Target retirement fund- who's a fan

usctrojan24 said: So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money. Are the fees lower? b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount, so you can't lose money plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year. I have not seen returns over 20%.

Please advise.If you are selling annuities, you are not a financial planner. You are a salesman. Also, I call BS to your alleged performance. You would have to be doing something very risky for your entire portfolio to be up that much.

theman2 said: usctrojan24 said: So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money. Are the fees lower? b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount, so you can't lose money plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year. I have not seen returns over 20%.

Please advise.If you are selling annuities, you are not a financial planner. You are a salesman. Also, I call BS to your alleged performance. You would have to be doing something very risky for your entire portfolio to be up that much.

Wow. Crazy how people see annuities and label you as a saleman. I some annities work great for the right people. As far as the performance, could be true. I own a MF (AACFX) which is up around 70% YTD, so who knows....lol

usctrojan24 said: So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money.

I have no clue what you mean about forgetting bout the money.

Are the fees lower?

You're a financial planner. You should tell that to us.

b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount

I'm sorry, but I don't know what a "bump" is, nor a principal lock.

so you can't lose money

I get scared whenever I read this.

plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year.

Very impressive. Care to share your investment philosophy. Is it simply buying overseas and betting that the dollar will weaken?

I have not seen returns over 20%.

I assume that this is a typo for not seeing returns under 20%. If you made that mistake, then I join with theman2 in calling BS. Otherwise, I would say that you have issues with numbers.

Please advise.

Above.

Personally I think that target retirement funds are great for people that either aren't interested or unable to manage their own retirement.

Target retirement funds are also good for people who do not have a lot of money to invest up front. Most of the low-cost mutual funds have a relatively high minimum balance to not incur extra fees. It is a lot easier to meet the minimum balance requirement on a single fund that has a good allocation than to make your own allocation and meet the minimum balance requirement on every fund you buy. Being a poor graduate student, this is the number one reason I own a target retirement fund.

usctrojan24 said: Wow, the anger. Apparently financial planners are salesmen only, they serve no valid purpose. Thank you thursday for the response to the question. I just wanna know if i should advise my clients about any other benefits. I like that unlike annuities there is a certain amount of portability. Thursday do u still have money in there?It is not anger (at least for me). But the facts that you are asking the questions you do, disclosing that you sell annuities, and calling yourself a financial planner all at the same time just doesn't add up. You can't be a financial planner if you are unable to understand these basic issues yourself. Sorry, but someone who sells annuities without a good grasp of the financial world is a salesman, not a financial planner.

You would be surprised how little some financial planners know. I recognize there too many products and variations that knowing all of them would cause information overload. I need to know as many things as possible considering I am relatively new. When you become a planner, you are not handed every intelligent reason for and against a certain action. You just need to take classes and pass a test, the equivalent of a stock broker and taking the series 7. They don't teach you a about new funds like target funds, we barely covered ETFs.
BTW, I chose FW because I trust it and have learned a great deal in the past.

usctrojan24 said: You would be surprised how little some financial planners know. .thanks for confirming why we dont usually recomment them. if the typical reader of FWF knows more than financial planners, thats a great reason to just use them for the free steak dinners and $75 AMEX GCs

Why are we so critical of financial planners? Some people just have a need to have someone plan out their lives because they dont have the time to research it themselves. Personally I love to do my own financial work but I hate medical things. So I have a medical planner. He told me to take 3 blue pills, 1 purple pill and 2 red pills each day. I have no idea what they are but I feel great! Most of the time, but sometimes I vomit and it hurts when I pee. But hes a medical planner so I trust him and his brother, the Pharmacist that sells me the drugs.

brianbrianbrian said: He told me to take 3 blue pills, 1 purple pill and 2 red pills each day. I have no idea what they are but I feel great!

How do you know it's not a placebo?

Let me guess, OP will next tell us how well VUL's work in portfolios for "retirement planning"

germanpope said: usctrojan24 said: Wow, the anger. Apparently financial planners are salesmen only, they serve no valid purpose. Thank you thursday for the response to the question. I just wanna know if i should advise my clients about any other benefits. I like that unlike annuities there is a certain amount of portability. Thursday do u still have money in there?

don't worry USC ... this is a blue collar website ... FW folks go to San Jose State, Tujunga Community College, ect. ... they have to work for a living ...you went to USC ... if folks will buy large annunity contracts from you ... enjoy

Haha I'm ashamed to be a Trojan tonight...

