Dow 50k

As others have said, friends or family is a good way to start. None of my friends have a FP, and my family is 1,600 miles away, so that wasn't going to work well for me. Although I did get good insight from my sister, that some FP are really expensive (you know, the one that always advertises as "when you do better, we do better"). I'm not saying that company is bad, just be aware of fee structures.

My bank has a FP service (big bank), the company I keep my rollover IRA holdings with has FP services, and then there is always Google (your FB feed will be flooded with ads after that - LOL). I talked with several on the phone, and some were immediately steering me to things I didn't want, without even finding out my general goals, so those were dropped. Others were way too pushy - emailing and or calling every day, so those were dropped. I finally found someone thru where my rollover IRA holdings are kept (which was best case scenario since they would be able to have direct access to my accounts).

The person I went with helped me do some basic things not related to actual investing. Plus, they asked for goals, where I was at currently and gave me info on all sorts of things way before I decided to go to a managed account. I probably had 6 meetings with them, accomplishing different things, in 2025 before I decided to hire them and give them money to manage my stuff. Those meeting were with him and his assistant, and gave me time to become comfortable with them and determine if they were consistent and how attentive they were to my needs (there was one expecially sticky situation that they worked tirelessly thru - without getting any financial gains from me).

Before going with someone, you want to:

• Make sure they and their company are registered and approved by the company that is holding your accounts (if they are to have direct access).
• They should be registered, and be in good standing with your state.
• Check out their work and training history.

 

Dana B make sure they are a fiduciary; if not they are not required to put your wishes over their company wishes with your money.

 

I am not saying you’re wrong BUT perception of history might be narrower than you intend; some other details for perspective before 1929. These are over view; off top of my head, I did not fact check each one for accuracy

WW1 1914 - 1918 ends on 11/11 take months to get home by boat, bring Spanish flu wipes out 20% of population

Then finally get home and woman have right vote AND prohibition no drinking

wright brothers built a plane; Ford built model T
Horses going away,

These poor guys came home from war went from beer wine and women around every military base

To none of that; so gambling was illegal but leveraged bets on stocks weren’t..

If you think the mafia didn’t control inside information in NYC and Chicago think logically yeah organized crime stayed out of stocks and money before it was illegal?

rest I have to say too hard to clean up trying to keep family friendly

edited to add the 16 amendment passed 1913 allows income Tax for first time BUT don’t worry only for the super wealthy