I bought into fund managers some time ago with the help of a financial advisor and have added more since then. I now have about nine in a diversified portfolio.
I am learning more about how to invest and i am considering D.I.Y. on a small scale until i know more about it.
I have sacked my current financial advisor as he is telling me to hold on for the long term anyway. I can't see any sense in paying lots of money for him when the fund managers and a multimanager are doing the work. I have eliminated the middle man and I am able to basically manage my investment without him.
I am considering taking my recent action further and investing in shares directly without fund managers and financial advisors taking a big slice of the action. However I am not experienced or knowledgeable enough yet to manage my investments completely on my own without any fund managers.
Does anyone have any thoughts regarding using fund managers or directly investing in the stock market?:confused:
prawn_86
16th-March-2009, 04:57 PM
Does anyone have any thoughts regarding using fund managers or directly investing in the stock market?:confused:
Im in a rush so cant go into detail, but i think you will find that virtually everyone here invests directly, most directly into shares, but some also own funds.
Most of the research suggests that, on average, over the long term fund managers do not better than the index (at best), so there is a fair arguement for just buying an index fund...
Although i want a job as a fund manager eventually so perhaps you should keep them ;)
wonderrman
16th-March-2009, 05:00 PM
DIY all the way! The only fund I would consider investing in is Platinum International.
light bearer
25th-March-2009, 06:01 PM
Thanks for sharing :) I am trying out the "Can you Beat Trevor" stock market game from Westpac. I might win $25,000.
beamstas
25th-March-2009, 08:41 PM
D.I.Y.
You have worked hard for your money (i assume), why place it into the hands of someone who couldn't care less about it.
Im pretty sure a fund manager wouldn't lose sleep over your money.
You earnt it, you have the right to lose it yourself :rolleyes:
Seriously though, look at all the top traders of the world. How many of those guys got there from putting their money into the hands of fund managers :D
Brad
Gordon Gekko
25th-March-2009, 09:18 PM
Your situation sounds very similar to mine about 18 months ago. I was with a scum bag FA who made all the promises of bi annual reviews and a helping hand ra ra ra.
Let me guess, you were paying 2 to 4% in upfront contribution fee's, 1 to 2% in management expense ratio's and he has probably also talked you into a margin loan where he is also getting a kick back.
You did the right thing in firing his ass. You can get better results over a five year period from an Australian index fund such as STW. and save yourself a small fortune in fee's.
Active managed funds like the ones you are most likely in also buy and sell all year long which puts you in a pickle when it comes to tax time.
If you look at the make up of most of your Aussie funds they most likely hug the bench mark anyway, I. E the top 20 stocks are the top 20 in the index. Why would you pay all the fees to hug the index?
There are various threads on the subject that helped me on this forum. If you don't have the time to school up just buy the index!
In a nut shell they sold out of the market in early OCT and are mostly in
cash, this came about after significant losses....so there happy as fund
managers to be in cash and therefore not actually managing anything.
Pretty strange...a property investment fund that don't own any property
shares, there return after 8 months in cash is 2.43%
