The rest of the last post
I have to explain why my last post just stopped in mid thought. I was working on a project for Helder and Joe and it locked up my mouse. I have no idea how, or why, but my mouse was moving around properly, but the cursor image was stuck on the taskbar. So, I COULD click stuff and I COULD do whatever I’d like to do, but it was damn near impossible to figure out where the mouse was… especially on the blogger editor. Nothing changes colors or makes it obvious the mouse is over where it has to be. So, what I did was tab to publish and hit spacebar so it wouldn’t lose my entire post for a second time. I couldn’t restart because my DVD writer had been working for an hour and only had 20 minutes left. I wasn’t going to restart and lose all that time just to get another paragraph in. So there.
So, where to go from there… when last we spoke we were realizing that nobody my age is going to retire unless they take retirement very seriously very early. I’m talking 14% to your 401k no matter how small a paycheck, stock purchase for 10%, and IRA maxed out every year. We also understood that I had no clue about any of this shit before I got into the business. This will all come back to the Do Not Call list.
Let’s say I’m a mechanic like I had planned instead of a financial consultant. I’m working and living in my apartment. I’m spending most of every paycheck, but I’m putting money away in the bank. I would NEVER know anything about ANYTHING unless someone took an interest. That means I wouldn’t even know how to buy a CD to get a couple extra percentage points on my savings. I wouldn’t know that there are other options. I wouldn’t know how to manage my 401k. I didn’t know any of this. So, when would that have changed? When I fit into a demographic that was profitable for the bank where I was saving my money. When I accumulated 50 or 100k in my account someone would probably push an annuity or a stack of CDs or some other bank product and I’d go for it. In the mean time I’d be getting 1%, losing about 3% to inflation, and paying taxes on the gains at my regular tax rate.
Knowing what I know now, that wouldn’t have cut it.
On top of retirement, if I had kids, I wouldn’t know how to save for college. I’d probably buy a couple bonds for the kids when they were born or some shit, but I’d have no idea what products are out there that will make saving much easier and effective.
Here’s the kicker. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago we didn’t have a Do Not Call list. There was a good chance that at some point I’d get a call from a financial consultant no matter what my income was depending on where I lived. If I was in Morristown, there was a good chance that I’d get a call at least a couple times a year from an FC. Of course, getting calls sucks, but if it’s only once and a while, and the person calling is intelligent and well spoken, then it’s much better. Without the Do Not Call (DNC) list, there were so many people to call that not everyone got calls all the time. You would get one or two, but you never saw a day where you’d get 10 calls. It’s a supply and demand equation. If there is a great supply of numbers to dial, you don’t have to stomp all over the same people.
Now that the DNC is in effect, everyone is putting themselves on the list. That means there are far fewer people to call and more calls being made. The same person who got 1 call a week is now getting 5 or 6 calls a day. That’s annoying as shit.
So, if I got a call from someone from that worked for one of the major brokerage firms who wanted to talk to me about investments and was nice on the phone, I would have listened. My number has always been on the DNC since it was introduced. So a call from a broker would have helped me out if I didn’t choose this life, but I wouldn’t have let one call me, and I wouldn’t have called one myself. If you had any idea how many people are like that it would make you sick. Sure, magazines and stupid shit would call too, but the DNC is punishing the people who accept calls by making them take 100X more calls then they did before. It’s like they are being forced to DNC themselves just because everyone else has. If I was getting 10 to 20 calls a day I’d DNC myself too. It’s just way it works.
So there are people who don’t realize they need help (so they won’t ask for it) who can’t be called (so they won’t get it). I would have been one of those people.
THAT’S THAT FOR THAT POST
So, where to go from there… when last we spoke we were realizing that nobody my age is going to retire unless they take retirement very seriously very early. I’m talking 14% to your 401k no matter how small a paycheck, stock purchase for 10%, and IRA maxed out every year. We also understood that I had no clue about any of this shit before I got into the business. This will all come back to the Do Not Call list.
Let’s say I’m a mechanic like I had planned instead of a financial consultant. I’m working and living in my apartment. I’m spending most of every paycheck, but I’m putting money away in the bank. I would NEVER know anything about ANYTHING unless someone took an interest. That means I wouldn’t even know how to buy a CD to get a couple extra percentage points on my savings. I wouldn’t know that there are other options. I wouldn’t know how to manage my 401k. I didn’t know any of this. So, when would that have changed? When I fit into a demographic that was profitable for the bank where I was saving my money. When I accumulated 50 or 100k in my account someone would probably push an annuity or a stack of CDs or some other bank product and I’d go for it. In the mean time I’d be getting 1%, losing about 3% to inflation, and paying taxes on the gains at my regular tax rate.
Knowing what I know now, that wouldn’t have cut it.
On top of retirement, if I had kids, I wouldn’t know how to save for college. I’d probably buy a couple bonds for the kids when they were born or some shit, but I’d have no idea what products are out there that will make saving much easier and effective.
Here’s the kicker. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago we didn’t have a Do Not Call list. There was a good chance that at some point I’d get a call from a financial consultant no matter what my income was depending on where I lived. If I was in Morristown, there was a good chance that I’d get a call at least a couple times a year from an FC. Of course, getting calls sucks, but if it’s only once and a while, and the person calling is intelligent and well spoken, then it’s much better. Without the Do Not Call (DNC) list, there were so many people to call that not everyone got calls all the time. You would get one or two, but you never saw a day where you’d get 10 calls. It’s a supply and demand equation. If there is a great supply of numbers to dial, you don’t have to stomp all over the same people.
Now that the DNC is in effect, everyone is putting themselves on the list. That means there are far fewer people to call and more calls being made. The same person who got 1 call a week is now getting 5 or 6 calls a day. That’s annoying as shit.
So, if I got a call from someone from that worked for one of the major brokerage firms who wanted to talk to me about investments and was nice on the phone, I would have listened. My number has always been on the DNC since it was introduced. So a call from a broker would have helped me out if I didn’t choose this life, but I wouldn’t have let one call me, and I wouldn’t have called one myself. If you had any idea how many people are like that it would make you sick. Sure, magazines and stupid shit would call too, but the DNC is punishing the people who accept calls by making them take 100X more calls then they did before. It’s like they are being forced to DNC themselves just because everyone else has. If I was getting 10 to 20 calls a day I’d DNC myself too. It’s just way it works.
So there are people who don’t realize they need help (so they won’t ask for it) who can’t be called (so they won’t get it). I would have been one of those people.
THAT’S THAT FOR THAT POST
posted by NJX70 at 1:20 PM
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