Many studies have shown that most investors on their own typically lose more than half of the actual market returns over the long term. These studies can be found from the Dalbar studies. From the same research body, you can also identify that the average equity investors widen that gap during and after any particular crisis. The reason is that there would have been movements to shift the investments in and out of markets, caused by emotional behaviour of fear and greed. In some cases, over the short term, some investors actually outperform the market due to luck, not skill. However, once you see that over a much longer period, the studies would once again show that the average investors underperforms poorly.

So how do we overcome this problem?

One of the things you can do is to start getting yourself educated and create confidence and conviction over the findings. This can take a fair amount of time to understand and explore, but through working with a trusted and experienced advisor who has gone through multiple crisis in their careers, that can be of great help.

The other thing you can do, is to know why you want to invest. What is your objective and your end goal. I am not talking about the numbers but the why behind the numbers. What drives you? What gets you to financial freedom and why is that so important to you? A financial coach is not just one to get you to your goals, but who understands the background reason to why that is so important to you. When you have that better understanding for yourself, through discovery with an experienced financial coach, you will have a better handle of how you want to manage your financial plan.

Being smart

Once you find out your why and have your retirement plan, it is all about implementing and sticking to the designed asset allocation strategy together. Your total portfolio will give you an overall total return rather than trying to do a little bit here and there in a way to diversify your portfolio. We create a CORE strategy together with you. So there will be a way to reduce anxiety, preserve wealth and grow it at a meaningful pace so that you will be comfortable with it. In the midst of the process, the education and conviction process is also important to continuously add value to you to give you confidence about planning ahead.

If you would like to explore finding a way to invest in a way with a total portfolio that is reliable, sustainable, provide you peace of mind with reduced anxiety of speculation, I will be happy for an initial meeting with no obligations on either parties.