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Home > July 2013 - starting to think of hiring a financial planner

July 2013 - starting to think of hiring a financial planner

August 4th, 2013 at 11:48 pm

Cash & Savings: $53,187 => $59,258 (11.41%)
Foreign Currency: $37,000 => $37,000 (0%)
Domestic Brokerage: $179,299 => $189,238 (5.54%)
International Brokerage: $210,936 => $209,607 (-0.63%)
401(k): $102,597 => $104,913 (2.26%)
IRA: $37,662 => $39,000 (3.66%)
Roth IRA: $89,830 => $95,069 (5.83%)
Total Assets: $710,471 => $734,085 (3.32%)

Last month I accidently clicked on the back button and lost the blog I wrote. In June the stock market wasn’t doing that well but it roared back much stronger in July except some overseas investment I had. The unfortunate thing is that, my portfolio’s performance has been lagging the market by a wide margin and with increased responsibility at work I have less and less time to look after my money.

Shall I go ask someone to manage my investment? How much is a reasonable fee? I’ve been managing my own for 15 years.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “July 2013 - starting to think of hiring a financial planner”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    August 5th, 2013 at 12:05 am 1375661130
    1375661130

    I'm not at all convinced that a financial planner can get you any better performance. You'd be better off doing ETFs and low-cost index funds. Any number of studies have shown that to be the case.

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    August 5th, 2013 at 02:10 pm 1375711800
    1375711800

    I agree with PatientSaver. From everything I've read -- including several articles in Kiplinger's, which would be better served not admitting this -- any financial manager's performance lags the market over time, even if they have meteoric periods in their careers, and low-fee index funds (Vanguard widely touted as the best) tend to track the market -- and you lose far less compound growth because the fees are so much less.

  3. scfr Says:
    August 5th, 2013 at 04:23 pm 1375719825
    1375719825

    I don't know where you currently invest and if you have any interest in changing, but if you have $500K or more invested at Vanguard you qualify for their "Voyager Select" Services which include free consultations with CFP professionals. They will, of course, recommend Vanguard funds, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

    Text is https://investor.vanguard.com/what-we-offer/personal-services/voyager-and-voyager-select-services and Link is
    https://investor.vanguard.com/what-we-offer/personal-service...
    Adding up your 2 IRAs and 2 Brokerages, you'd meet the $500K requirement. If Vanguard is a place you'd consider moving your funds to, it might be worth giving them a call to see if they would supply you with a free CFP consult, with your move to Vanguard being contingent upon liking the advice they give you.

  4. Easy Cloud Says:
    September 6th, 2013 at 07:33 pm 1378496019
    1378496019

    Thank you all for your suggestions! My biggest problem is the lack of time to do my own research. One key thing I'm looking for an advisor to help me on is how to allocate my asset. Even if I find a few good index funds that doesn't mean I have a strategy on how much to put in each fund and when to re-allocate my asset.

    Fideltiy also gives you free advice when you have over $250,000 with them and with over $500k you can get someone to manage your account for you but with a fee, I think. If Vanguard is offering their service completely free for people with more than $500k then I'll certainly consider jumping ship.

  5. baselle Says:
    October 15th, 2013 at 09:04 pm 1381871054
    1381871054

    I think the only use of a financial planner is to possibly tell you what you what you don't know and to maybe run some computer models of some portfolios that you are thinking about.

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