Where Did You Learn To Invest?

| Nov 04, 2009 | 9 comments

So where did I learn to invest?  Nowhere in particular.  A lot of Personal finance blog reading, random quips across the internet.  A bit through my financial advisor; Edward Jones, which I have had about 12 different reps there in 8 years.  High turnover apparently – So I also recently finished up “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki (book review to come, I give it 5 out of 10 stars, some decent info, a bit too much “buy my stuff” yammering though) and he learned to invest from a young age, through his “Rich Dad”. From my personal experience, this sounds like it is an exception to the rule though. I have never gotten any advice from anyone without my asking first. I have a financial advisor that I’m getting more and more interested in how she’s investing me, and where she is. Currently she only has the whole life insurance policy that I talked about yesterday. She’s got some good ideas, she’s young, excited about it, but I don’t think has a very firm grasp on all the questions I ask, which are mounting more every day. But I digress.

I have my ROTH IRA managed by an investment rep at Edward Jones, which takes $40/year for admin fees, which I’m not too fond of, and I found out today that there is a 5.00 deferred load on the amount, so I’m setting up a conversation with him in regards to that this Friday. Can I get out of this ROTH he’s got me in? It’s not doing too bad, but if they “have the option” to take 5.00% of it when I cash out, how about no?

My parents haven’t taught anything to me, nor do I know anyone whos parents taught them anything about money. Maybe it is just coming from the small town that brings that on. My parents are just now realizing that they won’t be able to retire in in the next 10 years (they’re both 55) and they’re going to be working quite a bit longer than that. My Mom is far worse off than Dad as Dad has remarried and has a good job; Mom, on the other hand hasn’t got much at all for retirement, maybe 10k. One of my goals next year is to help her open a ROTH that I can start contributing a little bit to for her; maybe I can wrangle in my siblings…

So who taught you about investing? Why don’t we have a class in school about it? Do we really need 4 years of english class in high school? Honestly, literature is important, but it hasn’t gotten many too far in life (no offense writers). How about just swapping one of those English classes out with a “Finance 101″ course that can teach kids about investing, about saving, about 401ks, and ROTH IRAs, Mutual funds, loads, expense ratios, etc… The list goes on, and this is just something I have been putting together over the past 2 months or so, but more to come. I just crafted up a better visual of my finances that I’ll probably post tomorrow for investigation -

So, full circle, who taught you to invest? Where did you learn?

Filed Under: advice • ROTH IRA

  • http://www.moolanomy.com Pinyo

    5%, they must be joking right? That’s could be one year worth of living expense when you retire.

    I also completely agree with teaching money management in school.

  • hank

    @Pinyo – tell me about it, I’m definitely going to be discussing it Friday… :)

  • Pingback: Investing » Where did you learn to invest?

  • Pingback: My early follies in the get rich quick schemes - - myinvestingblog.com

  • hank

    ok – so the 5% deferred load is basically an “insurance policy” for me to keep the ROTH with them. It steps down for 8 years from the 5% and then is no fee after that. Just keeping me in the program. They’ve done well since ’74 so I figure I’ll keep it cooking -

  • http://steadfastfinances.com Matt SF

    Since it’s a deferred load fee, the percentage charged will probably decline as time progresses. So the longer you keep it in, the less it will cost.

    A friend of mine had a deferred load fee on her IRA mutual funds at Legg Mason, and it will eventually fall back to zero if she doesn’t touch it for something like 7 years.

    Only problem is she kept DCA’ing into the fund every quarter, so until you break the cycle, you’re stuck with possibly paying this sneaky back end fee.

  • http://investing.curiouscatblog.net/ John Hunter

    I learned to invest from Value Line, a few good investing books and by investing. There is no substitute for actually putting money on the line and investing yourself. Bogle’s books are a great place to start. Marketocracy is a interesting web site that lets you track a portfolio of investments – I have been managing 2 portfolios there for year and have been beating the S&P 500 by over 5% annually.
    .-= John Hunter´s last blog ..Consumer Debt Down Over $100 Billion So Far in 2009 =-.

  • Stev

    I learnt online from some paid and free sites. Now I am investing and living off my profits. Had no opportunity for a proper course.
    .-= Stev´s last blog ..Pouch Laminators – Things to Consider When Buying a Pouch Laminator Or Laminating Machine =-.

  • http://www.themarketforecast.com Steve

    I fell into the investing world after being asked to write some software for some traders. They had me read “The Profit Magic of Stock Market Transaction Timing”. It’s about the cyclical nature of the markets.

    It was an amazing transformation for me, once I actually started seeing that most of what WallStreet feeds you is BS.