Professionals
A default future is one that already exists due to actions you are taking today. We have many clients nearing retirement and all of them wish they had great financial knowledge earlier and would have made better decisions. You are in the accumulation phase of your life, where you are accumulating assets for future spending, as well as needing assets in the near future as your life expands due to events like getting married, having a baby, or buying a house.
It is crucial for you to have a solid grasp on two things:
The three ways investments are taxed
The lifecycle of money: we all have short, mid and long term goals, and our investments need to be aligned with these keeping in mind taxation, risk, and the length of the goal
For young income earning professionals, our goal is to empower you to make the best financial decisions possible to transform your financial future. We do this by educating you on the facts, using solid economics and mathematics as proof. We also provide behavioral coaching to alter behaviors that are hurting your ability to save and grow wealth. Rewrite your default future!
“Do not save what is left after spending;
instead spend what is left after saving.”
The Mountain of Life
The Mountain of Life has two phases, the first phase is climbing up to a certain point in terms of wealth accumulation, the second involves distributing that wealth - spending down the accumulated assets. Both phases have some distinct risks, however, the 55 and up crowd actually face the major lot of them. These risks individually or usually in some combination can make retirement planning a big challenge. If left unaddressed, they will certainly wreck havoc on your plan and your life at some point during your “Golden Years”.
Why are these risks so devastating?
Mainly, because you no longer have a paycheck, your assets now have to convert to income, which means you have to constantly liquidate assets to pay your bills. Interestingly, we have no control over any of these risks, what we do have control over is to sit down ahead of time with a professional and plan on how to be better prepared to tackle them.
As a young professional, your focus should be on your savings rate and not the rate of return, because you can control how much you save versus how much you earn. Although, there are many risks at play, we believe the key risks that impact your ability to save for the future are:
Risk during Accumulation
Disorganization
Think about your financial life in terms of the kitchen junk drawer. There are lots of tools and gadgets in it, but do they all work together? An orchestra, without a symphony and conductor would just be noise, wouldn't it? The first step is to organize your finances in a way where you can understand them and create a clear path to the future.
Death
Premature death decimates the economic power of a family immediately. As you are accumulating wealth for the future, it’s not highly likely you can provide the support your family needs if you died prematurely.
Job Loss
In today’s economy, job losses for specialized professionals could be easily longer than a year. Again, adversely affecting your ability to sustain yourself during such times and save for the future.
Disability
Arguably worse than premature death. You’re alive, unable to earn an income and the bills keep rolling in. This cannot only seriously affect your ability to save, but to just stay afloat and can possibly ruin your credit for several years.
Planning
We begin by taking into account what you have already accomplished and discovering a clear grasp on your goals and concerns. Next we do a deep dive into your cash flow, help develop a spending and savings plan, and test your current plan against the various risks.
Investments
We will educate you on the different styles of investing, their pros and cons, and help you develop an investment philosophy. Then we help you align your goals and investments, while taking into account, taxes, risk and market volatility.
Insurance
We will help you plan around the “what-ifs” in life by conducting a thorough assessment of your protection needs, and ultimately aligning them with your goals and concerns in order to ensure you have the most efficient protection planning.
