Playing it too safe
Can a financial advisor give the wrong advice? Yes, especially towards young people who are starting which was my case, they went way too safe and too conservative to the point that my savings in my retirement account were gaining peanuts barely over 2% a year. I switched banks and never looked back.
Either too safe or too risky. You probably hear tons of stories, especially wasting many years of young people who could have put those crucial early years to better use under a better advisor.
Related Horror Stories
Not sure if I should trust financial advisor
I recently started seeing a financial advisor at First Command I met through a mutual family friend. The advisor is obviously very knowledgeable about retirement and investing, but I can't help but think the funds they are suggesting I invest in are more for their profit than my well-being.
They suggested a couple of accounts through Fidelity Advisor that have large percentages to invest in (some of the percentage goes to the advisor). The funds have a good history, but I can't tell if it's a smart move for me or if they are just trying to profit. Additionally, the advisor suggested a whole-life insurance plan.
They explained how they profit from it (basically, the cash value goes to them the first 2 years), but it still seems like a good plan to me.
Deceived for Commission
When I was new and wanted to buy mutual funds, they sold me ULIP in the name of Mutual Funds, which they were not dealing even, but for getting some commision, they found me a good prey.
Nokia will rule the cell phone market
My 1 experience with a financial advisor 18 years ago. I did my high school senior project on investing. So my “mentor” was this financial advisor. I had 5k from my grandmothers to invest in (my great grandmother has mutual funds for all the grandkids so I cashed mine out and my grandma also threw in $1,000 for me)
Anyway.
His can’t miss these are about to be the next big thing picks were Nokia and Pioneer energy services. So Nokia only ever went downhill, I bought I think around $16 and sold at $5 some years later. Pioneer it actually had tripled at one point to $18 then a year later it was $2 then they went bankrupt so bye bye to that money.
I was really into computers back then, I had built my own and talked to him about how everyone in gaming was using Nvidia GeForce graphics cards. He has no interest in it. I can still hear his whiny voice saying how computer industry moves so fast and there will always be some new better faster thing on the market so that would be bad to invest in. And how Nokia was going to rule the cell phone market for years and years.
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