The Story of Rich: A Financial Fable of Wealth and Reason During Uncertain Times

What Do You Have Time For?

Successful doctors, contractors, and small business owners doing everything from baking great scones, to growing tasty strawberries, to making duck calls for hunters are all really, really good at what they do. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be successful. Teachers, nurses, and landscapers are really, really good at what they do to. Nuances, tricks of the trade, and just plain old experience are things that cannot be taught easily and can’t be bought. They come with hard work, thought, and just plain old time in the saddle. As we get older, we understand this more and more.

So if we understand this about carpentry, winemaking, and dentistry, why do so many people think that they can handle their financial needs without help? Isn’t this like trying to perform surgery on yourself or program your own computer? I’m not saying it can’t be done, but removing your own gall bladder while under anesthesia seems like it would be very hard to do.

That’s why the experience of a good financial advisor is so valuable. The advisor lives, breathes, and wrestles with the infinite complex­ity of financial markets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While you are reading the latest research on the efficacy of thyroid med­ication or deciding whether to use a brand new insulation material, your financial advisor is studying how inflation affects the equity-based closed-end mutual fund. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, taught all of us the benefit of the specialization ...