Our Beliefs
How we think about and approach our work as financial advisors and life in general.
It is foolish to pay someone for advice who doesn’t always put your interests first.
We can’t predict the future.
Just because something is possible, doesn’t mean it is probable.
An investment strategy that relies on facts and research is better and more sustainable than one that relies on gut feelings and hunches.
You can become rich by luck, but it’s almost impossible to stay rich with just luck.
Starting is better than thinking.
We view our future self as a stranger, and as a result, tend to make decisions that disregard their best interest for our present self.
The more often you check your investments the lower your return.
Reading or watching financial pornography is hazardous to your wealth.
All debt is bad. That’s not entirely true, but it’s a good place to start.
We do not make good decisions under pressure or stress.
If you do not like who you are, change.
Do things today your future self will regret if you don’t.
When in doubt, sleep on it.
It’s better to be the casino than the gambler, which means it is better to determine where there is an investment advantage –even small –than it is to hope for luck in beating the odds.
The most important factor in your investment return is your behavior.
The next most important factor in your investment return is your allocation.
The least important investment factor is the investments you choose.
Fail fast so you don’t waste time on the wrong path.
We are naturally wired to prefer instant gratification over delayed gratification, making saving and investing for a distant goal unnatural and challenging.
Always seek to add value.
What you’ve done is interesting but not nearly as exciting as what you want to do.
Your family and friends need you to be the very best you can be.
If it more important who you are and what you will become than who you have been.
Boring people get bored.
It’s about progress; not perfection.
You probably have a lot less at riskthan you think.
The language you use shapes your thoughts, beliefs, and behavior.
You can get better at anything if you invest the time and energy.
Think about what kind of life you want to create for yourself and use money as a tool to help you achieve it.
New and shiny captures our attention more than predictable and trusted even if it does not serve us well.
Take big risks when you are young.
Always have at least five big goals you are working on.
Write down your goals and read them at least daily.
You are more likely to achieve a life you love by conscious design and attention than you are by happenstance.
Create something meaningful.
There are many ways to create wealth.
The harder you work; the luckier you will get.
Use your calendar to schedule timefor your most important goals.
Greed and fear can wreak havoc on your investment success.
Work with people you respect and enjoy being around.
If worried, ask and answer the question, “What is the worst that could happen?”
You are better than you think you are. If you doubt that, you are definitely better than you think you are!
If you struggle to believe #45, consider seeing a professional coach or therapist to help you expand how you see yourself.
It will serve you well to learn the language of money.
Get a team of professionals who work together and conspire to help you create and preserve your wealth.
Your environment is an invisible hand that plays an important role in how you make decisions about money.
Your free time is expensive –it can mean the difference between your success and failure –so don’t waste or spend it; invest it.
Get really good at saying “No thank you.”
Every decision and commitment you make is either moving you toward or away from your goals, so choose wisely.
Get over yourself; nobodyis watching or cares as much as you think.
Change happens in an instant.
The single biggest expense for most people is taxes, so it makes sense to find advisors who are obsessed with helping you minimize them.
Create a social group that raises your game.
Make a habit of reading, listening to, or watching really smart people.
What you eat determines your level of energy, which determines your ability to get work done, which determines your success and happiness.
You are not even close to your limit; you cando a lot more.
If it sounds too good to be true, run the other way.
Some of the best people you will ever meet and who contribute the most to your success and happiness will be the ones you initially thought will be a waste of your time.
Try to suck a little less at remembering people’s names.
Have two jobs – one as your career and the other at improving yourself.
Wealth creates a target so it’s important to take steps to protect your assets.
Balance is overrated and unsustainable; choose for harmony instead.
The most financially wealthy are those who buy, invest in, or create assets.
Stacking multiple financial strategies together is how to create exponential results.
Humans are wired to be terrible investors. The more you recognize this the better you willbe at investing.
Act as if you are already the person you want to become.
Your current financial condition is the result of your past decisions, but your future financial condition will be result of your decisions now.
This year’s hot investment is likelyto be next year’s big loser.
Spend 99.99% of your time focused on the things you can control and the rest of your time trying to figure out how you can spend more of your time focusing just on those things you can control.
Most investors dislike losses much more than they enjoy gains.
Small positive actions over time create surprisingly meaningful results.
It would be great if you could successfully and consistently get out of the market before it goes down and back in before it goes up, but you can’t and there is 100+ years of research that shows nobody can.
Over almost any time-period, passive index investing beats active management.
It’s probably not different this time.
You can do more, longer, and better when you are passionate about what you are doing.
Money is fantastic.
Money can provide freedom, security, and opportunity. However, money doesn’t guarantee happiness.
Don’t confuse getting things done with getting things done that matter.
Being broke or in debt for long periods of time is a terrible existence.
If you could only take one lesson about money, it should be about your mental heuristics, cognitive biases, and common decision-making errors.
For the do-it-yourself investor, indexing is better than active management.
We can’t predict the next recession.
Try lots of things; you never know what you might like.
It’s okay to show people you are angry.
Intelligence is sexy.
Be a connector of people.
You don’t have to accept someone’s anger, guilt, or negative emotion.
More money (a lot more) has been lost trying to time the market than has ever been made.
Dress for the person you want to become.
If you feel stuck or need help, hire a coach or therapist.
It will never be perfect so just get it out into the world.
Try to save at least ½ your age as a percentage of your income.
You can probably complete your big goal in about half the time you think.
Work with the best team of advisors regardless of where they are located.
Your best investment is probably in yourself.
Volunteer or support a cause which you care deeply about.
Figure out when and where you do your best work and do your important work there.
Risk and return is related, but blindly taking risk doesn’t guarantee a better return.
Take responsibility for everything.
If you are new to investing, start slowly.
Investing done right is nothing like gambling in Vegas.
Retirement isn’t the finish line; it’s just another milestone along the journey.
Learn how to ask for a raise and then do it often.
Assume the best in people.
Everyone you meet has experienced hardship, tragedy, or suffering. Just something to keep in mind.
It’s okay to be obsessed with your work and your purpose.
Have a convenient place to easily capture all of your ideas.
Learn how to defend yourself.
If you can, fund a Roth IRA.
Find a spouse, partner, or friend that supports and challenges you to become a better person.
You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have your health, it doesn’t matter.
Experiences tend to increase happiness more than things.
You are more than your net-worth.
Giving a gift usually feels better than receiving a gift.