Let a financial advisor help plan for life's curveballs

Long version

No matter what stage of your life you’re in — caring for children, working toward retirement or planning your legacy — unforeseen events like a job loss, a major illness or even a stock market drop could derail what you’re working so hard to achieve financially.

With your future at stake, you may want to get guidance from a financial professional who can develop a personalized financial strategy to help you navigate life's curveballs.

Here are specific ways a financial advisor can help.

  • Create a customized long-term strategy. This is the first step to weather unforeseen events. You may have several long-term investing goals — your retirement, your child’s education or perhaps a dream vacation. A financial advisor can help you build a strategy specific to your goals and risk tolerance. This will include prioritizing those goals, building a path toward each and pivoting your strategy as markets shift and needs change.
  • Set realistic expectations. Successful investing requires discipline and patience — most individual investors make their money over time, not overnight. Start by setting realistic timelines to reach each of your goals. And don't be surprised if you need to make trade-offs, like working an extra year to help fund your retirement dream home. It's realistic to expect you'll hit some bumps in the road. Perhaps the markets will drop and the value of your portfolio may follow. (It's also realistic to expect they will rebound, as they have historically. Of course, past performance of the markets is no guarantee of what will happen in the future.) A financial advisor can help you keep your emotions in check no matter what comes your way and stay focused on the long term, knowing you have a customized strategy in place.
  • Diversify your investments. The foundation for your portfolio is your asset allocation, or how you divide your assets among stocks, bonds, cash and other investments. Different investments behave differently in various market conditions, so maintaining a good mix can help better weather market fluctuations than putting “all your eggs in one basket.” Finding the right diversification mix, and keeping it balanced despite what the market does, can get complicated, but it's almost second nature for a good financial advisor. All investments do carry risk, and asset allocation doesn’t ensure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
  • Keep a long-term outlook. It’s easy to become distracted by the latest headline, expert prediction or market swing. However, if these events don’t change your long-term outlook, there probably isn’t a reason to make changes to your strategy. In fact, these declines often present good opportunities if you’re a long-term investor, so use them to your advantage — your financial advisor can show you how.
  • Keep your emergency savings well-funded. This is your “rainy day” fund, and an unexpected event may constitute a rainy day. For most people, maintaining three to six months of total expenses in emergency savings is appropriate. The specific amount depends on factors like your risk of unexpected expenses or temporary loss of income, and how much you value being confident that you can weather financial emergencies. A financial advisor can help you determine what your emergency savings should look like. 

    Unexpected events are part of life. You can't predict them, but you can prepare for them. No matter what is going on around you, having a professional by your side can help set you up to navigate them confidently.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

Edward Jones, Member SIPC

Number of words: 567

Short version (radio/print/online)

PSA: Let a Financial Advisor Help Plan for Life’s Curveballs

TBA: Aug 25, 2025

No matter your stage in life — caring for children, preparing for retirement or planning your legacy — unexpected events could derail what you’re working hard to achieve financially. 

With so much at stake, you may want guidance from a financial professional. 

One of your first steps together likely will be to create a customized long-term strategy. You probably have several long-term investing goals — retirement, your child’s college education and so on — that you'll want included in your overall strategy. 

Next, you’ll want to diversify your investments. That can help you weather different market conditions, though it can’t guarantee profit or protect against losses. A financial advisor can help find the right mix.

One more: You need an emergency fund. For most people, three to six months of living expenses is about right. That may or may not be the amount that’s right for you. 

Unexpected events are part of life. Having a professional by your side can help.

This content was provided by Edward Jones for use by (FA’s NAME), your Edward Jones financial advisor at (Branch address or phone #).

Edward Jones, Member SIPC

Number of words: 157 (excluding FA’s name, address/phone number)