With retirements now averaging thirty or more years – the same length as most careers – merely saving money alone won’t make the grade. RIA Rick Tonge, president of Tonge Investment, knows that very few people can save for a full year of retirement expenses during every year of work, and says that productive investing is the only way to meet long-term financial needs.
“I’ve developed a propriety investment process that produces a lot more income for portfolios than they’ve ever seen before and dramatically shifts the balance for the retirement years,” Tonge said.

“Most people don’t have enough assets to retire on 5% income off their portfolio. I can greatly expand that.”

Tonge, who learned the ropes in high school as a third generation investment advisor, values conservatism and the safety measures that can be found when using investment tools like relative strength analysis – useful for measuring asset performance within a given market sector – and Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs, that can negate the risks of individual stocks. 

“The whole point of this business is to preserve money and to protect buying power for the long term,” Tonge said of his philosophical approach toward helping clients.

As a legally bound fiduciary, Tonge is an adamant proponent of fiduciary reform, saying that people seeking services have the right to expect unbiased advice in a trusting, safe environment.
“The fiduciary standard is the only way investment advice should be given,” he said, adding that he’s disgusted when people “end up getting sold something that’s the highest commission product a [non-fiduciary] broker has that day. It’s wrong and not the way it should be done. I don’t understand why brokers are fighting the fiduciary standard as vehemently as they are – it’s really quite telling.”

Tonge says that one of the greatest investment challenges clients face today is learning to break out of the culture of living above their means. Without being willing to spend less and save more, it becomes nearly impossible for people to reach their goals.

On the positive side, he added, “Expectations have become more realistic since 2008. Now people look toward the market with much more reasonable goals.”

For more information visit: www.ricktonge.com