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Comment by allenbrunson | Hacker News Reader

Here’s my own anecdote ...

After hearing so many people say positive things about Vanguard for so long, I set up an account there. They had pretty much all my disposable cash, in a Roth IRA, for about two years. Rather than begin the predictable uptick in wealth I expected, my results, having about $25K parked there, was that I lost about 300 bucks. I sent several messages asking what I could do about it, their responses were gobbledygook that I did not understand, so I took all my money back out. Praying that I don’t wind up with a huge tax burden this year, due to this mistake.

Here’s my message: regardless of the hype, Vanguard is not for unsophisticated investors. I am looking for an actual human being who can help me invest, now.

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What did you invest in? If a 1.2% swing (over how long of a period?) spooked you then you probably want a heavy bond to equity fund/balance.

see, those are the exact sort of questions, and answers, that you are prepared to provide. and you're probably pretty good at it! i am not. that's why vanguard didn't work for me.

i am going to pay an actual human being to give me a list of options, with all the pros and cons spelled out, so i can make limited decisions that wind up with my pile of money growing, instead of shrinking. if that's too much to ask, i'll just keep my money under a mattress, thanks.

> see, those are the exact sort of questions, and answers, that you are prepared to provide. and you're probably pretty good at it!

Thank you, but it really has been a recent thing for me. It's only in the past year that I actually worked out what this all means, passive versus active investments, pensions etc.

> i am going to pay an actual human being to give me a list of options

I totally understand that but do me a favour. Before you pay anyone or start down that route, watch this playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_chiIIxMGl0&list=PLXy71rkGuC...

It was accidentally stumbling across that which led to me getting my stuff together. At the very least it should give you a grounding in what to read up so as not to be blindsighted by any financial advice you may get in the future from a professional.

> instead of shrinking. if that's too much to ask, i'll just keep my money under a mattress, thanks.

Inflation is always eating away at your money there, no matter how thick your mattress is ;)

> Inflation is always eating away at your money there, no matter how thick your mattress is ;)

while that's true, if i'd kept my money under a mattress for the last two years, i'd have 300 bucks more than i have now. and with a lot less hassle.

so, here's another story. i hate paperwork. hate, hate, hate. i hate it enough that i pay a guy to do my taxes. i send him the forms as they trickle in, sign what he tells me to sign. he answers my dumb questions about my mortgage and my car loan and other financial stuff, when i ask them. i give him a check for like 200 bucks a year, and i consider it money well spent.

i've been working with this guy for over ten years now. he's proven himself to be absolutely trustworthy. i tried to give him even more money to manage my portfolio, but he is not interested in having that job, so he turned me down.

is it really impossible to find somebody like him, to be my money manager? while i hate paperwork, i am a really good judge of character. i dispensed with half a dozen shysters before i landed on my current guy. i could do the same thing with financial planners.

also, for the record, i started watching the videos. i heard that guy tell the same story, twice, about the woman who is far better prepared to invest (or not invest) in microsoft than i am, because she's steeped in it, day in, day out. um, duh? i am well aware that i am not going to do as well as that woman is, or i wouldn't be watching introductory videos on investing.

this is why i just want to pay a guy like my accountant to narrow down the decision tree for me.

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