Financial "professionals"
dub
advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
Mark0Young
m...@email.com (dub) writes:
I would disagree for several reasons:
1. A lot of people have difficulty with financial planning. Many people can
read through _Financial Planning for Dummies_ and other financial planning
books and get some basic plans started. A number of people can't or won't pick
up information from books.
2. Some plans involve conflicting goals (e.g., vacations, putting children
through college and retirement nest egg), and it helps to have someone who can
"run the numbers" and explain ramifications of the tradeoffs.
3. Tax ramifications of decisions, especially when one's assets become quite
significant, can get complicated. Often options can be suggested that wouldn't
have occurred to one.
4. Judging from some of the replies even within this newsgroup (not the
regulars, but the occasional reply like "Just put your money in ___ fund and
when you need the money in 6 months you will have 20% more"), a number of
people don't have the concept of market risk ("The market only goes up"),
diversification ("Just dump all your money in the Internets because that is
where the future is"), or even basic decisions ("Should I pay off my 21% credit
card or invest in ___?"). Someone with sound financial sense would help such
people.
5. We often don't know what we don't know, so a financial professional could be
helpful in bringing in knowledge to fill the gaps in our financial picture. (In
my case, it was getting into a Roth IRA. But also, as I had posted on occasion,
"If that 5% sales charge prevents me from making a stupid decision and selling
at 50% loss, it is 5% well spent!")
6. Sometimes it is a matter of "sleeping soundly at night" that bouncing ideas
and plans off of a professional produces. It may sound like expensive comfort,
but many people think it is well worth the price.
A lot of people make out fine doing their own financial planning and making
their own financial decisions. But a lot of people also get themselves in big
problems that could have been avoided with proper guidance.
Whether one does it all oneself or pays for assistance or for someone else to
make the decisions, self-education is important because it either helps one
make better decisions or helps one make better use of the professional and
better on evaluating the quality of advice in the light of one's personal
situation.
Extreme statement from either side are likely to be wrong. The truth is more
likely somewhere inbetween.
In my case, my 403(b) decisions are being made by myself, but decisions on my
taxable investments and Roth IRA were made after I interviewed several
financial professionals, I settled on one that seemed to have an investment
philosophy close to mine and seemed to have my financial well being in heart,
not just the part that would generate a commission, and then I made decisions
based on the recommendations and later I bounced ideas off of her before making
additional investments. I also checked with a couple of her clients I work with
to verify that she does indeed encourage those who don't need the money right
away to "stay the course" during major market corrections. (On the other hand,
the first financial professional I talked to about taxable investments seemed
interested in only as much commission as possible and wasn't interested in
presenting a portfolio, but just one high-commission product. Sorry, but gold
rings don't impress me as much as questions about my overall financial picture
and where these investments would fit in that picture.)
Mark A. Young
Ed
Mark0Young wrote:
>
> In article <VsJ95.46819$_b3.13...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
> m...@email.com (dub) writes:
>
> >Just one thing: You (that means everyone) do NOT need the help of an
> >advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
> >deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
>
> I would disagree for several reasons:
Mark, your reasons are all good ones. Personal finance can be very
complicated. It's not just picking mutual funds.
If someone lost, they are far better off getting help than not doing
anything.
LarryStiver
>advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
>deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
>
That mentality is the difference between being an old man in retirement and
being a gentleman in retirement.
Maybe you should consider building your own home, car, education of the young,
business, electronic equipment, etc., since building your own wealth is so easy
to do. You would not even hesitate in most situations to defer most of those
jobs with someone more skilled and yet you choose handle your wealth
accumulation stratagies part time with part time knowledge and with knowledge
dispensed for the masses not necessarily meant for you...good luck.
Larry
Brian A. Cowper
> Mark0Young wrote:
>>
>> In article <VsJ95.46819$_b3.13...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
>> m...@email.com (dub) writes:
>>
>> >advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
>> >deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
>>
>
> Mark, your reasons are all good ones. Personal finance can be very
> complicated. It's not just picking mutual funds.
>
> If someone lost, they are far better off getting help than not doing
> anything.
Ed, do you have multiple personality disorders?
Brent D. Gardner
>Ed, do you have multiple personality disorders?
You know, we might have merely overlooked the obvious: He's just a hypocrite!
Brent D. Gardner
http://www.gardnerfinancialgroup.com/
Money is flat and meant to be piled high - Scottish Proverb
Growing old is mandatory. Growing rich is optional.
Paul Maffia
>Just one thing: You (that means everyone) do NOT need the help of an
>advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
>deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
This statement is just as dumb as its opposite; i.e. you always need the
help of a professional.
And the odds are that the anyone who insists that no one ever needs a
professional is the person most in need of one.
--
Paul M.
John Pederson
Well said.
Brian A. Cowper
> m...@email.com (dub) writes:
>
>>Just one thing: You (that means everyone) do NOT need the help of an
>>advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
>>deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
>
> This statement is just as dumb as its opposite; i.e. you always need the
> help of a professional.
>
> And the odds are that the anyone who insists that no one ever needs a
> professional is the person most in need of one.
Paul? Are you feeling okay?
Brian A. Cowper
> On 13 Jul 2000 16:15:14 GMT, pau...@eskimo.com (Paul Maffia) wrote:
>>
>>>Just one thing: You (that means everyone) do NOT need the help of an
>>>advisor or any other financial professional. Ever. Don't assume they
>>>deserve any repect. Do it yourself!
>>
>>This statement is just as dumb as its opposite; i.e. you always need the
>>help of a professional.
>>
>>And the odds are that the anyone who insists that no one ever needs a
>>professional is the person most in need of one.
>
John! You caught what Ed caught! I understand that the commonsense virus
is anti-selective.
Brent D. Gardner
>This statement is just as dumb as its opposite; i.e. you always need the
>help of a professional.
>And the odds are that the anyone who insists that no one ever needs a
>professional is the person most in need of one.
I agree 100%.
Brent D. Gardner
>Paul? Are you feeling okay?
I think everyone feels better when the market goes up. <grin>