Who'd have thought I'd get an email from my financial adviser two days before "The Crisis?!"
Sounds fancy, but until today, his services were "free." Whole new ball game now.
Odly enough, I met with him at 3:30 PM this afternoon to discuss my IRA. I was shocked that he had any time at all as he mentioned that the last four days were his busiest days this year.
Almost a year since our last meeting, a few things had changed significantly. Better late than never; apparently so, since there was a whole new school of thought. I was following his lead. Like a lamb to slaughter, I sat on the edge of my seat in his pristine office, listening to his every schooled word on the state of the union, as it pertains to my financial future.
A rapt audience, I feigned complete understanding of a language I barely know. Shame on me, but this is not an area of expertise for me. By a long shot. He was my only hope.
"The Dow plummeted this afternoon," heard on the news, stuck in my head as I headed over to his office. Was there any hope I hadn't lost a big chunk of my retirement savings? Yet again? First time was after 9/11 and most recently, with the Wall Street crash. Crap! Not again!
Not too bad, considering most of my portfolio is in ultra concervative funds and cash; essentially not doing much for me at all, either way. Big relief there, except the look on his face told me otherwise.
As if to say, "Why bother?!" He politely discussed "my options." No master's degree wasted on this young man, I was on the receiving end of some very sage financial advice.
Throughout the hour or so of screen shots of my current portfolio of bonds, mutuals and my one lonely but potentially lucrative Bio-stock, he prepared a snap shot of what he thought I should be doing with my $$$ to better prepare me for my future years of retired bliss...And, he made sense, as far as I could tell.
Don't ask me to go into this in intricate detail, but he patiently explained to me the difference between mutual funds and ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds). Listening like a child to a favorite teacher, I knodded in understanding. For the most part, I did. And I trust him. He basically mirrored my portfolio to his mother's as she is my age and clearly described how and why it made the most sense for me and his mom.
A long time customer of this financial institution (for free), I was relieved to know that this group of financial wizards would be watching over my portfolio daily. With the volitility in the market place, not expected to change for a decade and with the potential for it becoming grimly worse, I agreed to the service being offered for .75 of one percent annually. May have been the best investment I have made in a very long time.
But, of course, time will tell. Fortunately, I have about 9 years before good old Uncle Sam will require that I begin taking payments from my IRA, so "He" (The Man) can begin collecting "said taxes" for my lifetime of toil and savings. At least in this case, the bad debt deal and all things economic, seem to fall on the shoulders of men?! I hardly think so, but we have seeminlgy embraced the term, "The Man" to describe the governement control over our financial lives and the endearing IRS.
I found it quite ironic that I met with my financial guy on the very day of the debt ceiling "crisis," or its media conterpart. I fully expect all news casters to break out and start singing "Kumbaya" any second!
I am pretty sure I made the right decisions today with my stagnant life savings, soon to be moving in the right direction...All fingers and toes crossed...however, as the mysteries of life would have it, you just never know. At least I made a decision for me and not the other way around.
As "self inflicted" as this "crisis" really is, there is no reason why we shouldn't take any action within our control to better our circumstances, come what may.
Baby steps are far better than the circling debate amoung the rabid rhetoric of the incumbents on both sides. Debt promises be damned.
What really is the take away from all of this? For me, it's to take back what little control I have left and invest wisely in the country that more often than not, has come to the aid of its citizens, even if at the last minute.
Not that this "crisis" is far from over, we are now looking across the table and realizing that we had better figure out how to be "one" and not the compounded number that has put us where we are today.
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David Brin
Jenni Lynn
Gary Fandango
Deborah Méndez Wilson
trudie jackson
hilarad
Salon.com
Comments
A toast to choice.
While we still have one.
Rated with love
Ummm....... Cathy dear?
That .75 %....?
Is that .75% of your annual profit?
Or .75% of all transactions your “advisor” does with your holdings?
Or is that .75% of your entire portfolio, annually? Monthly? Weekly? Daily? Do you even know?
“Just Worried”
.
Point 2 - Thanks for the catch! My English teacher would be disappointed! I'll fix it!
Torman - The devil is in all the details as well. Thanks for your thoughts.
Rated.
In 7-11 cup - take a penny.
Buy beer and take a penny.
Need a penny take a penny.
Hide loot in pickle jar jugs.
Move near Fort Knox Ave.
Have one more ox child.
