Investing in Yourself

By Jeff Jones, NAPFA Chair

Each month, NAPFA Advisor has a general theme, such as estate planning, insurance, or retirement. This month’s theme is investing, which is not in my wheelhouse. I consider myself a financial planner rather than an investment advisor. In fact, our firm treats financial planners and investment advisors as two separate teams, although we work hand-in-hand to serve our clients. I often tell clients and prospects, “If you call to ask me what the market is doing, I’ll put you on hold and find out.” So writing an investment-focused article is not for me. However, I want to write about investing in ourselves and our firms.

The ideas I present below are not new. I’m not trailblazing here. I’m simply offering reminders of how we should occasionally turn our focus away from our clients and onto something just as important.

Taking Care of Ourselves

We should start by taking care of ourselves physically.

We spend a lot of our professional lives taking care of our clients’ financials and their life plans. Often, we even speak to them about their physical and emotional well-being and about taking care of themselves today and in retirement.

Why wouldn’t we do the same for ourselves? We should all be eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and drinking lots of water. Again, nothing groundbreaking here. I find it easy to come up with an excuse such as, “I don’t have time for it,” but if we don’t make time today, then we’re stealing time from our future. And for goodness’ sake, schedule that annual check-up with your doctor!

We also must take care of ourselves mentally and emotionally. If we’re natural empaths, working with clients can be emotionally exhausting. We take our clients’ problems and stresses to our offices and homes with us. I believe that every single one of us could benefit from a counselor. I have one, and I see them regularly whether I think I need to or not. They serve as outlets, third parties onto whom we can offload stress, anxiety, and worry. Many counselors now offer telemedicine calls; we can set aside an hour at our office or at home to spend time working on our mental health.

An area of weakness for me is learning to say “no.” I’m a people pleaser. That goes for my teammates in the firm, my clients, and even my NAPFA peers. So, when I say it’s OK to say no, I’m talking to myself as much as anything. There’s simply a limited supply of resources, energy, and time. Say “yes” to the things that matter the most to you and a gentle “no” when necessary.

Keep Learning!

Never stop learning. It’s an old adage. We learn in different ways. Some of us are visual learners, so a documentary teaches us a lot. Some of us prefer read-write learning, so a book may be more our style. Some of us are auditory learners, so an audiobook may be a better fit. However you learn, find something to stimulate your brain, and I don’t only mean learning about our trade. I’m talking about getting outside our comfort zones (I’m looking at you, history books!) to stretch our minds.

Our clients will be better served when we’ve prioritized our own well-being. Live by example. Until next time, cheers!