There is a saying: “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots”. And so, I believe, it is with financial planners.
Those of us getting greyer by the day, are those that have survived and thrived. We have become old by not being bold over the decades. Personally, I have worked through the following since 1994 (thank you www.perplexity.ai)
- Tequila crisis (1994-1995): A sudden devaluation of the Mexican peso triggered a crisis that spread to other Latin American countries.
- Asian financial crisis (1997-1998): A severe financial crisis that affected many East Asian countries.
- Russian financial crisis (1998): Russia defaulted on its debt, leading to a severe economic crisis.
- Long-Term Capital Management (1998): The US government and Federal Reserve had to intervene to prevent LTCM’s collapse destabilising global financial markets.
- Dot-com bubble burst (2000-2001): The collapse of overvalued internet companies led to a stock market crash.
- Global financial crisis (2007-2008): Triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, this became the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.
- European debt crisis (2009-2012): Several Eurozone countries faced high government debt levels and potential defaults.
- Russian financial crisis (2014-2016): Caused by the collapse of the Russian rouble and economic sanctions.
- COVID-19 global economic crisis (2020-2021): The pandemic caused a severe global economic downturn.
This list covers some of the major financial crisis that have occurred since 1994, that’s a lot of living, learning and surviving.
During the last 30 years I estimate I have racked up something like 30,000 hours of financial planning experience (30 years x 200 working days pa x 6 hours pd). That really counts for something doesn’t it?
As a firm we have something like 50,000 hours on the clock.
No private individual is getting anywhere near those figures.
And that’s the point, that’s what you are paying for, the experience and investment of time that you don't have.