After the great crash of 2008 many people are asking if the time has come to fire their financial advisor. “Is it the economy?” “Shouldn’t my advisor have seen this coming?” I’m going to give you 4 signs it’s time to fire your advisor. After reading these indicators you can decide for yourself if you should stick with your advisor or if it’s time to fire him and invest your own money.

1.) Buy, Hold, and Pray

Most financial advisors (and by most I mean like 99%) will tell you to put your money in mutual funds or similar investments. These investment vehicles are great as long as the stock market goes up. But what about the days when the stock market goes down? Sometimes down is WAY down - just look at October 2008. These are the days advisors do not want to think about. In fact, they choose to not think about those days. But YOU DO. It is your money after all. And those are the days when you start to pray. “Please make it go up, please make it go up...” I know, I’ve all been there too. But you do not have to be. That’s why if your advisor tells you to buy and hold, which causes you to pray, it’s probably time to FIRE HIM.

2.) Buy, Don’t Pray, and Hold

The “Buy, don’t pray, and hold” syndrome is the response most advisors have to the questions arising out of buy hold, and pray. It goes something like this.

You: “But Mr. Advisor, what if the market goes down?”

And he says: “Oh don’t worry, over a 20 year period of time the market always goes up.”

Now in theory that is suppose to put you at ease. The problem is it doesn’t. What your advisor is really saying is “just buy it, don’t worry about it, hold it forever, and in 20 years I think the market will be in one of it’s up swings”. But what happens if the market isn’t in an upswing when you need your money? And that’s the question you need your advisor to answer or you should FIRE HIM!

3.) Expect Your Income To Go Down When You Retire

This one always gets me. You mean I’m suppose to work for 45 years, practically kill myself, and when I retire, when inflation is at the highest point in my life, when my dollars go the shortest, I should expect a drastic pay cut? The answer is almost always - yes. You need to make sure your advisor understands your goals. And your goals should be to have as much or more income after your retire as you do before you retire - for the rest of your life - no matter how old you get! If your advisor can’t make that happen it’s time to FIRE HIM!

4.) 10-15% Annual Interest Is Really Good

American’s have been conditioned to believe annual interest is the only way to measure interest. In fact it’s not true. That’s just what the financial institutes have told you. Your home loans are measured in annual rates, credit cards have annual rates, and of course your measly bank savings account pays an annual rate of maybe a couple percentage points. But every day and every month the big financial institutes are making daily, weekly, and monthly rates of return. Why shouldn’t you? In fact there are very special mutual funds for extremely rich people that focus on making monthly returns of 10-15%. That’s the same amount you have to wait a year to make! If this is your advisor’s idea of growth don’t take it. FIRE HIM!

So what’s the word? Is he getting fired? To learn more about how you can retire without the help of your advisor read my special report “How To Retire In One Year With Only $10,000."

How to Learn More

If what you have just read makes sense to you and you’d like to learn more, the best place to start is Trade Smart University’s free workshop called the Foundations of Stocks and Options. You don't want to miss this free online workshop!

Jeremy Whaley is co-founder of Trade Smart University, an education company dedicated to helping everyday people learn to trade the stock market for consistent profits. If you would like to learn how to trade your own money for steady profits, visit www.TradeSmartU.com and experience affordable, accessible stock market education.