A referred financial fiduciary contacted me several times wanting to set an appointment. The mistake a friend innocently gave, was to send him my phone number. I firmly stated that I’m nowhere near retirement age, with an easy 7 -10 years to go. He insisted that I start prepping in advance. “Don’t wait until the last moment before retiring.”
The Appointment
We met at the said time/date in my home. To his credit he drove 45 minutes just to give his assessment/sales pitch. But I felt he was fishing. He asked us both (my fiancé was present) about our savings, ownership, debt. We had zero debt. Together we had saved 8x our income. We owned our cars, real estate, etc. In fact, excited we shared how out of the blue how my fiancé had been contacted to lease his mineral rights and had just received a $68K check. We had promptly deposited in the bank for CDs.’ That’s nothing’ he said, his ‘other client just received a check for $300K’, which he just processed. Huh, we thought disappointed.
401K Transfer
He really was interested in my 401K balance. He wanted to know exactly how much and where. I’ve been very aggressive with my portfolio. Why not? I have access and can move it easily, increase my contributions and have calculated exactly my ratio of input to my estimated outcome. It’s a strategy that for me makes sense and is working to my advantage. Once he learned my 401K balance, he immediately showed his latest clients balance spread sheet (I seen her name and address!!!) ‘she’s your age, he said and she has just invested a million with me.’ Wow. Later, he slipped up to tell me she inherited a home, plus her husband had just died. She sold the home, bought a condo and with the inherited money, home profit and life insurance, had just retired early. That explained a lot, but the damage was done.
The Send Off!!!
Then said advisor/planner asked what I make yearly. He asked while waiting to type in my salary on his spreadsheet, ‘what 100?’ I was stunned. I had already let him know that I was a low earner. My fiancé is a disabled Desert Storm veteran. Oh, no I said, remember I’m nowhere near that! He moved onto putting my 401K into his mutual fund. Stressed that I could still contribute to but would be protected from the roller coaster stock market. He guarantees 7%, but with the markets doing well, the returns have been 10% or higher. By my math, and my calculations, my returns have been consistently 16.9% or higher. I gave my defense for keeping it where it’s at. At the end of the roughly 30-minute meeting he asked if I had any interest to proceed. Never wanting to say never, I asked if we could give it 6 months and I’d let him know. I had a bad taste in my mouth. I felt poor. I felt saddened. I felt deflated.
AI Assessment Scenario
Then after days of feeling POOR, I decided to use my newfound friend AI Mode. I gave my scenario – warts and all. I put how I felt offended and poor. I suspected he was just prying and so on. I hit enter. AI did some thinking. And then the response. It was eye-opening and never, ever would I have surmised this possibility. AI discerned that he may have been impressed by our accomplishments! Impressed by our prudence, our diligence. Impressed by low-earners acquiring so much. Impressed to the point that he felt his services were not needed, yet! Even if AI is off, even if AI was throwing darts, I’ll take it!
Rich and Strange! 