Doing Well Then, Doing Even Better Now : Diversifying Portfolio Brings Her Confidence : A Matter of Choices

The Money Make-Over feature was inaugurated with The Times’ Wall Street, California pages last year with the idea that real-life experience would be a powerful teacher, and that the professional advice offered in each case could benefit the public as much as the individual or couple directly involved.

Make-Over subjects have been a diverse group facing varied challenges. For some, it was overspending or unrealistic goals or career setbacks or family situations. For others, it was an investing style that was too risky or too cautious or not diversified.

With today’s end-of-year report, The Times revisits five Money Make-Over subjects to see how they responded to financial planners’ advice and whether they profited from it.

The Coopers and Rhoni Smith faced significant debts but were fortunate enough to have fate come to their aid. Jackie Motobo and couple Dan Robertson and Steve Schullo were diligent savers whose portfolios needed a few adjustments, and who feel they are better off today for having taken some of their planners’ suggestions. For Sydney Kamlager, the problem was a lack of discipline, but she now has a better idea of where her money is going.

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Jackie Motobo is planning to indulge herself in something next year: better eyesight.

“I’m so blind I can’t see the big E,” said Motobo, a 49-year-old health-care administrator who has primary custody of her three children, the eldest of whom has Down syndrome.

Motobo, who consulted with certified financial planner Neta Gagen of Garden Grove nearly a year ago, has taken several of the steps Gagen recommended and now feels much more confident about her situation.

“I can afford it,” she said of the laser eye surgery, which is considered cosmetic and thus won’t be covered by insurance.

Motobo, thanks to some prudent financial decisions, had a net worth of $800,000 at the time of her make-over and was already well on her way to meeting her main goals: retiring at 55 with her mortgage paid off; covering college costs for her two younger children; and providing lifetime support for her eldest, now 15. Her holdings then included a home she had inherited and was renting out and planning to sell. She had about $400,000 in mutual funds in various retirement plans, but most of the mutual funds were ones that invest in large-company stocks.

A few months after her make-over, Motobo sold the rental property. In deciding what to do with the $200,000 in proceeds, she took some, but not all, of Gagen’s advice.

She did diversify her mutual fund holdings, adding international and small-company funds, types she had not bought before. But Motobo had done some reading about investments in the meantime and made her own mutual fund choices, selecting small-company fund Baron Asset (five-year average annual return: 23.4%; [800] 992-2766) and Janus Overseas (fund is less than 5 years old; [800] 525-8983), among others. Her investment portfolio has made returns averaging about 29% in the last year, and Motobo believes she is better protected against market downturns.

“I’m much more diversified now,” she said.

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Motobo still has to address some of the estate-planning changes Gagen suggested, but she did update her will.

Gagen had told Motobo, who drives a 1985 Mercedes-Benz, that she could clearly afford a $30,000 new car, and Motobo did consider buying one, but she said she’s still too emotionally attached to the Mercedes to sell it.

Instead, Motobo said, “I bought a time share in Hawaii” for $11,000 this year, and “I’m having my eyes fixed.” The operation is scheduled for the middle of January.

In four years or sooner, though, she will be buying herself a new car. That’s when her younger son, now 12, will start driving.