You have seen this movie before. And even if you are too young to remember you vividly remember your parent’s screams. Yes, the stock market is crashing and you are paralyzed with fear.

All that hard earned money you invested and puff, it’s all gone. Maybe not quite an Animal House “7 years down the drain” situation, but still a lot of it is gone. With it, there goes your worth as a human being.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. One minute you had visions of a life of riches — a red Ferrari, original artwork decorating the walls of your new penthouse apartment, and weekends shuttling between the Hamptons. and South Beach for a life of pure pleasure.

Waking up to a market mess really hurts. Reality bites! Not only do your dreams feel so far out of reach now, but what really upsets you is that you would have been better off spending all that money you invested on a fun trip to Vegas. Come to think of it, maybe Vegas would have been a better gamble!

Live and learn. That’s the last thing you want to hear, but you know that it is true. If you are going to invest you need to understand that stock market crashes are as inevitable as the New England Patriots making yet another Super Bowl.

I understand that you (like most of the country) may hate the Pats, but maybe the lesson is that experienced investors know something about surviving a stock market crash that you could really benefit from, but only if you are able to see through your fear.

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”

– George Addair

Before you jump off the cliff keep these things in mind:

#1: It won’t always be so dark at 4 PM

Stock markets tend to go up over time. The average annual rate of return on the S&P 500 is 10% over the 1926–2018 period.

10% is a pretty good return that compounds year after year. Some years are much better and some are much worse.

The problem is never when things are going well. The problem is always when the stock market tanks and everybody assumes the end of the western world.

Your reptilian brain goes into an immediate red alert state. It assumes that nothing good can result from this stock market turmoil. It’s telling you to get out now!

The problem is that as sure as day follows night, history shows that stock markets recover from crashes to resume their upward growth.

That crash that was so feared at the time will likely look like a mere blip on the long-term historical price chart.

Crashes and corrections (smaller mini-crashes) make us feel terrible but are part of investing. Research from data provider Factset shows that historically the US stock market has had a correction of 10% or more in 55% of the years.

Experienced investors bear the scars of prior stock crashes. They also understand that while bad times are more frequent than anybody would like, these bad times do not last forever.

Experienced investors understand that markets are volatile but that over the long-run stocks are incredible wealth creation machines.

#2: You can’t score from the bench

Fleeing the markets at the first sign of distress does more harm than good. Stock markets are inherently volatile and you might as well get used to it if you call yourself an investor.

If you don’t put money at work in the stock market you can’t lose any money, right? Correct, but the flipside is that when stock markets go up you will be squirming in your Lazy Boy as all your friends hoot and holler about their stock portfolio gains.

Only by playing can you make a difference. Put money at work in the stock market and you will participate in the ups and downs of investing. The good news is that historically there have been many more ups than downs.

You can always play it safe and keep your money under your mattress but that safety is going to cost you manifold over the long-term.

Let’s play a little historical game. If you had invested $100 at the end of 1927 how much would you have at the end of 2018? $10,000, maybe? $25,000? Not even close!

If you invested in US stocks you would have $382,850. And that is after “surviving” several stock market crashes! Not bad, right?

But what if you were really cautious and stayed out of the game? Let’s say that you invested all $100 into US treasury bills. You know that unless the US government defaults you are getting your money back plus interest.

How much would you have at the end of 2018? Are you ready?

You would have a grand total of $2,063 according to the calculations of Dr. Aswath Damodaran at NYU.

Your caution has cost you dearly. Hot dogs or steak? Which one would you choose?

Experienced investors know that when things get really uncomfortable the only objective at the time is to stay in the game.

If you are not in the game, there is a zero percent chance of making up your losses and you surely will not participate in the good times.

The opportunity cost of not playing is high.

#3: Nobody plays the perfect game anyway

When the s..t hits the fan (and it does for everybody) your first reaction might be to sell everything in disgust.

Apple, Proctor and Gamble, Netflix, Gamestop, those tiny speculative biotech’s that were going to make you rich — all sold with a vengeance. Good riddance. You are done with stock investing!

The problem with this approach is that you are likely “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. You are letting your emotions run the show. You are not looking at the merits of the situation.

An experienced investor re-evaluates every holding based on their merit at that particular point in time. Sure, market conditions suck and losses are piling up. But remember these are only paper losses until you sell for real.

Maybe this stock market sell-off is pure panic and unrelated to economic fundamentals. Investors often behave like a herd of wimps all climbing over each other trying to be first to sell. An experienced investor will not panic and likely will watch the stampede from afar. Steady Eddie.

Other times something in the markets or economy has fundamentally changed and some of the stocks in the portfolio are no longer worth their original value.

What do you do?

Option A: Hope that the markets recover and then hope to find somebody that will take the stock off your hands?

Option B: Sell now because you guess things will get worse and your money could be best used somewhere else?

Option A is based on hope. Option B is based on research and the merits of the situation.

An experienced investor will not rely on hope. They will most likely face up to the fact that some of their stocks are no longer worth what they originally thought and that they need to sell.

Nobody likes to sell at a loss, but better to sell for 80 cents on the dollar than for 50 cents down the road. There is no shame in taking a loss if it furthers your cause in the long-term.

