Dear Liz: I’m about to retire. A friend’s money manager has done well by her, doubling her portfolio in five years. This manager would charge a 1.5% fee to take control of my money, invest it, and generate income to supplement my Social Security. My heart is truly uncomfortable turning over control of my life savings to professional management, even though my head tells me it makes sense. Would a fair compromise between my heart and head be to pay a financial advisor to tell me what to do, but allow me to retain control of my hard earned savings?

Answer: Yes. You may have to search a little harder to find such an advisor, but you could be better off.

First, don’t be too impressed by a manager who doubled a portfolio in the last five years. An investment in a plain vanilla S&P 500 index fund would have performed about as well, at a much lower cost.

Speaking of cost, a 1.5% fee is relatively high for asset management. A 1% fee is much more common. If instead of a money manager you hired a fiduciary, fee-only financial planner — one committed to putting your best interests first — you typically would get comprehensive financial planning advice as well as investment management for that 1%. Such planning could include a tax-smart, sustainable plan for tapping your retirement funds, advice on Social Security claiming strategies, help picking the right Medicare coverage and a review of your estate plan, among other services.

If you’d rather not have someone else manage your portfolio, though, you have other options. The Alliance for Comprehensive Planning (www.acplanners.org) and the XY Planning Network (/www.xyplanningnetwork.com) represent fiduciary, fee-only planners who charge retainer fees. You can find fiduciary, fee-only financial planners who charge by the hour at Garrett Planning Network (www.garrettplanningnetwork.com).

Dear Liz: I am in my early 60s and have a friend the same age who keeps telling me to invest in companies which she has found from looking at YouTube videos. She says that she picks stocks by seeing which companies are repeated over and over again in different videos. She claims she is making a 400% return. She tells me I am losing money by investing in safer products, such as certificates of deposit. First of all, is this a good idea to invest everything in stocks, when one is in their mid-60s to 70s, when retirement is on the horizon? Also, neither she nor I are working full time at the moment, so, the risk is great if the market goes up and down and the value of a portfolio changes. I’ve seen my retirement funds drop the last few years, even though they are ever so slowly creeping back up. Finally, what is your opinion on getting financial advice or stock picks from social media platforms?

Answer: Perhaps your friend is the next Warren Buffett. More likely she’s exaggerating her results or simply hasn’t dealt with a down market yet. Few investors can consistently produce outsize returns over time, especially when they’re essentially picking stocks at random.

In answer to your first question: It’s rarely smart to invest everything in any one thing, whether it’s stocks, bonds, real estate, certificates of deposit or alpaca farms. Diversification helps investors reduce risk. If one type of investment is performing poorly, another may be doing better.

Having some money in “safe” investments may be prudent, but you’re typically losing ground to inflation with low-return CDs or Treasurys. Most people will need to have at least some portion of their portfolios in stocks, before and after retirement, if they want to outpace inflation.

Dear Liz: Can I purchase a U.S. Treasury bill myself or do I need to go through a bank or a financial advisor?

Answer: You can buy government-issued securities — including Treasury bills, bonds and notes —from TreasuryDirect, which is operated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Setting up an account usually takes just a few minutes, but you’ll need a valid Social Security number, a U.S. address and a checking or savings account to complete the process.

You also can buy Treasuries in a brokerage account. You can purchase a Treasury bill on what’s known as the secondary market, where securities are bought and sold, or you can invest in a Treasury money market mutual fund or a Treasury exchange-traded fund.

Dear Liz: We’ve been using a fee-only financial advisor for 25 years. We’d discuss what we needed, she would tell us how many hours it would take, then she invoiced us at an hourly fee.

She recently joined a company that charges 1% of investment portfolios to provide financial advice. Is this still considered fee-only financial planning? If so, how do we find a firm that charges an hourly rate? We don’t want to spend thousands of dollars for someone to just tweak the detailed roadmap that’s already been created.

Answer: So-called “assets under management,” or AUM, fees are indeed considered fee-only planning, as long as the advisor only accepts fees paid by the clients and does not receive commissions or other compensation for the investments they recommend. AUM fees are a common compensation method and 1% is a fairly standard fee. If the advisor is doing significant, ongoing planning and investment management for you, the fee may be worthwhile. If not, there are other compensation methods that may be a better fit. Garrett Planning Network represents fee-only advisors willing to charge by the hour, while XY Planning Network and the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners offer fee-only advisors who charge retainer fees.