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On the Horizon
Your monthly entertainment and thought-provokingness from the world of personal finance

Do Try To Do It Yourself

 
November 2019
Russell Robertson, CFP
® 

 

'Tis the season for reflection and giving thanks, so here are three things in the investment world we are thankful for:

  • Thankful that we weren’t onstage for that Tesla electric truck/ATV reveal.  Tesla glass? More like Elijah Price from Glass.
            
  • Thankful that we’re not part of Softbank and their “Vision” Fund.  In case you missed it, Softbank’s Vision Fund invested $10.65B into WeWork at the height of its hype, valuing the company at $47B.  And then after the IP-NO disaster, Softbank was forced into a bailout of WeWork for an additional $8B or so combined debt/equity investment, which means the company would be valued for about $16B or so.  Of which the “Vision” Fund will have invested about $18B. Huh. Well, it turns out that now Softbank is having some issues coming up with the money for that bailout because even that valuation is looking absurd to the other Japanese syndicate banks. 
          
          Anybody else see a resemblance?
  • Thankful that we're not employees, investors, or even users of WeWork.  That may be a bigger dumpster fire than the impeachment proceedings. Have you seen their new commercials? Where apparently they’re trying to rebrand as...we’re not quite sure, but it seems like they’re going for “interior designers”.  And now Adam Neumann is under investigation by the SEC for self-dealing. Ya think? Ya think??


    This rant was epic.

The guy trademarked the word “We” and then sold the trademark to his company for $6M.  Did you know Adam Neumann’s wife is Gwyneth Paltrow’s cousin? Gwyneth Paltrow, whose lifestyle brand Goop is selling $34 toilet paper for the holidays (for 24 rolls, but still).  We wonder what’s in the WeWork bathrooms.

So in the midst of our holiday travel this past weekend, we happened to tune in to some financial talk radio station, and this commercial came on - an ad for something that provided outsourced small business accounting.  It was a pretty classic ad format that tries to induce a fear response:

  1. WORST-CASE SCENARIO
  2. What causes worst-case scenario
  3. How to avoid worst-case scenario (conveniently enough by buying this amazing product!)
Sound familiar?  Well, this one went on to add “whatever you do, don’t try to do it yourself.”

In response, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, let us be the first to say: get stuffed, radio commercial man.  Of course you can do it yourself!  In fact, we’re willing to make a blanket statement that if something is being advertised - especially on the radio - you either don’t need it or absolutely can do it yourself.

Think about it: the only things that get advertised are things that you never really need.  Which is why companies advertise in the first place.  Cases in point: 
  • Cosmetic surgery?  Advertised. Ever seen an ad for appendix removal?  Nope.
  • Washing machines?  Ads all over the place.  But when was the last time you saw an ad for a septic tank?  Or a water heater?
  • New cars?  Everywhere, especially this time of year.  What about brake pads? Catalytic converters?  Timing belts? Nope, nope, and nope. 
So-called “professional services” are the same way.  You don’t need a lawyer after an accident.  You don’t need an accountant to do your taxes.  You don’t need a financial advisor to invest your money.  You can do all that stuff yourself, which is why every public transit bus in every major city is plastered with ads for professional services.

Now, there are definitely situations where the expertise offered by a professional can be indispensable; we’re not saying you don’t ever need to seek out a lawyer or accountant or advisor.  The point is that a lot of the time, there’s no inherent barrier to entry for a knowledge-based field in the digital age, so the idea of “Whatever you do, don’t try to do it yourself” is patently absurd.

Trying to do it yourself it is probably the best thing that you can do.  At the very least you’ll gain some knowledge that could be useful in the future, and you’ll be more informed with a better understanding of what exactly you do or do not need help with from a professional...not to mention better able to evaluate whether said professional is doing a decent job or not.  For our part, we’d love it if there was greater financial literacy across the board, so if that’s on your New Year’s Resolutions list, go for it!

What we offer (as one of those "so-called 'professional services'"), at its core, is expertise in a fundamentally important aspect of life in today’s society (like it or not) for those without the time or inclination to do it themselves.  Sure, you can do it yourself, but there are a number of reasons why you might not want to.  Like our tagline says - we’re offering our expertise for your peace of mind.

So to all of you who have already trusted us to be a part of your financial journey: thank you.

And for everyone else, we believe in you, you can do the thing!

But we’re here if you need a little help.

Happy Thanksgiving!

____________________________

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