228: Hope and Convenience: Why People Hire Advisors

Hope.

And hope, that can get a bad reputation because we can say you're on a hope trip, hope on a strategy, and they're right.

But hope is an essential thing.

Hope and change.

It's what Obama ran on.

It was catalyzing.

It was a movement.

It swept him into office and so on and so forth because it's an essential thing.

It's without hope.

Why would anybody save any money? Why would I be planning for the future? Why would I be investing? Why would I sacrifice today for tomorrow? Why would I be preferencing the future over right now? And why would anybody believe that tomorrow would be better than what we have today? So every financial decision...

Some way it really is a statement about the future.

I believe that things can improve.

I believe that things will be better.

I believe that my future will be better than my past.

I believe that the world will be better for my kids than it is for me.

I believe things can improve.

Hope is what causes somebody drowning in debt to make that first extra payment, to start changing behavior.

Hope is what convinces somebody who's never invested before to put away their first hundred bucks.

Hope, that's what allows somebody approaching retirement to believe they can actually enjoy the next chapter of life instead of being terrified of it.

Financial advisor isn't manufacturing returns, but the best advisors can definitely create hope and not some BS false hope, grounded real hope and hope that's backed by math numbers, hope that's backed by experience and hope that is backed up by a plan.

Because uncertainty, that creates anxiety.

All those open loops that we experience that we have, that's what freaks us out.

Clarity, well, that does the opposite.

It creates confidence.

And then there's convenience.