You Don’t Need A Financial Advisor
There are many cases where people do not need a financial advisor. In my opinion, you don’t need to pay an advisor if you have the following three things covered.
- A system for investing
- Time to execute your system
- Discipline to stay with your system
System
Let me start by defining what I mean by system. A system for investing is a plan for what to buy and sell and when to do so. Investing is simple, if you have a system to follow. This could mean investing 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds every month.
Time
The second thing you need is the time to execute your system. You may know what investments you would like to make, but you still need the time to trade and monitor your accounts. The time commitment will vary depending on your system, but there are many systems that can be easily automated to save you time. In this case, the majority of your time would likely be getting things setup at the beginning. Time spent with follow-up and monitoring would then be relatively less.
Discipline
The third and final element that is needed is having the discipline to stay with your system. This can be hard for most people. Emotions can wreck the best investment plans. When the market is crashing and values are dropping, it takes guts to buy stocks. But, this action (following your system) is probably the very action that is going to make you money in the long run.
Emotions don’t just get tricky when times are tough. For example, when the market trend is strongly positive, you may start to question your 60/40 stock/bond mix. It is easy to second guess yourself. You may feel compelled to add more to stocks to try to achieve higher returns and “keep pace” with the market. And by doing this, you will be taking on more risk than planned for in your original system.
In most cases, your best chance for success is to stay disciplined and follow the system you developed in the beginning. This allows you to take the emotion out of investing and rebalance your portfolio when it might feel difficult to do so.
DIY – You Can Do It
If you have the system, the time, and the discipline, I have no doubt that you can invest on your own and have great success. In this case, there may be no need for a financial advisor. I am all for the DIY investor and I greatly respect that.
There are many cases, where someone may need help developing one of the above items. Maybe you don’t know where to start with developing an investment system. Maybe you don’t have the time. Maybe you just don’t want to do it yourself. All of that is fine.
For those that need help with one of these items, I am here to help you in any way necessary.
If you need an investment system, I have one for you. You can take that system and run with it; spending your time and using your discipline to follow it.
If you need more time, I can manage the portfolio for you. I can make the trades and monitor your accounts so you can focus on other things.
If you need help to stay disciplined, I can talk you through your strategy and answer any questions you may have.
If I can help in any way, please let me know at jason@longviewim.com or comment below.
If you found this helpful, please consider sharing with others. Thanks!
Jason