Financial planners in the bay area (college, income, costs)

[sezzam]

Originally Posted by imcurious

So to novices: How does one invest in Vanguard or Fidelity? What are the logistics? Thank you.

Vanguard.com is the most transparent and information-rich web site I have seen in the industry. You can research your brains out on that web site, even without being a Vanguard client.

For individual investors, most Vanguard funds have a minimum investment of $3,000 and allow $100+ additions. The annual expense ratio is typically < 0.25%, but the expense can be as low as 0.05% for "Admiral" class of funds which typically require a $10,000 minimum investment.

Many Vanguard funds are also available as ETFs with the expense ratio the same as the Admiral class of funds. You can purchase these ETFs at your brokerage such as Ameritrade and E-Trade. You can also open a brokerage account at Vanguard.

You can open a Vanguard account (mutual fund or brokerage) online in minutes and fund your purchases from your bank account.

[Heidi60]

I agree with above remarks about Vanguard. Fidelity does have local offices which help when it comes to making last minute IRA deposits or want to talk to a person. It is always interesting in the Bay area to actually see who you are talking to in today's economy. Eventually, I will close my Fidelity account and move to Vanguard, but for now I am doing very well with one of their funds, which we intend to use for a future home puchase so I'll keep the Fidelity account open.

[nagleepark]

Originally Posted by salilsurendran

Are there any other financial planners in the Bay Area, CA that would be worthwhile to look into?

I know of Eric Heckman in downtown San Jose and Ameriprise in Campbell.

I agree with the other posters: If you can do it yourself, do it yourself. However, I have run across people who simply can't do it themselves. It is better to have a financial advisor than to liquidate your 401(k) for a spending spree.

[ccm123]

I did not have the best experiences with Ameriprise (fees were high and performance was stagnant) and ended up liquidating my account.

There is some general disdain with Ameriprise:

Ameriprise Financial Advisors Unofficial Consumer Opinion Site

Originally Posted by nagleepark

I know of Eric Heckman in downtown San Jose and Ameriprise in Campbell.

I agree with the other posters: If you can do it yourself, do it yourself. However, I have run across people who simply can't do it themselves. It is better to have a financial advisor than to liquidate your 401(k) for a spending spree.

[Heidi60]

My respected friend kept me telling me what a great advisor she had so I gave him a call. He claimed that since I had so little, he would just put it all in Cisco (LAZY) which was going for about $85 at the time. You know, it has been around $20 for several years now and I was happy I had learned about diversification before I talked to that guy. I decided I was very capable of losing my own money with my own honest effort without paying him a commission to do it for me. Start with making your investments on paper only and track them until you get comfortable. When the market was crashing my heart wanted to sink, but I just reminded myself that I had researched as best I knew how and would still buy the same funds regardless of market conditions. I couldn't even look at my balances at first but today I am so glad I didn't panic and sell a few years ago. My husband has an old tee shirt that says, I believe I can fly. You can too.

[SportyandMisty]

I recommend Glenn Smith.

Smith, Glenn D-Sequoia Financial Group Incorporated in Los Gatos | Smith, Glenn D-Sequoia Financial Group Incorporated (408) 395-1002 # 987 University Ave, #8, Los Gatos, CA 95032 | <Business to Business/Finance & Investment/Consulting> - Yahoo! US L

[SportyandMisty]

One note regarding target date funds. They seem very good in theory, but over the past decade there has been more than a little controversy surrounding them, and some litigation because of their execution. So do your homework on the specific fund. For example, I personally don't want a target date fund that invests in bond funds (rather than individual bonds) for a couple reasons. First, that bond fund charges a fee that is paid for with your money in the target date fund. Second, I'd rather have my assets allocated to debt be in individual bonds rather than in bond funds due to duration risk and interest rate risk. That's just me, but YMMV. I do my homework.

[Wintermomma]

I have a friend who went to one (out of the area) in regards to saving for her children's college and they asked very detailed questions and told them how much to put away each month and where to do it based upon what they were planning for their kids (2 yr, 4 yr public, 4 yr private...etc.).

Can anyone recommend someone who can help with such things? And knowing how to reverse engineer what we should be saving for retirement?

Thanks.

[nagleepark]

Originally Posted by Wintermomma

I have a friend who went to one (out of the area) in regards to saving for her children's college and they asked very detailed questions and told them how much to put away each month and where to do it based upon what they were planning for their kids (2 yr, 4 yr public, 4 yr private...etc.).

Can anyone recommend someone who can help with such things? And knowing how to reverse engineer what we should be saving for retirement?

Thanks.

I don't know a financial planner who does that (though they should!) but T. Rowe Price provides two charts, one for retirement and and one for college savings, that say, "If you've saved $X so far and you have Y number of years, then you need to save $Z per month." Those charts obviously only take into account a few factors but I've found those very, very helpful and got me into the right ballpark. The more complicated, online planners haven't been helpful to me; all of them have at least one flaw that incorrectly account for a significant part of my situation and throw the result so far off that they aren't useful.

[Nell Plotts]

There are financial planners, and financial planners. If you want advise on investing read Boggle's book. I have a brother who is so afraid of investing he is still in cash. We are 'mature' so the Vanguard Wellesley Income (a balanced fund) would be a good choice for him alternately Vanguard Dividend Appreciation fund (dividend paying stocks). One advantage of Fidelity is that you can meet with a representative but if you are buying funds not in their network you pay a fee. Your best bet is to educate yourself then choose the brokerage that works for you.

There is a lot more involved in financial planning than investing - life insurance, wills, trusts - for this advice pay by the hour.