now the senior facility are charging overprice believe it now $200 a day that about $6000 month 30 years from now by the time I am ready to go into the nursing home will jump up to $400 a day. Might of well live out in the street or the Jail
You’d be better of moving out of Corruptifornia for greener (and less expensive) pastures.
I buy gold coins and bury them in my backyard at random spots.
Wait… what is your address again? 😂
Stock Market woes. “Pork bellies are dropping, people are panicking, sell, sell!”
Need to get Eddie Murphy as an advisor and you’ll be fine.
Hi Concordejet,
The $6,000 you mention is about right–but, that does not include all the ‘little” extras–with the extras, it easily runs over $10,000 per month–and that is just for one person–so start saving your money now–
Very much so, and I do.
Been using Rudney and Associates for years. Very happy with the results and service. We’re set up to minimize taxable gains and even with losses this month are in excellent shape. Flat-rate fee structure avoids any suspicion that trades are made to inflate fees.
In my experience the number 1 mistake people make is not starting to save early enough. All the data bears this out.
@ Chuckie
Totally agree! Unfortunately the youngin’s dont want to hear that until they get old like us!! I started in me 30’s. Wish I would have started earlier!
Well with the way the stock market is doing right now, the 401K’s is taking a bit of a dive,….hope after the coronavirus and election passes, things will recover. As far as IRA investment,….we need to find a better firm/investor,…not getting very good returns yet. Looking to see if anyone posts about any good ones.
I am a professional advisor. Been doing it since 1993. I believe that most people benefit from the use of a professional (and not just financial professionals) in most parts of their life.
But I’m writing this to warn you all of what I believe will be some nasty pain to come in the markets, even with several -1000 pt days under our belts. I think that the overall market will continue to fall badly for at least the next two days. Nobody wants to own stocks over a weekend when there is bad news floating around and the market NEVER finds the bottom on a Monday. Keep in mind that 2000 Dow points from here is another 8% down.
The reason it’s down so much is simply panic selling, not the virus. We’ve know of the disease for months and the market kept going up. We have a -1000 day and people take notice. The client calls that I am getting all have a similar theme. “I want to keep what I’ve made. It feels like ’08 or late ’18 and I vowed to never let that happen again. I’ve gotten older and can’t afford to take a big hit and wait for a comeback”. The tv has gotten more aggressive with it’s reporting and right now there is a race for the exits.
So that explains this past week. But looking out does not look too rosy either. I believe that this virus is the real deal and will screw up things worse than we are being told. I’ve heard estimates that up to 70% of the population will get the disease (that’s the highest i’ve heard). Yesterday, a guy from the CDC said he expects US mortality to be about 1%. That doesn’t seem too bad. But let’s crunch the numbers using some reasonable assumptions:
US Population= 350 million
20% infection rate (might be low, might be high) = 70 million sick.
1% mortality rate = 700,000 dead
World Population =7.5 billion
20% infection rate = 1.5 billion sick
1% mortality = 150 Million dead worldwide.
And I think it’s a safe bet that the world mortality will be much higher than the US mortality.
Note that the infection and mortality rates are my guesstimates.
The next step is that people will start to stay home. As the infection spreads around the country (First confirmed case announced today in Sacto!) people will stop sending kids to school, going to the mall, going to the factory, delivering their route, etc. They will self quarantine to avoid getting sick in the first place. No cruises or air travel. No movies. No gym. No restaurant. They will avoid places where others congregate.
So longer term, there will be reduced economic activity which will lead to reduced earnings estimates which means lower stock prices. Eventually, the virus will run its course or they will find a cure etc. At that point stocks will increase because of beating low expectations and the movement of idle $ into the markets.
We are not done with the downturn yet and won’t be for quite some time. I think it is best to at least take some $ off of the table and wait for the dust to settle. There isn’t much near term upside available (because we either need some good news or to find a bottom) and the potential downside is immense. Sell some now and buy it back cheaper at a later time.
Sorry to sound like a doomsayer because it’s not the end of the world. But I think that taking some protective steps will pay you some big dividends later on this year. And I really hope that I’m wrong.
I keep getting mailers from unknown people that want to give me a free meal in exchange for my retirement money. I always wonder how many people fall for that.
My father had his money with a national locally based national investment company that churned the account like they were making butter. The broker made lots of money in fees, but dads money did not grow. They went to the same church and dad refused to move his money.
Have a cousin who was a finical advisor. He told me he had lost all his investors money and wanted me to invest with him to get him started again. I am sorry to say that I failed to help family, but I still have my money.
Was it Ben Franklin who said a fool and his money are soon to part.
I do not trust the stock market, but it is the only game in town. It is in for a rough time, but those who panic will only lose their money while the big boys always make money. ” Time to clean out the shoe clerks and bums.”
I think most people show up for the free meal. The ones I get are at really nice restaurants or hotels. We don’t go.
I got a guy. Works cheap, I can trust him and he has skin in the game. Me! 🙄 Anybody got $5 I can borrow until payday?
I am very pleased with things as they are, and prepared to weather the next downturn.
