One of my favorite

 

cartoon quotes, was an illustration of an older gentleman sitting across an imposing large desk, facing an equally large imposing financial adviser.  The caption below read;

"Well Mr. Jones... tell me what your financial goals are?"

Mr. Jones replies meekly.

"I'd like to make it to Friday..." 

Ain't it the truth.  The answer I thought was hilarious, but ironically painted with a great deal of truth.

This isn't my usual, lost in the desert blog, this is more (or less) serious.  Depending on your p.o.v.

In a phone conversation with my older daughter last night, who has just landed a job with a well known firm after four years of study, she asked me how we are managing to live without a "paycheck"  It's a question several of my long time friends and even some new acquaintances have asked.  Some people are cheeky while others are direct.

As an independent adviser for many years, one that did not work for a bank or insurance company or other proprietary firm (how can those guys be ethical when their very paycheck depends on selling their product?) I found that the majority of people I dealt with had little to no understanding of how things worked.  Even the concept of 'saving' eluded many.  In fact I read the other day in the Globe that many still think an RRSP is an actual product!  They still haven't twigged into realizing it's just a container!

Take for example a young guy like me, I wanted to be in the motorcycle business since my teens.  I loved motorcycles but also understood that a business could give me a great deal of freedom from a typical job and had at least a chance of providing a retirement.  I also realized fairly early that relying on an institution (ie the government) to do my thinking for me, was not necessarily the best option.

In order to have any chance of success (provided you aren't born into a Rockefeller family) you had to have a vision of life in your later years, and what that would look like.  Easy... right!  Think again.  Who really spends more than a single nanosecond Saturday night, while partying, contemplating what life will look like fifty years later.

You can rely on your bank, they're trustworthy right?  After all it's the bank... maybe some financial adviser working there... maybe your insurance agent, they always have your future foremost in their minds.  Perhaps someone you know, knows some one.  You can do it yourself, pick stocks, research mutual funds, buy rental property, play the ponies, a weekend in Vegas? 

Then of course there are thousands of variables.  A million things could change.  The economy, war, famine, oil prices, your health... and it doesn't even have to be in your backyard!  You could get married, or divorced.  You may get downsized, your pension could be lost.  You may have trouble saving or if you did, it may get lost to inflation, or your  adviser could steal your money in some ponzi scheme.

Where am I going with this you may ask?

Simply that we have one life to live, live it as true to who you are as you can.  Trust some people but most of all trust yourself.  If you get some of it right (or you have a silver spoon in  your gums) you have a reasonable chance to do good enough.  Is good enough okay?  Well you be the judge of that. 

Getting back to the start of this blog, we don't know the future.  Hell we could all disappear when the Yellowstone super volcano blows, or the asteroid hits.  You may be in a 10x10 nuclear bomb shelter and emerge  unscathed (would you really want to?) to a scene from Mad Max. The bottom line is; it's still a crap shoot.

I've stopped giving financial advice three years ago, well officially anyway.  In the years I was at it,  some listened some of the time, others were like a drain, it went right down the tube.  The key is simple.  First pick a target... liken it to an archery board with circles painted on it in different colors.  You have two maybe three arrows in your quiver.  Aim for the center.  You can screw up once or maybe even twice, but shoot the dam thing. If you do absolutely nothing, only you are to blame.  If you even get on the target, you have a chance.

Failing that... you can keep on working forever until your health gives way.  Or until they turf you as they did to my Chicago cousin Mike after thirty years, with no pension and no warning.

Will it be easy?  Nope.  You may have a good head on your shoulders, you may have an uncle or Dad that you can count on, but in the end, like I say, it's still pretty much  a toss of the dice.

Us, we have some savings and we have parlayed some of it into various mutual funds, cash and a rental property.  Hopefully that will be good enough.