| After years of losing money to a series of | | | | everything from the profitability of a fund to the |
| investment professionals from various banks and | | | | expense ratio to how they perform against funds |
| brokerage firms, I decided to use their tools on | | | | in the same category. This way, if you want to |
| my own to see what kind of results I could | | | | put say 20 percent of your portfolio into a bond |
| achieve. Hopefully you can do the same. This is | | | | fund, you could see at a glance which funds were |
| not a system or a get rich quick scheme. This is | | | | performing the best for that category of |
| hard work but it will get you the results that your | | | | investment. The biggest mistake that my last |
| broker cannot provide. | | | | brokers made was to say that they would never |
| Does this sound familiar? I have lost thousands of | | | | let my money stay in an under-performing fund. |
| dollars or more in the markets and I was | | | | When I fired them, most of my funds had slipped |
| investing through a reputable broker or financial | | | | into the bottom 25 percent of the fund |
| expert. I made this statement around the year | | | | categories and they could not give me a good |
| 2000 after firing my 3rd broker on three years. | | | | reason why. |
| After all the lying, arrogance, misrepresentation | | | | So, I opened an online brokerage account and |
| and down right dishonesty, I was through with | | | | moved all of my investments into it. Over two |
| brokers and brokerage firms. They had | | | | years I sold off my old investments. They were |
| unwittingly given me the tools that I needed to | | | | mostly rear loaded so I timed selling them when |
| take control of my own portfolio and out perform | | | | fees were lowest. I used my cash from these |
| any result that I ever achieved with a brokerage | | | | sales to buy new funds that I selected using |
| firm. | | | | information from Morningstar. This is a site that |
| Most investors have received the basic education | | | | offers Bell Charts that you and I can use! Within a |
| from the investment professional about asset | | | | short time it was obvious that my brokers picks |
| allocation, investment mix and risk tolerance. | | | | were not performing half as well as what I had |
| These are the foundation of good long term | | | | selected using the Bell Charts from Morningstar. I |
| investment. You can easily do this for yourself | | | | had to figure out my asset mix but that only |
| and save the broker or management fees. When | | | | took a few minutes. Now I am making money |
| the average investment is returning less than 10 | | | | and I am left wondering what I used to pay |
| percent, what sense is it to give away 2 or 3 | | | | those guys in suits for anyway? |
| percent to some guy in a suit just for doing | | | | Morningstar has a variety of powerful investment |
| some paperwork? There is just one last thing | | | | tools for the private and professional investor. |
| that the professionals know that we don't. What | | | | Give them a look to see what they can do for |
| are the good investments and how do we pick | | | | your portfolio. At very least you can use the Bell |
| them? | | | | Chart information to question your present |
| One common tools that all of my former | | | | investment professional more thoroughly. It is |
| investment professionals used bar none were Bell | | | | free to join, but the data will be a few months |
| Charts. These nifty charts were a rating system | | | | old. |
| for mutual funds that took into account | | | | |