How To Know When To Reorder Your Priorities—Ask These 2 Questions
Hustle culture and the ever-shortening form of advice have led to the deification of undying devotion—whether to a cause, a goal, or a priority. This oversimplification is also prominent in financial planning.
Of course, courage in the face of adversity is laudable, generically speaking, but wisdom is rarely rigid. Wisdom pauses, asks more questions, considers, calibrates, compromises, and yes—wisdom changes course.
This week, we’ll offer two questions that can guide you in knowing if—and when—it’s time to reorder your priorities in life and money.
If you’d prefer to watch and listen to this new post, click HERE!
And while Tony’s enjoying time with his family in Disney, Nick Amat will bring us up to speed on the market’s happenings from the past week in a piece entitled “The Mirage Of Certainty.”
Thanks for joining us for this week’s FLiP weekly!
Tim
Tim Maurer, CFP®, RLP®
Chief Advisory Officer
In this FLiP weekly you'll find:
Financial LIFE Planning:
How To Know When To Reorder Your Priorities
Quote O' The Week:
Indra Nooyi
Weekly Market Update:
The Mirage Of Certainty
Financial LIFE Planning
How To Know When To Reorder Your Priorities
John Maynard Keynes, one of history’s most influential economists, put it simply: “When the facts change, I change my mind.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson put it even more sharply: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi echoed this idea through a modern leadership lens: “There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. Because if you always have one eye on some future goal, you stop paying attention to the job at hand.”
So, how do we make our minds bigger? Wiser? In financial life planning, in particular, it’s by asking two simple questions.
2 Simple Questions
1. What has changed in your life?
2. What has changed with your money?
Financial advisor note: You could do worse than to start your client meetings with these two questions, or even the more open-ended question, “Has anything changed since we last talked?”
Let me give you a very real-life personal example that illustrates the vital importance of assimilating new information into our decision-making:
In March of 2023, my plans were crystal clear. My wife and I had a clearly defined set of priorities. With one child in college and another wrapping up his junior year of high school, we planned to stay where we were—in Mount Pleasant, SC, walking distance from said high school and just a bridge or two away from the beach and downtown Charleston.
After our youngest graduated from high school, we had every intention of taking advantage of relatively early empty-nesthood. We planned to move to a cobblestone street in the heart of Charleston or maybe even a bungalow on the Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island, a short walk from the beach and a slew of great restaurants where flip-flops are always welcome.
We’d live simply and leave space for visits with our boys, travel, the work we both love, and, of course, each other. We had it all figured out.
Then, to our shock and amazement, my wife got pregnant.
Yes, yes, we know how that happens and how it’s generally prevented, but suffice it to say that we didn’t think, and had reason to believe, that pregnancy was not medically possible for us at that time.
We were wrong. And, as you can imagine, this new information immediately triggered a series of shifts in our priorities.
What had changed in life? We were no longer early empty nesters—quite the opposite, we were older new parents!
For us, the idea of downsizing to downtown or the beach was an immediate non-starter. Now, we needed more space and access to the right schools, all at a price we could afford in a rapidly rising interest rate environment.
Yes, life had changed dramatically, and those changes would also have meaningful implications in our financial planning. And we kept asking more questions that were even scarier to consider, like: “Well, if our previous plans and priorities were now kaput, should we consider an even more drastic change to set our family up for success over the next, say, 20 years?”
We wiped the slate completely clean and started a new plan. You know by now that we didn’t move to the beach bungalow—and we didn’t even stay in town. We decided that the best move for us was to move to a completely different environment that we felt was the most conducive to the new phase of our journey, landing in Roswell, GA, just north of Atlanta, where my company is headquartered. We were able to get more house in a great school district that is also closer to both of the older kids’ colleges.
Nothing is perfect, but it’s our personal panacea.
Application
At this point, you might see my suggestion—that we must be willing to alter our priorities—as self-evident. Still, I invite you to consider for a moment the times in your life that you, or someone else, has heaped shame on you for choosing to change course in life, or in dealing with your money.
What about right now? Are you living the life you chose, as the sage Jason Isbell asks? Or have outdated priorities backed you into a corner? Have you made yourself beholden to an arbitrary number or net worth?
One of the biggest mistakes I see in wealth management is inflexible plans and priorities. If I could query the broader financial advisory industry, I promise you that those of us who’ve been in this profession for any length of time have stopped counting the number of times we’ve told an individual or family that they could’ve retired years earlier or changed careers sooner or lived somewhere else or otherwise activated their wealth more creatively.
So, let’s not do that. Let’s ask these questions: “What’s changed in my life?” and “What’s changed with my money?” at least annually—and then, let’s have the courage to quit, the freedom to flex, and the wisdom to reimagine our most meaningful life.
This article was originally published in Forbes.com.
