Our ability to take great care of the independent community pharmacists we work with is driven in a large part by our process of continuous discovery. At the beginning of every relationship, we use a formal discovery process to assess our new client's current situation in a number of key areas. Among those areas is the strategy they use to manage their assets.

In the majority of cases, we find that even the most established pharmacists have an asset strategy by default rather than by design. What this means is they make investment decisions based on what looks good at the time. Over the years, investment performance based decisions create an asset strategy by default.  

Another tendency we have observed is the tendency to get “tunnel vision”. This occurs when they pick an asset allocation for individual accounts (e.g.: 401k) without considering how it fits into their overall asset strategy... mostly because there is no overall strategy!

To avoid performance-driven choices and tunnel vision account management, here is a five-step polanning process we recommend you try:

1. Define what Success and Happiness means to you. What is your vision for a great, even inspired life in pharmacy, outside of pharmacy and after pharmacy? What are your goals to live your ideal happy life? With this definition, you can then create a life plan that defines where you are going and why. Your life plan includes spiritual, physical, family, social, knowledge, and beauty (art, nature, music, etc) goals, in addition to your financial goals.
2. When it comes to your financial goals we believe everyone has three basic financial objectives, financial security, standard of living and wealth accumulation. Emotionally these correlate to fear, pleasure and greed. Defining these objectives enables you to refine your strategy.
3. Your must employ offensive and defensive strategies. Begin by understanding the risk versus reward each assets each asset represents. This includes the risk you are taking in your pharmacy. The path to success is not taking as much risk as you can stand, but rather to take only as much risk as you need to achieve your goals.
4. Defining (and refining) your strategy enables you to better manage your various plans. Plans to consider are estate, retirement, business, compensation, investment and tax. Remember, a decision made in any one of these planning areas can affect all the others. These plans must be coordinated and aligned with your strategy, goals and vision. 
5. With your strategy well-defined, and a big-picture understanding of how all of your plans work together, you can then assess the available investment products. Determining your financial objectives, defining your strategy, coordinating and aligning your plans enables you to choose the right mix of low risk, moderate risk and high risk products by design.

Surrounding and imbedded in each of these five steps are your economic assumptions. Critical to the decision process, your assumptions must be known and in the forefront of your thinking. For example, we believe the economy is unpredictable and that no one can accurately predict what inflation rates, interest rates, bond prices, real estate values, the stock market, industry sectors, or individual stocks will do. Nobel prize winning research and continued research proves this.

We simply don’t know if the economy is going to get better, stay the same or get worse. The five-step asset strategy I have described will enable you to develop a plan for achieving your goals and objectives no matter what the economy or life reveals. 

If you would like to learn about how to put the five-step asset strategy to work, clieck below to request a copy of one of our many educational modules titled: How to Develop a Financial Plan That Really Works.

Where does this wisdom come from?

The content of this blog is inspired and substantiated by our experience helping independent community pharmacists enjoy financial independence during and after their life in pharmacy. When a pharmacist reaches out to us for information and help, we endeavor to give them as much free value as is possible. In addition to providing educational and strategic planning tools (like the educational module: How to Develop a Financial Plan That Really Works.), we invite qualified pharmacists into our formal discovery process.

The first step of the process is completing The Inspired Goals Workshop. This 90-minute session enables us to deliver a detailed and personal Inspired Independence Blueprint. The blueprint provides a personalized roadmap for achieving your goals and enables you to fully understand the value of joining The Inspired Independence Program.

If you wish to learn more about any aspect of our work, the free value we offer, or to be considered for The Inspired Goals Workshop, visit our web site at www.waypointus.com or call 843.873.4420 and ask for Ben or Matt Coakley.

At Waypoint Pharmacy Advisors, we take care of you!

Read more about David Plaisance here.