If you and your spouse have different employers it may be difficult to think in terms of a joint retirement plan. The common situation our firm runs into is one of the spouses works for a university that we service and the other works outside of any university system. I’ve coined the joke with some of our members, sometimes we inherit the spouses as clients, “for better or for worse”. But all jokes aside, this lack of continuity and clarity is a very big fear that I hear from potential clients. So how do we overcome this fear and lack of clarity? One of the things we have done for clients is provided a centralized place to link their finances together via our website and app. This allows for a “household view” of all of your retirement accounts despite the employer or company they are sponsored by. Our client portal allows clients to have a clear view and understanding of all of their investments, all of the time. This eliminates a lot of the confusion and fog around where you are really at when it comes to your finances and retirement. This doesn’t solve the problem completely though. Even if we can see everything in one place this doesn’t mean we are on track or invested properly. One of the most common mistakes we see in a household is spouses being invested and contributing to their retirement plans in completely different ways. One may be aggressive, one may be conservative, one may be contributing more than needed, one may be contributing less than needed, etc. Having an investment advisor discuss the whole of the portfolio with you and figuring out specifically why the money is invested the way it is helps clients create wealth more efficiently. Coming together with a statement of purpose, or some defined goal can unite the household as a unit. You know what they say, “a house divided cannot stand”.
If you or your spouse are unclear about how to manage the household finances, and would like a second opinion, please reach out to us via the contact button below. We look forward to helping you create wealth!