John Swolfs – Never Be Afraid to Ask a Financial Advisor When It Comes to Your Money

John Swolfs is CEO at Inside ETFs. Previously, he worked at BlackRock’s, one of the world’s largest asset managers, iShares team as a business development associate. In his previous role, Swolfs worked closely with both the Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and Independent Advisor community to help promote the use of ETFs and index investing. Before joining iShares, he worked as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. Swolfs is a graduate of SUNY Albany, where he majored in U.S. history. And a little bit of trivia, John worked for two years for the New York Mets.   “Before you invest, get professional help. It's out there, it's accessible, take advantage of it.” John Swolfs   Worst investment ever John’s worst investment happened when, despite being an expert in investing, he started believing that he could time the market. The financial advisor who wouldn’t listen to his advice John is always talking to his clients about thinking long-term and investing for the future. He has always advised them to do what's right for their portfolio and not to worry about what's happening in the market. He, however, took all of that knowledge and information and said that it was not for him. He ditched his thinking and decided to get tactical. He believed that he was smarter than anyone, i.e., that he was smarter than the market. To his clients, he would have told them that they can't do that, that that's foolish. That they need to build a position that allows them to be diversified and ride the markets out. But when it came to himself making the investment move, he thought he didn’t need to follow his own advice. Buying gold in a murky market John invested in gold in 2012, a time when there were a lot of concerns about inflation as the world was still not out of the global financial crisis. Against his better judgment, he bought $15,000 worth of gold, believing that the market would eventually pick up. The price of this investment has been going down since the day he bought it. It still pains him to have foolishly lost all that money. Lessons learned Stick with your allocations If you are building a strategic plan for your asset allocation, stick with it. Avoid personal bias Don’t let personal bias or emotional attachment get you stuck with an investment for too long. Diversify your portfolio Opportunity cost is real when it comes to investing. Build an...