If I am at a party and people start talking investment returns, I am leaving.
We purchased 3 annuities (H has two and I have one; 2 purchased in 2013 and one purchased Dec 2015) - a few are performing mediocre, so we are tapping out money out of those as we need it (H and I are both over 59.5).
One does need to be very careful with any financial product. Our annuities are through name recognized insurance companies. In the one that is doing fabulously, we had balanced allocation strategy options. Last year’s gain was 12.55%, and there are guaranteed minimums.
Our Roth money is the last to tap down - and that is in aggressive model.
Our 401k (a large chuck of our assets) is outside of our financial adviser (and will remain so) but he gives me helpful guidance with his impressions.
As busy as this week is with our DD1’s wedding Saturday, H and I are both attending the group one hour “State of the Markets” meeting for information - and we meet semi-annually with financial adviser to do any tweaking.
Pleased about performance in 401k this year.
It has taken us a while stumbling through years of trying to understand it all, as well as knowing what I am willing to research and do on the financial end, and what I am willing to ‘let go’ with a paid financial adviser.
Step 1 - Vertical axis - large cap, mid cap, small cap. Horizontal axis - value, growth. Draw lines, make boxes.
Step 2 - Vertical axis - treasury, investment grade, junk. Horizontal axis - short-term, mid term, long term. Draw lines, make boxes.
Step 3 - Put an egg in each box.
All of the above is mostly nonsense to me. None of that drives my decision making. But an unbelievable amount of wealth gets transferred for someone to help someone else do this.
I’m not irritated if people are talking about investment returns, there are far worse things they could be talking about. Trying to convert you to their religion, repetitive medical conversations…sports! As long as they aren’t trying to get me interested in this amazing investment opportunity. I can usually tell when people are BSing.
I’d much rather hear someone lie about their investment returns than details of their bowel movements.
If investment returns and bowel movements are the subject of your party discussions, you need to find other crowds with which to party.
Meeting with planner went well. We are above our original goal for retirement and H still wants to work at his new job a few more years to become vested and maximize some profit sharing accounts. All is good. Even though her management fee will be more Planner said she still wants us to roll over our Fidelity age based Index Fund. H and I think we will keep it where it is until he retires and then move it over to her before distribution so she can be in charge of that. Her argument is for personal management and her watching it in case changes need to be made. So we would be trading more in fees for personal care. Don’t think so at this point. 8-|
Actually, I’d much rather chat about investment returns and bowel movements than the main subject at the last party I went to…politics. Get me outta there!
Politics, investment returns, bowel movements and religion. Remind me not to hang out with you folks in real life. 
I don’t think any of us were saying that WE were soliciting conversations about those topics. But some topics are better than others. Fortunately the only people talking about bowel movements in my life are my parents…and there’s no getting away from that. And I’d rather listen to them talk about ANYTHING other than politics. Good God, my dad is texting about it right now, and he’s deranged.
Actually, I don’t know why talking about investments would be unacceptable. It’s interesting to me, and I have a lot to learn. I wouldn’t bring it up, but if someone else in interested in it, I’d rather talk about that than a huge number of topics.
Glad you’re not going to roll that over yet, NorthMinnesota. I don’t know how closely one can watch over an age based index fund, it doesn’t seem worth the cost.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear…she wants us to close out of the Index fund and reinvest in other products.
I just keep thinking of Warren Buffet saying keep your retirement money in index funds.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/12/warren-buffett-says-index-funds-make-the-best-retirement-sense-practically-all-the-time.html
Ah, okay. Do you have other money invested in index funds, or is this your only one? I would definitely want a decent portion of my portfolio invested in index funds.
Don’t they call the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha every year “Woodstock for Capitalists”? They have a party just to talk about investment returns. I would rather be there than at a party with people who can’t have fun talking about bowel movements.
One thing I feel strongly about is not putting all my assets with one company, let alone one manager. I don’t want to have all my assets in one place exposed to fraud from an individual inside the company, or the entire company collapsing, or a hacker from outside the company, or something as random as their systems and website crashing. Too many stories of good/great wonderful longtime money managers turning out to be conmen, or a basically good person has a bad turn for the worse in their life and decides to dip into your pot. There are 20 risks I can think of, and probably 500 I can’t think of. I should probably have accounts in 5 different countries too (just kidding), but one is clearly one too few. I had maybe 90% of our financial assets with Schwab and a few years back re-opened a dormant account at Fidelity just to have that little bit of diversification.
Speaking of conmen - Just today, for fun, I previewed the auction of the Siskey “estate”. This guy ran a Ponzi scheme and the claims against him look like they will top $30mm. He commited suicide, and they are auctioning off his “stuff”, and selling his $5.5 mm mansion. All kinds of collector cars, jewelery, autographed guitars, etc. huge, lavish estate, 3 buildings, pool, 8 car garage… I love looking at rich people’s stuff, but this just about made me throw up, because I felt like everything I was looking at was bought with stolen money.
We started out simple but are getting so much more complicated these days. Easy part will be Defined benefit pensions, Soc. Security, 2 different credit unions w/ money market accounts earning next to nothing. More complicated deferred comp Roths, Regular Roth at TIAA, and recently inherited TIAA accounts invested through two different university portfolios in a gazillion different funds and a brokerage account. That’s the part I have a hard time understanding - and all the info they send me… I have no idea what to buy or sell, or how to rebalance, and there are so many different kinds of funds within each of the portfolios. I got some advice from the wealth managers at TIAA to max out our deferred comp Roths. (they act in my fiduciary interest). But they also suggest I see a tax accountant. Been meaning to do that…
Definitely see a tax professional about those inherited IRAs - you might have to take out RMDs.
They did already send the first RMD. TIAA knows their stuff. But yes, I denfitinely need to see a tax professional to know how to handle estate money, too!
Looks like many of us on this thread also follow bogleheads dot org. @anxiousmom , you or your DH might want to browse the wiki or forum there to get some darn good advice on asset allocation and account consolidation and tracking. Also good stuff an managing windfall/inheritance. Lots of wisdom and free advice. If you are brave, you can post your situation and ask for specific advice. Otherwise, reading the general advice given others might get you at least asking the right questions.
I have for years been on the board of a medium size non profit that provides emergency respite care for children in danger of abuse or neglect. The other board members are generally mid level execs at the local large companies and hospitals. At the board meetings, the parking lot is full of Hondas and Toyotas with a Lexus or Infinity thrown in here and there. We just got a new board member from Edward Jones. He would be the one in the new Jaguar. Beware of financial advisors.
(as learned on bogleheads, the corporate motto at “wealth management” companies is “Turning your money and our experience into our money and your experience.”)
@anxiousmom, if you have IRAs spread here and there, the IRS thinks of them as one or potentially three: yours, yours inherited from a spouse, and yours inherited from a non-spouse. RMD timing, and choice of sources, is something that TIAA can’t figure out by themselves.