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Jan 29, 2025 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Everything has a price, either explicit or implicit. When you invest in the stock market, the price you pay for the opportunity to obtain long-term premium returns is the reality that the market will decline frequently. That’s part of what author Nick Murray calls “The Package.”
You don’t achieve the above-inflation returns without accepting the price of routine price declines. You can’t have the good, without the bad.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Particularly during the early weeks of a new year, many clients ask “how did I do last year?”
What they really mean is: what were their portfolio returns for the past calendar year? Sure, investment returns are important, but not the most important input within your financial plan. What are the important questions you really should be asking?
1. How much did you save?
Over time, the most critical determinants of financial success are how much you save and how well you stay invested.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Many areas of life benefit from cumulative knowledge: knowledge that increases over time, with new knowledge adding to what was known previously. Some other areas, like investing and personal finance, are impacted mostly by cyclical knowledge: knowledge that repeats itself over and over, often with the same errors that were observed in the past.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Investment markets aren’t nearly as volatile as the range of human emotions. That’s why the markets and the overall economy often are seemingly disconnected.
Investors can go from speculative euphoria during good times, to panicky capitulation during declines, all seemingly in a blink of an eye. Even with the normal ups and downs in the stock market, emotions are much more volatile.
Most economists assume that you make rational decisions based on your personal self-interest.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Numeracy significantly impacts the quality of your money judgements and decisions. You don’t need to be a math genius to make good choices, but you do need to have some basic understanding of math concepts. Innumeracy can carry a heavy price.
Innumeracy is defined as the lack of ability to understand and work with numbers and basic mathematical concepts.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
The trajectory of life is often determined by a mere handful of important decisions. These pivot points have an outsized impact on your future.
When you read the life stories of historic figures, you quickly come away with a realization of just how much a few inflection points matter.
Perhaps you decided to go to a different college than most of your high school friends. Maybe you met your spouse there and raised a family together, now complete with grandchildren.
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Aug 7, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
When you think about it, everyday life is full of questions, both small and large. Much of your financial life revolves around addressing the right questions, not just finding the right answers. If you can sort out the questions that are most important for you, the answers will be easier to find.
1. Who do you think might have the right answers, but you choose to ignore?
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
It’s summer and vacations are front and center. Vacations require effort and planning. The same goes for your financial journey. The amount of effort you make to focus on your financial aspirations and goals has a lot to do with your long-term success.
A journey, whether it’s a summer vacation or a financial planning expedition, entails a series of steps. These steps start with ideas and proceed to implementing these ideas by making commitments of time, resources, and mental energy.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Complexity is overrated and over-sold within the investing world. Many investors believe that complexity will improve their returns. In truth, complexity often covers up flaws including high costs, illiquidity, and other characteristics that you probably don’t want in your portfolio.
Humans are complex beings with multiple layers of emotions, but this doesn’t mean you have to bow to complexity.
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May 21, 2024 | 
advisorpedia.com | James WIlson |James Wilson
Many investors search continually for the ‘one sure thing’ that will improve their investing outcomes. Much like the snake oil peddled in bygone eras, this quest for a ‘magic elixir’ is usually counterproductive and unsuccessful.
The financial services landscape is littered with investment products that lay claim to some type of ‘secret sauce.’ Instead of looking for the one peculiar strategy that will change your financial life, focus on strategies that have proven successful over time.
