Author Topic: Looking for financial planning advice  (Read 994 times)

futureman44

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Looking for financial planning advice
« on: June 09, 2021, 11:09:23 AM »
I have been following the MMM blog and forums for several years (as well as Bogleheads) and have applied many of the principles to my financial life. I am going to be retiring later this year (at 42 years old) and plan to take advantages of some of the strategies that can be implemented when making a lower (or no) income (like backdoor Roths).  I'm finding everything pretty overwhelming though and my financial picture is pretty complicated. I just don't know where to start. I think a "financial planner" of sorts that is well-versed in these topics would serve me well as a guide on getting everything optimized as I embark on retirement. But I want a financial planner that is well versed and aligned with the concepts that are discussed on these forums and on BH. Are there individuals on this forum that are experts in these areas that would be willing to work with me? I know many will just post their financial details to the forums and people will weigh in with advice, but I don't think I'm comfortable just putting everything out there to the public forum.

Thanks.

yachi

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2021, 11:43:10 AM »
That's why we hide behind anonymous usernames.  I've never used a financial planner, unless you count a few sales meetings with someone looking to drum up business.  I just never felt comfortable with that arrangement.  Roof of Good does retirement consulting, and is FIRED: https://rootofgood.com/
I'm thankful for this forum because a lot of the concepts for accessing money early aren't things everyone knows.  Still, I haven't been maximizing benefits of my low-income status.  Some of that is because I didn't know my end FIRE date, and some of that is because I didn't know how good I had it with my low taxes.  There are fee-only financial advisors around, but I'm not sure how well they know the concepts on these forums.



MDM

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2021, 02:58:05 PM »
...I don't think I'm comfortable just putting everything out there to the public forum.
That is indeed a choice one must make.

You may find benefit in collecting, arranging, and self-analyzing all the information suggested in
How To: Write a "Case Study" Topic (MMM)
Asking Portfolio Questions (Bogleheads)
Some Important Questions to Answer Before Asking - Can I Retire? (E-R.org)

Whether you then choose to share all, some, or none of that as an anonymous poster is up to you.  If you go and pay in private for such advice, you will need to (or at least should) provide much the same information to the advisor, so collecting and arranging it will not be wasted work.

cool7hand

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2021, 07:19:04 AM »
It sounds like you're going to have to go through the exercise of preparing the information to analyze your situation either here or with a financial planner. Maybe just pull off the bandaid and do it? Once you have the information gathered, you might find that the gathering was more of a fear than the posting. I suspect that if anything bad ever happened from someone posting similar information on this forum, we've had heard about it!

futureman44

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2021, 09:47:46 AM »
Thank you for the input. I have all the information gathered, so there really isn't any issue with that.  There are just quite a few pieces and it gets complicated (13 different investment accounts: 2 Roth IRAs, 2 Traditional IRAs, 2 Rollover IRAs, 2 active 401(k) plans, 2 529 savings accounts, 3 brokerage accounts), on top of a large amount of company stock about to vest and cash payment upon an impending severance. I think I'm just going to find a fee-only financial advisor here locally to help me get everything sorted out.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2021, 10:15:43 AM »
Yeah, you’ve got a lot going on. I think you have the idea to hire someone. I’d give them the mission of helping you simplify your financial portfolio as much as possible. Simplicity and easy of use. You’ve got way too many accounts, with what I’d imagine are lots of account and access numbers. Btw, make sure you have a will and an estate plan.

Catbert

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2021, 10:44:01 AM »
If you'ere in the US I would look for a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) which indicates a certain level of knowledge and experience plus is a fiduciary.   Think ahead of time what you want to know.  Life time tax minimization?  Roth ladder?  Asset allocation?  Best location for different investments?  Managing your portfolio?

erutio

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2021, 10:54:53 AM »
Thank you for the input. I have all the information gathered, so there really isn't any issue with that.  There are just quite a few pieces and it gets complicated (13 different investment accounts: 2 Roth IRAs, 2 Traditional IRAs, 2 Rollover IRAs, 2 active 401(k) plans, 2 529 savings accounts, 3 brokerage accounts), on top of a large amount of company stock about to vest and cash payment upon an impending severance. I think I'm just going to find a fee-only financial advisor here locally to help me get everything sorted out.

Honestly, that's not even that many accounts.  Your example is just what someone's accounts would look like if they were a married working couple, with a few kids.

Think of your accounts as different pots.  You have your Roth pot, your IRA pot (tIRAs + rollover IRAs), 401ks, and after-tax pot (brokerages). 

You state you are retiring at 42 later this year, congratulations!  As you must have had to learn and apply a lot of advanced FIRE strategies to achieve such a goal, you should definitely have the acumen to learn the drawdown strategy. 

Also, your main questions are about draw down and manipulating your income.  You are very unlikely to find any financial advisor that is "well-versed" in these topics.  They just aren't set up to learn this type of information as there isn't really a market for FIRE financial advisors.  There is DEFINITELY no financial advisor that can offer as good advice as what you would get in a case study here.

cool7hand

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #8 on: June 10, 2021, 11:57:47 AM »
Why not just pick an asset allocation, create a spreadsheet, and manage your allocation across all of the various accounts?

yachi

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Re: Looking for financial planning advice
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2021, 01:41:53 PM »
Thank you for the input. I have all the information gathered, so there really isn't any issue with that.  There are just quite a few pieces and it gets complicated (13 different investment accounts: 2 Roth IRAs, 2 Traditional IRAs, 2 Rollover IRAs, 2 active 401(k) plans, 2 529 savings accounts, 3 brokerage accounts), on top of a large amount of company stock about to vest and cash payment upon an impending severance. I think I'm just going to find a fee-only financial advisor here locally to help me get everything sorted out.

At first I was like whoa 13 investment accounts. And then I was like wait, how many do I have?  The only thing that seems weird to me is the 3 brokerage accounts, although I guess I have 2 (one joint, and one not joint).  I've got 1 less 401(k) plan, and 2 more 529 plans so I have 13 total too!

I'd be interested in opinions on the company stock that's going to be vested and the cash payment for severance: what ways you could avoid getting hosed on taxes on those, but also how to make sure you have enough funds to live on for the first 5 years of FIRE (assuming you need to build your Roth Conversion Ladder)