This Week’s Blog Is Written By Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer
October 22, 2025

What is it worth?

The free markets serve as an appraisal service for many valuable items. In today’s connected world, it is easier than ever to estimate how much anything is worth (except maybe some hot items you picked up at the Louvre on a seven-minute shopping spree over the weekend).

You can track the value of your home on a daily basis. You can go to an online auction site to find recent selling prices for your unique collectibles. The stock market provides you with instant valuations for the companies you own.

All of those sources provide you with the estimated value of an asset today. However, they cannot tell you what your asset will be worth tomorrow.

The value tomorrow is entirely dependent on someone with the same motivations and money as today showing up tomorrow. And things can change for better or for worse in the blink of an eye.

The value of your prized Beanie Baby collection is no longer worth what it was in the late 1990s (if you still have it). In the late 1990s and very early 2000s your start-up technology stocks soared in value and then quickly plummeted. In the mid-2000s home values surged upward with limited-underwriting financing, only to rapidly tumble when questionable loans went sour and mortgages became much more difficult to obtain.

On paper, Beanie Babies, technology stocks, and homes were very valuable at one point in time. Despite the assets being practically unchanged, months later they were worth significantly less. Value can be quickly destroyed by fading fads, changing outlooks, or factors beyond your control or prediction.

For an asset to retain value into the future, there must be a financially capable and properly motivated buyer for that asset readily available. While there is generally a limit on either cash available or credit to be had, there is no limit on irrational thought or motivation.

Widely available cash, easy credit, and excessive greed lead to temporary bubbles in asset values. A long-term investor can benefit from irrationally high current values by maintaining their rational investment risk budget during such times.

Limited cash, tight credit, and excessive fear lead to temporary (or, in the Beanie Babies’ case, permanent) collapses in asset values. A long-term investor can benefit from irrationally low current values by maintaining their rational investment risk budget during such times.

Our goal in guiding our clients through their long-term plans is to ensure that they have the liquid resources available to meet all of their planned and unexpected cash flow needs while prudently growing the future value of their financial assets to meet their long-term personal financial goals.

This would be so much easier if assets were consistently valued without uncontrollable variables, but then we would also lose our opportunities.

Quote of the week: Benjamin Graham: “The future value of every investment is a function of its present price. The higher the price you pay, the lower your return will be.”

Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through IAG Wealth Partners, LLC, (IAG) a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results.

Any opinions are those of IAG and not necessarily those of LPL Financial. Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Investing involves risk including loss of principal.

ART: 814577-1

Photo Credit: iStock 1143075035