Earlier this spring I was at the library and since I had never really studied up on investing I figured I should. I read Frank Armstrongs "The intelligent investor" and subsequently "The four pillars of investing" "A bogleheads guide to investing" "A bogleheads guide to retirement" and "The right financial plan". I am planning on reading "investors manifesto" next and have been getting on here and reading posts daily.
As referenced in these earlier posts of mine
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... highlight=
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... highlight=
I am moving all of my Simple money to VG from Ameriprise. I already moved monies from Edward Jones and LPL financial with no problems/hassles but Ameriprise has been a different story.
My/Our ameriprise rep is a client of ours (veterinary clinic) and I was sensitive to moving all my money away from him as reference in an earlier post and thought I got some good advice which I tried to employ.
This, unfortunately, did not work as well as I had hoped. Our first conversation was tense and I think he left it thinking there was still a chance I wasn't going to move my money away."John, I very much appreciate all of the help that you have given to me with our SIMPLE IRA. I don't know that I could have done it without you. However, now, I'm really itching to do this on my own. I'm going to move the money to Vanguard. If it turns out that I'm making a mistake, please don't make fun of me when I ask for your help again!"
I had to call him again today as there was (of course) a snafu in some of the specifics of moving the money over. Today was not nearly as pleasant to say the least. He re-enforced to me that he would have beat Vanguard 500 index last year net of fees. He said that he moved my $ from a moderate aggressive to aggressive stance during the 2008 drop which allowed me to rebound so well since.
Beyond that he said we must have a different way of looking at things because he tries to do business with the people that do business with him - he thinks that that is the right thing to do. He sent his wife up a few days ago to get some info (I found this out later) and he brought it up to me today that they had spent $5000 with us over the last 2 years since he transferred all his pets to us. Additionally he re-enforced that he does not even think to buy his pets medications over the internet - he always buys from us. He was not exaggerating these things - I checked later.
He did say that if my partner moved his money away from Ameriprise he would probably be taking his business elsewhere. He also noted that he refers other clients to us as well (this I couldn't confirm but it may well be true). He says he knows that we are a somewhat more expensive clinic but he thinks we are worth it - further he thinks that the expenses with Ameriprise are worth it as well and I shouldn't be so short sighted as to only think about the fees.
I think it is apparent that he isn't handling this all that maturely and I expect you all to tell me as much. My biggest hangup is trying to rectify in my mind some of the other core values of mine that I usually try to not waver from. I do try to keep my business local, I am willing to pay from extra service, I do try to support those that support me and I certainly don't try to create "enemies".
Anyway, I feel like crap about the whole deal. Best to get it behind me I suppose and move forward before it an even more difficult thing to tackle. I guess I am just looking for encouragement that I am not necessarily being penny wise and pound foolish.