One of our main functions as unbiased financial planners is to attempt to meld sometimes errant "exterior" beliefs about money with "interior" realities.

Financial planning and wealth management are indeed science based but success depends on art as well. We have worked with hundreds of clients over almost three decades and therefore have helped clients make literally thousands of financial decisions against a backdrop of almost countless variations of beliefs/constraints.

Specific financial outcomes rarely are dependent solely on some formula but rather a set of variables that often can't be precisely engineered. Add emotions and beliefs on top of that and it is easy to see that experience plays a large role. This is one reason we like to have regular progress review meetings so that mid course corrections can be made to the path and plan.

We see over and over again that financial decisions are often made not based on a rational/logical purview, but rather on emotion. Controlling the emotional aspect and being open to advice is one the primary determinants to planning success. We call this "readiness" and that is among the variables that we can control. Generally, when we see clients struggle it is because they have allowed emotions to override all else and have been less than open to advice.

In Barriers to Financial Security, we discuss the very real cost of investor behavior. Previous chapters introduced the series and the importance of investor behavior. The second and third chapters provide a historical perspective for investors. Chapter two is available here.