I was getting ready to wrap up for the day when my cell phone rang. A client’s name came up and something inside said, “Don’t answer it, just let it...”
However, before I finished the thought my finger swiped across the screen, and after the normal pleasantries, the simple question of “How’s it going?,” got very complex.
“Well, I think I really screwed up, and I don’t know what to do,” said the client. “We’re getting ready to sell our house and started looking around; and we found one we really liked up north and put in an offer.”
I chimed in, “Well that’s exciting…” but was cut short as he continued on.
“It’s the perfect house for us, with a great deck overlooking the lake, but now I’m regretting the decision because it’s over budget, and I just found out I can’t get a mortgage because I took some short-term disability, plus I don’t want to be penny pinching the rest of our retirement or have to go back to work.”
It felt like a tennis match between his thoughts. One minute it’s the perfect house, the next he wants to find a way to walk away from it. It’s a classic example of how doubt can hijack a client’s dreams in retirement.
That makes it important for advisors to understand the role that doubt can play in retirement. In its most basic format, it can be defined as a feeling of uncertainty about something or someone, or having difficulty believing in something. It’s a normal part of life and isn’t always bad or negative. In fact, it can be used as motivation to get better prepared for a situation or used to avoid a rash or emotional decision. However, it becomes problematic when it paralyzes a client from taking action.
Sad part is, many times doubt is a symptom of what we do as an industry and profession. You see when we use fear to illustrate what will happen to clients if they don’t save a certain amount, in a certain type of account, and within a certain time frame, we position ourselves as an overbearing parent who instills in a child what they won’t be or can’t do instead of what they can be, and should not give up on.
In other words, we spend years telling them to keep their hand out of the cookie jar and that if they go into the cookie jar without asking, bad things will happen. Occasionally, they are allowed to have a small treat, but its limited to make sure they don’t run out of cookies or get an upset tummy. This is exactly what was happening to my clients. They were afraid to reach into their savings and pull out some extra cookies.
But that’s what doubt and fear do. They drain creativity and zap positive energy. They’re unhealthy foods for the mind that can drag down a client’s spirit and ambitions by crippling their ability to make decisions that can benefit their overall well-being. Essentially, it cheats clients out of living their ideal life in retirement.