The Prudent Investor Blog

Our common sense tells us that we have to base our investment program on reality to be successful.  In philosophy, our worldview contains our most basic assumptions about the world and the things we accept as true about the world.  The practical decisions we make everyday flow from our worldview.  The starting place for a prudent investor to judge investments, financial advice and financial advisors is economic reality. 

As an independent Registered Investment Advisor with offices in both Summerville, South Carolina and Asheville, North Carolina, Waypoint is ever aware of uncertainty.  This is the uncertainty of Mother Nature.  This is particularly true during hurricane season in Summerville.  Being twenty miles from the coast, we have learned to be vigilante of the tropics from June until November.  If you become complacent, Mother Nature will send you a reminder of why this is not a good idea.  Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was that reminder for many South Carolinians.  In Asheville, freak blizzards in the winter can reak havoc.  In fact, two winters ago, one of our advisors got pretty comfortable working from home (when he had power) because he was unable to get down the mountain for days even weeks at a time.  So living with this natural uncertainty is a way of life for us at Waypoint.  Uncertainty also exists in the financial markets.  The past couple of years have been very uncertain with the housing market crash, debt issues in Europe and many other factors.  This has wreaked havoc in the financial world.  It is very imporant to know that there is nothing a prudent investor can do about uncertainty whether the financial or natural kind.