The biggest single pot we draw from in retirement is personal savings. Despite what many people think. Social Security and income from our retirement plan is not enough. Do not let people make this mistake.

Throughout my career, five percent has been the unofficial magic number of interest rates. When rates go above 5%, many clients seem quite comfortable buying CDs rather than taking a risk in the stock market. Those clients would never fund a 25-year business plan with 25 one-year investments, and they shouldn’t do it in their own retirement plans.

Give your clients a clear vision of where you are taking them. A great vision story will shrink present day problems as the client works their way to the eventual pay off.

What small things can you do to make people remember you? Take downtime to make your business better. Create new relationships, rewrite your business plan, make yourself memorable.

All bear markets are the same.

When markets are in transition, you have to think like your clients do.

How should you prepare your practice for a market correction?

A down market is the best time to add to your account.
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Why down markets are not necessarily bad.

Ignore the daily headlines. If you look at a chart of the Dow over the last 50 years it goes straight up.
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Down markets and paper losses may cause some clients to lose a bit of faith. Here are four suggestions for reaffirming that they still trust you and your judgement.

Down in price does not mean down in value. That's simple to say, it's hard to understand for an investor. When an item of clothing is marked down, we don't assume that the item is damaged or of lesser value. We just assume it's on sale. When our investments get marked down, we feel the value has been diminished. The portfolio has been damaged.

Every time the market has gone down, it has come back. People need you to buy and sell at the right time.

This is a letter written to their clients by two brothers who are Financial Advisors in Canada. The letter explains in very simple terms how to invest successfully using the acronym for Salt and Pepper. It is a wonderful letter.

This is a great way to explain to clients that investing prudently buys them time and choice later on in life.

This is a story about the thirty stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average as of November 2019. Your clients are giving money to most or all of these companies every day. Don’t you think they ought to invest in these same companies?

Some argue that buy and hold is dead, but there is nothing more powerful than compounding and being long term.
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No matter the current volatility, the overall trend of the stock market is up. Focus on the destination, not the journey.
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A rising stock market inevitably gets overbought. Overbought markets get the headlines and clients late to the party feel compelled to rush in after the fact. We must curtail the actions of clients who insist on looking in the rear view mirror. We need to focus their attention on where the stock market is going, not where it's been. Take a tip from Wayne Gretzky.

"How do you approach a client who is holding onto an investment for sentimental reasons even though it is not in their best interest to do so?"
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It is called the stock market.
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You have to take risks to reach your goals.
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Steady moderate gains will get you where you want to go.
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Everything is different, nothing changes.
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Do not panic. Long-term, the market always goes up.
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Why should your prospects invest now and with you?
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