Simplify Your Financial Life with Evidence-Based Investing
Featuring our friend and colleague, BAM ALLIANCE Director of Research Larry Swedroe, this video explores the vital role that the academic evidence plays in our wealth strategies. Our mission is to help educate people and improve the quality of their lives by basing everything we do on the latest research and tailoring those findings to the specific needs of our clients. We hope you’ll check out our latest video and let us know what you think!
How to Understand Financial Markets
All of my career I’ve enjoyed teaching people and educating them. I think that’s what I do best is to help people understand difficult concepts. Just like in anything else I think we have two types of people. There’s the do it yourselfers, who love to fix up their homes and do things and there are people like me. My favorite expression is if something’s worth doing it’s worth paying somebody to do it for you. Because if I try to do it, it’ll cost three times as much undoing the damage done. The same thing is really true in investing. Investing in order to be successful, not only requires a deep knowledge of the theory of finance and understanding markets, you also need a deep history to understand how markets work and what products mix well together to build the portfolio.
My job is to take these often 50, 70-page dense academic papers and write it up in plain English so that advisors and investors alike can understand: first what did the researchers look at, two what did they find and most importantly what implications does that have for our investment strategy. We base everything on what we do and what we recommend on evidence from these peer-reviewed journals. Nothing is based on our opinion, it’s all based upon the latest academic research. This allows our advisors to focus on what they do best which is tailoring this information to the specific needs of the individual client.
Navigating the Financial Markets Means Controlling What You Can
Intelligent people focus, as they do in the rest of their lives, on the things that they actually can control. We focus our attention on costs, your tax efficiency and the amount of risks you’re taking and making sure it’s not more than you need to take to achieve your financial goals. Our clients are getting the benefit of the latest academic research just as you want to make sure your doctor is giving you advice based on the latest findings for medicine. Now, one of the things I’m most proud of and makes me feel good about what we’ve done is helping to educate people and improve the quality of their lives. They know that somebody is watching out for them doing what’s in their best interest and that’s what makes me feel really proud of what we’ve been able to do.
Life is uncertain. The market is even more precarious. This means building wealth has no shortcuts. Success requires a solid investment approach, a long-term perspective, and discipline to stay the course. Instead of leaving your financial future to chance, you need to have a plan.
Cogent Strategic Wealth is here for you and those you care about most.
So, instead of worrying about your or their future, why not take positive steps to protect it? Set up a Cogent Conversation with us today. We’ll show you how to transform hard work into durable wealth even through troubling markets.
