AWM Insights Financial and Investment News

In this episode of AWM Insights, Chief Investment Officer Justin Dyer and Portfolio Manager Mena Hanna wrap up their series on winning through disciplined investing and sound decision-making. They break down why a strong defense—both in sports and in your portfolio—is the bedrock of long-term success and multi-generational wealth. Through candid insights and relatable sports analogies, Justin and Mena reveal how defensive strategies, diversification, and resilient processes give families the edge to thrive, with stories and practical play-calling advice you can apply right now. Tune in to learn how to build a championship-winning plan for your wealth and legacy.

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Chapters
(00:00) Defensive Strategy Wins Championships
(02:50) Building a Playbook for Investing
(04:03) Bonds and the Role of Defense
(06:40) Diversification as Offensive Defense
(07:38) Decision-Making and Play Calling
(10:23) Discipline and Multi-Generational Confidence

Creators and Guests

Host
Justin Dyer
Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer at AWM Capital
Host
Mena Hanna
Senior Investment Analyst at AWM Capital

What is AWM Insights Financial and Investment News?

A bite sized discussion on timely financial news and investment topics, to help you maximize your net worth and wealth for the next generation with Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna of AWM Capital.

Justin Dyer: Hey everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of a
WM Insights, Justin Dyer here, chief

Investment Officer for a WM Capital.

Joined as always by Mina Hana,
our portfolio manager, and, uh,

for those of you watching online.

Mina.

Nice mustache.

You guys

Mena Hanna: Thank you.

Justin Dyer: get a, get a look at that.

Uh, uh, no.

All, all joking aside, let's,
uh, let's jump right into it.

Uh, it, it's supposedly for a
good cause everyone who, who might

be watching, but, uh, uh, yeah.

Jumping, jumping right into today's
episode, we're really wrapping up.

Uh, a series we've been running with the
last four or five weeks around winning and

investing through solid decision making.

Right?

How do you think about making decisions
in the the appropriate way to set

yourself up for success or to set
yourself up to win the championship?

Using the sports analogy there, and today
we're gonna talk about and conclude.

Why defense wins those
championships, right?

It wins in both sports and investing.

It is that great old adage that,
uh, that I, I really, really love.

It's arguably the most important
aspect of, of both, um, uh, of

both sports and investing, right?

Manage risk, focus on a good process,
make disciplined decisions to set

yourself up for that long-term success.

Success, excuse me.

Uh, and.

We're gonna start just kind of going
through that quick decision making, uh,

framework that we've been been discussing,
and I've really enjoyed it 'cause it

is so applicable both to the world
of investing and the world of sports.

Right.

You have to clarify your goals.

What are you aiming for?

What are your priorities?

What are you thinking about from a
multi-generational wealth standpoint?

What are you thinking
about for this season?

Right?

Obviously, it's winning a championship,
but what do you need to do to get

from today to that championship?

The, the investing analogy
is, what do you think?

What do you need to do to get between.

Now, and then your priorities
and goals over time.

Most of our clients, most of you
listening, are thinking multi-generational

and so there's a lot of decisions that
will come along the way and you need to

use data solid, solid framework and data
to, to make sure you have the highest.

Probability of reaching
those goals, right?

That is success at the end of the
day, that is winning the championship

when it comes to investing.

And so you use data, you accept that
there's some unknowns that you, you

can't necessarily capture in your
decisions, but we can make the best

decision with the data that we have.

It is no different than just focusing
on, on process over an outcome.

If you make.

Good decisions over time, it's going
to compound into quality outcomes to

those championships over, over that
period of time, whatever, whatever it

may be, right at the, at the end of the
day, we're kind of building a playbook

for investing for life, just as we
do in sports where each play and each

call on the field is based on a clear
strategy and, and kind of the situational

awareness and coming in with a plan.

Being ready to adjust.

But coming in with a, with a plan, right?

You're not just gonna go
deep every single play.

You're not gonna try to hit a
home run every at bat, right?

There's a, there's a diversified roster
that actually, uh, contributes to, to

these wins and decisions on a daily basis.

And so, um, but bringing it to, to,
to today's conversation really, to be

able to do all of that, to go deep, to
go, to go for that home run you need.

You need a competent defense no matter
what your strong suits are, right?

That, that is critical.

It's foundational to, uh, both the
world of sports and the world of

investing in kind of life in general.

Um, and, and allows you to
really keep fighting, keep, uh,

keep living for the next day.

And so we're gonna jump it
right into defense in action.

Like how are we actually applying this
to a portfolio management context?

Mina.

Mena Hanna: And defense in general.

What we're talking about is the fixed
income or bond portion of your portfolio

that adds acts as a counterweight to
the offensive side of the portfolio,

which is, as we've talked about,
public equities, venture capital,

private equity, private real estate.

It's something that adds a little
bit of buoyancy potentially

in downward trending markets.

And the cool thing actually with, with.

Defensive bonds and bonds in general, and
how we actually invest in the bond market

is when markets go down, this bond side
of the portfolio actually tends to go up.

So if you think about it from a
sporting standpoint, your offense

is having a bad night, well, your
defense actually steps up and covers

it, and ideally more than covers it
to help you actually win the game.

But that's really the,
the counterbalance there.

Your offense is inevitably going
to have some rough patches.

Every offense does when we really reflect
and refocus on what we're trying to do

here, and that's win a championship.