#4: Don’t listen to your gut when everybody else is throwing up

Fear is paralyzing. Fear leads to making poor decisions if left unchecked. But fear can also be used as a signal for taking conscious action.

You can use fear as the catalyst for triggering a course of action that, while difficult at the moment to execute, will bear fruit when everybody else is still lamenting their bad luck.

Experienced stock investors use the extreme fear of market investors as a wakeup call to pay attention.

If the mass hysteria is based on pure crowd psychology and not economic fundamentals, the wise know that money can be made at the expense of the fearful.

Planning ahead of time is crucial.

What can you do to take advantage of the fear of others?

• Having enough cash on hand to fund the purchases — without cash, you can’t do anything. Borrowing to leverage during a period of stock market distress is not a reasonable or smart option. Just say No!
• Having an idea beforehand what to buy from the weak hands. This is all about research. Focus on investments where even if you are a bit wrong in your assumptions of future growth and profitability there is a good chance of making money — Warren Buffet calls this his margin of safety. Buy the babies thrown out with the bath water!
• Internal fortitude or “cojones” if you know what I mean. Departing from the herd mentality of doom and gloom is very difficult. Almost all inexperienced investors will flee at the first sign of trouble. Standing apart from the hysteria of the crowd takes belief and conviction.

Experienced investors understand that fear needs to be managed, not avoided.

#5: When you are seasick focus on the horizon

Have patience. You never know how long markets will remain in a downtrend so be prepared for the long haul.

Most stock crashes and corrections are short-lived. If you knew that a correction or crash was about to happen you would bail in a hurry, right?

But the timing of when things fall apart is never known with any certainty. Many stock pundits have proclaimed an imminent collapse only to find themselves years later staring at a stock market twice as high as before. [Hard Fact — Nobody can time the next market crash]

Research by Factset shows that the average length of time from collapse to full recovery is 9 months after a 10% or more correction. That is not that long, but you would be surprised by how many inexperienced investors lack patience even if it means locking in a major loss.

In a sense, patience is a function of belief. Belief, in turn, should be informed by history and the context in which you are making decisions.

If you understand the history of stock market returns you would think twice about bailing when things get dicey in the short-term.

If you understand the history of global economic growth you would realize that business cycles — boom and bust periods — are part of our system of capitalism.

Experienced investors know exactly why they are investing in the stock market. You need to do the same.

What matters to you?

• Growing your portfolio so that you can at some point in the future enjoy the things in life that make you happy?
• Or, attaining immediate relief from the pressure that comes from stock investing and hiding under your comforter until everything becomes easy again.

“By re-educating the mind you can accept fear as simply a fact of life rather than a barrier to success”

– Susan Jeffers

It might be your first rodeo but you don’t need to stay down

Your fear is real. Nobody (except those braggy people with nothing at stake) likes a stock market crash.

You and your friends were enjoying the party and suddenly, swish, they turn the lights off and you can’t find your wallet or your dream date. How will your life ever be good again? No more Hamptons or South Beach.

Maybe all those people that have been whooping it up paycheck to paycheck had it right after all.

Fear is paralyzing. Everybody experiences the same thing. But only a few know what to do about it.

The fear when in a stock market crash is real but if you are able to overcome the signal that your nasty brain keeps sending to your sweaty palms, you are going to see daylight again and prosper.

Fight the fear knowing that experienced investors have found ways to survive market meltdowns. This might be your first rodeo, but they are still saddling up after many falls.

Go deep into your head. Remind your rational brain that things will get better and that everybody is going through the same negative emotions. Think clearly and if need be cut your losses, but whatever you do don’t beat yourself up.

Learning from the experience of others is a time-tested approach. This won’t be your last rodeo. Get up on the horse and next time around you will know how to conquer your fear. You may even profit from the fear of others.

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Market corrections are never fun. After a long period of uninterrupted stock market gains, Mr. Market finally decided last October to turn down with a vengeance.

From the peak in early October to late December Mr. Market (aka “the stock market”) was down about 20%. Since then the market has had a bit of a recovery and as of the second week in February it is down about 7.5% from the peak.

When you look at your Q4 brokerage statements all you feel is regret and shame. How could this have happened?

All your investments are in highly touted exchange traded funds (ETF’s) that track the stock market. Your buddy at Goldman told you so and you even read up on a couple of Morningstar reports.

You were counting on Mr. Market. Yet another scam but this time you are the sucker, not those poor sub-prime holders that took it on the chin during the 2008 Financial Crisis.

You weren’t trying to get rich overnight (maybe just a little) but who likes to throw 20% of your money away like that? Answer: Only a sucker!

Losing feels terrible. It’s not just about the money, but also that you were easy prey.

The only consolation is that you had lots of company.

Joining the winning team felt so good, but now you are no longer so sure

Everywhere you looked people were buying these ETF’s. You felt part of the tribe. And hopeful that finally, you had figured out this investment business.

Now you feel betrayed and frustrated. You thought that these ETF’s were safe.

Who cares that ETF’s have been the investment of choice since the end of the Financial Crisis. From 2008 to 2018 assets in ETF expanded more than 600%.

Wonderful, but how does that help you now?

You were barely familiar with this tribe except for some gibberish on CNBC and select subway ads you saw in passing, but you drank the cool aid anyway.

What are these ETF’s anyway?

