About

If you've spent the last 30 years building a career, raising a family, and quietly stuffing money into a 401(k), only to wake up at 58 wondering whether any of it is actually going to be enough, you're in the right place.

You did what you were supposed to do. You worked, you saved, and left you investments to grow. And now you're close enough to retirement that "someday" has a date on it — and no one has ever actually told you whether the number you've built is the finish line only the halfway point.

You don't need another pie chart showing your asset composition. You need someone with the capability to accurately assess your investments and answer the question: Is this going to work?

Who I'm for — and who I'm not

I work primarily with retirees and pre-retirees 55-75, who've saved seriously and want clarity instead of complexity.

If you want to chase all the latest trends, time every market top, or have someone tell you what you want to hear I am not your guy. I'd rather lose your business in the first meeting than waste your time getting everything setup under my management – and then have you realize than my investing style is at odds with what you want.

Why I do this

Ever since I was 12, when I read my first book on finance, I have been hooked on investing and economics. I worked for 4 years at another firm, and got an inside look at how other advisors operated, how many were simply glorified salesmen for internal company products or model portfolios, and how many skipped most of the granular planning that would have provided tremendous value to their clients. I started my firm, Callidus Capital, to fill those gaps, and give people the planning that they needed.

How I think

I believe people spend most of their energy chasing things that don't matter and avoid a lot of the things that do.

The financial (and news) industry makes this worse on purpose. Large firms often have no incentive or requirement to chose the best product for you, and make new products for problems that proper planning would have prevented, or that never existed in the first place. Complexity isn't a side effect, it’s the product. Confusion is the business model.

So here's my rule: if your advisor can't explain your portfolio to you in one minute, they're not selling you a strategy. They're selling you complexity you'll pay for and never understand. While diving into all of the intricacies would take much longer, the general goal, risk level, and strategy should be easily summarizable. Indeed, I find that if I cannot explain something at a high level in plain English I often do not understand it well myself.

What chess taught me about money

My two biggest hobbies are playing chess and reading. Both have taught me many lessons, which have been immensely helpful as I help clients strategize how to build their wealth. One I learned from chess is that success almost never comes from one brilliant move. It comes from not making the dumb ones, over and over, for years. Even when there are brilliant moves that win the game, the setup, without which that move would have been impossible, is hidden in the last few moves. Strong players (I am in the Top 10 ranked chess players in NH) don't win on flashy tactics. They win by being patient, consistent, and rarely blundering.

Investing is the same. Consistency is boring. Consistency is also the entire game. My job isn't to dazzle you, it's to keep you in your seat, doing the unremarkable right thing, long enough for it to compound into something remarkable.

Here's what to do next

If you're near or in retirement and you want one honest answer to "is this enough?" — book a 30 minute call.

We'll look at where you actually stand, and you'll leave knowing more than you walked in with, whether or not we ever work together.

→ [Book your call here — YOUR BOOKING LINK]

 

Noah Tillinghast

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (603) 421-8590