I have two good friends who have each been in the financial world for about 25 years. Should we ask them how to fly the Expressway Visual on a gusty day?

 

Correct. Paul Merriman runs Merriman Capital Management. And yes, it has beaten the total stock market and S&P since 1972. Not by much but it doesn’t take much to see huge differences over time. He actually offers this advice for free.

 

Paul Merriman is a very highly respected advisor, that runs a non profit to help small individual investors. He is highly regarded, and has some great advice for reducing fees and investing in very diverse portfolios. Well worth checking out. He’s a long term buy and hold, no tricks or scams.

 

The problem with that is that insurance salesman, con artists, and financial advisors without the clients fiduciary interest in mind have taken over the "financial world." Low cost index funds, three fund portfolio (for those who want minimal research), and it isn't what you make but what you save. If you can pass a type rating you can do enough reading in your spare time to wrap your head around the basics.

 

Baloney! If you bothered to read even his own bio, you'd learn he was not doing this(beating the market) since 1972. Nothing of the sort.

All his theory is based on so called "back testing"; a fancy term for hindsight theory.

He sells books, he sells access to newsletters, he sells brokerage accounts.

I've been an RIA for 11 years and have learned to spot the hogwash.

Here's a freebie, learn about sequence risk. Then consider his "portfolios" with historical perspective".

But hey, it's your money, part with it as you like.

 

Here's another freebie for ya. Paul Merriman is not registered with the SEC. Hasn't been since 2011. Contrary to his website, he has been registered only since 1991. In 1983 he started as an employee of Merriman inc., whatever that is... (no sec registration), and still employed there.

Registration is important, because it means you are accountable to the SEC and FINRA for following their rules and the law.

Think of it in aviation terms...no, operating certificate.

Pilots and Doctors......

 

You’re spot on. Paul Merriman is that scammer offering free advice trying to get get people to buy low cost Vanguard Index funds. What a scam!

 

A little off topic, but does anyone know how often you can convert post-tax taxable PRAP funds into the Roth 401k? Obviously, I'd like to hold this money for as short as possible to pay as little short term gains as possible, but wasn't sure if it was a once a year thing.

 

Not limited to a once a year thing but it takes time to do the conversion. I max out my 401k by the mid April to get maximum VEBA spillage. As soon as I hit the annual max, I request the conversion forms. Plan on the conversion taking at least a month to complete.


Since the new tax law no longer has the Pease/PEP phaseout, I'm considering converting all of my pretax money to Roth. I ordered the forms a couple of weeks ago and have them in a drawer at home. I'm just waiting for the next market dip to send them in. This will be pretax and B/C funds that are still taxable.
Since my income stream through retirement will allow me to never touch those funds, I want to get them into a Roth to a) avoid RMDs starting at 70 1/2 and 2) allow my children to inherit the funds tax free. I'm getting ready to put documents in place where the funds will go into a trust on my death and RMDs will be based on my childrens' ages.

 

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.