The Aspirational Investor

The Chief Investment Officer of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management explains why goals, not markets, should be the primary focus of your investment strategy. Everyone wants to invest wisely, but many of us have the wrong priorities-increasing returns at all costs, or beating "the market." Conventional portfolio theory have offered investors only incomplete solutions. What is needed, argues Ashvin B. Chhabra, is a framework that shifts the focus of investment strategy from portfolios and markets to individuals and the objectives that really matter: protecting against unexpected financial crises, paying for education or retirement, and financing philanthropy and entrepreneurship. The Aspirational Investoris a practical, innovative approach to managing wealth based on key goals and the careful allocation of risks rather than responding to the whims of the financial markets. Chhabra introduces his "Wealth Allocation Framework," which accommodates the three objectives that must underpin every sound wealth management plan: the need for financial security in the face of known and unknowable risks; the need to maintain current living standards over time despite inflation; and the need to pursue aspirational goals for wealth creation. Chhabra reinterprets the success formulas of investing greats like Warren Buffett, and closes the gap between theory and practice by simplifying our understanding of key asset classes and laying out a roadmap for identifying and prioritizing financial goals. Raising the bar for what we should expect from our investment portfolios-and our financial advisors-The Aspirational Investorsets us on a path to more confident and fulfilling financial lives. "Ashvin Chhabra is one of the smartest and wisest investment experts I know" -Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics