Brian Portnoy, founder, Shaping Wealth, joined TheStreet to discuss his top tips for managing finances.
Transcript:
CONWAY GITTENS: There’s a recent study that came out that found that 7 in 10 adults are stressed out about money. So what is your best piece of advice when it comes to managing personal finances?
BRIAN PORTNOY: All right. So let me give you two quick answers. The first is just to validate that this is stressful. So we’re experts in the psychology of financial planning. And suffice it to say, we have very old brains operating in new markets. So the fact that this is stressful is very natural. The real piece of advice I would say is and maybe this sounds very, very basic, but it’s powerful and it’s true, which is that if you have a financial plan written down, everything becomes less stressful. The markets begin to move slower. So having a plan really matters.
CONWAY GITTENS: And when you say written down, do you mean physically on a piece of paper or on a whiteboard or just, you know, in your Google notes or your Apple notes on your phone? Does it does it matter?
BRIAN PORTNOY: It does matter. Actually, writing it down does matter. So by financial plan, I mean, what are you hoping to achieve? What are your goals? What do those things cost, whether it’s a new home or retirement or helping your kids out with college or whatever the case may be. But it’s hard to get somewhere if you don’t know what the destination is. And until the destination, well, then you can’t make an actual path to get there. So physically writing it down, preferably on a piece of paper and you know where it is and you can check in on it makes all the difference in the world.
CONWAY GITTENS: So I want to take you just one step back, because sometimes we give advice, make a plan. Right but some people say, I don’t even know how to make a plan. What should the plan look like? What should be included in the plan? What should be excluded?
BRIAN PORTNOY: Yeah so this is where financial advisors come in. This is what they do for a living. I mean, it would be like, hey, I’m in some kind of physical pain, you know, should I just go onto the internet and solve the problem for myself? I mean, that’s a choice, I guess, but it’s probably not the most optimal choice. The good thing is that the financial planning industry has evolved dramatically over the last couple of decades. So there’s lots of different types of advisors that can help you with a problem in your financial life or help you build a plan that is meant to survive and thrive for decades. So I would strongly recommend that for those who want to build a good plan, that they rely on the expertise of others.
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