Who else is scared to look at their account statements from their financial advisors?

[raccoon]

It's gotten to where it takes me several days to work up the courage.

[panader0]

1. My girlfriend is my financial advisor.

I have no portfolio, savings or insurance. I do own my land and home however. My girlfriend puts food on my family.

[grannie4peace]

2. i cashed mine in at 59 1/2 because i was afraid of this.

it wasn't much but i didn't lose alot either. :)

[limit18]

11. Same here

[ComtesseDeSpair]

3. What's a "financial advisor"?

I think I could use one of those...

[raccoon]

7. I'm not sure they do anyone but themselves much good! nt

[no_hypocrisy]

4. My girlfriend had her entire retirement in a hedgefund.

Got a letter last month from her financial advisor, announcing the HF was entirely liquidated. She has no money for retirement due to a mini-Madoff scenario. Yes, her name is added to a class action suit but cold comfort.

[MercutioATC]

15. How long until she retires?

[no_hypocrisy]

18. She was hoping within five years.

[MercutioATC]

20. Unfortunately, a lot of people got caught.

Not trying to sound critical, but what was she doing in a high-risk fund that close to retirement? That's where most of the really horrible stories are coming from ...people with not enough time to recover.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Long story short:

She had her money "safely" invested with a guy whom she knew personally. He retired and gave her account to another guy. And my friend and her husband made the mistake of not asking questions, heard about the great annual returns, were satisfied, and didn't monitor the situation. They had no idea where their money was.

Which is a morality lesson to anyone who invests: Be responsible for your money and not sign off to your broker, your financial advisor, investment strategist, etc.

[Turbineguy]

5. Don't open them

That way you won't notice how the management fee percentage rises in proportion to your asset value drop.

[tosh]

13. So true. That was the horror that I discovered a couple of weeks ago.

I watch my investments daily so as NOT to be so shocked but I happened to open my year-end statement and saw....THE FEES!!

[hlthe2b]

6. Hell, given the state of health care access, few of us will

survive long enough to retire.... But, yes, you can count me among the 'non-openers'....

[MercutioATC]

8. If this crash had one positive effect, it was to teach people that money has to be managed.

There was NO reason to lose money over the last year. With very few exceptions, the people lost money because they either got greedy or chose not to monitor economic conditions.

Uninformed investing is just gambling...and most people lose when they gamble.

[raccoon]

10. No reason, except that that stock market crashed.

Some people WERE managing it, were diversified, in stocks and bonds and some cash.

There might have been a few out there who sold all their stocks/mutual funds/whatever before the crash happened. And good for them.

A lot of others may have been monitoring economic conditions and still lost money. A great many "experts" didn't foresee the crash.

[MercutioATC]

14. Perhaps I should have said "intelligently" managed it.

Diversification doesn't protect against loss...especially in a sharp downturn. Diversification is a strategy, not a philosophy for individual investors.

If you're a fund manager, diversification makes sense because you can't change your positions quickly. Diversification is a hedge.

If you're an individual investor, the only times you need to diversify are if 1) you don't plan to actively manage your money or 2) if you have no idea where things are going and you don't want to sacrifice potential returns.

In either position, there's risk...and one should NEVER diversify with the signs we've been seeing for the past few years, they should be 100% out of equities.


Think about who tells you that you always need to diversify...people who are goins to make money if you listen to them.

You wouldn't buy a car just because the "expert" car salesman told you that you needed one. Why would you listen to an "expert" broker who charges you fees for investing in their funds?

[raccoon]

17. I'm sure you're such a clairvoyant genius that you didn't lose anything at all

throughout all this. Unfortunately, not all of us have your crystal ball.

You may not intend it, but you're coming across as judgemental and a know-it-all.

[MercutioATC]

19. No, just an average guy...but I'm up over 8% in the last two years. 106% over the last six.

I'm not trying to be judgmental, but nothing is going to change if people don't take responsibility for their money.

401k's aren't evil unless you act like an enthusiastic amateur headed to Vegas for the first time.

[terisan]

9. I know some who opened the envelope & were pleasantly surprised. Hope you will be also. nt

[safeinOhio]

12. My best investment was $37.75

In 2006 I bought a shovel and some mason jars for that amount. Cashed in a third of my stocks, kept all of my CDs and bought some gold and silver. Every time my remaining stocks go down, the metal goes up. The reverse is also true.

[Warpy]

16. I look and laugh, actually

I look to see how the income is doing and it's been doing fine.

Since I had no intention of using the paper value to leverage debt, it's largely meaningless to me.

I inherited a shocking amount of money 2 years ago, enough to make me solidly middle class. I'm now barely middle class per net worth. It's never been quite real to me, though, so it's all just numbers.

However, the income is staying steady, and the income is what is keeping me going.