There is a plague that runs through the streets of Wall Street, and that is greed. If you have a stock broker, financial advisor, or financial planner, that is commission base, fire him or her now. I don’t care if he has five, ten, or fifty years of experience. It is not in your best interest to have an advisor that is compensated on a commission bases.

I’m going to share with you some information that the public does not know or ever hears about. There are two types of investments advisor in the industry. The first one is the advisor who is calling you every month pitching a new stock or investment, and moving you from one investment to another. The other type is what we call the ghost advisor, this is one who meets with you sells you an investment and never calls you again.

The reason the first advisor is calling you all the time, is because he/she knows how much money you have to invest and they will not stop until they have all your money. Another reason is because he gets paid a commission on every transaction, it does not matter if it’s a buy or a sell he still gets paid. You have to understand that every advisor in this country is commission base, there is no salary. Another reason is if he isn’t generating commissions for his manager and the company he works for, he will be fired. I want you to ask yourself this one question, if the investments your stock broker is recommending to you… are so good, does he own them him self. The truth is that your advisor is recommending an investment that the company he works for is telling him to sell.

The next type of advisor in the industry is the ghost advisor the one that disappears once they sold you an investment and never calls again. I have met with people who would tell me that they hadn’t heard from their advisor in 10 years. Now why would an advisor not call you for 10 years, it’s because he/she knows that you don’t have any more money to invest and they will not be receiving anymore commissions off of your investments.

Now you may be saying to yourself this isn’t going on at the company I’m with, because they care about me and my family. Trust me this goes on at Merriyll Lynch, Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, etc…… it does not matter what company you’re investing with… they all have these types of advisor. From the first day a new advisor starts with a company they are trained by the industry to generate as much commission as possible, by saying what ever and doing what ever to get new clients or current clients to invest. This is how brokerage firms make money, and it is through their sales force that revenues are generated. Don’t take my word for it just go to www.mywealthpuzzle.com and look for yourself under the “Is This Your Broker” tab.

Hey, what’s all this noise about Baby Boomers worried about retiring? “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, isn’t this the B-Boomers motto. Why is it that when we start turning 60 it’s “Oh crap how am I going to retire on nothing”? Have you been asleep for the last 40 years of your working career?

How is it that our parents and grandparents had enough common sense to save for a rainy day and we boomers seemed hopelessly lost? Were we being fed “stupid pills” while in grade school? I guess nobody was paying attention when Corporate America was transitioning from company pensions plans to 401(k)s (guess you should have signed-up for that one). Now we have this giant segment of American society staring with blood- shot eyes at the inevitable event of retirement.

So let’s put on a pot of coffee and sit down and figure this out.

One, Congress and the President are not going to do away with Social Security. That would be like them sticking their head in the microwave and turning it on; it just isn’t going to happen.

Second, unless you were a complete moron you probably have some money put way for your golden years, just not enough. The trick here is increasing our net worth in the time we have left; it can be done. If you have 5 to 10 years before you retire, do every thing you can to reduce expenses and save as much of your paycheck as possible. Slash your non-essential daily living expenses like cable or the newspaper; every little nickel helps.

Look really hard at your cars, clothes, home, vacations, recreational activities and dinning out. It would be better to cut back and go without now so you can enjoy them later on in life. A little belt tightening and sacrifice now will go a long way.

Third, stop whining and complaining and do something. I talk to too many people, read countless articles and all I hear is “why me”. Your an adult so take off the diaper and stand up on your own two feet your parents aren’t going to bail you out any more (if they are still here they have their own problems to deal with). Get an attitude adjustment, you live in the greatest country in the world and you have the most freedom of anyone on this planet, use it. Put that brain God gave you to work and THINK. You have talents, abilities, ideas, knowledge, experiences and resources, put those to good use and you will be amazed at what you can do.

Fourth, plan on doing what the rich people do, get into real estate and start your own business. You don’t need to be wealthy or a genius to do this just desire, a little common sense and a willingness to work. Most rich people in American didn’t inherit their wealth from their parents they earned it through hard work and determination. Believe it or not you can get into real estate or a business with as little as $5000 to $10,000. Now that may seem like a lot of money to some of you, but what are your alternatives… poverty and defeat?

Fifth, Don’t Stop. Too many people give up and quit if something doesn’t go according to plan. Remember it’s not the team who’s ahead in the first, second, or third quarter it’s the one who is, at the end of the fourth. “It isn’t over till it’s over”, Yogi B. Success at something takes time and a willingness to see it through to the end. If you want to have money after you have retired from that 9-5 job, then you better have a long-range plan. Some of you may say “Hey wait a minutes that means I’m going to be working after I retire from my regular job”. So, what else were you planning on doing after you retired, curl up in the corner and suck your thumb? Let’s face the facts, you didn’t save enough to retire comfortably so let’s be smart about this and plan your future now.

Now’s the time to act, don’t wait till you’re 80 and try to move in with your 60 year old kids.

What do *you* think? Are you doing any of this already? Do you think the baby boomer generation is prepared for retirement? Post your comment below.

