[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by MRM

Neither are really an investment house. USAA is an insurance company. First Command is a financial planning/financial services company. Neither really makes a good vehicle for investing. I would never go through one of the big financial services companies for financial planning or stock recommendations.

You sound like you are looking for two different things: financial planning advice (portfolio allocation, etc.) and stock recommendations (which stock/financial instruments to buy). I would recommend getting that advice from two different parties.

As far as financial planning advice goes, you should hire a financial planner who charges by the hour and does NOT sell product to review your portfolio, investment allocations, goals, etc. Meet with him once a year or so to keep your portfolio on track.

As far as stock recommendations go, you have to consider fees on any investment vehicle. The people who want to sell you investments want to take a commission from you. They tend to sell the financial vehicle that gives them the highest commission. It's true; studies have proven it. So for individual investment purchases, you will be hard pressed to find an investment vehicle that performs better after expenses than an S&P 500 index fund. Over ten years, the S&P 500 index outperforms something like 98% of all mutual funds after expenses. They're all the same, so pick an S&P index fund based on which charges the least amount of fees.

If you really want to buy and sell stocks, establish a relationship with a stockbroker. Just don't think that he has any stock knowledge that you don't, or can't get if you read the Wall Street Journal and watch CNBC.

I would second everything here.