Storytelling Progress

​I have, throughout my life, been a great procrastinator. You may remember that Kendall remarked on having this tendency many times in his own letters, and it also seems Carter has inherited the trait. I like to optimistically view it as a well-honed survival mechanism against aggressive deadlines, but that is just my coping excuse. I know why I procrastinate, and I assume it is the same for Kendall and Carter, as I’ve witnessed them both in action. We procrastinate because we view the problem before us in its entirety, including our perceived solution to the problem. That can be overwhelming, as most problems have so many facets, and solutions usually have many separate pieces and steps. The obvious cure for that overwhelming sensation is breaking things into smaller goals and steps and moving forward. Small achievable goals and successes make us begin to feel that the task is not insurmountable, and that feeling steamrolls and builds on itself until we attain completion victory.

​My last Intelligent Investing radio show, which airs weekly on WRHI, was based on findings from the annual Schroders US Retirement Survey. The survey shared challenges and concerns about retirement from two groups of people: those who are already retired, and those who are still working and saving for retirement. In general, the findings listed lots of different worries from both groups. The biggest concerns of retired people boil down to a fear of outliving their savings due to inflation, higher than expected health care costs, uncertainty about drawing down their savings, and the possibility of market downturn. The biggest concern for workers who are saving for future retirement is not being able to save enough for when retirement actually comes.
 
Both sets of problems reflect what me, Dad, and Carter face with our procrastination worries. They are very big problems, as they deal with long periods of time, into the unknown future, that are affected by many uncertain individual influences. What makes these problems worse is the fear-based advertising we receive from the multi-trillion-dollar Financial Services, Financial Regulatory, and Financial Media industries. Most of what individuals hear from all three of these are messages of fear, doubt, guilt, and uncertainty. I personally think those tactics cause more people to not act than to act on creating a plan for retirement or a plan during retirement. Everyone envisions themselves in a minefield of possible mistakes, and they are immobilized instead of planning and moving forward.
 
The biggest point of my radio show was convincing people that the way through that fear-based immobilization is working with a financial professional. A big part of the financial professional and client relationship is having a plan in place that addresses those fundamental worries of inflation, growth of assets, market uncertainty, and draw-down plans. You all are obviously already working with a financial professional, but as I say in most letters, reach out when these concerns arise and we’ll revisit everything. Addressing your concerns is never a burden to us and is in fact the very foundation of our ongoing relationship.
 
I believe the biggest impetus that propels a plan in motion is when we finally realize in our minds that there is a path to a solution. In other words, what gets us to take that first step is creating the story for success, which includes our current uncertainties and doubt. We all get to that realization in different ways and at different speeds, but that story we form in our minds is the basis of our lives, at every level. The development of that story is empowered by knowledge. So, when all you see are the attempts to scare you about changes in inflation, gross domestic product, market volatility, changing regulations, fraud, unexpected expenses, and everything else under the sun, know there is knowledge that can counteract those influences and help you plan to overcome them.
 
In closure, I know we are drawing in on the holiday season quickly. I wish you all luck with the scramble, and hope you are able to cherish these constantly shortening days.
 
Justin Anderson