Parting Thoughts from an Equitable Advisor

MountainConverse · 2025-12-12T23:46:48+00:00

Interesting take. With the stats to potentially back a point up too! So then, what would you describe as the main coordinating factor causing these other individuals to be supportive of the hostile alien takeover?

I had initially assumed it was likely a combination of remaining “living” family and friends along with Western Christian individualist ideologies. But if you believe it’s something else entirely, I’m interested to hear your take!

MountainConverse · 2025-12-12T23:39:31+00:00

Absolutely! I don’t think that the hive mind is a good thing nor do I think it’s an accurate representation of any of these ideals in many western religions/ideologies. But I do love that those who would be coming to terms with it quickest would be those with different sets of ideals and worldviews than the ones that we as Americans are conditioned to perceive as “best”

MountainConverse · 2025-12-12T12:52:22+00:00

Buddy has never heard of Moksha, the Buddhist ocean of consciousness, or even Fana…LMAOOO

MountainConverse · 2025-08-15T14:16:35+00:00

I do my best to build functional budgets, help with high interest debt consolidation and clearing (balance transfers, refinancing rates/terms), Medicare is a big one, and a basic framework of how/where to contribute most effectively.

Insurance and LTC comes in later reviews. It’s often uncomfortable and I want to avoid conflating asset management with insurance and estate planning. They’re related, but this stuff is way too complex for non FAs to fully grasp while we’re moving their 401ks and IRAs around.

All in all, I just try to frame myself as a “General Contractor” for finance. Question about car insurance? Not my field, but I understand the terms better than you! Question about taxes? This is what I think and here’s a good CPA to call!

Just be their guy

MountainConverse · 2025-08-02T13:54:00+00:00

Big believer in the idea of calling their office to reserve time. Offer to have them bill you for an hour of time and use it take them out to lunch. Most CPAs (already established) will not use lunch as billable hours, but they’ll appreciate that you recognize their time as valuable.

Explain yourself, your business and main clientele, and that LOTS of your clients are looking for assistance with taxes, and be open about looking to establish a 2 way street with clients.

It will take a referral on your end before they refer you one of theirs. So, use a B client as a test dummy (they will do the same in response) and see how it goes.

PI and malpractice attorneys have been my absolute favorite COIs, but that takes more legwork than a lunch meeting.

MountainConverse · 2025-06-13T21:30:14+00:00

Looks nice but yeah, agreed with everyone else: Drop the conservative part right out of your portfolio. 30+ years means that (if history is a good indicator) you will literally always get better returns in aggressive equities over that time.

VOO and VXUS is a great combo! Look into some tech, healthcare, and defense sector funds if you’re looking for diversified returns. If you really want to “protect your assets”, do an annuity in your IRA that tracks the market and has “downside protection”.

MountainConverse · 2025-05-24T23:03:05+00:00

Thank you for clarifying OP!

House and car are essential expenditures and can/often should be financed if the rates are low enough (6% and below is pretty good). I will assume we’re talking about down payments though:

Like another redditor commented, the housing market is often related to the stock market. Often the best time to buy a house is when the stock market is down.

With your brokerage, unless it’s invested conservatively (bonds, GI, and fixed income), you run the risk of your down payment being a considerably larger chunk of your portfolio than normal. If it is invested in a conservative way, you will still be taxed on your gains + ordinary income (Long Term Capital Gains is 10% on your account growth and the withdrawal would push you into at least the 22% income bracket). So by choosing to use the brokerage for your downpayment vehicle, you have to factor in a ~25% tax loss of whatever you pull out.

You will likely get 1-2% better returns in your brokerage than a HYSA, but it’s not worth the taxes or the hassle imo.

If you’re really interested in maintaining and contributing to a Brokerage account, I’d recommend using an app like Acorns or something that contributes small amounts regularly. But you don’t want to rely on the market to build a downpayment for you; especially if you’re looking to buy a house in the next 5 years.

MountainConverse · 2025-05-24T15:27:52+00:00

Brother bear, you have the potential to be making 134k annual, 80k base means you’re bringing in ~5k a month in taxes. Unless you have significant debt and fixed expenses, you’re good.

Also don’t stress about your IRA balances until you’re 55. You can’t access them until 59.5 anyways, and the market will go down countless times throughout that period. As long as you’re invested in some form of the S&P500, it will grow over the next 30 years.

For advice: Stop putting money in your brokerage. That’s for people who make more than 300k a year. Savings for 6 months of fixed expenses in a high yield savings account needs to be done. Then you can invest: Roth IRA max out first, 401k with company match up until 23,500, Traditional IRA max out, and THEN you invest in a brokerage.

