Reading Time: 5 minutes

Empires fall for many reasons, but one of the surest ways to ruin is by letting the enemy inside the city walls. For this reason, fortresses are built to protect the people from unfriendly forces outside.

While it may not be visible, your hard-earned wealth is under constant attack from forces wishing to reduce or destroy it. Your capital can take two paths: (1) it can increase like a widening and deepening river (true wealth), or (2) it can run out, leaving you dependent on the help of others.

A plan and a guide (Monenti Partners) will provide most of the protection you need, but we want you to understand how to keep the enemy out. You’ve worked too hard for your money to have it needlessly destroyed.​

 Keeping the Enemy Out

Human nature means that anything new and exciting will bring about the fear of missing out. It’s how we are wired. During your lifetime, you’ll see many of what appear to be attractive investment opportunities. However, within each one of these opportunities, danger may lie.

How can you spot the danger? If it’s exciting and seems too good to be true, it likely is. While some new opportunities do turn out well, most don’t.

Why risk it? Even if you do your homework, don’t rush into it and seek opinions from others. It frequently turns out disastrous. It is unlikely that someone wakes up planning to make someone else rich today.

The biggest risk to your financial fortress is permanent loss of capital. It’s the one risk that is almost impossible to recover from. This is why it’s so important not to risk permanent loss without securing the fortress first.

In the heat of the moment, the thought of significant gains may be exciting, but your priority at all times should be to protect the financial fortress. Never let anything breach its walls.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen many clients succumb to a temptation that has harmed them financially. These show up as new fads, complicated investment structures, and sometimes outright scams. Sadly in many cases, the opportunity is presented to them by a well-meaning family member or friend who knows just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be wise, and likely knows little about your circumstances and objectives. The desire to attain quick wealth is universal, don’t think you’re immune to its temptations.

It may work out as hoped, but is it worth risking the family financial fortress? Think very carefully before you open the fortress doors to the Idea Peddlers.

Remember What Has Always Worked

Fads, scams, and opaque schemes should always be compared to the strategies which have always worked. Investing via a diversified portfolio has proven to work very successfully and delivered true wealth to those disciplined and patient enough to enjoy its compounding capabilities.

This strategy may seem boring to many in a world of instant gratification, new promises of easy wealth, and most pervasively hindsight investing. Good, we say. Your financial future is a serious business and something that you consistently work on over many decades. If you’re after excitement, find a hazardous hobby, don’t try and find it in the annual returns of your investments.

If it’s wealth and security you’re after, make sure you’re benefiting from investing in human progress and innovation via a suitably diversified portfolio, which marches on slowly but steadily.

Long term sustainable returns are there to be had for the disciplined and patient investor. Why risk the fortress on an unproven long shot?

We’ll Stand Guard

Real wealth takes decades to build and only days to destroy if you’re not careful. Our advice is to only expose your financial fortress to strategies that have a proven track record to date. 

Our reason for being is to help you protect this fortress so that it can provide safety and security for you and for many generations to come.

As you navigate the financial world, we’ll stand guard at the fortress walls, helping you make informed decisions about who and what to let inside.

Please always contact us if you are considering a financial strategy that a friend or loved one has proposed to you, or has compared their portfolio returns to yours. While they may be well-meaning, we’ve seen it all. We’re not letting anything into your financial fortress that shouldn’t be there.

This Briefing is intended only for clients  and prospective clients of our practice. It is designed to inform, educate, and entertain. It does not constitute advice. If you would like a detailed discussion of your financial planning, or any other point raised here, then please do not hesitate to contact us. Please note that past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future and investors may not get back the amount originally invested as the value of any investment and the income from it is not guaranteed. The Financial Conduct Authority do not regulate taxation advice. The tax treatment of investments depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. The value of your investments can go down as well as up, so you could get back less than you invested. A pension is a long term investment. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend on the size of fund when accessed, interest rates and legislation.