This is a question that nearly all of us get at various points in our life. It is typically a query about your job/profession/career and is designed to give the questioner only a tiny bit more information from which to learn more about you. What does it really mean?

 

                For me, this has been the toughest question to answer. Not that I don’t know what I do, but rather because my job has a title that does not easily translate into everyday meaning. If I am a dentist, everyone has that learned knowledge of what I do in my job. If I am a construction worker, we all have a general idea of someone wearing work boots, a hard hat and covered in dust. Of course upon closer examination the dust tells us way more about their actual job in construction.

 

                Me? I am an Associate Portfolio Manager and Wealth Advisor. Hands up if your mental picture of what that title means was a bit foggy. Okay so it’s nearly everyone. Well let me help clarify it for you because I think it gives you an idea of what my actual job entails.

 

                I manage a small group of clients who have entrusted me to properly invest their savings to meet their needs. Sounds simple enough. In reality though, I have to manage the emotions that come with money and decisions about money. My emotions. The emotions of my clients. The emotions of every other investor around the world (this is what makes markets move). I have to read, listen and watch news from all over the world whether it is real news or #FakeNews. I have to follow economic news and the change in all kinds of various measures of how the economy is fairing. I have to talk to clients who have had a baby, gotten married or have an ill family member. I have to understand politics (the hardest one because often they don’t even understand what they are doing, but I digress) and the changes in tax rules that may impact my small group of clients. I have to learn about new technologies that are gaining importance and the old technologies that are impacted. I have to know which companies are improving and which companies are failing and how the world views the future in both cases.

 

                After taking in all this information (it’s like trying to drink from a firehose somedays) I then need to make the best decisions for my clients. Sometimes that means making changes to their investments. Sometimes it means working to protect them from all kinds of trouble. Most of the time that means doing nothing. Those times are actually the best because it reaffirms that what we have been doing is still the correct path and in their best interests.

 

                The hardest part is the emotional side of the advisor-client relationship. I don’t mean it as in raw emotions but rather in how we (them as well as me) respond to the daily overload of information. More information is proven to not help us make better decisions. This does not mean I don’t cringe when I see a Trump tweet about tariffs because well I do. It means that I need to review my information and see if that changes anything for my clients and their savings. It also means when times are tough I have to resist the primal urge inside all of us to “SELL EVERYTHING” and stick with the plan we have set out.

 

                It all is worth it when you get to tell a client that they can retire when they want to retire and do it comfortably. It is worth it when you find a problem early and can stop it from becoming a big problem later on. As I wrote earlier this week, most people can live a comfortable retirement if they make just a few small changes now (More Than You Have So Far) and helping clients figure that out and then make the change they need to make is a huge bonus for me. I learned fairly quickly that managing investments for clients is less about making them lots of money in the market and much more about making them as financially comfortable as possible to help deal with all of life’s changes as they happen.

 

                So what do I do? I work with a small group of clients to help them reach their financial goals so they can enjoy their lifetime goals.

 

 

                If you want to learn more about reaching your financial goals AND lifetime goals, contact me.