Can “Peace of Mind” and “Expat Finances” Coexist in Spain?
Sponsored by BISSAN Wealth Management.
For expats in Spain hoping to achieve peace of mind, there is an alternative to psychology textbooks, the newest yoga trend, or the teachings of the Dalai Lama. His name is Peter Dougherty, and he strives every day to assist clients in finding inner peace about their finances.
Mr. Dougherty is the financial planner at Barcelona’s BISSAN Wealth Management who helps Americans and other English-speaking expats plan their financial future. Instead of playing new age meditation music for clients, Peter calms their concerns about money because:
BISSAN’s guiding principle is “plan ahead so you can sleep well.”
He has a deep understanding of financial concepts which enables him to explain them clearly.
“Plan Ahead So You Can Sleep Well”
Peter Dougherty helps clients find serenity about their finances thanks to his company’s innovative financial planning process.
Unlike other firms, who begin the conversation talking about “investment returns,” BISSAN Wealth Management begins by listening. They ask about our financial goals, what we'd like to accomplish. It could be retirement, funding our children’s education, buying a home.
BISSAN quantifies these goals in their inventive optimization model to determine our future cash outflows and helps us park or “guard rail” the moneys necessary for these expenses five years before they’re due. Once our future outflows are safely covered by these “guard rails,” the market’s ups and downs won't concern us like they once might have.
To further alleviate our stress, BISSAN’s also makes use of an approach called “dry powder”: money deliberately kept on the sidelines which is then put into the market if the market drops. The idea is that we all get nervous and want to sell when markets fall, but if we’ve specifically set aside money beforehand to be invested in those times, and our upcoming expenditures are already saved for via “guard rails,” we can use this money to buy securities at low prices. It intelligently puts us “on the other side of the table”—when everyone sells desperately, we buy prudently.
Understands and Explains Financial Concepts
Peter strives to help clients understand finance so they can better appreciate the reasons for financial planning.
After earning his MBA in finance, Dougherty spent twenty years working at investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. He knows how Wall Street works.
In 2023, Peter wrote The Dougherty Code: Secrets of Financial Planning in Spain Revealed, a book to help Spain’s expats that’s been widely praised by book reviewers for its clarity:
“I liked the fact that even the technical aspects of financial management and planning are presented in an accessible writing style to ensure all readers can easily understand the topic at hand.”—Readers’ Favorite
“Provides easy-to-understand explanations of exactly what financial planning is and how it can be more accessible and transparent.”—IndieReader
This year, to better understand the inner workings of money and finance in Spain, Peter earned a Master’s degree in Spanish taxation from Instituto Europeo de Asesoría Fiscal. Dougherty says: “The Máster en Fiscalidad y Tributación program was challenging. The material is taught in Spanish. And I needed to write and defend a thesis in Spanish as well. Nonetheless, studying the taxation system of Spain was exhilarating. But the biggest reward is that Spain’s expats now have a native English speaker who can clearly describe how Spanish taxation works.”
Expats in Spain who have hired Peter Dougherty can bypass the “meditation” aisle when they visit a bookstore. They’ve already found peace of mind about their financial future.
Sponsored by BISSAN Wealth Management.
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