The Law Of Survival: Adaptability

Change is hard.  Change is inevitable and in modern economies change is constant.  Sometimes change happens quickly - blink and your life changes.  As with nature, so it is with humans, on broader societal level like after the "9/11"  terror attack on the United States or recent hurricane that decimated many of the islands that make up The Bahamas. In the case of the terror attacks life as we knew it changed forever - for everybody on the planet.  On a personal basis life could be just humming along and wham, out of nowhere something happens - sudden illness, death of a loved one, a breakdown in a significant relationship, and everything changes.  As the saying goes, life must go on, so we recalibrate and carry on.

No doubt that people who are more adaptable recover faster and do better over all.  No where is there  more evident of this than in the modern day workforce.  Take for instance a lady I know who worked part-time as a cashier at a popular discount grocery chain.  She had resigned herself to a very ordinary life as a low wage income earner, then her employer shut down.  She then saw an opportunity to change her life - in mid-life! She went back to school, retooled herself to work in a sector of the economy that was growing in demand and from then on life took off.  She worked two jobs, became a homeowner, made it into the "middle class" and the *"20% club". She retired with a company pension and personal retirement savings.

One of my favourite life changing stories is of another lady who was made redundant in the hospital cutbacks of the Mike Harris era in Ontario. This lady, a wonderful Christian woman, was divorced and raised her four children in one of the troubled subsidized housing complexes in Toronto. The layoff was a gift! Although not far from retirement, she took her severance pay and purchased a lovely two-family home in the suburbs. She continued to work in the same position in the health care sector and worked well past the normal retirement age. She  also graduated to the middle class, and into the *"20% club". Now retired for many years, income from the rental suite in her home, on top of her employer and government pensions, affords her a comfortable retirement and she will have a legacy to leave for her children and grandchildren.

Contrast these two stories of resilience with others in similar situations who took their lay-off as an opportunity to "take it easy", then found it too difficult to get back in the workforce and life goes downhill from there. I know many of those stories as well.  Because of this, I would say adaptability is the key to survival, financially, socially and psychologically. 

Over the last four decades my industry - the financial services industry - has gone through major  transformation as well.  With the so called four  pillars - insurance - investments - banking and real estate coming down, how financial services are delivered and by whom has gone through major evolution.  A new round of evolution started around ten years ago and the changes are picking up speed. With the average age of advisors in Canada being over 55 years old, many advisors unable or unwilling to adapt have left the industry or opted for early retirement.  Others see opportunities for personal and professional growth.  I am one of those who see opportunities to grow and redefine myself so that I can continue to add value to the people I serve.

I am excited for the future!

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

T. (905) 276-9456, Ext 4414

E. beverley.allen@dfsin.ca

* The "20% club" I refer to is the statistics on net worth of Canadians - 80% have investable assets under $50,000.