Being left in the dark is damaging in more ways than one. Investing mistakes aren’t just expensive; they can cost you your retirement. More and more pressure is being put on the ability of investments to earn healthy returns, yet people are losing money through no fault of their own because they aren’t getting straight answers to their question.

So many of our clients come from situations where they aren’t being serviced and they haven’t been taught the pros and cons of the different products they’re using. Even the alternative, going it alone and following outdated advice, doggedly holding onto stock portfolios as companies like Enron go down like the Titanic, can end up costing you money. The key findings of the 22^nd annual Dalbar study also report that in 2015, the average equity mutual fund investor underperformed the S&P 500 by a margin of 3.66 percent. Investors taking a different approach might run for the banks. There, you can purchase bank CDs where you earn so little, you end up doing what we in the industry call “going broke safely.”

There is no reason you should have to suffer the indignity of a retirement portfolio that is subpar, earning less than what it could, with balances at a fraction of what you deserve. You do have other options.

Every advisor out there no doubt has opinions on which investments are best, and which ones have the potential to earn the highest returns. You also no doubt have your own. We’re not here to present you with our opinions (although at times we might, in which case we’ll let you know). Rather, we consider it our duty as fiduciaries to lay out the facts, not opinions. The more facts you know, the better equipped you’ll be to form opinions of your own. This is important, because regardless of how much your broker stands to make in commissions from your investments, nobody cares more about your money than you do.

If you have worked multiple decades to get to where you’re at now, if you have arrived and are wondering how to best proceed, we’re here to offer you some straight talk about the multiple options that are available to you.

What’s the catch?

The only thing that we want you to catch is a retirement, or maybe a fish from the bow of your craft as you sail away into a peaceful sunset.

Here’s to a great escape.

-Matt Goolsby, Market Advisory Group