Portfolio Overprotection May Be the New Game in Investing

The great Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once said, “Defense wins championships,” and you can bet that every great coach in every sport has tried that same Crimson Tide philosophy.

Just think about some of the great sports dynasties, teams that won championships year after year: the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi, the Boston Celtics under Red Auerbach, and the Yankees under Joe Torre. You could go on and on.

All of these teams knew how to score, yes, but they all started with the premise that a strong defense made their offense better. Strategically, they knew how to win games. Still, they focused first on strategies that ensured they wouldn’t lose.

That same approach is critical when it comes to your finances and, in particular, saving and investing for retirement. When you’re talking about your “life savings,” losses can potentially have a huge impact on your life!

Again, the fact of the matter is, this very thing has happened to domestic investors in the United States twice in the last fifteen years. Remember, from January 2000 through March 2003, the Standards & Poor’s 500 stock index dropped nearly 50 percent and took until October 2007 to recover. It took approximately three years for the market to drop that much and then four and a half years to make a 100 percent gain and get back to where it was some seven and a half years earlier. Then it dropped again—this time, 56.77 percent—and again took roughly six years to recover to its previous high. That’s two drops of approximately 50 percent and subsequent rebounds from 2000 to 2013. Are those the kind of founding principles on which you want to build your future? The defensive money strategies called over protection can guard gains and mitigate losses.

Major contributions to this press release are directly from David’s newest book entitled, “Return on Principle: 7 Core Values to Help Protect Your Money in Good Times and Bad.” David has also authored the critically acclaimed book, “Stop The Financial Insanity, How to Keep Wall Street's Cancer from Spreading to Your Portfolio." David is not only a best selling author, but also a popular platform speaker and TV talk show host of the Income Generation. David’s credentials include CFP, CFA, MSFS, CLU & ChFC.