3 key questions that every investor should be asking

Some financial advisers try to bowl you over with fancy language. Disarm them — and arm yourself for your future — with a few simple questions.

One complaint I hear as a financial adviser is that investment jargon — ETFs, P/E ratios, DRIP plans and other terms loaded with capital letters — bores, confuses and overwhelms people seeking advice.

To stop the buzzing in your head, apply the 80/20 rule, aka the Pareto Principle, which states that in most situations, 20 percent of invested input drives 80 percent of the results. For example, 80 percent of the time you wear 20 percent of your wardrobe, or 80 percent of the meals you cook come from the same 20 percent of your recipe collection.

The principle applies perfectly to investing. Most (maybe even 80 percent) of your long-term financial success stems from your understanding three simple factors: asset allocation, fees and performance.

Ask your adviser:

The mix of stocks, bonds, hard assets and cash you create, your allocation of assets, ranks as perhaps your most important investment decision. Studies suggest that asset allocation drives long-run performance and explains roughly 9/10ths of your returns' variability over time.

My favorite asset allocation rule comes from a ­Vanguard founder, who ties optimal bond-to-portfolio percentage to your age. At age 40, you commit 40 percent of your portfolio to bonds and 60 percent to stocks, for instance. Allow wiggle room to accommodate personal circumstances and your stomach for portfolio gyrations.

Fees come in many forms. You may pay a financial adviser a percent of assets under management, commissions or an hourly fee. If you invest in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (those ETFs, mentioned above) that track an index but trade like stock, then you pay underlying expense ratios, or what it costs an investment company to operate a mutual fund.

Actively managed funds almost always charge higher fees than passive index-like funds despite weighty evidence that they don't consistently beat the market.

Other types of fees can include commissions, ­trading spreads, loads (a sales charge or commission on a mutual fund) and even tax consequences.

Focus especially hard on the all-in fee, or every cost involved in your financial transactions. Find out what the adviser charges and any additional fees from the investments the adviser steers you toward.

Work with an adviser who focuses on index-like strategies to help keep all-in costs to 1.4 percent or less. Many active portfolios' total fees are north of 2.5 percent — generally 1 percent for the adviser and 1.5 percent in active funds' fees.

If you set the right asset allocation and keep fees low, you don't need to review your portfolio every month. Close each year with a review of your portfolio's annual and inception-to-date performance to spot any needed changes to either your annual rate of saving or spending.

This holds especially true once you retire. Even if in retirement you spend 4 percent of your ­portfolio a year, adjusted for inflation, studies show that spending less after particularly tough market years increases the odds you won't outlive your money.

By the way, price-earnings (P/E) ratios mean the price of one share of a company's stock divided by how much the company earned per share over the previous year. Dividend reinvestment (DRIP) plans allow investors to reinvest dividends. Now these two won't confuse or overwhelm you.

Learning to ask — and answer — these questions also increases the odds of your financial success.