Source: Morningstar.com
A friend’s son, in his mid-20s and working in his first “real” job, emailed me a few weeks ago looking for recommendations for a financial advisor.
I replied to ask what type of guidance he’s looking for. I remembered that he started investing in stocks when he was in high school, so my guess was that he wanted help with
something investment-related.
His response surprised me, in a good way. Rather than seeking investment guidance, he was thinking big-picture. He said he’d like to go to graduate school, but he was also
contemplating buying a rental property as an investment and living in one of the units. He wanted some advice on his portfolio, but that was secondary to wanting to
talk through the financial implications of the other, broader decisions on his mind. I gave him the names of two of my favorite financial-planning firms and he was off and
running.
Many people, in contrast to my friend’s son, think financial advice automatically equates to investment advice. And for people who are older, wealthier, and more settled
in their lives, guidance on investments is probably going to be the main thing a financial advisor assists them with. But for most people in early accumulation mode,
investment decision-making should be secondary to big-picture decision-making. And people could use help with big-picture decision-making, and putting some math around
those decisions, more than they might think.
That exchange got me thinking about how your life stage – and specifically your human capital/financial capital ratio should influence your financial priorities and the
type of advice you seek. While Morningstar has long asserted that
human capital
should play a role in how you position your financial capital, assessing your personal ratio of human to financial capital can help you figure out where to
concentrate your precious resources. By precious resources, I mean the time you spend thinking about your financial affairs and any money you spend on financial guidance.
What’s Your Human Capital/Financial Capital Ratio?
Morningstar has written extensively about the human capital/financial capital relationship, mainly as it relates to the asset allocation of your investment portfolio.
If you’ve just emerged from school with an advanced degree in a lucrative field, for example, you’re long on human capital. Your financial capital is probably scarce or
even negative if you racked up debt to pursue that degree. Because you’re looking forward to a long and mostly uninterrupted string of great earnings, you can afford to
take more risk in your investment portfolio that you’ve earmarked for retirement; you’re a long way away from tapping it.
At the opposite extreme, let’s say you’re
64. You still like your job, and you’d like to keep going for as long as you can, maybe all the way to age 70 or beyond. But your spouse has had some health setbacks,
and you know that you may have to pull back from work in order to help care for him. In that instance, your human capital – your ability to garner earnings from your
job – has declined and isn’t fully within your control. Because you may not be able to earn a paycheck much longer, you’ll need to make sure your portfolio, and income from
other sources like social security, can pick up where your salary leaves off. You’ll also want to make sure you own enough safe securities that you can tap in the near term,
if and when your earnings stream is interrupted.
It’s Not Just for Investments
Just as it can help influence your portfolio positioning, an assessment of your personal human capital/financial capital ratio can help determine where to concentrate your
financial priorities and where to get financial help.
When you’re young and just starting out in your career path, your human capital is extensive and your financial capital is likely small. It’s a given that once you start
earning a paycheck, you should invest in the highest-returning portfolio you can stomach. But your contributions to your investments – not the gains on them – are going to be
the biggest share of your portfolio’s growth at that life stage. The best way to bump up your contributions is by enlarging your earnings and/or making sure that you’re
living within your means and not overspending. At this life stage it’s also crucial to think through what I call
“primordial asset allocation”
decisions, such as your savings/spending rate and whether you decide to pay down debt or invest in the market. If you get those big-picture decisions right,
your investments and your financial capital will take care of themselves.
By extension, if you’re going to spend on advice at this life stage, it stands to reason that you could go the cheap and efficient route: buy an inexpensive fund and call it a day.
After all, it’s a rare young accumulator whose goals and risk tolerance would be radically different from another young accumulator’s: enlarging the portfolio is the name of
the game, and the best way to do that is to contribute regularly, go heavy on stocks, and not get rattled by periodic market downturns.
As you move through your life, and your human capital declines and your financial capital rises, you may have already plowed through most of your make-or-break primordial asset
allocation decisions. You may have purchased your home and paid it off and advanced as far in your career as you’re going to go. You might still need financial-planning guidance,
to be sure. But with an enlarged portfolio, it also makes more sense to focus more of your energies – and more of your advice “buy” – on it. Your tax rate may have gone up,
and you will have likely accumulated assets in multiple accounts. You may be getting close to retirement and wondering whether your portfolio is sustainable and how to draw
from it. In other words, getting some investment advice that’s specific to you and your situation is more appropriate than it was when you were a young accumulator.
This article lays out some of the key questions to ask yourself when seeking a financial advisor. At the top of list is “Are you seeking help with your whole financial life
or your investment portfolio?” Thinking through your human capital/financial capital ratio can help you make the right call, and figure out where to concentrate your own
energies, too.
The above is for informative purposes only and should not be construed as an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to subscribe for
or purchase any investment. The information provided is subject to change without notice and does not constitute investment advice. MeDirect Bank (Malta)
plc has based this document on information obtained from sources it believes to be reliable but which have not been independently verified and therefore
does not provide any guarantees, representations or warranties. MeDirect Bank (Malta) plc, company registration number C34125, is licensed by the Malta Financial
Services Authority under the Banking Act (Cap. 371) and the Investment Services Act (Cap. 370).