Most ETF’s use a strategy called index investing. The strategy is super simple — replicating a portfolio or index of stocks or bonds designed by a third party such as the Standard & Poor’s company.

The best-known index in the US is the S&P 500. Two of the largest ETF’s replicating the S&P 500 index are SPY (offered by State Street) and IVV (offered by iShares).

Not only have ETF’s performed better than most mutual funds but they are substantially cheaper. Better performing and cheaper means more money in your pocket.

While the virtues of investing in this fashion have been known to large institutional investors for decades, the investment public at large was a little slower to catch on.

Global Focus Capital

It took a while to be discovered

It took the cult of personality in the form of Jack Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group, to make real people realize what they were missing out on.

Index investing for the masses took hold. Index investing in ETF’s became a religion. They called themselves the “Bogleheads”.

The emergence of ETF’s allowed everyday people to participate directly in index investing. Bloomberg estimates that the US ETF market is $3.7 trillion in size and accounts for 40% of daily US trading.

ETF’s have democratized investing. What only very large pension funds could previously do is now at everybody’s fingertips.

Everybody can be a big boy now. Microcaps, emerging markets, dividend payers, low volatility stocks — all strategies previously unavailable or too costly now available to everybody at a click of a button.

You were eager to join the adults at the big table. You finally scrunched up some savings and took the plunge.

You bought several of the ETF’s recommended by your Goldman buddy. Now all you have to do is sit back and collect some coin, or so you thought.

Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash

If ETF’s are so wonderful why do I feel so down?

Recent market events have left you wondering if maybe you were a bit hasty in choosing your investment tribe.

All you have seen since you bought your ETF’s is red in your accounts.

You do realize that the market has taken a tumble but weren’t your ETF’s rock solid and sure winners?

You feel like you are missing something.

Is there a secret that the investment gods are not sharing with you?

You ask your Goldman buddy what happened and you are met with a look of disbelief.

“Of course you can lose money if you are not invested the right way,” he says.

You are puzzled. “But I jotted down all the right ETF tickers on this cocktail napkin.”

Now your buddy looks at you with pity. “Dude, didn’t you first figure out your asset allocation?”

Asset, what?

“How much you own in stocks, bonds, and other stuff” he says.

“You can’t just let it rip on one thing — you need to be diversified”.

Always be thinking “AA”.

Nobody told you about this asset allocation or “AA” thing at least not in the context of investments!

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”

– Old Tibetan Saying

Your lack of knowledge has cost you dearly. You barely knew what an ETF is and you still plunged into the deep end.

You were hosed on Day 1 and you didn’t even know it. The investment gods kept their asset allocation secret to themselves.

Photo by Mark Finn on Unsplash

What the Investment Gods didn’t tell you

As Warren Buffet has said before, “Investing is simple, but not easy”.

There are some simple truths to investing that even experienced portfolio managers need to be reminded off from time to time.

There is a link between return and risk:

The higher the return you seek the higher the expected risk of the investment. In terms of major asset classes, stocks tend to do better than bonds but with significantly higher risk.

Risk cuts both ways. During the good times you will make lots of money on your equity investments, but when Mr. Market takes a beating you’ll see lots of red in your accounts.

Key Lesson: The riskier the investment the more you can lose, know how much you are comfortable losing

Markets go up and down, sometimes violently:

That is what the pros call volatility. During normal times, prices move within a tight range. But when markets get nervous, volatility tends to spike up at the speed of light and even the savviest investor feels a pit in their stomach.

When markets go up being an investor is fun. Everybody is a genius on the way up. When markets go down many novice investors throw in the towel while the pros assess the situation for ways to cut risk and/or ways to profit from the panic of others.

Key Lesson: Volatility is part of investing, the worst time to sell is when you and others are panicking

Investment risk can never be eliminated but it can be transferred:

All asset classes — stocks, bonds, real estate, CD’s — carry risk. The risk emanates from the health of global economies and the preferences of investors as a group for postponing current consumption.

You as an individual can’t eliminate these top-down risks. You’re too small to do anything about it! Markets are composed of collections of individual investors all too small to eliminate risk on their own.

As a group, you are stuck with the risk. The only thing you can do is transfer the risks from one investor to another, but the size of the pie remains unchanged.

Key Lesson: There is always investment risk, but you can change how much risk you want to take

Most people focus on easy, not right (Hint: they are solving the wrong problem)

By focusing on what ETF’s to own you are disrespecting the investment gods. You are starting at the finish line and skipping all the hard work.

The truth is that you got it backward. You took the easy way out by casually asking your buddies for help. You skipped your homework and now you want to be an Academic All-star?

Here’s the thing.

• The ETF’s you own matter a lot less than you think.
• What matters is how much risk you are taking in your portfolio.

If you own all stock ETF’s, you are overwhelmingly taking equity risk. You and Mr. Market are fraternal twins.

When Mr. Market catches a cold, so do you. Nothing will save you from Mr. Market’s mood swings.

If you want to be like Mr. Market you are all set with your stock ETF’s. End of story. Learn to live with the rollercoaster.

But if you don’t like the moodiness of Mr. Market and see yourself as a more down to earth person you might want to dial it down a bit.

“Dial what down?” Your portfolio risk, of course. Or, in English how much you are willing to lose if Mr. Market catches a cold.

