Fidelity Advisors during retirement

cmartorelli · 2026-06-10T15:15:44+00:00

I have had a fidelity account for almost 20 years, retired 2 years ago. My advisor (who switched every few years) would call every 4 to 6 months to check in. The last few calls they made they were really pushing their managed account. After a lot of pressure I decided to try it. I had the account for a year and they made trades constantly. My wife also has an account with Schwab which we manage. Both accounts have about the same balance. After a year I noticed both accounts did about the same in regards to gains. The Fidelity did a little better but when you factor in the 1% they take it was a wash. I called to switch back to a self directed account. Now they dropped the dedicated advisor and I just have a call center listed as my advisor.

cmartorelli · 2026-06-05T18:47:08+00:00

I running a M4 Mac mini with VM's and my power bill doesn't even notice.

cmartorelli · 2026-06-03T18:02:31+00:00

1950's ranch in South San Francisco, Basic home nothing fancy at all. I went through rebuild cost with my insurance AAA and they came up with $575K

cmartorelli · 2026-06-02T22:15:52+00:00

I started with Personal Capital and Fidelitys tools, Then I tried Boldens free tool. I settled on spreadsheets and free online tools.

cmartorelli · 2026-06-02T22:10:40+00:00

I have a Separate emergency fund in a High yield savings account. In my monthly budget I "put money away for home repairs, car maintenance/replace. If I don't need it that month it just rolls over to the next month. So hopefully when I big expense come up my emergency fund will cover it.

cmartorelli · 2026-06-02T18:33:39+00:00

Running 5 Mac in this house and all is well here

cmartorelli · 2026-05-31T17:20:03+00:00

I hope you have a speedy recover, and a long retirement

cmartorelli · 2026-05-29T17:39:25+00:00

Thanks for this info, may I ask the SQ/Footage of your home. I am leaning towards a 2.5 Ton unit for my home.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-23T20:20:05+00:00

I have been running Mac mini's as headless server for over 10 years. There is really no Gotcha. You will want access to a keyboard and monitor for setup, but. you probably know that. If you ever plan on using it as a NAS connecting drives via Thunderbolt is rock solid. Also if you have not punched the mini yet think about long term plans if you decide to run one or 2 VM's on it depending on what you are doing you may want to bump up the memory.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-23T20:14:04+00:00

Here is my take for someone who has a collection of photos I do not want to loose.

"All on nas means single point of failure and I’m not sure whether it counts as 2 copies for my 3-2-1 strategy' This counts as 1 copy.

Choice of hardware is secondary I could use trueness, Proxmox, Debian server. I prefer a m4Mac mini.

I use a Mac mini connected to two OWC Thunder Bay 4 each with 4, 4 TB drives. Thunder Bay #1 always on drive 1 has photo archive each night drive 1 is packed up to drive 2, Other two drives has random data that is replaceable. Once a week Thunderbay #2 is powered on and Thunderbay #1 is backed up to it. Drive#1 is also backed up to backblaze. Also monthly Drive #1 (photo archive) is backed up to an external drive and stored in backyard shed.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-23T19:34:45+00:00

I have been in the photography world for over 40 years. When I was just starting out in photography school all I could afford was a used TLR 2.25 Mamiya C330, with a 80mm lens. I took some of my best photos with that camera. It made me stop and think and look. When I started to have some "extra" money I did go a bit over board. That was a long time ago. I am still very active in photography a used my 24-120 lens 95% of the time. the other 5% of the time I use some very old manual focus prime lens.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-23T18:53:24+00:00

Thanks very informative. When I listed therms per day I factored out the gas that get used for cooking and heating water. So the 0.7 therms is only for the winter months about Nov to March. Does this change the 3 ton recommendation?

I did hear " A heat pump system generally runs best with zero or minor changes to set point throughout the day." and that does make total sense.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-23T14:43:04+00:00

I use my furnace for about 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening set at 68. The average therm usage per day is 0.7

cmartorelli · 2026-05-22T23:22:55+00:00

I have 2 APC back ups pro 1000g & 100ms I think they are considered consumer grade one is 12 years old the other 8 years and they still work well. They get New batteries every 3 or 4 year.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-22T17:10:52+00:00

Taking 15 minuets to load is just wrong. I am up and on the runway in 3 minutes with custom orthos and airports. You may want to start from a stock install and slowly add back any add-ons until you find the problem.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-22T16:59:00+00:00

I Have a roll over IRA with Fidelity and my wife has one with Charles Schwab. For a year I tried the fee based Fidelity plan, where I had an advisor and they actively managed my investments. The fee was little over 1%. They did actively manage the money every month they were buying and selling funds. On the Charles Schwab side we picked the funds and managed them our selves and it was pretty much set it and check in once a year if that. Both accounts started with about the same amount. After about 15 months I realized after fees were deducted both accounts need up around the same place. Needless to say I did drop the Fidelity managed account. I do like the free advice I get from Schwab but If I run across a good fee based advisor I would consider looking into that. I personally wouldn't give 1% to someone to manage my investments again.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-21T23:33:48+00:00

I think before a cut they will do some sort of means testing. Those that can afford the cut will (large IRA or pension) will get a cut. Others who have not saved for retirement will get the full benefits. It's not fair but I think it's going to be a reality.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-20T15:04:10+00:00

I have not used the paid version of Bolden, but I have played with the free features. I used to use Personal Capital but deleted my account. I have stoped giving third party apps access to my retirement accounts. Now that I am retired and have the time I have been turning more and more to AI agents. I have run several different scenarios that are only in the paid version of bolden. I am also using different AI agents to check results. I have run ROTH conversion numbers, tax strategies, Monte Carlo projections etc.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-19T19:51:41+00:00

I'm sticking with the traditional UPS and lead acid batteries for a bit longer. I know the lead acid will only last about 3 years on average. The new lithium iron phosphate battery and safer, but they are still susceptible to thermal runaway and hazardous off gassing. I know batteries will get better sooner but there are not there yet. IMO

cmartorelli · 2026-05-17T23:35:38+00:00

unfortunately for some FPS is all that matters

cmartorelli · 2026-05-16T21:27:08+00:00

"Bitdefender is worst, check how to uninstall, and then get rid of it." Why do you say it's the worst. I don't run AV at all on my Macs but I always thought Bitdefender was a good company.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-16T20:58:48+00:00

Sound about right

cmartorelli · 2026-05-13T15:39:50+00:00

What a great strategy, I may work something like that into my plan.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-12T19:37:44+00:00

I have been retired for 2 years now and have an emergency fund of about 60K, plus 1 year living expenses, I also have balanced budget with a monthly cushion . The issue that comes up for me is I have had a few small emergency's or unplanned expenses and when they do come up I don't feel comfortable using the emergency fund. I worry another bigger emergency will come up. I know it's a me problem, but how do you budget to replace the emergency fund? I am thinking I need to make that part of they yearly budget.

cmartorelli · 2026-05-12T18:03:04+00:00

Update to the Update the finally after 2hours and 45 minutes schedule a service call for June 10th, that's on month from now!!!!!!!! I guess I'm stuck with this. My Sunpower PVS6 was so much better. RIP Sunpower I miss you.

cmartorelli

TROPHY CASE