In times of economic turbulence, knowing how to protect and grow your wealth can feel overwhelming. In this episode, we sit down with Lindsey Belo, a seasoned Edward Jones financial advisor, to unpack practical, actionable strategies for investing during challenging economic climates. From market volatility and inflation to rising interest rates and geopolitical shifts, Lindsey breaks down what today’s trends mean for your portfolio—and how to stay focused on your long-term goals.
Lindsey also shares Edward Jones’ philosophy on staying disciplined, the importance of liquidity, and why "time in the market" often beats "timing the market." Whether you’re nearing retirement or building wealth for the future, this episode offers clarity and confidence to help you make informed decisions—no matter what the economy brings next.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's move to New Hampshire. I'm Mark Erickson, and today
we are talking with Lindsay Bellow, who was an Edward
Jones advisor on the sea coast of New Hampshire in Hampton,
New Hampshire. Hello, Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello, how are you? Thank you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thank you for joining us today. I guess we start
right off with this and and address the elephant in
the room with the trying times financially right now and
all the things going on in the world, how do
you keep people calm and on task for their financial future?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
That's a great question. Uh, you know, behavior plays a
big role in financial success, and when the markets drop,
the instinct for many people is to do something often
out of fear. That's when the mistakes can happen, right,
like locking in losses by selling at the bottom. I
A lot on education and consistent communication. When clients understand
(00:52):
the why behind their investment strategy and we've built a
plan they trust, they are more likely to stay on course.
So with that, I also check in proactively when the
markets are turbulent so they don't feel alone in the uncertainty.
I remember working with one couple. They were very nervous
during a recent downturn. They were thinking about pulling out
of the market entirely. Instead of reacting in the moment,
(01:14):
we sat down, reviewed their goals, looked at how the
plan was still on track, and ultimately made no drastic changes.
So a year later they were so relieved, they've stayed invested. That's,
you know, that's the value of having a plan and
someone to help you stick with it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Just plain folks hear about the economy in little sound
bites and newscasts and and sort of dribs and drabs.
Folks like you, however, you're immersed in this all day long,
so you're less prone to the sort of knee-jerk reactions, right?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, definitely. It it seems a little less scary for
me in the sense of, you know, what comes down
must go up, so.
I know that it's not about timing the market, it's
about time in the market and just making sure you
have quality investments and you should be OK.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Let's talk about that time in the market. When, and
and I know you're going to say something like, you know,
the 3rd grade or something, but when should people start
considering their retirement strategy?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Really
as early as possible, honestly, um.
I, right? Uh, I encourage people, honestly, as soon as
they're working, to, to think about saving, at least in general,
as early as you can start contributing to a 401k,
do it. You're going to be getting a match for free,
(02:31):
and that's going to help you build your retirement. So
much better than waiting and
you're a little bit later in the game, but I
think when it comes to like your retirement plan per se,
I'm working with clients in their 40s and 50s to
lay the groundwork now, you know, whether it's maximizing their
retirement accounts, reducing their debt, or simply just clarifying their
(02:52):
vision for the future. So, but the earlier you start
thinking ahead, the more choices you have down the road.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So let's talk about some regional considerations. The Seacoast of
New Hampshire. Tell us a little bit about that particular
area and and what makes it unique
Speaker 2 (03:06):
financially. I mean, the Seacoast region of New Hampshire is beautiful,
but it does come with unique planning considerations. So real
estate values can be higher, right, especially those closer to
the beach.
Or the seasonal properties particularly, but that impacts both the
cash flow planning and the state strategy. And while New
Hampshire doesn't have a state income tax or a sales tax,
(03:28):
which can be a financial advantage, it's important to plan
for higher property taxes and healthcare costs, especially as people age.
So, like access to quality care and long-term care is
a top concern for many of my clients here. I
also work with a number of retirees who split their
time between here and another state. So, you know, the,
(03:48):
the snowbirds, right, um.
We talk about residency rules, managing two homes and how
those lifestyle decisions can impact their financial strategy. Planning in
this region isn't really a one size fits all. It
has to reflect both the financial and the personal values
of the client.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
How about the tourism aspect, the fact that, you know,
places like Hampton are very, very seasonal, does that sort
of fluctuate the market throughout the course of the year?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I mean, it definitely, when it comes to the economics
of the, the area, for sure, Hampton Beach is a
good area to think of when it comes to everybody
coming in for the summer time, renting hotels for the week,
for their vacations, or what have you. So there's definitely
an uptick of business in the area at that.