And for that to happen you need to include investments other than stocks into your portfolio. For example, lower risk bonds, CD’s, or real estate.

Got it little grasshopper?

Less risky investments like bonds mean you are less likely to lose money when Mr. Market sneezes.

This is the miracle of diversification sometimes called “the only free lunch in investing” by Nobel Prize winner Harry Markowitz.

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

Think Big First, Then Small

Figuring out the asset allocation mix that suits you is the first step to take. It is also by far the most important one.

Always be thinking “AA”.

Large institutional investors have known this for a long time. At least since the 1990’s when a variety of academic studies showed that asset allocation accounts for over 80% of portfolio returns.

Isn’t it better to start with the 80% that counts?

Picking ETF’s may be more fun, but are you into fun or into making some dough?

Work on your big problem first by figuring out your asset allocation. Only then figure out what ETF’s you might want to use. Make sure you do it in this sequence.

The whole process of deciding what proportion of your portfolio should be in stocks, bonds, CD’s and other investments is called asset allocation or,(“AA for short).

It starts with figuring how much risk you are willing to tolerate.

How much risk you will tolerate in your portfolio should be your starting point, not getting a list of ETF’s from your buddy at Goldman.

You really should consider AA if you want to stay sane

Just know that whatever you do, picking the right stock ETF’s won’t help in the event of a correction. You will still be at the mercy of Mr. Market like everybody else!

What will help you smooth out Mr. Market’s mood swings will be holding a diversified portfolio of stocks along with less risky investments such as bonds, CD’s and real estate.

This may all sound a bit technical and complicated but you don’t t have to do this alone. Here are some options for you:

• Buy a pre-packaged asset allocation strategy. If you want to take only a little bit of risk consider AOK. For a little more risk AOM might be right for you. And if you are ok being aggressive consider using AOA.
• Invest your money with a robo-advisor such as Betterment or Wealthfront. Based on a short questionnaire these firms will suggest and manage a suitable asset allocation strategy for you.
• Hire a registered investment advisor to fully customize a portfolio for you based on a comprehensive assessment of your needs and risk profile.
• Do it yourself by first figuring out your desired asset allocation and then picking appropriate ETF’s or other investments to get exposure to the various asset classes in your portfolio.

It is time to get serious about your money.

Even small differences in return can compound to very large amounts over the long term.

Hot dogs versus steak — which would you rather have for dinner?

Having a solid asset allocation strategy in place is a great first step toward fulfilling your financial goals while allowing the moodiness of Mr. Market not to keep you wide awake at night.

Always be thinking “AA”!

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Retirement can be viewed as a blessing or a curse depending on how you prepare yourself for this new phase in life.

It is common for people to emphasize the financial side of retirement. They’ll focus on putting money aside in their 401(k)’s. They will start reading all the literature on creating an income in retirement. Some will even start watching Mad Money in the hope of picking up some useful investing tips.

Still others will feel a bit overwhelmed and seek the advice of a professional retirement advisor. The advisor will most likely deliver a nice looking report with all kinds of tables and charts describing the probability of outliving your assets (hopefully this is low), the right time to collect Social Security, how to minimize your lifetime taxes, a pro-forma budget of your expenses in retirement and so on.

All very official and beautifully presented. But as Mike Tyson says “everybody has a plan until they punched in the mouth”. That punch for most people is called life.

Don’t get me wrong — planning your financial life in retirement is absolutely essential but many people have the wrong impression that having the “plan” is enough and all that is required.

The reality is that financial security is an absolutely key component of your Retirement Wealth but there are so many others aspects to your life that need planning and taking care of.

Let’s get down to the 5 life rules:

Rule 1: Decide what you want and what matters to you

Getting clarity on what you want in life and what really matters to you is no easy task. For most of your life, you have defaulted to societal norms.

Study the hard sciences and you will have a high paying job for life. Buy your first house by the time you are 30. Sacrifice your personal life and health for the good of the company by putting in 60+ work weeks and playing office politics. Bear and grin if you have to.

But now that you no longer have a boss or corporate identity, who are you and what do you want out of life? Now that you can at least contemplate life’s finishing line what values do you want to be remembered for? Are you still defaulting to the last 30 years?

Many people will live almost as many years in retirement as they did during their careers. That is a long time to live without a guiding light. Finding your purpose and what really matters to you will serve you well during the good times but especially when you face adversity.

• What is fulfilling and meaningful to you?
• What do you want people to say about you in your obituary?
• What life lessons do you want to pass on to your loved ones?
• Have you thought as to why whatever you see in your future is important to you?

Rule 2: Maintain balance in your life

A fulfilling retirement is not solely driven by how much money you have in the bank. Having enough financial resources to live the way you want is important but the quality of your years in retirement is heavily influenced by how you spend your time and with whom.

Having lots of money to spend but few interests or friends to spend time with will not create a fulfilling retirement. As my mother used to say, the key to everything is a balance.

In this context, balance refers to all elements of your Retirement Wealth — physical and mental health, financial security, social and family connections, work/hobbies, and lifestyle.

