Many people choose a "do it yourself" DIY investment strategy. My advice is "know thyself." Here is a partial of list of considerations before choosing a DIY portfolio implementation:

• Do you have the time, inclination, desire, confidence, and competency to develop, execute, and maintain a portfolio strategy? If "yes," continue reading to make sure.
• Are you completely versed on all aspects of investment management and financial planning to the point where you could do it successfully for other people for a fee?
• Are you aware of the pitfalls and particulars of mixing ETFs and mutual funds (or moving from one to another)?
• Do you know the difference between a market order and a limit order and when to use each?
• Do you know what time of day is best and worst to place ETF trades?
• Do you know the liquidity (average volume, bid/ask spread) of the ETFs you will invest in and how this may affect placing trades?
• When investing additional funds or making withdrawals, do you know how to calculate how much of each fund to buy and sell?
• Do you know what it means to "overbuy an IRA" and how to prevent it from happening?
• When withdrawing funds, do you know which account to pull money from?
• When selling funds in a non-IRA account, do you know what tax basis method to use and how to minimize your taxable gains?
• To maximize your charitable giving tax benefit, do you know which securities to gift and how to ensure your giveaway gain is maximized?
• Do you know the pros and cons of an "asset location" strategy and if you decide to implement one, do you have the acumen to manage different account "pieces?"
• Do you know how and do you have the discipline to rebalance your accounts on a set periodic schedule?
• Do you know what tax loss harvesting is? (and when and how to execute it?)
• Do you know the ins and outs of the Internal Revenue Code and how to optimize your long-term investment, retirement, and financial plans in light of the code's obscene complexity?

Let me be frank: I've done this full-time for thirty years. If you haven't, I can help you. But first you must acknowledge and agree that you need my help and that it's help worth paying for.

If that's you, great! Please visit my pricing page and then complete this short pre-planning profile and I'll be in touch.

If that's not you, no hard feelings; thank you for visiting my website and I'm glad you were able to disqualify me as an adviser this early in the process.