6 Unexpected Questions Clients Asked This Year: Advisors' Advice

2. "With the $300,000 of proceeds from our recent house sale, we would like to buy bitcoin. Do you think that makes sense for us?"

A: Yes.

— Jim Crider, financial planner and founder, Intentional Living FP

3. "How happy are you to see that crypto took a nosedive?"

A: I was ecstatic, I thought I was done talking about it, then you asked me how I felt and it seems I’m still not done with it.

— Dan Tobias, founder and financial planner, Passport Wealth Management

4. "What is SeekingAlpha? It sounds like a toxic dating app."

I responded with hearty laughter. And a brief explanation of what alpha is, with the theoretical pros and cons of seeking it.

— Sarah Jane Paulson, founder and financial planner, Valkyrie Financial

5. "Why must we choose between inflation and recession? Why can’t we have neither?"

A: When high inflation occurs and it doesn’t quickly go away on its own (i.e., transient), it tends to be self-sustaining as everyone tries to keep ahead of it. It’s like a slow-moving fire, so it’s going to continue to spread until it has been extinguished. Inflation is hugely problematic in that it affects the finances of all households, but those with fewer financial resources are affected the most.

Recession, on the other hand, tends to be short-lived. It’s also a symptom of the primary tool the Federal Reserve uses to keep inflation under control, which is changing the level of interest rates. While investment markets move immediately when interest rates change, the effects on the real economy can take several months to play out, so it would be extremely hard to know exactly how much to increase interest rates to contain inflation. — Jeremy Bohne, financial advisor and founder, Paceline Wealth Management

6. "I think inflation is more like 100% right now and that we are going to have inflation around 50% over the next five years; how does that impact our plan?"

A: I know that inflation is high right now, and it is hurting all of us, but the data tells a different story. When you look at the prices of the things you most commonly buy — groceries, gas, clothes, etc. — they are all more expensive, but they are not twice as expensive.

Moreover, how it has impacted you may even be less than others. You have a locked-in mortgage rate of 2.75% on a 30-year note, your new car purchase from last year is locked in at 0% for the next 48 months. It’s also helped dramatically increase the value of your real estate.

We have doubled our inflation expectation in our financial plans for the next few years to show you that impact and it hurts, but its manageable. Simply put, inflation at 50% for any extended period would do serious damage to anybody’s financial plan.

— Ted Braun, vice president and financial advisor, Wealth Enhancement Group