#234 – 5 Keys To Be a Successful Investor and Listener Q&A

Wes Moss [00:00:48]:
We want to start with kind of these five what I think are really important keys to investment success.

Krista Dibias [00:00:54]:
Yeah, let’s, let’s dive in.

Wes Moss [00:00:56]:
So the first of all, the world has gotten more complicated. And there is. We’ve got a plan for really long periods of time. 10, 20, maybe 30 years. Ideally 30 years. And in order to simplify how we think about there’s a long journey we’ve got, we’ve got to go on. You’ve got to have some pillars or some cornerstones to stick to. So here, here are my five that I’ve seen work for many decades now.

Wes Moss [00:01:20]:
And I think they’re a really good starting place fundamentally to, to remember. So the, the first one, these are keys to being a successful investor and keys to having a successful retirement and being able to do the things you would like to do for as many years as you would like to do. So financial freedom and retirement. And really, again, I beyond the financial part of this, and we’ll talk about this in other episodes. I am a huge believer in having a also a happy retirement. And that’s a whole nother layer that we’ll talk about after we get to investing. So here are the five things that we’ll talk just a little bit about each one. The first one I call stocks mostly.

Wes Moss [00:01:57]:
The second one is that we’ve got to as a, as an investor, we have to have massive diversification is something again, we’re able to do today better than we’ve ever been able to do. Number three is patience and longevity. And we’ve got to be able to be in the game of investing for a really, really long period of time. Number four on the list is investing is both easier and harder today than it’s ever been. And we need to figure out a way to be able to avoid or ignore the headline to some extent and then really the last one is all about planning. What kind of plan do you have? Because if you have no plan, you’re going to be in trouble no matter what. Investing is already hard enough. So we want to have some level of plan.

Wes Moss [00:02:40]:
Let’s start with stocks mostly. When I say stocks mostly, we know that over time the, the best elixir to fight against inflation is owning equities, right? Not only have stock prices, if we’re looking at the S&P 500 grown at on average, depending on the time period you look at, let’s call it 10% on average over time, the last 10 years has been even higher than that. Well, let’s say 10%. That is way above inflation. And that is what we’re trying to do here is being able to make our money and our purchasing power last. So remember, mathematically if we make 10% a year, that means our money doubles every call it seven to seven and a half years. So that’s, that in itself is powerful. However, not Everybody can have 100% in stocks just because of the volatility of it.

Wes Moss [00:03:29]:
Particularly as your balances get higher and higher and you get closer to retirement, a 5 or 10% move in stock values can be jarring for folks. So when I say stocks mostly, even though I think that’s our best, one of our best long term inflation fighters is they would have some level of what I call dry powder, which is just safety assets. This can be bonds, it can be Treasuries, it can be money markets pay a fair amount right now, 4 to 5%. So we know that if we have some dry powder, it allows us psychologically to deal with the ups and downs of stock. So the dry powder part of this is that ideally, and you don’t have to do this right away, but as you get closer to retirement, if you look at your overall allocation, you may want to have something like three years worth of dry powder when it comes to spending. So if you’re spending 50 a year, 50,000 a year times three is 150. So of the portfolio, I think it makes sense to have about three years worth of dry powder. So on a million dollars, that’d be 15.

Wes Moss [00:04:33]:
At $500,000, three years of spending would be closer to 30%. So that’s stocks mostly. The second piece here is massive diversification. The good news here is that in any given ETF, we look some of the broad market ETFs. The, the S P 500 as an example has 500 companies. The total, many total stock market indexes have 3 or 4,000 stocks in them. So we can get diversification in a really big way better than ever today. The third piece here, again, these are all almost equally important.

