Greetings from over somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean! But why am I over the Atlantic? More on that in a moment…
The world keeps spinning like an out-of-control top (millennials and gen-Zs, you can ask AI what “spinning like a top” means). Wars, tariffs, reflecting pools, yelling. What do you need to do about it??
My advice: think about spending some money.
Here’s what we do for you: we help you spend money.
Most people think financial planners like us help people save money. Not even mostly true. People don’t hire us because they need help saving money; if they needed help saving, they probably wouldn’t hire us at all. Most people who seek financial advice already know they need to save.
Instead, what we do is give you the tools to decide how to SPEND it. You good savers are usually cautious because you know how hard you have worked to save it in the first place. We help you frame your spending in the context of your values and your life goals. If you are a client who is my age or older, and you haven’t spent any money, then we have failed to help you.
Money is not happiness; Money is tool.
A tool that is unused just rusts on the workbench, never becoming useful or serving a purpose. You can use a hammer to build a playhouse or break into a car.
The wielder of the tool decides how to use it; we help you use money in ways to enhance your life, feed your values, and to give it meaning.
The best conversations I have are with people who have diligently saved all their lives for “some day…”. “Some day” is sooner than you think, and “some day” is never a given.
The world keeps spinning! IF you are lucky you have 70-90 years, a quarter of which you spent learning how to survive for the other three-quarters of your life. What are you going to do with the time, and MONEY, you have left?
You can stew about how the world is “worse than ever”. Maybe that’s true, but that’s not the lesson here. Don’t let what you think about the world stop you from living your life! This means you need to use your money.
And this is why I’m in the airplane over the Atlantic Ocean.
I’m writing this in the middle seat of a 787 somewhere between London and Chicago on my way back from my 60th birthday trip to watch Liverpool play Chelsea in a late-season Premier League match.
I spent a decent amount of money to cheer with 60,000 Scousers (nickname for Liverpudlians) and sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before a soccer match that many of them won’t even recall a year from now. For me, however, it was one of those moments when I pulled the money tool out of the shed and used it to make a day in my life meaningful.
Money can transform ordinary days of your life into meaningful days.
PATHMARK update: Ok, it’s been a little while since I sent out one of these Wooden Nickels. The reasons are many, but the main one was that our group went through a lot of changes in the last year, and it took a lot of work on our team’s part to get them all done in a way that didn’t negatively impact our clients. All the changes have been very positive, but they took a lot of work. Those changes, very briefly, were:
· We formed a new financial planning practice: Pathmark Wealth Advisors
· We moved office locations…twice!
· We hired two new team members: Kenna Blackorby and Zari Montgomery
· We (barely) survived the maternity leave of Kara Brockmeier (and welcomed baby Connor!)
· We changed our technology, phone numbers, mailing address.
· We did all of that while making sure we caused as little disruption to you as possible. I hope we succeeded.
We still need to do a few things (signage, furniture, etc), but we continue doing what we do for you. Hopefully you hardly noticed the changes.
Except for our cool new logo!