32+ only: Do you have a financial advisor?
I'm 40. My parents had a broker, travel agent, and financial advisor. I have Etrade, Expedia and the internet I thought the 3 professions were basically extinct (catering only to the [truly] old) till I found out co-workers my age had financial advisors. Why? What can they do for you that you can't do for yourself at a cheaper cost? 32+ only please especially since I don't want this to devolve into why I should buy bitcoin/ether. Update: Thanks all for some of the more thoughtful discourse I've seen on Blind. No snark/jab/slam. Kudos. Has anyone considered Robo Advisors at all? It seems their limitations would be a classic investment only approach. No real-estate for instance.
Yes I do and I am 34. I don't rely on mine as much as our parents generation did. I make all the decisions but it's nice to have someone who I can have a conversation with. So get one but approach it with a hands off approach. Msg me if you need a recommendation.
I'm curious about specifics. What's the main benefit you've gained? How much is being managed for you and what are the fees?
With mine. No fees. He only gets paid if I buy something from his firm like an IRA or life insurance. Main benefit is that I have someone full time watching my finances and checking in with me every now and then. For example, we check in in sept every year when msft bonuses come out and do coffee around what I should do with bonus. He makes some suggestions, I ponder it and sometimes I will take his advice (e.g last year I setup an education fund through him). Other times, I just say no, and do what I want (e.g. Buy index funds). So like I said, I still actively manage my finances with all the things everyone mentions here but I also get to bounce off ideas from someone whenever I want to.
I wouldn't touch bitcoin with a stick. It's Linden Dollars all over again. Pass.
I'm now 33. You should buy ether though.
I don't see why, with vanguard and index funds I can get all the benefits handling hundreds of thousands dollars investments from my phone. If my net worth will become much larger than it is now (a few mil at least), I might diversify in real estate and in that case I might want a tax advisor, but fuck any financial advisor
I've done index fund investing since I lost my shirt to the dotcom crash of 2000. I'm glad it's finally in vogue, but it made sense then and still does now. Which again mystifies me more about why someone needs an advisor to get a percent of something that can be done (relatively) easily.
If you buy the ETF direct from Robinhood, it them becomes completely fee free. I haven't seen to downside to setting up your own 3 fund/index portfolio yourself by just doing a little bit of math and just sitting on it like everyone else does. I probably lose out on fancy stuff like tax loss harvesting though.
I'm mid-30s, have a family, FT job, a consulting practice, and trade stocks heavily (not crypto). I've had several people try to be my advisor, but honestly the best ones are the ones that can give you leads on alternative investments and tax planning. I've never committed to paying one (fee only fiduciary only!) Either because too expensive (1% of them) or not valuable (90+% of them). Reddit and the internet are setting the bar pretty high for advisors nowadays. If you have a complicated life with multiple sources of income and multiple tax classifications of expenses then it helps to talk to an EXPERIENCED advisor. On the other hand, if all they can tell you is how to buy index funds and various types of insurance, they're not worth your time.
Your first paragraph mirrors me. Except for age. I have a tax accountant, I'll pay a lawyer, or a realtor, and I do. I considered Chase Private client 2 years ago, but even the Chase guy couldn't tell me what I could get that I couldn't do for myself.
@Babelfun In my area, real estate has been good to me. I've had rentals for 18 years and started doing flips with a partner 2 years ago. That's 50% of my holdings. The rest are index funds and a small trading account which is basically a hobby.
I am 32 and don't have one, I put my money in real estate and mutual funds and have done pretty well. There is so much info out there you don't need to pay some one to summarize it for you.
Depends on your financial literacy. If you know enough to understand why its much easier to manage investments than a talking head on a financial news show would have you believe, you probably don't need a financial advisor.
I don't disagree. Blind is a self-selected bunch of people with above median income and above average internet literacy. Hence my question to this audience. Because if an advisor can sell to this bunch with a solid benefit provided, I can see why they exist.
There's a heavy amount of financial illiteracy in this group though. Just because we're all smart, educated, and wealthy doesn't mean we know anything about finance. In fact, with the amount of advice given out to invest in currency I'd argue that on average the advice here isn't better than the advice on any internet forum.
When I got married with kids, the first thing my financial advisor did was ask me "have you thought about what happens to your family if something happens to you?" Yes, everyone in these forums are smart. Yes, everyone can invest in index funds. However, how many of them can tell you right the bat, "if I got in an accident tomorrow, my family monthly income will be xyz and the house will be paid off" or "if I get disabled, this is how my family will get through financially". These are things a financial advisor will help you think through..
I am 54. I have a smart friend I discuss decisions with and that helps avoid blunders. I don’t have a financial advisor because the few I have talked to don’t seem to understand probability or hedging very well. If you could find a good financial advisor then probably worth every penny.
Thanks. In my experience they've always wanted to sell me something but haven't been able to tell me the value add beside they have access to a kick-ass trading platform (specifically that was Chase Private client).
I'm 32. I have a great response but I will keep it to myself
Well, you can't now... I just dropped the threshold to 32 :-)
Technically, you're > 32 years and 0 days, so you qualify.