Sometimes when you meet with your financial advisor you may be looking for opinions on short-term movements in financial and currency markets or even the price of gold.

This is a natural and understandable reaction to our information overload environment. It is easy to get sucked into the vortex of daily, hourly, or even minute-by-minute commentary by “experts” on the financial markets. Beware of the self-appointed experts who have an answer for everything. No one has a consistent, long-term record in predicting short-term financial markets.

In our way of looking at the financial world, we are rarely if ever concerned with what happens today or with what will happen next week. Our plans deal with the next 5 or 25 years, not the next 24 hours. This focus requires a much different strategy than reacting to what is in the daily financial pages.

We want to hire money managers who concentrate on the financial strength of the companies in their portfolios and undertake research to that end. We want managers who realize that making money in the long term sometimes means not losing it in the short term. It’s not just about making big returns; it’s also about capital preservation. We want managers who have exhibited consistent talent in the past in hopes that they can repeat it in the future.

We want to build portfolios that are in keeping with your risk profile and are as diversified as possible in order to reduce risk to an acceptable level. Note that I did not say eliminate risk. Stock market risk can be reduced but never completely eliminated, nor is it the only form of risk out there. With extremely low interest rates currently, we must carefully consider the high opportunity cost of locking in funds for an extended period in low-interest bearing instruments. The detrimental effects of inflation and taxes over the long term also constitute risk to your income, cash flow and ultimately your retirement.

Most of all, we want to build financial plans that accurately reflect your goals and dreams and ensure that those dreams are achievable, even in the absence of the best market circumstances. If they cannot be achieved, changes need to be made. Life can throw curve balls at us, and sometimes changes in direction are required. Your plan should serve as a beacon, lighting the road ahead so that you can find the best route and avoid the major obstacles. It can never be a hard and fast route carved in stone.

But in the end, if you really want our opinion, we’ll give it to you. Markets will go up, then down — but mostly up — in your lifetime.