Do you use a “wealth manager” or DIY?

[Anonymous]

DIY here, 47. Investing is what I do full time now. Started out as interest and turned into a passion.
I do had a finance degree, but it means nothing. The school tried to make an employee out of me while I wanted to invest myself into financial freedom. I learned absolutely nothing at school that would help me get there. The 10% was the biggest crap.
I would give WM $10k and tell them to get me a better return that I can get. If they can beat my 100% a year (tax free), I'd like to know how they did it. Not that easy when you manage someone else's money.
I know there are people out there who can get the 100% a year fairly often.
I don't really pay taxes and will try to keep it this way.
I will give my money away slowly, but surely. I don't care for trusts or wills. Too much paperwork. Whatever is left when I die, will belong to someone else the minute I kick the bucket.
I want to show my kids how I get my high returns. I doubt WM would do that.

[Anonymous]

We put our most long-term investments in a low cost S&P500 index fund. We have a few shares of BRK-A. Short-term investments, such as our emergency fund, are in a low cost money market fund (which is mostly Treasury bonds). Additional cash reserve is in insured accounts at credit union. We do not market time. We do not invest in sector funds or any other individual stocks.

We have done much better financially with that setup than if we had an advisor with their fees and overheads.

[Anonymous]

DIY $3.6M but came from nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DIY here, 47. Investing is what I do full time now. Started out as interest and turned into a passion.
I do had a finance degree, but it means nothing. The school tried to make an employee out of me while I wanted to invest myself into financial freedom. I learned absolutely nothing at school that would help me get there. The 10% was the biggest crap.
I would give WM $10k and tell them to get me a better return that I can get. If they can beat my 100% a year (tax free), I'd like to know how they did it. Not that easy when you manage someone else's money.
I know there are people out there who can get the 100% a year fairly often.
I don't really pay taxes and will try to keep it this way.
I will give my money away slowly, but surely. I don't care for trusts or wills. Too much paperwork. Whatever is left when I die, will belong to someone else the minute I kick the bucket.
I want to show my kids how I get my high returns. I doubt WM would do that.

So how did you do it? Because it’s not something anyone could do on a regular basis. If you can’t say how you do it then you’re lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you using outside help, make sure to track and compare your funds’ performance against benchmarks.

What do you mean by this?

Many funds are index funds which, follow a specific index…like the S&P 500. That funds performance will be nearly identical to the index it tracks.

+1

It's not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DIY here, 47. Investing is what I do full time now. Started out as interest and turned into a passion.
I do had a finance degree, but it means nothing. The school tried to make an employee out of me while I wanted to invest myself into financial freedom. I learned absolutely nothing at school that would help me get there. The 10% was the biggest crap.
I would give WM $10k and tell them to get me a better return that I can get. If they can beat my 100% a year (tax free), I'd like to know how they did it. Not that easy when you manage someone else's money.
I know there are people out there who can get the 100% a year fairly often.
I don't really pay taxes and will try to keep it this way.
I will give my money away slowly, but surely. I don't care for trusts or wills. Too much paperwork. Whatever is left when I die, will belong to someone else the minute I kick the bucket.
I want to show my kids how I get my high returns. I doubt WM would do that.

Put down the crack pipe homie.

[Anonymous]

We diy'ed but our management company offered us free help and its been really helpful.

[Anonymous]

DIY
$9M invested assets
Tax planning is a beast. The tax code is ridiculously complex now.

[Anonymous]

DIY, $5.6M invested assets including 529, 401K, DCP, brokerage and Roth. Once we are in retirement, I will consider a one time/ as needed fee only advisor who can help us with withdrawal strategies.

[Anonymous]

No. A "wealth manager" is a salesperson looking to take a percentage of your assets. Most have limited background in investing and simply put your money into predetermined portfolios and skim their fees off the top. No wealth manager can consistently beat the average stock market return. They also cannot protect you from market drops despite what they will tell you. The only thing that can protect you from market drops is more fixed income. We invest in low-cost, index mutual funds and ETFs. We do, however, have an "hourly" advisor that we speak with once per year who answers specifics questions and provides advise about things like taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DIY here, 47. Investing is what I do full time now. Started out as interest and turned into a passion.
I do had a finance degree, but it means nothing. The school tried to make an employee out of me while I wanted to invest myself into financial freedom. I learned absolutely nothing at school that would help me get there. The 10% was the biggest crap.
I would give WM $10k and tell them to get me a better return that I can get. If they can beat my 100% a year (tax free), I'd like to know how they did it. Not that easy when you manage someone else's money.
I know there are people out there who can get the 100% a year fairly often.
I don't really pay taxes and will try to keep it this way.
I will give my money away slowly, but surely. I don't care for trusts or wills. Too much paperwork. Whatever is left when I die, will belong to someone else the minute I kick the bucket.
I want to show my kids how I get my high returns. I doubt WM would do that.

Sure, OK, if you can get 100 percent returns tax-free every year, you definitely should not hire a wealth manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you using outside help, make sure to track and compare your funds’ performance against benchmarks.

What do you mean by this?

Many funds are index funds which, follow a specific index…like the S&P 500. That funds performance will be nearly identical to the index it tracks.

There is no reason to pay outside help to put you in index funds. You can easily manage that for free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DIY here. Tax strategy in later years PP said is a good point though. Getting the most out of your money does get complicated.

What age would that be? Pre-social security age or after?

[Anonymous]

No, they can't do more for you that you can do for yourself, OP.

However, an estate lawyer is a great idea to set up trusts and wills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you using outside help, make sure to track and compare your funds’ performance against benchmarks.

What do you mean by this?

Many funds are index funds which, follow a specific index…like the S&P 500. That funds performance will be nearly identical to the index it tracks.

What I meant was if you are going to pay someone 1% annually, they better yield at least 1% better than index funds. Otherwise why not just put the money in index funds yourself?