My dad was an orphan and spent his youth in the St. Francis home for boys in Detroit. The home was a safety net for boys, but it was far from an ideal upbringing. The trials, loneliness and sometimes abuses of that home left indelible marks on his life and taught lessons he worked tirelessly to teach his children.
 
When I left for the university my dad encouraged me to study history and philosophy. He said that philosophy would teach me how to think, and history would teach me what I should be thinking about. I followed that advice and one day in philosophy class my professor asked us to come up with a single phrase that could be applied to every aspect of our lives. The following week I turned in my assignment with this phrase, “Everything has its price.”
 
My dad taught that every decision had a price and that every action required giving up something else. In investing we call that “Opportunity cost,” meaning when you spend $10 on a meal you have given up whatever else that $10 might have done for you. The price of the meal is the loss of the $10 while the price of not buying the meal may be hunger. It is our choice which price we pay.
 
When people retire they bring with them the evidences of the various prices they have paid throughout their lives. Some have paid the price of sacrifice, having faithfully put off current wants for a better future. Others, for whatever reasons, decided they could not “afford” to set aside money in their youth, or they did not have the discipline to do so. They failed to pay the price to assure their financial future, and so in their old age they are paying a different price.  Young people often mistakenly think that financial planning is optional. Barring a personal disaster, your future will absolutely come. The question is, do you want to plan for it or do you want to let life plan it for you? In either case there will be a price to pay.
 
History shows a strong tendency for people to seek returns without paying the full price. Our national obsession with gambling is clear evidence of this. Politically we continue to run up massive deficits, giving further evidence of our thirst to obtain benefits we aren’t willing to pay for. Even intelligent and successful investors are not immune to this human tendency.
 
We must be ever on our guard against the temptation to try and obtain something we haven’t fully paid for. It is one reason even successful individuals can make bad investments decisions or even worse, get sucked into fraudulent schemes. Always remember that everything in life has a price. If you are tempted to try and bypass the price, or take a short cut, be aware that some other price for your decision awaits down the road and you may find it is more than you want to pay.

I have been concerned about the messages being delivered to the youth of the rising generations. Many young people live in a “virtual” world, a world of fake reality. It is a world where there are no losers because everyone gets a trophy, and where self-worth is determined by social media “likes” and “shares.” It is a protective world that in many ways does not require enough of its youth and sadly, a world that has very little resemblance to the adult one that awaits them.
 
I grew up in a much different world. I ran my first lemonade stand with my brother at age six and have had a job ever since. I learned lessons of life by living life, and those lessons were sometimes painful. In High School I was very small (only 5’1” and 85 lbs. on my first driver’s license) which meant gym day held the time honored tradition of shoving the little guy in the locker. Bullying back then was common and in P.E., almost encouraged.  (I still harbor negative feelings towards anyone whose name starts with “Coach.”) Though I support anti-bulling efforts today, I still learned a great deal from those trials. I learned that I wanted to go to college and be very successful so bullies couldn’t push me around anymore. It’s seems a bit odd that the older generation credits the “hard knocks” of life with teaching them many valuable lessons, yet sometimes goes to great lengths to protect their kids from the same.
 
When my Little League team lost the championship game in a heart-breaker, we cried a bit while watching the winners get the only trophy, then went back to the ball field the next day and practiced all the harder. Yes, failure was painful, but it was often our best teacher. I didn’t receive nearly as many trophies as my kids, but mine sure meant a lot to me.
 
I recently released my first children’s book (under my pen name Ule B. Wise) and a client asked why I was writing books for children. I responded that in my years of teaching thousands of individuals about investing I have come to a stark reality. The people best prepared for retirement, the ones who live the most financially sound lives, are usually the ones who have done so all along. For the most part being financially wise is a lifelong habit formed in the early years. So I decided I needed to start the education, not with 50 year olds, but with five and ten year olds. I also decided to begin, not with financial concepts, but with teaching some of the basic values of life such as discipline, determination, courage, patience and other qualities that if learned, have the potential to benefit all areas of their lives. If they can learn these principles, then showing them how to save and invest and manage money will be so much easier. Then, if they like, they can go out and buy their own trophies.

