I am pretty good at financials and investments. Yet, one of the wisest things I have done is have one of the top money management companies invest my assets. Only 5% of the managers, mutual funds, brokerage accounts, etc. beat the market averages (S&P 500, MSCI World, etc.). They do, rather consistently, for decades. They do better than I could. That is even after their management fee of 1 to 1.5% of assets per year.

Any place in particular that you recommend?

To answer the original poster, yes I do write covered calls from my retirement account. I use them as a slightly better way to enter a sell limit order. Say I have a stock that I bought for $20/share that is now $200 per share and that is now too high a percentage of my portfolio. I want to sell half. There are three ways I could do this. I could simply enter a market sell order. This is the simplest way. But suppose that I am greedy, and think that the stock has a bit more to run. I could enter a limit sell order at, say, $220 for whatever number of shares that I want to sell. I could also sell a covered call that is fairly long dated, say a year at the same $220 strike price. If the price goes up to my target, my stock gets called away at an attractive price. If the stock does not get up to the strike price by the end of the option period, then I keep the stock (and any dividends) and the price of the option. Note: I would only do this if the price of the option was at least 5% of the value of the stock. I don't do this very often because it is seldom that I want to sell a highly appreciated stock, and even when I do, there is seldom an option priced attractively enough to be worth bothering with.

Joe

I took that quiz, too. And failed miserably (I made like a 48% or something like that). And I was one of these guys who really knew what I was doing. Until I found out I didn't. One thing I can say I really like about them is that it is truly personalized - to me and my family. In the past, if I ever called Fidelity, I just talked to some kid in a call center. Good luck with it. You should re-post about how it went. They can probably help a lot of folks like us

I posted earlier about this place I'm using -- Wings Wealth Management -- they ONLY work with Airline Pilots - so they get it......I think their website is www.wingswealthmanagement.com. They have done wonders for me.

Just sent you a PM.

That test was lame. I’m not saying Wings Wealth Management doesn’t do what you want, but that test was graded based on subjective answers.

“Simplicity is the master key to financial success.”

-John Bogle

I agree that the test was lame, but the answers that they say were right were not unreasonable. The only answer that they had that I would say was flat out wrong was choosing longevity over early retirement bad sequence of returns for the biggest threat to retirement income.

Joe

I would think that a quiz might seem lame to you guys who are fairly educated in the subject matter, but not to the majority of the airline pilots out there who really don't know anything about financial services. I have flown with lots of guys who are blindly picking their next stock in Investors Business Daily hoping it will do well. The part Wings Wealth Management has helped me with the most is realizing there is more than investment management when it comes to being ready for retirement. It's about tax minimization, survivor planning, medical care....that kind of thing. Gosh, the last person I want to be is that guy in the crappy nursing home slumped over in his chair asleep while Ricki Lake is on and a Bingo game going on in the other room. Respectfully, I think it is cool that you guys know how to invest, but I'm very happy I have that service as well as all of the others. They helped me immensely. I guess that's why the only work with airline pilots. Fly safe guys!

I am pretty smart when it comes to investing. However I have selected one of the top couple percent investment management companies to manage my portfolio. They beat the market averages by 3 - 5% per year, most years, after fees. They are down less than the averages in bear markets. They are up more in bull markets than the averages.

I have them manage it because they do better than I can, and without me having to spend much time. (And, no, I do not have a vested interest in them.)