Point of Roboadvisors like Wealthfront?

Apr 24, 2020 22 Comments

Been on wealthfront 3 years now and my all time gain is -12%. Has been negative something every year for the past 3 years. Meanwhile, my individual investments into tech stocks in Robinhood are up 25% in the same time frame. Which means I'm doing a better job investing myself than a whole roboadvisor.

My question is what's the point? I have 50000 in wealthfront that I'm thinking of withdrawing and just spending on individual tech stocks. What do you guys think?

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TOP 22 Comments
  • Amazon
    14LPs

    Go to company page Amazon

    14LPs
    1) what's your stock/bond %
    2) cherry picking a few tech stocks vs index investing is not comparing apples to apples
    3) given how little you know about investing (not trying to be rude, but just frank her based on your post), you should stay in betterment and make sure you have >80% in stocks assuming you're decades from retirement
    Apr 24, 2020 2
  • Hubspot
    icedout

    Go to company page Hubspot

    icedout
    What's your risk score? That plays a huge role. I'm wondering how your portfolio got a negative return in 2019 since almost all ETFs were up.
    Apr 24, 2020 2
  • Box
    rKLg78

    Go to company page Box

    rKLg78
    I invest long term like 20 years or so. I believe over 20 year period Wealthfront will beat Robinhood or individual investors.

    Over 5-8 years is not a fair comparison.

    Here is an example when long term wealthfront is better. Look at https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestreet.com/.amp/opinion/25-winners-for-1999-592606 the top stocks of 1999. Most stock did not grow as expected and just lost money. If you where a individual investor over 20 yr from 1999 to 2020 you would not be able to predict the wining tech stocks.

    Tech is fast changing world.
    Jul 14, 2020 1
    • Walmart
      AFamilyMan

      Go to company page Walmart

      BIO
      Been there, done that. Grey hairs.
      AFamilyMan
      If some robo advisor brokerage firm sell me above, I will say that is a huge drawback of that algorithm.

      Because you are expecting better returns only if you put in for 20 years. In practical life, how is that usual that someone will not want to rebalance assets in long period of 20 years. 5-10 years is a reasonable timeframe beyond that should be taken as locking disadvantage.
      Jul 14, 2020
  • Lyft
    aW3

    Go to company page Lyft

    aW3
    Same as OP, started 2 yrs ago and in negative. No better than vtsax or buying a shotgun array of random stocks.
    Apr 24, 2020 3
  • Uber / Eng
    fgyewnxu5

    Go to company page Uber Eng

    fgyewnxu5
    And Wealthfront also takes some percentage of your money every year, right?
    Apr 24, 2020 2