🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9208251722.AA03647@neptune.think.com>, lincoln@think.com (Lincoln Marta) writes:
> Yesterday, I spoke with someone from IDS, who called
> himself a financial planer.  The meeting was quite informative
> and his deal sounded very promising.  His price was $350 for 
> doing a financial analysis.

I met with a financial planner once, and found it enlightening, not so
much for my financial picture, but as a picture of that industry.  The
guy I met with was a fee-only planner, and I got the feeling from him
that they try and put a package together and base their fee on the value
of their plan.  It also seemed like they try to shoot for fees that are
at least $1500...in my case they couldn't offer me advice that was worth
that kind of a fee, so there was no reason for them to try to sell me
a plan.

You have some options...one is to go ahead and pay for his plan.  You
can also purchase his securities and pay his commission.  Or you can
duplicate his recommendations with your own choices.  For example, he
may offer you a agressive growth mutual fund, and you can easily find
a no-load choice on the market.

Another option is one that seems to be recommended in misc.invest all
the time:  instead of paying for a financial plan, read some books.
The principles seem to be pretty straightforward.  misc.invest will
periodically post lists of books to read.  I started with Andrew
Tobias' "The Only Other Investment Guide You'll Ever Need", a rather
easy-to-read book.

If you have unusual circumstances (lots of debt, soon-to-be college
age kids, etc.) or no time to read, then a financial planner may make
more sense than trying it on your own.

Guy
-- 
Guy Klose
milo@mvuxi.att.com