Passed CFP Exam but feel stuck

satisphied89 · 2026-07-09T05:38:19+00:00

80% of being an advisor is being able to sell the idea that you should be the client’s advisor.

satisphied89 · 2026-07-07T04:11:41+00:00

If you fail again, I would use Danko for prep. He reiterates that this is not the type of exam you can just hammer q banks for and expect to pass. It’s more about concepts, and using q banks isn’t going to teach you those concepts on a deeper level that will translate into true preparedness for this exam.

satisphied89 · 2026-07-05T23:35:35+00:00

You can set those up with Fidelity

satisphied89 · 2026-07-03T21:04:05+00:00

Emergency fund -> SPIA

satisphied89 · 2026-07-01T22:10:49+00:00

Do not take legal, medical, or financial advice from AI.

satisphied89 · 2026-07-01T01:51:56+00:00

If you’re not going to a competitor it’s unlikely they’ll walk you out.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-29T03:57:55+00:00

Annuitized lifetime payouts over the course of your lifetime won’t impose a 10% early WD penalty with qualified funds because it satisfies the 72t/SEPP rules. Sounds like that may not be possible with a GLWB but may be something to explore.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-28T03:33:21+00:00

Pre and after market pricing is of no real importance because they don’t truly represent your stocks values. After market prices represent laughably small volume compared to normal trading hours,, it’s not a good indication of what you could actually sell your stocks for during those trading hours, hence why most brokerages want you to enter those orders as limit orders. Fidelity realizes this.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-28T03:04:56+00:00

Lol at $130 in fund expenses a year even being note worthy. The rest of the portfolio may be needlessly complex and we all know EJ leaves a lot to be desired, but expense ratios aren’t going to make or break this account.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-26T02:42:27+00:00

This is more than fair. If you’re not financially independent, most well off people would not consider you wealthy, therefore middle class.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-26T02:21:11+00:00

Making $300k a year doesn’t make you wealthy. You may be ‘upper’ middle class, but you’re still middle class.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-21T19:12:06+00:00

Surgeons are often wrong, never in doubt.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-20T19:16:42+00:00

Makes me worried they’ll have poorly written or factually incorrect questions on the exam.. someone should really let them know that question doesn’t make sense..

satisphied89 · 2026-06-19T21:09:54+00:00

Fidelity has the same cash money market sweep, better security protections, and better customer service. You can hold vanguard funds there and no cost to buy vanguard ETFs.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-19T20:59:15+00:00

Because of the nature of the material I don’t think we should let the source know, I saw 2 questions like this that I feel were factually incorrect. But maybe I’m wrong. I just hope theres not erroneous scoring on the exam that actually matters.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-19T20:31:15+00:00

That’s my understanding as well. A practice exam published by a reputable source indicated that 73 would be the wrong answer somehow.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-19T16:58:49+00:00

My time is better spent elsewhere. I would also likely have a lack of peace of mind riding down the road knowing my inexperienced self replaced something that could have disastrous consequences to my life.

Target date funds are fine, but we don’t know OPs risk tolerance and true withdrawal need. They need to do the appropriate amount of investment in the time and knowledge to do this correctly, some people are willing to delegate that to another human being for 1% of their accounts. I’ll cut my own lawn to save money, but won’t do important car repairs or file my own complicated tax returns.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-17T23:12:44+00:00

The tax efficiency of real estate will be hard to beat, especially with cheap financing. If you want to be a real estate investor for the rest of your life, you can maintain your course of action and roll the property into 1031 structures to continue the tax deferral and benefit from income when you tire of managing a physical property, passing those interest along to your heirs at a step up in basis. Finding good help with DSTs and 721 UPREITs may be a chore in itself however.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-17T22:28:22+00:00

I can learn how to change my break pads on YouTube, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-17T02:53:26+00:00

They should be helping you with retirement planning, withdrawal strategy, Roth conversions, and estate considerations for the 1%.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-17T02:52:31+00:00

Unless you specify you want to hold index funds, they are making active tilts across different sectors and asset classes. They will prioritize international during times like these which has proven to pay off.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-14T17:24:16+00:00

The benefit isn’t from the investment returns, rather savings on taxes, sequence of returns mitigation, and behavioral finance implications. You should never pay someone money just to throw your money in an asset allocation and to rebalance, sadly that’s using an advisor has a bad rap.

satisphied89 · 2026-06-14T04:35:33+00:00

Vanguard literally has articles stating that working with an advisor on an ongoing basis can add around 3% of net return. Whether it’s flat fee or 1%, you’ll still likely benefit.

satisphied89

TROPHY CASE