I spoke with a college professor from a University in Michigan on my most recent trip. As we were talking, I asked him what he did for a living and he asked me what I did for a living. Usually, I like the conversations about work to be short and sweet while I’m on vacation, so we can continue with other conversations, but he persisted. So, I told him that I’m a financial advisor. I own a firm in Wisconsin. He quickly responded that he has a financial advisor as well who handles managing his accounts, his IRAs and 401Ks, etc. I told him that while we do those things as well, we do a lot more than most people don’t realize. Then I cut the conversation short so we could talk about other things.
The very next morning, he came over to my table for breakfast and said, “Now I understand what you do. My financial advisor does not do what you do.” This took me aback and he explained that he had checked out my website, LinkedIn, and Googled my name. He did the research just like a college professor. He then said, “My financial advisor doesn’t do anything like what you do. He only manages money. You really go through a person’s life and you figure out all these additional things that my guy has never talked to me about.”
After returning home from this trip, I had a conversation with team members about him and decided I needed to come up with a better way to describe what we do in the office that is beyond just money because money will only get you so far. Rates of return will only get you so far. So, if you’re a client of mine, please share this blog or share the video. People need to know what goes on here with the Financialoscopy team. We came up with a set of index cards. Here’s the 1st one:
This is a person early on in life when they have all this energy. Maybe they aren’t even married yet. Maybe they’ve just been married and it’s all about working overtime, putting in the energy, and making money. It’s like life on the run.
Then things kind of slow down a bit. Maybe you’ve got a child or two, and you want to be home on weekends. You are just trying to walk through life, putting it all together, and trying to get advice along the way so you know what you should be doing.
Later in life, either as we get closer to retirement or past retirement, we slow down. We don’t move as fast as we used to. Instead of buying stuff, we’re buying services. We have a different economy than we did when we were younger.
Along the way, we might develop a disability. Oftentimes, people look at this card and think this is something you see in a person's 80s, but this could happen anytime in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s. If a person is not prepared for this, what will their quality of life be like?
Then, at some point in time, this becomes our life, or I should say, our lack of life. It becomes about your legacy. Legacy is more than money. Money only gets you and your family so far. What kind of a legacy are you leaving to your family regarding values, regarding who you were, and what kind of a difference you want to make in the lives of others? Did your family inherit those values?
This is something that we all worry about, and this is something I worry about often for clients. How are you protected against lawsuits and bad things that can happen to you?
That college professor from my trip realized, after doing his research, that we work in all different areas in a person’s life. He finally understood what we do. Yes, we handle money and rates of return, but like he said, “You are doing things that my financial advisor has never talked to me about.” This is why you should contact us and schedule your Financialoscopy®.