Let me take you briefly into the cockpit of a modern airplane. Most can picture the massive array of instruments. As a young boy flying commercially I remember looking into the cockpit and thinking that pilots must be the smartest people on earth. I have seen the eyes go wide when people fly co-pilot with me and see all that impressive technology I control. They are usually surprised to learn that most airplanes only operate on six basic instruments. To a large degree, that confusing and crowded panel is filled with various iterations of those same six instruments.
 
My airplane has four attitude indicators (five if you count the one on my cell phone) and each one does exactly the same thing. I have six airspeed indicators and five heading indicators. The reason for all this redundancy is that airplanes have to be pretty self-sufficient once in the air, so having a lot of backup is important. As an example, with five heading indicators, it is highly unlikely to imagine a scenario where I won’t know which direction I am going.
 
All of this redundancy is great for safety but there is a cost. Airplane technology is expensive and each of those instruments has to be maintained. The additional equipment also ads quite a bit of weight which increases fuel costs while lowering cargo capacity.
 
If I only carried one of each instrument I could fly faster and farther and haul more passengers at a lower cost. It would be my dream airplane, until my single heading indicator failed, in which case it would become a nightmare. The complex panel array in a modern airplane is a pilot’s version of diversification.
 
I looked up diversification on Investopedia and found this incorrect description relating to investing: “(Diversification) contends that a portfolio constructed of different kinds of investments will, on average, yield higher returns and pose a lower risk than any individual investment found within the portfolio.” That generally accepted description is inaccurate because it is mathematically impossible. An average of any sample can not exceed all of the parts. Unfortunately, bad investing often starts with bad math.
 
So then why diversify? Though it offers no guarantees, the usual goal of diversification is to seek a reasonable return with an acceptable level of risk. Diversification, done properly, is not designed to be the most profitable option for investors, but the more responsible one. I would suggest that Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs, did not become some of the richest people in history by diversifying their stock portfolios. But few investors are willing, or should even consider, the levels of risk they took.
 
Having a diversity of instruments in my plane slows me down and costs me more, but it also greatly increases the likelihood that I will arrive at my destination in safety. And ultimately, that is my most important goal every time I fly, or invest.

Every airplane owner is familiar with the annual inspection. Required by the FAA to promote safety, every airplane must be taken annually to a qualified shop to be inspected. The procedure is quite involved, and can be a little discomforting when viewed for the first time.
 
During the process the shop essentially opens the whole machine up to take a look inside. The goal is to basically inspect every piece of the airplane to assure it complies with very strict guidelines. Some parts are repaired or replaced based on standards of wear and others simply because their stated useful life is up. The idea being that parts should be replaced before they fail because a pilot does not have the convenience of being able to call a tow truck if a fuel pump gives out in flight.
 
All of this abundance of caution with airplanes comes at a cost. Annuals are expensive, and so are those brakes and tires and miscellaneous parts that are replaced when they still have life left in them. Additionally, there is an inherent risk in taking apart something so complex and then putting it back together again, because mistakes are sometimes made. The challenge for the shop, the owner and the FAA is to balance the risk and cost of inspecting and replacing parts, against the risk of not doing so.
 
An investment portfolio can also be very complex. Created over many years, a retiree may have a multitude of intertwined investments, each performing a different and hopefully complimentary role in the total retirement plan. These accounts, like an airplane, need regular service to keep them running properly, but the very act of servicing them can create its own additional problems. 
 
An area of concern is when someone has a major life change. A death, sickness, marriage, divorce, or other event can lead to advice to make sweeping changes in the portfolio mix. Although ongoing financial tune-ups are appropriate, making extreme investment changes all at once can be unnecessary and expensive. As with an airplane, sometimes the risk of replacing a working part is higher than the risk of leaving it alone.
 
I am thankful the FAA requires an annual inspection of my airplane, even if I don’t like paying for it. I am also thankful for the great relationship I have with my shop. After the annual inspection they call to discuss with me those repairs that are safety related, those that are desirable but not necessary, and those that are merely cosmetic. They often recommend that in some of the latter two it is safer to just leave things alone.
 
