Our investment portfolios are carefully designed to help retirement investors reduce risk, improve returns, and create a reliable income stream.

 

Here are 3 Keys to help you protect your money:

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1. Reduce Fees

According to Morningstar, the cost of your underlying investments is one of the best predictors of future returns.

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In other words, low-cost investments, historically, have outperformed high-cost investments.

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For that reason, we build our retirement portfolios using low-cost index funds. This helps to improve the success rate of our client's retirement plans and reduce unnecessary risk.

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Every time an investment is bought or sold (i.e., "turned over"), costs are incurred. Not just obvious costs like transaction fees and taxes, but hidden costs like bid-ask spreads.

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These costs eat away at your investment returns. So, to optimize investment returns and mitigate taxes, we intentionally own investments with low turnover.

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Stillwater Financial doesn't earn commissions on trades.

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   2. Own the Right Investments

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Not all investments are created equal.

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Just because you can invest your money into something (e.g., gold), does not mean you should!

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We only invest in asset classes that:

1. Are positively supported by peer-reviewed, academic research

2. Work well when invested together in a diversified portfolio (e.g., low and/or negative correlation to each other)

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For example, corporate bonds can behave like stocks during catastrophic events. That does not provide proper diversification for an investor who is in retirement.

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Stillwater Financial doesn't earn commissions on investment products.

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   3. Stick to the Plan

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As a fiduciary, our job is to make investment decisions that are in your best interest. This means ignoring the daily headlines and sticking with evidence-based solutions.

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There is always a reason to panic, but we don't have to.

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We stick to the plan because we know the market will recover.