There are far too many people who are financially illiterate. One needs to at least understand investment basics.

I've managed my money all of my life. I've been looking for a good financial advisor to manage everything and me not have to think about the financial markets. Late last year, a fellow pilot highly recommended an advisor. I was promised returns that would be similar to the S&P without the risk due to broad diversification. I turned over ~20% of my money. I checked on his performance a week ago. 3.6% net year to date. The S&P's up 8.5% year to date. The worst performing account of mine that I manage is up around 10%.

My financial advisor blamed the underperformance on international investments where the currency's gone against me. Well, duh. Anyone who thought Trump's push to get rid of tariffs wouldn't cause a flight to the dollar isn't worth spit.

So now I'm in the process of moving that money over to a different financial advisor. If this one screws the pooch, I'll go back to managing all of my own money. It's really not that hard to do, but it does require some work.