By Martin Siesta, CFP®

Advice that I have been giving clients has little to do with products. Here is an example of what we advised:

•    Money and credit will get scarce - get out of debt or reduce debt if you can
•    Reduce your expenses structurally - look at your cars - look at all the outgoings
•    There may be no real return on conventional investments and it will take years for the adjustment to work its way
•    Social security may not be a sure thing - think more about how you are going to spend your “Golden years”
•    Invest in sure things such as reducing your use of energy.  Remember,  investments in cutting your oil use give you a cash tax free return
•    Invest in you and yours - get real skills and real assets - learn how to do things that you now pay others to do. Eat out less
•    Invest in your friends and community - by working with them - for on our own we are not strong enough - volunteer for real work
•    Pay more attention to your kids - better than paying school fees - do things with them
•    Your health can be an asset or a liability, you have a responsibility to take care of it

What financial planners can do as a profession:

Dick Wagner has asked “What do we do as a profession? There is a lot to look at. First the skills that we have learned via CFP® certification and from the financial services industry are woefully inadequate for this environment. In some ways (particularly portfolio returns) it compares to the tools that the Fed had to examine risk in the investment banks and other institutions. If something is dying and something is emerging, we darn well better reexamine the tools and stop doing more of the same. For example, I believe strongly that the model of getting paid for “assets under management”(defining assets as equities) is dead! I suggest that what is wanting to be born is “wealth under management.”

As a community, we need to have “conversations that matter.” I haven’t seen as much of that as I would like.  When I review blogs and posts from the first 9 months of 2008, I ask. How many of those are conversations that matter?

We need to go beyond the one on one conversations that we have with our clients. As a community, we need to have these conversations with others both within the profession  and outside. We don’t have a monopoly on wisdom! We can learn from others. They need to be with those who we agree with and those we don’t. But these conversations need to be dialogue and not debate. We need to listen deeply, to appreciate, to notice and not to judge. Sharing personal stories help.

If we can let go of our fear, we can listen to what is being born.  I believe this will be sustainable wealth! We have some wonderful skills that we can share in building community and awareness. As holistic planners we have learned how to listen deeply and with empathy. We have learned to connect values with assets. We know that assets are not just financial but time and yourself. We have some decent tools to track how the money stuff works to create sustainability and outcome. If you served in a volunteer at FPA or the CFP Board, you have acquired some pretty cool leadership skills.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under Martin Siesta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.