I still remember being 18 years old and walking into a bank i have decided not to mention to purchase some mutual funds.
I was standing in the wrong line at the bank and when I got to the front of the line the teller looked me up and down and rolled her eyes and pointed to another line.
Frusturated I walked to the other line where I waited for 20 minutes until I was called into a small office.
The man before me was in his late 20’s maybe and was wearing a suit.
‘What can I do for you?’ He asked as he stared down at me like I was going to rob the joint.
‘I’m here to dollar cost average a few funds’ I responded
-note(These were the days when I was still stupid enough to buy these)
He went on to ask me my income,age,martial status and then plugged it all into a computer.
A printer went off and he pulled out a peice of paper and said
‘Here you go these are the funds you need to invest in!’
I looked over the paper he had handed me it had some neat little charts and numbers on it.
‘These funds are terrible! Not only are they full of garbage but they have barley covered inflation on their best years!’
I just wanted the funds that I had studied and decided that good.
‘What is the MER on these funds?’ I queryed
(For those of you that don’t know, MER is Management Expense Ratio the management fee to invest in the funds in this case)
‘3.5% which is very standard you can’t get much lower than that’ he stated
I mean this guy is wearing a tie! Here I’am this 18 year old kid arguing with him.
‘Are you even a TDWATERHOUSE customer?’ he said
‘Why yes I’am I trade quite often’ I replied
At that moment he got up and left the office. Out of the blinds in the office windows I could make out his lips explaining something to another older man also in a suit.
The older man in a suit walked into the office and said
‘Mr Parks this is what you want?’
‘yes’
He stamped a few papers and I was on my way.
Now I always thought to myself what if i hadn’t been educated enough to look at what he printed out and just signed on the dotted line and off I went?
What if this was going to be my only means of retirement these funds he was handing me?
What made any of these people more qualified to tell me what to do with my money?
How many people are investing in things they have no idea about only to learn on the day they need there nest egg money the most that they have been sold a peice of junk?
I know this is happening all the time, always keep yourself educated.
Kelly Parks

www.wealthforinvestors.com