It isn’t necessary to read and evaluate all of it, and there is plenty of top-notch, first class investment material as well. Virtually all of the major mutual fund houses have websites and lots of archived articles and research. My point in mentioning all this was to illustrate the change since the “good old days” - I probably have access to more financial data than many brokers did 20 or 30 years ago.
And nobody is going to watch over my finances as well as I. It just seems to me that for most people, a financial advisor isn’t really necessary, assuming they are willing to do their homework.
As was already mentioned, index funds are the way to go.
Vanguard Total Stock Index Fund (which basically buys into the entire US stock market) has averaged over 11% since it started back in 1992. It only charges you 0.19% a year as long as you have over $10,000.00 invested, but even if you don’t its just $20 a year. If you have over $100,000 invested, they charge you 0.09% a year!
See if any financial advisor will tell you he/she can beat this.
Any financial advisor who says he can beat a 10% return is breaking the law. But, FTR, our retirement account is up 25% so far this year. (Thanks Dendreon.)
Sometimes it pays to have a husband who’s also a financial advisor.
But if you really don’t want to pay a professional, he’s a fan of both index funds and mutual funds for the casual investor.
Years ago I met with a financial advisor who explained to me the advantages of compounding and starting to save ASAP. God bless him. Unfortunately we didn’t give him any business - at the time we had about $1,000 or so, but we followed his advice and woke up “rich” one day in our 40s. I’m sure he’s had a successful and prosperous life and career.
Since then it mostly starts with “How can I help you to make money?” and shifts to “How can you help me to earn moneyy (via commissoins on dumbass investments)?” Our money is pretty much in mutual funds - I like mutuals.com -They consistently do better than the S&P index, which is all I ask for. I like their approach, they are very nice people to work with also.
The converse problem is by the time a lot of us “wake up” instead of a dream it’s a nightmare, because of the dire situation of our finances we might try to compensate and make up for lost time by trying to “hit one out of the park” by making risky speculations as opposed to steady investing in proven equties and other financial instruments. With all that I’m not entirely convinced that the 'boomers and later folks are going to have a difficult time of it with traditional investment techniques because of the huge unfunded liabilities of political promises and shenanigans.
(Thanks Dendreon.)