The human connection

By Mike Brady, Michael Brady & Co. Wealth Management

In case you haven’t been paying attention, we are living in the beginning years of the Age of Machines. Robots, artificial intelligence, drones, self-driving cars and, now, “robo” investment advisors. And the machines can be very precise and diligent at what they do. 

But what they can’t be is human. Humans have qualities that, to date, escape machines. We have feelings, emotions and an accountability to each other. This human-to-human connection can be a powerful motivator when we are attempting to change our behavior.

Think about someone wearing a smart watch. The watch can tell you when to stand, breathe, and even record the amount of exercise each day. But it is bad at holding you accountable. It can’t tell you that it cares about you (not in a credible way) and that it only wants the best for you. Not like a human. 

Because when a human is standing in front of you, holding you accountable, it is difficult to avoid the unfavorable perceptions we think others may have about us when we lapse into our prior bad behavior. It’s always easy to take off the watch and feel very little guilt. It’s another thing to ignore an existing human who cares about you.

So it is with financial advice. You can utilize automated finance programs to help determine ways to achieve goals, set investment allocations, rebalance portfolios, and automatically buy and sell investments. But no automated finance program, computer, robot or other machine is going to care about you, relate to you and hold you accountable to achieve your family’s lifetime financial goals like another human.  

The value of hiring a caring, experienced, fee-only professional Certified Financial Planner isn’t in the creation of the financial plan, or in the asset allocation they devise, or even in the investments they choose. All of those things are created using the machines. No, the value of hiring the professional advisor is in the human relationship that is created. 

Whether to increase savings, decrease debt, avoid selling at a bottom or getting too greedy at the top, the value is in avoiding big mistakes and making proper choices while on the journey to achieving your lifetime goals. Let us know if we can help.

Michael Brady is a fee-only, full-time fiduciary and certified financial planner. To set up an appointment, call 440-235-2100, email Mike@MichaelBradyCo.com, or visit MichaelBradyCo.com.