Wes Moss [00:05:08]:
You almost have to have all five of them for the whole journey to really work is patience and longevity. And if we think about, we’re constantly, you cannot avoid hearing about the price of gold or the price of bitcoin or the price of the best stock that’s performing or what has done really well this month. So we’re always getting pulled to do something else because there’s almost always, in fact, I would say there are, there’s always some investment that’s doing better than the investments you have. And that pulls us as investors, just humans, we’re humans, we want to, we want to do the best we can. So we’re often pulled into something that is already done well and, and we abandon what, what is can be a tried and true strategy. And we all turn into a guy we, we all know. His name is FOMO Freddy. He’s the guy at the cocktail party that always has done better with his investments than you.

Wes Moss [00:06:09]:
Your 401k. It’s been a great year. It’s up 20%. Well, FOMO Freddy’s been in Bitcoin all year and he’s up 100%. So there’s always something better. And we, not only do we not want to be FOMO Freddie, we want to avoid FOMO Freddie at the cocktail party because he’s going to always make us feel like we’re missing it.

Krista Dibias [00:06:25]:
Yeah, plus he sounds annoying.

Wes Moss [00:06:26]:
He’s the worst. Get cornered by FOMO Freddy. The next piece of this, and this to some extent contributes to FOMO Freddy, is that investing is both easier and harder than it’s ever been. It’s easier because there’s low cost products and there’s thousands of them to choose from. So that makes things easier than the 1980s. And there’s all of this information that’s out there that also makes things somewhat easier, but it also makes it harder because you’re pulled in all these different directions. And then the headlines of the world about what is about to go wrong or what is currently going wrong, that permeates everything. So it makes it really hard for stock investors because you can always make a case that, hey, the world’s about to fall apart.

Wes Moss [00:07:07]:
That means the stock market’s going to go down, the economy is going to go into recession, there’s a jobs number, inflation number, what the Fed’s doing. So it’s not that it’s not okay to understand what’s happening in the world, but we can’t let the headlines constantly knock us off course. We have to figure out a way mentally to somewhat ignore the headlines. And then the last piece of this, again, equally as important over the last four that I shared, is to start with some sort of plan. The world is uncertain, but when we do planning, we can bring some certainty into our lives because we can control how much we’re saving every year, how much we’re spending every year, how much we think we might want to spend in retirement. When are we going to start our income streams? We could start Social Security at 62, but if we do some planning, maybe it makes more sense to wait for a higher security amount, our Social Security number amount per month, and wait till we’re 67 or maybe even age 70. But there are enough variables for us to control and I think there’s really five core. You can add a couple extra to the, to the list of planning.

Wes Moss [00:08:16]:
So you’re talking about five to 10 variables. That’s still a lot to keep just mentally in line in your head, particularly when it’s got to be over a timeline, a 20, 30 year period. So whether you write down a financial plan, I’m a big believer of writing down a one page plan, drawn out a timeline, seeing when our different income streams are going to start, depending on our age. So whether it’s we draw it out or we do this through financial planning software, again readily available, if we are able to, to put something in place and it doesn’t have to be overly complex, it really helps us, guides us on that journey. It helps us with avoiding fomo, Freddy. It helps us with patience and longevity and investing and it brings all these pieces together and I think it gives you a really good shot at achieving your goals of financial freedom in retirement and most importantly, give you more peace of mind so that you end up with a happy retirement.

Krista Dibias [00:09:15]:
I love it. I love it. All right, we’re going to give you a couple of questions now. Wes, you ready? For those from the audience, 100%. All right, this one comes in from Kathy in Oregon. Kathy says, I wonder, never been to.

Wes Moss [00:09:26]:
Oregon, first of all. So Kathy, I’m just going to tell you that right now.

Krista Dibias [00:09:29]:
Beautiful. Okay. Kathy says, I Wonder if a 1.41% management fee with Fidelity is a fair amount to charge for my $400,000 403B rollover for 1%. Correct.

Wes Moss [00:09:42]:
Got it.

Krista Dibias [00:09:43]:
I retired in 2019 and live on my pension and other income. I have no debt and plan to draw RMD at 73. For the last two years, all my money was in CDs, but I think it may be time to get help. My Fidelity rep contacts me once a year to review my account and what I feel is a sales pitch for their services. I’m not knowledgeable about investing and would rather not deal with it. What is your opinion on the fee or do you have other suggestions?