(04:36):
Time of year for
Speaker 1 (04:38):
sure. When you're looking at things like the stock market
and you look at these things, I think probably differently
from just plain folks, when you're looking at it, when
do you start to see trends? How long does something
have to be going in one direction or another before
you're willing to say, right, that's a trend, that's something
to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, it's really hard to tell honestly because the market
can go even if it's, you know, something that's been
reoccurring for, say, a couple of weeks or a month,
you know, the market could change the next day. So
we can't really say it can be a trend and
the market just, it's so hard to really put that
into perspective. We can't think forward, we have to look
(05:20):
at what has happened.
In the past, and we can't even really assume that's
going to be correct in what's going to be the future, right,
especially with everything going on in the economy. We could
say that the market is going to go one way
or the other, but you know, who knows what's going
to happen. How
Speaker 1 (05:35):
about the
basics of the economy when the economy
Fluctuates wildly and, and let's face it, at this stage
of the game, I don't think any prices on anything
are gonna start going down anytime soon and that's, you know,
literally from eggs to automobiles. How does that have an
effect on people and their financial plans for the future?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean that's something that definitely can put an
impact on people's portfolios. And when we, you know, plug
things into the system and we're making a plan for things,
we are assuming that there is inflation is going to
be affected into their portfolio and ultimately, you know, we
go through
(06:15):
Of a bunch of different trials to see how would
it affect your portfolio if inflation instead of 3% was
higher or what if it was lower. So when I'm
making plans with folks, I'm taking that into consideration, but
it can certainly affect some more than others for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So when someone comes to you for that.
initial meeting, they've got in their mind probably the the
basic framework of the plan. At age such and such,
I don't want to be working anymore and I wanna
have enough money to travel around the country or I
wanna have enough money to travel around the world. Where's
the starting point for you to to make this all happen?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
That's a great question. I actually love that. So, when
I first meet with a client, I, I tell them
I need all the puzzle pieces of your life. I
need as much detail as possible. I need your all
of your loans, your bank statements, your financial investment statements,
so I can get the best picture possible because say
(07:17):
you
Didn't tell me about an account that you had $300,000
at some other firm, and I plugged everything in and
I'm like, oh, well, looks like, you know, we're not
going to quite get there. Maybe we need to do
this or that to try to build some savings more
so you can retire by 65, and then they're like, oh, right,
I have $300,000 somewhere else. So
(07:38):
I make it a point before I even have a meeting.
I'm like, all right, let's, we need to organize everything financially,
whether that's consolidating some 401ks from old firm so we
can kind of get everything in one place and then
let's figure out what your plans are down to the
dollar amount, how much is your trip going to cost you,
how many times a year are you going?
(07:58):
I tell a lot of my clients Rome wasn't built
in a day, so it's going to take us a
little bit of time to get all of the puzzle
pieces put together, but we want to make sure we're
doing it right. So starting at that point and having
as much information as I possibly can is the
best.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You had that specific number, that 300.
$1000 number. My wife actually lost track of $15,000 once,
completely just forgot about it for a year and a
half or something, and when she found it, it was like, hey,
you know what? Did you, did you actually have somebody
not realize they had a $300,000 account somewhere?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
No, no,
it was, I just, honestly, I just threw out a
random number, but
There have been people that, like, it takes a little
bit to build some trust, so they're like, OK, I'll
give you, I'll give you this information, and then once
you kind of build up with them, you're like, hm,
I know something's missing here because it doesn't all add up.
(08:58):
And then we'll get everything going, but I, no, I
did not have some someone missing 300,000. That would be
nice for them, right? Surprise,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Indeed. So when somebody has a plan, how often do
you need to review that plan based on the conditions
of the economy and the world? How often do you
do you advise people to maybe just reassess what their
future is looking like and and how that plan is
working to get them there?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, that's a good question too. I think that it
really depends on each person, um, when it comes to
somebody that maybe is younger, we're still working on building.
So while we're still gonna rebalance things, it's gonna, it's
gonna be there for a long time. So I would
say at least look at it like annually. But other
(09:50):
folks
That are kind of more seasoned, if you will, have
more things going on. I think it's good to look
at things at least quarterly or every 6 months and
connect with them and be like, OK, any big changes,
or this is what's going on in the market. I
think we should rebalance your portfolio to be a little
bit more in line with your risk tolerance. I do
(10:10):
kind of put it on the client a little bit
as well in the sense of
Of how often do you want to be reached out to,
unless I see something else that really comes up that
I'm like, OK, I should call them. How often do
you want to be reached out to so we can
reconnect and at least see if there's been any big
changes in your life or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
When you start talking about retirement, the mind tends to
drift towards the as as you just so kindly put it,
the more seasoned individuals.