Just Cathy name child?
Fort Knox Enoch Plow.
He work as Mule Plow.
He'll harvest Potatoes.
Eat Mashed Potatoes.
Buy A Horsey Wagon.
Buy Mule New Shoes.
Too much focus on the percentage gain they're pushing.
Investment should be about picking driving a stake in the ground and saying what you want to happen, or else it becomes a micro-bribe to get you to back something you don't want to happen.
It sounds like that's what you're working through. I hope you find a useful path. I hope a lot of us do.
My friend gets mad at me and asks what I will do for retirement.If I can get from one day to the next I am happy.
HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
And if you didn't have kids why the church took care of you, or charity or the county poor house where you could become a ward.
I mean why should rich people have to pay to take care of the likes of you! We all lived like the Joads.
And that's the way its gonna be again!
:-) / R
Art - If I could bear one, it would be named after you.
Jon - Thanks!
Jerry - Thanks for your open minded response to a sensitive and subjective subject. My father taught me to save from an early age. Even when a single mom, I saved from every pay check. It sat in low interest savings for decades until I received some wise advice, I thought, to invest in mutual funds, mainly if not all US. Very conservative for years and managed by Chuck for free. Then I saw how well my husband's IRA was maturing by having much converted into more diverse areas and managed for a pittance a year, I decided to take a chance yesterday and move in that same direction. It never hurts to talk to someone if financial planning is not your forte'. It sure isn't mine!
Kent - Thanks for your incites and allow me to say that I was walked through every single investment avenue and ETF, it's risk, history, etc...Tedious, but worth the time. They are all US funds, including treasury, energy, education, etc...I know it sounds scary and I have much to learn and not a ton to gain, but I believe it's better than letting it sit in cash or nearly non-existent low interest savings accounts.
It'll be what it'll be and I will work closely with my broker over the next 9 years before I begin receiving payments back to me from my lifetime of hard earned money. Then and hopefully so, I will be taking care of me. No one else will bear that burden, with any luck at all.
Linda - Day to day, yes I know. Even when there is savings of some kind, it still feels that way, with all the unknowns and unpredictability.
Toritto - I am going with the humor in your comment, because many many folks don't have kids or churches to take care of them in old age! Those were the good old days. I toyed with the idea of putting it under the mattress but that idea was squelched!
"Then and hopefully so, I will be taking care of me. No one else will bear that burden, with any luck at all."
Cheers to that!
`
Just Cathy.
... and Im' I, and- Oh dear, how puzzling it all is!
`
I had a visitor hack & a visitor at my front door.
People are hurting bad. Folks are cracking down.
Or up?
My doormat reads: Please Leave. People knock.
I try to make sense. I can only say what I know.
I use to know. Let me see. four times five is 12.
Four times six is thirteen. and four times 7 is:`
`
Oh dear!
`
The Multiplication-Table doesn't signify.
Let's try Geography. London is in Paris,
and know Paris is the capital of Rome-,
no,
that all wrong.
take pennies.
find on K. St.
Penny from
Kerry and
O Heavens.
`
I go see what?
I go look at mule.
No get in kick spat.
Mule bite farmers.
They bite thighs.
I no know why.
Oh, Just Cathy.
Susie - Thanks very much!
Just Thinking - Thanks very much for the right call out in my post! That IS my bottom line!
Art - You'd rather make mule than baby?! Confused...;)
Sheila - Yes, for sure! Thanks!
Mypsyche - Mattress scares me cause the bed bugs may eat the rag paper! Yuck!
Trilogy - A new mattress is an excellent investment in your healthful night's rest! I concur!
Get a new one.
He wants to charge you 0.75 percent to manage your money and you said you're in cash and ultraconservative investments?
There is a very good chance you won't make that 0.75 percent on an annual basis. It is unconscionable that he's doing that.
Get a new one.
He wants to charge you 0.75 percent to manage your money and you said you're in cash and ultraconservative investments?
There is a very good chance you won't make that 0.75 percent on an annual basis. It is unconscionable that he's doing that.
Stocks have a higher return but they are definitely not less risky. Cash is the most secure asset. The only thing that erodes it is inflation. Stocks, as you have seen, can shoot up like a rocket and then drop like a rock.
If he took you out of cash and put you into stocks or ETFs based on stocks and said they're less risky, then you definitely need a new financial adviser. Stocks are great for higher returns but you take more risk.