About a month ago I sat in a college classroom at a conference for alumni. The speaker was a well-renowned academic. Her topic:
“Household Financial Decision-Making: Mistakes People Make, Why, and Ways to Make Things Better.”
Of course, as a financial advisor, I thought that sounded terribly interesting. I thought I would get some great ideas I could implement in my practice. However, while the speech was quite well-done and thought-provoking, I came away a little bit disappointed. The message was essentially this:
“Individuals make terrible financial decisions – they procrastinate saving, they get fooled by bad investment ideas, and the majority will retire with next-to-nothing.”
Ouch.
Her suggestion was that we needed to implement top-down policies to help/force people to make good decisions. The primary example was the “opt-out 401k” – instead of making people sign up/opt-in for a 401(k), new employees are automatically enrolled. If they don’t want to save, they have to opt-out.
Don’t get me wrong. I think this is a great idea. And I think ideas like this, as long as they don’t infringe upon our freedom to choose, could go a long way toward helping the average investor.
My problem is this: I founded SwitchPoint based on the idea that people have a say in their future – that they can make good decisions and they can have less financial stress and they can achieve their goals.
My dream was, and is, to help people make it. Whatever “it” looks like to them. For some, it means retiring at 50. For others, it means having enough to give back to their church and community. For others, it means simply knowing they can visit the grand-kids and not have to stress about money.
Fortunately, I can tell you that, no, not everyone procrastinates saving, and, no, not everyone makes poor investment decisions, and, no, not everyone will retire with nothing.
As I’ve worked with people to turn their dreams into goals and then lay out a detailed plan for achieving those goals, something incredible happens.
They start saving, they start investing wisely, and they start making real progress.
Whatever your “it” is, I’m here to tell you that you can achieve it. Let me show you how.
Get started today! Schedule a complimentary, no-obligation introduction. click here.