Let's go to the other end of the spectrum. What
about a young couple, maybe newlyweds, what should they be considering?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, newlywed, I mean, things that they should be thinking
of are, what are their short to like medium-term goals, right?
Because we know, ultimately long-term goals are retirement or maybe
down the road they want to reinvent a new career
or something, right?
But what are, what's gonna happen in the next 3
to 5 years? Are you gonna buy a house? Are
(11:04):
you gonna have a baby? Are you going to
You know, buy a second house or a rental, you know,
there's so many things that could be considered in that,
and some of them are even as simple as, do
you have an emergency savings established? So that is something
I think should be considered in the younger stages is
looking at what, what's going to happen in the next
(11:25):
3 to 5 years and what the like monetary figure
is on that and kind of how around that you
can build a strategy to save for those things in
the short term.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
If you're a young couple and you have a plan
in place with an Edward Jones advisor such as yourself,
what changes need to be made to that plan if
suddenly a child comes into the picture?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, that's great. So, if the baby comes into the picture,
now we're talking about what do we think about college?
Are we maybe thinking that there should be some funds
saved towards college down the road, and maybe we shift
some of their savings towards that, so they have a
little cushion once the baby is old enough to go
(12:07):
to school, or, you know, once they get out of school,
there may be other things that they can use it
with with the new
Roth conversion option, that is still very new, but a great,
great feature.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Let's talk about some of those new things. You've been
doing this for more than 1 minute, certainly, and uh
what is different about investing today than even say just
5 or 10 years ago?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Investing today is different in the sense of, at least
in my view, we're not just like looking for different
stocks that we can pick and try to build a
portfolio on that. I mean, we're certainly still doing that
with some folks, right, because that's their bread and butter,
but
I think it's more of looking at long term quality investments,
(12:52):
and I think I said this earlier was it's about
time in the market, not timing the market. So just
making sure we have long term quality investments that we
can put things in and staying diversified too because we
don't want to put everything on red, right? You know,
as we've seen the.
has had its fluctuations this year, and if you had
(13:12):
all of your money on red, you know, and it
goes down 15%, there's 15% of just that one bucket
versus spreading it out into many different
categories.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
No specific names or companies or anything, but when you
talk about quality investments, what are some of the the
industries that you consider to be quality investments?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I think it really just depends obviously on the time.
So right now, a lot of people are scared of international,
but that still is some opportunity because it's sometimes performing better,
and tech has been a little crazy this year, so
I wouldn't, you know, say to be too heavy in that.
But there's still some opportunity in the industrial space because
(13:56):
with all the things going on in the economy, maybe
things do proceed forward with the tariffs and whatnot and
then in the industrial space we may find more manufacturing
in the US. Like obviously I can't predict what's going
to happen, but there may be some opportunity in the.
Industrial space.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
When you're sitting down with some of your clients and
talking about the investment strategies that that an Edward Jones
adviser will employ here, is there something that comes around
more than average that that people are surprised by? Is
there something in the investment strategy world that most people go, really?
I didn't know that?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I would say that the biggest thing I have really
heard people say is when we're talking about their comfort
with risk, and they're like, oh no, no, I don't
like any risk. No, don't put me in that, nope.
And then I look at their old 401k and they're
at 80% equity.
And 20% fixed income, and, and I'm like, but it
(14:54):
says here on this sheet here that you are a
little bit higher than low risk, maybe a lot a
bit higher than low risk, and then taking the time
to explain to them what that means and kind of
referencing it to their timeline.
They never really understood what it actually meant and kind
(15:14):
of going back to the 401k space, just thinking, you know,
even before my time as a financial advisor, people are like, oh,
do you want moderately aggressive? Do you want aggressive? Oh,
you should do aggressive because you're young, you know, cool.
