Five Star Logo
As seen in
Houston Five Star award winner
Marketing partner logo

How to Be Smart (Not Brilliant) With Your Financial Planning

Selected content image

Here’s a blueprint for prosperity that relies on common sense.

By Harold Evensky, CFP® from Evensky & Katz, | July 2015

When it comes to wealth, everyone would love to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But using that wish as a guiding principle in your investment planning is likely to ensure failure; so, what to do? Simple --be smart, not brilliant and follow a few common sense rules.

General Principles

Remember you’re investing for your future, not today.

  • Don’t pay attention to the talking heads on Wall Street TV.
  • Don’t confuse a bull market with brilliance and a bear market with Armageddon.
  • Develop an allocation policy that’s appropriate for your return needs and risk tolerance --AND STICK TO IT!
  • To help you stick to it, insure you have adequate cash reserves to carry you through a bear market. Research suggests about one year's worth of your supplemental cash flow needs is appropriate.
  • To keep you focused on long-term investing, remember this mantra – “5 Years, 5 Years, 5 Years.” That is, do not make any investment unless you have every confidence that you will have a five-year window before having to sell.
  • Sometimes the best investments are the ones you don’t make.

Risk

Risk is scary, but it’s only a four-letter word. Focus on managing it, not avoiding it.

  • Diversify. For individual stock or bond positions, don’t hold more than 10% in any one position (less is better). Then, diversify asset classes; e.g., bonds and stocks. If you don’t have a clue where to start, consider 40% bonds and 60% stock.
  • Rebalance. Good investing is not Buy and Forget --but rather Buy and Manage. For example, let’s say you set a “rebalance parameter” of 10%. Your portfolio starts off 40% bonds and 60% stock. Then, the market drops so that when you check your portfolio you now have 55% bonds and 45% stock. It’s time to rebalance; i.e., sell bonds and buy stocks. The good news is that over time you’ll be doing what everyone says they want to do – sell high and buy low. Just remember, when you're doing it, it’s painful because you're selling what did well and buying what did poorly.
  • Don’t confuse certainty and safety. Losing money in a bear market is the risk most investors think about. But just as risky is losing your standard of living because your supposedly “safe” investments are in cash and CDs, and they didn’t generate enough return to maintain your standard of living.
  • Don’t confuse your risk capacity with your risk tolerance. You may have the financial resources to absorb losses without impacting your ability to achieve your goals, but emotionally you may not be willing to maintain your market exposure in a serious bear market. Liquidating in the midst of a bear market is one of the most serious mistakes an investor can make, as there is no opportunity for recovery.

Returns

Invest for the long-term quality of your lifestyle, not bragging rights.

  • What gets measured, gets managed. That means don’t just stop with selecting the best investments; continually monitor the results. And, don’t forget to measure the bite of taxes and fees, as well as the risk involved.
  • When you measure, use an appropriate benchmark. It’s all too common for a manager to brag that they beat the S&P 500. Problem is that they never owned an S&P 500 stock. Instead, they may have invested in small-company stocks, international stocks, or some other sector or style. Find out what sand box they’re playing in, and compare their performance to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invest in the same type of securities. Follow these rules, and you’ll be off to a great start. More to come in future articles.

Harold Evensky, CFP is Chairman of Evensky & Katz, a fee-only wealth management firm and Professor of Practice at Texas Tech University. He holds degrees from Cornell University. Evensky served on the national IAFP Board, Chair of the TIAA-CREF Institute Advisor Board, Chair of the CFP Board of Governors and the International CFP Council. Evensky is author of The New Wealth Management and co-editor of The Investment Think Tank and Retirement Income Redesigned.

All Contents © 2015 The Kiplinger Washington Editors

 

This award was issued on 7/1/24 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 10/10/23 through 4/30/24. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 3270 Houston-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 208 (6% of candidates) were named 2024 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2023: 3,347, 179, 5.3%, 7/1/23, 10/10/22 - 5/5/23; 2022: 3215, 176, 5%, 7/1/22, 9/20/21 - 4/8/22; 2021: 3133, 173, 6%, 7/1/21, 9/14/20 - 4/30/21; 2020: 3219, 174, 5%, 7/1/20, 9/30/19 - 4/17/20; 2019: 2992, 209, 7%, 7/1/19, 10/15/18 - 4/26/19; 2018: 3114, 218, 7%, 7/1/18, 10/27/17 - 5/21/18; 2017: 2000, 228, 11%, 7/1/17, 10/24/16 - 5/24/17; 2016: 1763, 437, 25%, 6/1/16, 10/16/15 - 5/16/16; 2015: 2289, 408, 18%, 7/1/15, 10/16/14 - 5/16/15; 2014: 3958, 410, 10%, 7/1/14, 10/16/13 - 5/16/14; 2013: 3001, 504, 17%, 8/1/13, 10/16/12 - 5/16/13; 2012: 2105, 425, 20%, 7/1/12, 10/16/11 - 5/16/12.
Click to access BrokerCheck

Investment Advisory offered through Rhame & Gorrell Wealth Management, LLC (“RGWM”).

Rhame & Gorrell Wealth Management, LLC (“RGWM”) is an SEC registered investment adviser with its principal place of business in the State of Texas. RGWM is in compliance with the current notice filing requirements imposed upon SEC registered investment advisers by those states in which RGWM maintains clients. RGWM may only transact business in those states in which it is notice filed or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from notice filing requirements.

This Web site is limited to the dissemination of general information pertaining to RGWM’s investment advisory/management services. Any subsequent, direct communication by RGWM with a prospective client shall be conducted by a representative that is either registered or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration in the state where the prospective client resides. For information pertaining to the registration status of RGWM, please contact RGWM or refer to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure web site www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

 

*Winners appearing on this page do not pay a fee to be considered or to win the Five Star Award. Professionals with a digital profile have paid a promotional fee.
Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria - required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.