[USER]

Need some advice. I pay an advisor 1% to manage my $400K retirement. I manage another $50K on my own (mix of crypto and high yield saving) and have 529s for my kids, one of whom is in college.

50, divorced for years, live in a rental, and own a 10-yr old car.

Despite working with an advisor and account, I neither have truly put me forward on a plan for retirement, plan for taxes, etc.

I’ve toyed around with the letting my advisor go and placing my retirement in index funds, but don’t think that’s the answer.

Plus, I need guidance on taxes. I’d greatly appreciate any recommendations!

Thanks!

[Christopher]

If you’re banking on 4% rule math, that 1% fee is eating 3 months per year of returns – that needs to go or get severely reduced.

Your $50k in crypto and HYSA has a negligible tax burden if you’re not day-trading crypto.

As such, you probably don’t need much of a tax plan.

Index fund investing similarly has a comically low tax burden even in taxable accounts (my wife and I have about 7 figures outside of tax shelters and the tax burden last year was under $3,000, and I wasn’t even trying to go for good tax efficiency).

Do some quick reading of course, but self managing is usually pretty simple if you’re keeping investing simple.

[Davese]

Read Simple path to Wealth… and use a CPA…? Those both have been incredibly helpful for us.

[Bill]

That is 100% the answer. Your advisor isn’t going to beat the market, so unless they are providing real assistance on planning, taxes etc they are providing zero value for $4,000 per year.

[Tony]

1) Low cost index funds S&P 500
2) Hire a cpa for taxes

S&P 500 has returned 23.11% in 2024, 24.23% in 2023, -19.44% in 2022, 26.89% in 2021, 16.26% in 2020.

What has your advisor returns been, after the fees?

[Donna]

I highly recommend that you read The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. I suspect that you will fire your financial advisor.

Come back and let us know what you decide to do.

[Diane]

I recommend PlanVision (mark zoril) it is very affordable and you do everything via zoom. They are very responsive.

They will help you with everything you need.

[Diya]

Get rid of the advisor ASAP. Educate yourself starting with Simple Path to Wealth. It’s a pain to move your funds out at first, but I did it earlier this year and it’s much more streamlined.

Keep it simple as you educate yourself.

If you really need some reassurance, get a flat fee advisor, and a CPA

[Laurie]

For the tax help – look at Boldin (formerly New Retirement). They have a software platform to input your data into & it helps you plan how to use your resources in retirement that is tax efficient.

They also have fee only advisors that you can optionally use to advise you along the way.

[Stephen]

DIY on finances… As everyone said, S&P 500 Index Fund. CPA for taxes.

[Hannah]

We fired our guy 18 months ago and went full index funds – Fidelitys S&P500 fund, and we saw WAY better results, even outside the market average rates.

Having a manager was a bad choice in hindsight.

Read JL Collins “Simple Path to Wealth” for a well thought through perspective

[Frank]

Well, stop being a 529 for your advisor’s children.
Your mistake is thinking that an advisor makes you money. AN ADVISOR COSTS YOU MONEY.

CAPISCHE? The reason you are paying an advisor is so you can remain ignorant about finances.

Like hiring a personal chef so you don’t have to learn how to cook, that only works if you make a sh%% ton of money to begin with.

If not, its time to learn about finances and stop pretending you make the sh&& ton of money that you need to afford to pay this “advisor.”
This is not rocket science.

It’s more like cooking.

[Amar]

1% is a lot of specially when they are managing 400k! Find a local place that can do it all, for 1% most places will offer much more than just financial advice

[Author]

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