The road to financial well being

[Rock Private Office]

The road to financial well being is built on strategic planning, low cost of investment, and tax mitigation.

Pay less. When it comes to investing, costs matter. High trading costs, front- and back-end loads, high management fees, commissions and other investment costs eat in to your returns. Know what you're paying, make sure it's competitive, and if you don't know what you're paying, ask. Most people don't know their total investment costs because they are hidden and they feel awkward asking.

Check your asset allocation. Your asset allocation - how you divide your investment portfolio up - is your single most important investment decision. How much is each investment worth as a percentage of your total wealth? Can you afford a loss of this size? Is there any strategy guiding your investments, is this rigorously applied and regularly checked?

Keep an eye on taxes. Your nationality, your domicile, where you live and work now, where you expect to be working in the future and where you imagine yourself retired, are critical factors in cross-border financial planning. These things will influence how best to invest. Investment and taxation cannot be dealt with in isolation.

Save . Unlike the financial markets, saving is within your control, and will have a significant impact in the long-term value of your investments. For example, if your investment portfolio is currently worth $100,000, with compound interest at 11% a year (no more than the long-term return of the S&P 500), it will be worth $1,358,000 in 25 years. But if you add just $500 a month along the way, it would grow to more than $2.1 million.

My philosophy is simple: low costs + low tax = greater returns for you