How Did Events In Your Own Life Affect How You View Retirement Investing?

Invest like a millionaire without paying high prices

Mitch Tuchman: I had two events in my life in the ‘90s that really shaped the way I invest. The first was when my first son Jack was born in late 1996, and about a year later, we learned that he was severely disabled. For his entire life, someone would have to watch him, and that’s very expensive, and I thought, oh my God, I’m going to have to fund someone watching this kid, not only through my life, but 50 years after I’m six feet under.

Second, I had been an entrepreneur for many years and we sold a company shortly thereafter. Here I was with a disabled child, huge financial obligations, among other obligations and commitments – and this was the potential for lifetime financial security if I didn’t screw things up.

It was during the ‘dot com’ boom, when more people were doing a lot of wildly stupid things with money, and I wanted to be absolutely certain that I didn’t make the same mistakes. So I began seeking the best investment advice that I could, and it was investment advice that was not just for my own retirement, but also for my son’s life 50 years after my retirement.

That led me to consider how foundations and endowments think about investing, for perpetuity, and that influenced how I think about investing for our clients. It’s a very different way than the world tends to think about retirement investing, because you think in perpetuity as opposed to an end point, you think about how assets need to continue growing as opposed to diminishing over time. It makes you think about not to lose, it makes you think how do I not make a mistake, how do I not screw this up. And if I just play not to lose, what happens?

Very quickly you learn that if you play not to lose in investing, you can actually do better than 90% of people because most people’s returns suffer from the mistakes caused by greed and overextending themselves and overconfidence. So it’s an irony, it’s a paradox, because most people out there trying to beat the market, those of us who simply will settle for the market returns and ride with the market tend to do better than 90% of the other people.

What Is The Difference Between Rebalance And So-Called “Robo-Advisors?”

Invest like a millionaire without paying high prices

Mitch Tuchman: There are new advisors that have come out called “robo-advisors”, which is a software-driven advice service online where the client interacts solely with the website and there’s no human being that helps you figure anything out.

At Rebalance we use a lot of the same methods of investing as robo-advisors. We both use low-cost index funds and we both rebalance the portfolios periodically. However, a robo-advisor is great for someone who’s kind of a beginner investor, someone in their 20s and 30s – they’re just getting going, maybe they bought their first house, they’re paying off college loans and their investment situation is very simple. Software can deliver a great result for those people. Rebalance, however, was formed to focus on people over 45 years old whose lives are a little bit more complicated. For example, once you’re married, have a few kids, or maybe you’ve had a few jobs, or your spouse has had a few jobs, there are things that just software can’t help you figure out. Software won’t know or identify that I have this account, my wife has that account but there’s three other accounts we had from prior jobs that we need to rollover. Software won’t account for the fact that maybe I’m planning to retire but then become a consultant later and I’ll have a stream of income.

That’s why you need a dedicated expert that can help you look at the holistic situation in which you find yourself and solve different types of problems, come up with new ideas, and that’s where Rebalance differs. We offer dedicated expert, highly credentialed advisors for every client to work with them through this path of how to fund retirement and get the result that they want when that time comes.

What Is The Difference Between Rebalance And Conventional Brokers?

Long-term investment best practices for retirement

Mitch Tuchman: The difference between Rebalance and conventional brokers is that we’re conflict-free. We’re not paid by any of the funds that we have in any of our client accounts. We also use a lot of technology to run our business so we’re a much leaner, meaner organization.

We also will work with the client who has $100,000 instead of a larger balance and the price is the same. I think that since we aren’t selling on commission, we’re also able to give better advice because our sole focus is on the client and what the best investment portfolio is for them.

Meet Mitch Tuchman

Complete financial planning service for IRA investors

Mitch Tuchman: I had two events in my life in the ‘90s that really shaped the way that I invest. The first was when my first son Jack was born in late 1996. About a year later, we learned that he was severely disabled and that for his entire life, someone would have to watch him. That’s very expensive, and I was concerned about how I was going to fund someone watching this kid, not only through my life, but 50 years after I’m six feet under.

Second, I had been an entrepreneur for many years and we sold a company shortly thereafter. Here I was with a disabled child, huge financial obligations, among other obligations and commitments, and this was the potential for lifetime financial security if I didn’t screw things up.

It was during the ‘dot com’ boom, when more people were doing a lot of wildly stupid things with money, and I wanted to be absolutely certain that I didn’t make the same mistakes. I began seeking the best investment advice that I could, and it was investment advice that was not just for my own retirement, but also for my son’s life 50 years after my retirement.

That led me to consider how foundations and endowments think about investing, for perpetuity, and that influenced how I think about investing for our clients. It’s a very different way than the world tends to think about retirement investing, because you think in perpetuity as opposed to an end point; you think about how assets need to continue growing as opposed to diminishing over time. It makes you think about not to lose, it makes you think how do I not make a mistake, how do I not screw this up. And if I just play not to lose, what happens?

Very quickly you learn that most people’s returns suffer from the mistakes caused by greed and overextending themselves and overconfidence. It’s ironic, because those of us who play not to lose and simply will settle for the market returns and ride with the market tend to do better than 90% of the other people trying to beat the market.

Meet Scott Puritz

Set it and forget it investing for retirement

Scott Puritz: The stated mission of Rebalance is to help our clients retire with more. In one sense, in a very real sense, we are in the anxiety reduction business. It is extraordinary how much emotion is wrapped up in retirement investing, and most of these emotions are negative in nature- such as anxiety, frustration, embarrassment, and guilt. We all have been subject to how difficult it is to find good advice and investment products for retirement.

At Rebalance, what we find is that once we embrace our clients, listen to them, recommend the right portfolios, and put together a retirement investing plan, their anxiety level goes way down, and they feel in control. Their level of trust goes way up, as does their satisfaction. They can go back to enjoying their lives and not be burdened by constantly thinking about the challenges of retirement investing.