A Framework for Choosing
In the Financial Services Industry we frequently talk about your “Goals” or your “Hopes and Dreams”, and reference our dedication to serving those.
But the arcs of our careers have changed, and we all know it. Where 40 years ago a career might possibly consist of a job with one company, and retirement at 65 with a gold watch, now we might typically be seeing as many as 10 or 11 jobs in a lifetime, and nobody wears watches. Or we might even see multiple careers – two or three are not at all uncommon. Add in a few “Life Changes” – where we live, who we are married to, our children, our parents, our second families, a few surprises, and it seems pretty unlikely that one set of “goals and dreams” will survive the game intact.
Because, in spite of what most of us think, we do change. Our jobs change us, our partners change us, and barely any of our pre-parenting illusions about life survive our children. So, inevitably, our dreams change as well.
And so, practically speaking, our job as financial advisors isn’t really that closely tied to your present goals. It’s about, instead, giving you a framework of understanding within which you can evaluate what you think you want out of life. And then enriching, and altering that framework as Life enriches and alters us. We want to help you see how the choices we are making today affect what we think we want – and as a result we may choose to alter today’s choices, or we may choose to take another look at what we used to think we wanted tomorrow. It’s a fluid calculation.
So I tend to think of us more as mapmakers. Our job is to show you the terrain between here and there: the mountains, the forests, the deserts… whatever we see. That way, you can look at the map again in year, or in the light of a year’s of additional experience, and decide if you still want to go.
And then, eventually, how to help get you there. Wherever “there” turns out to be.