Does the Old Paradigm Still Hold True?

Good question. I went to rollover my substantially diminished 401k held by my former employer to my IRA account. The financial advisor on the rollover did his best to try to talk me out of putting my pittance in a secured minimal interest, but guaranteed account for the short term. He wanted me to take advantage of the weak market and invest aggressively since I "have time to recover before retirement", he enthusiastically said. In my estimation, all of his arguments did not apply for where we are now.

He was going by the old script as a lot of those who work in the field are still doing. Wake up and look around! Lives are changing along with the financial times in which we are living. Gen X’ers and more so Gen Y’ers are waking up to changing financial landscapes that by and large were negatively affected by corporate greed that slammed the environment. They will be powering their investing in a different direction. We need new models and new strategies.

This blog, by and large, was written for women. It was meant to provide clear information to not only help readers save and invest money to build solid financial futures, but to create a present day foundation. I still believe that with basic tools, women can still rely on their unique strategies and common sense insights with a smidgen of intuition, to manage their finances despite the economic downturn. We still continue to juggle, stretch, and make a dollar cry while managing work and family, so we can do the same with our finances.

My belief? A much less aggressive investment strategy would have saved investors untold retirement dollars. Men, the great keepers of the financial institutions, lost just as much as women in this market. They were very aggressive and did not always get in “on the ground floors when the prices are at rock bottom” as my advisor told me. Neither did the wise investors jump ship before the market started its free fall. Hey, even Warren Buffet lost $11 billion of $57 billion this year.

What does this say for us? Slow, steady, and reasonable. We will make progress, maybe not with the raw animal aggression that financial advisors still employed by investing institutions would like to see, but by taking practical steps to reaching our financial goals.