Yeah, But Why?

Why do you save money? No, but really…why?

Don’t give me a surface level answer.

I work with a professional to help me write these blogs, my social media posts, and even my strategic business marketing stuff. She is a high level thinker, not just a ‘doer’ - she challenges me.

We met a few weeks ago trying to nail down a very simple message to communicate to clients on how and why Lantern Wealth is different from the hundreds of other options out there.

It went like this:

Her: “Why do you do what you do?”

Me: “Because I think that all people deserve good financial advice, and a lot of the current options suck.”

Her: “Why does that matter to you?”

Me (frustrated): “Because I have done this for a long time and have seen all sorts of ways that people are underserved, taken advantage of, or frankly just ignored.”

Her: “Why is that your problem, why do you care?”

Me: “Because it sucks. What I do is not rocket science, but it is way more important than people give it credit for. Other than your family and your health, not much is more important in your life.”

Her: “Interesting…go on.”

Me: “Look, the one thing I have learned through the 13ish years of doing this is that people focus on the wrong things. They focus on the returns and the fees, but forget about the risk, the volatility, their contributions to their investments, their spending, their goals … what they ACTUALLY want their money to do for them. You have a few million bucks? Who gives a shit if it just sits there?!”

Her: ...(smirks)

Me: ”...Ahhhhhh, I see where you are going with this!”

This article isn’t supposed to be about me, but about our goals and the WHY behind them. I don’t have a dream to ‘revolutionize the personal finance industry in Canada’, nor to ‘empower business owners to take back their lives!’

I do what I do (how I do it) because I saw first hand how NOT having an advisor affected my parents.  

I do what I do because money is an emotional conversation and most advisors are IQ heavy, but lack in EQ - emotional intelligence. 

I do what I do because I can not only change lives, I can also change generations of a family’s future, not with magic, but with common sense and easy-to-implement systems. 

What I do matters.

Ask Yourself Why Five Times

We are all taught to ‘dig deeper’ to ‘Start with Why*’, but no one really shows us how to get there. This simple exercise will help you cut through the feeling of overwhelm and get closer to actionable solutions.

I challenge you to go do this. Start with one of these prompts to get started, and ask yourself ‘why’ five times. You will be amazed at where you end up.

• I want to be RICH rich!
• I want to retire early
• I want to make sure we have ‘enough’
• I get stressed when talking about investing

If you’d like help with this, I’d be honoured to walk through it with you.

*by author, Simon Sinek