We all need role models in our lives. We need someone to look to for guidance and life lessons. For athletes, it might be a coach. In business, it might be a mentor. What about financially? Who is your financial role model?
For some people it can be a parent. You might go to your father/mother for conversations about money. Maybe you ask them about investing in hopes of learning what worked for them. You might talk with them about large purchases you plan on making. You might ask how and when they purchase certain insurance to see if you need it. Have times changed? Should you be making decisions the same way they did 20, 30, 50 years ago?
It could be a trusted advisor. You might ask your CPA, attorney or best friend. You could ask them the same questions as above. You look to learn about their decision making process and learn from their successes and/or mistakes. Are they experts? Do you go to your lawyer when you think you have the swine flu simply because he has a lot of doctors as clients? Maybe he stayed at a Holiday Inn?
Do you think people look to the government? Do they trust and rely on the government? You hear about debt being out of control for people. The government is setting records with their $11+ trillion debt. Let me write that out for you: $11,000,000,000,000. That’s a lot of zeros. We wonder why personal spending is relying on debt. Could it be because the government is teaching us that not only is it okay but they’re doing a better job at it than you? Maybe the government decided to bust Madoff as a lesson to everyone. What if they wanted to really teach the public about a ponzi scheme without implicating themselves. How does social security work? Working people pay into social security to fund the benefits of those that are no longer working. Sooner or later it catches up. Isn’t that right Bernie?
It’s as good of a time as any to re-evaluate your role models, figure out who can help you and in what areas. Not everyone can do everything. You might need seperate role models for different parts of your life. Or maybe you could meet someone that knows they can’t do it all. Instead of trying to answer all of your questions they will direct you to the best person to answer that specific question. Doesn’t that seem like an ideal world? Am I naive to think that can and does exist? I’ll prove it to you. Or you could stay at a Holiday Inn, you might get lucky.
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This is the kind of post that you have to favorite, so you can read it a few times and let it sink in.
Heh.
For me at least it’s pretty obvious NOT to follow what the govt is doing. Then again many others in our country did not.
For me I did NOT follow my parents and their spending ways. It caused me to do a 180 degree difference.
Investor Junkie´s last blog ..How I Learned Everything About Business By Owning A Lemonade Stand
It’s tough when the people or country we look up to the most let us down. For some people they learn what not to do but for others they follow in their footsteps. The saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, does that just mean parents/kids or countries as well?