We are continuing our discussion of the 25 people who are micro-managing your life. Not only on your financial life but oftentimes on the life that you are living right now. We get to a very interesting card today that might not make any difference to you at all or perhaps it makes a huge difference. It’s the Faith card -
When a person meets with us, either one time, a few times, or ongoing, they will hear us repeat the following: There are three rules that we abide by. First of all, everything that we discuss must be legal. That should be a given. Second, it should be moral. Third, it should be ethical. If any of those three are missing: legal, moral, or ethical, we will not proceed.
Now this may seem like a very easy rule. Why wouldn’t a person play by the rules of legal, ethical, and moral? Yet, it is surprising how many people in their own lives decide to bend rules right up to that line and perhaps a few steps over that line. It might be income that they don’t report. It might be bartering that they don’t report. It might be information that they don’t share. If it’s a business, it may be certain deductions they take, that they shouldn’t. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we will not work with them, but we are very clear about the rules that we play by. We can’t stop what they do with their accountant and we can’t change how they may interact with their CPA. All we can do is say that the rules that we play by have to be legal, ethical, and moral.
The reason that the faith card is important is that it’s about the types of values you use in any kind of planning that you do over your lifetime, whether it’s financial or planning what you do for yourself and your family. What do you want your children to learn about how you handle life, how you handle your financial life, and how you handle your personal life? What standards do you have?
There are certain standards that we have. If we meet someone who does not have a will or has not prepared some sort of estate planning documents, that can stop the process right then and there if they don’t agree to proceed (along with our assistance) on meeting with a qualified attorney and making sure that those documents are set in place. For us, that’s a deal breaker. Yes, legally you don’t need one, but ethically and morally, why wouldn’t you want to make certain that it’s easier on your family when you die?
Again, we are not the perfect fit for every individual because there are times that we have to draw a line in the sand saying, “This isn’t who we are, this is not how we operate.” So, every decision that you make, both personally and financially, will revolve around all these 25 micro-managers that we have discussed these last weeks, but an important card that you need to consider, no matter what your belief system, is Faith: How do your beliefs play into your life and your financial life?
If you wish to work with a firm that holds values very strongly and only operates if it’s morally, ethically, or legally correct, then perhaps it’s time for you to schedule your Financialoscopy®.
