Do you look at life as an inconvenience, or do you look and see the opportunity? Opportunities are everywhere if you just look close enough. These last few weeks, I have had some inconveniences in my life; I had to do a lot of traveling, but in each situation, I looked at the potential. I looked at the opportunities. Because of all of the traveling, I had the opportunity to meet some very unique people. I was in the backseat and the unique people were in the front seat…of my Ubers:
- I met a gentleman from Bulgaria and learned about the fascinating food and cuisine there.
- I spoke with a gentleman from the country of Jordan about how his Muslim faith has created both problems and opportunities as he raises his children in the United States.
- I had an opportunity to listen to a man from Vietnam and found out he was driving for Uber so he’d have enough money so his son could continue to attend medical school.
- Lastly, I listened to a man named David. David was telling me that he actually has 3 jobs. Job 1: in the morning, he takes people from hotels to the airport, which was me that day at 5am. Job 2: he assists people that need help in funeral planning. Job 3: he sells remodeling projects for bathrooms. I asked him to tell me about the most unusual story from a recent remodeling project. He said that he did have an unusual case recently where he assisted a 100-year-old woman who needed some adjustments in her bathroom so she could continue to live on her own independently. He made a joke at one point, telling her there was a lifetime guarantee. She just kind of laughed and said that shouldn’t be a problem because she didn’t expect to need it for too long. Here’s the amazing thing: a woman at the age of 100 living independently at home and still needing the money and the resources to be able to make her life comfortable!
Two weeks ago, I met with financial advisors from around the Midwest. They were describing the retirement planning they do. They plan so that people have enough money to reach the age of 85 comfortably. Only 85, really, that’s when it’s okay to run out of money? This is where we’re different. It would be very inconvenient if you ran out of money at the age of 85 before running out of life because you are still capable of living a long and enduring life after age 85. We cannot do retirement planning that way.
Last week, I met with advisers from all over the United States. They do retirement planning to 121 years-old. Recently, the oldest person on the planet died at 118. She was a nun who had had a full and enduring life. She was still working in her 100s because she still had something to give. So, whether you’re healthy or not, whether you can see the opportunities, or not, we want to make certain that you’re ready for every possibility. We always think the longer the better, as long as you are healthy and doing well. We want to make certain that we do planning to help you get to the very end with the maximum life that you can live. Not all of us are going to get there, but we definitely don’t want to come up short. We can’t promise that we will always be able to get you to that very last day, but just know our intentions, our values, and our purpose is to try to get you there.
Sometimes you learn things from the back seat of an Uber. This is my take-away from this last week: think of the possibilities. If you have the possibility of a long and enduring life, living independently until age 100, wouldn’t you want the resources to be able to live the life that you want, comfortably?
