Getting Back to Fun

Every financial advisor on the planet knows just how difficult the past few years have been. Tremendous amounts of wealth have vanished. Some of it your clients’, some of it your own. I believe it’s safe to say that being a financial advisor hasn’t been a lot of fun since the market tanked. Well what do you say we start having some fun again?

As I write this column, it appears the market isn’t going to implode — yet. We now know the recession officially ended in June of ’09 (No one informed my net worth of that.). Even Warren Buffett believes the danger of another recession has subsided. Is it time for the staff to start icing down the Rum Jumbies?

I often find myself longing for the good old days — of the bull market — when everyone was having fun. As a wholesaler, I had it great. Three or four times a year I would travel to a beautiful resort to “work” a broker-dealer conference/awards trip. The hardest part of these trips was trying to act like I didn’t want to go. “Of course, honey, I’d rather stay here with you changing diapers and cleaning up dog crap. I hate my job!”

When I first got into wholesaling — way back when I had all my internal organs and glands — a wise old wholesaler pulled me aside and gave me a great piece of advice: “Son, never let your wife hear you whistling when you’re packing for a trip.” Words to live by. Apparently mine heard.

As an industry, I don’t think we did a very good job of making these trips seem like work. No matter how hard I tried to explain to my family and friends how difficult my job was, they scoffed. “Let’s get this straight, for work you go to some five-star resort in Hawaii, attend raucous parties and buy food and booze for whomever you want AND you use someone else’s credit card!?”