The Wealth Group – Austin B. Colby & Associates is a Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed here.
MINNESOTA
14850 SCENIC HEIGHTS RD, STE 100 EDEN PRAIRIE, MN 55344
(952) 937-9423
TENNESSEE
725 COOL SPRINGS BLVD, STE 445 FRANKLIN, TN 37067
(615) 395-8600
VIRTUAL OFFICE NATIONALLY VIA ZOOM
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and minor in Christian Studies from North Central Universit
“I have always had an interest in personal finance. Having a plan and setting goals for your financial life enables you to accomplish things that otherwise would never be possible. A thousand small steps in the right direction can lead to a life of stability and ability—The Wealth Group exists to help plot that course and keep our clients on track.”
Even as a young adult, keeping her finances in order and planning for the future has allowed Paige to experience wealth as a blessing rather than a stressor. She wants people to know that same freedom, especially when life gets complicated.
I enjoy helping our clients make good decisions with their money. It’s rewarding to watch our clients build wealth with us at their side. When I see a young family cross the $1 million net worth mark — after starting with our team with a net worth of $200,000 — it’s an awesome feeling.
As our clients continue to focus on the things they can control, such as paying down debt and adding money to their investment portfolio year after year, I have noticed that it becomes easier to stomach the (inevitable) bear market. Over my time at The Wealth Group, I have learned that good financial behaviors never go into a recession.
When I’m not at The Wealth Group I enjoy spending time with my wife and three children. Together we like to be outdoors, play sports, and be active participants at our church.
“I am passionate about my work because I think it is important to make wise, informed decisions with our finances as it permeates into all aspects of our lives. Just as people strive to maintain balance in their overall lives, financial wellness and understanding in your personal life is just as important. ”
“I have realized there are so many people in the world today who are unsure of how to save or plan for the future. They live paycheck to paycheck and think debt is normal. We get to help people realize that there’s a different way to live. We get to help people who feel hopeless finally find a clear path for the future while taking control of their finances for the first time. When people are proactive rather than reactive, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.
Karie’s main role is managing the onboarding process for new clients. She works hard to ensure a seamless transition and to make all clients feel welcome and cared for. As the Director of Client Services, she oversees the Client Services team, plans client events, processes monetary transfers, handles paperwork for clients and helps to manage the day-to-day operations of the office.
“I love being able to see and contribute to the confidence in the families we help when they know they are taking the correct steps towards financial independence. I truly enjoy building relationships with people. The work I do with The Wealth Group gives me the opportunity to do this by building a relationship that will last a lifetime.”
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™, and CFP® in the U.S.
“I love working alongside the people at The Wealth Group. Additionally, my younger brother (and now boss) and I have wanted to work together for years. When the opportunity arose within The Wealth Group I jumped at the chance. I have always had a passion for personal finance and investing; the transition into this investment-focused role was a natural one for me.”
Developing and stress-testing the firm’s asset allocation models is a passion of Adam’s. You may often find him assessing risk metrics for client portfolios and the broader global markets as well as trading and rebalancing client portfolios.
Investments & Wealth Institute TM (The Institute) is the owner of the certification mark “CIMA” and “Certified Investment Management Analyst.” Use of CIMA and/or Certified Investment Management Analyst signifies that the user has successfully completed The Institute’s initial and ongoing credentialing requirements for investment management professional.
From childhood, I was strongly interested in working hard, making money, and most importantly, saving money. Today, I use that passion to empower our clients to succeed with their money. A lot of people experience unnecessary stress and anxiety in their financial lives.
After college, I worked in a large bank and began investing on my own for the first time. I remember plugging numbers into a Roth IRA Calculator and realizing the power of compounding from an early age. I was amazed at how [seemingly] easy investing was…not realizing that bear markets are what make investing challenging. A few years into my career as a financial advisor, the Great Recession (2007-2009) hit, and I gained a lot of crucial experience in a short period.
Those lessons from the Great Recession will stick with me for the rest of my life. I learned not to over-extend myself on real estate, to never sell out of stocks during a bear market, the power of being 100% debt-free (including no mortgage), and also the opportunities in stocks that arise from the ashes of a deep bear market.
Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” We aim to be those counselors that provide knowledge and safety for our clients.
A good financial advisor should have the heart of a teacher. Through our relationship, we aim for our clients to grow in knowledge and mastery over their finances. We want them to be the driver of their financial plan, with us as their sidekick/coach to help them realize their plans and goals.
I have been quoted as a financial expert in Fox Business, U.S. News & World Report, Yahoo! News, GOBanking Rates, Lifehacker, and Business Insider.
More important than my role at The Wealth Group is my position as a redeemed son of God, husband to Krista, and father to five children.
“I want people to succeed at life and that includes guiding them to achieve sound money management. I enjoy helping individuals and businesses make beneficial decisions in regards to money and investment management. Long range planning is one of my professional passions and moving people from the thought of retirement to the reality of retirement is something I enjoy assisting our clients with.”
Paul has more than 25 years of experience advising business owners and affluent individuals about their finances. Paul has achieved the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. Being a CFP® professional enables him to help clients focus on what is important to them. He has also earned the Chartered Retirement Plan Counselor (CRPC®) designation, which demonstrates his expertise in the area of retirement financial planning for individuals.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™, and CFP® in the U.S.
“I believe every family can achieve their financial goals if the path to do so is clear. This work of building paths and guiding clients along those paths is my passion, and it brings me tremendous joy. After twenty years of doing this, I am more excited today than ever about helping families with their finances. Helping one family at a time make good choices makes a difference. I believe that wholeheartedly and am thankful for the opportunity to serve so many people in this capacity.”
Austin is the owner and visionary behind The Wealth Group. His #1 responsibility is to lead our team in devotion to the mission: providing quality financial planning and investment management to the firm’s clients.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™, and CFP® in the U.S.
The Bitcoin Article You Have Been Waiting For (tongue planted firmly in cheek)
By Mike Earl, CFP®, CPWA®
The last time I wrote about bitcoin on our blog was September 13, 2018. I was dunking on bitcoin back then, gloating about how smart we and our clients were for avoiding this asset during the late-2017 hype that drove bitcoin up to $19,835. That post hasn’t aged very well.
And, you know what? This post may not age well either. Predictions are the toughest game in town. An impossible task. I won’t make any price predictions on bitcoin today, but I will share a bit of what I have learned about bitcoin.
Alas, lest you think I was always a bitcoin skeptic, you may recall I was a relatively early adopter to bitcoin (in a very small way), having purchased my first coin in December 2013 for $642. Yet I sold that one bitcoin less than 30 days later, for a world-beating return of 27.6% (net of transaction costs).
Had I held onto that one coin until today, my return would stand at 7,650% — and its value around $45,000.
Had I invested $10,000 that day into bitcoin (a big “what if”, I know), that $10,000 investment would be worth over $700,000 today.
This illustrates one of the most challenging questions that comes with making any concentrated investment bet – whether it be a stock, a private equity investment, a cryptocurrency, or a sector of the market: “when do I sell it?” “What would be a good return on this one?”
By human nature, we tend to sell our winners too soon and keep our losers too long.
Back to bitcoin. Bitcoiners talk about going “down the bitcoin rabbit hole” when they start learning about bitcoin. And it’s true: there is so much you can learn about bitcoin. Books, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos…a lot of content has been created in the bitcoin space.
My post today is meant to be an introduction of sorts to bitcoin, written to our clients. I will likely circle back in future posts with content that goes a bit deeper into the rabbit hole.
The questions you might have about bitcoin:
What is bitcoin?
It’s digital money. Think of it like digital gold. It’s a store of value.
Should I care about bitcoin?
Yes. Even if you decide not to own any bitcoin yourself, it’s a fascinating story unfolding in our time. And, it may become much more than simply a fascinating story; it has the potential to reform money as we know it (albeit a small chance).
Can I own bitcoin in my Raymond James accounts?
Not directly. At this point, the SEC has not warmed up to bitcoin (or crypto in general), so there are no US-based bitcoin investment products.
