Managing own money

[Anonymous]

I have had a financial advisor for about 10 years, since inheriting a few hundred thousand dollars. They were helpful in doing all the inherited IRA stuff I had no interest or knowledge of. Now I am mid 50’s, closing in on retirement, and have more time with kids out of the nest and working less than full time. Suddenly that advisor fee feels like a lot.

Our money is all in Fidelity and TIAA accounts. If I were to manage them myself (or I guess really I’d just be making selections) what should I know? Could some kind person point an investment illiterate person to a truly solid book or website?

[Anonymous]

If this is your level of knowledge, don’t take it all on yourself.

Take out some portion, $10k, say, and invest it yourself to learn.

You could try shopping around for an investment manager with lower fees, which is a more prudent approach.

[Anonymous]

If you are fine with how your money is currently allocated across funds, it's just a matter of figuring out how the websites of Fidelity and TIAA work to keep it up. Adding new money to an IRA or a nonretirement account is a few clicks, and you can just allocate it to funds in the same proportion as your existing assets.

If you have no idea what funds are appropriate, etc, then you should just locate one or more low-fee index funds tracking the S&P 500 or a broader index and put money there. This will almost certainly have a higher return over the long run than a managed approach in which you pay fees to an asset manager, or in which you pick individual stocks or high-fee funds.

This is very likely to be much simpler than you are making it out to be, which is a good thing. You absolutely can do this yourself.

If you want to learn a bit of the theory behind this, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is a good, accessible read, but there are many others.

[Anonymous]

I thought fidelity offers free financial advice for accounts over $500k.

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of sensible guides at https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page

And there's a community that provides advice if you have further questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are fine with how your money is currently allocated across funds, it's just a matter of figuring out how the websites of Fidelity and TIAA work to keep it up. Adding new money to an IRA or a nonretirement account is a few clicks, and you can just allocate it to funds in the same proportion as your existing assets.

If you have no idea what funds are appropriate, etc, then you should just locate one or more low-fee index funds tracking the S&P 500 or a broader index and put money there. This will almost certainly have a higher return over the long run than a managed approach in which you pay fees to an asset manager, or in which you pick individual stocks or high-fee funds.

This is very likely to be much simpler than you are making it out to be, which is a good thing. You absolutely can do this yourself.

If you want to learn a bit of the theory behind this, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is a good, accessible read, but there are many others.

This is essentially what I have been thinking, but then I have PP’s point in my head saying “if this my level of ignorance…” and I think I would be stupid to try to do it myself.

For what it is worth I am not an idiot and have managed hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers money to implement programs. But I’ve never cared to learn about investing so I never did. I don’t know what I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Fidelity has free advisors.

[Anonymous]

FYI, this John Oliver episode has some eye opening insight into some financial advisors.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gvZSpET11ZY

I try to remain as cautious as possible.

[Anonymous]

I am a DYIR in investing, and approaching retirement. I am curious about the fees you are paying ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, this John Oliver episode has some eye opening insight into some financial advisors.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gvZSpET11ZY

I try to remain as cautious as possible.

There are all levels of FA, with both experience and levels of "sliminess"

I prefer to stick with ones I trust, despite the fact we are now one of their "highest level of investments". I don't need fancy investments or massive risks or products that they are not invested in themselves. I don't want a UHNW manger who I talk to once and they had the management off to their "team". I want to know and trust who is managing my money. And yes, you can talk fees down as you go. If they want your business they will respond accordingly

[Anonymous]

TIAA has advisors. Be sure who you speak to is a CFP and acts as a fiduciary in your discussion. They are not all fiduciaries and the transaction ones get bonuses for getting you to move money into TIAA or moving it around. They love it if you annuitize.

Also call and ask about withdrawal options for your TIAA. We were surprised (our bad) that some Traditional have to be paid out ofer 10 years. We should have started years ago and put the payout in Treasuries.

[Anonymous]

I have a fidelity wealth manager. He and his teams services are free (not that I need them for much I manage my money myself but I double check tax implications etc with them before I make a move)

[Anonymous]

DH and I have always managed our own money, OP. DH uses TurboTax for taxes. You could do that. We have more than 20M in various brokerage accounts and Roth IRAs. It's not complicated. We know exactly what we want to invest in, and handpick our stocks. I wouldn't put too much trust in someone who wants to steer you towards one or another of investment options. They're not multi-millionaires themselves, are they, so what do they know?

You can read about it on your own, just by Googling and cross-referencing sources and using your noggin.

BUT

You do need an estate attorney to figure out your will, advanced directives, and decide on whether and which trust fund you want for your children. That's a must!

[Anonymous]

Fidelity is really good. I called their customer service when I opened the account and the guy literally stayed with me on the phone for an hour and walked me through how to look up and purchase stocks and mutual funds and I was not even a customer yet. They also walked me through transferring other accounts to them. There was literally one that I started the process and printed the forms but hadn't gotten around to doing anything because I thought it had to be via snail mail. Fidelity customer service randomly called me and stayed on the phone with me while I filled in the forms and scanned it to them.

I would recommend to call and just try to understand what they offer in terms of what you have now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a fidelity wealth manager. He and his teams services are free (not that I need them for much I manage my money myself but I double check tax implications etc with them before I make a move)

What kind of things do you use them for? Is it the same guy all the time and do you meet in person or on the phone or Zoom? They call me often from my local branch and I always decline, because I want to manage my own money and don't want to pay a fee or percentage of my assets. I didn't realize you could use them and still pick your own funds, so I'd love to know more about how you leverage this. I have some stocks that I want to sell and nervous to do it because I've only ever bought, never sold any!