Anyone got a financial adviser?

[wj4]

If so, how did you go about choosing him/her to be your adviser? I'm in the process of looking for one to help me better plan out long term financial goals, but no one around my age even though of considering one.

[yomama69]

Originally Posted by wj4

If so, how did you go about choosing him/her to be your adviser? I'm in the process of looking for one to help me better plan out long term financial goals, but no one around my age even though of considering one.

I know a bunch of financial advisors. The one I use is the one who is better invested personally than the others. If your financial advisor can't take care of himself, he can't take care of you.

[shift330]

I use the guy my father-in-law has been using for a good ten years or so and it's been working out great stock market wise. He works for Edward Jones btw.

[yomama69]

Originally Posted by shift330

I use the guy my father-in-law has been using for a good ten years or so and it's been working out great stock market wise. He works for Edward Jones btw.

So does my guy.

[wj4]

Just curious, if you guys don't mind me asking, how much are you paying to your adviser?

I know that the route I want to go about is via word of mouth, but a lot of kids around my age (23) don't even think in the long term. They blow everything they make on getting the latest and greatest (insert something here).

[yomama69]

Originally Posted by wj4

Just curious, if you guys don't mind me asking, how much are you paying to your adviser?

I know that the route I want to go about is via word of mouth, but a lot of kids around my age (23) don't even think in the long term. They blow everything they make on getting the latest and greatest (insert something here).

Nothing. He's one of my good friends.

[GreenThree]

The products and services he / she offers - does not matter. Everyone offers the same product & service. Look at them as a person. Ask yourself do you trust them? Will they do something everytime they say they will do it? Do they care about you and buiding a LONG TERM relationship or just want to rip the commish? If you trust them as a person you are ready to move forward.

My advice for someone your age. Start saving. The earlier the better. Be sure to Diversify. Safe short term strategy, Moderate mid term strategy, Aggressive longer term strategy. What are your goals? Good luck

[ejazbmw]

I'm 20 and don't think I'll ever hire a financial adviser just because I'm pretty good with organizing my money on where it goes. I started a saving account when i was 17 and have been putting whatever i can in it. But if i ever did consider one it would probably be when I'm about to get married or buying a house or something, I probably didn't answer you question but just thought i would give my .02

[shift330]

Originally Posted by ejazbmw

I'm 20 and don't think I'll ever hire a financial adviser just because I'm pretty good with organizing my money on where it goes. I started a saving account when i was 17 and have been putting whatever i can in it. But if i ever did consider one it would probably be when I'm about to get married or buying a house or something, I probably didn't answer you question but just thought i would give my .02

Financial advisors are good for helping you invest your money rather than just save it. Even in the current economy I've been making a good return on my investments.

[ejazbmw]

Originally Posted by shift330

Financial advisors are good for helping you invest your money rather than just save it. Even in the current economy I've been making a good return on my investments.

yeah i understand that I do plan on investing as soon as I'm done with college i don't know maybe I'm old fashion i like to do things on my own and research things, and plus I'm a accounting/finance major so hopefully it'll help me make wise choices.

[wj4]

Originally Posted by GreenThree

The products and services he / she offers - does not matter. Everyone offers the same product & service. Look at them as a person. Ask yourself do you trust them? Will they do something everytime they say they will do it? Do they care about you and buiding a LONG TERM relationship or just want to rip the commish? If you trust them as a person you are ready to move forward.

My advice for someone your age. Start saving. The earlier the better. Be sure to Diversify. Safe short term strategy, Moderate mid term strategy, Aggressive longer term strategy. What are your goals? Good luck

Yes, what I have on my side is time since I'm relatively young with no debt. I'm not really looking at the short term return, too risky for me from what I've seen. I'm looking at the really long term side. I've been reading numerous books through out the last year to help me understand the subject more, along with other 'investment' related subjects, ie 401k. My major was not Econ, but always been interested in investing, business, econ, management.

I tried to do what I can on my own, ie dissecting my spending habits and tried to weed out what I can and put the extra money into my high yield saving account, which went wayy down over the course of the last 10 months or so. I wish there's a decent place where I can just dump my saving into and let the power of compound interest go to work.

shift330 - yes, even when the economy is bad, someone is still making money.

Vibing a person is so hard though. You hear stories of sports stars who trust their agent with their millions and would invite them to family events, only to get screwed by the agent sooner or later.

My ultimate goal is financial freedom by my 40's. I don't want to be one of the majority who actually saved -1% until last year. It's not until really last year that I started thinking like this, back then I was still thinking about upgrading to the M3 from the 335, lol. What a fool I would be if I should go through.

