patrick.net

If you have a low fee mutual fund, you already have pros managing the money. If you choose individual stocks, they will devote themselves to giving you 'hot tips' and churning your account because churning is where they make their money.

You could probably put on an expensive suit and go to a stylist every three days and become an advisor, too.

There is no way to 'beat' the markets, they are all rigged to some extent or another, and any advisor at your level won't be any more enlightened. Just tie your boat to a balanced portfolio, check it once or twice a year, massage it a bit to make yourself feel empowered over the stochastics, and let it rise and fall with the leviathan tides.

When the Wall Street Journal wasn't absolutely just another piece of godforsaken propaganda trash, they had their 'dartboard' portfolio for a while where they showed that some of the most 'reputable', high end financial managers couldn't regularly outperform a basket of stocks literally assembled by throwing darts at a list.

floki says

What do you all think about this ?

Horrible waste of money. They usually want 1% of total assets each year no matter how they perform, and none of them do as well as index funds.

I'd consider a money manager who helps make up losses, instead of only skimming total assets. But none of them do that.

I know a few wealthy people that I consider are still kind of like regular people. They have 100 million + net worth and they don't have advisors outside of other rich friends giving them advice. The only time I have heard dumb asses try to pitch them something, they usually don't get invited back.

I'm a client and partner (trader, developer) in a real hedge fund trading all sectors, futures (coffee, corn etc.), crypto, a bit of everything. I believe the fee structure is 1/10 (need to double check).

I have been actively trading for almost 2 decades and an average personal yearly return rate of ~25% on a mix of daytrading and longer term (long only) positions, but I focus mostly on biotech and it's too much work to take on any clients.

Also when the market corrects hard you want a true long/short hedge fund, not the fake hedge funds who just park your money in the MAG7 and are now taking it on the chin as tech, esp. software corrects.

That's why I'm also a client on my buddy's fund with a sizeable position, and we are in the process of automating a lot more trading and incorporating "real AI" (ML).

He makes 10%-15% p.a. regardless of bull, sideways or bear market, and I am happy with it. DM me or ask @patrick to connect us if you want to learn more.

Disclosure: I was once briefly "in the business" of financial planning and had various licenses. I thought it would be a cool job while letting someone else run my little business, but I bored of it.

The essence of investing is mutual funds; an ETF is a mutual fund, so is an index fund, as are actively managed funds.

The typical arrangement with an "adviser" is a rip off to the client; they call this a "wrap fee" and it's typically 1% of your assets.
That's too much money to pay someone to do nothing.
I have a friend who has $1million at UBS. I tell her to get her stuff over to Vanguard, T.Rowe Price, or Fidelity.
She's paying a person $10,000/year to do absolutely nothing, but she's afraid to make any change to anything.

If you wish to pay someone to help you figure stuff out, seek a "fee only financial planner."

You don't really need anyone; check out "calculator.net" and try different scenarios with "investing".
Assume a future stock market return lower than what has happened in the last 30 years; the next 30 won't be as great.

Decades ago I bought various mutual funds and it's interesting they are all about the same over 30 year time span.

I'm a little amazed that I have made much more money investing than working. If you told me 40 years ago I would have millions in retirement I would not have believed you.

One of my favorite mutual funds has been "Tax Managed Capital Appreciation" at Vanguard because although it's not in a retirement account is doesn't produce a pesky 1099 every year to pay taxes on.

That's totally different from a hedge fund, these people park your money and do nothing with it, i.e. will go down with the ship on major corrections, recessions, depressions.

ETFs (vanguard etc.) are for the lazy who are ok with 5%-8% yearly returns on average for very low or no fees, and can ride out major recessions, i.e. don't need to withdraw.

Real hegde funds, hence the name hedge, make you money regardless of market conditions. 1/10, i.e. 1% of net assets plus 10% of gains is a very reasonable rate these days for active trading work, used to be 2/20.

I still enjoy the story of the 'investor pool' in my grandparents' town in upstate NY. IBM started right down the street from them, and kids went door to door selling stock certificates for small money. A lot of people just bought the certificates and left them in drawers. Years and years later, sometimes even heirs, found the certificates and were instant millionaires because of the rise in value and splitting of the stocks. I think IBM went around to find the people who had the stock certificates to let them know eventually. My uncle married one of these 'heiresses' who had an amount that would be around 70 million today.

Yes, high returns go with higher risks. No advisors, like gamblers, will tell you about losses, or 'blowing up' in their portfolios. They just skeedaddle and send you copies of agreements you signed. I imagine there are a lot of 'advisors' who have changed their identities. I have heard too many stories of people cleaned out by the sharpies. Give me the boring safe rising and falling boat investments. Even those get scary in certain periods.

I do my own investing. Been doing it for a very long time, 30+ years. The last 5 years I’ve done well, I don’t buy etfs or mutual funds. I like to invest in individual companies. Every once in a while I will buy down my average on a stock and end up chagrined that I did that. I also enjoy playing on the edge with risk assets, currently etherium. Getting clobbered, hate the wait. I would never use a money manager, not my style.