As a matter of fact, from my thirty years plus experience as an Insurance Advisor & Investment Fund Advisor, I see where many people who desire financial security or to leave a legacy for their heirs and loved ones stumble and fall because of lack of patience. Sometimes it's a lack of faith as well as patience but mostly patience. We believe the event of retirement is too far away to think about it now, let alone start planning for the day when we would "pack it all in" and take life easy or do something entirely different. The prospect of paying for a life insurance policy for forty or fifty years is a turn off for many, because they cannot see the value of making such a commitment to ensure a legacy to their loved ones, even when we see and hear about people dying from various causes every single day! Yet time marches on. Some are lucky enough to realize this in time to be able to take action, others reach a place of regret once they realize that time passed them by and they did not head advice or take action on the desires of their heart.
I was at the Creflo & Taffi Dollar Change Experience Day at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto back in August. Dr. Dollar was teaching a message on Grace which got my attention and I have been meditating on it since. That lesson birthed something in me! He taught us that according to the scriptures, we already have faith. "Every man has been given a measure of FAITH", and we need only "FAITH the size of a MUSTARD SEED" to move mountains. Creflo Dollar said what we need to do is have FAITH long enough until what we are believing for comes about. We stop believing, and give up, sometimes just when the answer was around the corner, citing many scriptures as well as modern day examples of patience at work. In other words, we do not have enough PATIENCE to wait until our plans come into fruition. Not so surprising as we live in the days of instant gratification, fame without the sweat, and the throw away society. There is no gratification with impatience, none!
Once we become aware of our own deficit in patience, we cannot "unsee" it. As we work on growing our patience brain and emotional muscles, we begin to observe others who are strong in this area of life, and on the flip side, those who lack patience stand out a great deal more. Yesterday,
Tuesday September 4th, 2018, being the first working day after the Labour Day, was one of those days where my patience muscles were tried and I got to observe the consequences of impatience. It seems like so many people made the decision that they were going to act on lingering "stuff" yesterday. I had an out of town client passing through who decided to stop to inquire about a pending issue. I had to call the company involved, and of course, the call queqe was long, Mr. Impatience was getting anxious, his wife sat quietly beside him, reassuring him, "dear we are here already, might as well wait and get this over with" she said. I could see the grimace starting to appearing on his face. Feeling empathy for him, I said "let's give it a few more minute, after that the best thing I could do is send an email and wait for the answer". I would update you at that time I told him. He squirmished a little in the chair and then decided they would leave. No sooner he was out the door I got connected to a customer service representative who apologized for the wait and mentioned how busy the phones have been in the afternoon.
Just prior to Mr. Impatience's arrival I had delivered a life insurance claim cheque to a beneficiary. The process for handling the claim required a few extra steps because of where and how the insured had died. I had explained all this when helping with the initial forms but I reassured her to just follow the steps to the conclusion. She did not listen at first, trying to take short cuts, and of course screaming at the me and the insurance company! I was nice but firm. If you just provide the information that is asked of you, whether you think it is relevant or not, things will move along much faster, I assured her. Once she did what was required, the process worked as was expected, I came back to work from the long weekend to find her benefit cheque, including interest earned on the proceeds during the time waiting for settlement! Huge lesson for Ms. Impatience, and I got to be the observer. In the end I learned that payment was made without one of the initially stated requirement which was a big relief and benefit to the beneficiary as it would have cost money as well as a longer wait if the company insisted on it.
I could write about patience as it relates to investing without sharing the contrast to these two investors with you. Mona was downsized from her company the same year as Lindsay (not their real names). They had transferred their severance pays and pension funds to our firm, myself being the advisor. They commenced taking income from their retirement funds in the same year (1998) and things were working rather smoothly for both of them. Lindsay, having a bigger portfolio and was being pursued by some "hot shot" brokers, was more demanding. Of course, each time he met with another broker he would call and we would go over every recommendation, compare and when he would realize that he already got what the "hot shot" brokers were selling. Mona is a Christian lady, who is typical individual who listens, asks questions, weighs the answers and then make decisions and trust. Lindsay was also a Christian who TRUSTS, but PATIENCE was not his strong suite. Then 9/11 hit, everybody who was exposed to the financial markets "lost" money after 9/11 and the subsequent financial crisis. During the turbulence, I did the usual due diligence of meeting with clients, going over what they had invested in, and all that. Mona stayed put, riding out the downturns and things worked out beautifully for her. I was preparing for her annual review meeting last week and couldn't help but gasped when I looked deeply at the number - her net investment, the amount withdrawn (the cumulative income payments) and current account value. After drawing maximum income permitted under a Locked-In Retirement Income Fund for approximately 20 years, her account value was still over 66% of initial investment. She has such a heart of GRATITUDE, and does not shy about praying for guidance for her advisor. Lindsay, on the other hand, demanded his money be moved around according to what others were saying and doing, and even though his account recovered the losses of both the 9/11 and Corporate Crisis market downturns he started making large withdrawals which undermined the purpose of the accounts and eventually transferred out to the bank. Based on what I have learned (still in touch with him) things did not go nearly as well for him as for Mona. The moral of this story is, because you are a Christian does not mean you automatically have patience, does not mean you will always make the right decisions. There are essential principles of life which the Christian has to learn just like the non-christian. Life is a journey and we all have the opportunity to learn and grow.
Since I am a person of faith I close with these quotes from the Bible scriptures:
Proverbs 28:20 (KJV)- A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh hast to be rich shall not be innocent.
2 Peter 1:6 - (NIT) And to knowledge self-control; and to self-control, patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,👪👫👩👨😇✌👏👏👏
May you grow in patience, by GRACE, through FAITH,
BEVERLEY ALLEN, FLMI
Beverley
Investment Fund Advisor & Life and Health Insurance Advisor
Desjardins Financial Security Investments Inc.
Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network
Ontario Central Region (OCR), GTA West Branch
5070 Dixie Road
Mississauga, On L4W 1C9
#MoneyTalk #MoneyTalkwithBevAllen #TheValueOfSoundAdvice #MoneyMoxie #ThePowerOfPatience #Patience
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