When I became a mom, I always thought I would be teaching my kids things, not the other way around, especially when it comes to what I do for a living. But as they say—out of the mouth of babes. . . .

One morning recently, I was anxious to take the kids to my parents’ house to go swimming. We’ve been isolating inside like the rest of the world due to the current pandemic, but have been fortunate enough to be able to keep my family in our “bubble.”

My husband and I have three beautiful girls: Dilynn (4), Nora (2), and Harlowe (10 mos). Dilynn is my most tenacious. As we were putting on our shoes to leave, she asked if she could go pack her backpack. Knowing she would put up a fight if I said no, I told her to go pack it quickly.

After a minute or two, Dilynn hadn’t returned. I found her in her room just looking around. Somewhat annoyed, I told her to just grab Puppy (her favorite stuffed animal) and Cozy (her favorite blanket). She pushed back (did I mention her tenacity?) and said she always brings Puppy and Cozy and that she needed to pack other things. She then asked me, “Mom, where are we going? I need to know if I should pack my mittens or a bathing suit.”

That question, out of the mouth of my four-year-old daughter, really made clear just how important it is to know your destination before you pack. Similarly, as advisors, our clients’ life goals—their destination—are so important for us to know before we can create their portfolio allocation. We probably all remember our favorite stuffed animal or special blanket/comfort item, which is, as Dilynn pointed out, an essential item we always pack. Similarly, certain assets like stocks and bonds are essential parts of every portfolio. However, at Morton Capital, we believe that diversification beyond those two asset classes is crucial when trying to mitigate risk and customize our strategy to help clients achieve success. How we choose which additional investments to add to the portfolio is guided by the client’s goals/destination. We need to know if a client needs mittens (maybe that is something that provides more long-term appreciation) or if they need a bathing suit (maybe that is something with less liquidity risk that provides monthly cash flow).

Furthermore, when I first found Dilynn in her room, she wasn’t just stuffing things in her bag. She was looking around. She was taking inventory. To be able to pack for your destination, you have to know what you have first (and what you might be missing). As advisors, we feel this “taking inventory” step, what we call data gathering, is the most important part of the process when it comes to creating a dynamic financial plan that gives our clients control over their long-term financial decisions. Thus, we spend a significant amount of time on data gathering, asking for a breakdown of expenses (such as how much you spend on dining out vs. groceries), mortgage statements, bank statements, insurance policies, and tax returns. Many of our clients assume that providing us with broad income and expense numbers will give us sufficient information to produce an accurate plan, or one that is “close enough.” However, this could mean that you might end up packing a bathing suit when what you really need is a pair of mittens, or, worse, packing half a bathing suit and one mitten (i.e., close but not enough).

It is easy to get stuck in the rhythm of our day-to-day routine. I talk to clients all the time about what we do and why we do it. However, this particular morning with Dilynn really made our process and the reasons behind it more tangible for me. I can’t wait to see what she teaches me next.

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Read Chris Galeski's article: Life Lessons for My Daughter