As a Private Wealth Advisor, it’s my job to ensure our high-net-worth clients aren’t over-exposed to risk in their portfolios. It’s very easy to get in a position of taking too much risk. For example, a human tendency known as recency bias can drive you to chase higher returns, especially during long bull markets. The problem is, you could be gambling on your future and not even realizing it.

Independent advisors vs wirehouse advisors and bank advisors: How your wealth management experience will be different at Monument

Investors who claim their investment objective is “Growth” aren’t simply asking to increase risk in hopes of more return. What they usually want is to focus on their portfolio’s total return, which is comprised of two pieces: Price return and Income return. For example, if you bought something at $5 and sold it for $13, your price return is $8.

Women do so much…I know from firsthand experience, because I’m a woman and I feel like I do a lot, if I do say so myself! When I was in my 20s, I traveled and worked thousands of hours with a Big 5 consulting firm, got married, and bought a house. I socked money away in my 401k and that was the extent of my financial planning. When I was in my 30s, I had children and dogs and cats and did a whole different kind of work, much of it unpaid.

One of the biggest challenges for people entering retirement is knowing how to start spending from their portfolios when they’ve spent an entire life saving. How do you even know where to begin to make sure you can do what you want, when you want, without the risk of running out of money? A good first step is taking stock of how much set income you will have in retirement from sources other than your portfolio.

Cancer. One word that no one wants to hear. As we sat around the dinner table, I clenched my husband’s hand. The cheerful sounds of the bustling restaurant faded into the background as we tried to comprehend what his parents just shared with us: my father-in-law had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma. It was fall of 2018, and we immediately knew our lives were going to change forever, and we would face a difficult road ahead.

If not, I can think of a few reasons why: Finances are private so it can be uncomfortable to talk about. Finances are complicated so it can be hard to explain details about what services you use even if you think they are valuable. It may feel pushy or “salesy” to directly connect people with your financial advisor. What if it doesn’t work out? No one wants to make a bad referral.   At Monument, we, too, make personal and professional introductions.

These are common questions that pop into our heads when we outsource parts of our precious lives to outsiders. However, it’s also why it’s imperative we find and hire professionals who are not only experts in their specialty, but also who we can TRUST. That said, even if you trust your car mechanic, you should still understand the fees they charge for their expertise and know they are reasonable compared to the rest of the marketplace.