What grinds my gears...

What grinds my gears is the "over-the-head" language that financial planners speak to their clients with. I feel like most of them have the same disease that the majority of college professors have...they believe that the client is there for them, not the other way around.

How wrong they are!

Clients of financial planners aren't required to employ a specific planner. The planner is there for the client, and should treat them as such. Talking over your clients' heads does make you sound smarter. Yet, it fails to accomplish the reason they are even there. Financial planners are there to teach and guide their clients. And if I remember correctly teaching and guiding requires simple explanations to complex problems. That's why if you've read this blog before, I try my best to convey certain theories and strategies in the most simplistic manner possible.

How the broker got rich: A cautionary tale

Story is a paraphrased excerpt from Ric Edelman's "the Truth about Money":

Here's the story of a broker who attracted new clients by demonstrating his ability to pick winners every time.

How did he do it? Each month, he'd mail letters to 100 prospective clients. Fifty of the prospects would receive a letter telling them to "buy" a stock; the other fifty to "sell" the same stock.

He would then take the list of picks he got correct, split them and apply the same logic from the previous paragraph. He would continue this process for four rounds(four months). Afterward, he would send a letter exclaiming his ability to go 4/4 in his previous stock picks. Attempting to persuade the list's occupants to give him money to actively manage. And they would.

Needless to say when the broker was exposed, he was banned from the securities industry. We wanted to post this story to detail some of the crafty plans people will design to "steal" your money.  If you ever hear of an investment deal that is too good to be true, perform extensive due diligence and research. Also, always take a stranger's claims with a grain of salt, no matter how credible they seem to be.

Toro!! Don't dodge the bull market

Etoro got its start in 2007, and has since been called the "Zynga for men." Its goal is to make investing fun and social. The trading platform supports in commodity, currency, and index markets only.

There are two options to "socially investing" on Etoro: trading accounts and practice accounts.  A fringe benefit to having a trading account, weekly trading challenges where the winners receive reward bonuses(in cash).

Here's the kicker, Etoro offers not only in-house trading guides and tutorials on the website. It offers the ability to follow better performers, as well as ask more experienced traders for investment counsel.  The personal trading coaches (for beginners) and the personal account managers (for professionals) are also a nice touch in winning over potential users.

Etoro currently has 1.5million users, and employees spanning four different countries. There's nothing like making something as stressful and hair-pulling as investing, fun and social.