Me and my wife are 40 and we have a little over 50,000$ in an IRA
It dose not seem to be doing much at all some times it will go up a little
Bit but it seems to kind of slowly creep back down.I know 50.000.00
Is not that much for how old we are that's why I want to put this money to work at it's full potental without to big a risk.
We pay for the services by a fixed amount each year.Is a company that gets paid by % better? Since they would want a person to do better on earnings so the advisor himself would make more $.
I do not talk to my advisor much but when I do he kind of get's me going like by making me think we are going to do good on our returns but we just do not see it.I know it takes time and it sounds like I am in a hurry to see big returns.I am not I just want to try to make sure I am not wasting valuable time.
We really no nothing about the market.When I met our advisor I told him that and I told him to do what ever he thinks would be best for us in our situation
We put all our trust in him and I just hope he is not ripping us off.
Is there any one that has pretty good knowlge of this subject that can give us a couple good tips.
Thanks in advance DougandElizabeth

Just reading your post, it is not easy to tell if your advisor is ripping you off or not. I will give you a following tip to avoid this situation entirely.

I would recommend finding a good mutual company with variety of IRA mutual funds. Most mutual fund companies offer diversified portfolio so that you can divide your $50000 into 5 different funds (for random example: Asian, high-tech, Dow utilities, high-yield bond, small growth). Most companies offer "no-load" funds which means it does not cost a penny to move balance around from one fund to another. They also offer on-line service which you can make transactions. Most importantly, most mutual fund companies have advisors to give you free advice on how to diversify your portfolio, and re-balance it once in a while (every 6 to 12 months).


I use Wells Fargo. I have 4 different mutual funds with the company and did fairly well for the last 8 years using the above method.

rkim291968 is correct in that nowadays it is pretty easy to manage your own portfolio - and not pay anyone.

But if you do want someone to manage it for you, shopping around is the most important part.

And in my opinion, you should never pay fees other than a percentage of your portfolio.

Shop around based on, of course, that fee percentage amount, but also for someone who will show you some of his clients' portfolios so you can look at this history of those funds and stocks.

If you know of anyone with a portfolio and advisor that they're happy with, start there.

Hi,
According to some research on http://www.google.com, the current average interest rate on IRA's is about 1.76% per year... not very much at all.
For $50,000, that is an average interest of around $880 per year.
The average Manager's fee is around $5 per month, or $60 per yr.
So, your $50,000 is making around $820 in a year... not much.
Now, is your financial advisor a "small time" one? Such as one who sells life insurance or auto insurance, operating out of an office in a rented building?
Or, is he/she located in an office in a well known bank, and is part of the Banks' employees?
I would look for a financial advisor, part of a well known Bank, with an office in the Bank building itself. A person such as this is not likely to be taking you for granted, or "ripping" you off.
As for an IRA, the taxes will have to be paid when you withdraw the money. For example, most will take out 20%, just for Federal Taxes!
State taxes vary, but in VA, that's another 4% added on, totaling 24% going to Federal and State taxes.
I would suggest talking with a reputable financial advisor, one who is part of a well know bank in your local area; get some professional advice. After talking with this person, you might want to invest in some other means, like a Balanced Account, which is half in stocks and bonds, and the other half in whatever he/she recommends. Currently, a Balanced Account with Prudential is paying around 8% interest. For $50,000, that's $4,000 a yr interest!
Best of luck,
fredg

If you even ask a question like this you know in your heart that your getting screwed to the wall. Vanguard is the low cost manager for IRA's. They sell mutual funds with very low management fees. Some as low as .05%.

The problem right now is the market just had a very high run up in Energy sectors and precious metals. A good manager would have had you in these sectors and is now selling and taking a tax free profit if your IRA is a Roth which it should be. He should have turned your 50K into 150K in the past 2-3 years. Too late for that now. There are no hot sectors right now that I would recommend. Mid caps maybe. Ask Vanguard but don't let them sell you bonds. Basic stock advice 101A, if you like a company buy it, if you hate a company sell it.

Hello, first what was your instructions, does your investment have to be 100 percent safe or are your willing to invest part or all in higher returns but ones that can also lose.

For example I have money in a regular IRA it is guarnteed 3 percent but last year did 3.7 or so. Not very good. I have money in a 401K ( I decide what and where the funds are divided and I pick all of the investments) I stick with Vanguard investments on most of them and have done over 10 percent in all of them ( but I could have lost money also)

I check their rates of retuen on the funds weekly and if I see a trend I check it out and make changes in it normally monthly if a change needs to be made.

It sounds like he put your money into the safeset level of investment which is perhaps what you told him to do, he is then limited.

I would suggest you contact someone at a major bank or investment house.