How they enable financial planning as we know it.
... Stakes shall be not further apart than one hundred (100) feet and not less substantial than three-quarter (3/4) inch iron pins eighteen (18) inches long, driven flush with the ground, the corner point being marked by a metal tag stamped with the registration number of the engineer or surveyor. ... Said stake shall be driven to a depth of not less than two (2) inches below the finished grade of the lot and shall be permanently monumented on the surface.
-Colorado Revised Statutes
True or False? The single biggest threat to our clients' financial well-being is the integrity of money itself.
I say "True." Financial planning is worthless if money has no value.
So the question becomes: What makes money "money"? What makes it valuable?
Forget economics courses. They describe money's functions. This is money's essence.
Today, money is the water in which we swim. Yet, what do we understand of it?
Money is an Interior phenomenon. It is created by Agreement and sustained by Belief. At the end of the day, "money" is literally nothing unless our squishy, thoughtful, unpredictable interior selves collectively make it into something. We can work the math, read the history, play like money's exterior is actually its reality ... and we run the very real risk of wholly misunderstanding it and its role in modern society. More importantly, we run the risk of misunderstanding its significant vulnerabilities and exposing ourselves and our economies to overt tragedy.
We have long since quit using inherently valuable money. This belief system is relatively new, especially at its current magnitude. Within the last few centuries we have traded money of intrinsic value for perceived value.
Alchemy.
To have perceived value, we must collectively agree that it is valuable. We must believe-and we must believe together. What do we understand of today's money? For most of us, frankly, not much. We know how to get it, how to spend it, save it, invest it, share it and protect it-but what "it" do we get, spend, save, invest, share and protect? You coul look it up in our CFP® course work. Good luck.