Coach Sam takes on a select number of clients to help every year. Almost all the consultations happen via telephone or video conferencing (Zoom, meet etc). 

The first conversation is usually about 30 minutes. This is for the client and Coach Sam to understand each other, and see if there is a fit. There is often a significant exchange of valuable ideas during this call.Once a fit has been established, on the next call, a plan of action is created.

One of the first steps is determining the investor’s risk profile (tolerance for asset price volatility).Depending on the investor, we may need to go through a few foundational financial planning calculations, and arrive at key wealth ratios.This is also an education service – where the client learns about investing the right way, gains insights about his/her own self, understands where exactly he/she is allocating his/her capital to, and why. Coach Sam’s main role is that of an advisor. To that effect, all of the client’s capital is invested in their accounts that they themselves open with respectable financial institutions. Thus, you own and manage your accounts yourself. We are here to guide you. On a regular basis, Sam suggests changes to the portfolio as needed. As a coach, Sam also helps his clients by providing perspective when they have doubts and fears arise, as they often can. 

Because this is not a trading service, there will be very few transactions in any given year. We are not trying to “time” the market, as that has proven to be an unwise endeavor. 

The key attributes of a good financial portfolio are:

• Liquidity – easy, quick, and cheap to sell and buy; no lock-in period and penalties for early withdrawals 
• Diversification – lowers risk of loss by spreading the “eggs” into just the right number of different baskets
• Quality – buying good assets at a fair price (or cheaper)
• Long term time horizon (holding period) – again, lowers risk while allowing the “magic” of compound interest to work
• Low cost – even a couple of percentage points wasted on unnecessary expenses every year can add up to big losses in a decade or more

Keeping the above in mind, for defensive or passive investors, a bulk of the capital is advised to be invested in a selection of low-cost blue-chip index-tracking funds from developed countries around the world (not actively managed i.e. high cost mutual funds / unit trusts). We also recommend bonds (i.e. fixed-income securities) that balance the exposure to equities (i.e. common stocks of companies).

For aggressive / entrepreneurial investors, one can have a portfolio which has selected company stocks rather than the whole index. For this, the golden rule is “research reduces risk”. 

Our service exists because many investors would like the safety of being guided by someone they can trust. It also exists to save them from excessive fees & charges for financial products that do not deserve being bought, as well as irreparably costly bad advice.