Words of Candor

There is an enormous amount of research concerning the psychology of money, and to me, the most fascinating research surrounds our spending habits, in particular how they change between using cash versus credit cards.

The current world circumstances are greatly impacting the news and market, and it’s easy to allow the negativity to infiltrate your thoughts and daily routine, disrupting what truly matters.

We are often asked the same question by many clients during times of extreme market volatility.

We are often asked, “When should we start estate planning?” The answer is, if you’re even thinking about the need for estate planning, it’s time to begin.

We all possess a fight or flight response to stress. Its origins are primal; the lives of our ancestors often depended on their ability to react logically in duress.

Like all good financial advisors, we work hard to facilitate thoughtful dialogue, listen carefully, broaden perspectives, and act as financial therapists, all in an effort to come up with smart financial strategies to optimize your money.

At least once a year we meet with our clients to talk about everything BUT finances. Why? Because the better we know you, the better we can support you.

Almost two months into this extraordinary pandemic, and I am more thankful than ever for an infrastructure that allows us to continue with business as usual here at CandorPath. In these past weeks, we have been reiterating these five points to all of our clients:

A recent article shined a light on how Warren Buffet prioritized wealth ethic over work ethic. Intrigued, I came to understand that wealth ethic pertains to the idea that the pursuit of money over the importance of enjoying how you are making money is no longer the priority. We would all love to make a living by following our true passion, but it often seems too difficult to do. Minda Zetlin explains that “one of the main reasons passion-seeking has gotten such a bad reputation is the presumption that there’s only one passion out there for each of us, and that whatever it is may not always translate to something you can do for a living.” But is that really true?

We often talk with those who are in the “build wealth” phase of life about the importance of establishing good financial discipline. When you are at the beginning of this phase, looking years ahead to retirement, it’s difficult to really appreciate how much the extra money going toward your retirement plan or current debt will benefit you, but the rewards of your good habits will only compound over time, multiplying your wealth. There is no shortage of examples of millionaires who attained their wealth through hard work and financial discipline.

More than ever, we should be searching for contentment with what we have, as focusing on what we can’t control only brings unnecessary stress.

You already know how important dollar cost averaging and re-balancing is to long term financial success, so I won’t go into either of those. During our time in quarantine though, I do want to give you 3 other components of financial success to think about.

If you argue with reality, you will lose 100% of the time. What an “aha” moment I had when a client shared that statement with me. We’ve spent so much of our recent time talking with people about this phase of economic uncertainty, but I was never able to simplify my thoughts the way that statement did for me.