Before making major changes to your portfolio, make sure you understand the difference between what is necessary, and what may be merely cosmetic. Doing a full rebuild can be costly and unnecessary, for both an airplane and your portfolio.

We took the kids to Disneyland one year and gave each child $20 to spend on non-food items. When we returned home all of the kids had spent their money except for Natali who reported that she had $22 left. Thinking she needed a math lesson we asked her to explain. She told us that one of her sisters had spent her allotted amount and then found something that she just had to have, so she had borrowed $16 with a promise to pay the money with an additional $4 fee on arriving home. Natali explained that she had splurged and bought herself a $2 pickle, leaving her with $22 after the loan to her sister had been repaid. Apparently I was looking to teach the math lesson to the wrong daughter.
 
Financial acumen comes naturally to some people and with great effort to others. The ones who struggle often blame society, personal limitations, upbringing, or education opportunities. Although those all play a significant role, in my experience, most people have the power to rise above their challenges and live financially responsible lives if they really want to. I have worked with many families who once struggled but after a concerted effort, made the decision to change their bad money habits. It isn’t easy but it can be done.
 
Every year the Federal Reserve issues its annual report on the financial health of American families. With the last recession almost 10 years away, a strong economy and very low unemployment, you would expect this report to contain great news. Unfortunately, though there has been some improvement, far too many families continue to struggle.  The 2017 report found that 44% of American families could not cover a $400 emergency expense. The reason for this is found in another question where 53% of respondents stated they spent more in the prior year than they earned. If half of the country can’t save even a few dollars during all these good years, what will happen to them when the next recession hits?
 
Many people blame lack of income on their inability to save. They think if they could just make a little more money it would solve the problem. I have always maintained that living within your means is a behavioral issue, not a financial one. My experience is that a person who can’t live on $30,000 a year could not live on $3 million a year either. Although I am sure many would volunteer to try and prove me wrong.
 
If you are part of the 44% club, make a commitment today to not renew your membership next year. Start by saving a little something each month. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it has to be something. The important thing is to create a habit of saving. Stop looking to your shortage of income and focus instead on your current behavior. Failing to do so may lead to another painful math lesson when the next economic downturn hits.

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching a series of investment classes exclusively for women. Their thirst for knowledge and desire to take control of their financial lives is exciting. As women continue to assert their economic power, the world in which we live and the investors who live in it, need to be prepared for the changes that will come.
 
Women now surpass men in obtaining new college bachelor degrees, and even more so with graduate degrees.  As they do so they are becoming an increasingly powerful force in business and in government. In 2015 I read a study by Morgan Stanley that found women, as investors, were interested in investing their money with companies they perceived as having a positive influence on society.
 
Along those lines I attended an investor forum focused on the relatively new concept of “Purpose Driven Companies.” We are all aware of the practice of posting a “Mission Statement” on a company wall. These statements often talk about promising great customer service, high quality products and integrity in operations. Sometimes they can become a bit repetitive with many feeling like they were written from the same template. I wonder how often a customer decides to do business with a company based upon the ubiquitous mission statement posted on the front lobby wall.
 
In the forum I attended the speaker went beyond a company mission and focused on a company’s purpose for existing. He pondered exactly what value the company actually brought to society over and above the obvious goal of keeping customers happy and providing profits to shareholders. He ended his message with this soul searching question. He asked, “If your company ceased to exist, would anyone care?”
 
I was fascinated with the concept. I started asking that question quietly to myself when I analyzed companies for potential investments. I began looking at companies differently, looking beyond their financial health and considering whether their products or services were even needed. And if not needed, how long could it possibly survive? Pet Rocks came to mind, along with a huge list of ridiculous products that seem to appear at Christmas time.
 
There are certainly many long standing and successful companies that produce products the world could do without, and several that produce products and services that the world would be better without. As women rise in economic power, and who by most estimates will dwarf men in a decade or so in their control of wealth, it would be foolish not to consider how this might affect the companies many are investing in today. If it’s true that women tend to favor companies that provide a positive influence on society, then a purpose-driven approach to business and investing would seem to make sense.
 
Women will change the way the world invests. Investors who cannot keep up with that change may one day find themselves holding a portfolio full of pet rocks, about which, though profitable for a time, no one cared when they faded away.