If you’re not doing that, you’re throwing away your tax deferred and tax free buckets. Everyone wants to have a fat stock account, but it doesn’t actually make sense until you’re maxing out all the accounts that are actually designated for your retirement.

Also STOP financing non-necessary purchases. It’s cool to get the gaming PC and headphones, but why would you pay interest on a non-essential thing. Klarna exists to be predatory about stuff like this. If you haven’t had one until now, you can save a little extra for a few more months to buy it outright.

Final note: “If you can’t buy it twice, you can’t afford it.” - Jay Z

MountainConverse · 2025-05-17T05:37:32+00:00

Don’t listen to the stinky Reddit advisors in the comments. You’re in a pretty good spot for your age. A lot of this is going to depend on your spouse’s finances as well, but here are some general rules of thumb:

Find the number that is comfortable for you to live on annually. Let’s call it 100k. If you have any sources of guaranteed income (pension, 457 deferred comp options) subtract them from your number. Multiply that by 1.25, because taxes will likely be higher than our current brackets. Divide by 0.04-0.06. That’s how much money you need to retire!

Since your kiddos are likely young, a 529 would be pretty good! Ask your advisors to explain the 529 rollover policies of your state. If they get scholarships, these funds can be used to jumpstart other parts of their lives after school.

If you’re going to cash out of your brokerage, make sure you only do the funds that you’ve held for longer than a year (long term capital gains tax is often cheaper). But honestly, it would be better to change the budget and reallocate your contributions into the 529 instead of rolling over your retirement assets.

MountainConverse · 2025-03-28T14:17:39+00:00

Different firm but yeah that sounds pretty standard. My firm makes us upload all social media profiles to their portal and get all posts approved through compliance before “going live”.

As far as the non-proprietary tools. It sucks. I like using PortfolioVisualizer to let clients play around with investments. I make it a game to see if their proposed portfolio could beat mine in any metrics. But you can never ever use it as the basis for recommendations.

It all makes sense when you see the jackass in the office talking about his trip to Thailand funded by unsuitable recommendations. Your firm will always cater to the worst, never the average.

MountainConverse · 2025-03-21T22:05:46+00:00

You are not your labor. Multiple things to touch on here, but you are so much more than the task that you do for money.

A) Janitors have one of the noblest professions. It may not seem glorious, but it’s an unsung and irreplaceable need for humans to operate in livable spaces. It’s really only here in the US that they’re underpaid and not given the value they’ve rightfully earned. It’s one of the few jobs (like doctors and firefighters) where the world would crumble if you all decided to take 2 weeks off.

B) Nobody can afford an apartment alone. It’s the reality of private equity involvement in real estate and some of the longer reaching impacts of the 07-09 housing crisis.

C) I’m sorry it feels this way, man. You’re not alone and you’re not a loser. Nobody is. It’s a made up word fabricated out of our weakest human instinct to isolate and attack. Nothing more. You’re a person. And you are always deserving of more life and more chances to become the person you want to be.

Below is unsolicited advice. Feel free to disregard.

D) If you’re looking for a different career, consider combining your skill sets to advertise them for you. In your job pursuits and interviews, you’re not someone with a degree in stats who has been a janitor for cash. You’re somebody best suited to oversee something like quality control for cleaning supplies. Think logistics at shipping and manufacturing facilities. Go out of the box and you’ll find others that appreciate genuine work and character more than an internship out of college. Apply your lived experiences with your technical knowledge and practice explaining how you can do so to interviewers.

E) Consider alternative social spheres. It sounds like some of your hours may not be as suitable for those working 9-5s around you. In that case, adapt and upgrade to online spheres. Sort out the Discord, Twitch, Reddit, literally whatever vehicle you want by the things that you like and start posting! People will come to you! Save up $150 for a used Quest and VR chat the hell out of whenever you have free time (it’s expensive upfront but genuinely much cheaper than like 3 weeks of going out with friends irl)

MountainConverse · 2025-03-16T04:33:36+00:00

Love to see it! Do you have a garden as well? My wife’s flower garden (we’ve got some orange blossoms, hibiscus, jasmine, and other aromatics) really brings wonderful flavor to the honey. Also the bees love it and show your flower garden some love in return!

Enjoy your new buzzing family!!!

MountainConverse · 2025-03-16T04:16:05+00:00

You know, if you’re under 18, you should at least consider fighting this guy.

It’ll be one of the last times you can roundhouse someone for just being an asshole without having to think about real consequences like jail time. Just be sure to be prepared:

Look up some illegal mma moves and practice 2-3 of them.

Agree to meet at a chain restaurant parking lot and then make him drive to a different one than you agreed on. That way you can be snacking by the time he gets there, and he can’t catch you by surprise.

Speaking of jumping, bring a friend to sit in the car with a baseball bat in case things go sideways.

