rob@druxo.UUCP (MitchellRJ) (01/16/86)
Having a growing family and a house (i.e. mortgage) in suburbia sort of changes ones perspective on what to do with "spare" dollars. Recently I've been looking into "financial planning" and "financial planners" to attempt to prepare for the inevitable (don't ask what is inevitable, but something must be). Has anyone out there used the services of any "financial planners" (particularly fee-for-plan types), and if so has the information you've gained been of sufficient value to justify the cost. (So far I'm not convinced it would be). Otherwise, does anyone have any information on: "How to plan for your and your kids future when college will cost 30K a year (with no more student loans) and the gov't looks at you and says 'Social Security, naaaahhh, we discontinued that program way back in the 1990's'". I'm looking for anything. Formulas for computing monthly needs which account for inflation, various rates of return, and consideration of taxes if possible. Expected rates of inflation (any soothsayers out there), and obviously any hot tips for good returns on investments. If anyone has written a program for this, taking all the factors (insurance needs, possible disability needs, childrens education, retirement, medical costs of later years, tax considerations, etc., etc. etc.) into consideration :-), I'd love to get it. Thanks in advance for any information. rob mitchell druxo!rob 303-538-3830 Actually, I'd rather spend the money enjoying the sun and surf in the Caribbean. Obviously, if I expressed any opinions :-), they're mine and not those of my employer.
ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) (01/16/86)
Consumer Reports checked out a number of companies offering "financial planning." They found that each company's advice tended to be heavily weighted in favor of the products and services that were specialties of that company. Surprise, surprise. I have this sneaking suspicion that if you think about what your goals really are, you will probably do as well on your own as by going to the soothsayers.
alan@mtxinu.UUCP (Alan Tobey) (01/16/86)
> > Having a growing family and a house (i.e. mortgage) in suburbia sort > of changes ones perspective on what to do with "spare" dollars. > > Recently I've been looking into "financial planning" > and "financial planners" to attempt to prepare for the > inevitable (don't ask what is inevitable, but something must be). > Has anyone out there used the services of > any "financial planners" (particularly fee-for-plan types), > and if so has the information you've gained been of > sufficient value to justify the cost. (So far I'm not > convinced it would be). > January Consumer Reports has an article on financial planners who provide a canned service for a (more or less) fixed fee. The bottom line is mostly "don't bother."
bruceco@shark.UUCP (Bruce Coorpender) (01/17/86)
In article <1080@druxo.UUCP> rob@druxo.UUCP (MitchellRJ) writes: > > Recently I've been looking into "financial planning" > and "financial planners" to attempt to prepare for the > inevitable (don't ask what is inevitable, but something must be). > Has anyone out there used the services of > any "financial planners" (particularly fee-for-plan types), > and if so has the information you've gained been of > sufficient value to justify the cost. (So far I'm not > convinced it would be). I have retained the service of a 'plan for a fee' type of advisor. I talked to several at brokerages, and to my lack of surprise found that they usually recommended that I purchase securities thru them. I was not enthusiastic about a plan from someone whose income depended on my implementation of the plan. The plan for a fee guy seems OK. I am getting an education in regard to the many forms of instruments available. The fee was $1K for a plan and ongoing advise and recomendation for 1 year. Given that the fee is tax deductable, it find it reasonable for what I am getting/learning. This advisor focuses on retirement plans, and I find that he has a short-sighted view of tax shelters. That is that he recommends RELP (real estate limited partnership) and equipment leasing investments when my analysis of "real" invested $ (as opposed to tax $) only gives a return of 15% +/-1%. That doesn't thrill me when the deal is often tied up for 7+years. On the other hand he has affirmed my confidence of my strategy of using IRA, 401K, and mutual funds. My intent is to manage my own funds, and feel that the review of current investments and recommendations was worth the $1K. I wouldn't expect to find one for that price range that will lay out a detailed plan, do all the return analysis, and implement the plan on your approval. Besides, that part is the fun stuff. BC
whitten@ihnp1.UUCP (Tom G. Whitten) (01/18/86)
In article <1080@druxo.UUCP> rob@druxo.UUCP (MitchellRJ) writes: > > Recently I've been looking into "financial planning" > and "financial planners" to attempt to prepare for the > inevitable (don't ask what is inevitable, but something must be). As far as I am concerned, the best information comes from the journals of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). The journal is published 10 times per year and they average around 40 pages in length, except for the August issue which is a book called The Individual Investor's Guide to No-Load Mutual Funds. This organization does not recommend specific stocks or bonds, instead they give advice on evaluating various investment alternatives. The AAII also sets up day long seminars on Saturdays in major cities throughout the country. The seminars cover the topics of financial planning, stock screening and portfolio management, fundamentals of investing, real estate, and mutual funds. The seminars cost $110 for members, and the membership fee is $48 which includes the journal. If you are interested the address is: AAII 612 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 Good luck. Tom Whitten Uniq Digital Technologies @ AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, Illinois 312/979-5827 ihnp4!ihnp1!whitten
