Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Depending on the part of the world you’re in. This is Jonathan Satovsky of Satovsky Asset Management and on today’s episode of “Seeking Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness,” I want to talk about an article I saw that talked about the ten hard questions that reveal why investors need advisors—why investors need a good advisor and need good stewardship.
Let’s get into it:
1. Are you able to look at the big picture by yourself?
2. Are you going through life without a plan?
3. Are you waiting for interest rates to hit a certain number? Higher or lower, 8%, or whatever it happens to be?
4. Are you spending everything you earn and more? Obviously reinforcing the importance of a budget, saving discipline, about the sustainability, and so on and so forth.
5. Do you understand the meaning of the word insider trading? Meaning, many people who aren’t in finance, might be involved in businesses or have friends involved in businesses, and might hear information about M & A, or deals that happen and might be inclined to act on incomplete information where they think they’re making a free buck at a much, much heavier expense.
6. Will your aging parents soon be your permanent house guests? Have you thought about the care that your aging parents may need? How are you going to help both financially, physically, and resource-wise?
7. Has day trading landed you with an enormous tax bill? Someone could say, “Oh, I watched the markets. I watched trends,” but meanwhile, you pay short-term capital gains that could be crushing. So it’s getting someone out of bad habits to get them stretching it for longer for their own sustainability.
8. Is constant trading preventing you from taking a vacation? Also being engaged with activities that are not enabling you to design a lifetime plug.
9. Do you have any idea how you will put your kids through college?
10. Are estate taxes something you think happens to someone else?
So ponder these things. These are just good by-lines, but it’s a good start to ponder what is the value of an advisor beyond the fact of outperforming the market. Just creating a simple, disciplined plan and working through the more important things in life, and having a partner to be able to hit you on your blind spots for a lifetime—could be valuable.
Have a great day.
