Future

Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”. Then why do we spend so much of our time focusing on the predictions of the so-called “experts” when it comes to our daily lives? These political, financial, medical, spiritual and historical pundits make a great living by telling, dare I say selling, their beliefs as to what the future holds for all of us. We then rely on these expert’s predictions of our future as to what is reasonable to expect will happen. Interesting to me is the largest percentage of these predictions are negative and historically factual that almost all of them are wrong. No one has any documented track record of success in predicting the future. Political pundits call for Red and Blue waves and are almost always wrong. Financial gurus talk and write about financial meltdowns that never come. Medical experts predict pandemics that could end the world but never have. Spiritual experts regularly predict societal downfall yet good still triumphs over evil. Historical experts tell us that what has happened in the past will again come back to haunt us. Sounds pretty scary. Maybe in the description of “expert job security” there is a clause that if your prediction is negative, more people will want to read about or listen to it and then share with others. None are held accountable. Like any good fortune teller, they will manipulate their predictions to closely resemble something that may or may not happen in the future. No certainty, no accountability, just a talking head guessing about what could happen. A coin flip response to the challenges of the day. I ask that you go back to my blog of last January entitled “Wrong”.

What good are these predictions if all they do is cause us to unnecessarily worry about something that may or may not happen. What if we flipped the script and chose to turn off and tune out these “experts”? Motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia once said; “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy”. Powerful message. I will not let the joy of today be taken away from me so that I can spend my time worrying about tomorrow. I thought that would be this year’s Holiday Message.

I am well aware of the Pollyanna view that many of my letters are written. At this special time of the year, I thought it appropriate to write about hope, joy, peace and love and my personal belief that if we focus on the small daily gifts we are given or give others there will be no room left to fill our heads with worry. The future is always a day away while the present is here for us to enjoy as long as it lasts.

Please accept a token of our appreciation of your business and more importantly friendship as we make a holiday donation in your honor to the charities you have given us over the years as a no risk investment in someone else’s future. Just because we cannot predict the future does not mean we cannot invest in someone else’s. The team at the High Net Worth Advisory Group wishes you all a safe, healthy and worry free holiday season and a New Year filled with small gifts that we actually take the time to see.

Happy Holidays to all.