Quote:
Originally Posted by chassis
zx10guy Roughly how many hours per month would you estimate your advisor spends managing your assets? I'm considering working with an advisor but can't get my head around the cost-benefit scenario.
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I have a financial advisor that holds part of my money (and also a really good friend of mine). It's less about how much time he spends per month & more about the value he provides. If you have a guy spending a ton of time looking at what you have and then making bad decisions then the hours don't matter.
I also went the first 27 years of my professional life (I'm 50) without one, they aren't needed, and the more important question to make is if you are willing to be educated enough to not need one. If you have no interest in figuring out what to do then you need one far more than someone else. Even then you need to be educated as you shouldn't completely trust anyone with your money (taxes, insurance, investments, mortgage, whatever). Also add that the more money you have the percentage charged goes down. You can also pay flat fees to people where you pay them for a job, not a percentage of your investments. Both have their benefits.
As for the original question, the idea of refinancing has to include how long you plan to be in the house and how much it will drop your interest rate. Then comes all of the other benefits. I have a 15 year mortgage at 2.75 that I am about half way through. I think the best money decision is to invest excess but I plan to start paying the mortgage down starting at the end of the year (spending a lot of money now on a rental). Doing it because I like the idea of eventually not owing anyone anything, even if there are better places to put my money. It also reduces the amount of cash I hold in case I lose my job as I wouldn't need nearly as much.