I don't think a lot of people actually knew what
that meant. They just selected something, you know, and so
I think that's kind of the biggest thing is just
(15:35):
Telling people what their risk tolerance means and how it
kind of irons out between the different types of investments
that we have and, yeah, OK, some of them are
in the equity space, but maybe they provide income and
that helps balance out your
portfolio.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I know people that just they get their their 401k
statement monthly, they they look at it, they nod knowingly,
I guess, and
Just throw it in a drawer and pay no attention
to it. And on the other side of the spectrum,
I have a very good friend, and he watches it
almost daily, sometimes I think almost hourly and and occasionally
(16:13):
I get the the phone call, the, uh, do you
know what just happened to my 401k? I'm like it
only happened 10 minutes ago. What's your best advice for
for those folks that maybe maybe you're watching it too closely?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I can definitely think of a couple of people right
off the top of my head, one of them being
a family member, sorry dad, love you, but, and when
that happens, I'm like, just calm down. Let's take a
look at what you actually lost overall, you know, say
the market's down 15%, but we look at your portfolio
as a whole, and you're technically only down 5%.
(16:50):
We're doing pretty good, right? So we put it into
perspective and like, OK, yeah, it's a, it's a dollar
amount we don't like to see lost, but remember we
have time in the market, it's gonna fix itself and
you're not down as much as the market is, so
it's gonna be OK.
And kind of holding their hand through it and reminding
(17:11):
them that the market's going to go down but it
will come back up.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So often it's not an individual incident as much as
it is perspective and context that you need to apply
to this, right?
Yeah, yeah. As people get towards that retirement age, whatever
age it is that they've uh decided that they want
to retire at, how does healthcare play into this? I mean,
obviously the older you get, probably the more healthcare you need,
(17:35):
probably the more prescriptions you have. I think I need
to take 9 pills a day just to stay alive
at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Right, I mean, and I think just kind of looking
at the cost of healthcare is definitely getting more expensive
in time, but that's also something that when I'm planning
with folks, and we put that into the plan and
account for inflation.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
For the folks that maybe are the the kind of
folks that look at that monthly statement and toss it
in a drawer and and don't pay that much.
Attention to it. What should they be doing? What should
they be occasionally looking at or talking to someone like
you
about?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
That is a great question. I actually just had a
few newer clients that are like, yeah, I have no
idea what's going on with it, you, you figure it out,
and they're kind of like, they, they like the set
it and forget it type of thing. Obviously I'm gonna
still bother them, but I think at least taking it.
And making sure that it's balanced to something that fits
(18:35):
your risk tolerance when it comes to like how much
equity versus income, but mainly when I kind of encourage
people to come and sit down with me, we're looking
at different investment options, because, you know, your 401k probably
has like a target date fund or they may have
some sort of lineup.
Ultimately, sometimes, sometimes, not all the time. Sometimes it's a
(18:58):
better choice for people to roll it into an IRA
and spread out across different investments. And so that's kind
of what I maybe sit down with people and go
over what their options are for their 401k and what
may affect it if they decide to roll it out
of an IRA, you know, because there are some things
that kind of go away once you roll that out,
but
(19:18):
At least encouraging them to, let's look at it together
and make sure it's at least to your comfort zone
with risk. And if you like where it is, that's great,
you can keep it there or roll it into your
new 401k if you don't want to put it in
an IRA, but
Having somebody look at it with you, at least make
sure that the portfolio is diversified and you're in the
(19:38):
right types of investments, so it can continue to grow,
because you don't want to put it all in money market.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And this may be a silly question, but are there
any cycles in the course of of any given year?
I mean, is there a better time of year to
be considering this than than another time of year?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Normally, during any time of the year, it is a
good time because within IRAs, it doesn't really make a difference.
You don't have to consider tax implications, unless you're taking
a withdrawal, obviously, which normally you don't want to do
unless you really need the money, but normally it doesn't
really matter.
But I would say that honestly, now that the market
(20:17):
is kind of down a little bit this year, if
you're taking the portfolio, you know, 401k and putting it
into an IRA you're buying investments while they're lower.
So, they have more time to grow. So you're buying
a a dip, essentially, but any time to move, it's
not gonna have, you know, necessarily tax implications or anything
(20:39):
like that. So, I would say sit down with somebody
and make sure it's the right fit for you, but
it should be OK to do it anytime.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And that market is always going to go either up
or down, and the best advice from you when that
happens is to stop and take a breath and maybe
call an Edward Jones advisor and and talk about it,
but don't start making moves right away. Absolutely.
Lindsay Bello, we thank you so much for spending time
with us. I have to tell everybody that this segment
(21:07):
of Let's Move to New Hampshire has been sponsored by
the local Edward Jones office of Lindsay Bellow in Hampton,
New Hampshire. Lindsey, what's the best way to get in
touch with
you?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, you can reach me by email, which is Lindsay,
L I N D S E Y.
