How Much Real Estate VS Stock Do You Own?

[Tony Nguyen]

Hello all,

Right now, I currently have all real estate assets and no money in stocks. I met with a financial advisor yesterday, who is a trusted friend-of-a-friend, and suggests I put a chunk of money into tax savings retirement plans and invest into stocks. He mentioned a statistic that the "Ultra Rich" ($50M+ net worth) have 60% of their wealth in stocks and 40% is in real estate.

I was hoping to get some feedback from some of the people who have long term experience (or great references) in building a strong portfolio. I like to think I'm doing ok with real estate and hate to deviate from an investment I understand to start participating in a game like stocks where I have zero experience. The other side of the coin is I understand diversification could be a safer play should a collapse of the economy happen again.

Thank you and look forward to your thoughts!

[Paul Allen]

@Tony Nguyen I am a financial planner/adviser, and I believe in diversification. You seem like a DIYer (because you're on BP!), so you should head on over to bogleheads.org and do some reading.

What I am saying is that 99% of financial advisers will recommend stocks* because that is what they do. If you're looking for a car and you go to a Toyota dealer they are not going to recommend a Ford. If you go to someone who manages stock portfolios and ask them how you should invest - well...guess what they are going to recommend? And...they will also be able to help you out for a fee.

You don't need to pay someone a fee to manage your portfolio. You might want to (just like some buy and hold REIs use a property manager), but you don't need to. Bogleheads can teach you how to build a diversified securities portfolio that you can manage yourself.

Best of Luck on Your Journey!

*Unless they are actually insurance salesmen masquerading as financial advisers. Then they will try to sell you insurance.