<prompt> Human: Hello all, question regarding some investments I made a few years back with a family friend more like acquaintance who works for Northwestern Mutual . Below is what I have through Northwestern Mutual currently and have just recently started to take a look at these and am thinking I definitely need to make some changes and manage myself. I was pretty much hands off with this guy who is my advisor but Im thinking he may have made some silly investments to benefit himself on commissions. I have just started doing some research to figure this all out but there is a lot of knowledge in here so figured I should post here as well.x200B;Some basic background info: 31 years old, single and renting, no debt other than CCs that I pay off each month. The below Northwestern Mutual are pretty much all of my investments other than 11K vested balance in an old 401K that is sitting untouched at Fidelity, about 10K in a high-yield savings at Marcus. Will begin earning annual 15 of salary into a SEP IRA on Jan 1st, 2019. Salary of 76K before taxes, plus some commission bonuses probably not more than 5K.x200B;1. Roth IRA 458month to this - 21,000 account value currently but all contained within a Variable Annuity. I am incurring some unnecessary charges here, correct? If so, how can I change this? Is it as simple as rolling over to a different account at like a Vanguard or Fidelity and choosing different investment medium without incurring a fee?x200B;2 Brokerage 100month - 4,300 invested in Russell Equity Growth Strategy Fund Class A. Estimated Yield thus far of 2.5x200B;3 Whole Life Insurance Policy This is the one that hurts and I know the least about - 100 per month goes into this black hole and without doing the research first, I am thinking I will forfeit everything Ive put in roughly 3,500 if I stop payment today. Is there any benefit to continuing to contribute to this disaster? Will it only pay off after the 59-12 mark?x200B;Thanks in advance!  <response>: Wow, 31 in whole life and an annuity. And taxable brokerage, which is at the very, very end of the flowchart that you arent close to. You need to start with the basics, like the reading list and the wiki. 