When talking about financial planning, there is a lot of ground to cover.
This website is not meant to provide A-Z content on financial planning. That’s why we put together our OnPointe Financial Literacy Course (which we recommend everyone who is serious about protecting and growing their money for and in retirement take).
What we can do on this site is help you determine if you need HELP with your financial plan.
You may need help because:
1) You don’t have a plan.
2) You have been acting as your own financial planner and know you are not doing a good job.
3) You have a financial planner and he/she is not doing a good job, or you have no idea if he/she is going a good job and you want to find out.
If you would like help, email info@faithbasedplanning.net.
Buy and Hold
Most financial planners tell clients that they should buy and hold investments. We call this buy and hope. Why hope? You hope that the stock market doesn’t crash at the wrong time which can devastate your ability to retire when and how you want.
The fact of the matter is that people do not buy and hold. People panic-sell at the wrong time and do not get back into the market at the right time when the market bounces. That’s why the average investor over the last 20 years has earned less than 4% (this number comes from an investor psychology study put out by DALBAR).
The following chart is what we help people avoid (it’s the S&P 500 during the last two crashes).
Tactical Money Management
There are ways to mitigate risk in the stock market without sacrificing much if any yield. Using tactically managed strategies is one way to do so.
No risk of loss! What most people don’t know is that there are also tools out there to grow wealth that have the following characteristics:
–100% principal protection (money can’t go backwards due to negative returns in the market)
–Positive gains are locked in annually.
–A guaranteed rate of return (accumulation value) between 5-7% depending on the product (non-walk away value that is used for the next bullet point).
–A guaranteed income for life you can never outlive (without having to annuitize).
Bottom line
The bottom line from our perspective is that the vast majority of people are under-educated when it comes to financial planning. Many put their faith in an advisor who is not capable of protecting their client’s money from downturns in the stock market.
We believe there is only one correct way to grow wealth for retirement:
How’s that?
People should NEVER take more risk than is necessary to reach their investment goals
The problem is that most people are taking far too much risk and we are here to help people educate themselves and implement a financial/retirement plan that will meet their goals with the least amount of risk.