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your end tends to be a great time to
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make quality decisions about not only
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your Investments but also your life and
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in today's video I'm going to share with
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you eight things that I think smart
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investors are doing as your end
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approaches and let's jump in with the
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first one and that is they're
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re-evaluating their risk tolerance as we
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get older the pain of loss the pain of a
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20% 30% 40% or more stock market Cline
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increases dramatically and we don't want
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to put ourselves in a situation where if
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the stock market goes down we blow out
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of our long-term asset allocation at
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exactly the wrong time and we lock in
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losses so in particular once you retire
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and you quit having new money come into
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your accounts and now we're actually
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spending the money that we saved the
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pain of loss increases dramatically and
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I'm not talking 10 or 20% more painful
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I'm talking it can be 10 times as
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painful as what it was when you still
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had new money in so I really urge you to
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look at your asset allocation and say if
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this portfolio if the stock market were
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to Fall by 30% 40% could I stay the
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course and that's really the question is
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your asset allocation which brings me to
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number two your end is a great time to
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look at your asset allocation and
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amazingly since the 2022 lows since
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October of 2022 so as I record this a
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little over two years ago the stock
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market the S&P 500 is up over
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60%
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60% that's a big big move in a short
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period of time now the good news is
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anything that um the good news is your
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portfolio is benefiting from that the
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bad news is anything that can go up by
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60% in 2 years can also go down by 60%
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in two years don't believe me it just
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happened in the great financial crisis
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and at the start of Co in just four
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weeks the stock market the S&P 500 was
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down 30% that will take your breath away
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so look at your asset allocation make
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sure that it matches your long-term
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goals make sure it matches your risk
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tolerance okay number three and really
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for many of us this is our second third
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or fourth largest expense is look at
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your
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taxes and if you're looking at your
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portfolio and thinking about rebalancing
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it let's say you've gotten because the
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stock market has done so well over the
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last two years maybe instead of being
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I'm just making something up 6040 maybe
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now your your portfolio is 7030 and
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maybe that feels too risky to you so
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look at your portfolio and say is this a
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change I should be making at the end of
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this tax year or is it something I could
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put off till January 2nd January 3rd of
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of next year there's no right or wrong
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answer the market could go through a big
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correction between now and your end that
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has happened
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sometimes and so there's no right answer
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but for sure in an account where there
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is no tax implication you don't have to
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worry about that so in a tax deferred
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account like a Roth IRA or a regular Ira
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or their equivalent
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401ks in that case there should be no
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tax implication for you to do the
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changes that you want to make in a
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taxable account I just encourage you to
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think through do you want to make this
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change at your end when the taxes are
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going to be due likely in April of the
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coming year or do you want to wait a
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couple days where for many of us the
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taxes won't be due until like 14 16
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months later so taxes matter definitely
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talk with an accountant I am not an
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accountant nothing I'm sharing in
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today's video is tax advice I don't know
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your situation but I do know that it
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makes sense for all of us to be be
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thinking about taxes and what we can do
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to legally minimize our taxes okay and
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speaking of taxes one thing um we can do
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this isn't going to lower your taxes
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it's going to actually increase the
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amount of tax you pay today and that's
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thinking about does a Roth conversion
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make sense for you converting a regular
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Ira into a Roth and the way to think
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about this again this isn't financial
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advice but one thing to think about is
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in general you want to pay taxes when
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your tax rate is the lowest so if you
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think your tax rate today is going to be
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lower than tomorrow a Roth conversion
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might make sense if you think your tax
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rate is going to be lower in the future
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it might make sense to not do a Roth
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conversion this is a simple question for
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an accountant to help you with and I
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encourage you to work reach out to a
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professional whether that's an
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accountant or a fiduciary financial
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adviser and think through does it make
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sense for me to do a Roth conversion
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before the end of the year
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same thing with charitable contributions
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for most of us we have a yearend
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deadline for our charitable
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contributions there is and and so for
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many people they're like well I'd like
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to make a charitable contribution I'd
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like to get that tax deduction in the
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current tax year but I don't know who I
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would donate that money to and I want to
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put on your radar screen there's a way
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to decouple those decisions the decision
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of I want to set aside money for charity
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and the decision of who I'm going to to
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send that check to and the way you do
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this it's very simple account it's
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called the donor advise fund for sure
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Schwab and Fidelity offer these I
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believe Vanguard does as well and the
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nice thing is you can make your
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contribution today it counts as a
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contribution in the tax year that you
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make the contribution but you can
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postpone you know is this going to go to
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your church is this going to go to a
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favorite not for profit you can postpone
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that decision for the future so put it
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on your radar screen donor advise fund
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super simple it can't if you go with the
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big custodians like Schwab Fidelity
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Vanguard it tends to be an inexpensive
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account and it tends to be simple so
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definitely something on your radar
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screen another thing just as your end
