I got stationed in Germany and my Motor SGT told me to talk to his Agent a year later and I hesitated to do so because of my prior experience but went anyway. We talked and I told him I wanted to put in 500 a month and no savings account because I already had a savings account. I stressed that point heavily. He came back with exactly what I wanted . . . How could I say no? By this time, I tried to save money on my own but as a yound 2LT in Germany, I was just out spending my money on partying and having fun and had nothing to show for it.

I took the 15 year investment plan because if you did the math, it made sense for long time investors. I don’t pay any more sales charges on my investments. I have a plan and I’m sticking with it . . . I have money in the bank, I have my investments and I’m happy with how my finances are stacking up.

In every company, you have bad apples. You can’t judge a company by one story you hear from someone who wasn’t happy with their plan.

As for the people who talk about the no-load funds and how good they are, the 12b-1 fee in a no-load fund is a great deal higher than the ones on the front end load or back end load plans. A 12b-1 fee is an asset based fee, meaning a percentage of how much you have in the fund. These funds are not meant for long term investors.

Like Todd said earlier, people are complaining about the fees that First Command charges. All brokers charge fees to buy mutual funds of your choice . . .Go online right now and find a single online broker that doesn’t charge a fee . . . If someone makes some money helping me out, I have no problem with that. That’s how they make their living. For all those people who talk about “I can do it myself”, you have to deal with a broker, no matter what. You can’t just call Google or GE and tell them you want to buy their stocks.

Am I saying First Command is for everyone, of course not. No company or product is for every person. But for military personnel, especially the one’s stationed overseas, First Command is worth giving a shot.

Here is my grade…First Command sucks.

Take for example living healthy. There is hardly a soul on this planet that doesn’t know smoking is bad for you, eating fast food often not good for the heart, and frequent exercise is a MUST. But given this common and accepted knowledge, why are people getting fatter and fast food joints make more money than GNC and smoking is a billion dollar industry?

The truth is that it is more than knowing what to do, it is having someone be proactive in getting it done. Shit, it would be great not having to run through my barracks getting my soldiers up for PT. Bottom line, most people are inherently lazy.

Everyone keeps saying, “You can do it yourself.” Well great, then do it. But you know, most aren’t either proactive enough or take the time to do it. After all, if people were, First Command wouldn’t have a market because everyone was already doing their own investing. We also wouldn’t need social security, welfare, or the TSP. Simply because FC exists, tells me they are working a market that either is doing nothing or very little for retirement preparation.

In fact, this whole arguement can be boiled down to professional vs. do it yourself. There are arguements for either approach, but taking the ‘I can do it myself so can you’ approach is very broad advice and irresponsible. No matter what you are talking about. Whether it is doing your own brake work or fixing the furnace. This is because everyone has different priorities, experience levels and knowledge. What is easy for you could be very difficult for someone else.

Finally, everyone says I am a First Command agent. In fact ‘Guilty’ is very convinced of it it seems. I guess believing in a product or a company makes you a member of them from this web page’s outlook. If that is the case, I guess I will go back to work at my KFC restaurant and resume brewing my Guiness. Since I like and believe in those products, I suppose that means I work there too.

Keep it real.

Todd

P.S. Sorry about the delay in my post, been in the field for the last few weeks.’ matched .com—>
You know, if everyone did what they knew they were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it, there wouldn’t be personal trainers, drill sergeants or E.O. NCO’s to name a few. But people are typically not proactive, even when they know what they need to do.

Take for example living healthy. There is hardly a soul on this planet that doesn’t know smoking is bad for you, eating fast food often not good for the heart, and frequent exercise is a MUST. But given this common and accepted knowledge, why are people getting fatter and fast food joints make more money than GNC and smoking is a billion dollar industry?

The truth is that it is more than knowing what to do, it is having someone be proactive in getting it done. Shit, it would be great not having to run through my barracks getting my soldiers up for PT. Bottom line, most people are inherently lazy.

Everyone keeps saying, “You can do it yourself.” Well great, then do it. But you know, most aren’t either proactive enough or take the time to do it. After all, if people were, First Command wouldn’t have a market because everyone was already doing their own investing. We also wouldn’t need social security, welfare, or the TSP. Simply because FC exists, tells me they are working a market that either is doing nothing or very little for retirement preparation.

In fact, this whole arguement can be boiled down to professional vs. do it yourself. There are arguements for either approach, but taking the ‘I can do it myself so can you’ approach is very broad advice and irresponsible. No matter what you are talking about. Whether it is doing your own brake work or fixing the furnace. This is because everyone has different priorities, experience levels and knowledge. What is easy for you could be very difficult for someone else.

Finally, everyone says I am a First Command agent. In fact ‘Guilty’ is very convinced of it it seems. I guess believing in a product or a company makes you a member of them from this web page’s outlook. If that is the case, I guess I will go back to work at my KFC restaurant and resume brewing my Guiness. Since I like and believe in those products, I suppose that means I work there too.

Keep it real.

Todd

P.S. Sorry about the delay in my post, been in the field for the last few weeks.