There are methods for gaining indirect exposure to bitcoin within a Raymond James investment account, but the best way to gain exposure to bitcoin is through buying bitcoin. 😉
Why are you only talking about bitcoin – what about all the other cryptocurrencies?
There are currently 11,860 cryptocurrencies in circulation, trading on 409 different exchanges (the most well-known exchange in America is Coinbase).
Bitcoin is the largest (in terms of value held in the coin) and most well-known of the cryptocurrencies. The second largest is Ethereum. Bitcoin currently has a global market cap of $840 billion, vs. $378 billion stored in Ethereum.
As Lord of the Rings had “one ring to rule them all”, so I believe the crypto space has one coin to rule them all: bitcoin.
Do I need to buy one whole bitcoin to start investing?
No. Each bitcoin is divisible into 100 million units, called satoshis (or “sats”, for short). Assume a person invested $450 into bitcoin with bitcoin trading at $45,000:
$450 divided by $45,000 = 0.01 bitcoins = 1/100th of a bitcoin = 1,000,000 satoshis
Now you can see where the phrase “stacking sats” comes from. You can impress the Millennial or Gen Z-er in your life by casually mentioning that you are busy stacking sats.
Who created bitcoin?
We don’t know. This is a big part of what makes bitcoin folklore so fascinating. An author (or authors) writing under the pen name “Satoshi Nakamoto” published a whitepaper on October 31, 2008, titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.
This founding took place at the depth of the Financial Crisis – with Satoshi expressing frustration at bank bailouts.
Won’t the US government ban bitcoin?
As a digital asset, bitcoin can’t be banned – wherever Internet access exists, Bitcoin exists. But there are a number of steps a government can take to hurt bitcoin. A couple of examples:
Why do I see both bitcoin (lowercase b) and Bitcoin (uppercase B) used?
The lowercase b “bitcoin” refers to the unit of currency. The uppercase B “Bitcoin” refers to the network, or protocol. You can read more about that distinction at this Wired article.
Is bitcoin volatile?
Yes, it’s very volatile. It’s not uncommon to see bitcoin’s price decline by 10% in a 24-hour period, or 20-30% in a single weekend.
But bitcoin also has a lot of upside volatility. Considering that bitcoin began trading in July 2010 as low as $0.0008 per BTC, it’s annualized rate of return since then is nearly 400% — over a period of more than 11 years.
For those who began investing in bitcoin in April of this year (when bitcoin peaked at nearly $65,000), they are still sitting at a meaningful loss (or decline, since it’s not a loss until you sell!) after a 5-month holding period. Not fun.
If you want to invest in bitcoin, you should enter with a plan to hold it for years, not months or days.
Is anyone using bitcoin for transactions? Isn’t that important?
Bitcoin is not currently being used much in actual commerce. But I don’t think that matters (at least not yet). Gold isn’t being used for day-to-day transactions, but that doesn’t prevent it from having value as a store of wealth. This is why some folks refer to bitcoin as “Digital Gold” or “Gold 2.0”.
Where do we go from here?
As your financial advisors, we are always here to have a conversation with you. We can’t give blanket advice that applies to everyone, but we can talk to you about how bitcoin may or may not fit into your long-term financial goals.
Austin and I like to say that we won’t be surprised if bitcoin trades at $500,000 or $5 in five years’ time. If you’re going to invest in bitcoin, you should only invest an amount you are comfortable losing. Depending on your conviction level in the future of bitcoin, your position sizing could range from 0.1% of your portfolio to 1%, or maybe even 10% (that 10% figure should be preceded by a call or meeting with your team of advisors here!).
Regardless of the future price of bitcoin, none of us should look to bitcoin (or any other crypto) as a Hail Mary for our finances. One big bet is not the way to build financial security. Building wealth is a slow and steady process, and good financial behaviors never go into recession.
I’m interested to hear what our blog readers are thinking on this subject. Do you have other questions? Do you already own bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies? Email me at mike@thewealthgroup.com up with your thoughts.
Want to talk with me about your family finances? Click here to schedule a quick call.
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