Your offense could potentially have a
bad game in a game seven, and if your

defense, as you said, is not competent,
you're getting eliminated, you're

not advancing, you're not winning the
championship, the road ends there.

So making sure that you have
a defense there that can.

Field properly that isn't, isn't leaky.

You're not committing errors, you're
not giving up unnecessary runs.

You're staying in the game is really
the only way that you can truly increase

your odds of winning a championship and
ideally winning multiple championships.

Justin Dyer: YY Yeah.

I mean, I, I love this.

That idea, right?

It's, it, it's.

It said differently in a way, is having a
good defense really keeps you in control.

I really, I love that framing right.

You never have to chase because
you don't trust your defense.

You don't have to chase fads,
you don't, you know, whatever,

have to chase big plays because
you have an incredible defense.

You, you are confident in and can rely on.

It's, it's a wonderful framing, um,
where you get to play your game, your.

To meet your priorities, to meet
your championship as opposed to

trying to keep up with, you know,
fads or chase certain returns just

'cause they're in the, in the media.

No, you should be incredibly
comfortable with the overall

defense in your portfolio, but
most importantly, the decision

making process that got you there.

Mena Hanna: Yeah, 100%.

And, and one thing really to, to kind
of spin this question on its head is you

can also play defense with your offense.

Building a a well structured and
diversified offense helps you

in those nights where maybe your
star player is not doing well.

If your quarterback's not having a
good night, ideally you also have

a run game that picks up for it.

Having multiple skill sets and multiple
different competencies within your

portfolio, as you kind of alluded to,
helps you ride out these tough situations

and helps you kind of play your game
even if things are altered a little bit

or you kind of get punched in the mouth.

The, the analogy here is like,
you can get knocked down.

We don't want you to get knocked out,
and that's really how, how we play

the game and how we ideally structure.

Structure your portfolio to
to never get knocked out.

Justin Dyer: Yeah.

Which brings it to a great, uh,
topic around applying this framework.

Like what are the, what, what, what's
the play calls that people can think

about that we really think about?

I, you know, in many cases, you all
listening are, are really offloading

this to us and we're walking you through
how we think about this and using

all these wonderful sports analogies.

Um, but.

You know, again, you can use this decision
making process in all areas of your life.

So what, what is that process
when it comes to really kind

of this play call concept?

Nina?

Mena Hanna: Yeah.

Um, so I get starting.

We wanna win.

That's obviously always
what we want to do.

And when you actually work back, you can.

Incrementally decide what plays
that you're going to call as a part

of, you know, a well thought out
and sound decision making process,

which we've talked about before.

And all of these incremental
decisions come into play.

When you're thinking about your
asset allocation, how much money

are you actually dedicating to your,
kind of like a general manager?

What are you spending on your
defense versus what are you

spending on your offense And.

That in and of itself is going to
return some form of production from both

sides and on both sides of the ball.

So thinking through a step like that is a
great way of, I guess, starting, starting

off, um, and being able to tie your,
your players, your potential assets with

a playbook that you can then use on a
play-by-play basis to help you win a game.

There's also just small things like.

Um, asset location, being able to
actually place assets in accounts

where they're the most tax efficient.

There's tax loss harvesting if you,
yeah, if you potentially fall behind, you

might, and your offense isn't doing well.

Tax loss harvesting might be
like having a good kicker.

Even if you're like 60 yards away, you
can hit a field goal and chip away.

At the deficit that you have.

So you have different tools and
you can use them all together.

You can use the playbook, you can
use, you know, your well thought

out and diversified roster.

You can use your maybe special trick plays
every now and then to execute and build

a game plan that keeps you in the game.

And hopefully you win that game.

Um, that's not always the case,
and you don't have to win every

game to win the championship, but.

Ideally you, you do.

That's that's what we're shooting for.

We're shooting for that.

Dolphin's Perfect Season record.

Justin Dyer: That's right.

Yeah.

You bring it all together and it
really gives us an incredible level

of confidence in winning each and
every game, but most importantly,

winning the championship, right?

We expect to win every single game.

We are setting ourselves up with
the highest likelihood of winning

those championships or, or you
meeting your goals and defense

is, is the starting place to do
that in both sports and investing.

Um, but when we bring this all
together, you still have to focus on

the offensive side of the ball as well.

Right.

Discipline execution across both
defense and offense is what gives us

a, an incredibly well-rounded playbook.

And then you gotta make the
right plays under pressure.

Come in with that, the game plan,
using all, all of the, the players

you have on the field, the plays
you have, uh, you've prepared for.

And it gives us together that
incredible confidence that

you all can meet your goals.

Uh, both short term
and multi-generational.

The, the great kind of wrap up
statement I, I, I'd leave you all

with is highlights or trick plays.

You know, the, the, the highlight reels.

Those things are fun, but really at
the end of the day, dynasties are built

on great defense and most importantly,
great processes to support that defense.

And I'll leave you all with that.

I think it's a great, great sentence.

Great, um, great framework
to, to take and think about.

Uh, but until next time, de definitely
text us if you have any continued

questions around this topic or just topics
in general you want to talk through, you

want us to talk through, number to, uh,
to get that to us is 6 2 6 8 6 2 0 3 5 5.

And until next time, own your wealth,
make an impact, and always be a pro.