*Investors Blog*

[JeffKeryk]

I'm with Schwab. The person assigned to my account is no more than I salesman. I ignore him, somewhat to his frustration. I never paid for the Wealth Advisory deal. I guess you think it's worth it (?).

Yes, you are dealing with a basic rep. The service level I am in offers much more. There are a wealth of investment products you can buy into; I am not sure how someone who was not a professional advisor could know of all these.

Is it worth it? IMO, that depends on the size of your portfolio first, then other things. If I cut my finger, I need a band-aid. If I need brain surgery, I need professional help.

Having said this, I do not agree with or follow all the advice I get from my Schwab team.

Schwab Wealth Advisory

 

[Marrk]

@JeffKeryk I just looked at the fees. Too high for me.

 

[JeffKeryk]

@JeffKeryk I just looked at the fees. Too high for me.

Smart. In my case, the Advisory helped me beyond investment vehicles with financial services and advice that smoothed the way in a couple of extraordinary events. All good. In fact, I need to revisit something else right now... Sheesh.

 

[Pablo]

Tomorrow I'm making an appointment with a new tax advisor.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Tomorrow I'm making an appointment with a new tax advisor.

Let's just say one year I had an extraordinary income event. Schwab sent me to a tax advisor that worked with the big boys for her advice. She said my understanding was pretty good and offered to have one of her underlings review my preparation.

 

[gfh77665]

I use a professional wealth management company, and they use either the Schwab or Fidelity trading platforms. Their management decisions have been good and sound, but maybe not spectacular. I think I might have beat their return on my own by a bit (1-2%??), but I am inherently much more risky on my own. They are a good check for me, to keep my risks constrained.

Where they really shine is Roth conversions and tax optimizations. I could never do what they do, its way too convoluted of a process for me to even attempt. I am well pleased overall. If anyone is interested, they have locations in TX, CO, NJ, and CA. PM me and I'll share their contact.

 

[Marrk]

I use a professional wealth management company, and they use either the Schwab or Fidelity trading platforms. Their management decisions have been good and sound, but maybe not spectacular. I think I might have beat their return on my own by a bit (1-2%??), but I am inherently much more risky on my own. They are a good check for me, to keep my risks constrained.

Where they really shine is Roth conversions and tax optimizations. I could never do what they do, its way too convoluted of a process for me to even attempt. I am well pleased overall. If anyone is interested, they have locations in TX, CO, NJ, and CA. PM me and I'll share their contact.

Got a figure on fees? Ballpark will do.

 

[Marrk]

I few years ago, I spoke to Jenny Harrington. She's a manager, not an advisor. She takes all your money, and you shut up and sit down. Her target was 5% dividend stream. Asked about 1% annually on the first million AUM.

 

[Pablo]

My mom, 95 in June, is just hanging on. This may or may not be her year unfortunately. She currently - via trusts run by my brother and I - holds all the family wealth (well aside from my brother and my lifetime saving/investing wealth). It's a substantial amount of money that will come out of the trusts into our own. First I want to make sure I'm thinking about all the tax implications correctly. THEN (or concurrently) I SHALL be hiring 2-3 companies to run the money. I do love Fidelity for my DIY butchery the last 35+ years, and will probably keep my and wife assets there. But with the inherited money, no DIY. Maybe most in a tax type trust with some income as a goal. Not sure.

My grandparents, uncle, aunt, dad, mom, etc started with $0.00 I might add. Amazing savers, investors and company owners to be true to them.

 

[xspeedy]

My mom, 95 in June, is just hanging on. This may or may not be her year unfortunately. She currently - via trusts run by my brother and I - holds all the family wealth (well aside from my brother and I lifetime saving/investing wealth). It's a substantial amount of money that will come out of the trusts into our own. First I want to make sure I'm thinking about all the tax implications correctly. THEN (or concurrently) I SHALL be hiring 2-3 companies to run the money. I do love Fidelity for my DIY butchery the last 35+ years, and will probably keep my and wife assets there. But with the inherited money, no DIY. Maybe most in a tax type trust with income as a goal. Not sure.