Bello, B as in boy, E L O at edward Jones.com,
or you can give the office a call, which is 603-926-0727.
Those are the best ways to reach me. You can
also try to find me on
Speaker 1 (21:35):
LinkedIn. Lindsay, thanks for spending time with us.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Thank
you so much. Have a great day.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Let's move to New Hampshire, I'm Mark Erickson.
Let's move to New Hampshire. I'm Mark Erickson, and today
we are talking with Lindsay Bellow, who was an Edward
Jones advisor on the sea coast of New Hampshire in Hampton,
New Hampshire. Hello, Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello, how are you? Thank you for
having me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Thank you for joining us today. I guess we start
right off with this and and address the elephant in
the room with the trying times financially right now and
all the things going on in the world, how do
you keep people calm and on task for their financial future?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
That's a great question. Uh, you know, behavior plays a
big role in financial success, and when the markets drop,
the instinct for many people is to do something often
out of fear. That's when the mistakes can happen, right,
like locking in losses by selling at the bottom. I
A lot on education and consistent communication. When clients understand
(00:52):
the why behind their investment strategy and we've built a
plan they trust, they are more likely to stay on course.
So with that, I also check in proactively when the
markets are turbulent so they don't feel alone in the uncertainty.
I remember working with one couple. They were very nervous
during a recent downturn. They were thinking about pulling out
of the market entirely. Instead of reacting in the moment,
(01:14):
we sat down, reviewed their goals, looked at how the
plan was still on track, and ultimately made no drastic changes.
So a year later they were so relieved, they've stayed invested. That's,
you know, that's the value of having a plan and
someone to help you stick with it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Just plain folks hear about the economy in little sound
bites and newscasts and and sort of dribs and drabs.
Folks like you, however, you're immersed in this all day long,
so you're less prone to the sort of knee-jerk reactions, right?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, definitely. It it seems a little less scary for
me in the sense of, you know, what comes down
must go up, so.
I know that it's not about timing the market, it's
about time in the market and just making sure you
have quality investments and you should be OK.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Let's talk about that time in the market. When, and
and I know you're going to say something like, you know,
the 3rd grade or something, but when should people start
considering their retirement strategy?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Really
as early as possible, honestly, um.
I, right? Uh, I encourage people, honestly, as soon as
they're working, to, to think about saving, at least in general,
as early as you can start contributing to a 401k,
do it. You're going to be getting a match for free,
(02:31):
and that's going to help you build your retirement. So
much better than waiting and
you're a little bit later in the game, but I
think when it comes to like your retirement plan per se,
I'm working with clients in their 40s and 50s to
lay the groundwork now, you know, whether it's maximizing their
retirement accounts, reducing their debt, or simply just clarifying their
(02:52):
vision for the future. So, but the earlier you start
thinking ahead, the more choices you have down the road.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So let's talk about some regional considerations. The Seacoast of
New Hampshire. Tell us a little bit about that particular
area and and what makes it unique
Speaker 2 (03:06):
financially. I mean, the Seacoast region of New Hampshire is beautiful,
but it does come with unique planning considerations. So real
estate values can be higher, right, especially those closer to
the beach.
Or the seasonal properties particularly, but that impacts both the
cash flow planning and the state strategy. And while New
Hampshire doesn't have a state income tax or a sales tax,
(03:28):
which can be a financial advantage, it's important to plan
for higher property taxes and healthcare costs, especially as people age.
So, like access to quality care and long-term care is
a top concern for many of my clients here. I
also work with a number of retirees who split their
time between here and another state. So, you know, the,
(03:48):
the snowbirds, right, um.
We talk about residency rules, managing two homes and how
those lifestyle decisions can impact their financial strategy. Planning in
this region isn't really a one size fits all. It
has to reflect both the financial and the personal values
of the client.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
How about the tourism aspect, the fact that, you know,
places like Hampton are very, very seasonal, does that sort
of fluctuate the market throughout the course of the year?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I mean, it definitely, when it comes to the economics
of the, the area, for sure, Hampton Beach is a
good area to think of when it comes to everybody
coming in for the summer time, renting hotels for the week,
for their vacations, or what have you. So there's definitely
an uptick of business in the area at that.
(04:36):
Time of year for
Speaker 1 (04:38):
sure. When you're looking at things like the stock market
and you look at these things, I think probably differently
from just plain folks, when you're looking at it, when
do you start to see trends? How long does something
have to be going in one direction or another before
you're willing to say, right, that's a trend, that's something
to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, it's really hard to tell honestly because the market
can go even if it's, you know, something that's been
reoccurring for, say, a couple of weeks or a month,
you know, the market could change the next day. So
we can't really say it can be a trend and
the market just, it's so hard to really put that
into perspective. We can't think forward, we have to look
(05:20):
at what has happened.
