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Is It Luck or Skill?
Doesn’t it make you feel comfortable to live in an orderly and predictable world? Isn’t that especially true when it comes to investments? Haven’t you heard that the markets do not like uncertainty? But isn’t it also true that the only constant in the world is change? In spite of that, our human brains have evolved to downplay the role of luck in our lives. That is why most investors like a financial plan that lays out the next 20 or 30 or 40 years of our financial lives. There in black and white, or more probably in a rainbow of colors, is the map of our financial future. It…
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Is Your Money Being “Stolen”?
Hypothetically, say you had a brokerage account worth $5 million, and when you got your statement you saw that the financial advisor had taken $3 million out of your account and transferred it to his. How would you feel? Would you just accept it because the financial advisor is so personable and nice, almost like a friend? Would you send in more money? Would you ask for an updated financial plan to see how you could live on $2 million? Then, suppose the financial advisor met with you, said you were right on track to meet your long-term goals, and then he removed another 70%? How would you feel? What…
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Good News – Bad News – Good News
This is a good news-bad news case study. I was a fairly new stock broker in 1987 (that is what they called us before we became “Financial Advisors”). I opened an account or a retired postman who had his pension but had also saved $216,000 for retirement. The client decided to split his $216,000 between me and a broker at another major brokerage house. He had never married and had no children. In the months that followed, I would suggest each time we talked that he consolidate the monies with me. I am pretty certain the other broker was suggesting he be given the total as well. With little traction,…