re: My wife and I invested $700K at the end of 2021 — but after 2 years, we were down $35K

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I have no idea what invest in the market means outside of having an E*trade account and buying stocks. I thought that is what I was doing by having a 401k and a Roth with EJ.

I’m down like 80% on my E*trade account that I tried to buy stocks in so I’m not doing that shite again. I rode DWAC and AMC up and didn’t take profits so now I’m way down. Thats the main reason I don’t mess with this shite and just let someone else handle it.

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That’s terrible. We have 1 million invested and our advisor made us 18% return this past year

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I couldn’t even tell you what my wife’s investments made last year. My wife and I don’t have a joint account and probably have money in 10 to 15 different places right now.

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I’ve got a Roth with Edward’s jones

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Yikes.

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with all the EJ criticisms here over the years to help posters pull out and move on the fact we have anybody left here who puts money with them is just

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I just chuckle that it’s EJ that catches all the flak. I guess that’s to be expected given their sheer size of FAs. Based on what I can tell in their literature, the above example is the most expensive service they offer using UMA/SMA strategies. I could be wrong.

There is zero debate that using a full service firm eats away at returns in a vacuum. I’m not sure why anyone would argue otherwise. There is also little debate that the Money Talk (particularly regulars) is mostly DIY-ers that have no real desire to use a financial advisor. That’s great too. I’m on this board a decent bit, and I’ve never once tried to solicit business, only to discuss things with folks.

However, there are plenty of people - many on this very board in fact - that sold stocks when Biden took office and will never admit it. Those people would have never paid an advisor the amount of money they’ve missed out on since his inauguration. Same can be said of people that bailed during Covid/GFC/Dotcom/etc. There are a lot of people that are absolutely horrific with money and they’re wiling to pay someone else to do it because if it was up to them they’d have even less. That’s the target market for EJ, LPL, RJ, ML, MS, JPM, etc. If you want to frame it as preying on the financially illiterate, that’s your prerogative, but many of those people wouldn’t be served at all if it wasn’t for those firms. That’s just a fact. They’ll never be do-it-yourselfers, and that’s okay.

ETA - Vanguard Advisor Alpha I’ve posted this before on this board, but it’s a good read for a DIYer and people using an advisor. Quantify whatever value you’re getting (or not getting) and proceed accordingly.

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My Wealth Manager doubles as my therapist, so I see it as a 2 for 1 promo! And usually when I call him to execute on something dumb (“buy AMC calls!”) , he just laughs and hangs up the phone. He’s saved me a lot. I don’t have the time to manage my money. He does.

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Maybe I need a wealth manager, sounds much better than Edward jones

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My Wealth Manager doubles as my therapist, so I see it as a 2 for 1 promo!

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It’s the truth for many.

Look, it’s simple math that fees will mean you make less than the same investments would do without fees. That’s factual and accurate.

The value - for some/many - is from behavioral coaching and tax efficiency. It’s futile to say an advisor costs someone 1-1.5% per year vs the S&P 500 when that someone would have sold down 30-60% in 2008-09 and waited to get back in until the Trump administration, just to sell again during Covid.

I know no one here times the market (lol), but there are countless studies that show how much retail investors underperform in things like their 401k because they don’t know what they’re doing and/or they make emotional decisions.