6 ms·

I saw this story going around on Reddit. This guy is getting an amazing amount of free press. I went straight to being a financial advisor right out of undergr

I saw this story going around on Reddit. This guy is getting an amazing amount of free press. I went straight to being a financial advisor right out of undergrad. Instead of going to the big city, I went back to my hometown to fix people's retirement plans. (I sold insurance, investments, financial planning, and advice services. Then I managed other people's money as I went back to school, spending a year in a Finance PhD program then doing my MBA instead. Now I'm a developer in finance.) There are a lot of good-hearted people out there trying to fix people's retirement plans. I imagine most of them are quite envious of this guy's free press. The leading industry certification is Certified Financial Planner (CFP). There are others. (I'm studying for the Chartered Financial Analyst, CFA, designation, which is more generally about analyzing and managing investments.) We do need more people to pay attention to their financial planning. I think our economy will become stronger if more people would save more, spend less, and invest in things that last and grow.

Moshe_Silnorin 9y ago
Even the best advisors charge 1%, which seems insanely high to me, considering what one can do with a discount brokerage, some index funds, and bit of research on rebalancing and taxes each year.
- __derek__ 9y ago
  This reminded me of Friday's Intelligent Investor column[1] entitled "Don’t Touch My Money, Just Hold My Hand". Its closing: > So you should hire an adviser not for his or her investing prowess, but to help organize your finances, prioritize your goals, minimize your taxes, and navigate the shoals of retirement and estate planning. Done right, those services can make you far richer — and happier — than the pipe dream of investment outperformance is likely to. Now that the index revolution has solidified, I think there's going to be a strong market for financial advisors that just offer advice in the coming years. [1]: https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/06/09/dont-touch-my-money-just-hold-my-hand/ https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/06/09/dont-touch-my-mon... (yes, sorry, behind a paywall)
  - rtx 9y ago
    >Now that the index revolution has solidified People will have a slow awakening.
    - __derek__ 9y ago
      What do you mean?
      - rtx 9y ago
        Everyone cant make money in the market. Who is on the other-side of index funds.
        ars 9y ago
        Young people buying, old people selling. It relies on population growth, but for the US that's a fine bet. It would not work in Japan.
        thedufer 9y ago
        Why can't everyone make money on the stock market? It's not a zero-sum game.
        smileysteve 9y ago
        Random Walk isn't about everybody beating everybody all of the time. Active funds, individual traders, hedge funds, pe, VCs are all trying to optimize active individual bets, and those will likely have high positive returns sometimes. But when those with the highest returns get over priced and a fee built in until an index fund is better over long terms.
roymurdock 9y ago
> save more, spend less, and invest in things that last and grow That's the basic formula for retirement saving in a nutshell. I'd wager that most people grasp the logic of this formula at a basic level without a formal education in investing, or needing to pay for a financial advisor. What people (myself included) lack is the discipline to save more + spend less, and the accounting skills + access to information required to make informed investment decisions and to create/manage balanced portfolios. The rise of the index fund has been helpful...but investing is still an extremely opaque process at best. One of the more recent examples is the death of the intuitive link between "buy low, sell high" AKA "value investing"[1] that has a bunch of GS investors scratching their heads. If this basic economic link starts to break down...how can people with already limited financial knowledge make smart investment decisions? Or is buying the index really the way forward, until another market correction? Are you seeing any interesting companies in the space that are working on solving these basic problems, or working in this space yourself? As a 24 year old I'd be interested to hear how the industry is evolving to accommodate younger investors that are just starting out on the retirement path. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/goldman-sachs-mulls-death-of-value-investing-after-losing-decade https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/goldman-s...
- wbl 9y ago
  Don't make smart decisions. Sign onto Vanguard, set up autoinvest, and forget you ever did.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - quickben 9y ago
    Theoretically, can Vanguard ever go down? As in a major everything crash?
    - 9y ago
smileysteve 9y ago
To highlight though, many CFPs with the best of intentions are "sold" the funds and ideas they recommend, the whole life policy people fixing retirement plans shouldn't be "wasting" money on. True fiduciary duty with being read in A Random Walk are not common in your average CFP, insurance broker, or finance graduate.

Moshe_Silnorin 9y ago

Even the best advisors charge 1%, which seems insanely high to me, considering what one can do with a discount brokerage, some index funds, and bit of research on rebalancing and taxes each year.

__derek__ 9y ago
This reminded me of Friday's Intelligent Investor column[1] entitled "Don’t Touch My Money, Just Hold My Hand". Its closing: > So you should hire an adviser not for his or her investing prowess, but to help organize your finances, prioritize your goals, minimize your taxes, and navigate the shoals of retirement and estate planning. Done right, those services can make you far richer — and happier — than the pipe dream of investment outperformance is likely to. Now that the index revolution has solidified, I think there's going to be a strong market for financial advisors that just offer advice in the coming years. [1]: https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/06/09/dont-touch-my-money-just-hold-my-hand/ https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/06/09/dont-touch-my-mon... (yes, sorry, behind a paywall)
- rtx 9y ago
  >Now that the index revolution has solidified People will have a slow awakening.
  - __derek__ 9y ago
    What do you mean?
    - rtx 9y ago
      Everyone cant make money in the market. Who is on the other-side of index funds.
      - ars 9y ago
        Young people buying, old people selling. It relies on population growth, but for the US that's a fine bet. It would not work in Japan.
      - thedufer 9y ago
        Why can't everyone make money on the stock market? It's not a zero-sum game.
      - smileysteve 9y ago
        Random Walk isn't about everybody beating everybody all of the time. Active funds, individual traders, hedge funds, pe, VCs are all trying to optimize active individual bets, and those will likely have high positive returns sometimes. But when those with the highest returns get over priced and a fee built in until an index fund is better over long terms.

roymurdock 9y ago

> save more, spend less, and invest in things that last and grow That's the basic formula for retirement saving in a nutshell. I'd wager that most people grasp the logic of this formula at a basic level without a formal education in investing, or needing to pay for a financial advisor. What people (myself included) lack is the discipline to save more + spend less, and the accounting skills + access to information required to make informed investment decisions and to create/manage balanced portfolios. The rise of the index fund has been helpful...but investing is still an extremely opaque process at best. One of the more recent examples is the death of the intuitive link between "buy low, sell high" AKA "value investing"[1] that has a bunch of GS investors scratching their heads. If this basic economic link starts to break down...how can people with already limited financial knowledge make smart investment decisions? Or is buying the index really the way forward, until another market correction? Are you seeing any interesting companies in the space that are working on solving these basic problems, or working in this space yourself? As a 24 year old I'd be interested to hear how the industry is evolving to accommodate younger investors that are just starting out on the retirement path. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/goldman-sachs-mulls-death-of-value-investing-after-losing-decade https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/goldman-s...

wbl 9y ago
Don't make smart decisions. Sign onto Vanguard, set up autoinvest, and forget you ever did.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- quickben 9y ago
  Theoretically, can Vanguard ever go down? As in a major everything crash?
  - 9y ago

smileysteve 9y ago

To highlight though, many CFPs with the best of intentions are "sold" the funds and ideas they recommend, the whole life policy people fixing retirement plans shouldn't be "wasting" money on. True fiduciary duty with being read in A Random Walk are not common in your average CFP, insurance broker, or finance graduate.