Financial markets are unpredictable, but your strategy doesn’t have to be. In this post, Mike Brady discusses the importance of long-term fundamentals, managing emotions, and staying disciplined in your financial journey. Plus, we’re excited to share how Generosity Wealth Management is evolving with a refreshed mission, vision, and values—discover what it means for you!
Transcript
Hi there. I’m Mike Brady with Generosity Wealth Management, a comprehensive full-service financial services firm headquartered in Boulder but with an office in Fort Collins as well.
Today, I want to talk about a couple of things. The first one is about the fundamentals. You know, I repeat some of the same things over and over again. And I’m reminded of that Buddhist saying, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, it’s chop wood, carry water.” The same things. Your perspective might change, but the fundamentals remain the same.
I bring that up because I’m recording this on a Sunday when there are some tariff discussions between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and I have no idea how it will play out. That’s why it’s important for us to go back to what we believe, which is the importance of having a long-term time horizon, being disciplined with our emotions, being confident in our plan, and having a long-term time horizon.
You know, the one thing I’m going to guarantee going forward is that the market will go up and it will go down. But of course, we have investments because we believe that it will be two steps forward, maybe one step back. But we’re not going to have the two steps forward if we’re so worried about the one step back. That’s just the way it works. And as a matter of fact, we try to go four steps forward and one step back. Okay, so we’re really making great progress, given time with the ups and the downs.
Another guarantee is around volatility. Sometimes, there’s lots of volatility in the markets. That’s just a given. It has always happened and always will be going forward. And sometimes there’s very little. I remember in 2017, there was such a consensus amongst all the pundits that we will have lots of volatility. And frankly, 2017 was one of the least volatile years in the unmanaged stock market indexes. I will tell you, in the last couple of weeks, we haven’t had much volatility, frankly, you know, not like, 4 or 5% or so in the unmanaged stock market indexes. So let’s have a sense of humility as well.
It is normal for a year to see declines. And if that’s going to happen sometime this year, and odds are that it will, I don’t know if it’s going to happen next week. I don’t know if it will happen next month, six months, eight months from now. There usually are those steps backward. It’s going to happen. That’s why we don’t have invested in the markets, money that we need for our use or need to convert into cash for our uses. The duration, the time horizon, when you’re going to need the money is very, very important. So let’s keep that in mind. Let’s keep the fundamentals. Okay?
Before the election, before the inauguration, we chopped wood and carried water and we’re going to chop wood and carry water once again.
Second thing I’d like to talk about is I’m going to have a kind of a series over the next, I don’t know, number of videos over the next year or two. I’m just going to drop them in here and there, sharing with you the mission, vision, and values of the work that I’ve done with my firm.
My firm, of course, is your firm. You are vested in my success and the way that I deliver and interact with you. And one of my taglines is:
Where wealth aligns with purpose and possibility.
What that means is that wealth aligns with purpose. That’s the present with what we want it to do. We want to live our lives now, whether that’s give money away, whether that’s take a trip to Europe, put your kids through school, or make your monthly mortgage payments. Purpose is the purpose of your money, but also your retirement.
Or the possibility. What is possible in the future? A great retirement. What are your dreams? Your retirement, put your kids through school, perhaps pay for your children’s weddings in the future, the down payment on their house, pass on to the next generation. You get to make the dreams and the possibilities.
What I do is say this is where we are, this is where we want to go, and what’s the gap between the two? We’ve got the purpose; we got the possibility. Let’s get that wealth to align. And that’s what I wanted to talk about today.
In the newsletter, I will link this video to the full mission, vision, and values that my team and I worked on. My colleagues, my partner, and the rest of my team on the mission, vision, and values for Generosity Wealth Management. I’m very proud of it, and I want to share it with you in the coming months.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, give me a call or an email. Of course, keep your emotions in check. But if you can’t do that, give me a call because that’s what I’m here for: 303-747-6455. Thanks.