No offense lockjaw, but you can throw a dart against a wall and make money in a rising market. Picking a fund based on the last 10 years may be the single worst selection process. I'll also add that unless you work for a large brokerage house the info about what is happening inside actively managed funds is pretty poor. I was amazed at what I didnt know when I switched companies. The brokerages just have tools that the average invester doeant have access to (that also goes for many financial services firms).

What happens when you lose 50% one year.... thats right, you have to make 100% just to get back to where you were. Financial advising is more about structuring assets and risk management. High returns dont mean much if it exposes you to losses or if the assets are set up using poor tax/rate/access strategies.

Maybe your advisor was bad, but thinking you are better than him after a year is pretty bold. Let the market go through some corrective cycles and then you'll be able to take a victory lap if you dont lose money.

Maybe one day I'll start a thread about my concerns related to indexed funds, but I'll just say that the level of correlation between asset classes today along with the algorithms that drive trades scares the heck out of me. I have these discussions with my advisor and he gets a kick out of it (we are friends). But, for that reason I dont own many indexed ETFs or mutual funds.

A buddy of mine (56 years old) says he stands to inherit about $300k when his mom dies and he’ll probably retire. That will give him a combination of about $360k between his inheritance and his 401k. The thing is, he owes more than that on his house. I just shake my head.