Good afternoon,
Once upon a time, a professional financial guy had an idea for a weekly email newsletter. This “electronic” mail thing might catch on. He thought it would help his clients and friends stay up on financial topics and keep himself available as a resource for questions about finance and other things. At least that’s the story he tells about how the WMR became the WMR. The real reason he started it was because he needed a productive outlet to offload the various thoughts running like crazy through his brain. There is only so much bandwidth and without removing some content from time to time, it’s likely that he’d overheat. That’s the real story.
Why tell that story? Because it’s story time at the WMR. We claim to be a “numbers guy,” and that’s true. But we also love stories. We like hearing a good story, we like telling a good story, we like turning events that have happened to us into stories. Stories are illustrative. Stories are great ways to make a point or get your opinion across. Stories bring things into proper perspective. Facts are nice, and even important, but people relate to stories. Stories are more fun. The best movies always have a good story. They can have great special effects or big name stars or cute kids or other hooks, but if the story isn’t good, the movie won’t be either. That’s one of the reasons that the WMR prefers documentaries and films inspired by actual events. The truth is stranger, and more compelling, than fiction. You can’t make that stuff up. The best comedians don’t just tell jokes, they tell really funny stories, usually based in some sort of truth. Though now tainted, Bill Cosby used to tell hilarious stories. His old school comedy albums were amazing and his delivery was perfect.
We were reminded of our penchant for stories the other day when we made a house call to one of our physician clients (see what we did there?.) This particular client and his family are travel enthusiasts. They’ve traveled extensively for years all over the world. We met at his newly remodeled home so he gave us a tour. On display along the way there were various artifacts they had collected in their travels. Thus, every piece of art had a story. Where did you get that beautiful item? We’d ask. “From a shop in China, where we met the shopkeeper and he told us he had used it as his entrance door for 25 years…” What about that cool thing over in the corner? “When we were in Europe and this small museum was paring down its inventory…” Everything in the fabulous home had a story, which made everything that much more interesting. We managed to have a more mundane discussion around the standard financial agenda, but we kept that part short and spent more time on the cooler stuff. Even on the way out, as the topic turned to baseball, and our doc produced an autographed baseball that he’d had since he was a kid that had an awesome story behind it.
We ask clients for stories when we meet with them. So tell us how you got into that business. So tell us what the kids and grandkids are up to. So tell us about your recent trip to
Here's a quick client story. We met the other day with a mature couple, both in their 60s, who had not yet opted in to social security. They told us the story about why they had not. “We plan to live a long time and you’ve mentioned that we’ll get more money by waiting until we’re 70 to collect…” That’s smart and very true, I replied, but have you thought about this strategy? What if husband, who’s older and had reached FRA (full retirement age) filed now, began collecting benefits and then wife, who’s a little younger, filed to collect half of husband’s benefit while letting her own benefit grow. Thus you’d both be collecting something now, which you’re not currently doing, and you can let wife’s benefit increase until she reaches age 70. Something now and something more later. “That’s an interesting idea.” Indeed.
Sometimes you have to be careful with the stories you hear, because they might be exaggerated, or embellished, or completely made up. Bernie Madoff had a story. Enron had a story. Politicians are full of stories, among other things. Don’t let that deter you from asking others for their story, but do exercise caution if the storyteller asks for money, or a contribution, or your social security number, or your mother’s maiden name, or your first pet, etc.
Following that sharp pivot, but continuing the story, here is a podcast with some advice on how to avoid being scammed. The podcast is The Art of Manliness (which has other good episodes as well) and the guest is Frank Abagnale. Who’s name you might remember from the movie “Catch Me if You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. That movie is the story of how Mr. Abagnale scammed his way through the early part of his life by making up good stories. He ended up spending some time in prison for his actions. Upon his release, he came back from the dark side and began working with the FBI on helping detect and avoid scams. Here is his story, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/545-how-not-to-get-scammed-conned-or-duped/id332516054?i=1000450900543
We’ll close this week with a link to a bunch of great stories. It’s not a secret that the WMR is a fan of Tim Ferriss. He’s written several books, and one of his most recent is titled “Tribe of Mentors.” It’s a collection of stories of hundreds of the most successful people in the world. And not just financially successful, but successful in other ways. Here are their stories.
LF25 – “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” – Mark Twain.
Have a great week.
Michael J. Acho, MBA, CFP®
Private Wealth Advisor
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Lincoln Financial Advisors/Sagemark Consulting
1000 Town Center, 26th Floor
Southfield, MI 48075
248-948-5100 direct
248-948-5101 fax
248-933-4339 cell
Michael.Acho@LFG.com
http://lfamichigan.com/page/michael-acho
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