Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

by Hugh Massie

What does “Check yourself before you wreck yourself” really mean? Put simply, consider the consequences of your actions as an investor before you end up in trouble.

This pandemic is creating unprecedented disruption. Many of us are working from home. Many are feeling out of our comfort zones.

The temptation is to get online to read all the news. We read that panic is gripping the markets and suddenly we’re not watching the virus news, we’re watching our investments fall and rapidly rethinking our life plans and goals.

Your Financial Advisor Checks In

You receive a call from your well-meaning financial advisor assuring you that this virus will pass and to stay calm and leave your plans (made in more stable times, I should add) intact.

Now concern starts to rise. Your financial advisor isn’t a doctor; he doesn’t know when this virus will burn itself out. He doesn’t have a timeline on when markets will recover.

Here comes the creeping: This is where you stop yourself before you wreck yourself.

Become Behaviorally Smart

Time to meet this challenge with confidence, despite the unknown. With just an investment of 10 minutes, you can have validated insights into your financial behavior. Behavioral insights measuring virtually every communication, investing, decision-making and spending habit you inherently have.

Armed with this insight you are significantly better-placed to ward off irrational feelings and worse, foolish decisions in time of market crisis.

Your advisors mean well; they are as much a part of this uncertainty as you are. Of course, they will and should reach out to reassure you and provide you with peace of mind. But as you sit at your computer, think – you can easily manage your own reaction if you know yourself at a deeper level.

How else can you know how to respond to any suggestions or inclination of a strategy change? Maybe you should wait and benefit from a downturn. Maybe you should stick to your life goals.

Unless you know what drives your decision making you are floundering around in the dark in terms of, What’s next?

And for Advisors…

A word to any advisors reading this: You will be personally and professionally facing the same behavioral issues as your clients. You too need to know how best to tailor your advice to the individual behavioral and decision-making styles of your clients. Observations and risk profiles do not get below the surface to what drives decision-making behavior.

The risk for you is twofold. At best clients make irrational decisions for you to follow. At worst they find a new advisor.

The immediate value to you of applying Financial DNA behavioral insight to your business is what it delivers not just to you on a personal level, but also to the counsel you provide clients:

1. Risk behavior – risk-taking and tolerance.
2. Financial relationship management – communication style.
3. Financial planning management – spending and saving patterns.
4. Wealth building motivation – goal-setting propensity.
5. Financial emotional intelligence – emotional reactions.
6. Your Behavioral Biases – biases in making decisions.

Call to Action

My whole team is on standby to help you get to know your financial personality. Whether you are an investor or a financial advisor, take advantage of this opportunity to speak to one of my behavioral staff. Sign up for a no-cost 15-minute consultation now.