Revisiting Your Investment & Distribution Goals
Portfolios drift. So do lives. A promotion, a sale of a business, a parent who needs support, or a simple change in how much income you want from capital — any of these can make last year’s investment policy quietly obsolete. The danger is not that you failed to predict the future. The danger is continuing to spend, gift or withdraw as if the old map were still true.
Raymond Sachs treats distribution as a first-class design problem, not an afterthought once “the market has been good.” We start with the cash you actually need over the next three to five years, then build a liquidity sleeve that can fund those needs without a forced sale in a bad year. Growth assets sit behind that sleeve with a risk budget you can explain at a dinner table.
A practical sequence
First, rewrite the goals in today’s language: what must be funded, what is optional, and what is a hope. Second, test the portfolio against a dull decade as well as a kind one. Third, write distribution rules that a spouse or finance lead could follow if you were travelling. Rules beat improvisation when headlines get loud.
If your last policy review was more than a year ago, or if your spending has changed by more than a modest amount, it is time to sit down with the document — not with a hot take. Bring statements, upcoming large payments, and the questions you have been postponing. We will help you leave with a clearer map.