I suppose my shorter goal is to own a home by the time I turn 30. I'm 23 now, will get my Masters next Spring. My friends with Masters are getting jobs that start out at around $70k even in this crappy economy. I'm still at home, I have great relationship with my parents so I don't feel the need to move out in a nearby apartment just to throw my money away. If it's for job relocation, then I would have no choice.

Homes around my area average in the $500,000 mark so if I were to be fortunate enough to find a decent career around here, I would definitely put at least 20% on a down. Ah, sorry for the ongoing blabber, lol.

[JeepJeep]

Originally Posted by wj4

Yes, what I have on my side is time since I'm relatively young with no debt. I'm not really looking at the short term return, too risky for me from what I've seen. I'm looking at the really long term side. I've been reading numerous books through out the last year to help me understand the subject more, along with other 'investment' related subjects, ie 401k. My major was not Econ, but always been interested in investing, business, econ, management.

I tried to do what I can on my own, ie dissecting my spending habits and tried to weed out what I can and put the extra money into my high yield saving account, which went wayy down over the course of the last 10 months or so. I wish there's a decent place where I can just dump my saving into and let the power of compound interest go to work.

shift330 - yes, even when the economy is bad, someone is still making money.

Vibing a person is so hard though. You hear stories of sports stars who trust their agent with their millions and would invite them to family events, only to get screwed by the agent sooner or later.

My ultimate goal is financial freedom by my 40's. I don't want to be one of the majority who actually saved -1% until last year. It's not until really last year that I started thinking like this, back then I was still thinking about upgrading to the M3 from the 335, lol. What a fool I would be if I should go through.

I suppose my shorter goal is to own a home by the time I turn 30. I'm 23 now, will get my Masters next Spring. My friends with Masters are getting jobs that start out at around $70k even in this crappy economy. I'm still at home, I have great relationship with my parents so I don't feel the need to move out in a nearby apartment just to throw my money away. If it's for job relocation, then I would have no choice.

Homes around my area average in the $500,000 mark so if I were to be fortunate enough to find a decent career around here, I would definitely put at least 20% on a down. Ah, sorry for the ongoing blabber, lol.

I'm glad to see that you're intelligent, and that you can actually plan for the future.

What fields did those friends get masters in that landed them $70K jobs right out of college?

Also, are you absolutely set on buying a home in your area around the $500k mark? Because it might be a more viable plan to move somewhere else where you might get more bang for your buck (I don't know exactly what the area is like, but it seems like it could be more on the expensive side?)

Last thing, about your original question. I would suggest going to any friends who are in Real Estate, or ask your dad for suggestions of friends who might be able to refer you to a good financial adviser, and then you can proceed to do what GreenThree said. You've probably already done that though, so maybe go to H&R Block and just start 'shopping' around.

Glad to see that you're thinking for the future

[wj4]

This is probably the most mature reply I've seen you posted, JeepJeep. Don't take this the wrong way, but I always thought you were a little teenager, lol.

The field we are in is Environmental & Occupational Health. Jobs range significantly from doing safety tasks in ergonomics and risk assessments to air pollution control to regulating water quality.

I'm truly spoiled by SoCal and can not fathom the thought of living in a place that snows. I still have ~1 year left before any action needs to be done, but I gotta get to it sooner or later. I figured that some of the more older members can chime in and express their thought.

[darkphantom]

Ask me again in December 09

[Blake]

you should travel to m3post...there are thousands of financial advisers over there. anyone under 30 gets unsolicited advice about how they shouldn't be driving m3's.

[JeepJeep]

Originally Posted by wj4

This is probably the most mature reply I've seen you posted, JeepJeep. Don't take this the wrong way, but I always thought you were a little teenager, lol.

The field we are in is Environmental & Occupational Health. Jobs range significantly from doing safety tasks in ergonomics and risk assessments to air pollution control to regulating water quality.

I'm truly spoiled by SoCal and can not fathom the thought of living in a place that snows. I still have ~1 year left before any action needs to be done, but I gotta get to it sooner or later. I figured that some of the more older members can chime in and express their thought.

Heh, yeah, I kinda realized that too.

Oh wow, thats interesting, never really considered something like that before. Although now that I think about it, I believe I do have a friend who does stuff similar to that.

