Investment Help

If you are seeking investment help, look at the video here on my services. If you are seeking a different approach to managing your assets, you have landed at the right spot. I am a fee-only advisor registered in the State of Maryland, charge less than half the going rate for investment management, and seek to teach individuals how to manage their own assets using low-cost indexed exchange traded funds. Please call or email me if interested in further details. My website is at http://www.rwinvestmentstrategies.com. If you are new to investing, take a look at the "DIY Investor Newbie" posts here by typing "newbie" in the search box above to the left. These take you through the basics of what you need to know in getting started on doing your own investing.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A License to be Nosy


One advantage to being a financial advisor is that you get used to being pretty nosy about people's finances. It is, however, depressing because, like so many things in life, you find that there is what economists call a type of adverse selection going on. The people who read personal finance and investing blogs and attend investment workshops are not those who need it most. And the people who need it most are walking around clueless.

This past week my TV went out as I was channel surfing, so I got the Comcast guys to come out. One was in his early 30s and the other was in his early 40s.

My nosy financial side (and business side as well!) surfaced, and I asked them if they were participating in their company 401k. From their expressions, I could tell they had never been asked this on a call; and I could just as well have asked if they thought there is life in outer space.

The expressions didn't alter one iota when I asked if Comcast has a company match. Maybe I'm extending my financial boundaries a bit here, but this is a question every employee should be able to answer for their particular company. If you've ever wondered why most financial advisors are bald, it is because they have lost their hair or pulled it out because people can't answer this question.

To state the obvious, taking advantage of the company match is free money; and one day, when we have stopped drawing a paycheck, all of us will be highly appreciative of this free money.

I could tell you the response later in the day from the lady who gave me the eye test at the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles, but I'll spare you.

Hopefully I've made my point.

3 comments:

  1. Well, if you continue your nosy polling of random people it can only go up from Comcast and the DMV. I can't think of a worse combination.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Point well taken. If I had more time I would have scrounged for a picture of Mo looking for trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David says......

    Yeah Pop-stop being so nosy!

    And you should know better----free money----ha that's a laugh!

    The reason they offer a match is b/c the wage/salary they are paying is too low from the get go.

    ReplyDelete