You can’t have a fulfilling life unless all aspects of your Retirement Wealth are in sync. There will be areas where you are weaker that will demand your attention. Maybe there is an unresolved family conflict that needs to be taken care off. Maybe you need to start an exercise program and eat better. Maybe you just need to make more time sharing an interest with your spouse or partner.

The key is taking action today. Don’t postpone something in the hopes of finding the right time to get started. Start now, start small and keep moving forward.

• Do you feel good about all areas of your life?
• Are you leading a life of no regrets and peace of mind?
• Are your family and social connections in good shape?
• Are you doing everything in your control to remain physically and mentally active?

Rule 3: Design your environment to support your goals

The environment around you plays a huge role in enabling you to lead the life you want in congruence with your values. Research in the field of psychology has found that our environment is critical in influencing how we behave.

Surround yourself with positive people and it will rub off on you. Surround yourself with people that like to rehash everything and it is highly likely that you will avoid taking much concrete action on anything material.

If you move to a community where the only time that people socialize is at Happy Hour and you value a healthy lifestyle you will likely suffer some internal conflict.

Humans like to fit in. Fighting against your environment makes you stick out like a sore thumb. You either fight your environment or accept it.

You will have to resort to willpower to overcome the pull of your environment. But as research by psychologist Ben Hardy has shown the environment usually wins out. Your willpower is finite and eventually, most people will succumb to the rules of their environment.

The only way to lead the life you want is to design your environment to be congruent with the life you want to lead. The pull of your environment is too strong to overcome by willpower alone.

Your best chance is to create an environment that supports your desired way of living. Start with the obvious — your social network, your physical surroundings and other influences around you.

• Are the people you surround yourself with supportive of your goals and values?
• Are your physical surroundings set up to reinforce the type of behaviors that are required to accomplish your goals?
• Are you feeding your brain useful information conducive to creating a positive environment or are you mindlessly consuming news porn?

“If you do not create and control your environment, your environment creates and controls you”

– Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

Rule 4: Remain flexible and adaptable

Benjamin Franklin once said, “in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes”. I think that it is safe to add a third — change.

Change is happening at an increasing pace in our society.

We see technologies come and go.

We see new companies being formed and reaching mega-cap status within less than a decade such as Airbnb and Uber.

We see new norms of behavior change overnight such as the rise of social media as a substitute for in personal relationships.

The world around us is moving faster and faster. We are every day presented with more choices. More choices can leave us at times confused and bewildered as Barry Schwartz points out in his popular book The Paradox of Choice.

The pace of change will if anything continue accelerating. Hoping to keep up with every single new development and technology is humanly impossible.

What you can do is to remain flexible and adaptable. As Charles Darwin stated, “it’s not the smartest or strongest that survive, but the most adaptable to change”.

We all like to think that success happens in a straight line. In reality, life is a zigzag of ups and downs.

Developing mental flexibility and adapting to the change is a necessary skill for thriving in a world where the pace of change is accelerating.

“When you can’t control what is happening challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening. That’s where your power is!”

– Twisted Angel

Adopt as author Carol Dweck would say a Growth Mindset where you believe in your own ability to learn under new conditions. Your thoughts and actions are malleable allowing you to adjust to changing circumstances.

• In the past how have you reacted to change in your life — by hoping it would revert back to normal or accepting that things had changed and adapting
• Are you paralyzed by past failures or do you look at them as learning opportunities?
• Do you like taking on new challenges or do you prefer to stick to known situations?
• Do you believe that you will have to work hard to reach your goals, or that your talents are enough?

Rule 5: Take action and don’t waste time

Time flies as the saying goes. One minute you are graduating from high school, the next you are starting your first real job, getting married, having kids and then fast forward to the time when you actually start thinking about retirement and yet another phase in life.

And it all goes faster and faster and you start wondering where time has gone.

You realize, time does not expand, it only shrinks. Every day the only certainty is that you are a day closer to your last one.

No longer can you afford to sit back, moan about what should and could have happened, and endlessly wait for that moment of inspiration or luck to propel you to the life you always dreamt of.

“One thing that can’t be recycled is wasted time. Lost time is never found again”

– Unknown author

All of a sudden you realize that time has become your enemy whereas before you thought of it as a friend.

As Marshall Goldsmith says in his book Triggers, “we are better planners than doers”. Without action, nothing will change and our dreams and goals for our retirement years will remain unfulfilled.

• Are you waiting for an external signal or event that now is the time to take your first step?
• Are you filling your day with mindless activities that don’t get you closer to your retirement dreams and goals?
• Are you reluctant to start a new project or activity because you feel you need a large chunk of time?
• Do you feel like you are always doing research and planning, or are you willing to figure it out as you go?

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.”

– Old Chinese Proverb

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If you are looking for additional perspectives to guide you in formulating your next phase of life check out our Retirement Wealth Checklist.

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Over 10,000 Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age every single day in the US. This will go on every day over the next 12 years. Not all of them will officially retire but in most cases, as workers reach the magical age of 65 the clock is ticking.

This is not only happening in the US but across the western world as an increasing proportion of people are in the 65+ age bracket.

Many surveys show how unprepared current day retirees are not only financially but also emotionally.

According to a recent Vanguard study, the average 401(K) balance for people in the 55–64 age group is $178,000. That is not a lot to distribute over a lifespan that may last another 30+ years. Even worse, it is reported that a full 45% of Baby Boomers have zero savings.