My grandparents, uncle, aunt, dad, mom, etc started with $0.00 I might add. Amazing savers, investors and company owners to be true to them.

I was in a similar situation a few years back. I didn’t do much with the funds since busy with job and now retired, starting to pay it more attention. I don’t know your situation, but when you inherit these trusts, make sure any investments are stepped up in cost basis at the values for the date of her passing. If you don’t see using the funds for a long time, and potentially passing them down to the kids, then you should probably look to grow them to make as little income as possible, but rather grow in equity. You don’t want to pay high trust income taxes, plus the NIIT penalties. So find some good S&P ETFs that grow well, don’t distribute much, and you don’t have to sell. You can then pass that down to your kids and they’ll benefit from a step up in cost basis.

 

[Zee09]

Gas money today

 

[Zee09]

My trading buddy was on cloud 9 yesterday bloviating to me on the phone about flipping MAIN...

Got fat and mouthy...

Today he went back in to double dip and got slapped real hard.... he mistakenly called me and got reamed... when his cat saw his trading screen this happened...

 

[ATex7239]

Not into day trading as I don’t have the stomach for it. More of a buy and hold strategy kind of guy. However there is a point where I think one should shift mindset from accumulation to conservation. I think we are reaching that point so I have rebalanced the portfolio and recognized some of these huge gains in the market over the last few years. Buy low, sell high and all. That’s about as gutsy as I get.

 

[ecotourist]

Something that may be of interest if you're looking for some Canadian large cap exposure: Global X S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (symbol HXT on the TSE).

The big advantage is that it's set up to generate only capital gains, and then only when you sell. [I don't know how or if that works for US investors so you'd have to look into it.] It has an MER of 0.24% and tracks its index reasonably well.

Performance/ Index
2025 27.73 / 29.06
3 yr 20.35 / 20.52
5 yr 15.89 / 16.01
10 yr 12.71 / 12.78

 

[Pablo]

Might shop bond funds again tomorrow

 

[JeffKeryk]

Not into day trading as I don’t have the stomach for it. More of a buy and hold strategy kind of guy. However there is a point where I think one should shift mindset from accumulation to conservation. I think we are reaching that point so I have rebalanced the portfolio and recognized some of these huge gains in the market over the last few years. Buy low, sell high and all. That’s about as gutsy as I get.

Yep, your portfolio needs to change as time goes by. Count your blessings if you made it to a stable point where you will likely outlive your money.

 

[ATex7239]

Yep, your portfolio needs to change as time goes by. Count your blessings if you made it to a stable point where you will likely outlive your money.

We reached that tipping point where if we added nothing we would still very likely end up right where we want to be. No need to run up the scoreboard cause we mathematically already won the game. Not going to stop investing just going to start minimizing risk.

 

[ecotourist]

Might shop bond funds again tomorrow

My bond investments have not been good. They still haven't recovered from the big drop a few years ago. I keep about 25% in cash and bonds though sometimes I wonder why.

I guess I'll know the next time the equity markets "go South". I don't think bonds helped very much last time.

 

[ecotourist]

Hey @Pablo I just looked up Everson, Washington. We live a bit South of you, and over a bit, but we're practically neighbours.

 

[ATex7239]

My bond investments have not been good. They still haven't recovered from the big drop a few years ago. I keep about 25% in cash and bonds though sometimes I wonder why.

I guess I'll know the next time the equity markets "go South". I don't think bonds helped very much last time.

I don’t think bonds/cash are supposed to ever fully recover themselves. Inflation eats them up. You are supposed to recover them by rebalancing with some of your gains in equities. Like replenishing emergency saving after using it. It’s there for stability and to realize gains. Not for growth potential. Well at least how it use it anyways.