Advice from those who have used Aptus Financial

[BE87]

I am interested in using them and they offer a full comprehensive financial plan and for about half the price they offer a financial review. My question is for those who have used them, which plan did u go with and would u do anything different? A little background from me, I am 2 years out of residency. I frequent this site daily and have read the WCI book as well as some others that are recommended on this site. I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics of financial literacy, so I am leaning towards doing just the financial review but any advice is appreaciated. Also please comment if you have used the fire your financial advisor class from WCI, that is another option that I am considering as opposed to using Aptus.

[Peds]

what specific question are you trying to answer?

[BE87]

Basically should I go with the full comprehensive plan or the financial review for half the cost? I’m hoping that those of you that have gone with one or the other could guide me in the right direction.

[The White Coat Investor]

Three main techniques to getting a financial plan in place:

1) Read books, blog posts, and ask questions on forum.

Takes the longest time but is cheapest. It's what I did and it certainly works.

2) Take Fire Your Financial advisor.

Costs $499 and takes 8 hours.

3) Hire an advisor.

Typically costs $2000-5000 but has the lowest time and effort commitment.

You seem to be doing all three for some reason. It's like belt, suspenders, and duct tape.

At any rate, if you choose to use Aptus, you sound perfect for their lowest cost service. If you want to do FYFA, it does come with a 100% money back guarantee in the first 7 days. The fact that you're here and read the site daily suggests to me that you can probably do this without FYFA or Aptus.

[CordMcNally]

If you lay out your information and what questions you have, I'm sure you'll get some good answers. I can guarantee that the price (free!) is better here.

[Peds]

BE87 wrote:

Basically should I go with the full comprehensive plan or the financial review for half the cost? I’m hoping that those of you that have gone with one or the other could guide me in the right direction.

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a plan for what?

refinance and pay off your loans vs PSLF, save 20% for retirement, use all your accounts, pick low cost index funds, develop an asset allocation (dont pick 100% stocks), make sure you buy insurance like DI/term, learn the tax code, read all the boglehead books, and dont forget you can still spend some money.

 

....

 

[Kamban]

BE87 wrote:

A little background from me, I am 2 years out of residency. I frequent this site daily and have read the WCI book as well as some others that are recommended on this site. I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics of financial literacy, so I am leaning towards doing just the financial review

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You sound financially literate but a bit hesitant to do it yourself.

I feel that if you go into the financial review or financial plan route from Aptus and get recommendations like active funds or whole life or some other crazy investment style and you get suckered into it, you might have a hard time extricating from it later on. Time and money. read the horror stories of IUL posted here.

If you give us a broad outline of your plan with some specific questions you will get suggestions from the members here that you can implement. At any rate FYFA at $499 will be much less expensive than any financial review and put you on a solid footing.

[The White Coat Investor]

Kamban wrote:

BE87 wrote:

A little background from me, I am 2 years out of residency. I frequent this site daily and have read the WCI book as well as some others that are recommended on this site. I feel like I have a good grasp of the basics of financial literacy, so I am leaning towards doing just the financial review 

Click to expand…

You sound financially literate but a bit hesitant to do it yourself.

I feel that if you go into the financial review or financial plan route from Aptus and get recommendations like active funds or whole life or some other crazy investment style and you get suckered into it, you might have a hard time extricating from it later on. Time and money. read the horror stories of IUL posted here.

If you give us a broad outline of your plan with some specific questions you will get suggestions from the members here that you can implement. At any rate FYFA at $499 will be much less expensive than any financial review and put you on a solid footing.

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You're not going to get sold an IUL or active funds at Aptus.

I've had a few readers who were really quite literate but not that confident who went there and they actually told them "let's just cancel/refund the third meeting, you've got this." I suspect something similar would happen to you but you would have the reassurance that your plan was good and you'd get a few minor tweaks.

[BE87]

Thanks for the advice. It’s one of those things where, I feel like I’m on the right track but I know there are things I could be doing better. And you’re right, I’m still lacking in confidence with all of this. That’s probably just a byproduct of never taking a finance class of any sort through my education. I do find that I enjoy learning about finances though. One of my weaknesses is that I tend to formulate a plan and keep it in my head but I never actually write it down. For instance, I know what my financial goals are but I do not have a written financial plan. I know approximately what my savings rate is but I don’t keep an excel spread sheet worth of data to prove it. I’m a big picture guy not a details guy, I guess that’s why I went into family medicine lol.

[treesrock]

Sounds like for someone like you a fairly priced financial review would be reasonable.

[PainShrink]

BE87, Did you consult with Aptus for a financial review?  I am interested in your experience and whether you found it to be helpful.

[fatlittlepig]

How much do they charge. Hard to give you advice without knowing how much.

[SerrateAndDominate]

fatlittlepig wrote:

How much do they charge. Hard to give you advice without knowing how much.

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Depends which plan you use

 

https://www.aptusfinancial.com/individual-planning/#pricing

[fatlittlepig]

for the typical physician 2 years out of residency, i would say 4500 is entirely inappropriate and unnecessary. there just aren't enough variables or assets to necessitate an advisor

[Tim]

“One of my weaknesses is that I tend to formulate a plan and keep it in my head but I never actually write it down. For instance, I know what my financial goals are but I do not have a written financial plan.”
“Keeping it in your head” doesn’t sound like a good solution for you. A detailed “budget” down to your cell phone bill doesn’t sound right either. Is this really a “writers block” rather than a poor plan?
Start just one spreadsheet.
Gross income, taxes, savings/investments, spending(the rest). That’s a start. Write it down. Each of those can be improved with greater efficiency or changes. A planner simply takes information from you and writes it down. Each of the four buckets can be simply or complex.
PhysicianOnFire has some spreadsheets that may give you a start. As a “big picture guy”, just take last year’s and see where you are. A planner helps point out “missed opportunities” like pretax savings you have missed, but doesn’t create them. The data comes from you. There is only so much detail that can be improved.

By the way, don’t overlook the Custodian of you retirement plans. Fidelity actually has “Director of Retirement Planning” CFP that has access to the plans where you work (if they are a vendor option).
Got an email yesterday. Three of the options, details of limitations, links for setting up accounts, Backdoor Roth instructions, and recommendations for using post tax rather than pretax on one of the plans. These people are paid to answer questions and assist in retirement planning. In person appointments, phone, or a review.
Nice part, looking for low fee broad market index?
Here are two available in your plan. Nice. Beats looking through a list of 30 or so. Check with your plan custodian. You may get your review for free.
My point, create a My Plan Spreadsheet to update notes as needed. You will forget the details.