Principles Matter More in Retirement

Investing during your working years can feel like a game: you contribute regularly, ride out the dips, and trust that time will do the heavy lifting. But retirement flips the script. Now the game is preservation, precision, and purpose. Every dollar has a job — and a timeline.

That’s why principles-based investing becomes essential. It’s not about chasing trends or timing markets. It’s about building a system designed to endure. A system grounded in research, shaped by your real-life needs, and resilient enough to keep you calm when the world gets LOUD.

As Morgan Housel says, “Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions. It’s about consistently not screwing up.” That’s why I build plans that prioritize alignment and consistency — especially when the stakes are high.

Afterall, when the paycheck stops, your portfolio becomes the engine. Principles are the maintenance manual. Without them, it’s easy to veer off course.

At Encore, I don’t follow hunches. I follow principles — time-tested, tax-aware, and tailored to you.

🎯Principle 1

Align your money with your mindset.

Before any investment recommendation, I start by helping you clarify how you want your retirement income to work.
You’ll take the Retirement Income Style Awareness (RISA®) assessment, which reveals your preferences across four key styles:

Total-Return Investing
Time-Segmentation
Risk-Wrap
Protected Income

This avoids the cookie-cutter approach. Your investment strategy won’t just reflect your timeline — it will reflect you.

This structure helps us manage the kind of risk that actually matters — not just volatility, but the potential for permanent capital loss. As Howard Marks puts it: “Risk means more things can happen than will happen.” My goal is to make sure you’re never forced to sell low because your needs weren’t planned for.

🌍Principle 2

Long-term performance is 90% about the mix, not the picks.

Stock picking is exciting. But research shows it’s asset allocation — not individual stocks — that drives long-term results.
We rely on tools like capital market expectations and mean-variance optimization to build resilient, evidence-backed portfolios.

As Dimensional Fund Advisors puts it:

“Structure beats prediction.”

🔍Principle 3

Do what works.

We don’t chase headlines. We favor persistent, research-backed investment factors:

✅ Profitable companies
📦 Smaller firms
🚀 Stocks with positive momentum

These aren’t fads. They’re long-term advantages backed by academic research (Fama-French, DFA). A small tilt toward the right factors can do a lot over time — without requiring you to outguess the market.

💸Principle 4

Keep costs low — and know what you’re paying for.

Some fees are easy to see. Others are buried deep in product complexity — annuities, direct indexing platforms, or fund-of-funds structures that quietly eat into your return.

As Morgan Housel puts it:

“The most important part of every plan is to plan on your plan not going according to plan.”

We prioritize transparency and cost efficiency. You should always know what you’re paying for — and why.

⚖️ Principle 5

Rebalance with discipline.

This is how you buy low and sell high — on purpose.

We rebalance when:

Economic conditions shift
Portfolio weights drift from their targets

Howard Marks calls this “second-level thinking” — understanding not just what changed, but what it means.

In taxable accounts, we rebalance more carefully, weighing tax impacts alongside opportunity.

🧾 Principle 6

Do your tax planning before December 31

Most financial advisors don’t do taxes. Most tax pros don’t do investment planning. That leaves a lot of money on the table.

At Encore, I do both — because managing your effective marginal tax rate can add meaningful, compounding value over time. Research shows this kind of proactive planning can meaningfully add to your net worth — just by making smarter timing decisions.

📣 Want a second opinion?

Let’s apply these six principles to your situation.
You don’t need to predict the future.
Just build a system that doesn’t fall apart when it shows up.

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