re: My financial planner isn't doing it for me. What do I do?

This is not to disagree, just to give a different perspective. The non-bonds and alternatives portion of my managed account portfolio would’ve beat the S&P if not for the Magnificent 7 being such a huge part of the S&Ps growth in 23. I was invested in them in that portfolio, but, per my diversification strategy, not enough to feel all the gains they provided to the S&P. And I think that’s a reasonable price expectation for a diversified approach over the long run. 2023 was a weird year to score an equity portfolio’s performance.

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I know this sounds harsh but take this as a very hard and expensive lesson into not being a fricking retard and outsourcing the effort and knowledge of financial planning to a third party who doesn’t give a real frick about you.

God damn how the frick does someone just hand over most/all of their money to another person with the mindset of “I don’t know anything and don’t care to learn, please don’t frick me”

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What would you suggest I do with the portfolio now? To be honest, my opinion of local financial planners in general is a bit negative. If you were in my apparent retard shoes, what would you do?

So you are agreeing with me? Or are you arguing that 100% S&P is a bad portfolio? I can’t really tell what you’re getting at. I specifically said it’s not ideal for people approaching retirement. But there are plenty of people who hold high % equity positions even in retirement, they just lower spend in years of down market (instead of staying on a fixed 4% SWR).

Re:2020, are you implying that every market dip is “losing money?” It’s only a loss if you sell baw. If you held through 2020 then you didn’t lose money. And people who did are sitting pretty atm. There are idiots out there who sold out the low in 2020 and still holding cash waiting on an “entry point.”

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Competing with the s&p is not the game in financial planning.

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Hard disagree here. I would argue for probably at least 80% of people who have money with a FA, would be better served buying S&P 500,

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The DALBAR study is another data point proving that investors cannot stay invested on their own without jumping off the boat.

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This has nothing to do with whether or not s&p 500 is a good portfolio. This is a behavioral psychology study that can be applied to any asset allocation except for 100% cash.

And your example was terrible. You basically said if people sell at the bottom of a crash they will prob lose money lol. And in the same example you said if they held then they’re fine now.

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Be careful with this bro they have some financial savants in here that will disagree bc they know better than Buffett and think buying 100% VOO is dumb lol

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I don't invest 100% in index funds but if you are a passive, set it and forget it type, it's absolutely the best option.

How’s that possible??

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Being 100% in sp500 is a pretty good place to be long term. Guaranteed to never lose vs the market.

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Well this is awkward…

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How is it even possible for it to be at the same spot that it was 10 years ago?

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Because instead of actually investing, he's been churning the money through "products" on which he gets a cut.

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What would you suggest I do with the portfolio now? To be honest, my opinion of local financial planners in general is a bit negative. If you were in my apparent retard shoes, what would you do?

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You're in a hole now, no gains in a decade is a deep hole. Guarantee that your guy made a good bit of money off you. That's all water under the bridge at this point. There are more educated investors on this board than me, but if you're looking for straight up, step by step, detailed advice, here you go.

Before I go into the steps, the first thing you need to do is understand that the time in your life where you are separated from your own financial health is over. In other words, no matter your age, financially speaking, it's time to grow up. There will be work ahead getting the money away from this guy.

Second before the steps. No more "swinging for the fences". Bears make money, bulls make money, pigs get slaughtered. You need to define what investing success looks like from your investments and assemble a model that matches those goals.

1. Find out in full detail where your money currently is and what exactly your are invested in. I mean every detail to the penny. Find out in detail every fund, account and security.

2. Evaluate if there are any tax implications from moving, liquidating or transferring any holdings. Be very aware that you may trigger a tax event if you current guy makes a mistake or basically tries to frick you on the way out the door. Potentially talk to a CPA if you have one to make sure that you don't get yourself caught in another scenario to lose money.

3. If you are going to go it alone, which may seem scary, but in reality isn't. Do some research on some ETF and mutual funds that have a long track record of performance and low fees. I won't go into all the options, but here's a handful to get you started. VOO, IVW, QQQ, VYM, VXUS, VT, VV, FXAIX, FTEC. Those have solid sustained performance and you'll be diversified.

My guess is that your guy was just buying everyday funds and would call you with a tip and move your money to some other financial vehicle where he could trigger a 5-8% commission on the move. He wasn't putting you into anything that you can't find for yourself.

4. Now you are armed with some landing spots for your money, knowledge of the tax situation, and full knowledge of where your money is now located. Next step is to open a brokerage account with something like Fidelity or one of the other brokerages that are similar. Basically, this is preparing the landing spot for the money. Get the addresses and information required for the money to transfer.

5. Contact your current guy and let him know that you are moving your money away from him. You'll listen to him do a song and dance about the mistake you're making, you'll also hear some veiled threats from him about the consequences of moving the money. But frick that guy, he's breached his fiduciary responsibility to you.

6. If all of this seems too much. Walk into a Fidelity (or other similar type brokerage) retail office and tell them about your situation and let them know you want to open an account and move money to their brokerage. They'll help initiate all of the transfers and give you the numbers and addresses to get the money moved without penalty. The'll also establish and manage IRA's and rollovers that you'd need to shift over.Give them the list of funds and ETF you'd like the money to land and they'll make it happen.

Monitor the transfer of the funds and make sure everything is sorted appropriately. If something seems off, contact the brokerage.

7. From now on, closely monitor your finances and evaluate every move. Hopefully lesson learned and you will have better managed finances and a financial goal moving forward.

That's all. Folks may have better or more detailed advice, but this is how you can unwind your current scenario within the next month. Good luck.