trying not to lose what she's got

Kinz · Newbie Joined: 21 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

I'm my mother's Trustee. When my father was alive he did all athe investing and had the time and smarts to do it. She doesn't, and I don't have much of either. She's got about $400,000. now invested with a brokerage company, although about a year ago it was about $700,000. I don't want her to keep losing money. I talked to a friend of mine who is with State Farm and she and the investment guy who's with her firm said that mom is not invested right for what she needs. She just wants income. Right now her portfolio is about 43% large cap stocks with about 20% fixed income. The people at State Farm looked at her portfolio and and were amazed at what she had. They think she she needs to be at about 28% large cap which will give her 45% fixed income. Without going into detail about the rest of the pie chart, does this make sense? Thanks for any help.

rffrydr · Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:41 am Post subject:

Hedge Fund Wives' checklist:

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/07/07/60731/top-ten-hedge-hund-wife-must-hads/
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

nodoodahs · Moderator Joined: 06 May 2005 Posts: 2408

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Generally speaking, if I were retired and wanted passive income - "passive" meaning that I'm not actively moving things about in the portfolio, other than annual reviews - then I would want a high percentage of fixed income, some dividend-producing stocks, and just enough growth stocks to make sure that I didn't outlive my money, and it would be in low-basis index funds, or something similar. So to me, an amateur with no professional credentials, the new guy's pie chart doesn't seem out of line. Now today I think we live in some exceptional times, because many of the stocks with dividends aren't going to be able to sustain them, and fixed-income is paying less yield - both absolute and cost-of-living adjusted - than it has in a while. So maybe that's a topic of conversation with him.

Like I said, I'm an amateur with no professional credentials and can't give advice, just my opinion if it were me in that position. There are some folks with specialty in retirement that frequent the board, maybe they'll respond or email you (if your email is in your profile).
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I haven’t seen a beatin’ like that since somebody stuck a banana in my pants and turned a monkey loose.