Earlier this month, I attended The Establishment’s “Wine and Investing 101” course, one of their most popular free introductory finance seminars which they describe as a “best of both worlds crash course in investing.”
The class paired two instructors, Ryan and Dan, to share their insight on two important pieces of adulting – knowing your finances and knowing your wines. Ryan is a financial services professional who sees himself as an intermediary between people and the finance world, and Dan is a financial professional who is also a passionate wine enthusiast.
Dan and Ryan tag team the approximately 2 hour class, giving you alternating doses of information on the ins and outs of investing and getting to know your wines, which keeps the financial piece from becoming too overwhelming and also prevents the group from getting too tipsy to pay attention.
The class is a great introduction to investing for those, like myself, who are coming in with zero knowledge whatsoever. They opened up the conversation by surveying the room to determine any specific areas of interest before diving into the lesson. They also keep the class sizes small to provide a comfortable space to ask questions. Best of all, they provide delicious snacks to munch on while you’re sampling wines and learning about retirement accounts.
We started, of course, with the wine (priorities). Dan began by introducing us to the basics of wine identification and selection, walking us through the three key components of a wine and how to look for relative value in choosing a bottle. He also provided an aromas chart to help us identify different types of wine by their respective flavor components – fruit, acidity, minerals, etc. But of course, you can’t just talk about wine, so Dan gave us all a generous pour of an unidentified wine and we made our first attempt at tasting and analyzing the flavors to figure out what it was.
After sipping our first round of wine, Ryan took the lead and we dove into the investment piece. He started by noting that 40% of young adults – a demographic that The Establishment courses focus on reaching – keep more of their portfolio in cash due to distrust of markets and lack of knowledge. From there, he tried to help us combat this “Investment Phobia” by introducing us to some basic investment vocabulary and asset classes, and how a diversified portfolio can serve you in the long run.
From there, it was back to wine as Dan introduced a second mystery wine for us to sample and identify with our newly found knowledge of flavor components. He also talked more about buying wine, and how a wine’s price can be affected by the varietal, how long it is aged, the region it comes from, etc.
Ryan’s next area of focus was how early one should start with saving and investing. He talked about the significance of compound interest, and why the amount of income saved through investing is more important than your rate of return. While it’s sometimes frustrating to hear someone tell us “you should be saving X amount by a certain age,” Ryan went a different route and broke it down into HOW you can improve your savings by setting reasonable goals for yourself, and in turn, give yourself the opportunity to invest.
The wine portion closed out on a simpler, sweeter note with a sampling of a dessert wine. I was surprised at the amount of information Dan was able to share in the brief time he had with us, and left ready to explore some new wines with my wine chart.
Ryan rounded out the class with some common biases that affect an individual’s investment choices, and how to be aware of them. He sent us home with a list of basic steps to take with our newfound knowledge, to help us move forward with selecting a retirement plan and to start budgeting in order to have some savings available to invest for the future.
As is standard with seminars at The Establishment, they reminded us of the opportunity to do a free, 30-minute financial check-up with one of MassMutual’s financial advisors. I left feeling a lot more optimistic about approaching investment (although maybe the wine had something to do with it).
To learn more about The Establishment and the other classes they offer, visit their website, where you’ll find a full menu of classes with descriptions and future dates. Click here for a list of upcoming dates for the Wine and Investing 101 class.
This content is part of a sponsored series in partnership with MassMutual New York State.