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This shark attack is also one of the most common mistakes people make about their life savings and investments–leaving their entire financial matter to somebody else. Nobody, and I mean nobody, does a better job of taking care of your money than the person you see in the mirror.
When I was a young teacher, I found this out first hand. Managing my money was the last thing on my mind. I was way too busy with the “important stuff.” Later, I painfully discovered that there are plenty of “financial professionals” who would love to “watch” my money! Don’t make the same mistake I made. You may even discover how to take 100% responsibility for managing your money (AKA, DIY, do it yourself) or hire a genuine fiduciary financial adviser who can assist you.
Two Shark Repellant Organizations that will Guide you to a Genuine Fiduciary
These two organizations will help you find a fee-only financial adviser who will sign fiduciary oaths to look after your best interests (if they don’t sign them, report them to the organization immediately).
- National Association of Personal Financial Advisers: https://www.napfa.org/
- Garrett Planning Network: https://garrettplanningnetwork.com/
They are not sharks, but still, you need to monitor your adviser to see that you are reaching your financial goals. The hourly fee of $300.00 or $400.00 dollars per hour is not the problem! (I pay my tax man a one-time fee of $485.00 every year to do my taxes). It is the Assets Under Management (AUM) of 1.0% or more which IS the problem because it is ongoing year after year. 1.0+% AUM is too high! Yes! even some fiduciaries charge a high AUM fee. Negotiate with your fiduciary adviser for a lower AUM fee of .75% or lower.
Print out this fiduciary oath to take to your financial adviser: https://403bwise.org/images/uploads/pdf/403bwise_advisor_fiduciary_pledge.pdf
If your current adviser declines to sign a fiduciary oath, find one that does.
Ok, I hired a Fiduciary Financial Advisor from one of the Organizations above. He or she signed the fiduciary pledge, now what?
If you have a fiduciary adviser, begin the monitoring process by these two questions: 1. What are my YTD returns, the most recent completed year, and the last three, five and ten years? and 2. What am I paying you for your services? (Click here for details I wrote on a recent blog post about working with your adviser). Never looking at your statements and/or leaving the entire matter up to a financial adviser, insurance agent, or that broker at one of the many local financial firms is too common. Get to know your financial adviser.
Congratulations!
If you already hired a fee-only financial adviser who signed the fiduciary oath, and they answered the two most coveted questions written above to your satisfaction, congratulations. Just finding one is a daunting challenge, but an accomplishment!
As you read this entire Shark Attack Series, you will discover all 67 “Repellents” needed to take charge of your money and your financial future for you and your family. Managing your finances is not as scary or complicated as you might have thought.
Steve’s Late Bloomer Wealth BIO
Stephen A. Schullo, Ph.D. (UCLA ’96) taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 24 years and UCLA Extension teaching educational technology to student teachers. Steve wrote investment articles for the United Teacher-Los Angeles (UTLA) union newspaper for 13 years. He has been featured and quoted in many mainstream media articles about 403(b) plans, including the Los Angeles Times, NY Times, and U.S. News and World Report. He co-founded an investor self-help group 403bAware for teacher colleagues and wrote 7,500 posts in three investment forums since 1997. He testified at California State legislative hearings and honored with the “Unsung Hero” award by his teacher’s union for his retirement planning advocacy.
For the last 14 years, he serves as a volunteer on LAUSD’s Investment Advisory Committee as a “Member-at-Large” and former co-chair. The committee contains collective bargaining reps from the unions and monitors the district’s tax-deferred retirement plans, 457b/403b, of 55,000 former and current LAUSD employees, worth $2.8 billion in total assets.
He started this blog in 2012 to help all PreK-12 public school educators nationwide, especially his Los Angeles Unified School District colleagues. He belongs to a small national group of 403(b) advocates (mostly teachers) who want to bring closer attention to the 403(b). During the last 25 years, 38 newspaper articles have been published and each one says the same thing, TSAs (Tax Sheltered Annuities) are terrible 403(b) plans and the salesperson gets the benefit from lucrative commissions and high costs. Nobody in educational leadership reads these articles NOR talk about the proper place for annuity products publically. We come together at 403bwise.com and 403bwise Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/349968819000560/ Come on over if you want to join us so we can help our colleagues avoid these self-conflicted and high-cost Tax-sheltered Annuities (TSAs).
Steve is the author of two books, Late Bloomer Millionaires and Fighting Powerful Interests: Educators Challenge Tax-sheltered Annuities and WIN!, a story of how a handful of LAUSD educators struggled for years to improve the 403(b) to no avail. But we never quit! We were instrumental in LAUSD’s implementation of the new 457(b) plan and earned a very rare, but very precious “Plan Design” award.
For a copy of both books, email Steve at steve.schullo@latebloomerwealth.com and he will happily email you both books, FREE with no obligation except to read them and get informed, in a pdf file format.