Wes Moss [00:10:08]:
Okay, so a couple of things here. If you’re paying a fee, then you, you should be getting comprehensive advice. So if you’re going to be paying a. In. In let’s call it, in the industry, a fee of anything more than 1% is a little. Is high. Kathy’s paying almost 1 1/2%.

Krista Dibias [00:10:26]:
Right.

Wes Moss [00:10:27]:
So it’s a pretty high fee for, for just being in a fund which doesn’t necessarily give any advice. Right. It’s just a vehicle to park your money. So I think right out of the gate we’ve got to say that, yes, Kathy, that that’s pretty high. And mutual fund costs have come down over the last 20 years significantly. And then ETFs or exchange traded funds, they’ve brought the cost down even more. So to pay 1.4% for just sitting in a fund, that seems really high. And there’s a lot of other options that she can find probably very equivalent funds that are 90% less than that.

Wes Moss [00:11:03]:
So that is, I think the first place to start. The second thought here is for Kathy is it’s when you’re dealing with a representative from one of these big investment firms, they really are trying, and I’m talking about the big guys, Fidelity, Schwab Vanguard, they want people to have a plan. They want people to be in the right investment products for them. So yes, sometimes it probably does feel like a sales call, but it also may just be a motivator to say, hey, let’s do some bigger picture planning. And what Kathy can also do is find a fee only advisor and Fidelity and Schwab and these big companies can typically point their clients to this and they’re. And they actually are happy to do so.

Krista Dibias [00:11:44]:
Right.

Wes Moss [00:11:44]:
And there’ll be a fiduciary and you can. Right. And you can find a fiduciary, which means that that advisory firm that’s now working alongside Fidelity Schwab is only allowed to look out for your very best interest. This is a confusing point. In the financial industry. It’s not just about. You would think, well, isn’t every advisor looking at your best interest? No, there’s a whole other set of standards that just says the investments have to be prudent, which is another nice word for saying they just have to be okay.

Krista Dibias [00:12:14]:
Right.

Wes Moss [00:12:15]:
So I think what she could do is find a fee environment that is a lot is less or a lot less. Find an advisor through some sort of fee only advisory firm that is looking out for the, for her best interest and then most importantly, looking at the bigger picture and not just the vehicle. Hey, here’s a fund that works, but here’s a strategy that is less expensive. And let’s also talk about your taxes and your estate planning and all of those things. So, yes, I think that she’s. At least she’s been invested and that’s, that’s 80% of the battle. At least she’s been doing that or that’s half the battle. I think that she can really improve that and which will be a much more efficient path for her to reach her retirement goals.

Krista Dibias [00:12:58]:
Awesome. Okay, and then we’ve got this one that came in from Vanessa in Alaska. This question is for Wes Moss. Both my husband and I are in our state employees with no pension. Since our state doesn’t participate in Social Security, we will not receive Social Security benefits when we retire. Both of us are in our late 40s. Since we don’t have any fixed income, we retire. How would we allocate our retirement funds? Should we do anything different than those who at least have a part of their annual expenses covered by fixed incomes? We’ve had this concern for a while and even lost some money getting in and out of bad annuity products.

Krista Dibias [00:13:35]:
Currently, we don’t have any annuity or insurance products other than our term life insurance.

Wes Moss [00:13:41]:
Well, so Vanessa, so Krista, we could probably do a whole show on Alaska, right? Yeah, it’s a, it’s the, it’s still the wild frontier. And when, when this question came in, I was thinking, wait a minute, you’ve got no Social Security. So nor if you’re in the private sector and you’re paying into Social Security, yes, you’re going to still get Social Security in Alaska. But it’s pretty, it’s very unique that the state employees like Vanessa, they don’t get Social Security, so which is a big chunk of retirement savings for people. It was something like in 2006, the state employees went from having a defined benefit, meaning a pension plan, to say, hey, like this is on you. It’s a, they moved to a defined contribution plan. They said, look, you got to save your own money. So to some extent, what does she need to think about differently.

