Our Momentum-Based Strategy—The Explanation

Our Momentum-Based Strategy—The Explanation

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At the very end of my article in the fourth quarter newsletter of 2012, Making a Good Life Happen—the Explanation, I said, “Next time: Our Momentum-Based Strategy—The Explanation”. And then in the next newsletter, the first quarter newsletter of 2013, I forgot I had said that, and wound up doing my article on Beginnings because, well, you could say it was more timely. So now, as Bell’s continuing Secretary of Explainin’ Stuff, I’ll make good on my fourth quarter promise.

Since its inception in 1991, Bell Investment Advisors has utilized our proprietary, momentum-based investment strategy, called Active Portfolio Enhancement®. The simplest way of explaining a momentum-based investment strategy, without getting as financially technical as Jim or Matt would in their roles as President (and Certified Financial Planner®) or Chief Investment Officer (and Chartered Financial Analyst), is through the simple questions underlying a momentum-based strategy. These simple but profound questions are:

  • What’s working?
  • What’s not working?
  • What’s missing?
  • What’s next?

Apply the Questions to Your Life
As I explained in my Beginnings article on page 3 of the January 2013 issue of the Opening Bell, these same questions can apply to just about every area of your life. If revisited regularly, and at least at the beginning of each year, these are the questions that can help you build positive momentum in your life. And why would you want to do that? Because if you are like the majority of people in the world you are born wanting to have a good life. But you can’t just cross your fingers and hope it will all work out. Hope, as we frequently say, is not a strategy. You need a philosophy, a strategy, and a plan in order to get where you say you want to go. Would you embark on a trip without a map? That can result in a lot of worrying and wandering—or in getting in trouble or lost!

Build Positive Momentum for Your Life
By actively managing your money, your career, and your life, you can build positive momentum for life, which is why Momentum for Life is our tagline, just in case you wondered. Make it specific to the details of your life, but in answering the questions of momentum:

  • Keep what’s working, and build on it. Make it bigger. If you love music, bring more and more of it into your life.
  • Avoid what’s not working by quitting it. If you are drinking too much, quit.
  • If you loved getting your hands in clay to make pottery, but you haven’t done it for years, bring it back into your life.
  • Allow your priorities to emerge one by one; you’ll know what to do next. It’s the thing you have been meaning to do forever and haven’t done, like writing a book. Do it!

These are all actual things my clients have done in response to the questions of momentum. If you have a particularly hard time with anything that’s not working in your life, get help! Time is of the essence. And the point of it all? To have a good life, of course! This is active vs. passive management of your life.

Our dear Bonnie Bonetti-Bell was the force behind our Career/Life Coaching services, until her passing in 2019. As a principal of our firm, Bonnie had an innate talent for seeing the best in people. Moreover, she helped others see the best in themselves. Bonnie is fondly remembered and deeply missed.

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