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May 15, 2024 15 mins

You've been told to diversify your portfolio but how can you tell if you're diversified enough? Does conventional thinking like the Rule of 100 or using ETFs work in 2024? What about Target Date Funds?

 

In this episode, we reveal what conventional thinking is missing. The stat we share about Target Date Funds is one of the most surprising. Be sure you don't miss it.

 

We live in a globalized world where you (and your assets) are more connected than ever. Isn't it time to learn the historical wisdom about non-correlated assets?

 

In the Great Recession, you saw just how related supposedly "non-correlated" assets were. Isn't it time to add more diversification to your portfolio? Watch now to discover what that could look like for you.

 

And never forget: Different is good!

 

00:00 Kevin's Journey: A Lesson in Diversity

02:18 Diving Deep into Diversification

03:37 Personal Stories and Financial Insights

07:25 Rethinking Diversification in Finance

11:35 Creative Financial Strategies and Future Foundations

 

Links mentioned in the episode:

 

Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/9OGb0E-T3dg 

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Meet Kevin. Raised in a closed off
community where diversity was scarce,
Kevin's worldview was limited from the
start. Growing up surrounded by people
who looked and thought alike, he never
questioned the homogeneity of his
community and his environment. When it
came time to choose a college, Kevin
opted for familiarity over diversity,

(00:23):
selecting an institution much like his
hometown. Surrounded by those who
mirrored his own background, Kevin
remained sheltered from the richness of
varied perspectives. In his financial
journey, Kevin followed conventional
advice without question. Advised to
concentrate his portfolio in familiar
investments, he never considered the

(00:44):
risks of a lack of diversity in his
portfolio. As economic turmoil
struck, Kevin's lack of
diversification left him vulnerable.
His investments, all tied to the same
asset class, suffered simultaneous
losses, plunging Kevin into
financial distress. Faced with the
consequences of his narrow perspective,

(01:05):
Kevin realized the importance of
embracing diversity in all areas of
life, including finance. His story
serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting
the pitfalls of remaining closed off to
new ideas and experiences in a world
that thrives on diversity.
In a world where chaos seems to reign

(01:27):
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner. And financial
markets are now more unpredictable than
ever. There's one place you can turn to
to find clarity and control.
Welcome to the Wealth Wisdom Financial
Podcast. Hey, I'm Brandon. And I'm
Amanda. Join us as we dive deep in the

(01:47):
world of personal and business finance
to assist you in navigating through the
chaos and building the financial future
you deserve. We believe when conventional
financial thinking doesn't get you where
you want to go, you need wealth. Wisdom.
So if you're ready to take control of
your financial destiny, TuneIn to the
Wealth Wisdom Financial podcast. Because

(02:10):
in a chaotic world, your money shouldn't
be Subscribe now and never miss an
episode.
We're here at Print Foundation 6. We're
going to be sharing 12 foundations. So
this is the halfway point.
Congratulations, you met us here. If you
missed out on one through 5,
you might want to go back and watch

(02:30):
those. Not totally required for number
six, but you you might really like them,
but number six is super important. This
is where we're going to start getting a
little more like you've heard these
principles before, but how are you
actually applying them? So
diversification is a broad financial
topic. Lots of people talk about it. You

(02:50):
might have heard of things like the Rule
of 100 orsomething like that. We're
going to bust open this idea of
diversification and hopefully give you a
new idea of what it could mean for you
and how you might implement it in your
life. Now we're not just
talking about like you know the
quality thing or you know, I don't

(03:11):
know a lot of this diversification is
more on that kind of side. But we're
talking about diversification of
money. And you might remember when we
ended the last episode, we were thinking
about inconceivable that
word and that
diversification. You might not think that
word means what you think it is. Is that

(03:33):
how it says in Princess Bride?
Inconceivable, yeah. But part of
why I put it in Kevin's story. A lot of
the stories I've been sharing so far are
like people that we can admire and
follow. Kevin might be the opposite.
In fact, Kevin's story is the opposite of
my own story. I did grow up in a
homogeneous community, growing up more,

(03:54):
more or less homogeneous. But I
intentionally sought out diversity in
terms of thoughts, ideas, cultural
backgrounds. When I went to college. And,
you know, I went from a small town. Zip
code had like 500 people in it. To the
big city of Chicago, and I was, I feel
like, enriched by that experience. I
learned a lot more because of the
diversity there and the different
cultures actually loved. Some of my

