Veronica Karas

Life Insurance must be the most oversold financial product in the world.
I saw this AWFUL post on LinkedIn today from - you guessed it - a life insurance sales person.

It is clear the person who posted this wants to sell a product. How do I know? The way this is portrayed is so ridiculously skewed!!

Bank of America’s total assets are $3.169 trillion. The $24 billion in life insurance they have is 0.7% of their asset value. This is a good ratio for people too, but I have yet to see someone whose business assets are worth $1 million, be sold a life insurance policy for $7,000 of coverage- but that would be the same ratio of coverage that BOA has.

This is why everyone needs a fiduciary, not a salesperson. 💕

I never post investment recommendations - and this is certainly not one.

But I do want to talk about the psychology of being an investor.

Heading into 2023 every major institution (aka: all of Wall Street) and all the economic talking heads on television predicted a recession. Every single one.

As the year closes, the S&P 500 performed at a remarkable +24.8% - driven largely by a relatively small percentage of the stocks, but up nonetheless. A total stock market index (such as VTI) was up +24.5% for the year.

As uncommon as it is to have -20% down markets, it is equally uncommon to have +20% up markets. And historically, the latter have been followed by the former … as it turns out is true for 2023.

But here’s the major question - what can you learn from this?

Well here are a few:

1) Don’t listen to talking heads in television. When they’re panicking and predicting the worst- that’s usually a good time to invest.
2) Pick an asset allocation and stick to it. Regardless of what happens in the market - stick to your knitting. 92% of the return you experience is based entirely on asset allocation.
3) In the long term - investing is better than cash. In the short term- cash brings comfort so it’s necessary to have.
4) If you don’t have the psychology of an investor - hire someone who has it. A good financial planner/investment advisor will encourage you to stick out tough markets and ignore predications!

Are you investing or trading?

Are you an investor?

Take these important steps before investing

WOW! It’s been a wild year! I have definitely neglected Instagram and social media in general. SURPRISE! Having a baby changes everything 🫶🏼🤣.
Now that it’s been about a year, I feel like I have it a bit more together and can return to sharing some thoughts related to financial planning . Maybe even a fourth book? Who knows!

Happy Sunday!

Make sure your finances are in order as we approach the end of the year!