Seems silly to recommend to his target audience (not financially savvy people) to try and do research to beat the markets. Why not just park it in a broad based index fund or a S&P 500 or total market ETF? Simplifies things and gives people less to screw up while still yielding good enough results, which I thought was his whole philosophy.

He recommends talking to a broker to find those funds.

Dave's argument against investing in index funds / ETFs is mainly that people investing in them do worse on average because they are easy to get in and out of. So people pull out all of their money if things go bad for a week and pile in more when things go well. Effectively timing the market without realising it.
He's quoted some research multiple times showing that investors in those do worse - not necessarily because of the vehicles, but because of the investors' behaviour.

It's the same reason he also prefers someone having a good financial advisor (in his words: "with the heart of a teacher") and paying for it than doing it yourself. The advisor is there to hopefully keep you from timing the market.

I was actually amazed when I took the class. There were a handful of small business owners there (construction-type businesses or small retailers & the like) and I was like, if you ****ers don't know how to manage super-basic personal finances, how the hell are you running a goddamn business. Astounding ****. And usually you just got a bunch of "aw-shucks, I let my wife buy the groceries" type non-excuses for why they're spending $500/month on a brand new truck they don't need and whatnot. People start with their own wants and hunches, and then use vague financial excuses to try to justify it, as if it will somehow make their situation better than what it is. I cannot stress enough how dumb the average person is when it comes to this stuff.

IIRC individual investors have historically averaged < 3% annually.

edit: link here http://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/...urn-is-so-low/

I work with a couple small contractors that have been around for a long time and not a single person in either company could tell you their what their job costs and overhead are for a given project. It really is astounding.

His investment advice is simply bizarre. If he cannot tell you which funds to buy but to go to one of his trusted advisors you should think about that, kazana. The man is a dick that spits common sense advice to morons. Huge scandal here in Nashville last year about his treatment of his own employees.

Most small business people are utter morons. It's one of the reasons why it's so profitable for people with ample common sense to get into a small business - your competitors are life-fish that make fish at the poker table look like geniuses.

I'd lay 10-1 you're being a little naive. Subtle promotion is worth a fortune once you have a base that trusts you, and nearly everyone in the radio/TV business does it. There are so many ways to justify it to yourself. Kickbacks are usually corrected with Jesus mentions.

I know I said I won't post in this section for a year, but I have to say after watching about 10 of his youtube videos I think he is alright. The problem is he is teaching people to live like in the great depression. Save save save while the debtors and government workers spend your money on Suvs and Lexuses. Just the level of bashing on him got out of hand. I believe in his videos his advisors only offer advice and don't actual take a cut of the account. He may treat them bad because they are asses.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Lam...ws-E355423.htm

I'd lay roughly the same you're being a little cynical.

So, you don't believe him. Fair enough. I haven't found (or, for that matter, dug heartily for) any evidence of him telling lies about what he endorses, receives money for, etc.
He's pretty direct about other recommended services paying him to be mentioned.

I can't find fault with his argument why he does not tell which funds to use. His basic line why he does not recommend specific funds is that he doesn't want listeners to buy funds just because he said so.
He wants them to find out and learn more about the funds and gives advice on which things to look for and where to find more information.

If he advocates for aggressive growth mutual fund getting 12% a year, and you follow the program, can you point me in the right direction then. I just want a few of these funds.

I dunno. A lil bit of google-fu threw out the following two mentioned in conjunction with Dave's name. AIVSX and AGTHX.
Might be something to check out.

This is not what he he says. He gets a kickback from his ELPs(Endorsed local providers) but has defended it saying that they have to pass his criteria(heart of a teacher etc....)

He also gets pretty mad when people bash loaded mutual funds and makes a pretty pitiful defense of paying the fees connected. He also says he uses them but I've also heard him say he buys low cost funds with Vanguard.

I'd love to see his entire portfolio......

I'd guess he has a small holding through his 401k with the American Funds so he can say he uses the same stuff and technically be telling the truth. Then he probably has a brokerage account with Vanguard where he has a ton more money invested in low cost funds where the bulk of his investments are.

With his overall strategy it's totally disingenuous for him to be telling people to use a broker and pay loads when people can simply buy an index fund or total stock market ETF super cheap, of course then he wouldn't get his kickback.

Which is pretty much exactly what I wrote in that context. He says he does not get kickbacks from American Funds.

Not going to re-post everything, the reason for advising loaded funds has been posted above.

He said he uses index funds, Vanguard or others, to park money in the medium term (5 years or slightly above) while saving up to buy his next piece of investment real estate - in cash which he gets from that index fund.
According to what he said in the past, he does not use those for long term investing.

Vanguard Target funds aren't index funds per se. So perhaps we can just get along on this.

Were target funds ever mentioned in this thread?

Would someone tell me if people object to the man or his suggestions for living? If it is his suggestions for living, will someone list the objections?

This information is readily available throughout this thread.

There are over 750 posts in the thread so I thought asking for a summary would be okay.

Summary: Most of it was discussing nickels and dimes. You didn't miss anything.