(04:16):
favorite classes were about other
cultures, cultural psychology,
cultural music, like all those things.
And I'm really glad that I did that. And
now that I've stepped into the financial
world, which I never thought I would be
here, I learned that diversity and
diversification meant something different
to people. But I've also brought that

(04:37):
perspective, that cultural
perspective, that studying the social
sciences perspective into, OK, this is
what people are talking about when they
talk about diversification. And I feel
like that's given me a different
perspective and I think different is good
and what diversification means
financially. So what is that
for in the CFP world, What is

(05:00):
diversification mean? We'll kind of get
there, but.
We but OK, so we are told to like
diversify our assets, you know don't be
on the same things, you know pay off your
debt, maximize your retirement account
and make sure your retirement accounts
diversified that rule of 100, youtake

(05:21):
your age that's how much you should have
in safe investments and then the you know
percentage wise. So if you're 40 or 40%
in safe investments and 60% at risk but
if you're 60 you have 60% and safe
investments 40% at risk that kind of
diversification. But we're all
told the same things, right? You have
your dad, Max, you're retiring my

(05:41):
account, Don't buy that latte. Start a
savings account for your kids and so on
and so forth. Yeah,
that's college savings account. But a
lot of the time we find that a lot of
these different assets, these different
financial tools are all invested in the
same things. Actually did this exercise
with someone and found that she had the

(06:03):
same fund, the
same ETF fund in a whole
bunch of different of her investments.
And we totaled up the. Percentage of that
fund across her portfolio, it was
way too high that she felt comfortable
with and we had to talk about, OK, how do
we diversify a little bit more and
not have so much in this one thing. But I

(06:25):
also come to you know we have these booms
and bust cycles right up and down. We
want to blame the Fed. We want to blame
Congress like whoever. But I also wonder
how many hard times like these
recessions, this market volatility, how
they impact all of us at once.
Right. Like we live through something
likethe. com crash or the Great

(06:47):
Recession. Lots of people are impacted
by that, not just the few that have a
whole bunch in one asset class or that
kind of thing. Like, think about that for
a minute. If we were well diversified,
then some shock to our system like a
housing market crisis wouldn't impact the
stock market and vice versa, right? We
wouldn't have so many layoffs in all

(07:09):
kinds of different sectors of the
business in 2008 or businesses, right?
Would have saw layoffs in maybe one or
two of them, but our
system is so interconnected that to be
careful there and diversification means
so much more than we thought it did.
Now remember in foundation
one where I talked about how employers

(07:30):
automatically can enroll their employees
in 401 Kaccounts and you actually
have to aggressively opt out if you don't
want that. Well also employers can
choose what investments you have in the
four O 1K. And most of the time they
choose these target date funds, and
those target date funds, you know, say
does your retirement date, they're

(07:51):
supposed to diversify your investments
and make it more conservative as you get
there and things like that. But if you go
back to 2008, some of those target date
funds were people that were supposed to
retire actually lost more money
than retirement date funds or target date
funds for people that were further away
from retirement. And just like that. That
blows my mind, but it speaks to the lack

(08:13):
of diversification. And the lack of that,
the starting date funds actually do what
they say they're going to do. I have a
lot of skepticism there.
Also, if we aren't keeping track, I had a
friend of mine that couldn't find her
money. It's a small account and I don't
know if you know this, but she.
They said, Oh well, there's nothing

(08:34):
there. Well, somehow the
company put it into somebody else's
account. She had no idea because of a
Social Security mishap.
And she's like, where's my money?
It's not that much, but where is it? And
if I I think she had like, again, not
very much there, but enough for her.

(08:56):
And if you were not paying attention,
that is crazy. And maybe that's
part of the chaos, right? Slips through
our fingers. So this week we
want to invite you to think a little
differently. You likely are continuing to
listen to these foundations, picking up
things like 5 smooth stones. Because you
want to try out new ideas, You're ready

(09:17):
to try different actions if you want a
different financial future. And then what
you've seen other people have, you want
that time tested wisdom rather than the
latest unproven innovations.
So what does it look like to think
differently? Well, you have to be
different. You have to do different
things and like it's thoughts and actions

(09:37):
both. And now you're going to open
up your creativity, you're going to spark
your imagination and as you work with a
financial professional. To
further develop and implement those
different things, be sure to find someone
who's actually going to listen and not
just go with the cookie cutter or not.
Just go with what's going to make them
the most money. Too many professionals

