Do You Know What You Don’t Know?

“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just isn’t so.”  Mark Twain

I’m a people person. I love people and economics (in exactly that order).  I’m a good listener and my friends and family (also known as “clients”) often ask my advice on personal as well as financial issues.  I know what issues I can give advice on and which I can’t.  That’s a very important distinction to make.

A few times a year, I’ll have requests by clients to meet with their high school or college-aged children to discuss finances and investing.  I’ll meet the young man or woman for lunch and ask them open-ended questions about what they want to be when they grow up.  This is a lot of fun for me, and I often give financial advice to these children as they become adults.

Once a client’s child called and asked me a question that absolutely stumped me.  

“Mr. Black, I need your advice on a very important decision I have to make.” 

“Of course, anything I can do for you.  What are you trying to figure out?”

“Well”, he replied sheepishly, “I think I’ve found ‘the one’.”

“‘The ‘one’ what?”

“The girl I want to marry.”

“Well that’s great!  Congratulations.” I said.  “But what does that have to do with me?”

Then he asked me, “How does one go about buying an engagement ring?”

I laughed and told him, “You’re outside of my expertise.  You’ll have to ask Mrs. Black about that!”

I’m not qualified to give advice about a lot of things (particularly jewelry).  But I know someone to ask or to refer my friends and family to for just about every conceivable piece of advice they are seeking.  I’m always looking for the best qualified, nicest people to turn to when I get a question I don’t know the answer to.  I’m not a jack of all trades.  I’m a good wealth manager and I do my best to take care of the families that have entrusted their futures to my care, and they deserve to have the best advice possible for their unique situations.  I have a lot of very smart colleagues who specialize in investments, taxes, estate planning and insurance.  I read voraciously and it’s all I can do to keep up with my area of expertise.  Consider carefully the source of your advice and the values that your advisor holds because they do flavor the recommendations that he or she is giving you.

Hot Retirement Destinations

Growing up in Arizona, we referred to retirees that lived the summer months somewhere up North and the winter months in the Southwest as “snowbirds”.  Increasingly, snowbirds have been shedding their Northern nests and settling in the desert in massive retirement communities like Sun City in Phoenix and Las Vegas.    In the Southeast we have similar developments in Peachtree City South of Atlanta and the Villages in central Florida. These communities offer a fantastic quality of life, but they are hot.  I mean blazing hot.

Last week I helped my mom and stepdad move from Las Vegas to Tucson, which is a retirement mecca.  The temperature hovered at 108 degrees.  I don’t care if it is a dry heat, that’s hot!  When I offered to help my parents move, it didn’t occur to me they would choose the first week of August as the ideal time to do it.  But I’m not complaining too much.  At least I didn’t have to go to Houston, TX.

My bride’s grandparents grew up in Texas and lived in Houston for over 60 years.  Granddaddy’s birthday was August 9th.  Every year since he turned 98, the family would go to Houston and throw him a birthday party, and it was a lot of fun.  He enjoyed it so much, he kept having them so we could come back and visit him.   Granddaddy lived to be 104 years old.

One year we had an ice cream social at the fellowship hall of Granddaddy’s church (South Main Baptist).  I offered to ride with Grandmother and Granddaddy in the car to the party.  I was wearing a suit and a tie and I was sweating profusely because it was over 100 degrees with 110% humidity (mild August weather for Houston).  Granddaddy was sitting in the front seat with the air conditioner blowing on him.  He got cold, so he kept opening the windows to “let the warm air in”.  I thought I was going to die of heat stroke.  I would rather go to Vietnam in August than go to Houston.

Warmer climates are a great retirement destination for retirees, especially if they live in a low maintenance community.  Our retired clients live predominantly in the Southern states and are quite active.  Most of our clients are in North Georgia, which is far enough North that you see four seasons but far enough South that you don’t have to shovel snow.  We also have clients that live in Nevada, the low country of South Carolina and the Florida coast. 

Retirees are the busiest people I know.   Living in a climate where they’re not shut in for the winter months adds a lot of quality to their lives.  For folks that have settled into retirement up North, come on down to the South and look around!