Times of hardship can make you stronger although going through them can be harrowing. Hardship is where I found myself in 2011 about two years after The Great Recession market bottom of March 2009. Our family financial situation did not look good: we had way too much debt, we owed back taxes, our savings were non-existent, our income was not great, and our spending was the opposite of focused.
Our situation was getting worse every month that passed and it had been like that for a while. My stress level kept increasing as the months went by. I noticed, however, that my financial advisory clients were progressing quite well on a number of fronts. I started asking myself why was it that their situations were constantly improving but mine was not? That's when, serendipitously, a business development program I was participating in, suggested that I hire an advisor.
At first, I thought it was some kind of joke. Why would I need an advisor? What could they possibly know that I didn't? How in the world could they help my wife and me get out of our financial mess? What would my wife make of my even suggesting that we consider going outside for help? Could I even afford an additional expense? But the financial pain and stress got to be too much and I had to do something as I was feeling quite desperate. I spoke to my wife, discussed our financial situation, and proposed that we hire an advisor. What did we have to lose? What we were currently doing certainly wasn't working.
So we hired an advisor that I had met at that same business development program.
We started by taking baby steps to address our finances. We then started to see small, incremental progress through time. Like the time and effort it takes to turn around an oil tanker, progress was slow but it was there. I learned many things in working with our advisor. The first realization was that I hadn't been taking the exact same advice I was giving to clients. I don't know why this is. Maybe it's a belief that since that I as an advisor know what it takes to fix a financial situation, that I can do that whenever I feel like it. But the truth is, I never got around to it. However, having an objective third party reconcile us to work together toward the same goals was a huge benefit which I wasn't expecting. Maybe the most important thing I learned was that no matter how hard I try, I cannot be objective about my own financial matters. I believe I can be left brain about it but I'm really just fooling myself.
One shining example of this came at the very beginning of coming out of our financial mess. We were addressing all kinds of debt: back taxes, credit cards, automobiles, HELOC, etc. And while prioritizing financial steps for us to take after our meeting, our advisor suggested that we allocate some money to our pensions. Not a huge amount but just some money.
At that point, I was entirely, one hundred percent, focused on putting out the raging debt fire but he wanted us to think about it. Professionally, I could understand where he was coming from: the market was still nowhere near its previous highs so we'd be buying at great prices. He wanted us to take advantage of the situation.
Given my assessment of our financial situation, it was difficult for me to process the thought of diverting money from debt reduction to investing. However, we heeded his advice and invested something in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars.
Extremely helpful too in growing our investments was actually participating in a financial strategy that I had created but I wasn't fully taking advantage of. I was only participating on a small scale. I don't know why. Perhaps it has to do with me thinking that I would get around to it at some point.
The name of the strategy I created is The Aqueduct Strategy. It has helped build wealth for me and my clients faster than I ever imagined possible. The Aqueduct Strategy is not a solution or substitute for having a comprehensive financial game plan. However, my experience is that it can help you grow wealth more quickly. The Aqueduct Strategy has a remarkable ten-year plus track record of doing exactly that. It is not for everyone… no strategy is, but you owe it to yourself to evaluate it.
I believe that availing yourself of professional assistance in the form of an advisor, a financial plan that you actually execute, and an investment strategy like The Aqueduct Strategy, can help you make great progress in your financial life.
I would be happy to discuss why having an advisor is one of the smartest financial decisions I've ever made and answer any questions you may have about The Aqueduct Strategy at your convenience.