Haha yeah, i'm the same way, it's already way too cold already in California, can't imagine what it would be like to deal with any more cold. Well good luck, I hope you find an awesome person to help you out

[jaiman]

Originally Posted by wj4

If so, how did you go about choosing him/her to be your adviser? I'm in the process of looking for one to help me better plan out long term financial goals, but no one around my age even though of considering one.

Why do you want a financial advisor? There really isn't anything too complicated about managing money for yourself and you can probably learn the basics fairly quickly. If you don't educate yourself on investing and markets you'll be prey for any unethical advisor you run across who talks a good game.

Personally, I'd say get some books on value investing and find an accountant who can help you with minimizing taxes.

[JeepJeep]

Originally Posted by jaiman

Why do you want a financial advisor? There really isn't anything too complicated about managing money for yourself and you can probably learn the basics fairly quickly. If you don't educate yourself on investing and markets you'll be prey for any unethical advisor you run across who talks a good game.

Personally, I'd say get some books on value investing and find an accountant who can help you with minimizing taxes.

He already answered your question previously in the thread, and already has gotten a few books, also previously stated in the thread.

[wj4]

Thanks for answering, Jeep.

To put in an answer of my own to jaiman - I definitely will do my own homework on the investments I plan on partaking in, I'm not just going to cut a check just because someone says so. However, just because I read several books on basketball doesn't make me Michael Jordan. Remember back when everyone thought they can win the stock market game during the bull market? Books on the SP500 were on the top 10 list. People foolishly emptied out their life saving because they thought the market would just keep going up and up and up.

I've averaging a book per week and got about 5-6 lined up for the summer so far. I practically live at the local Barnes And Noble now, heh.

Sadly, most, if not all, of my friends aren't in this side of the business...they're all pre-law, pre-med, etc.

[BForbes]

Originally Posted by JeepJeep

I'm glad to see that you're intelligent, and that you can actually plan for the future.

What fields did those friends get masters in that landed them $70K jobs right out of college?

Also, are you absolutely set on buying a home in your area around the $500k mark? Because it might be a more viable plan to move somewhere else where you might get more bang for your buck (I don't know exactly what the area is like, but it seems like it could be more on the expensive side?)

Last thing, about your original question. I would suggest going to any friends who are in Real Estate, or ask your dad for suggestions of friends who might be able to refer you to a good financial adviser, and then you can proceed to do what GreenThree said. You've probably already done that though, so maybe go to H&R Block and just start 'shopping' around.

Glad to see that you're thinking for the future

Your greatest post to date IMHO.

[fobunited]

I'm actually a financial advisor and worked in a couple different firms. I've seen and worked with many great advisors who are ethical and look out for their clients' best interests. I've also seen sharks that sell whatever will make them the most money the fastest.

Alot of people ask, why hire a financial advisor? First, GOOD financial advisors are reading and watching not just the US market, but the global markets on a daily basis. If that's something you can and want to do, then fine but most people won't have the time or be interested. Second, a good financial advisor will be able to access products and investment strategies that the normal investor might not be able to get their hands on. Third, a financial advisor does more than just help you invest your money. A GOOD financial advisor won't just create wealth and retirement, but rather create a legacy where your money can be passed on to multiple generations and your money can be invested in a way where you will minimize taxes in the short and long run as well as minimize estate tax.

For the LONG term, I would advise you find a financial advisor who is a CFP. He will help you invest and be tax efficient. There's no point in generating a high return if you're going to give it all back in taxes. He will also help you build an estate so that you can make sure you won't be burdened by taxes when you start living in retirement and can pass down money to your children with as little estate tax if any as possible.

For the SHORT term, if possible, find an advisor who is or has access to a CFA. It's a good prequal. Also, interview multiple advisors. See how much time he takes to get to know YOU, your family, and not just your needs and goals, but your lifestyle. This interview meeting should go longer than an hour because HE'S asking good questions and building as large of a profile of you that he can so he can best suite your needs. Also, see what he pitches. If he pitches mutual funds and life insurance/annuities often and early, then stay away. That's the easy way out of financial advising and means he just wants to make a quick buck, not take the extra effort to be the BEST financial advisor he can be and put you in the best investments possible. Stay CLEAR of B shares and variable annuities unless you're really a good fit for them, which is about 5% of the population or less. Also see what their management fee is for an actively managed or wrap portfolio. If it is 1.25% or more annually, walk away.

Let me know if you have any more questions. Hope this helps!

[1cleanm6]

financial advisor is stupid..

i know one and they offer stuff u can easily do urself if you do your research and the yield is not that high unless u wanna be risky...stocks....

or real estate..

u got money put it and real estate end of story