“The Elephant in the Room”

And who can blame us, being a product of the past decade. We have only been lied to, stolen from, lost our investments, seen our friends and family die in too many wars, been attacked on our own turf, tied a war & election, continue our swim in the economic what ever you want to call it, our quality of geo-environment is going down whilst our government debt up, mostly because of all the war – over and over again, need I go on…we (generation x can go on forever about this subject) Sticking to our historical data and “staying” the course our fathers and grandfathers is over. It’s now, FINALLY, getting to the importance of “Quality of Life.”We have been taught to make up our own minds, create a plan and a process for our lives, initiate the plan, monitor the plan, make changes as needed and strive for continuous improvement, so that’s what we have done, and it’s working.I’ve been seeing the signs for 7 years in intimate conversations about money, lots of money. With each diverse, unique niche’ – rich “sages” or “elderly” white male, women decision makers, minorities and younger generations making and saving for a more balanced life.I’ve done this nearly everyday of my life for 13 years. The Younger generations, minorities and women invest to a safer degree than those over the age of 63, in general. (This is not what forecasters of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s hoped for.)There is a much bigger problem looming, like a Pacific Ocean Liner on a foggy day at sea, where we head in our sailboat named “Life.”What few, if any, realize is this: A new generation has spoken, women have spoken, minorities have spoken, elderly white rich males are dying at a rapid pace and new generations are being born everyday. The polar ends of core belief are further apart than ever, the stands we take on issues we believe in (both sides of polarity) and neither side is willing, nor should we/they, budge and meet in the middle, because it is what each truly believes. It’s the strongest hold in my lifetime, on both ends of the spectrum, passionate.The issue will be the oddly enough, 1st EVER, risk / reward analysis of the majority vote affecting the future of our economy as we know it (younger, minority, woman…) WE (I’m a generations X’er – the generation most consider the quiet knife), on average, invest to a lesser degree of risk than the historical average investor (elderly, white, wealthy male decision maker, on average.)Women, Minorities and younger generations are making decisions more unique and less broad-based like the masses, oddly, this will create a titanic turn of portfolios being cost-effective and overly diversified, paying most attention to how their assets and liabilities are allocated. Priority – Life Goals, Investment Objectives, Tolerance for Risk & Time Horizon (expected death is getting much older, requiring more purchasing power during our retirement years. And, maybe more important is the fact this group is making more decisions in general effecting our lives.

What does this mean? Nothing. In the short-term 1-3 years it will not mean much, over the long haul, 7, 10, 20, 30 years (2050) is what most economist are calling it, but it will be more like 20/20, when another younger generation, this is HUGE, because each generation is different, conservative voters must at the least hope they can influence this group of elementary and Jr. High children to see life differently than I (I see life as quality) What it means, now more than ever, is pluralism or acceptance of others with a different, but not lesser, of a product of their own environment.

If navigated correctly, this could be a BEAUTIFUL ERA. The economic environment will stabilize and individuals will be much more diversified and the advice business will be more same-sided (fee-based vs. transactional) & decisions will be made from of a gathering of information about priority, organization and Simplification rather than FEAR & GREED. Less emotion, more certainty…Less debt, more acceptance and a better world – Quality of Life is the Goal. If not, we will see a massive pull out of investment markets and into cash, devaluing the almighty dollar and a core rebuilding of the economic system will take place…U-G-L-Y – all of this is because of trust, or lack there-of and a consistent tendency to take care of yourself and don’t depend on the government or markets for anything…Ask any professional under the age of 45 the allocation of their Assets and Liabilities and compare it to a 72-year-old. What you will see is a textbook gone wrong, why is the 72-year-old widow invested riskier than me, a 38-year-old male? Because I am more informed and my environment is different, as are my priorities. I like to have conversations with my professionals, not presentations telling me what to do, but leadership in expert fields Listening to me and Helping me make the best decisions for me and my family.

It’s a group (younger generations, minorities & women) of creative, smart, decision makers that will take the information they can get (A lot, compared to 1950, thanks Internet) compared to the historical decision makers. If it is NOT navigated with fineness we will see a massive pull out from in-efficient markets around the world and charts looking like the peaks and mountains of Tibet, not the, why are we getting used to, Rocky Mountain graphs. An efficient market frontier is a graph going from bottom left to upper right corner looking like an “S” turned a bit diagonal.

What we hope to create, as advisors, is an economic landscape of more informed investors making decisions based on priorities, life goals, investment objectives, Tolerance for Risk and Time Horizon. Allocating and Diversifying assets and liabilities in a prudent manner, best for themselves and what is most important to them.