R
risk taker
Guest
In September, the very day that Fannie and Freddie were taking the dive that began our economy's free-fall, I was coming into some mutual funds which had previously been held in trust. The funds had not been tended to for about a year previous and were already doing rather poorly. I knew that I wanted to pull the money out of the current funds, but reinvesting in an alternate fund seemed to me like a pretty risky (STUPID) thing to do at the time. However, I do not know a damned thing about economics our how our market works; all I know is, I see big, time-honored companies biting the dust and I feel that it is time to worry. So I asked my "advisor" (an employee of Citi Smith Barney) "Is it really a good idea to be investing right now, or should I just hold onto this as cash for awhile?" His response was that it's never a bad time to begin investing, and yada yada yada all would be fine. Transfer of ownership and selling the old shares took a couple weeks time and we were soon looking over the plans for my new funds. Things were obviously still looking down for the economy (hell, they still are) and I asked again, "Is it really a good idea to be investing right now?" And his response, once again, was that the market was not that volatile and that mutual funds are especially safe (do not suffer as extreme ups and downs as stocks -- well duh).
So I, being young, naive and by my own judgment STUPID, went ahead with the purchases he suggested for me -- handing him a tidy 4.75% purchase fee which I have come to discover is unnecessarily high. 6 months and 50% later, I can't help but feel a burning hatred deep in my soul for this guy...but there's nothing I can do, is there?
Let my follow up by saying that I completely understand that LOTS of people lost lots of money in the last year. I also completely understand that there are substantial risks involved in any investment. I just can't get over the fact that I, with no experience or training, knew better, yet this guy, with his degree and career, had no idea.
So I, being young, naive and by my own judgment STUPID, went ahead with the purchases he suggested for me -- handing him a tidy 4.75% purchase fee which I have come to discover is unnecessarily high. 6 months and 50% later, I can't help but feel a burning hatred deep in my soul for this guy...but there's nothing I can do, is there?
Let my follow up by saying that I completely understand that LOTS of people lost lots of money in the last year. I also completely understand that there are substantial risks involved in any investment. I just can't get over the fact that I, with no experience or training, knew better, yet this guy, with his degree and career, had no idea.