Wes Moss [00:14:32]:
She. She’s not going to have Social Security. That could be the loss of $2,000 a month, $2,500 a month for, for her. And if her husband is. Is working in the system as well. So that’s a big gap to fill. So there’s a couple of things. One, Vanessa’s got to rely on the system that they do have, which is a pretty good defined contribution plan for the state in the state of Alaska or the state employees.

Wes Moss [00:14:59]:
They, again, I believe the way it works there. And again, this is another state I have not been to. I’d love to got to go there. You’d love to go to Alaska is that they. They. They want you to or they, they require you to put 8, about 8% of your earnings into their defined contribution plan, like a 41K. So that’s a lot. The good news is they match a big portion.

Wes Moss [00:15:24]:
So they take it depending on your. Whether you’re a teacher for TRS or state employee, they’re going to give you 5 to 7%.

Krista Dibias [00:15:30]:
Oh, that’s good.

Wes Moss [00:15:31]:
So that get. If you do 8 plus 7, you’re at 15% in savings. So you’re getting. So that’s a lot in itself. But again, it’s taxing. Right. It comes out of your paycheck. But there’s really, there’s no other option for Vanessa.

Wes Moss [00:15:46]:
The one thing that is uniquely good about Alaska, and I’m sure Vanessa and anybody from Alaska listening knows this part of it, is that there’s this very unique system called the Permanent fund in Alaska. It’s an $80 billion fund that state has. And I don’t know if it was originally derived from oil revenue. And I was going to say that.

Krista Dibias [00:16:06]:
Sounds like oil money.

Wes Moss [00:16:07]:
Yeah. But now it’s invested. It’s a giant plan that pays out a dividend. It’s the permanent fund. I think it’s the pfd, the permanent fund dividend. And every single person that lives in Alaska that’s been there, I’d say a year or more, and this is for little kids, too, receives money from this fund in any given year. So it’s a little bit like Social Security. Last year it was something like $1,300 per person.

Wes Moss [00:16:31]:
I think this year it was something like seventeen hundred dollars per person. So it’s like Social Security, but you get it your whole life. So at least she has that to make up some of that gap. And we know Alaska is one of the most expensive states now. Housing’s pretty cheap In Alaska, it’s pretty inexpensive, but everything else is through the roof. So you’ve got food is double, transportation is double. It’s expensive to live in Alaska. So she’s going to really have to rely on that.

Wes Moss [00:17:00]:
That defined contribution plan in the state so that she’s saving her own money. And then there’s one cool cherry on top when it comes to state employees in Alaska, and that’s an additional plan called a 457 plan. And they can, again, she can put another big percentage of her salary into the 457 plan. So thinking this through, if she’s doing 8 with the DEFY contribution, she’s getting a match of 7. That’s 15. If she does, let’s say another 5%. And I know, Vanessa, that’s a lot of money. But another 5% of savings on top of that into the 457 plan, which is very much like a 401k plan, then that might be enough to make up for the.

Wes Moss [00:17:43]:
The strange situation you find yourself in, which is no Social Security.

Krista Dibias [00:17:48]:
And I have to ask, because, you know, Clark’s answer to everything is freeze your credit or Roth ira. Is there any room for a Roth IRA or anything like that in here?

Wes Moss [00:17:57]:
I would. I don’t know the specifics about the 457 plan. Right. But I would not be surprised if there’s a 457roth option. And if she has that, it’s probably the best. A good option for her to go with.

Krista Dibias [00:18:10]:
Okay, great. Well, I think we’ll take a break. Oh, no. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from you and Clark. So. All right, we’ll take a break now, and then we come back. What are you going to talk about?

Wes Moss [00:18:20]:
I wanted to dive into some of the. The metrics around planning, and maybe because we ended with that, we’ll go into how to create a plan. It’s not as complicated as we think.

