And The Truth Shall Set You Free
Posted by Ray on June 26, 2007 under Main | 
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Money Magazine and Mr. Updegrave have written another mind numbing article where he made a startling revelation to his readers. Whether or not they saw the revelation is another story, but it is right there in print.
In this article Mr. Updegrave said, “For example, I’m fine at tinkering with retirement calculators and monitoring investments – though I’m careful to keep my wife informed. She’s good at the big-picture stuff.”
The part of the quote I want to comment on is the, “She’s good at the big-picture stuff” because this is his overall problem. He is fine with ‘tinkering’ with calculators, but is poor with the big picture stuff, both of these admissions run dangerously close to self admitted lack of knowledge and imagination.
As an expert shouldn’t you do more than just ‘tinker’ with things and shouldn’t you have a grasp of ‘the big picture’? You would think so, but apparently this stuff does not matter to him. Financial advisers do more than just ‘tinker’ with calculators and peoples financial well being and try to match the investment selections for their clients to their goals, risks and objectives while keeping ‘the big picture’ in mind.
Since Mr. Updegrave does not get ‘the big picture’ and only likes to ‘tinker’ with peoples financial well being it should be a red flag to his readers. Those words, as subtle as they were, in my opinion, were an admission of the truth. He simply does not understand the common problems of investors and likes to ‘tinker’ with the advice he gives and he does not worry about ‘the big picture’.
Tinkering with people’s money and investments is horrible and an insult to people who take him seriously. Do you see doctors tinkering with people’s health? Of course not, but I guess it is OK to tinker with peoples financial health. You can not do a financial plan on a calculator because there is more to it than simple calculations.
I believe this is why his advice is so generic and cold, it is simple repetition and it always goes like this; “Invest in the S&P 500 index fund and forget other advisers advice”. When I read those recommendations all that flashes through my head is HAL, from 2001: The Space Odyssey, saying those words in his cold computer voice…am I giving away my age here?
Since he admittedly does not grasp the big picture and only likes to tinker around with calculators it is painfully obvious why he does not like variable annuities. You need independent thought to understand the product and how it works and where it fits into the big picture of retirement security.
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