DIY.FUND and newbie investors
Talking Wall Street feels intimidating, but Wendy and Eric Nissan of DIY.FUND, who have both worked on Wall Street, help us help you get started with investing.
Who is DIY.FUND?
We befriended Wendy and Eric Nissan at FinCon in San Diego in 2016. Both Wendy and Eric had careers on Wall Street where they learned the ins and outs of that world. The Nissans came on Queer Money to break investing down into simple terms to help you start investing. Someday you may be a DIY.FUND client. For now, download our Super-Simple Investing Guide here and listen to this Queer Money to learn everything you need to start investing today.
Listen to Queer Money™ with DIY.FUND:
Who are Wendy & Eric Nissan?
After moving to Florida from New York, Wendy started asking questions about the management of their own portfolio, and Eric started writing programs to answer her questions. Eventually, they thought, ‘Everyone should have these tools!’ and they designed DIY.FUND, an online portfolio management system that gives individual investors access to the same management tools the pros use.
Wendy and Eric’s fintech startup was accepted to Starter Studio, Orlando’s premiere tech accelerator. Since then, they’ve won tons of awards.
DIY.FUND will be fully functional in the next two months. Today the Nissans share their philosophy about online investing tools and offer their advice for newbie investors. They explain how advisors’ commissions affect returns over time and the advantages of using DIY.FUND as an alternative.
Ultimately, most financial advisors use software to make decisions about your portfolio. What if you had access to those same tools? What if you could invest in the stock market with confidence—without giving up a huge chunk of your returns to a broker?
Topics covered
The impetus for creating DIY.FUND
• Belief that individuals should have same tools as large institutions
• Created for themselves, share with world
The Nissan’s online investing philosophy
• Should help balance account
• Maintain proper investment strategy
The Nissan’s advice for newbies
• Wipe out debt first
• Start with small amount of money
• Learn ebbs and flows of market
• Consider commission-free platform like Robinhood
• Get past fear of getting started
The mechanics of investing for newbies
• Buy ETF (basket of stocks) to learn trading
• Specialization (i.e.: tech ETF)
• Diverse portfolio of individual stocks
How advisors’ commission affects returns over time
• Take 1-2%, win or lose
• Over 20 years, nearly half of earnings lost
• $100K over 30 years, lose $1M to fees ($7K vs. $1.7M)
The advantages of DIY.FUND (over an advisor)
• Access to software advisor would have used
• Rebalance at optimal times
• Higher returns (no fees to advisor)
• Learn from experience of DIY
Wendy & Eric’s aims
• Promote responsible investing
• Provide tools professionals use
• Offer guidance based on risk-tolerance
• Send alerts re: proper weight
• Afford holistic view of portfolio
• Import current stock info, compare to model portfolio
The benefits of having a business with your partner
• Strengthens relationship
• Complementary skill sets
• Ease of communication