Krista Dibias [00:18:30]:
I love that. Okay.

Wes Moss [00:18:33]:
If you’ve ever done a Jane Fonda workout or if you remember as a kid, Rocky running the steps, and if Michael keaton is still Mr. Mom to you, then guess what? It’s officially time to do some retirement planning. It’s Wes Moss from Money Matters. Weren’t those the good old days? Well, with a little bit of retirement planning, there are plenty of good days ahead. Schedule an appointment with our team today@yourwealth.com. that’s y o u r your wealth.com. all right. Welcome back.

Wes Moss [00:19:07]:
I wanted to talk about planning because, again, we live in this. So Uncertain world. And if you think about planning over the course of time, there’s just so many variables swimming around in our heads, in the media, that takes us off track. And FOMO Freddy at the Christmas party, he wants us to. We should have been invested in something else. I can’t believe you missed that. So the whole journey is really hard. And it’s not just hard at any given time, it’s always hard.

Wes Moss [00:19:32]:
It’s. We’re always running into walls and we’re running into things that make the journey uncertain. And then it throws us off track. So what we almost have to do is going to have a plan and you’ve got this uncertain world with, with unlimited variables of things taking us off track. The good news is when it comes to planning, there’s only so many variables and we can control them. So if you think that, I really think there’s five, there’s five, you can make more than that. But if you think about what it takes to set a course and get to the point you need to get to in retirement, it’s a couple really core things. First of all, it’s a timeline.

Wes Moss [00:20:12]:
So thinking about it over the course of 20 and 30 years, and then the really important keys that come up, like when do I get Social Security or when do I have my mortgage paid off? Right. So we think about it in the course of time. Secondly, this goes back to what are the big variables? One, how much money we have already saved. Number two, how much can we save per year? Three, what is our assumed rate of return? Depending on what kind of investor you are, could be conservatively 4% or 5%. If you’re a super conservative investor, it could be 7, 8%. If you’re going to be an all stock investor. So you’ve got to pick that number, but you can control it. And then of course, what we would like to be able to spend, like what’s our goal, how much can we spend in the future? And then we apply, when we look at our savings, what it will be in 10 and 15 and 20 and 30 years.

Wes Moss [00:21:12]:
Then we apply the 4% rule, which is another topic we’ll talk about. But very simply, we can apply. Well, I know I can take 4% plus inflation each year and have a really good chance of not running out of money for 30 years. So that’s another variable. It’s somewhat of a. Even though it’s a rule of thumb, it’s more of a constant. And again, we want as many constants as we can and things that we can control. In this mapping process of this plan.

Wes Moss [00:21:39]:
So the way I like to do it, because I feel as though you really understand what you’re doing if you draw it out. So I draw out a timeline and I start with the current year, let’s call it 20, 25. And in five years, let’s say you’re going to be 65. Well, that’s a year you’re going to get Medicare, and maybe that’s when you want to start your Social Security. So you say, well, I’m going to start social now, and my wife is one year younger, so she could start social the next year. So we started to drop in these income streams that really matter. If we live in Alaska, we drop in the permanent dividend fund like we talked about. Then we also start with, well, what’s our nest egg today? Maybe it’s $50,000, maybe it’s $250,000.

Wes Moss [00:22:21]:
And we say, well, in 10 years, if I add $1,000 a month or 12 grand per year, and it’s at a 5% rate of return, well, we get a number. We know that in 10 years we’ll have a million and a quarter or a million and a half or whatever that number is. And then we say, well, we can take 4% of that and that’ll be in addition to my Social Security or maybe I have a pension that I dropped into that timeline. And now guess what? We have approximately what we think we can spend on an annual basis in retirement, divided by 12. Now we’ve got a monthly budget in retirement. So if you think about it, there are really only about 5 to 6. Call it a half a dozen really important variables that need to go into this plan. Six is a lot lower of a number to control than infinity.

