Managing Wealth Takes Patience

Many people are impatient. Just listen to all the honking in heavy traffic or observe the fidgety customers stuck in store lines. Why is that? Why do people always seem to be in a rush these days? Part of it might be that we’re all really busy, trying to cram a million tasks into the far-too-short day. You want to tick off a task on your mental (or digital) checklist and then move to the next one.

So, what does patience have to do with your finances and planning and how you invest? It could mean just about everything. Think of these three common examples:

1. Patience with the market

With a number of macroeconomic and geopolitical issues plaguing the markets throughout 2022, many investors endured a rough ride. In fact, it was the worst overall year that Wall Street experienced since the global financial crisis of 2008. The S&P 500 Index lost almost 20% in 2022.¹ With conditions appearing bleak and uncertainty persisting, it’s not surprising that investors tended to be cautious heading into 2023, perhaps even moving to the sidelines to avoid further losses.

However, if an investor made rash decisions late in December 2022 to keep their assets in the “safety” of cash, they would’ve missed out on the following year’s rally, when stocks rebounded, and the S&P 500 rose by more than 24%.

The market’s tumble in 2022 created anxiety and worry for many investors—and this is just one example of many that you could highlight from the past few decades where investors panicked based on short-term market volatility. That’s why they may have acted emotionally and sold their stocks. However, it’s generally a good idea not to succumb to emotions (particularly greed and fear) when investing. You can lean on your Corient Wealth Advisor during those challenging times to understand why being patient can pay off over the long term.

And ask questions as well. There are no bad questions in a volatile market. It’s our job to talk through the noise and help you understand the path ahead. t’s simply human nature to lose your patience when you’re stressed.

2. Patience with diversified investing

We believe one of the basic tenets of investing is to keep your portfolio well-diversified. Having adequate diversification is a strategy for helping to manage overall risk in a portfolio while also enhancing return potential. It’s common to split your investments across stocks and bonds to achieve greater diversification, but most investors would be better served to take it further. For example, you could diversify your stock holdings by geography, sector and industry, giving your portfolio valuable exposure to a range of companies and business segments that will perform differently under different market conditions.

Try keeping enough patience so that your diversification strategy is given ample time to function as intended. There’s no magic answer on when this strategy might begin performing as hoped. But over time, diversified holdings have tended to bring value to our client portfolios, as some companies will outperform when others are struggling, and vice versa. It’s similar to a musical quartet where the violinist and cellist might be having an off night, but the viola and second violinist pick up the slack. The strength of the quartet will come through in the overall quality of the music, and it’s reasonable to expect that your diversified portfolio will likely deliver over the long run, provided you remain patient and committed to your long-term investing strategy.

3. Patience with your planning

General George Patton is famous for saying something along the lines of, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.”² Well, we’re certainly not planning the Allied invasion of Europe with our clients, but we are helping them plan for some important life events.

Work with your team at Corient Private Wealth to understand the framework and details of your personalized plan. Don’t worry about trying to make it perfect. Life will change course many times, whether we like it or not. So, your planning should be dynamic, and your team can—and will—adjust the plan to fit your evolving life circumstances.

For us, the real danger is not having a plan at all. We don’t believe it needs to be the absolute perfect plan, but there ought to be a plan in place to guide you and be adaptable when required.

Avoid being impatient like many people are. Understand the moment you’re in, experience it fully and don’t allow the uncertainty of the future to create undue anxiety. It’s easy for someone to say but so much harder to do. However, it’s worth the effort, so try to pack your patience more often.

Different types of investments involve degrees of risk, including loss of principal. The future performance of any investment or wealth management strategy, including those recommended by us, may not be profitable or suitable or prove successful. Past performance is not indicative of future results. One cannot invest directly in an index or benchmark, and those do not reflect the deduction of various fees that would diminish results. Any index or benchmark performance figures are for comparison purposes only, and client account holdings will not directly correspond to any such data.

¹ https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/29/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
² https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00016315;jsessionid=3D8B7AEEA9A3416050F762B7038E1876

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