Chartered Financial Consultant


Commentaries

JULY 2019 COMMENTARY: Forty Years of Being an Investment Guy

I’m a numbers geek.  Numbers that end with a zero titillate me.  Recently I noticed the date July 9, 1979 on one of the many registrations I’m required to post prominently in my office.  That means I’ve been licensed to sell investments for forty years.

While my business has changed substantially over the last four decades, many things have stayed the same.  Here are some brief thoughts on what has and hasn’t changed.

  • I don’t wear a business suit anymore and haven’t for three decades. I switched to Levis or shorts when I moved into my H Street office in 1991.
  • I don’t work nearly as hard as I did early in my career. I’ve been calling myself semi-retired for fifteen years now, but have no plans to fully retire.
  • Basic money management principles remain: diversify, minimize consumer debt, invest for the long term, don’t panic and don’t get too greedy, know your risk/comfort temperament, save and invest regularly, and diversify.
  • SRI+ESG investing has flourished*. When I committed to social investing in the mid-1980s there were only half a dozen socially screened mutual funds.  According to USSIF there are now over a hundred of these kind of funds.  Many are quite pro-active and Fossil Fuel Free portfolios are now available.  The myth that Environmental/Social/Governance (ESG) focused funds will underperform has been challenged with numerous studies**.
  • The initial and internal cost of investing has decreased significantly. The types of investments and the different ways you can connect with them keeps expanding.
  • Technological changes have been awesome. When the S&P 500 Index dropped 22.6%. IN ONE DAY on October 19, 1987 I sat in my office on El Camino Avenue listening on the radio to folks freaking out.  I didn’t have a computer then.  How did I manage?
  • There are still risks when investing. When stock market indexes trends upward for over a decade, it is easy to become complacent.  There is also risk when NOT investing. The economic meltdown of 2007-2008 was disastrous, but those who stayed in fared better than those who did not.
  • There are always great reasons not to invest. Our current president provides these regularly, yet the stock market can thrive anyway.
  • Finally, there is one thing that has not changed at all: My appreciation for my clients who made the last forty years possible and usually delightful. Thank you.

 

 

*https://www.ussif.org/files/2018%20Infographic%20overview%20(1)(1).pdf

** https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2018/12/10/a-survey-of-the-academic-literature-on-esg-sri-performance

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Dreizler

Bob Dreizler