DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Members of certain financial and investment advisory groups have chosen to work with their clients solely on a client-paid “fee-only” basis. Members of certain fee-only advisory organizations have pledged to work with their clients through fee-only compensation arrangements. These organizations do not issue certifications. They are membership organizations. National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) […]
There are three primary types of third party or commission-based compensation: commission-only, fee-based commission, and fee-offset commission. How an advisor is compensated can be a very important issue. With commission-only advisors, there is no direct cost to the client for planning and advice. The advice appears to be free, but it is not. Most clients […]
There are three primary types of client paid advisor compensation: hourly-fee, fixed-fee, and asset-fee. When choosing an advisor, individuals should first decide the type of advisor compensation that makes them most comfortable. How an advisor is compensated can be a very important issue. When you hire a financial planner or investment advisor, 1) you pay […]
Yes, it can matter significantly how a financial advisor is paid. The heart of the compensation issue is an advisor’s potential “conflict of interest” with respect to payments from third parties. Does third party compensation change the quality of the recommendations that the advisers make? If an advisor works on sales commissions or accepts other […]
CLICK HERE TO READ THE SKILLED INVESTOR’s OTHER ARTICLES ABOUT THESE “10 FINANCIAL PLANNING STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.” The single most significant financial lever that individuals control directly is their management of personal expenditures. The second is their lifetime effort to obtain sufficient income. Most people simply do not save enough of their current […]
Part 3 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do” with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers unsolicited advice, sales pressure, and account decision-making discretion. You should never do certain things with […]
Part 2 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do†with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers fees, payments, and proprietary investments. You should never do certain things with a financial planning […]
Part 1 of the The Never-Do List – 22 Good Ways to Avoid Financial Advisor and Investment Counselor Frauds and Scams This article discusses things that you should “never do†with a financial planner or investment advisor, and it covers adviser selection, contracts, signatures, and ownership title of your assets. You should never do certain […]
Avoiding financial advisor and investment counselor frauds and scams – Overview The best way to avoid being defrauded or scammed by a financial or investment advisor is to investigate carefully several different advisers before hiring one of them. If you carefully choose a financial adviser or investment counselor, you have a far greater chance of […]
< <– Go to Part 4 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Conclusion Financial Planning Software for Home Use This article concludes our series on the greatest personal finance story of the past thirty years. In this article, we discuss whether the dramatic growth in equity value of the financial […]
< <– Go to Part 2 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 3 Discover Home Financial Planning Software There is no reason to believe that industry self-regulation or governmental regulation will ever fix these problems. Only those individuals who become wise enough to be proactive and seek out lower […]
The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 1 What could the biggest personal finance story of three decades be? The growth of mutual funds and ETFs? Nope. The dot com boom and bust? Nope. Vanishing pensions? Nope. The not-so-high quality of mortgage bonds? Nope. A 0% personal savings rate nationally? […]
Introduction: Roth IRA Contributions versus Traditional IRA Contributions for Renters In a series of articles, The Skilled Investor compares different lifetime financial planning projections for Fran and Fred Frugal to illustrate the relative value of adopting different financial planning strategies. Fran and Fred, both ages 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined […]
VeriPlan can estimate the lost lifetime value of investment sales loads that you have already paid in the past Your personal investment portfolio losses related to past investment sales load payments can and should be measured, when you evaluate the cost-efficiency of your investment strategy. However, you cannot recapture any of the lost returns (past […]
How expensive is financial advisor compensation paid via sales loads? A sales load might be the method that you prefer to compensate your broker or advisor. If your advisor is truly competent and ethical, he may be able to manage properly the inherent conflicts of interest that are associated with commissioned investment product sales. Even […]
Financial research drives industry product development, but not necessarily toward the best interests of individuals Personal financial decisions seem to have become very complicated. To add to the confusion, the financial services industry develops an unending array of supposedly innovative new products. However, a large part of the complexity that individuals face results from the […]