By Nicholas Hamner
Investment Advisor Representative
[email protected]
If you’ve been to our office, you know we are deep within nature. We’re surrounded by woods and water and we have all manner of animals living around the office. Deer graze in nearby pastures, rabbits eat Dave’s plants by the front door, and squirrels and crows patiently wait for Anne to put out fresh peanuts by the bird feeder (the squirrels wait, the crows place orders to-go).
And then there’s the geese. I like to watch from my window as the pairs of adults watch over their clutch of goslings as they head to and from the lake to swim and eat. Geese, pesky as they may be at times, are very human-like in their behavior. They pair for life, they actively parent, they grieve losses, and they guard and console vulnerable members of their flock. Heck, they even look both ways before crossing a street.
The vast majority of goose behavior is instinctual. Some of It is taught by parent to child through visual cues, but there is no formal education for being a goose. You could argue that nature does not make things so complicated as to require an education to survive. Geese come out hard-wired with all they need to be a goose. Our human brain is hardwired to do three things and it takes a lot more than that to truly be human. Much less survive. Much less thrive!
We hear from our clients all the time as we get into the weeds to plan out their retirement, “I didn’t think it’d be so hard!” A lot of us still have the old ideas baked in: work hard, save up, get the gold watch, and ride off into a sunset of golf games, tufted-leather Cadillacs, and early bird dinners. How much of the old way is still around today? Are you working at the same place your entire career? How easy has it been to save the last 50 years? Forget the watch, did anyone even get a cardboard box from their employer on the last day?
What it takes to survive retirement today, much less thrive, is so complicated compared to what it used to be, and no one can just figure it out on the fly. Take IRAs for example. A simple investment vehicle. The piece of legislation establishing the IRA as an investment vehicle was 200-some-odd pages long, with seven pages of definitions, when it was written 52 years ago. They are still arguing and clarifying pieces of that… five decades later.
It is hard to survive our world. That’s why we build communities. It is hard to be a well-rounded person in this world. That’s why we have an extensive education system. And it is hard to retire in this modern world. That’s why we at Franklin Retirement Solutions do what we do!
If you’re getting overwhelmed with the idea of doing it yourself, you’re not alone. Retirement planning is incredibly complex and nuanced, and people like us have to learn a ton just to graze the surface of knowing what it takes to help. But that’s what we’re here for, so if you need help please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. And please, if you see a friend or family member struggling with figuring things out and making things work, do them a favor and give them our name.
And the next time you see a goose cross the street, know that that animal has more intelligence as a result of instinct than some adults have learned in their entire lives. Just watch people try and cross the same street.