In the past, and we can't even really assume that's
going to be correct in what's going to be the future, right,
especially with everything going on in the economy. We could
say that the market is going to go one way
or the other, but you know, who knows what's going
to happen. How
Speaker 1 (05:35):
about the
basics of the economy when the economy
Fluctuates wildly and, and let's face it, at this stage
of the game, I don't think any prices on anything
are gonna start going down anytime soon and that's, you know,
literally from eggs to automobiles. How does that have an
effect on people and their financial plans for the future?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I mean that's something that definitely can put an
impact on people's portfolios. And when we, you know, plug
things into the system and we're making a plan for things,
we are assuming that there is inflation is going to
be affected into their portfolio and ultimately, you know, we
go through
(06:15):
Of a bunch of different trials to see how would
it affect your portfolio if inflation instead of 3% was
higher or what if it was lower. So when I'm
making plans with folks, I'm taking that into consideration, but
it can certainly affect some more than others for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So when someone comes to you for that.
initial meeting, they've got in their mind probably the the
basic framework of the plan. At age such and such,
I don't want to be working anymore and I wanna
have enough money to travel around the country or I
wanna have enough money to travel around the world. Where's
the starting point for you to to make this all happen?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
That's a great question. I actually love that. So, when
I first meet with a client, I, I tell them
I need all the puzzle pieces of your life. I
need as much detail as possible. I need your all
of your loans, your bank statements, your financial investment statements,
so I can get the best picture possible because say
(07:17):
you
Didn't tell me about an account that you had $300,000
at some other firm, and I plugged everything in and
I'm like, oh, well, looks like, you know, we're not
going to quite get there. Maybe we need to do
this or that to try to build some savings more
so you can retire by 65, and then they're like, oh, right,
I have $300,000 somewhere else. So
(07:38):
I make it a point before I even have a meeting.
I'm like, all right, let's, we need to organize everything financially,
whether that's consolidating some 401ks from old firm so we
can kind of get everything in one place and then
let's figure out what your plans are down to the
dollar amount, how much is your trip going to cost you,
how many times a year are you going?
(07:58):
I tell a lot of my clients Rome wasn't built
in a day, so it's going to take us a
little bit of time to get all of the puzzle
pieces put together, but we want to make sure we're
doing it right. So starting at that point and having
as much information as I possibly can is the
best.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You had that specific number, that 300.
$1000 number. My wife actually lost track of $15,000 once,
completely just forgot about it for a year and a
half or something, and when she found it, it was like, hey,
you know what? Did you, did you actually have somebody
not realize they had a $300,000 account somewhere?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
No, no,
it was, I just, honestly, I just threw out a
random number, but
There have been people that, like, it takes a little
bit to build some trust, so they're like, OK, I'll
give you, I'll give you this information, and then once
you kind of build up with them, you're like, hm,
I know something's missing here because it doesn't all add up.
(08:58):
And then we'll get everything going, but I, no, I
did not have some someone missing 300,000. That would be
nice for them, right? Surprise,
right?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Indeed. So when somebody has a plan, how often do
you need to review that plan based on the conditions
of the economy and the world? How often do you
do you advise people to maybe just reassess what their
future is looking like and and how that plan is
working to get them there?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, that's a good question too. I think that it
really depends on each person, um, when it comes to
somebody that maybe is younger, we're still working on building.
So while we're still gonna rebalance things, it's gonna, it's
gonna be there for a long time. So I would
say at least look at it like annually. But other
(09:50):
folks
That are kind of more seasoned, if you will, have
more things going on. I think it's good to look
at things at least quarterly or every 6 months and
connect with them and be like, OK, any big changes,
or this is what's going on in the market. I
think we should rebalance your portfolio to be a little
bit more in line with your risk tolerance. I do
(10:10):
kind of put it on the client a little bit
as well in the sense of
Of how often do you want to be reached out to,
unless I see something else that really comes up that
I'm like, OK, I should call them. How often do
you want to be reached out to so we can
reconnect and at least see if there's been any big
changes in your life or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
When you start talking about retirement, the mind tends to
drift towards the as as you just so kindly put it,
the more seasoned individuals.
