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Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor, I don't play one on TV, and I don't have a million dollars or equivalent. Take $10,000 (1%), and accept it as money wo

Disclaimer: I'm not a financial advisor, I don't play one on TV, and I don't have a million dollars or equivalent. Take $10,000 (1%), and accept it as money worth spending. Network well, contact friends, family and ideally successful professionals and discover a financial advisor you can trust. Get empirical proof of this, as many may just be out to fleece clients - and worse, think they're actually doing a good job. In terms of getting good advice, accept that money will have to be on the table. People have to make a living, and if there's nothing to gain, then why should a good professional waste their time? My hunch is that a good financial advisor will be happy to take a lump sum consultancy fee, rather than a percentage management fee, just to give you general advice - especially one that knows their clients are your friends and will react to any stupidity the financial advisor says. With that money set aside and taken as ceded to the task of figuring out how to manage your money, take some time out and learn enough to make reasoned decisions. Research, study, understand the basics and importantly - understand the absolutely stupid and worst options, and the worst that sound like the best. It won't get you that much time, but it gets you more than nothing. Given you're making 5% minimum, a 1% loss can be fixed in a year and regain you access to any of the funds that you fell below the minimum for. But the time and effort spent now is better than finding out in ten years that the risk-free 5% growth option was actually highly risky indeed....

sown 13y ago
> In terms of getting good advice, accept that money will have to be on the table. People have to make a living, and if there's nothing to gain, then why should a good professional waste their time? My hunch is that a good financial advisor will be happy to take a lump sum consultancy fee, rather than a percentage management fee, just to give you general advice - especially one that knows their clients are your friends and will react to any stupidity the financial advisor says. Perhaps if OP consults a sworn fiduciary? I've not much experience with either of these, but theoretically a fiduciary is supposed to legally act in your benefit at all times where as a financial advisor isn't really. I have no idea, though. I don't have much money. This is something I read somewhere.
abofh 13y ago
While I agree with the general concept, investing 10k comes with a substantially different cost/risk/benefit profile to investing 1,000k. The 1% rule is a great general rule for a single investment, but to invest 99% of your porfolios gain on 1% risk seems like asking for 1995 google stock. My personal investment in this profile is about 10k per position [equity] and up to 15k per position [option risk] - where a position is defined by the total risk as affected by the underlying stock - you still could end up with 100 positions with a 1mm portfolio, but usually by 20-30, you find ones that you understand well and have reason to believe are undervalued -- those are when you break the 1% rule, and you do it a couple of times. Some will become worth less than 1%, some more than 10%. Re-balance judiciously, hold if it produces income greater than its risk, and sell anything not nailed down when someone offers you a gold-laying goose for it -- you can always by short-term risk with options if you're that confident, and cash is infinantly more exchangeable to immediate needs than paper stocks held at the DTC are to your grocer. Depending on your age, if you have little to no investment experience, i'd check out the professional lists at fool.com (rule your retirement, etc) - those are the profiles I put my family in. If you're bored and looking to day-trade, there are similar lists for options, but those are for play money or experienced readers, not retirement money.
- mdisraeli 13y ago
  Great comment, although I think I didn't make the intended use of the 10k quite clear enough. Whilst one way of spending it is in live experimentation, yes, and that can be a very good option, I meant it more in a "be prepared to pay for help, with the only return being knowledge" sense

sown 13y ago

> In terms of getting good advice, accept that money will have to be on the table. People have to make a living, and if there's nothing to gain, then why should a good professional waste their time? My hunch is that a good financial advisor will be happy to take a lump sum consultancy fee, rather than a percentage management fee, just to give you general advice - especially one that knows their clients are your friends and will react to any stupidity the financial advisor says. Perhaps if OP consults a sworn fiduciary? I've not much experience with either of these, but theoretically a fiduciary is supposed to legally act in your benefit at all times where as a financial advisor isn't really. I have no idea, though. I don't have much money. This is something I read somewhere.

abofh 13y ago

While I agree with the general concept, investing 10k comes with a substantially different cost/risk/benefit profile to investing 1,000k. The 1% rule is a great general rule for a single investment, but to invest 99% of your porfolios gain on 1% risk seems like asking for 1995 google stock. My personal investment in this profile is about 10k per position [equity] and up to 15k per position [option risk] - where a position is defined by the total risk as affected by the underlying stock - you still could end up with 100 positions with a 1mm portfolio, but usually by 20-30, you find ones that you understand well and have reason to believe are undervalued -- those are when you break the 1% rule, and you do it a couple of times. Some will become worth less than 1%, some more than 10%. Re-balance judiciously, hold if it produces income greater than its risk, and sell anything not nailed down when someone offers you a gold-laying goose for it -- you can always by short-term risk with options if you're that confident, and cash is infinantly more exchangeable to immediate needs than paper stocks held at the DTC are to your grocer. Depending on your age, if you have little to no investment experience, i'd check out the professional lists at fool.com (rule your retirement, etc) - those are the profiles I put my family in. If you're bored and looking to day-trade, there are similar lists for options, but those are for play money or experienced readers, not retirement money.

mdisraeli 13y ago
Great comment, although I think I didn't make the intended use of the 10k quite clear enough. Whilst one way of spending it is in live experimentation, yes, and that can be a very good option, I meant it more in a "be prepared to pay for help, with the only return being knowledge" sense