Surveys also show that many people enjoy a brief honeymoon when they first retire but that after a couple of years they express disillusionment and lack of direction. According to a 2017 Rand Corporation study, a full 40% of retirees go back to some sort of work within the first couple of years after retirement.

Interestingly the reason most often cited for going back to work had little to do with finances. Some retirees obviously needed the money to fund their lifestyle but the vast majority said that going back to work restored in them a sense of purpose and social engagement. Using their brain was another often cited reason.

The transition into retirement seems to be a hurdle troubling many people these days.

For one, the data shows that many people actually are forced to retire before they had planned to do so. A recent study by Voya Financial found that 60% of retired workers were forced to leave the workforce before they had planned to due primarily to health concerns and company restructurings. These early retirees might have been anticipating their retirement but life threw a monkey wrench into their plans.

Another contingent of retirees reaches their target finish line but they have been so busy with their careers or distracted as to not pay much attention to what their next phase in life might entail.

They are like sprinters putting everything into reaching the finish line but unprepared for what is next. In fact, many of the people interviewed in the Rand Corporation survey indicated that they needed one or two years of being away from the daily grind of a career to decompress and be able to see straight.

Why do so many people hate thinking about retirement?

While the exact timing of when a person retires may be somewhat uncertain due to outside forces we all know that the day will eventually come. Why don’t people plan ahead if they know that the transition is coming? It would seem to make sense, but maybe there is something more to it!

1. They are in denial and don’t think that retiring will be a big deal

They keep going as usual and expect to stop on a dime. Besides no longer going into the office what would change? The house is the same, the spouse is the same and the kids are the same. Just keep going as normal.

The only problem with these assumptions is that while some things like the house, spouse and kids do stay the same a lot of other things will change. How you spend your days certainly will. Some changes will be invariably positive like not having a commute. Other changes like the loss of identity, paycheck and social connections are also difficult for most people to handle.

Retirement is a big change for most people. It represents the ending of a phase of your life where you probably spent 30 to 40 years. Like all endings, there is usually a period of mourning or at the very least uncertainty as to what is next.

Is this you? Planning ahead can alleviate a lot of the tumult of not knowing what is next. Retirement is the tenth most stressful life event according to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. Wouldn’t you want to keep this stress at no higher than №10?

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”

– Benjamin Franklin

2. They know retirement is a huge transition but they don’t deal well with change

Fear of the unknown is what often holds us back from dealing with change. What if we make the wrong decision? How do we even start making decisions about something like retirement that we have never gone through before? The result is often procrastination.

Throughout our lives, we go through many transitions. From the time we are born we go through change. Some transitions are tougher than others and take more time.

According to William Baldwin in his book Change all transitions involve the realization of an ending, a period of time in between involving introspection and uncertainty (the neutral zone) and finally a new beginning.

Sometimes change happens due to external factors and sometimes change is due to what is going on within you. In the case of retirement, you have both types of change — our work is ending and at the same time our sense of identity and how we fit in the world is changing as well. Our social and family relationships are also evolving further complicating our transition into retirement.

It is easy to hope for the best and procrastinate thinking about your life in retirement.

Is this you? Change is going to happen to you whether you like it or not. Transitioning into retirement is a big change for most people. You can’t control everything but planning your life in retirement both from a financial as well as non-financial perspective will empower you and your spouse/partner.

You are in charge of designing the life you want in retirement. Unexpected events will happen and even the best-conceived plans will need to be adjusted.

Developing a growth mindset as well as a resilient attitude will be important to deal with change for the rest of your life. Why not start now?

3. They fear the loss of identity and nothing scares them more

Fear has a way of freezing people up. So many people identify with the job they do. It’s Joe the CPA, or Linda the software engineer. When you retire it is hard to identify with your previous job any longer.

Suddenly, your Linkedin profile reads “Retired”. It almost sounds like you have disappeared from society and without the cover of a job title useful to the world.

Identifying with a job brought on a certain response from people. If you identified as an engineer you were good with numbers and smart. If you identified with being a designer you were creative and outgoing.

Now you are just Bob or Jane. But who are you really? What descriptive shortcut are you going to offer people you meet for the first time?

Is this you? Retiring involves a loss of identity that must be restored to reflect the real you. Finding the real you may take time and introspection. Retirement is the perfect time to define without pretense who you are.

Your life experience makes you relevant and your contributions to your family and society do not stop when you retire. What are your core values and is your behavior consistent with these values?

4. They have ignored their finances and hope has become their only way out

Money is a key ingredient of your retirement wealth. So are your physical and mental health, social connections, your lifestyle and your work and passions. But money is required to lead a certain type of life.

When you have a steady paycheck you can hide a lot of bad habits. Who needs a budget as long as the checking account is in positive territory?

Without a paycheck, you must be more careful with your money. You now must budget your money and be smart about how you invest your savings. Unless you have a pension to count on besides Social Security and other forms of pension welfare your lifestyle will now have to be funded by your savings.

If you have that sneaky suspicion that your financial house is not in order you might decide to simply ignore reality. Pretending is better than facing the truth. Many people hope for the best and keep their fingers crossed.

