Personal finance is personal
Personal finance is of course about finance. But it is more personal than finance. It's about you, your goals and dreams, and your life. The only sustainable basis for a client-advisor relationship is mutual trust and respect.
The only sure way to be trusted is to be single-mindedly, relentlessly trustworthy. The only sure way we can always be absolutely trustworthy is by telling the pure, unvarnished truth all the time and then letting the chips fall where they may. We are in the advice business, not the convincing business. We offer our advice once. If there's something you don't understand we'll discuss it until you do, but we won't ever argue or try to convince you why it's right.
We run on the platform of caring. We always act in your best interest first and foremost, or we will not act at all. If you ask us a question and we don't have the answer, we will tell you that we don't know, and then we will move heaven and earth to find the answer for you.
There is a critical difference between having an investment philosophy, "What are your goals?" and having a market outlook, "What is the market going to do?" (P.S.: we have no market outlook. We don't predict, ever. We are however, all about your life goals and dreams).
What the market is going to do in the short-run is unknowable, in the long run it is inevitable. In the long run, the advance is permanent and the declines are temporary (and all declines, regardless of how long or how steep have always been temporary). We are planners, not prognosticators.
People who are working a wealth plan can achieve their goals. People who are merely working a portfolio usually don't. Your life goals determine the plan and the plan dictates the portfolio. The portfolio answers to, and fulfills, the plan. Wealth plans are created to help vanquish your fears and worst nightmares, leaving room to fulfill your goals and dreams to the extent you have the time and the resources.
A wealth plan can provide peace of mind. Money is love. Money is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. It is not a scorecard. If you're not completely on board with this concept, call us. If it takes money to make you happy, your search for happiness will never end. Friends become clients and clients become friends. It's a natural evolution of what we do. If that isn't happening, something is wrong and we need to re-evaluate the relationship.
This thing that we do (financial advising) is not merely a job or a career for us. It is a passion and we truly believe it is our calling.