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We just recently posted the story “6 Reasons Why You Can’t Get Rich in the Stock Market, and Why You Never Will” and we got a surprising spike in traffic and interest in our site. One reader submitted this story to us that we want to share. While it’s not your typical success story we think it makes Carlos a huge winner for seeing the right message. If you’ve ever wondered what millionaires say about stock market investing in private, here’s Carlos’ take on it:

Around the Holidays every year one gets invited to social gatherings and between sipping drinks and stuffing your face you enter into small talk. On several occasions this season I had the privilege of discussing worldly matters with some well-to-do (rich) individuals and each time I came away with the same bit of information about wealth or rather the accumulation of wealth.

I’ve always assumed that rich people (having a net worth over a couple million dollars) were invest heavily in the stock market as I had been for years. Not so. As a matter of fact I discovered they have only a portion of their money in the market; the rest is spread out over real estate and business or two. I found this bit of news both interesting and unsettling. I politely inquired how they had been able to accumulate their vast fortunes and they all said through owning their own business or partners in a business. Interestingly enough not one person I talked to became wealthy by investing in the market.

One never wants to feel like a fool in a conversation so I quickly defended my investing habits by quoting how well I had done in the market over this past year. This boast was only met with smiles and grins. It was then that I was given my education for the evening. Without much fanfare I was informed that a good business man could easily make 3 to 5 times the money invested in their business in a given year. And here I was bragging about getting over 20% for the year, which in their eyes would have translated into a bad year in business.

My new found friends went on to inform me that the market was “Unpredictable”, you’re in the money one minute then the next you’re loosing money. I gathered that this lack of control was something these individuals either couldn’t tolerate or went against their nature. I know from years of investing experience that the market can turn on a dime sending your portfolio straight down. You have got to watch your investments every day.

I remember somewhere in our little discussion I opened my big mouth a said something to the effect that “your stockbroker was working for you”. I think that was one of the other issues these well-off people didn’t like about investing, trusting someone else with their money. I mean its bad enough when you loose your money; it’s worse when someone else does it for you.

Well, so there you have it; my rich party-pals let the “cat out of the bag”. Rich people don’t use the stock market to become wealthy; wealth is created through other means such as owning a business or real estate. Rich people only get into the market after they have made it and use the market to grow their wealth.

Like my dad use to say, if you can’t beat’m, join’m.

Best Regards,
Carlos

Thanks Carlos! If you didn’t catch our previous blog that started this click here. Have your own story about wealth enlightenment you want to share. Email us your story at mystory@mywealthpuzzle.com. Let us know if you’d like us to share your full name or not. Thanks for reading. Before you leave share your comments below. We like to hear from you.

Technorati Tags: stocks, finance, investing, money, trading, business, stock, investment, opportunity, startup, inspiration, culture, millionaire

Have you ever wondered how the millionaires in this country built their wealth? After spending 10 years in the investment industry as an advisor, contrary to popular belief the richest people in America DID NOT accumulate their wealth by investing in the stock market.

Considering the amount of media coverage that the stock market gets on a daily basis and the billions spent on advertising by Wall Street firms, it’s not at all surprising if you’ve come away with the impression you can start out with very little money and strike it rich by investing it in the market. Unfortunately this is largely a fabrication.

What Are They Not Telling You

1. Small investors are not wanted by Wall Street and the brokerage firms. It was never designed with the small investor in mind.
2. In an article in Investment News on 02/21/2006; it states that last year Merrill Lynch & Co and Morgan Stanley, both of New York, stopped paying brokers for any kind of business done in households with investible assets of less than $50,000.
3. If you don’t have at least 100k to invest, investment firms, stock brokers, and financial advisors will not take you seriously as a client.
4. The investments available to the small investor are limited to just a few choices. As a small investor you will never have access to the types of products available to the rich. You have to be what’s called in the industry an accredited investor, which means your net worth, has to be at least one million dollars to have access to the alternative investments available.
5. Why don’t the rich go to the market to build their wealth? It Ain’t Predictable. Simply put, it’s not possible to predict the stock market. You can’t predict the market. I can’t predict it. No one can, not even the so called experts. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.
6. So if stock brokers, financial advisors, financial planners, etc… know where the rich made their wealth in this country, why aren’t they telling you?

Why Aren’t They Telling You

1. Money: 90% of the brokers in this country are commission base
2. Greed: The number one motivating factor in the investment industry.
3. Consider this: Wall Street controls over $8 trillion in retirement money through the mutual fund industry. And for every one percent the money managers charge they are able to stick another $8 billion dollars in their pockets - the 8 billion is what the one percent fee adds up to.
4. Stock brokers, financial advisors, financial planners etc…, are limited to the investments and services available to them through the firms they represent.
5. If a broker can’t get paid a commission on an investment, he/she will not recommend it to you.

The great thing is to build your wealth you don’t need the stock market stock broker, financial advisor, or financial planner, because 70% of the millionaires in this country did not need them to build their wealth.

Technorati Tags: money, finance, stock, stock+market, wealth, investments, trading, fed