Apriem Advisors
| Timeless AdviceKenneth Wolin, Portfolio Administrator from Apriem AdvisorsKenneth Wolin is a member of Apriem’s Investment Management Team. The team manages over $1 billion in assets under management across multiple proprietary investment strategies. Apriem’s Investment Team has been featured in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNBC, among others, contributing their economic views. Apriem Advisors is For more information visit www.apriem.com*****At the beginning of 2022, I had the luxury of traveling to Mammoth Mountain for New Years with my girlfriend and her family. It was my first time going there for the occasion and I thought it was timed perfectly. The drive out of Orange County was full of rain and had me worried we’d be driving into a storm when arriving. After all, I had a full car, two dogs, and just enough patience. However, the next day was full of clear skies and fresh powder. I’d been aching to hit the slopes and I was glad to have an Ikon pass because it’s really expensive to buy a day or weekend pass! The company I mentioned is named Ikon and you can buy multiple passes from them that give you unlimited entry into snow resorts and mountains all over the country and even internationally. It’s kind of like Disneyland where one tier has blackout dates and the other one doesn’t plus some extra perks and more mountains. A single-day lift ticket for an adult at Mammoth is $209… which is about 6 hours of slope time… if you can last that long and conditions hold up. The pass I got was roughly $1000 (no blackout dates). But at Mammoth’s rate, I just needed to go to the snow 5 times for it to pay off. Even Big Bear is $130 for one day on the weekend, and frankly, that’s more than I’d like to spend on a less than average mountain. I won’t even mention the cost of renting gear… but back to my point, Ikon saves me a couple of bucks (since I’m an avid traveler in the winter) and pays for itself in 2-3 weekend trips. My trip to mammoth reminded me how much these lift tickets have gone up in price from when I was a kid. It doesn’t take a hard look to see how inflation is impacting our lives, and investors without a doubt have it on their minds. It might even lead them to make adverse decisions on their portfolio. Because it was a new year, it was appropriate to make some resolutions, not so much new ones, but some reminders of timeless advice. Especially after 2021 being a great year for the markets, it’s easy to forget healthy habits that would otherwise give back those returns. 1.) Removing Emotion: You must remove emotion from your investment decisions. It is incredibly difficult to overhaul your way of thinking and convince your brain to think differently about your investments. Every day we consume topics and headlines meant to capture your attention. You subconsciously form expectations based on what you digest because humans are emotional beings and it’s easy to brush aside fact for emotion. For example, if you had $100 during March of 2020 and sold out of the market because you were fearful, then bought back in at the start of 2021, you would only have $89 at the start of 2022. If you didn’t do anything you’d have $126! Remember, your only goal is to maintain or increase the purchasing power of your assets relative to the cost of living. Sticking to your financial plan is taking a look at how many “resources” your lifestyle needs today and making sure you have that in the future. The markets will always be volatile and the latest news cycle might make you uneasy. Making sure your financial savings increase faster than your consumption happens as a result of sticking to a plan… and disregarding emotion. 2.) Think Long Term: “Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it’s going to rain next year, they buy it because they think it’s a good investment over 10 to 20 years.” Warren Buffet said that on CNBC in 2018. When putting together a portfolio, we look at companies from a bottom-up perspective. Put simply, that means we dissect a company inside out to figure out why it’s worth what it is. If it’s less than what we think, we move on to evaluating what catalysts can take it there. The important part is making sure that catalysts are within their control… and long-lasting (this often is called a “moat”). Point being, you don’t buy a farm and expect a full cornucopia by dinner time – the action of planting a well-thought-out seed reaps bounties for many seasons. Thinking long term doesn’t just help pick quality stocks, it allows for quality investments and decisions to bloom. 3.) Discipline: Navigating the course of the coronavirus was nothing short of unprecedented, inflation is expected to remain while in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 the Federal Reserve had been upbeat on raising rates – 2022 was primed to be challenging. Sometimes the things that feel most definite aren’t always as clear as they seem. Consequently, this can lead investors to making decisions that later on lead to regret. At the time I was reading a WSJ article talking about the history of interest rate decisions made by the Federal Reserve, and in the 90s rates were raised and lowered in ways that were surprising but also contradictory to expectations. At the start of 2022, we were expecting three rates hikes from the Fed, yet investors began acting like it has been written in stone. Left and right you might have seen people overhauling their portfolio based on the Fed’s statements, when in fact it’s entirely possible they could be in trouble if something else happens. From 2019 to 2021 we saw double-digit returns from the market, and just like from 1995 to 1999 we also saw double-digit returns before the correction in 2000. Changing course based on short-term thinking can derail a well-constructed plan, which unfortunately can leave you off worse than you first thought. You don’t need good timing or gut feelings, you need discipline to survive. |
| “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”, this is one of the few quotes I remind myself of during unclear times. While I’m not the most seasoned investor, my mental fortitude is strong. Uncertain conditions are reminders that good ideas don’t make returns – good habits do. Removing emotion, thinking long-term, and having discipline are characteristics of investors who survive all markets. |
Disclosures:
Advisory services offered by Apriem Advisors (“Apriem”), a registered investment adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Any reference to or use of the terms “registered investment adviser” or “registered,” does not imply that Apriem Advisors or any person associated with Apriem Advisors has achieved a certain level of skill or training. Apriem Advisors may only transact business or render personalized investment advice in those states and international jurisdictions where we are registered, notice filed, or where we qualify for an exemption or exclusion from registration requirements. For complete information about our firm, please refer to our Form ADV Part 2A, 2B and CRS at any time.
The information provided in this report should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular security. There is no assurance that any securities discussed herein will remain in an account’s portfolio at the time you receive this report or that securities sold have not been repurchased. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The reader should not assume that investments in the securities identified were or will be profitable.
