Every few months, I play poker with a few friends. When I play, I play the hand I’m dealt. The cards don’t care that my rent is due or that business is slow. My needs and hopes have no influence on what comes off the deck. I play as well as I can, but ultimately, I play the cards. The cards do not accommodate me.

In financial planning, there is a quietly dangerous habit of framing everything around “meeting the client’s needs,” as if the markets will accommodate a client’s hopes. When a client’s goals fit their resources, a good plan can help optimize the outcome. But the markets do not care what you need or want. You cannot dictate a market outcome because it suits your situation.

I see the same thinking among commercial real estate investors considering a DST. More and more clients tell me they need to hit a certain yield, whether or not the market is offering that yield in a safe investment. Many of these investors are older and have no realistic way to earn back what they might lose. Yet they become so focused on the yield they want that they talk themselves into an offering without weighing what actually determines whether it survives. If the Great Recession is any guide, when these risky DSTs fail, the loss is often total. And in my experience, the broker who sold it is rarely there to help. Too often, they deliver what the client asked for, collect the commission, and move on.

The disciplined investor accepts the yield the market is offering for the risk they can afford to take, even when it’s less than they hoped for. At the poker table, the smartest play with a bad hand is often to fold, and in a DST that promises a yield the market can’t safely support, the same discipline may be what preserves everything you have left.

This article is for educational purposes and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.