"Don't Be A Victim Of Bad Financial Advice!"
The profession of financial planning is still in its infancy. As such, there are many individuals who claim to be financial advisers, and there are just as many (if not more) ideas about how to save and accumulate money for the future. Unfortunately, many of these ideas are contradictory, even though they sound reasonable on the surface.
Of course, even the idea of "financial planning" itself is open to interpretation by those who claim to be its practitioners and teachers. What is financial planning, really? Even if you can figure out what it means, and what it can do for you, you still have a multitude of choices ahead of you.
First off, many financial planners take a subjective - pragmatic - approach to financial planning. This means that since your financial situation and circumstances may change over time (and they probably will), that you can never be certain of what you should do. Which means, you can never really be certain of which financial advice is "the best". "The best" is deemed "whatever works right now".
This has led to the idea (by both clients and advisers) that because life is complex, financial planning must also be complex. Due to this alleged complexity, financial advisers have been taught that they must maximize the "utility" of a client's financial resources, but that they cannot do this by applying consistent and objective principles.
The end result is an unprincipled, "whatever works" , approach often decided by the financial adviser's (or the client's) past experiences or whatever "feels good" or "feels right". In practice it means, among other things, a subjective approach to budgeting (do "whatever works" instead of what will benefit you the most), and a subjective approach to investing (pick an investment that "feels good", by looking at what everyone else is investing in and then simply follow the crowd) - which incidentally has led to horrendous investment returns for clients (RE: DALBAR Inc.; Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior).
The alternative constitutes an intrinsic approach to financial planning. The intrinsic approach tells you that there are "good ways" and "bad ways" to manage money and that both are inherently good or inherently evil, with absolutely no reason whatsoever as to why.
This often - but not always - manifests itself as "faith-based" financial planning. But, other variations on intrinsic financial planning do exist.
In practice, it means relying on scripture or a dogmatic "truth" that "all debt is evil", despite the fact that debt can help you organize your finances and - used in moderation - can help you build wealth.
Your investment strategy is as follows: "be a socially responsible investor", which means...invest not for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others. In practice, this has led individuals to sacrifice investment returns (and their future financial security), claiming that profit is not the primary concern of investing. Not only has this led to poor returns when compared to profit-seeking counterpart investments, it has distorted the investor's ability to know what constitutes a good investment.
You can't achieve any set of rational goals under that kind of premise.. That means that you also can't achieve any kind of lasting success.
Another investment method that the intrinsic approach to financial planning endorses is the idea that "you can't beat the market". This is the so-called efficient market hypothesis, or index fund investing. While this approach can work, it is because there are other individuals buying and selling stocks to make the markets efficient enough for you to invest passively. Unfortunately, this means that you are constantly depending on other people to make your strategy work.
...but what would happen if everyone were to take that passive approach and just wait for investment returns to "magically" appear?
A Revolution in Financial Planning
- Would you like real peace of mind and a genuine sense of self-esteem when it comes to your personal financial situation?
- Would you like certainty in your financial plan?
- Would you like a budget that actually gives you control over the things that matter most to you?
- Would you like the security of a savings plan that you cannot lose, guaranteed?
- Would you like a sound investment strategy that always works and will make you rich?
- Would you like to stop being a victim of bad financial advice?
- Would like to see what an objective approach to financial planning will do for you?
Are you ready? Then fill out the form below to get your FREE report right now:
Material presented on this website is meant for general illustration and/or informational purposes only and it is not to be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should be relied upon only when coordinated with individualized & professional advice.
