Joe Froud - Retirement Planner

About 6 years ago, I attended my first Dimensional Fund Advisors conference and they gave me an unforgettable piece of advice.

I had a keen interest in investing and had been managing investment portfolios trying to predict which turn the stock market would take next. I had been running myself ragged trying to achieve the best investment returns for my clients.

But, like many people new to investment portfolio management, I was making a lot of mistakes: trying to time the market, running relatively high cost portfolios, being overconfident in my own ability to pick the next best performing fund.

Until I attended the Dimensional conference, where they said:

"Don't try to outguess the market, Resist Chasing Past Performance, Let the Markets work for you, manage your emotions, focus on what you can control"

That day, my whole life changed. My investment philosophy is now based on a far more robust strategy that is academically driven and based on evidence. I passionately believe that this helps my clients have a better investment experience and increases the likelihood of them achieving their financial objectives.

This post should not be construed as financial advice. You should seek professional advice tailored to your own personal financial position.

There are a lot of books about Personal Finance.

And I've read most of them.

But the best book on Personal Finance I've found is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

For a few reasons:

• Reason #1: It teaches us how financial success isn’t determined by what we know. It’s determined by our behaviour.

• Reason #2: It’s beautifully written in an easy to follow way.

• Reason #3: You’ll make better financial decisions after you have read it.

• Reason #4: It teaches us that we are all biased because our world view is overly influenced by our own experiences. We need to be open minded.

• Reason #5: I learnt one of my favourite and now most used expressions which is to ‘become financially unbreakable’.

Honestly, I could keep adding so many reasons here. But I’ll leave some for you to find yourself in the book.

If you are at all interested in personal finance, I can't recommend this book enough.

(And if you've read it, do you agree? What other book would you recommend for beginners?)

I wouldn't call myself an expert in Investing.

However, I have spent hundreds of hours reading, learning and taking exams about Investing. And I have spent many hours practicing Investing in my own life.

Here's how I first got interested in Investing:

I spent my childhood feeling like the stock market was this big scary thing. Something utterly confusing.

I hated the fact that there was something that seemed so important that I had no knowledge about at all.

So when I got my first job in Financial services I committed my time to learning everything I could about investing. It was like trying to face my fear directly.

It turns out that investing can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It definitely doesn't HAVE to be complicated.

Moving forward, my commitment is:

To continue learning about investing, but more importantly, learn how to communicate investing concepts to people in a simple and easy to understand way so that they can have a more successful investment experience.

I love learning about Investing.

Unfortunately, when I first got interested in Investing, I had a hard time figuring out where to start.

So, if you are trying to learn more about Investing, here's the best way to get started:

• Read This Book: Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray will give you a lay of the land, and is a helpful way to get your bearings.

• Check out this website: The Dimensional Fund Advisors website (link in comments) is a must-read/watch beginner resource for anyone interested in Investing.

• Listen To This Podcast: And if you really want to start going down the rabbit hole, listen to Investing Principles on the Maven Money podcast (link in comments).

These 3 resources will exponentially accelerate your learning process.

There are 3 topics I am actively thinking about a lot these days:

Topic #1: How our cognitive biases affect our decision making around money - and what can be done about it.

I've seen first hand how cognitive biases influence my client's decision making. I'm not immune personally either, I regularly notice the biases in myself.

My hope is that over the next couple of years, as I continue to learn more and more, I'll be able to help my clients make more rational and considered decisions.

Topic #2: Observable and Hidden Metrics

I first got interested in the subject of observable and hidden metrics when I went down a rabbit hole of reading every personal finance and money related book I could get my hands on a few years ago.

Since then, it's a subject that I've become fascinated by as I think we can all sometimes focus too much on observable metrics and not enough on hidden metrics.

Examples of Observable metrics - How big your house is, your status in a group, what car you drive, the Rolex on your wrist.

Examples of Hidden metrics - Peace of mind, quality of relationships, quality of your sleep, your ability to stay present during a conversation with a loved one.

P.S. I have nothing against Rolex's or big houses, you do you!

Topic #3: Becoming a better leader

I also have an interest in learning more about Leadership.

I've somehow found myself in a position of being a proper grown up with staff and Children. But my leadership knowledge and skills are limited. Maybe one day the kids will actually listen to me.

It would be great to connect with other people who are interested in these same topics—so if any of the above resonates, feel free to reach out!

I recently signed up for Dickie Bush & Nicolas Cole's cohort-based course, Ship 30 for 30.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. To improve the quality of the content in my monthly client newsletter and social media pages.

2. I feel like I have a lot of ideas in my head, but up until now they have been 'in a box'. I'd like to share these ideas with a wider audience and help more people.

3. To learn a new skill. I feel better when I am learning something new.

Over the next 30 days, I plan on writing about Retirement planning, Successful investing, and Tax planning.

Join me on this adventure—and let me know if you have any questions along the way!

I'm excited to start sharing what I know online.