One of my clients once said to me, “I can spend my time losing money in the stock market, and I can spend my time making the money back in the stock market. But once I spend my time, I can never get it back.”
Over the years the below seem to be the most valuable items in their life are:
– spending your time with those you love
– learning to appreciate what you have
– being grateful
– finding peace
– being involved in your community
– taking time to pray and worship, and
– being that incredible parent, grandparent, or friend
If you don’t have your priorities straight at this stage in life, you better get going because you may not have time on your side. Many of my clients come to realize their most precious asset is their time. They could probably manage their money just as well as I can. But they don’t want to do it. They want to live, and so they learn to outsource the mundane details like money management. I am not suggesting you close your eyes, hand over all your money, and forget about it. You still need to be prudent, meet regularly with your advisor, and ask a lot of questions. But chances are that if you are like most of my clients, you haven’t envisioned your retirement years as sitting in front of a computer and placing stock trades all day long.
People have a lot of different reasons for hiring a money management firm or financial advisor. Sometimes it’s because they don’t want to become subject matter experts. Sometimes they already are experts, but they want to create the relationship to make sure that if anything happens to them, a trusted backup person is in place. Sometimes, they choose a financial advisor just to simplify their lives. When it’s time to retire, some people are ready to put their feet up and relax.
