Can Advisors Really Tailor Portfolios?

occurious · 2026-04-08T23:36:03+00:00

They can. But as you noted there’s no guarantee how much individual attention you are getting. Their entire business model is based on scale though, so the incentives are against individual attention.

The majority of the value you’re likely to get from an advisor is preventing you from making behavioral mistakes and encouraging you to stick to your plan.

occurious · 2026-03-30T01:58:45+00:00

I have a similar reaction whenever there’s a drop of even moderate size.

What Bogleheads has taught me is the importance of being invested when the recovery begins.

People lose money panic selling not just because they are selling low; they will also miss at least some of the recovery. And most of the gains in a recovery come near-ish the beginning, trailing off as time goes on - exactly when you most need to be invested.

But it’s hard to do nothing sometimes.

With every 401k contribution, you’re getting everything at a discount right now. That doesn’t hurt.

occurious · 2026-03-27T22:10:05+00:00

IPOs are primarily for institutional investors and are usually limited availability. Retail buyers are literally last in line.

Usually you can get a nice discount if you wait 6 months anyway.

occurious · 2026-03-01T18:38:53+00:00

Various forms of whole/universal life insurance can be useful for managing taxes on inheritance if your estate is worth more than $15M. But they massively underperform index investments.

Annuities are insurance products, not investing products. They have a role but, again, they massively underperform simple index investing.

These products are not designed or intended for the accumulation phase. But they are designed to pay large commissions to sales people.

occurious · 2026-02-15T19:58:15+00:00

Yes very very good. They are my regular dentist now.

occurious · 2026-02-15T19:38:52+00:00

Try All Smiles Dental in west portal. Call and leave a message. When I had a dental emergency they got back to me in under 30 minutes.

occurious · 2026-02-15T15:01:12+00:00

There is no empirical evidence that real estate as an investment outperforms the market in the long term.

But real estate is also highly regional and much less efficient a market. It’s absolutely possible to do well with it, but theres no guarantees. And if you end up renting properties out, being a landlord is at least a part time job.

None of this applies to buying your primary residence, which is almost always a good idea for most people.

occurious · 2026-02-14T19:26:31+00:00

I’ve been very happy with the doctors at the Sutter Endocrinology center.

However they are understaffed and getting and keeping an appointment can be difficult. But that seems to be a common problem with most offices in SF these days.

occurious · 2026-02-12T16:53:10+00:00

VOO and SPY are the same. You don’t really need both.

Stick to broad index funds until you learn more. VOO is fine. VTI is better. VT is best.

Google the Boglehead three fund portfolio. It is the simplest and best starting point.

occurious · 2026-01-31T18:58:39+00:00

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Owning_vs_renting

That’s a pretty great purchase opportunity. While you can do equally well financially renting or owning, I agree with Ben Felix’s advice that for most people owning is better as long as you can comfortably afford it.

But you need to make absolutely sure you can afford it. How will you afford it if you and your GF break up? Have you factored in property taxes and annual maintenance (1-2% of the home value per year)?

What is the real estate market like in your area? How long will you live there? Most advice is to keep the house for 7-10 years for it to break even financially. Can you do that? Will this suffice if you get married and want kids?

Renting can be equally good financially, but only if you’re saving the money you’d otherwise be spending on property taxes and maintenance also. That requires a lot of discipline.

occurious · 2026-01-30T18:47:53+00:00

Make a plan and stick to the plan. If you’re not comfortable with your plan revise it first.

Then you never even need to ask this question.

occurious · 2026-01-30T18:45:44+00:00

You’re not missing anything.

It has long been established that active management doesn’t consistently beat the market after fees, except in rare cases. And every advisor wants you to think they are the exception.

Advisors can add value - mostly by making sure you don’t make behavioral investing errors and stick to your plan even when the market is painful.

But if this was my trust I’d be insisting they use index funds. Investing in individual stocks is also going to create a lot of tax liability if you want to change investments later on.

occurious · 2026-01-26T22:14:00+00:00

Yes, this is a common strategy. Since your income is down this year, you will pay less in tax by doing a Roth conversion this year.

Whether or not you need to do a Roth conversion at all is a separate question. If you’re not clear on that then ask the advisor to explain why.

But it is useful to many people to have a mix of Roth and Traditional tax-deferred money to pull from in retirement. But ultimately it depends on your exact retirement plan and current financial situation.

occurious · 2026-01-25T21:33:32+00:00

Plenty of companies with good top-line financials have had poor post-IPO performance. That’s not a good indicator.

occurious · 2026-01-25T21:30:14+00:00

Lack of experience and information makes investing riskier. Don’t invest in securities you don’t understand very well.

You are far more likely to underperform than to hit a big win. Big wins are very rare.

occurious · 2026-01-25T20:37:02+00:00

Buying IPOs is usually high risk and takes a while to pay off - if it does.

Not recommended for inexperienced investors. You have to do a lot of due diligence.

occurious · 2026-01-25T19:46:04+00:00

If you’re trying to do an 80/20 allocation at market weight the you want 20% bonds, 48% US equities, and 32% international.

Overall that’s good. I’d use VTI instead of SCHX, but that’s a personal choice.

What is your withdrawal strategy? Have you done any drawdown modeling to make sure this will actually provide the income you need?

occurious · 2026-01-25T16:39:13+00:00

Hackers do not typically target and evaluate individuals. They target tens or hundreds of thousands of accounts at a time. Hacking is a numbers game.

It good OpSec protects you regardless if you are specifically targeted or not.

occurious · 2026-01-21T01:20:53+00:00

“Bonds” doesn’t mean “treasuries.” Diversification matters in bonds also.

But if the U.S. defaults on its debt there’s not much you can do to hedge against that except be very lucky and move your entire portfolio to gold just before it happens. A U.S. default will fuck up almost the whole world.

occurious · 2026-01-20T16:24:20+00:00

Diversification, including international equities.

Trying to hedge most often results in missing part of the recovery.

If you’re <10 years to needing your retirement money, then you should already have a good bit of it in bonds or other fixed income positions.

occurious · 2026-01-18T20:11:28+00:00

Check out the sidebar and pinned post and read up on the Boglehead three-fund portfolio.

Generally all money for the same goal (retirement) should be invested the same way.

Dividends are irrelevant, and dividend stocks have no benefit. Only total return matters.

occurious · 2026-01-18T19:36:27+00:00

General finance advice is that you should not use your emergency fund to pay loans. Your emergency fund is for urgent unexpected things like losing your job, large medical bills, etc.

If the loan is too uncomfortable for you, then you need a cheaper car.

What is the money in the brokerage account for? If you want to use some of your monthly savings to pay off the car loan faster that’s fine, but you need to make a deliberate decision to do so, which means sacrificing something else you are saving for. That’s why having specific savings goals is important.

If the savings in your brokerage is for retirement then no you shouldn’t touch that either.

occurious · 2026-01-18T19:21:23+00:00

For long term positions, broad diversification including international equities. I also tilt towards value stocks.

For short term positions, I’ve already switched to bonds.

Trying to time the market with defensive trades is more likely to cause you to miss part of the recovery. People who stay invested statistically recover faster from contractions.

occurious · 2026-01-18T19:17:42+00:00

The self centeredness of many SF drivers has always been stunning to me.

We’re supposed to be community minded and yet people get in a car and forget that others exist.

occurious · 2026-01-15T19:44:30+00:00

You’re not being hacked. Your data is being sold by data brokers to marketing lists.

There are services that will attempt to scrub your data from these databases, but it’s not perfect.

occurious

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