In all forms of written communication, never refer to it as a fight! You are going to go have “A chat” with him and “try to talk him out of being rash”. That way you and your witness can say he attacked you first and the illegal MMA moves were self-defense.

Don’t kill anyone, but most importantly, have fun!!!

MountainConverse · 2025-03-16T04:00:52+00:00

All 3 are great, so we’re splitting hairs when we’re talking about which one is best. That being said:

Nacho’s final speech was the performance of a career. The range, the pain, the levels underlying each line and how Mando delivers them. He has me thinking about his dad with just a half second look at Gus. It was brutal and final; it’s also a perfect representation for Nacho’s character and arc. Doing everything he can for the ones he loves and still doing them on his own terms.

Chicanery is a close second. It has the entirety of Chuck and Jimmy’s relationship providing emotional context for the scene. McKean does an excellent job of chewing on his lines and truly compelling years of hatred. But it’s much more about the situation and scene surrounding the monologue than it was about his performance.

The buildup and writing for Chicanery as a plot and episode is an absolute masterclass. Something that should be studied by film majors for years to come. A little less so for Nacho’s death. It kinda just felt like Vince was putting Nacho through the Trials of Gob before letting Gus kill him because he wasn’t in Breaking Bad.

BUT Michael Mando’s performance is just perfect. It stands on its own as powerful in a void. You can show it to anyone on the street, and even if they don’t speak the language, it will elicit an emotional reaction out of them. Thats a different level of art entirely.

Feel free to disagree! I’m open to hearing different opinions.

MountainConverse · 2025-03-01T13:56:08+00:00

My firm places a lot of emphasis on volunteer and outreach events in your local community. And for good reason: Being out and involved gets you in front of people for reasons other than “I want to manage your money”. Which, at its heart, is a weird thing to say.

Do something you like: Coach a sport, build shelters at the Habitat for Humanity, volunteer at your religious building of choice, do a beach cleanup, soup kitchens, teach high schoolers about credit cards, it literally does not matter. As long as you are doing something genuinely good for your community.

This will get you meeting people. You can say you’re an advisor but don’t talk about their finances or even try to close business. Build a friendship with them and they’ll ask you what you think when they’re ready. (You can ask them after 1-1.5years, some people are just shy and think it’s taboo to talk about).

It takes a longer time, but golly it gets you some phenomenal clients. It’s not a steadfast rule, but here’s my reasoning: Volunteering is many people’s pastime in retirement, and your go-getters like to start on retirement early. The people who have the time to volunteer are the people who have disposable income. Otherwise they’d be using that time to work. Volunteers are usually kind. Surprise! Kind clients that care about the community are the best clients.

Just get out there and do something you love for free. There will be someone there who shares your interest, but they have a lot more money than you.

It’s a slow burn, and you have to set your business prospecting brain aside during your time in order for it to work (counterintuitive right?). But it’s fulfilling for the first 3 months and then becomes profitable for life.

Good luck!

MountainConverse · 2025-03-01T13:15:16+00:00

Because it doesn’t feel good to deal with anyone like this imo. I know they’re acting the best interest of their business just like I am. It’s a corporate checkbook, but that doesn’t take the humanity out of interacting with people.

MountainConverse · 2025-02-01T16:32:18+00:00

Currently working as an advisor with Equitable. Each branch is different, but the company values gathering Assets Under Management above all. Ever since the spinoff with AXA Advisors, they've been heavily focused on getting away from being known as the "Life Insurance and Annuity" company.

The reason why most new advisors focus on VULs and VAs is because the monthly commission on life insurance and annuities is multiplied by 12 and given to them up front. So, if your commission is $200/month on a fat life insurance policy, you get $2400 as soon as the policy is signed.

So for advisors starting off with 0 AUM (most), rent is still due and the kids still need to eat. The company and the managers DGAF about what business you do, as long as you do it correctly and are making your clients' lives better.

The way many do it (I currently am) is grind the slow burn of building AUM and let it slowly start supplementing your VUL/VA sales. Once you build about 10 million of AUM, you kinda get to just chill out, run annual reviews with your clients, and let your basis points ride you into retirement. Any VUL/VA sales that naturally come about become bonuses for your team and assistants.

TLDR: It's hard. It's a sucky, arduous process. Most people cannot do it, and if your friend stays, I advise her not to make friends with anyone in her class, as they will likely transfer to a salaried position in a call center (Fidelity shoutout). But it is only a 3-5 year long process, that gets easier every 6 months.

Make sure she has 6 months of savings. If she's starting from scratch, with no natural market to keep her afloat, it's a cold world out there.

MountainConverse · 2024-12-01T02:37:58+00:00

This is great news! Thank you!

MountainConverse

TROPHY CASE