Let's go to the other end of the spectrum. What
about a young couple, maybe newlyweds, what should they be considering?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, newlywed, I mean, things that they should be thinking
of are, what are their short to like medium-term goals, right?
Because we know, ultimately long-term goals are retirement or maybe
down the road they want to reinvent a new career
or something, right?
But what are, what's gonna happen in the next 3
to 5 years? Are you gonna buy a house? Are
(11:04):
you gonna have a baby? Are you going to
You know, buy a second house or a rental, you know,
there's so many things that could be considered in that,
and some of them are even as simple as, do
you have an emergency savings established? So that is something
I think should be considered in the younger stages is
looking at what, what's going to happen in the next
(11:25):
3 to 5 years and what the like monetary figure
is on that and kind of how around that you
can build a strategy to save for those things in
the short term.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
If you're a young couple and you have a plan
in place with an Edward Jones advisor such as yourself,
what changes need to be made to that plan if
suddenly a child comes into the picture?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, that's great. So, if the baby comes into the picture,
now we're talking about what do we think about college?
Are we maybe thinking that there should be some funds
saved towards college down the road, and maybe we shift
some of their savings towards that, so they have a
little cushion once the baby is old enough to go
(12:07):
to school, or, you know, once they get out of school,
there may be other things that they can use it
with with the new
Roth conversion option, that is still very new, but a great,
great feature.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Let's talk about some of those new things. You've been
doing this for more than 1 minute, certainly, and uh
what is different about investing today than even say just
5 or 10 years ago?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Investing today is different in the sense of, at least
in my view, we're not just like looking for different
stocks that we can pick and try to build a
portfolio on that. I mean, we're certainly still doing that
with some folks, right, because that's their bread and butter,
but
I think it's more of looking at long term quality investments,
(12:52):
and I think I said this earlier was it's about
time in the market, not timing the market. So just
making sure we have long term quality investments that we
can put things in and staying diversified too because we
don't want to put everything on red, right? You know,
as we've seen the.
has had its fluctuations this year, and if you had
(13:12):
all of your money on red, you know, and it
goes down 15%, there's 15% of just that one bucket
versus spreading it out into many different
categories.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
No specific names or companies or anything, but when you
talk about quality investments, what are some of the the
industries that you consider to be quality investments?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I think it really just depends obviously on the time.
So right now, a lot of people are scared of international,
but that still is some opportunity because it's sometimes performing better,
and tech has been a little crazy this year, so
I wouldn't, you know, say to be too heavy in that.
But there's still some opportunity in the industrial space because
(13:56):
with all the things going on in the economy, maybe
things do proceed forward with the tariffs and whatnot and
then in the industrial space we may find more manufacturing
in the US. Like obviously I can't predict what's going
to happen, but there may be some opportunity in the.
Industrial space.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
When you're sitting down with some of your clients and
talking about the investment strategies that that an Edward Jones
adviser will employ here, is there something that comes around
more than average that that people are surprised by? Is
there something in the investment strategy world that most people go, really?
I didn't know that?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I would say that the biggest thing I have really
heard people say is when we're talking about their comfort
with risk, and they're like, oh no, no, I don't
like any risk. No, don't put me in that, nope.
And then I look at their old 401k and they're
at 80% equity.
And 20% fixed income, and, and I'm like, but it
(14:54):
says here on this sheet here that you are a
little bit higher than low risk, maybe a lot a
bit higher than low risk, and then taking the time
to explain to them what that means and kind of
referencing it to their timeline.
They never really understood what it actually meant and kind
(15:14):
of going back to the 401k space, just thinking, you know,
even before my time as a financial advisor, people are like, oh,
do you want moderately aggressive? Do you want aggressive? Oh,
you should do aggressive because you're young, you know, cool.
I don't think a lot of people actually knew what
that meant. They just selected something, you know, and so
I think that's kind of the biggest thing is just
(15:35):
Telling people what their risk tolerance means and how it
kind of irons out between the different types of investments
that we have and, yeah, OK, some of them are
in the equity space, but maybe they provide income and
that helps balance out your
portfolio.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I know people that just they get their their 401k
statement monthly, they they look at it, they nod knowingly,
I guess, and
Just throw it in a drawer and pay no attention
to it. And on the other side of the spectrum,
I have a very good friend, and he watches it
almost daily, sometimes I think almost hourly and and occasionally
(16:13):
I get the the phone call, the, uh, do you
know what just happened to my 401k? I'm like it
only happened 10 minutes ago. What's your best advice for
for those folks that maybe maybe you're watching it too closely?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I can definitely think of a couple of people right
off the top of my head, one of them being
a family member, sorry dad, love you, but, and when
that happens, I'm like, just calm down. Let's take a
look at what you actually lost overall, you know, say
the market's down 15%, but we look at your portfolio
as a whole, and you're technically only down 5%.
