People will sometimes ask me how or why I choose where to go on vacation. I can’t really imagine myself sitting on a beach for days, drinking Mai Tais, reading a book, or watching the seagulls on the horizon. I like to have an adventure and make connections with new people.
My wife and I recently went to New Zealand with a very small tour group of just 18 people. We were able to meet people from all over the United States from Seattle to Atlanta. There was someone from north of Toronto that had worked in the film and television industry; they had some great stories about John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short. We also met a wonderful couple from the UK, south of London, from Brighton, and a couple from Australia.
I think perspective and wisdom is something that you acquire over time. We may have a lot of information and knowledge here at our office, but we also realize that the rules and regulations that we have today may not be the same in the future. That is why it’s important to get some insight on what’s going on in the rest of the world. Meeting new people is a great way to gain that insight.
For Example, I am aware of how our Social Security system works. Is our system the best? No. Is our system the worst? No, but neither is it anywhere else. Every country wants to provide something for its citizens, but they do it in different ways, and our country may implement these same adjustments in the future.
I learned that, in some countries, you can’t take Social Security early at the age of 62. For some countries, it’s younger and, for some, it’s older. For some countries, you receive the same amount of Social Security forever. It never goes up, no cost-of-living adjustments. In some countries, Social Security is “means-tested”, which means if you make over $100,000 a year, you don’t qualify for Social Security. In others, if you make an amount of money just from your investments or from assets that you have, then your Social Security is reduced based on that.
I was able to have great conversations about Social Security and retirement with people from places like Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the rules are different in every country, but every single person agreed it’s very important to get a financial advisor before retirement. Everybody wants to get the biggest benefit they can from their government because they have all paid in, but they realize that that’s not going to be enough. They also realize that if they have the wrong assets or too many assets, this could affect the money that they receive from their Social Security plan in their respective country.
These are good discussions because we all know that the number of employees who are paying into our Social Security system is going down drastically. There are fewer workers paying into the system and more of us white- and gray-haired people pulling out of the system. There may be adjustments at some point in time, but we don’t know what those adjustments will be, and these conversations get my mind thinking on how I would construct a plan based on things like “means-testing” or based on no additional cost-of-living adjustments.
This is one of the reasons that I like to travel so much. I get to ask questions from people in other countries who have lived through those rules and were able to get the maximum benefits possible in their situations. Again, I don't think there will ever be a perfect system because no matter where you go in the world, there will always be complaints and never enough to go around. It’s important to have an open mind and to realize that the world and life is forever changing.
If you would like to work with a firm that thinks ahead to the possibilities, positive or negative, then perhaps it’s time to schedule your Financialoscopy®.
