Financial advisor for people who are not super rich

[Anonymous]

My DH and I could really use some help with improving our financial management tactics and skills. We both make around $180k, so we objectively are doing well but it feels like we are not using our money wisely. Our twins start public school next year so we are coming out of the "paying for two daycares" phase and would like to make sure we are managing savings and investments wisely. We could also use advice on budgeting. Both of us come from very middle-class homes in lower COL areas than DC, were never taught this stuff,f and have failed to educate ourselves thus far. I own that we are full adults so it is not our parents' fault but I do feel like my friends who tend to have a good handle on this have gotten lots of good advice along the way from their more affluent families.

Is there anywhere you'd recommend we start? Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

https://www.hoffman.financial/

He's very good.

[Anonymous]

If you have your money in soe place like Fidelity, Schwab, etc they usually have a basic advisory service you can use for free or low fixed fee.

[Anonymous]

I am on the waiting list for this:

https://planvisionmn.com/

$300 flat fee for the first year; $8 a month thereafter; cancellable at any time.

A number of good recommendation on Bogleheads.

[Anonymous]

Vanguard PAS is what you want: https://investor.vanguard.com/advice/personal-hybrid-robo-advisor

Low fees, well-informed and tax-sensitive advice, with a focus on managing risk appropriately.

[Anonymous]

I would spend some time on bogleheads and similar websites. Even if you go with an advisor you need to be educated enough to be confident that their advice is good. Unfortunately some financial advisors are fools, and others just want to get their hands on your money, so you need to be cautious.

[Anonymous]

We use the intelligent advisory through Schwab and they've been very helpful. We meet with the same advisor every 6 months or so.

[Anonymous]

I also vote for bogleheads as a starting point.

I don’t think you should enlist a financial advisor. We are close to retirement and recently cut ties with ours for two reasons: Yearly fees were around 1% of Assets Under Management (AUM) and now there are so many tools to help you DIY. At your age you likely don’t require much specialty advice and having that 1% fee of your AUM is expensive in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Vanguard

[Anonymous]

Here's the skinny:

--Save 15-20% of your gross income to retirement into low-cost and long-term investments
--Make a plan to save for college at whatever level you are comfortable with and stick to it
--Have an annual budget with broad strokes of categories like fixed costs (food, mortgage, healthcare, auto, debt payments) and discretionary costs (vacations, eating out, pets)

If you can get that in place, then you can look at fancier things like:

--Optimizing tax-advantaged savings strategies
--In-depth retirement planning
--Budget analysis according to life priorities

I promise you that financial advisors are not worth much until you do the above basics. Then once you do them, you are well-positioned to manage your money yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the skinny:

--Save 15-20% of your gross income to retirement into low-cost and long-term investments
--Make a plan to save for college at whatever level you are comfortable with and stick to it
--Have an annual budget with broad strokes of categories like fixed costs (food, mortgage, healthcare, auto, debt payments) and discretionary costs (vacations, eating out, pets)

If you can get that in place, then you can look at fancier things like:

--Optimizing tax-advantaged savings strategies
--In-depth retirement planning
--Budget analysis according to life priorities

I promise you that financial advisors are not worth much until you do the above basics. Then once you do them, you are well-positioned to manage your money yourself.

Not OP, but can you expand on the bolded? We are at that point and a little struck by how much we are paying in taxes and think there must be something we are missing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the skinny:

--Save 15-20% of your gross income to retirement into low-cost and long-term investments
--Make a plan to save for college at whatever level you are comfortable with and stick to it
--Have an annual budget with broad strokes of categories like fixed costs (food, mortgage, healthcare, auto, debt payments) and discretionary costs (vacations, eating out, pets)

If you can get that in place, then you can look at fancier things like:

--Optimizing tax-advantaged savings strategies
--In-depth retirement planning
--Budget analysis according to life priorities

I promise you that financial advisors are not worth much until you do the above basics. Then once you do them, you are well-positioned to manage your money yourself.

Not OP, but can you expand on the bolded? We are at that point and a little struck by how much we are paying in taxes and think there must be something we are missing...

Not actually that much you can do if all your income is W2. Use the Bogleheads wiki to identify the best investments to hold in taxable versus tax advantaged accounts.

Make sure you’re maxing out tax advantaged 401ks, judiciously contribute to Roths if your tax bracket is currently lower than it would be in retirement, take advantage of mega-backdoor Roths if possible.

Keep an eye on projected retirement income and plan for potential rollovers. Watch out for pitfalls like IRMAA surcharges or earnings reducing social security payments. Check out the calculator at opensocialsecurity to get an idea of when you might be claiming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use the intelligent advisory through Schwab and they've been very helpful. We meet with the same advisor every 6 months or so.

I wasn’t very happy with them until I did my 2023 taxes. They created $42,000 is losses I can carry forward for the next 13 years. I’ve heard of tax loss harvesting but never experience it until I had the Schwab roboadvisor.

[Anonymous]

What is a reasonable fee for one time fiduciary advice? Say, a plan for the next three years?
Or, tax advantages mentioned by ppl above?
Or how/when to start and use retirement accounts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is a reasonable fee for one time fiduciary advice? Say, a plan for the next three years?
Or, tax advantages mentioned by ppl above?
Or how/when to start and use retirement accounts?

A couple of thousand, perhaps up to $5000, depending on how much hand holding you need. Many charge by the hour, so hand holding can mount up.

Here are the main ways for W-2 earners to save tax advantaged (that I can think of): 401k, 401k Roth, 529 for kids' college expenses, and a health savings account.

You should start retirement accounts as soon as you start working and, well, use them once you retire.