Retirement - Managing your money

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Because we don't really trust those people who do it for a living and are looking for 'experienced' advice.

Fair response, I will offer the view at which I arrived some time ago, that is to embrace the concept "do what you do well and pay others to what they do well",of course with the caveat that research and due diligence on your part are of extreme importance.

[clamshack]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Fair response, I will offer the view at which I arrived some time ago, that is to embrace the concept "do what you do well and pay others to what they do well",of course with the caveat that research and due diligence on your part are of extreme importance.

At the present time it's difficult to find anybody that does anything well. If they are one of the very few who do something well they usually charge a fortune (rightfully so I guess).

So, currently it makes sense to do as much as you can yourself. These days investing is more or less free at the big brokerage firms and mutual funds have made diversification simple. I don't trust an "advisor" that tells me they can beat the market, so this poster just seems to be presenting a withdrawals strategy for the DIY investor.

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Fair response, I will offer the view at which I arrived some time ago, that is to embrace the concept "do what you do well and pay others to what they do well",of course with the caveat that research and due diligence on your part are of extreme importance.

I will offer the view at which I arrived some time ago:

The folks who are willing to manage my money charge a lot, and don't do it better than I do. Plus, to know this, I'd STILL have to pay a lot of attention. Why pay for someone else's boat? When I lose my own money, I have nobody to blame but me.

So here's my (unpaid, and worth almost what you're paying) advice:

1) Either a) manage your own investments, or b) if you don't want to put your own time in, invest in low overhead index funds. Why give someone else 2-4% of your return?

2) Choose a mix of equities and treasuries. Base that mix on your time frame (age), situation, and risk tolerance. The "bucket" strategy advocated above isn't a bad way to go. Even if you had a financial manager, you'd have to go through this exercise. Any decent brokerage has easy-to-use online tools for this.

3) Skip speculative, high-risk stuff like crypto. The technology is sound, but the overall concept relies on the "bigger fool theory". Don't be "the bigger fool".

[NPCampbell]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

1) Either a) manage your own investments, or b) if you don't want to put your own time in, invest in low overhead index funds. Why give someone else 2-4% of your return?

Good advice. I have this self guiding rule of "No one cares more about my money than me ... unless I am giving my money to someone else. Then it's possible that they care more about liberating my money than I do."