[FYI some of us work our a$$es off to pay down $40k in outstanding student loans! ]

"I am a financial planner".....looking for advice on some shopping deal site forum......WOW.......PRICELESS!

ArbolLoco said: usctrojan24 said: Thank you psycho. I would have never thought of that reason because of my clientèle. Thank you everyone, my first question on FW got some great answers in a relatively short period.speaking of psychos... I was shopping around for structured settlement annuities for a settlement I'm working on... and someone gave me this number for these guys in NY that are supposedly good.

Now I have Vin Diesel calling me and telling me I'm missing the opportunity of a lifetime and Giovanni Ribisi calling my cellphone all the time and annoying the hell out of me.

I wonder how many people here get this. I laughed.

mikef07 said: ArbolLoco said: usctrojan24 said: Thank you psycho. I would have never thought of that reason because of my clientèle. Thank you everyone, my first question on FW got some great answers in a relatively short period.speaking of psychos... I was shopping around for structured settlement annuities for a settlement I'm working on... and someone gave me this number for these guys in NY that are supposedly good.

Now I have Vin Diesel calling me and telling me I'm missing the opportunity of a lifetime and Giovanni Ribisi calling my cellphone all the time and annoying the hell out of me.

I wonder how many people here get this. I laughed.The funny part is I am not kidding. These guys are annoying the hell out of me.

iseetrails said: I know that at least with T Rowe Price Target Retirement Funds that there are no fees above the underlying fund fees. I can make my four quarterly $3,750 SEP IRA contributions fully diversified without meeting all of the individual funds' minimums. And, my 2035 fund is five-star rated with Morningstar. I am pretty happy, because as a busy adjuster running my own busy, I don't have an hour per week to research each individual stock I own like Jim Cramer suggests.I'm in the same fund. And also Vanguard's equivalent. I can meet the minimums for the component parts -- in fact I am invested in most of them as well. I am a poor manager when it comes to simplifying my life.

techflyer said: iseetrails said: I know that at least with T Rowe Price Target Retirement Funds that there are no fees above the underlying fund fees. I can make my four quarterly $3,750 SEP IRA contributions fully diversified without meeting all of the individual funds' minimums. And, my 2035 fund is five-star rated with Morningstar. I am pretty happy, because as a busy adjuster running my own busy, I don't have an hour per week to research each individual stock I own like Jim Cramer suggests.

I also have some money in these funds, although I do manage about 2/3's of my portfolio on my own. I'm waiting to see what comes out better.You can't really judge much by which comes out better, unless your target funds do, in which case, stop acting on your own. But if you actively managed portion does better, you have to do a risk analysis as well. My actively managed portfolio has been doing extraordinarily well because I have a lot of money invested in a company that makes ipods. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be invested in target funds or the market as a whole because my risk profile is very high being so concentrated...

DavidScubadiver said: I read a thoughtful posting regarding the advisability of investing in a target retirement fund outside a tax sheltered account. In essence, it is argued to invest inside an IRA for these types of investments because if you hold them to term as they are intended, you will eventually be shifted over to a large bond portfolio and you don't want the income taxed. And you can't just "sell" 15 years down the line without paying huge capital gains taxes (hopefully). So the recommendation, which seems right to me, is to keep these investments in a tax sheltered account.

I can't believe that no one had given this post green. This is such a valuable insight.

ArbolLoco said: usctrojan24 said: Thank you psycho. I would have never thought of that reason because of my clientèle. Thank you everyone, my first question on FW got some great answers in a relatively short period.speaking of psychos... I was shopping around for structured settlement annuities for a settlement I'm working on... and someone gave me this number for these guys in NY that are supposedly good.

Now I have Vin Diesel calling me and telling me I'm missing the opportunity of a lifetime and Giovanni Ribisi calling my cellphone all the time and annoying the hell out of me.
Boiler Room, good flick.