Wes Moss [00:23:14]:
All the things that we can’t control are kind of infinity. Yet if we’re looking at the basics here, what I, what I have saved today, how much I am going to spend or save each year, what my rate of return is and what I’d like to spend, and my 4% rule. And when my income streams come in, still a lot of variables, but it’s at least it’s manageable. So we can either draw this out, you can have a fiduciary retirement advisor help you draw it out, or you can do it via software. So there are lots of tools online that’ll lay this out for you over time. You can go to. Any financial planning firm should have the software to put all this together. One of, the, one of the critical pieces here is to understand that our, let’s say our budget’s $5,000 a month today or $8,000 a month today, that’s not going to cut it in 20 years.

Wes Moss [00:24:04]:
So one of those variables in addition to our rate of return assumption is that we’ve got to be able to plan for inflation. And that’s why it’s helpful to utilize the some of these more robust software plans that help map out what things are going to look like in 10 years and 15 and 20 years and 30 years. So if we’re able to do that, whether we do it as a just a sheet of paper Krista, or we do it with an advisor and we use software to do it, it lays the foundation for you to be able to reach your goals. And more importantly it can keep you on track. It makes investing easier. And I think it’s just, it is, it is a critical piece to be able to make retirement successful.

Krista Dibias [00:24:46]:
I love it. Okay, so we’re going to go to more questions. This one came in from Lucas in California. Of the funds I have now in Vanguard, I have five total holdings. VTI, VGT, VHT, VXUS and 2055 TDF. My combined expense ratio is 0.39%. Is this okay? Should I consider something different like consolidating? Am I diluting my money? Am I even thinking about this the right way? I’m interested in your opinion for a situation such as mine for a long term investor just getting started within the last few years.

Wes Moss [00:25:23]:
Okay. So Lucas in California. He is so first of all he, we talked about number two or three on our list, massive diversification. Lucas has got it. This is, this is a great thing about what he’s doing. He’s got, I think you listed out five different Vanguard et ETFs. Maybe one of them’s a fun right out of the gate. I recognize some of those symbols.

Wes Moss [00:25:44]:
VTI as an example. That’s the Total Stock Market Index. Guess how many stocks that has.

Krista Dibias [00:25:50]:
How many?

Wes Moss [00:25:51]:
30. Over 3,500 stocks.

Krista Dibias [00:25:53]:
Oh, I was gonna say a thousand. Wow.

Wes Moss [00:25:55]:
It’s three. It’s 3,000. Something like 3,600 stocks. It’s amazing. It’s giant VXUS, which is a Vanguard Total Global World Index. I don’t know if that’s the exact name but it’s essentially almost every single company that’s publicly traded outside of the US that that ETF alone has over 8,000 positions. So that’s. So he’s got lots of diversification.

Wes Moss [00:26:21]:
The what he’s thinking here. And if you Go to Vanguard, and you look at these ETFs of one of these is a health care ETF. So it’s 300 health care companies, a technology ETF. So you got lots of diversification. And by the way, it’s almost. It’s almost 100% incentive stock, even though one of those is a target date fund. But if you go to any Vanguard etf, they’re usually a tenth of a percent or less. So on any given one of these, and some of these are as low as the total stock, the total market 1 is something like a 0.03.

Wes Moss [00:26:58]:
So when he adds all them up, what he’s doing is he’s stacking all those fees on top of each other, and it adds up to almost. Almost 40 basis points, which is almost a half a percent. He’s looking at it. I love that he’s looking at this because cost matters, but he’s looking at it the wrong way. So, Lucas, you’re stacking all those fees to get to your 0.39 of a percent. The reality is you’ve got to look at it on a global basis. They don’t stack up on top of each other. It’s 0.03 for one of them and 0.08 for another one.

Wes Moss [00:27:28]:
So all in that collective is probably less than a tenth of a percent collectively, not 410 like he’s thinking. So his overall cost is a lot lower than he’s thinking. You don’t want to stack it, so that’s good. So I think he thinks he’s deluding himself by having all these different funds. He’s not. From a cost perspective, from an investment perspective, it’s also not the worst thing in the world. I mean, he owns almost every single company on the planet, and so there’s probably a lot of overlap in those different funds, but that’s okay. It’s massive diversification.

