Advice for recovering from 3 bad yearsi know you don’t give personal investing advice, but other than joining irregulars how would you go about recovering from 3 bad years with raymond james?
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I don’t imagine that joining the Irregulars will help anyone recover from bad years or make anyone a lot of money, but I hope it will add to their investing knowledge.
If you mean that you had a bad experience with a broker or advisor who didn’t perform well for you or managed your account poorly, that could mean a lot of things but most of the time when I hear from folks in similar situations it means you’ve lost money and are trying to “catch up”. I fear that such situations often end badly, the pressure to reach for high returns leads to risky choices — I usually suggest that investors who aren’t sure what to do or how to make a big change (start investing, change their strategy substantially, deal with a major life event that has financial implications) steer straight to a reputable fee-only financial advisor/planner for a session or two to get a basic handle on their situation before moving forward. Depending on your situation, that kind of advisor may be able give you a good perspective for just a few hundred dollars and help you start to set a plan in motion… best of luck to you.
The association of fee-only advisors can help you find someone (http://www.napfa.org/), though if you have referrals from trusted local folks that might work better.
If you’re just trying to educate yourself on investing and want to take a more active personal role in your portfolio, it all depends on where you’re starting from. If you don’t know much about stocks and are looking for resources, we’ve had a good discussion of some resources that readers (and I) like here: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2014/11/first-steps-and-favorite-tools-for-new-investors/