Interview a handful of advisors/firms, and use FINRA Brokercheck to view their career. This will give you an idea of where and when they received their training, which licenses they hold, and if they are affiliated with a broker/dealer firm or hold their RIA. Once you find one you are comfortable with, ask for a couple of client references.
There are a lot of great advisors out there and a few bad ones. Find someone who looks at your whole picture: Estate Planning, Tax management, Succession planning, Charitable giving, Long Term Care, etc.
Once you have that advisor in place, call them anytime you are contemplating a big decision, even outside of finance. They will save you money. You can’t afford not to have a financial advisor. If you are just getting started in investing, there are many that will work pro bono for clients just getting started, especially if they are already assisting other friends or family.
Doing my own research and investing! Doing well until this week! Hold on people! Things will turn. Best advice……Invest in Chicken Sh&t! Wait…..No! California bonds are not the way to go!
I gotta a guy too. Works cheap. Advice sucks, but works cheap! Wonder why!
**Sarcasm Alert** I do my own investing! My guy has been doing pretty good! Doing homework counts! Don’t panic!
Absofrigginlutely happy with my retirement investments.
Maxed out on contributions when I was younger then let effect of compounding take over.
Biggest problem personally is being willing to pull the trigger and take profits after a sizeable appreciation. Proved how stupid I was during Dot Com, rode one down to crash n burn.
As for an advisor, tell young kids starting out to go to at least Five financial planners. By about the third one you can start to gauge them. If one immediately wants you to invest in something without fully knowing your situation and long term goals, get up and walk out.
Bingo! The key is to invest as MUCH as you can, as EARLY as you can. These days, $50k a year to live on requires about $1 Mill in investmy, so you can extract 5% per year. when you’re young, that’s so hard to do, but if you do so, by the time you’re 55+, you can retire easily. Good Luck ck investors!
I am happy with my investments. I have done my own research and planning for years, but also made the time and effort to learn the financial industry and was a registered broker for a number of years. I find most all people not putting in significant effort to learn about investments would greatly benefit from the use of a good advisor.
Yes, I’m happy with my retirement investments. Almost ready to retire. I’m not gonna lie. This coronavirus has me kinda spooked. Market dropping like a rock and a recession on the horizon. Not good. But I’m pretty well positioned, so I guess I’ll just hold on for the ride.
Do my own investing. Got a 401(k) and some IRA’s for retirement. Stick to mutual funds, index funds, and bond funds, for the most part. Individual stocks are too risky. I’ve talked to advisors at Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab, to make sure I’m on track. These outfits will give you a plan for free if you have a lot of money with them. Might charge you if you have only a little with them. These advisors aren’t the kind that get a commission every time you buy and sell, and they have solid research departments and computer software backing them up. I trust them much more than the guys trying to lure you in with a free dinner or the small firms who get commissions by selling you funds with high fees. Stick with these low cost big boys and you’ll be OK. When I’m ready to retire I’ll pick one and sit down for a serious session about what, exactly, to do with my money. Nothing fancy. No investments I don’t understand. I know Vanguard has some very sophisticated software you can use to get recommendations on what funds to invest in. I might use their software and do the investing myself. Or I might pay their fees (I think they take a fixed percentage every year) and let them (or their computer) do it for me. Might be less stressful that way. Vanguard is the leader in low cost and index funds. Can’t go wrong with them. Fidelity is making a play for their customers with low cost funds, so they’re a possibility, too.
I am happy with my investments. I direct them myself, so if I were not happy I would have changed them. I do not use an advisor.
My time horizon is always a year or two in the future and have no interest in day trading. The current market meltdown is unfortunate, but needs to be kept in perspective. The S&P index, after all of the media hysterics, is simply back to where it was in the middle of last year. The market historically over-reacts to things both up and down and I have a longer perspective. By the way, in those media stories showing pictures of NY floor traders (nice one right now on CNBC of a woman in red with her hand to her face) making it look like the traders are terrified or depressed, don’t believe it. Floor traders are making money on volume and not market direction, so they are making out like bandits right now.
It is wise that if you are going to use a financial adviser that you use one that they are a FIDUCIARY adviser, meaning they are working for YOU! The majority of financial adviser are BROKERS and they get paid to sell you funds that they make money on and not you. Only 1% of advisers are fiduciaries so when shopping for an adviser,the question must be asked of, “Are you a fiduciary?” “You have no affiliation with funds or organization where you are provided a comission or funds with my $.”
If you want to know more, I highly recommend you read Tony Robbins book called Money Master the Game or Unshakable. It’s worth every penny to learn what 90% of the US population do not know about retirement savings and financial advisers.
Fiduciary or not, Financial Advisor’s either hold a FINRA License in which case they have a broker/dealer Affiliate, or they are an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) in which case they are registered with the SEC.
You failed to mention a most important component: Education. Have they earned their CFP (Cetified Financial Planner) or CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)? Check the FINRA and SEC Websites to learn more.
As for Tony Robbins, he recommends structured notes (which use derivative contracts and are a money maker for the sponsor) and annuities, which are laden with internal fees obscured in a 1035 exchange. Best find another book.
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