|
Investment
Philosophy
I am not in the market timing business.
You hire me to protect your portfolio, not to gamble with
it. Your success is
based on reaching your goals – not on beating the market or an index. The
reality of investing is that nobody can control or consistently predict the
stock market or the economy. The real risk of retirement planning is not losing
your money, it's outliving it. If we want the longer-term return of stocks, we
have to have the patience to accept the shorter-term volatility. It's a package
deal.
Unfortunately, the average investor not only underperforms the
market but also underperforms their own investments because of their own
destructive behavior. The average investor will speculate at the top of the
market, or panic at the bottom, or under-diversify their portfolio, or even
over-diversify their portfolio. They will speculate instead of invest, or will
invest for yield instead of total return, or they will simply say, "This time
it's different," when in fact it rarely ever is. The dominant factor when it
comes to real life investment returns is not investment performance, but
investor behavior.

My job is to talk you out of doing the wrong thing at the wrong
time. The pickup in return from not making the usual investor mistakes is
considerable, with some studies showing the average investor loses as much as
2/3 of their investment return due to destructive behavior. The cost of making
one of those mistakes is exponentially more than the cost of hiring me to help
you avoid making it.
Over the long run the financial markets are relatively
efficient and I invest accordingly. This includes using low-cost index and
mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and occasionally individual securities, all
within accounts that are in your name and safely held at an independent
third-party custodian. While we can't control the market, we can control our
behavior. I offer a steady hand and common sense during the market’s short-term
ups and downs to help you stay focused on your long-term plan. Disciplined asset
allocation, disciplined diversification, and disciplined rebalancing are the
principals of how I invest.
Learn more about
Advisory Fees...
|