I've gotten more into investing over the past few months and finally took a deeper look at the performance of my accounts. Honestly, I’m feeling pretty disappointed—especially with one of my IRA accounts that’s managed by a financial advisor and invested entirely in mutual funds.
Here are the returns on that IRA:
* **YTD (01/01/2025 – 04/30/2025):** \-6.65%
* **1-Year Rolling (05/01/2024 – 04/30/2025):** \+5.88%
* **3-Year Average (05/01/2022 – 04/30/2025):** \+7.48%
* **4-Year Annualized (05/01/2021 – 04/30/2025):** \+1.14%
This account seems to be dragging compared to my other accounts—**also managed by the same advisor**—like my kids’ education investment accounts (around **9.4%**) and my Roth IRA (**10.14%**). Those aren’t stellar either, but they at least seem to be performing a bit more reasonably.
All of these are built with mutual funds, and I’m starting to wonder if I’d be better off parting ways with the advisor and managing things myself with a more straightforward ETF strategy. Now that I’ve learned more and feel a bit more confident, DIY investing is starting to feel more appealing.
Was I just hit particularly hard by the recent market dip, or is this underperformance a red flag?
Would appreciate any insights from folks who’ve made the jump from advisor-managed mutual fund portfolios to DIY ETF strategies.