I just finished reading it. Took about 4 hours maybe. It's a pretty easy read, simple concepts and good factual data. This guy has been doing research for a good 10 years at least.
The concepts he talked about were no new news to me since I joined World Financial Group a month ago. I was like, yup... yup... yup... sounds familiar. But the way he writes its as if he still can't believe Indexed Universal Life and Indexed Annuities exist.
I think it's just me. I'm still young. We whipper-snappers are used to turning on the computer everyday and having instant-button-push lives with MP3 players and automatic unlock on our car doors. My dad always tells me what life was like "back in the day". It sounds horrible, I'm glad I never had to live back then. Apparently computers use to be slow, limited, and very caveman-like in terms of their primitive technological capabilities. Then Steve Jobs made every one's lives easy. So now Old people have to learn how to operate new devices that the Young people can handle blindfolded. What up!
Anyways, the Indexed insurance products are amazing and I am glad I found out about them now. The only problem is now I'm suppose to educate the 90% of all the other people in the country that don't know about it. This task would be easy, but most people are resistant to several key things:
1. Listening to Life Insurance Agents or Financial Brokers. Even though they are there to help guide their clients to financial growth and security, they still have negative attitudes towards those kind of people. They act like they're trying to steal money from them, when they're actually trying to insure it. They also have this weird attitude where they think agents suggesting they buy a life insurance policy means they want that person to die. I guess by that logic, people who fix cars want you to get into crashes. The last thing an insurance company wants is for anything to actually happen to you. You know why? They pay for it! And as for you paying a monthly fee to maintain your policy, How much money is Watching T.V. getting you? You pay that monthly.
2. People are uncomfortable about talking to others about their finances. It seems superficial to me. Why do people think it's embarrassing to talk about finances. It would only be embarrassing if they tried to handle finances on their own without guidance and therefore are now in a bad financial place. It's like getting embarrassed because you didn't consult Google maps before you left the house and now you have to call your friend because your lost. Wooooo! So Embarrassing! And then other people have a paranoid fear that the financial advisor is going to steal money from their accounts or something. Yah, I'm gong to steal your account, change my identity to a blond who speaks Russian, and move to Alaska. Hopefully all my newly acquired money will impress Sarah Palin so we can be friends.
3. People seem to have issues "setting time aside" for a financial consultation. If you needed to go to the dentist or a doctor, you would make time. If you needed to get your car a Smog check, you'd make time. Financial agents spend all day trying to fill their time around other people's schedules. We're even willing to visit people in their own homes -like doctors use to do before they got lazy. If you can make time to watch Dancing with the Stars and chat with people on Facebook about the burrito you ate earlier... I think you can manage blocking 45 minutes out of your week to check the state of your financial well being.
Anyways... the challenges of the Financially Enlightened.
You know what really bugs me though? Actually, you know what Really pisses me off?
Rich people. THEY KNOW ALL OF THE SECRETS TO FINANCIAL GROWTH AND SECURITY. And yet they tell none of their friends with less money. None of those idiots in the political arena ever mention where they put all those hundreds of thousands of dollars they try so hard to protect from raised taxes. Found It! And the system is open to anybody. But only those with money seem to know not just where it put it, but how to make it work for them. And it saddens me more people don't know. Especially in this recession. People need help because they are drowning in finances and those who do have lifeboats aren't showing the people struggling in the water where to get theirs.
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