Wes Moss [00:28:06]:
I think more importantly to note, it is almost 100% in stocks. These are stock ETFs, and one of these is a target date. That’s a target date fund in 2055. So 30 years from now, those funds are almost all in stock as well when it’s that far out. So just know that your allocate lots of diversification. That’s great. Your allocation is 100% in stocks again. Okay.

Wes Moss [00:28:33]:
Particularly if you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s. If Lucas is really closer to retirement, it’s probably a little aggressive for someone that’s getting really. It’s probably a lot aggressive if you’re if you’re on the doorstep of retirement, it sounds like Lucas is mostly doing the right thing.

Krista Dibias [00:28:48]:
Yeah, no, I think he’s definitely sounds like he’s younger because he wants long term advice. So that is great. And this is sort of different for another question. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:28:56]:
Okay, good.

Krista Dibias [00:28:57]:
Really? One more. William in Washington says that he started investing 25 years ago in the Vanguard Star Fund. It’s in a Roth, which I’m maxing out every year. I’m three years away from retirement. Is this fund still a good choice for my situation?

Wes Moss [00:29:12]:
Again, everyone’s gonna be a little bit different. And there’s no way to give exact investment advice here that you guys have said that many times. But so first of all, this is a great example. William has had patience and longevity, and he has a nice, not only just diversification, but some, some diversity within the asset classes that are in that Star fund. So the Vanguard Star fund is. Call it 10 different funds that Vanguard operates, and they’re all in one fund. And about 60% of the assets in that fund are stock base. So there’s a us part, there’s an international part.

Wes Moss [00:29:52]:
So that’s Good. And the 40% is in the, the safety side of the equation. That’s a little closer to what I would consider dry powder. But the bond side of the equation is there for stability, it’s there for income. And again, it makes the overall investment experience a little less bumpy, or in this case, a lot less bumpy, because 40 is a fairly high number. I would say that this may have been even a little conservative for somebody in their 20s or 30s. But 90% of the battle is being invested and having at least 50 to 60% in stocks like he has. So it’s been a really good fund.

Wes Moss [00:30:28]:
It’s. It’s average. I want to say it’s been over 7 or 8% per annum over time. Even though it’s a relatively conservative fund. Now that he’s close to retirement, William, I think that this is the kind of balance you want to go into retirement with. So maybe with a little conservative 20 years ago, I think it’s kind of right in the right zone for most people today. So if he was 100%, if we go back to the last question, he’s 100% stocks now, and he’s on the doorstep of retirement. He, he may want to look at getting this balance that he has, 60% stocks, 40% bonds, but he’s already there.

Wes Moss [00:31:05]:
So the good news is, I think that’s an appropriate balance for a lot of people. Not everyone, but I don’t think he needs to make any radical shifts to get more conservative today. We still want stocks in our portfolio to outpace inflation for a long retirement. Christa, thank you for joining us today. I love this new show format and I’m looking forward to more of our listener questions. So if you have any questions you’d like us to answer in future episodes, I’d love to hear hear from you. You can send them in to us through YourWealth.com contact hey y’all, this is.

Mallory [00:31:44]:
Mallory with the Retire Sooner team. Please be sure to rate and subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend. If you have any questions you can find us@westmoss.com that’s W-E-S-M-O-S-S.com. you can also follow us on Instagram and YouTube. You’ll find us under the handle Retire Sooner podcast. And now for our show’s Disclosure this is provided as a resource for informational purposes and is not to be viewed as investment advice or recommendations. This information is being presented without consideration of the investment objectives, risk tolerance, or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. The mention of any company is provided to you for informational purposes and as an example only, and is not to be considered investment advice or recommendation or or an endorsement of any particular company.

Mallory [00:32:30]:
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