We all watch the shows where financial experts tell us how to invest our money. We watch Jim Cramer or Suzie Orman, and we listen to others on the radio, read them online or in the financial papers. We read their financial newsletters, oh sage-like documents that they are, and sometimes we follow their advice. Which is how some of us got into this fine mess.
Financial advisers got it wrong. Your stockbroker, the financial group of one sort or another who for the past dozen years has been flirting with you and, more importantly, your retirement money. How to retire and live like a king, start that second career, have nine houses around the world. Whatever.
Turns out the only people with nine houses around the world are the financial experts who took our money or traded in in mortgages, stocks, anything that moved where they could add percentages on paper and walk away with a hefty bonus for doing what they call work. So now here we are. This is a new world, albeit a poorer one.
All the more reason to conduct business research, be it for your business or personal endeavors. We have all heard of Bernard Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. We will hear of many more Madoff’s in the future. There will be scam artists of all sorts that will be investigated, indicted and imprisoned. Because they made off with your money.
If you are a business, the it is really incumbent upon you to do the responsible thing. The responsible thing is due diligence on your suppliers, your potential clients and any group with whom you are considering a partnership or co-venture. For these you conduct business credit reports and comprehensive background reports on their key officers. Background checks are more important than ever, and those who don’t run them are doomed for some ugly news.
So when you watch the TV and watch the financial advisers you once favored or found with at least a modicum of insight, listen to how they try to cover past mistakes. They will do a complete turnaround on their theories, strategies and, even, principles. And there are those out in this world of economic meltdowns that will do even worse. If you give them chance.
Don’t give them the chance. Check them out before you put up your money.