(16:50):
We're doing pretty good, right? So we put it into
perspective and like, OK, yeah, it's a, it's a dollar
amount we don't like to see lost, but remember we
have time in the market, it's gonna fix itself and
you're not down as much as the market is, so
it's gonna be OK.
And kind of holding their hand through it and reminding
(17:11):
them that the market's going to go down but it
will come back up.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So often it's not an individual incident as much as
it is perspective and context that you need to apply
to this, right?
Yeah, yeah. As people get towards that retirement age, whatever
age it is that they've uh decided that they want
to retire at, how does healthcare play into this? I mean,
obviously the older you get, probably the more healthcare you need,
(17:35):
probably the more prescriptions you have. I think I need
to take 9 pills a day just to stay alive
at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Right, I mean, and I think just kind of looking
at the cost of healthcare is definitely getting more expensive
in time, but that's also something that when I'm planning
with folks, and we put that into the plan and
account for inflation.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
For the folks that maybe are the the kind of
folks that look at that monthly statement and toss it
in a drawer and and don't pay that much.
Attention to it. What should they be doing? What should
they be occasionally looking at or talking to someone like
you
about?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
That is a great question. I actually just had a
few newer clients that are like, yeah, I have no
idea what's going on with it, you, you figure it out,
and they're kind of like, they, they like the set
it and forget it type of thing. Obviously I'm gonna
still bother them, but I think at least taking it.
And making sure that it's balanced to something that fits
(18:35):
your risk tolerance when it comes to like how much
equity versus income, but mainly when I kind of encourage
people to come and sit down with me, we're looking
at different investment options, because, you know, your 401k probably
has like a target date fund or they may have
some sort of lineup.
Ultimately, sometimes, sometimes, not all the time. Sometimes it's a
(18:58):
better choice for people to roll it into an IRA
and spread out across different investments. And so that's kind
of what I maybe sit down with people and go
over what their options are for their 401k and what
may affect it if they decide to roll it out
of an IRA, you know, because there are some things
that kind of go away once you roll that out,
but
(19:18):
At least encouraging them to, let's look at it together
and make sure it's at least to your comfort zone
with risk. And if you like where it is, that's great,
you can keep it there or roll it into your
new 401k if you don't want to put it in
an IRA, but
Having somebody look at it with you, at least make
sure that the portfolio is diversified and you're in the
(19:38):
right types of investments, so it can continue to grow,
because you don't want to put it all in money market.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
And this may be a silly question, but are there
any cycles in the course of of any given year?
I mean, is there a better time of year to
be considering this than than another time of year?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Normally, during any time of the year, it is a
good time because within IRAs, it doesn't really make a difference.
You don't have to consider tax implications, unless you're taking
a withdrawal, obviously, which normally you don't want to do
unless you really need the money, but normally it doesn't
really matter.
But I would say that honestly, now that the market
(20:17):
is kind of down a little bit this year, if
you're taking the portfolio, you know, 401k and putting it
into an IRA you're buying investments while they're lower.
So, they have more time to grow. So you're buying
a a dip, essentially, but any time to move, it's
not gonna have, you know, necessarily tax implications or anything
(20:39):
like that. So, I would say sit down with somebody
and make sure it's the right fit for you, but
it should be OK to do it anytime.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And that market is always going to go either up
or down, and the best advice from you when that
happens is to stop and take a breath and maybe
call an Edward Jones advisor and and talk about it,
but don't start making moves right away. Absolutely.
Lindsay Bello, we thank you so much for spending time
with us. I have to tell everybody that this segment
(21:07):
of Let's Move to New Hampshire has been sponsored by
the local Edward Jones office of Lindsay Bellow in Hampton,
New Hampshire. Lindsey, what's the best way to get in
touch with
you?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, you can reach me by email, which is Lindsay,
L I N D S E Y.
Bello, B as in boy, E L O at edward Jones.com,
or you can give the office a call, which is 603-926-0727.
Those are the best ways to reach me. You can
also try to find me on
Speaker 1 (21:35):
LinkedIn. Lindsay, thanks for spending time with us.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Thank
you so much. Have a great day.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Let's move to New Hampshire, I'm Mark Erickson.
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