I am Toto of Retirement Planners

I am a retirement planner that exposes the myths created by the retirement planning industry to get you to think and behave in a way that sells retirement planning services.  Our retirement planning services are based on your retirment planning goals, investment planning risk, and a diverse and balanced portfolio.

Let me tell you a little retirement planning story to illustrate my point about the retirement planners out there.  You probably remember the scene near the end of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy has retrieved the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. She, her dog, Toto, and her small band of companions have returned to the immense audience room of the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, to give him the broom in trade for a magical trip home.

You’ve seen the movie, right? No? Go rent it. Right now. It’s important, because there’s a message in that movie I don’t want you to miss.

Dorothy braves incredible dangers to get this broom. Why? She’s been told that the Wizard of Oz has mystical powers that can send her home. She’ll do anything he asks in order to get back to Kansas and her Auntie Em. But when the time comes for Oz to fulfill his end of the bargain, he stalls for time. While Dorothy argues with the Wizard, it’s the dog Toto who pulls back the curtain to expose a perfectly ordinary man hidden behind the curtains. Toto shows Dorothy and her friends that they’ve been lied to. She bought into a cleverly packaged myth – hiding a man who made himself out to be much more than he was.

Well, friends, I am Toto. A big part of my job as a financial advisor is to show people who come into my office that a lot of what they believe about financial issues is as mythical as the powers of the Wizard of Oz. The financial services industry spends gobs of money on advertising to perpetuate the myth that financial advisors are Great and Powerful. What’s the truth that Toto wants you to see? The truth is this: there are ordinary men and women pulling the levers behind the scenes.

There’s no magic to what we do in the financial services industry. We do not have a crystal ball that can predict the future, but we can see what has happened in the past and use that to make prudent decisions. In my line of work, I don’t like magic. I like math. Math works much better than magic when helping people make smart financial decisions. There’s no secret spells, just a simple science behind analyzing data and building well designed portfolios based on basic mathematics.

The financial advice world looks Great and Powerful to most of my customers. It’s full of strange characters who claim to have amazing powers. But behind the curtain are some very good people – who are just very poor wizards. Remember, as we explore the financial services marketplace together: I am Toto.