Stay with the proper allocation for your situation and age. The best advice is to STOP LOOKING. :) Make sure the account is periodically rebalanced, but studies prove that the more you look, the more you feel like you have to take some form of action (which usually hurts you in the long run). If you need help with…

If it’s properly allocated amongst equities, bonds, and other holdings, then yes you will get it back (though it takes time sometimes...if you lose 25%, it takes a 50% return to get back to even!)

Is your advisor doing anything for you other than invest the money? For strictly asset management, 1.5% is too much. If you get advice on insurance, estate planning, tax reduction, and other things, the price might be more in line.

Sorry, your fee quote just went up too.

It’s best to have someone you already trust be knowledgeable enough to filter out the B.S. artists. I know the BNY Mellon’s of the world service that wealth level, and a few others.

I can tell you that the fees get discounted at that level. :)

Commodities should only be a small portion, but they can provide some volatility protection (which is what a proper bond portfolio can do, too). Downside volatility is the enemy of good long-term returns, especially in the early years.

Invest the whole $202M in an S&P 500 index fund? You do realize that the S&P 500 represents one area of the markets (large cap blend), right?

Good article, Kristin. Consumers should also “do the math” to figure out the DOLLAR cost is of the products used. For someone with $50,000, a 1% annual fee is only $500. For someone with $1,000,000, that same charge is $10,000/year!

In many cases you can use a SWR higher than 4%. I recently wrote a blog post on how to do it safely:

It’s a colorful picture, but that’s about all it’s good for. Investment returns are NEVER linear, and the order of those returns (Google “sequence of returns risk”) have a dramatic influence on how much money you end up with.

Yikes, I don’t want to deal with that. Found this as a way to export/import the default apps - think it would fix the problem?

In many situations, it’s best to try and delay taking SS benefits until age 70 (if you can). Example: If you earned a $100 benefit at your “Full Retirement Age” (67 for you), you would only collect $70/mo starting at age 62. Waiting until age 70 would make the benefit about $132/mo!

Absolutely. Let me know if you’d like some good resources for information!

You can find me at www.iiifinancial.com. Look for someone who is “fee-only” (no products to sell), preferably with a CFP designation. It’s a good start.

You can find me at www.iiifinancial.com. Sorry, I’m not a born promoter, I’m a computer science nerd at heart. :)

Some of us “money grubbing financial advisers” actually work directly for the clients, spell out the exact dollar clients are paying for advice, and create significantly better outcomes for them.

A good summary of some key points, but not quite everything about Social Security. :)

It’s a generalization, but often the “younger” (in this profession, I’m 41 and considered a young one) advisers embrace technology sooner and you can find someone that is not local. Also, someone who is fee-only and doesn’t have to deal with the crippling compliance rules of a broker/dealer can usually be more…

If you go to the CFP Board’s website www.cfp.net and use Find a CFP Professional, you can filter on compensation type. I was commission and fee for my first 7 years, even though I was a CFP for the later 4 of those years.