Mid-Year Newsletter
If you’re reading it, it is history; you know the story. Planning and investing is about achieving favorable outcomes in the future, the unknown. Did you even guess you’d be wearing a mask from time to time this summer?
We do not know the future. We would like a peek from time to time, but that is not likely to happen. We know that we do not know. Outcome-based planning, like investing, relies on trying to understand the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. And, for our practice, that means assessing likelihoods.
We believe that determining the best, highest probability of reaching your family’s desired outcome consists of quantifying your goals, which means identifying a number, associating it with an outcome, and establishing an end-date for achieving it. Once quantified, our practice develops an investment strategy designed to provide you with the best odds of attaining your desired goals.
Now comes the magic: We test and stress test your plan through each known market crisis to determine viability. Yes, each crisis du-jour: depressions, booms, natural disasters, wars, and even elections. And the impact they have had on your current portfolio and, therefore, your plan. The result of this catharsis is a number, a probability for your plan. Not a guarantee, we do not know the future, but the next best thing: a method for adapting in real-time to a changing world and life.
During our most recent calls, the end of the 2nd quarter, we called to review your plan, update it if necessary, check-in on you, and let you know what’s new with us. If you use our Client Access Platform, you can go into the “Play-Zone” element of our planning software, and in real-time, make changes to your goals to see the impact on your desired outcomes.
We wish this summer would have been different, more normal. But, alas, it is not what we would like it to be. Nor you, we are sure. We can only imagine but can relate to the economic and emotional stress you’re experiencing. We hope that the investment in planning you’ve made has given you the confidence that the pandemic and its effects shall also pass. And, your desired outcomes remain as viable as they were last summer. We have faith that they will.
Christina Jones, CFP® John N. Lilly III Bobbie Denton FPQP™ Brooke Cantrell Carlos Dominguez, CFP®
Financial Planner Portfolio Manager RJ Office Manager Relationship Manager Portfolio Manager RJ
Any opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The information contained in this report does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. Keep in mind that investing always involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.