Financial advisors?

I always wondered why, if a financial adviser was so smart, they were a financial advisor. Perhaps this helps ...

Pay your debts, stay conservative. This guy just wants to make some commissions.

First, congratulations to you and the wife on the baby and your coming graduations. You demonstrate wisdom in questioning whether to act on the advice of the financial advisor. In answer to your questions, you should consult with a CPA and/or attorney with respect to the advice you are getting from financial advisors.

As a disclaimer, I am a CPA, and I have provided advice to young professionals beginning their careers.

Are you going to be in the Louisiana area or staying in WV?

The person we use is a finical planner who caters only to MDs in South LA. He is excellent. He manages a fair about amount of MDs in BR. He comes to our house at our convenience and is low key or aggressive as you want him to be.

FWIW I used the first year out to just get my feet underneath me, track our income and spending habits, then started looking to investments/planners

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Would you guys/girls advise getting involved with someone like this? Is it worth the money? Or should I stay conservative until my debts are done and kid is a stable situation?

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Don't trust financial planners that hound you. Don't trust accountants to give you investment advice. Don't trust investment managers to consider your tax implications.

Trust me when I say this, you do not need to reach on "other financial ventures" as you say to get significant returns. Dividend paying value stocks, core fixed income, EM fixed income, and long duration fixed income for the carry (yield) advantage will probably yield you better results over the long run than any sort of high beta equity investment.

Think of this example that most people don't realize. If you have a security with a 6% return followed by a 4% loss, it will be worth more than a security with a 60% return and a 40% loss. Investment returns over the next 20 years will be lower than the past 20 years on an aggregate basis. My best advice is to go in 3-4 diversified 40 act mutual funds, diversified across dividend paying equities, emerging market bonds, and core fixed income. The market is EXTREMELY complicated right now, and if you're just looking to just dabble in stock picking you are lamb for the slaughter. It would be like me saying I just want to dabble in heart surgery in my free time, it just doesn't work like that. Vanguard and Fidelity have some good low-fee funds that retail investors can get exposure to. Then just sit back and enjoy your returns and easy sleep.

Keep enough liquidity to handle your needs. I would recommend some sort of CDs, but short-term rates are going to get driven down even more over the next year or two. You're going to see massive amounts of bank capital having to find a home soon due to decreased commercial paper supply, negative real rates (and negative to zero nominal rates in Europe), and a decreasing "preferred habitat" for short-term investing. Hopefully this is somewhat helpful for you, good luck.

The standard FA, at least in my view, is a glorified insurance salesman with slightly better financial acumen.

One should really only settle for a CFP or the rare CFA Personal Advisor. You want someone with legitimate analytical experience who can actually add value to the investment process.

A true frat-star FA shouldn't feel the need to be hounding prospective clients if he's being as aggressive as you imply. You don't want a salesman.

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We'll have real earning potential when we finish, and I have a financial advisor hounding around quite aggressively...emails every other week. He works with several recent grads who are now really involved with Stock markets and many other financial ventures. I'm by nature (A poor La boy), and really conservative with money. Would you guys/girls advise getting involved with someone like this? Is it worth the money? Or should I stay conservative until my debts are done and kid is a stable situation?

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LSUHSC-S T-Fanatic, there may be a few responses that have attempted to answer your original post, so without reading as redundant:

You should do that which you are comfortable. It is my stance that those who do not understand what they are offered either lose money/value or don't participate. It is very rare that the unknowledged actually succeed.

If anyone is hounding me, I do not advance this relationship. But your definition of "hounding", as "emails every other week", does not meet my criteria for aggression. Is simply reads as though that you are not comfortable with this individual, and that is important.

As I currently understand your post, with the limited information given, your first priorities should be asset protection (personal property, income, life, appropriate documentation), liquidity, income production--meaning, focus on your job duties--and debt elimination, all in a simultaneous method. May read as heavy, but it isn't.

Focus on your marriage, save @15% of your income (when you are out of residency program), enjoy your new child, and then come see me in Nashville.