Everyone wants to make money when they invest.
Yet Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, says he won't talk about returns with potential investors until they can tell him specifically why they want to invest.
"Once you start defining your goals, an interesting thing happens, you realize that you don't need to take the maximum amount of risks to hit them," Brown said.
Then, once you have a specific goal in mind, you can work your way backward and come up with a plan to get there. Brown says the goal can be as specific as someone wanting to be able to afford a house in the mountains in 10 years. That will give you an amount and a time frame to design your portfolio around.
Check out this video to learn the other mistake Brown said investors make and what he says you should do instead.