mykes@3comvax.UUCP (Mike Schwartz) (01/18/86)
I recommend Andrew Tobias' Managing Your Money program. I have it for the IBM PC, and if financial planning is what you want, you will get more from this program than you would from a financial advisor. It is organized in book format, with chapters on everything from your daily budget and checkbook, insurance requirements, income tax planning and form preparation, net wealth, investment portfolio, investor's calculator, real estate investment analysis. I always felt that a checkbook management program was the biggest waste of time (I do it by hand much faster than I could by computer). Managing Your Money has a chapter that is a checkbook management deal, but in this case, you are really creating a database that Managing your money uses to help you control your cashflow down to the penny. It even prints out checks for your monthly bills and other normal expenses. As you enter each transaction, you assign it to different budget categories that you want to track. It handles multiple checking, savings, credit card, and loan accounts. Transactions that happen frequently can be automated nicely. From the budget categories, Managing Your Money (MYM) fills out all the IRS tax fors, and predicts future cash flows. MYM is presented very nicely, using windows and user interaction in a very constructive and instructive way. It contains enough plain-english to easily fill a book, but it is interactive and can beoperated without all the explanations for effective daily use. I should mention that it requires that you use it regularly for most effective results (I use it twice a month). If you use it regularly for a whole year, you should be able to file the most beneficial tax return possible. And if you ever were auditted, your computer would make an excellent means for presenting your case. I went through the whole program last year, learning alot each time I used it. I printed out the help screens (shift print-screen on my AT&T 6300) as I read them, and collected a reference book. Some of the help screens deal with the operation of the program, while others contain text book educational type materials. The program was written in a custom language called c-saw, which of course was written in 'C', and made the program run pretty slow. However, c-saw appears to be powerful enough to have done a very nice program. I am not sure what I paid for it over a year ago, but if it were $400 or more it would be worth the price! The expense is a writeoff, and it should save you $400 in income tax (not to mention wasted expenses) the first year you use it. It has income tax tables built in that you can change once a year to keep it up to date. You can see your estimated (from the budget) income tax liability by using a couple of simple menus. You can do what if's and watch your tax liability change. MYM could have been better in a few areas, but I am more than pleased with it. It seems to use a lot of memory, and requires that you archive your checking accounts as you mark them received. I would prefer to be able to use the archive as a reference, but it requires an unarchive process that is not integrated with the program (a nice secondary program, though). It does not handle credit card payments very well, since it requires you to do transactions for your checkbook and credit cards separately. I have only reviewed 3 of the 9 chapters in the program, so you get an idea of what it's about. I have seen ads for similar type programs, like Dollars and Sense, maybe someone else will review another. xx~ NO CARRIER RING CONNECT
jck@uvacs.UUCP (01/20/86)
> > Having a growing family and a house (i.e. mortgage) in suburbia sort > of changes ones perspective on what to do with "spare" dollars. > > Recently I've been looking into "financial planning" > and "financial planners" to attempt to prepare for the > inevitable (don't ask what is inevitable, but something must be). > .......... > rob mitchell > druxo!rob Sometime ago I asked the net if anybody had any experience with financial advice from IDS American Express. I received no replies but I went ahead with the IDS analysis anyway. Since Rob Mitchell is now asking for comment on this general topic, I thought the net might be interested in a brief summary of my experience. First, it cost $250 plus lots of time collecting records. The results, a listing from a very naive analysis program - I mean really naive. The problem is that they base their analysis on numeric ratings of your assets and NEEDS. Now in response to the question "What income would you like for your wife if you die?" many people would respond "the same as now", and that is what gets entered. The results for me was to recommend $500,000 in life insurance.... The process of financial analysis needs some brains put into it not just checking off boxes in a questionnaire. None of their recommendations were completely off the wall except the life insurance but then most of the advice was obvious to anybody with a brain, a calculator, and a few hours of time. Was it worth the price? Well yes because (a) its tax deductable, (b) it made me collect records, and do some planning that I would not otherwise have done, and (c) I have not finished talking to them, and with my brains doing the planning their knowledge of financial instruments, it might actually be worthwhile. My advice - go to the library and read everything you can find on planning, then make your own analysis for each aspect of your financial affairs that matters using a sensible estimate of inflation and return on investments. -- John Knight CS Univ of Virginia ..!uvacs!jck