Thanks to my guest blogger, Karl Frank. Karl is the incoming president of the Colorado Financial Planning Association and author of Go Tax Free: 17 Ways to Get More Choice and Control Over Your Investments and Taxes. Karl introduces us to one of the most challenging liminal dimensions we each face.
Find someplace quiet and turn on your imagination.
In a few short minutes you will finish this blog and walk outside. You have to cross a street. Imagine that street corner. Imagine the most dangerous street corner in your neighborhood. Now, imagine that you are alone waiting to cross the most dangerous street you know. What is the first thing you do?
Look both ways. That’s right! You assess the risks before you begin the journey. And you are nervous.
The lights turn red. Traffic comes to a stop. Your heart races. This road is dangerous, but now is your time to move. Just as you step off the curb you feel a brush at your elbow and you are shocked! You thought you were alone but you’re not! Someone is beside you. Who is it? You look down at your elbow and what do you see?
An elderly person, waiting to cross the road, stands beside you. A minute ago you were worried about how you are going to cross the road. Can you imagine what must she be feeling? She must be 30 years older than you are. How is she going to make it? In fact, you feel that she will not make it without your help. So what do you do?You help her! Of course you do! You reach out your arm and she looks up at you. She doesn’t say a word but she smiles. And you feel good.
You set off at your regular pace across the road. You make it two steps and you’ve already left her behind. Now what?
You take a step back, gently hold her elbow and you proceed at her pace, not yours. Are you with me? You shuffle. And you shuffle. And you shuffle. One lane of traffic. And you shuffle. Now you are in the second lane of traffic. And you shuffle. And then what happens?
The light changes! Now what do you do? Do you run away? Grab her and throw her over your shoulder? Of course not! You likely do something like the Heisman Trophy pose and say, in your own way, “Stop traffic!”
This is the moment you are living for. This is the question we will all answer, in one way or another, before we die. Why is it that you are out in the middle of the most dangerous place around, risking your life for someone you don’t know and may never see again? How did you get here? Why do you stay?
The answers are profound. They reveal, at least in part, why no matter what the world’s economies will throw our way, regardless of whatever terrorist or other threat we may ever face, we will survive because we always stick together when we need to most. Can you feel that? Don’t you know that to be true?
You look at your companion and say: “We better get a move on!”
When her eyes meet yours you have an epiphany. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. We will all have this moment at some point in our lives. You have never seen her before. Her body is smaller, weaker, slower than yours, both mentally and physically. But when her eyes meet your eyes, you see your own eyes looking back, 30 years from now.
The person you are becoming is with you today. She is completely dependent upon the decisions you make today. And every decision you defer only increases the burden on the person you are becoming.
It’s our great gift to be guides. It is our blessing to walk the most dangerous roads of our clients’ lives together and to hold back the traffic that may, without us, ruin them. Someday, I too will grow weary and perhaps incapable of managing my own wealth. I too will need a guide.
I encourage you to find your guide. Make them know you, your goals, your values, and your whole person. Then hold them accountable. And make that decision sooner, rather than later.
Karl Frank, CFP ® MBA, MSF, is the President of A & I Financial Services and author of Go Tax Free: 17 Ways to Get More Choice and Control Over Your Investments and Taxes. Learn more HERE. Securities provided through Geneos Wealth Management Inc., member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through A & I Financial Services LLC, registered investment advisor.
Toolkit: 
1. What’s your reaction to his story?
2. According to Karl:
The person you are becoming is with you today. She is completely dependent upon the decisions you make today. And every decision you defer only increases the burden on the person you are becoming.
- increasing the amount you’re setting aside for retirement
- getting your will/ other legal documents updated
- getting your business valued to see how close you are to retiring
3. What is one thing you can do this week to take action on this decision?