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approaches one of the nice things is
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life has a way of slowing down a little
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bit for the next 3 to four weeks not a
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lot but enough and and often times that
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last week between um major Christmas
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holiday and the first of the year things
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slow down quite a bit and it gives you
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time to think and to to kind of do some
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things that have been on your to-do list
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and maybe a couple things that were on
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your to-do list I'm going to mention a
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couple of these the first one's probably
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not on your to-do list but definitely I
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want to put it on your radar screen
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and that is to look at your
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beneficiaries of your 401ks in your IRAs
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because those pass by contract by
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beneficiary designation so even if you
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have a will I should say I'm not an
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attorney this isn't legal advice again I
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don't know your situation but even if
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your will says hey leave everything to
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my kids if your beneficiary
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designation says I want to leave this
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Ira to my ex-wife my ex-spouse U my
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ex-husband U my ex-girlfriend whoever it
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is my ex-boyfriend then you've got a
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problem you you know you can there's
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probably a way to to come up with a
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compromise but it's going to be costly
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it's going to be a headache so much
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easier to look at your beneficiaries
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every year I advise doing this and just
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make sure that those accounts say that
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they're passing to the people you want
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them to pass to okay the next thing is
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Insurance just make sure you have the
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right amount of insurance both life
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insurance disability insurance an
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umbrella policy um your auto insurance
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whatever the major insurance is it can
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be a good time to look at that and say
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do I have the right policies in place
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and as we get older as our assets
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increase having an umbrella policy
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having other protection in place to
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protect that nest egg right the nice
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thing is we only have to become
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financially independent once in our
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lives and then our Focus becomes on
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don't mess up that Nest Egg so this is a
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good time to look at that Nest Egg to
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look at what your insurance coverage is
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and to ask yourself do I have the right
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coverage I'm not an insurance
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salesperson I just want to put it on
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your radar screen so you can talk to the
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right person okay um the next one is the
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value of a second opinion and what I
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mean by that is all these things I'm
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listing and all the things that are on
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your list that you feel are important to
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your financial future I think it's
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helpful to have a second opinion I think
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it's helpful to have a guide to have a
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mentor walking alongside you and it's a
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big step to bring in a a fiduciary
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financial advisor for the journey but at
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a minimum I want to encourage you to
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reach out to a fiduciary financial
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advisor and say hey can you look at the
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thing
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that I'm planning on just to make sure
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that I'm thinking about the right things
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boy if there's something you're missing
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which is not unusual having been a
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financial adviser myself for over 20
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years I'd say in well over half of the
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cases where I talk to people there was
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something they weren't thinking about
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that's important so the value of a
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second opinion is another thing I want
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to put on your radar screen and then I
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want to share with you two bonuses
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things that I think are really important
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uh to do this time of year and the first
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the first bonus
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is your cyber
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security I'm going to challenge you how
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many of your passwords are the same how
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many times have you said uh I really
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have to do something about this they
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have thirdparty password password
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managers as the year slows down I really
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encourage you to make this last month of
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the year the month that you finally do
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something and sign up for a password
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manager to protect your accounts and to
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look at your cyber security and look at
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you know are are you at risk anywhere
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with your passwords are you at risk with
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anything you're doing online because boy
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that's not how we want to start the the
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New Year okay the next the next one is
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thinking through what your financial
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goals are for for the coming year what
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are the important financial goals how
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much money do you want to save how much
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money do you want to spend if you're
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getting closer to retirement actually
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starting to to flex that spending muscle
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it's it's we're not going to be able to
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switch switch uh flick the switch and go
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from being a Savor to a spender so maybe
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are there some things you want to
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splurge on yourself this year if you're
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younger what's your savings goal how
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much do you want to save and what are
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some other financial goals get them
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listed down and start checking them off
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at your end and as the as the new year
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begins and then the last one I want to
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share with you is just the life goal and
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that is these financial goals are
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important but it's also important that
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you know what are we saving this money
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for what are we making these sacrifices
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for and I want you to come I want you to
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think about coming up with what I call
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Life buckets I got the term for Bill
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Perkins who wrote the book die with zero
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and he talks about getting the maximum
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utility the the maximum bang for the
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dollar of our money and there's there's
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things we can do in our 50s that are a
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lot easier to do in our 50s for instance
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I learned to surf in my 50s there are
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things we can do in our 60s that are
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easier to do than our 70s Etc so I
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encourage you it's a fun thing to do I I
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try to visit with my friends and my
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family about it once a year actually
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about this time of year and say these
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are the things on my life bucket for the
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next 12 18 24 months I want you to know
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about them cuz I want want you to
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encourage me to do these things and a
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big life bucket item is when do we
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retire and that's why I made this video
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up here why waiting the 65 to retire
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might be a big mistake I'll see you in
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it bye
