It's Teacher Appreciation Week, so let's recognize that teaching is very stressful. In fact, according to a Gallup Report titled: The State of America’s Schools, 46% of teachers report high daily stress.1 Viewed another way, every teacher experiences high daily stress every other day.
Investing Is Stressful Too
Investing can be stressful, too, but it doesn’t have to be. If you use the help of a financial advisor, you can help eliminate the stress of investing and retirement planning.
Here are a few tips to help you invest wisely and stay sane at the same time.
Hire a Financial Advisor. According to the National Education Association, teachers spend an average of 50 hours per week on instructional duties, including an average of 12 hours each week on non-compensated school-related activities such as grading papers, bus duty, and club advising.2
Most of the time, teachers just don't have the time to spend on their retirement planning. Further, seeking the advice of a professional doesn't mean you are not smart enough or capable enough to figure it out on your own.
You're capable of changing the oil in your car and growing your vegetables, and doing your taxes, too. But you don't mind paying someone else to do those tasks if you don't have the time. Then there are some cases where you should never do things on your own. You don't see people filling their cavities, right?
Let Your Advisor Create a Plan for You. The biggest mistake investors make is failing to make a disciplined plan. Let your advisor create a plan for you, recommend your overall asset allocation, such as a mix of stocks and bonds, and stick to it.
Your advisor will check your portfolio periodically to see if your account has fluctuated away from your original plan (say, 70% stocks and 30% bonds).
If needed, your advisor will recommend that you make changes to bring your account back to the proper proportion.
This is called rebalancing, a fantastic risk management tool.
Stop Checking Your Accounts Every Day. If you have a properly managed portfolio, focusing on daily changes in your account value will increase your stress and tempt you to trade too much. And if you make frequent transactions, hoping to profit from short-term price swings, your trading fees may increase.
Avoid making emotional decisions and wait for your monthly or quarterly statement to arrive. Then, before you do anything, talk to your advisor. As a disciplined investor, you need to tolerate volatility. This gives you more peace of mind, too.
Your Advisor Can Help
The term “burnout" is often used when teachers describe why they leave the teaching profession. But you can't afford to let your retirement plans burn out.
Hopefully, working with a financial advisor will allow you to take a step back from your investing life and give you greater peace of mind so that you can focus more on other things, like your career and family.
