REGN ~ Opinions?

[Runner]

How do I do that?

Talk to him and ask questions. If he starts stumbling you will have your answers.

[Runner]

His main goal might be to please the people with deep pockets. He should not make you feel bad regardless of how large your account is. If he fails in this area would you want to deal with this person? If your getting mixed feelings about him you may reconsider your options. The bottom line is that you will need to make the decision.

[Runner]

I'm not going to speak down about an advisor as it is not my place to do so. If your interested in the game then you will put in the required work.

[peanuts]

...If your interested in the game then you will put in the required work.

Well said!

Mary,

I'm glad you didn't take my post too hard. I think that mutual funds are a "safe" way to invest. They take you out of the daily game, but offer somewhat stable investments over time. The thing is, is that you'll never make more than average returns. The reason why we all look at charts, study the company's background, scour news reports, compare competitors, track sectors, project earnings, and all the other research we do is to help us to get an edge on the average return that mutual funds offer us. We have the same options as everyone else, but we choose to take on the added risk and responsibility to manage our own wealth. We are, in effect, our own financial advisors.

I haven't seen the type of behaviour from the mass of people here that I saw in you while reading your post. I was cringing because I thought you made a fast and rash decision with your future wealth. Financial Advisors are human (not Vulcan) so they are just like you and me and are susceptible to errors. If it were me contemplating to put my future wealth into someone else's hands, I would do more research than a phone call to my sister.

I honestly think you would have been better off asking for some help here from the membership. If we had known that you were looking to unload some stocks, we could have helped with an exit strategy. Also, there is a wide base of knowledge here and people could have offered alternative mutual funds or advisors for you. And, I'm sure the membership would be more than happy to explain any reasoning behind their suggestions.

We just want the best for Rob's little sister

I hope you don't think that I'm trying to discredit your actions in any way. I'm sure you are very capable of handling yourself. I just want to help you to realize the scope of the investing landscape, and the resource of knowledge that Rob has introduced to you.

[IIC]

I completely understand what you're saying, Doug, about "no commission" being hogwash. However, in this instance, it's not that there is no commission. It's that the commissions on the mutual funds he's putting me into are waived because my sister is an employee.

There's a fee somewhere...I guarantee it...Doug

[billyjoe]

Mary,
A wise man once told me that if the person who wanted to handle my money wouldn't tell me how he made his , don't trust him. My wife's hospital was bought out by another. A financial planner for the new hospital wanted all new employees to liquidate their 403b accounts and transfer them to the new hospital's plan. I think he got up to 2.5% of everyone's money who did that.

----------billyjoe

[Tatnic]

I don't have any opinions from anyone here yet but I did receive a telephone call from my financial advisor. After taking a look at my portfolio, he recommended that I sell my Intel, Regeneron and Time Warner stock and use that money plus about half of the available cash in my account to put into mutual funds. He's putting some of the money into funds I already have in my portfolio. He's also adding a fund (with only 10% of my portfolio) called Hartford Capital Appreciation. He said the manager of this fund has averaged 17% growth a year even during the recent bad years in the market. He thinks the fund is "phenomenal" but that if it doesn't stay phenomenal, we can dump it. I took his advice and we'll see what happens. I'm keeping my eBay stock because I want to and because he said that's a good stock to keep. The reason for his recommendation that I get out of individual stock is because of the very limited knowledge I have of the market and the limited amount of time I have to study the market. Even he and his associates, as "experts," only spend a couple of hours a day looking at individual stocks. He said managers of mutual funds look at individual stocks and bonds for a living. Oh, and mentioning bonds reminds me that he's going to add a bond fund to my portfolio "for stability."

mary....he sounds ok to me. I don't know anything about the hartford funds but that return does sounds a little high and not only is past performance no guarantee of future results, there may be some hefty managment fees and front end loads he hasn't told you about. Most of those guys will not recommend vanguard funds because they don't get a kickback on them. But other than that he sounds legit....u.s. treasury bonds are important for income and stability just like he said. A corporate bond fund is not IMO. Make sure you know which one he is talking about..tell him you want a us treasury bond fund, preferably no-load and low yearly fees. In fact you should insist that you want vanguard funds and see what he says. I bet he says he can't.
But a corporate bond fund is not stable...it may pay a higher yield but its not stable.

I don't know anything in particular about rgen, but if it is a biotech, then you should expect alot of volatility if you keep it. With volatile stocks your position should be small so it doesn't keep you up at night worrying about it. And if you already have a nice gain then selling is not so bad either.

Timing is another issue all together. The longer your time framing the less important it is but I think its better to buy stocks and bonds when they're on sale, and sell when they're expensive. But you can also do just fine by buying and holding for a long period of time and making periodic adjustments to fit your current situation....ie Portfolio mixture. You look pretty young so the rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 100, and that number should represent the percentage of stocks in your portfolio. If you're 30, then 70% of your port should be in stocks. If your age gets stuck at 39 then I don't know what to tell you.

[IIC]

mary....he sounds ok to me. I don't know anything about the hartford funds but that return does sounds a little high and not only is past performance no guarantee of future results, there may be some hefty managment fees and front end loads he hasn't told you about. Most of those guys will not recommend vanguard funds because they don't get a kickback on them. But other than that he sounds legit....u.s. treasury bonds are important for income and stability just like he said. A corporate bond fund is not IMO. Make sure you know which one he is talking about..tell him you want a us treasury bond fund, preferably no-load and low yearly fees. In fact you should insist that you want vanguard funds and see what he says. I bet he says he can't.
But a corporate bond fund is not stable...it may pay a higher yield but its not stable.

I don't know anything in particular about rgen, but if it is a biotech, then you should expect alot of volatility if you keep it. With volatile stocks your position should be small so it doesn't keep you up at night worrying about it. And if you already have a nice gain then selling is not so bad either.

