Couples Investment Makeover

Couples and money is truly a gray issue. There is no black and white as to keeping accounts separate or combining them. That is a separate issue. However, when examining a couples’ mutual funds in their retirement accounts, I often find that they have the same types of mutual funds or actually the same mutual funds! This usually occurs when you are working with a financial advisor that puts both of you in the same funds. Plus, you might fund that between the two of you, you have more than 15 mutual funds! How are you expected to do an easy and regular financial check-up? What should you do? · List every mutual fund you own and its type or category. For example: Vanguard S&P 500 Index, Large Blend. · Count how many you have between the two of you and then see how many of the same category you have. · Get rid of the duplicates and streamline your mutual funds to 4 or 5 each or even 6 total. Then bookmark those mutual funds on Morningstar.com.