Financial brokers often tout a “number” required to retire. The “number” is usually in the millions. And you know that you are nowhere close to that “number”. You need to run an 8-minute mile but your best time is north of 10 minutes. You give up trying as the end goal seems too far away.

Is this you? First, know that your “number” may not be the same as somebody else’s “number”. Maybe you have always led a frugal lifestyle and with your social security benefits, you only need to use a small percentage of your savings to lead the life you have envisioned in retirement.

Second, even if you feel that you are behind financially, starting today is always a better option than postponing the inevitable.

Why not admit that you need help and make an appointment today with a wealth manager specialized in retirement planning?

5. They get easily overwhelmed with the complexity

Retirement planning can be complex. The financial side of preparing for retirement can be hugely complicated and overwhelming to lots of people. Throw in there the emotional side of retirement and things really get jumbled up.

When you retire you are dealing with a lot of change. Your relationships are changing, the source of your income is changing, your identity is in question, and there is no longer an HR department that figures out your benefits package. On top of that, you are now responsible for filling that time slot previously allotted to your job. You may feel a bit lost and chances are your spouse/partner is feeling the same.

You also have to figure out how to draw down your savings and manage your investments so they last the rest of your life and keep up with inflation. Don’t forget about the need to decide the best time to take social security benefits (age 62, 67 or 70) and get all those legal documents (will, health care directive, estate plan) in order. And figuring out Medicare and its various supplements is not for the faint of heart.

Retirement a la Carte sounds great in principle but as the book The Paradox of Choice shows too many choices can easily overwhelm us, leave us stressed and regretful. Isn’t retirement the time to relax and take it easy?

Is this you? Feeling overwhelmed and stressed? Not sure what to do or even where to begin? In an ideal world, you would start thinking about retirement at least five years before your target date. Are you over this mark? It’s never too late but professional assistance may be necessary.

For most people, the goal should not be to become a retirement expert.

Instead, the goal should be to become an educated consumer of retirement planning services. Let a professional retirement advisor simplify your choices and lead you in the right direction.

If the source of your stress is mainly financial consult with a wealth manager specialized in retirement planning.

If your source of stress is primarily non-financial consult a retirement or life coach that can help you design a vision of your retirement consistent with your goals, motivations, and values.

There is no better time than now to plan the rest of your life. Will waiting to ask for help buy you more time?

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.

– Old Chinese Proverb

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If you are looking for additional perspectives to guide you as you formulate your vision check out our Retirement Wealth Checklist.

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Baby Boomers are retiring in droves these days. Many of them are unprepared to deal with this new phase in life.

As with anything in life things don’t happen overnight. You don’t suddenly become financially literate at the age of 60 or 65. A successful retirement requires lots of preparation — financial as well as non-financial.

It is never too late to start thinking about this next phase in life, but the longer our runway the better. Where do you want to be in 2020?

In working with clients, we use our P.R.O.A.C.T.I.V.E methodology to get the process going. Is this some fancy algorithm? Not at all. It is more of a tool to get people from the planning to the doing phase.

Personal:

A good plan is customized to your needs and requirements but it starts with an overview of who you are — age, career stage, marital status, children, health and family structure. What is your lifestyle and what type of lifestyle do you want in the future?

What are your big dreams and aspirations, interests and hobbies? How in sync are you with your spouse/partner? How do you want to spend your time in retirement? How do you feel about life in general?

Risk Profile:

Everybody feels differently about life’s uncertainties. In terms of your financial situation, how much investment risk can you afford to take given your short-term cash flow needs? How much wealth do you have relative to your financial commitments?

Are you comfortable taking more risk in order to make more money, or are you content where you are financially and don’t want to push your luck? If a shortfall were to occur would you be able to recover? Do you have time to recover?

Objectives:

What are your minimum financial objectives meaning what does your bare minimum lifestyle look like? In terms of discretionary goals, what other things are you looking forward to? Maybe a second home in Tulum or Sarasota to enjoy the winters, paying for your grandchildren’s college, helping your down on her luck younger sister, or buying a boat to tour the Caribbean?

Beyond your own personal goals, do you and your spouse/partner have any financial goals related to some special causes that you feel especially drawn to? Do you have a desire to leave a financial legacy to your heirs?

Assets:

Your assets are what allow you to bridge the gap between your sources of income and your ongoing expenses. The difference needs to come from either selling some of your assets or having your assets yield a rate of return that is sufficient to close the gap.

Understanding what you own and how much each item is really worth is the first step. As we mentioned before you must take into account the net value after you pay relevant taxes and transaction fees. You should include the value of assets that you do not plan on selling such as maybe your primary home. The goal is to get a realistic assessment of what you own.

Of equal importance is tallying up how much you owe — mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc. Include any long-term financial commitments that you have made.

Hopefully, by the time you retire your debt is minimal in relation to your assets. The difference between your assets and your financial commitments or debt is your net worth. Your net worth is what allows you use of your resources to generate an income in retirement.

Cash Flow:

The sum of all your sources of recurring income minus your expected expenditures is your cash flow. Sources of income could include pension payments, social security, and if you still work, wages. In terms of expenditures, it is useful to separate them into essential and discretionary. It is also useful to anticipate expenditures that may not happen on a recurring basis but that you anticipate making in the near term.

