Is Financial Advice A Good Thing?
As an investment strategist, I often wondered why clients did not take a more active role when investing their hard-earned savings.
Overall, clients should be mindful that - in a relationship with a financial adviser - they put up 100% of their capital and assume 100% of the risk. While a financial adviser puts up 0% of the capital and assumes very little of the risk. The client pays for the service whether financial markets are higher or lower.
Is this a good thing? Some see the adviser relationship as beneficial to them (and there are some very good advisers in the industry). However, there are those who see it differently, and seek an alternative approach as they wish to take their financial investment matters into their own hands.
The big question... Can clients invest their savings successfully on their own? Of course they can. If they know how to.
Taking the time to find out and map an investment path using a wealth coach is one such option. Here the emphasis is on education, which will guide clients to make their own informed investment decisions and - with patience and discipline - better results too.
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.Warren Buffett
DIY Investing
Whether you are receiving investment advice or not, the results are clear: our investment track record is typically poor overall. Our portfolios tend to significantly lag what the equity and bond markets have given us historically.
It should be understood that today's financial services industry tends to place greater emphasis on product marketing, whilst the financial media targets short-term trading over long-term investing. Both of these can be distracting and costly to the client over time, potentially taking them further from their financial goal.
The good news is that we can become better investors with a different emphasis: discipline, patience and a greater awareness of what really matters (i.e. the market fundamentals).
The investment techniques Corry Wealth Coaching prefers might seem alternative to those mentioned above. Although they are not new, we rarely get to hear about them amongst the day-to-day financial media distractions. Our sessions follow tried and tested techniques which have enjoyed greater investment success over time compared with the average retail investor.
Following one or the other, marks a clear distinction between a speculator and an investor. Corry Wealth Coaching insists that it is better to be in the latter category (a view supported by the great Benjamin Graham in his book, "The Intelligent Investor").