Quote O' The Week
From the former CEO of Pepsi:
Indra Nooyi
"There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. Because if you always have one eye on some future goal, you stop paying attention to the job at hand."
Weekly Market Update
A decent start to the week ended with the worst day of the year:
- 1.66% .SPX (500 U.S. large companies)
- 0.95% IWD (U.S. large value companies)
- 3.62% IWM (U.S. small companies)
- 3.13% IWN (U.S. small value companies)
- 0.35% EFV (International value companies)
- 0.61% SCZ (International small companies)
+ 0.41% VGIT (U.S. intermediate-term Treasury bonds
The Mirage Of Certainty
Contributed by Nick Amat, CFA®, CAIA® Senior Portfolio Designer, SignatureFD
Investors are wired to seek clarity on inflation, Fed policy, corporate earnings, and economic growth. But history has shown that markets rarely offer a clear roadmap. Instead, some of the best returns have come when uncertainty was at its peak. The urge to wait for “confirmation” can be costly, as markets tend to move ahead of improving fundamentals.
Consider April 2020, when markets surged despite no clear end to the pandemic. Or March 2009, when the S&P 500 bottomed even as unemployment rose. Even further back, in the early 1980s, equities began rallying well before inflation was under control and the Fed had definitively shifted course. By the time the economic data confirmed stability, the market had already priced it in.
Today, uncertainty looms. Questions around Fed policy, global trade wars, geopolitical tension, and corporate earnings keep many investors cautious. But is waiting for clarity a prudent risk-management strategy or a behavioral trap that leads to missed opportunities? Loss aversion and recency bias often lead investors to delay decisions but history suggests that uncertainty creates opportunity.
Already, markets are showing early signs of resilience, corporate earnings revisions have stabilized, market breadth is improving, and risk assets are firming. Could this be another case of markets leading the fundamentals? If history is any guide, investing through uncertainty, rather than waiting for it to pass, has often been the better path.
The Message from Our Indicators
January’s inflation report came in hotter than expected, with CPI rising 0.5% month-over-month and 3.0% year-over-year, the highest annual increase since June 2024. The most significant contributors were energy and food, particularly a 15% spike in egg prices due to an avian flu outbreak. Core inflation (excluding food and energy) remains stubborn at 3.3% year-over-year, unchanged for eight consecutive months. Notable drivers included car insurance, vehicle prices, lodging, and airfare.
Despite the strong print, we view this as a one-off event rather than the start of a renewed inflationary trend. We believe inflation is likely to remain range-bound, not reaccelerating. Supporting this view, oil prices declined from $80 to $72 per barrel thus far in February. Additionally, January showed a slowdown in consumer spending, likely due to consumer fatigue and adverse weather conditions (wildfires and snowstorms).
On the growth front, the Conference Board projects 2025 GDP growth at 2.3%, while the Philadelphia Fed’s General Business Activity index fell more than expected in February. While still in expansion territory, the index reflects moderating optimism in manufacturing.
The monetary backdrop remains bullish, even as markets adjust to expectations for only two Fed rate cuts in 2025. Sticky inflation and the potential for inflationary tariffs continue to influence Fed decision-making.
This week’s data on CEO confidence and unemployment reinforced this backdrop. CEO optimism hit a three-year high, with executives focusing on pro-growth policies (such as deregulation and tax cuts) as potential offsets to regulatory risks. Meanwhile, jobless claims ticked higher but remain within their post-2021 range, signaling a resilient labor market, a key reason the Fed remains cautious on rate cuts.
While US equity valuations remain stretched, especially in the “Mag 7” stocks, we’re seeing a notable resurgence in European and international equities. After underperforming the US in 8 of the last 10 years, developed and emerging markets are leading in 2025, up 8.5% and 7.7%, respectively.
Although Mag 7 stocks have contributed over half of the S&P 500’s gains in the past two years, their dominance shows signs of fatigue. Even with 25% earnings growth in Q4, their performance has started to moderate. More importantly, the broader market is strengthening with S&P 500 earnings (excluding Mag 7) on track for 17% profit growth, exceeding the 13% consensus estimate.
Despite concerns over trade tensions, sticky inflation, and increasing AI competition, equity markets continue to find support from strong corporate fundamentals and earnings momentum.
The bullish trend remains intact, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ hovering near all-time highs. Meanwhile, international markets are showing early leadership in 2025. Ned Davis Research’s Global Recession Model hit its lowest level since October 2021, reflecting a solid global economy and strong market momentum.
That said, risks remain. Geopolitical tensions, global trade uncertainty, and inflationary pressures could slow central bank easing worldwide. While these challenges warrant caution, we believe the overall outlook for equities remains constructive as markets continue to climb the wall of worry.
Here’s to your worry-free weekend! :-)
Tim