(09:59):
are stuck in what's become conventional
that they aren't able to see other
possibilities. Upton Sinclair
said it best, Upton Clare wrote. Upton
Sinclair wrote. It is difficult to get a
man to understand something when his
salary depends on his not understanding
it. So if you want to change what
diversification means to you, if you're

(10:19):
like, yeah, I don't want the same thing
that everybody else is going to have. I
need to diversify in a different way. Be
careful what financial professional you
work with, because their salary might
depend on you sticking with the
convention, what everybody else is doing.
And along those lines, I'm going to
invite you to talk with us. Maybe we're a
financial professional that can help you
think differently, act differently,

(10:39):
embrace diversification a different way.
We've got an special invitation for you
along those lines.
Ready to take the next step towards
securing your financial future? Whether
you're planning for retirement, saving

(11:00):
for your dream home, or you just want to
make your money work harder for you, the
team at Wealth Wisdom Financial are ready
to assist you. And now it's easier than
ever to see how we might give you a boost
on your financial journey. Schedule a 15
minute discovery call with one of us
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't

(11:20):
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
awaits. Schedule Your discovery call at
www. wealthwisdomfp
. com/call.
So now we're going to Draw
Something out here, but but as we're
thinking, I want us to go back to some of

(11:42):
these financial gurus out there. And what
I've learned is in the financial world,
there's a lot of people who are making
lots of money helping us believe
this way is good, this way is bad
or vice versa. And usually it's a both
end, both are are good in their own
place, right. But we want to think

(12:03):
about and I do a lot within the
life insurance space building solid
assets there that are. Non
correlated to the. Stock
assets, which are both good too. I'm not
saying that's not a bad thing, but if all
your eggs are in one basket
here in that basket falls off a

(12:24):
Cliff, well then we have a problem,
right? So we're told don't put all your
eggs in one basket. So we add a basket.
I'm going to add a basket. Talk
about.
The basket. So we have the baskets. One
of them has all of their eggs in one.
And let's name that eggs. What are those

(12:46):
eggs in there?We
have, we have like there could there
could be like now we we're putting our
eggs in different baskets. Maybe we've
got 10 different stocks versus just one
or ten different ETFs versus 1 or maybe
we're doing a little bit of S&P 500, a
little bit of Dow Jones, a little bit of
international, right. Like we're mixing
it up maybe buy some bonds too, but in

(13:08):
our interconnected, you know
globalized world.
They're these are also eggs. They're all
still baskets. It's almost as if they're
one big basket. All these baskets know
that the the perfect analogy is all these
baskets are on the same truck. They're on
the same truck. And
that is our financial system, right?

(13:31):
Let's name that truck. That truck lets me
keep drawing here.
That's supposed to be a truck. There's
one. There's a guy driving.
It's it's called.
So and yes, dude, probably drive in
the global economy truck here,

(13:51):
everybody's baskets are in the global
economy, right. Well, maybe there's
actually an alternative system that
is a little bit different than stocks,
bonds, banking, those kind of things.
We're going to dig into that in future
weeks here in our foundational principles
today. We just want to kind of open your
mind on what truly is
diversification. Yeah, I remember

(14:14):
talking to somebody in about was it
the 2008 thing and they said I'm
diversified. I have a bunch of different
real estate, different different
properties, but I realized I wasn't
truly diversified because it was all in
real estate, whether it's real estate,
stocks or other things, it
might not be diversified even though we

(14:35):
think it is. So you double all your
eggs in one basket, but also don't put
all your baskets on the same truck and
we're going to talk about how to create
different trucks. In the Foundations to
Come, so be sure you hit that subscribe
button. If you don't want to wait, you
can go ahead and get a copy of Five
Smooth Stones. You can order a physical
copy or you can buy the Kindle version.

(14:57):
Both are available at Wealth Wisdom fp
. com/shop. We are
halfway through. There's 12 principles
that we talked about here. We just
finished week. We just finished
Principle 6, Foundation Six. We
look forward to sharing the other six
with you. They're just going to get
deeper. And more exciting

(15:17):
and more unconventional from here,
so hit the subscribe button. Make sure
you don't miss an episode and also if you
don't want to wait for the episode, get
your copy right now. In the
meantime, we hope that you live long and
profit. The topics
present in this podcast for general
information only and not for the purpose
of providing legal accounting or Easter

(15:38):
egg advice or investment advice or
investment advice. For
such matters, please consult a
professional who knows your specific
situation. And not the Easter Bunny.
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