Gunga Galunga

I'm curious what the general consensus is with the emergence of your basic fare. Obviously the intention is to better compete with our customers but realistically does this create another layer of service that will confuse and upset your passengers? Delta is a premium airline and even with being upfront about the sole business model and a la carte service, many still don't understand it. Will the basic seats have any designation in the cabin or will it just be the last X number of rows?

PilotFrog

Timeline of Mergers

Thought that was a neat graphic. I linked it because I didn't want to get yelled at for posting an oversized picture.

dogismycopilot

The way I understand it, basic seats will not have any seat assignment until the day of travel. So essentially, they will be all the leftover middle seats nobody else wants.

EasyVictor

Anyone familiar with this company?

Delta Air Lines

Howgozit

Yep, the owners are delta pilots. Their fees are low and they don't make any money by selling you expensive funds like some other financial advisors.

Big E 757

I'm not familiar with them but I've seen their newsletters in the DTW lounge.

Be careful, I know some guys want a professional to manage their retirement savings but fees will erode growth of your nest egg.

If you do choose to go with them of financial engines, make sure they don't put you into actively managed mutual funds. Have them buy index funds. Actively managed funds charge much higher fees than index funds and those fees combined with the fees you pay a professional will only help others retire comfortably. It has been proven that even the best mutual fund managers can't consistently predict market changes, and index funds that track the S&P 500 average, do just as well as most mutual funds over the long term. Some of the fees that actively managed mutual funds charge are paid to brokers to push/sell their funds. So if you hire an advisor, chances are they are going to try to put you in actively managed funds so he will get a percentage of your funds every year plus get commissions from the funds he puts your money in. If your money made 20% a year (unusually high return) and your mutual funds take their 6-7%, then your advisor takes his 6%, you only have 7-8% left.

Tony Robbins has a new book out called Money, master the game. I'm reading it now. Do yourself a favor and read it, or a similar retirement investing book before signing up for an advisor. Tony's book breaks down how much fees charged by actively managed funds erode your savings over time. It equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars over 10-20 years.

We have access to low cost index funds in our 401K and with brokerage link, you can invest in pretty much anything.

I hope this helps.

Timbo

Another book you might want to read is, "No one would listen" by Harry Markopolos.

Harry was the mutual fund/stock broker in Boston who blew the whistle on Bernie Madoff. He goes into great detail on how the Mutual Fund and stock broker industry makes their money.

Spoiler alert: They'll knowingly sell you any amount of crap stocks and funds, so they can get a commission.

At the end of the book he says, "There are lots more Bernie Madoff's out there..."

So be careful.

chuck416

I used to use a fund management team, and was pretty unhappy with my results, as they mirrored the S&P durning 2008-10 almost to a "T". I stuck with them all during the downturn, and upswing, and in the interim, I read everything I could get my hands on in the way of financial advice & advisors. I read two books by the founder of the Vanguard group (THE founder & originator of low-cost index funds) John Boggle. Read any book or pamphlet he ever wrote, he says the same thing in all of them. Very excellent, easy to understand advice. One of the conclusions I came to (a real 'duh' moment) is that I am the one who is ultimately responsible for the end results of my 401k dollars. Even if I sign off and let some other entity 'manage' those dollars, ultimately, I am responsible. And don't even think for a moment that I can somehow abdicate that to someone else, and then simply go to sleep and forget about it. Once I got over that, it all somehow got a lot easier.

RockyBoy

Exactly. Whether you do your own investing or pay someone to "manage" it for you, you should ALWAYS understand exactly what your money is doing.

You should never pay someone to do something with your money that you could not do yourself or that you don't understand. If you just don't enjoy investing and want to free up some time then you should pay someone, but always know exactly what they are doing.

I love it when a "financial advisor" rolls up in his 1998 Honda Civic dressed in wrinkled Dockers and goes on to tell me I don't understand how to invest so I should pay him to "manage" my money for me.

GogglesPisano

Geat advice. I watched this "Frontline" from a few years ago which matches exactly what you say. The fees erode any advantage of "active management." No one -- not even a hedge fund manager -- has been able to beat the index fund over the long run.

Boring is good.

Video: Tonight on FRONTLINE: The Retirement Gamble | Watch FRONTLINE Online | PBS Video