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Financial Symmetry: Balancing Today with Retirement

When considering retirement, do you wonder what financial opportunities you may be missing? Busy lives take over and years pass without taking advantage. In this retirement podcast, the Financial Symmetry advisors unveil financial opportunities, to help you balance enjoying today so you are ready to retire later. By day, they are fiduciary fee-only financial advisors who answer questions about tax savings, investment decisions, and how to save more. If you’ve been putting off your financial to-do list or are just not sure what you’ve been missing, subscribe to the show and learn more at www.financialsymmetry.com. Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients in the Triangle of North Carolina for over 20 years.
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Now displaying: August, 2020
Aug 24, 2020

We know how important it is to save for retirement, but at the same time, it’s important to enjoy life now. In this episode, we’ll walk you through how to set up a framework for your investment strategy.

Short Youtube Recap: https://youtu.be/LRcH7hwbUYY

You’ll learn how important your behavior is to your investment success, how to think through your asset allocation choices and finally how to select the investments themselves. 

Investment behavior matters more than any investment you pick

What is your investment approach? How you make decisions with your investments can make or break your investment success. You may think that your returns are solely based upon which investments you choose, but the reality is that your investment behavior figures into your returns much more than any specific investment that you choose.

Think about last March. What was your reaction to that volatile market? Did you buy, sell, or do nothing? Even though it’s challenging to know how to react in those moments, in a volatile market every move you make counts.

The dominant determinant of long-term, real-life financial outcomes isn’t investment performance; it’s investor behavior. –Around The Year with Nick Murray

Asset allocation is also important to your investment strategy

The second driver to success in investing is your asset allocation. Asset allocation is simply the measure of how your portfolio is dispersed. How much do you have invested in stock and bonds? What percentage of your stocks are US-based? What percentage are international? Asset allocation also takes into account whether your stocks are large-cap, small-cap, etc. Your asset allocation is an important part of realizing your investment returns.

How we pick investments 

It’s important to have an independent mindset to help you pick your stocks. You don’t want to just follow the pack and do what everyone else is doing. There are several key areas that help us choose stocks at Financial Symmetry. The areas are ethical company culture, low costs, evidence-based, tax-efficient, and whether it is repeatable. We continually ask questions about the investments we choose. And if we don’t like the answers, we don’t invest in those companies. 

Do you have an investment plan in place?

What is your investment plan? Think about the strategy that you have used to make decisions about investing. An investment plan includes more than investments, it encompasses behavior and asset allocation. If you don’t have one consider working with a fee-only financial advisor. Having an investment plan could be the difference between a successful retirement and an uncertain one. What is your investment strategy? Try taking the quiz in our blog post to determine your investment composure.

https://www.financialsymmetry.com/do-you-ask-these-questions-when-selecting-investments/

Outline of This Episode

  • [2:25] Investment behavior matters much more than any investment that you pick 
  • [5:28] How to pick investments
  • [9:41] Active funds vs passive funds
  • [14:41] Process is important
  • [19:50] Think about the strategy that you have used to make decisions about investing
  • [20:12] Progress principle of the day - take the quiz

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect With Chad and Mike

Subscribe To This Podcast

Apple Podcasts <> Stitcher <> Google Play

Aug 10, 2020

There are fundamental principles that we all need reminders of from time to time. As kids and grandkids are heading off to college, we're talking through 6 core principles to getting off on the right financial footing. We also include a chart demonstrating the power of saving 15% of your income. 

Youtube video recap: https://youtu.be/LLlJjITn6B8

If you can follow these 6 steps, it's very likely your future self will thank you.

6 Tips to Begin on the Right Financial Foot

  1. Know where your money is going. Track your spending. Review your spending periodically so that you can hold yourself accountable. Budgeting brings awareness to your spending and money habits. There are many online tools that you can use to help yourself with this task. 
  2. Don’t underestimate the impact of a large purchase on your finances. People often underestimate the impact of a large purchase such as a large house or car. Big purchases that you aren’t ready for can really impact your future self. The payments you make toward these purchases add up over time. Give yourself more freedom by buying smaller. It’s also important to keep in mind the total costs associated with those large purchases. Maintenance and insurance increase the costs of those big purchases. When contemplating a large purchase think about the time value of your money. This exercise can really help you make these decisions.
  3. Sign up for your employer-sponsored retirement plan. It’s important to take full advantage of the retirement plan that your company offers. Make sure that you are signed up for the company matching option if it is available. You want to take full advantage of compounding interest over the course of your working life. 
  4. Invest in a Roth IRA. The Roth IRA gives you 30-40 years of tax-free growth. You may not have access to a Roth as you get older due to income limitations, so it is a good idea to take advantage of it while you can. 
  5. Don’t skip risk planning. Young people often think of themselves as invincible, but life carries risks. Plan for those risks accordingly by utilizing health insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance. It is also important to create estate documents like a will as well as a financial and healthcare power of attorney. 
  6. Discuss money in relationships. Discuss goals and financial expectations with your partner. Don’t shy away from discussing your feelings about gifts, debt, saving, and investing. 

Visualize your future self

Your ability to create wealth impacted by your ability to earn as well as understanding how you spend money. If you have had trouble saving and investing, visualize your future self. When you are making a decision think about how it will affect you and your finances, not just now, but 20 or 30 years from now. What are you doing now to help your future self?

Outline of This Episode

  • [2:35] Know where your money is going
  • [5:15] Don’t underestimate the weight of bigger purchases
  • [7:23] Sign up for your employer-sponsored retirement plan
  • [9:27] Invest in a Roth IRA
  • [11:23] Don’t skip risk planning
  • [14:00] Discuss money in relationships
  • [16:38] Today’s progress principle

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Haley Modin

Connect With Chad and Mike

Subscribe To This Podcast

Apple Podcasts <> Stitcher <> Google Play

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