Timing is another issue all together. The longer your time framing the less important it is but I think its better to buy stocks and bonds when they're on sale, and sell when they're expensive. But you can also do just fine by buying and holding for a long period of time and making periodic adjustments to fit your current situation....ie Portfolio mixture. You look pretty young so the rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 100, and that number should represent the percentage of stocks in your portfolio. If you're 30, then 70% of your port should be in stocks. If your age gets stuck at 39 then I don't know what to tell you.

What if you are 101?

[IIC]

Mary...maybe you already mentioned this...But what is your goal (besides making as much as you can)???

Big difference if you are looking for a 10% annual return vs. 30%...Obviously, the higher your goal the more risk there is (generally speaking anyway). ...Doug(IIC)

[Tatnic]

....u.s. treasury bonds are important for income and stability just like he said. A corporate bond fund is not IMO. Make sure you know which one he is talking about..tell him you want a us treasury bond fund, preferably no-load and low yearly fees. In fact you should insist that you want vanguard funds and see what he says. I bet he says he can't.
But a corporate bond fund is not stable...it may pay a higher yield but its not stable.

one thing to remember is that buying us treasury bonds is the absolute safest investment you could ever make, but bonds do fluccuate in price, and bond funds even more so. If you buy the u.s. treasury bonds (not the fund) your principal is guaranteed. If you buy a us treasury bond fund, your principal, ie your initial investment is not protect by the full faith of the us government, but it is considered pretty darn safe. What I'm trying to say is that if you buy a 5 year us treasury bond for $1,000 and hold it until maturity, you will get your $1,000 back (this is in addition to the interest you've rec'd over that 5 year period). You won't get any capital appreciation like you can get from the bond fund. So that's the trade off... there is a risk to owning a bond fund even if it invests in us treasury bonds, but you get some capital appreciation in addition to the yield. And again, as long as you don't sell it at the worst time then you'll probably do just fine, but you have to be aware that bond funds do fluccuate in price just like stock funds and you can lose money on them if you sell them at the wrong time.

[Mary]

Age and Goals

... You look pretty young so the rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 100, and that number should represent the percentage of stocks in your portfolio. If you're 30, then 70% of your port should be in stocks. If your age gets stuck at 39 then I don't know what to tell you.

Thank you, kind sir. I was 44 when that picture was taken and am 45 now. This is why I would like to grow my IRA accounts. Based on what I hear in the news these days, it would not be wise to depend on Social Security to support me when I reach retirement age.

In response to Doug's latest post, I don't have a specific percentage set as a goal. My first goal (hopefully short term) is to grow my portfolio back to the worth it had when I first began investing in the stock market. After I reach that goal, my next goal will be to continue to increase my portfolio as much as I can without risk that keeps me awake at night fretting about it.

[Tatnic]

What if you are 101?

you're probably senile and wrinkly.

[IIC]

Thank you, kind sir. I was 44 when that picture was taken and am 45 now. This is why I would like to grow my IRA accounts. Based on what I hear in the news these days, it would not be wise to depend on Social Security to support me when I reach retirement age.

In response to Doug's latest post, I don't have a specific percentage set as a goal. My first goal (hopefully short term) is to grow my portfolio back to the worth it had when I first began investing in the stock market. After I reach that goal, my next goal will be to continue to increase my portfolio as much as I can without risk that keeps me awake at night fretting about it.

Mary...I would feel "naked" w/o my Sharp EL-733A Financial Calculator in my pocket...But here here some handy calcs on the net: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep.../vfpt2.htm#rra

I've used Financial Pocket Calculators since the early 80's...And the one I mentioned above is the easiest (and cheap too...$35) that I have ever found. Unfortunately, it isn't in any stores I can find anymore...But I just bot my 7th one at http://staples.com ...It is funny...The last 2 times my wife got a new car...2001 and 2003 I went outside real quick and calc'd the payment...Both times I went back in to meet w/ the financial guy at the dealerships when we had decided to go ahead and buy...While they were putting in all sorts of numbers in their computers I scratched my head and blurted out the monthly payment...I was within 2 bux both times...I confessed the first time...But the second time I let the guy think I was RainMan...LOL

[Mary]

Hey RainMan!

Mary...I would feel "naked" w/o my Sharp EL-733A Financial Calculator in my pocket...But here here some handy calcs on the net: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep.../vfpt2.htm#rra

I've used Financial Pocket Calculators since the early 80's...And the one I mentioned above is the easiest (and cheap too...$35) that I have ever found. Unfortunately, it isn't in any stores I can find anymore...But I just bot my 7th one at http://staples.com ...It is funny...The last 2 times my wife got a new car...2001 and 2003 I went outside real quick and calc'd the payment...Both times I went back in to meet w/ the financial guy at the dealerships when we had decided to go ahead and buy...While they were putting in all sorts of numbers in their computers I scratched my head and blurted out the monthly payment...I was within 2 bux both times...I confessed the first time...But the second time I let the guy think I was RainMan...LOL

Sounds like a cool tool to have handy but I'm not sure why you're suggesting it to me. If I buy one, what am I supposed to use it to calculate?

[IIC]

Sounds like a cool tool to have handy but I'm not sure why you're suggesting it to me. If I buy one, what am I supposed to use it to calculate?

I don't know...But I sit out on the deck and figure a lot of stuff...Like I put X dollars in per month and get Y % after 60 months, 120 mos etc...How much will I have?

Guess I'm different...lol...I love to figure stuff out. Like...Say I win the Super Lotto tonight...$13 mil...my lifetime budget is already done...LOL...Just kidding...However, a financial calc is good for figuring out your projected return on different types of investments...Hey...I just had an idea...Maybe I can be your FA?...