This article gets a little math heavy, so I pulled out the concluding paragraph for you to read. It sums up a crucial aspect of the investment management services Pensinger Financial provides your retirement portfolio…

CONCLUSION As the end of the year approaches, it is natural to reflect on what has gone well this year and what one may want to improve upon next year. Within the context of an investment plan, it is important to remember that investors are likely better served by trusting the plan they have put in place and focusing on what they can control, such as diversifying broadly, minimizing taxes, and reducing costs and turnover. Those who make changes to a long-term investment strategy based on short-term noise and predictions may be disappointed by the outcome. In the end, the only certain prediction about markets is that the future will remain full of uncertainty. History has shown us, however, that through this uncertainty, markets have rewarded long-term investors who are able to stay the course.

You’ll never hear us talk about predicting the short-term future movements of your retirement portfolio and that reason is simple – it’s because we can’t; we have no idea if the market will be up or down tomorrow. But frankly, those short-term market movements don’t matter, our focus is on the long-term market movements…the only market movements that matter to you and us. Long-term market movements will grow our portfolios, but the short-term market movements can derail that grow if we don’t focus on what truly matters in the short-term. Over the short-term we don’t look at predicting anything, we don’t look at buying the hot stock or investing in the flavor of the month sector of the economy, instead we focus on what we can control, which are: your portfolio allocations, your fees and expenses, and your tax implications. We do this because we know these areas add value to your portfolio over time, like keeping your costs low for example – our management fee is less than industry average and we use very low-cost portfolios because typically the less you pay in fees the more money you will make…and our job is to make you money. The areas that can severely derail your portfolio’s growth, like trying to predict where to invest next, can ruin your chance of having a safe, secure and comfortable retirement – we won’t take that chance.