Managing your cash flow is probably the biggest challenge in retirement. The loss of a steady paycheck to make up for any temporary unexpected expenses (your car needs a new engine or your furnace just blew up) is a significant blow. Having enough assets can make up for any shortfall as can a “replacement” paycheck from a new venture that you might have started after you left your primary career.

Taxes and Tradeoffs:

Taxes never go away even after you stop receiving a paycheck. Often times you can pay taxes now or later and you have legal choices as to the timing. For example in the US, you could take your Traditional IRA and convert it to a Roth IRA by paying taxes now. Or you could simply continue with your Traditional IRA and when you take distributions you pay taxes on what you take out.

A lot of people believe that you no longer need to pay taxes once you retire. The truth is quite different and it depends on where you reside. In the US, for example, some states tax Social Security benefits and others don’t. In some states such as Florida, Washington, and Texas there is no state income tax. A safe assumption is that you still need to pay taxes on many of your sources of income in retirement as well as when you sell some of your assets. For wealthy individuals, you also need to think about estate taxes.

In many cases, taxes can be deferred or postponed for a period of time. What you can do is legally manage when you pay your taxes by taking advantage of where your “retirement” paycheck is drawn from. You can also optimally match up sources of gains with losses to minimize your overall lifetime tax bill.

Tradeoffs refer to the often conflicting goals that we all have between consumption today versus later. We all have multiple goals that at times compete with each other. Couples/partners often have conflicting goals and different priorities in life. Other times, a couple may agree on their overall goals but not on what they individually deem as most important.

Establishing a rough understanding as what tradeoffs you are making is important in terms of arriving at a retirement income plan that is acceptable to all people involved.

Implementation:

A plan is only as good as what you do with it. If your plan calls for a conservative investing style and your portfolio is still reflective of your high paying career then no amount of planning will be adequate if capital markets go through a correction. Similarly, if the optimal strategy was to convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth structure and you ignored this advice in the long-term it is highly likely that your overall tax bill will be higher.

Your retirement income plan is not static. Either you need to manage it or you need to outsource responsibility to a trusted financial advisor. Your circumstances will invariably change over time. Your cash flow will change, you will have unexpected needs that come up and capital markets will certainly fluctuate over time.

In some cases, things will move in your favor as when you sell your second home in a rapidly appreciating real estate market or when your stock portfolio experienced much higher than normal returns. Maybe given this stroke of good luck you and your spouse/partner decide to splurge a bit and spend some of the windfall on a long trip to Italy or Bali.

Other times, the cookie crumbles the other way and you are suddenly facing a tougher situation. What if you were anticipating selling an investment property and use some of the proceeds to fund your living expenses for the next year, but the market has suddenly dried up? Now you have to figure out what other assets to tap and to do so in a tax-friendly way.

Another key implementation decision if you live in the US is when to take social security benefits. Your life circumstances may have changed and your previous plan of drawing benefits at age 62 may no longer be optimal.

Value Creation:

For most people, it is important to keep their money working for them. The strategies and tactics used to grow your capital should be based on time-tested concepts and practices but unfortunately, capital market conditions fluctuate over time.

There is, unfortunately, no investment strategy that works across all market conditions and market cycles. For example, deriving investment income is often a top priority of retirees, but figuring out where in the markets one can efficiently capture yield can change drastically. Sometimes CD’s are the best place, other times it is REITS, and sometimes it is plain old US Treasuries.

Yet another way to create value is to take advantage of temporary dislocations in the markets. For example, when equity investors as a group get nervous they tend to sell indiscriminately sell their portfolio holdings. Maybe they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater and some hidden gems can be picked up by investors willing to dig a bit deeper into understanding the specific fundamentals of the situation.

Another avenue for value creation is tax optimization. Offsetting winning investment positions with losing positions occurring in the same calendar year is usually a good way to minimize your overall tax burden. A systematic program of harvesting winners and losers has the potential of leaving more money in your pocket.

Earnings Growth:

When people retire the biggest loss financially is no longer having a steady paycheck. You go from accumulating assets to having to use those assets to partially fund your lifestyle. Some people have a defined benefit plan or rely on other sources of income such as Social Security Benefits but in most cases, there is still a gap between what you are bringing in and what is going out in the form of living expenses.

The gap is what needs to be funded from either asset sales or preferably investment returns derived from your portfolio of financial assets. The portion of the gap coming from investment returns is what people frequently refer to as your ”retirement paycheck”. The task at hand is to make sure that this retirement paycheck keeps coming over time and the paycheck adjusts to the inevitable rise in the cost of living.

Becoming too cautious in retirement and not asking your money to work for you (i.e., invest wisely) results in a loss in purchasing power not initially felt in the short term but seriously detrimental to your financial security in the long-run. Inflation is like paying interest on a loan you did not take out. The goal at a minimum should be for all retirees to grow their “retirement paycheck” at more than the rate of inflation.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.

– Old Chinese Proverb

__________________________________________________________________

If you are looking for additional perspectives to guide you as you formulate your vision check out our Retirement Wealth Checklist.

__________________________________________________________________

Did you like this article? It would mean so much to me if you showed your love by clapping (👏) this article (you’ll see the little icon on the left! You can clap up to 50 times, so go hard!).

If you would like to subscribe to my blog sign up here. Thanks for reading and Pura Vida!