Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Chapter 16: Don't Go It Alone

The best interest of the patient is the only interest that matters. ~ Dr. William Mayo

I have spent the better part of my life living in Rochester, Minnesota, the home of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic (click here), an organization that has a well-earned reputation for excellence in health care. All of my children, at some point, have had surgeries there, and one observation my wife and I have made is how transparently sensitive and caring the practitioners have been. In a realm that is often populated by practitioners who can come off as detached and overly scientific in their approach, it is always a breath of fresh air to encounter a professional who truly seems to have your best interest at heart.

At the Mayo Clinic this is no accident of personality or culture. It is by design. early in the development of the clinic, the Mayo brothers stated that the culture would be built upon three (3) core principles: COMPETENCE, CARING, AND INTEGRITY. everyone in the organization, from the top of administration to those mopping the halls, is inculcated with these cultural principles of operation. I hope they can continue this kind  of culture in an age where quantity (seeing more patients, profits making) is more important than quality (spending more time with patients) in the health care realm.

I cite the Mayo example as an analogy to what we should expect to receive when we are seeking financial advice. After our health, our concern for our financial well-being occupies a high place on our totems of life.
"Wealth care" ought to be approached with the same level of competence, caring, and integrity that has proven to produce great results in the realm of health care.

The temptation to put one's own interests ahead of those whom we ought to be serving can and does manifest in every realm, whether it be a doctor recommending a procedure, a mechanic recommending a repair, or a financial advisor recommending a fund. In every realm of practice we will find the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Many people have been financially harmed by incompetence, by a lack of concern and negligence, or by a lack of integrity in their financial matters, just like they may have been harmed by the same inadequacies in their health care pursuits or other matters in life.

If you have a bad experience with a medical doctor, do you neglect medical care for yourself? Think of your money management as fiscal health. for every selfishly motivated financial sale-person or marketer, there is a highly competent and personable professional out there who has built his reputation by helping others reach their goals by putting clients' interest first.  We simply need to know how to distinguish one from the other. It can be easy to get fooled. “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Wrote George Horne, an English divine: “When a man deceives me once, says the Italian proverb, it is his fault; when twice, it is mine.” "

Here I want to make the case for finding someone who is competent, caring, and trustworthy for the very simple reason that saving yourself the stress is worth the price of oversight in the long run. Some of the reasons I think it is worth considering hiring a competent professional include:

1. We don't always know what we do not know.
2. We are tempted to follow the crowd.
3. Individual investors historically underperform the indexes (if you just parked your money over time).
4. It is time consuming and stressful to manage money on a day-to=day or week-to-week basis.

I Don't Always Know What I Do Not Know (click here)

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