Training plans guide runners through months of gradual progress, balancing long runs, rest days, and strength work. Investors also benefit from a structured plan, created with the help of a professional wealth manager.
Table of Contents
- Set a Long-Term Goal
- Build a Plan and Stick to It
- Diversify Your Training and Your Portfolio
- Prepare for the Wall
- Monitor Progress Without Overreacting
- Use Professional Support
As the London Marathon captures the nation's attention, it offers more than just inspiration for physical endurance. The mindset and discipline of long-distance runners can also serve as a blueprint for smart, sustainable investing. Just as marathon training demands consistency, strategy, and resilience, so too does building long-term financial health. Here's how lessons from the racetrack apply to managing wealth.
1. Set a Long-Term Goal
Marathon runners don't show up on race day without a goal in mind, whether it's to finish, hit a personal best, or qualify for another race. Similarly, successful investors begin with a clear financial objective. Are you saving for retirement, a property, or generational wealth? Defining your goal helps shape your strategy and keeps you focused during market highs and lows. A clear objective not only informs your investment choices but also gives you the motivation to stay on course through inevitable market dips. Helen Watson of Rothschild & Co highlights the importance of a long-term perspective: “Our view of the long term is indelibly shaped by our 200-year history as a business. We feel very fortunate to be part of such a lasting legacy, and our family-owned structure gives us the freedom to think in terms of years and decades rather than months and quarters.”
2. Build a Plan and Stick to It
Training plans guide runners through months of gradual progress, balancing long runs, rest days, and strength work. Investors also benefit from a structured plan, created with the help of a professional wealth manager. This includes choosing an asset allocation that matches your risk tolerance, time horizon, and financial objectives. Much like marathoners adjusting their weekly mileage based on performance or injury risk, your financial plan should be dynamic. It needs periodic reviews, especially during major life events or market shifts, to remain aligned with your long-term goals. Adam Osper and Michael Saunders of Evelyn Partners emphasise the importance of a thought-out plan: “Our financial planners will work alongside your in-house investment manager to create a financial plan that compliments and optimises your agreed investment strategy.”
3. Diversify Your Training and Your Portfolio
Elite runners cross-train to avoid injury and build all-round strength. Similarly, investors should avoid concentrating too much of their wealth in a single asset or sector. Diversification across asset classes, equities, fixed income, real estate, and alternatives, helps manage risk and smooth returns over time. ESG-themed investments, infrastructure, commodities, and private equity can add meaningful depth to a well-balanced portfolio. Just as a runner's body becomes more resilient through variety, a diversified portfolio is better prepared to endure financial shocks. Diversification helps in building resilience, whether in physical training or investment portfolios. Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management explains: “Your Adviser can explore a range of investment opportunities with you and design a personally tailored portfolio containing a thoughtful mix of investments diversified across, and within, asset classes. This approach can help minimise the impact of short-term swings in any one asset class and can help build your wealth and investment portfolio over the long term.”
4. Prepare for the Wall
Every marathoner dreads "hitting the wall", that point, usually around mile 20 (or km 30), when physical and mental exhaustion peak. In investing, the equivalent might be a market crash, inflation spike, economic downturn, or unexpected personal expense. Preparing for the wall involves building financial resilience: holding emergency cash reserves, maintaining a balanced risk exposure, and avoiding emotional, reactive decisions. A wealth manager serves a similar role to a coach on the course, helping you refocus on the broader plan, even when progress feels difficult. Just as marathon runners anticipate hitting "the wall" investors should prepare for periods of market volatility. Parmbir Gill and Charles Ambler of Saltus underline the importance of building a resilient portfolio to navigate such challenges: “With market volatility and economic uncertainty on the rise, building a resilient portfolio is more important than ever. This could involve diversifying into assets with a lower correlation to stocks and bonds such as commodities, volatility-based strategies or private assets, and putting a higher emphasis on strategies that protect against potential downturns whilst preserving upside participation.”
5. Monitor Progress Without Overreacting
Runners track their splits to see how they're pacing, but they don’t let one slow mile derail the entire race. Similarly, investors should review their portfolio performance at regular intervals, quarterly or annually, not daily. Over-monitoring can lead to emotional decision-making and frequent, unnecessary adjustments. Consistency matters more than perfection. Maintaining perspective and understanding long-term trends over short-term fluctuations is key to financial endurance. Sanjay Rijhsinghani of LGT Wealth Management stresses the importance of focusing on long-term fundamentals and avoiding overreactions to short-term market volatility: “We continue to monitor geopolitical risk when constructing portfolios but remain focused on quality companies well positioned to withstand political turbulence. Ultimately, it is the businesses and their ability to grow earnings that matter.”
6. Use Professional Support
Few marathoners go it alone. From running coaches and nutritionists to physiotherapists, elite runners build a team to support their performance. Investors can do the same. Partnering with a qualified wealth manager gives you access to financial planning, tax-efficient investing, and behavioural coaching. Firms such as our partners offer tailored advice and disciplined strategies to help individuals and families build and protect wealth over the long term. As a client of RBC Brewin Dolphin accentuates: “The help, advice and support is first class. it is always reassuring to have someone you can trust and rely on to help.”
Whether you're lacing up for your first marathon or refining your portfolio strategy, the principles of preparation, patience, and perspective are vital. Building wealth, like running 26.2 miles, isn’t about quick wins, it's about staying on course, knowing when to push and when to pace, and relying on the right support to get you to the finish line.
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