Our goal for our clients is to help them achieve a sense of financial comfort and security. For each client, this may mean something very unique and different. Our objective is to assist them in making good financial decisions, allocating their investments properly and working with them over time, so that they will be able to handle the volatility (the ups and downs) of the stock market.
While winning hundreds of millions of dollars Friday night sounded great, the reality is that your financial success will be the result of a few key decisions that you make over the course of your lifetime. Note that I did not state many decisions, but a few key decisions.
These key decisions may include:
- Having a proper team of advisers, including a financial advisor and an estate planning attorney.
- The spending decisions you make, particularly on how much to spend on your house, cars and vacations. Are you living within your means and saving money on a regular basis?
- Deciding to stick with an investment plan, or jumping in and out of the stock market, because you are scared or can't handle the ups and downs in the short term. For example, if you got out of the stock market during 2008 or 2009, or during the summer of 2011, those may have seemed liked good decisions at the time. However, they were probably not decisions that in the long run were in your best financial interest.
Some of the benefits that our clients receive, or they have told us they have received, are:
- Less financially related stress, as they know that they have a good long-term investment plan in place and a team of advisers they can talk to.
- An investment plan that includes minimizing your taxes in a very effective manner.
- A real understanding of the high costs of their investments. When we begin to work with clients, many are very surprised about the true cost of their previous investments, which they were not fully aware of. We can almost always reduce this cost.
- A lot less mail, and thus, less time that they have to spend dealing with their investments.
- Knowing that they have a wealth management firm that has the client's interest as a priority, which comes ahead of the firm's financial interest (we actually have a legal obligation to put the client's interest first, which not all financial advisory firms can say or do).
Are there any key decisions you could make today, other than buying a lottery ticket, that will have a significant impact on your financial life, 10, 20 or 30 years from now?
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