I will attempt to make this story brief. A few years back, Mr. Turner made an offer, in one of his columns, that, if anyone requested it, they could contact him and he would refer them to a financial advisor. Suffice it to say that he referred me to a certain advisor who turned out to be a mutual fund salesperson who talked a good game but who, when all was said and done, made money off of my money for himself while I only lost money. After some time, I noted that Mr. Turner often showed up as a guest speaker at seminars put on by said mutual fund salesperson. It's a long story but, after falling for the trap and going with this 'advisor', in the end, I had no good opinions of either Mr. Turner or of his friend and acquaintance, the self-serving salesperson. Now, I wouldn't bother listening to anything that he has to say or write. The only good thing to come out of the entire experience was that I ended up so angry that dumped the salesperson and vowed to manage my own investments after that based on the 'Couch Potato' formula. Now, at least no salesperson is getting rich on my money.
From the July 2012 issue of 'Consumer Reports': "Over a lifetime of saving, fees can really scramble your nest egg. An American household of two median-income investors found that they will pay, on average, almost $155,000 in investment fees over 40 years. And because mutual funds take fees off the top before reporting rates of return and share prices, account holders generally have no inkling how much all of this costs them. Compare for example the net expense ratios--operating costs--of a top fund in the U.S. and a popular index fund benchmarking the same financial index. The managed fund charges $13.90 per $1000 invested annually while the index fund charges $2. Growing at 9 percent annually over 20 years (optimistically!), $10,000 invested with the index fund would grow to $53,847 compared with just $42,358 with the managed fund. In Canada, the difference would be even greater given the higher fees generally charged here. Not only that but a 2010 Morningstar study found that low-cost funds consistently performed better than high-cost funds, regardless of asset class or time period."
This then leaves me wondering why Mr. Turner, when contacted by me, referred me to a mutual fund salesperson who proceeded to build a portfolio for me of high fee managed funds and subsequently switched me from fund to fund over the time that I was with him. The result was that I was paying big fees while losing money while the salesperson and mutual fund companies continued to make money off of my money. It's nice work if you can get it!!
Suffice it to say that the entire experience left me a complete cynic when it comes to the self-interests of the entire financial services industry and those who make a living off of writing about it.
I realize that the topic-starter was not asking for any of this but the mere mention of Garth Turner just sets me off
Take charge of your own money because nobody cares about it as much as you do and assume that nobody involved in the financial services industry will put your best interests ahead of theirs. It's a tough, cruel world out there!!!
Live and learn.
