Friend

My favorite musical artist, James Taylor wrote and sang a song called “Fire and Rain” in the year 1968. There is a line in the song that reads, “I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend”. The song was based upon a friend’s suicide, Taylor’s own personal struggle with addiction and fame, as well as a challenge he was having with his band all while battling depression.

Carole King was inspired by that line in Taylor’s song and in 1971 wrote, “You’ve Got a Friend”. A response with a line that reads, “Winter, spring, summer or fall, all you have to do is call and I’ll be there, yes, I will, you’ve got a friend”.

What an awesome response from one artist to another. Each was inspired to write and share their true feelings of emotion with their listeners.

That is why I write these quarterly client letters. I want to share my thoughts on what the world is going through learned from listening to each one of you. I hope the letters you receive from us inspire you in a way that the songs mentioned above have inspired me. In one, a person is crying out for help. The other, someone offering a hand and sympathetic ear, a true friend.

Over the next month we are headed into a very difficult period in this country due to an election cycle that is filled with great division and anger. I have often said that there is money to be made in division and anger which is why the news press wants to fuel it. Add the lobbyists, special interest groups, and career bureaucrats; you can see that more money is made in competing against each other rather than working with each other.

The economy is slowing due to the fear factor that all this division creates. Business owners and individuals with capital are keeping their powder dry so as to see what the best course of action will be upon election finality. Once the votes are tallied, expect outrage regardless of the winner. For after all, there is money to be made in divisive ideas and principles.

Our Founding Fathers created a system of checks and balances that our current political body (although they try) have yet to ruin. Let us hope it stays that way. The Legislative branch creates the laws, the Executive branch approves the laws, and the Judicial branch makes sure the laws are within the Constitutional rights of the citizens of the United States. Each need to work with each other to get anything done. Lately, nobody has been getting anything done (Wall Street prefers that) due to the belief that I can raise more money standing for my cause than for my character. It is often said that the fairest negotiations in a business transaction is where both sides felt like they lost. Each party wanted more yet walked away with less. There is a very good lesson for our politicians in that. The Rolling Stones even wrote a famous line “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, you get what you need”. We need less division and vitriol in our politics right now.

Imagine a world where we agree to disagree out of respect and not anger. I have many friends who feel very differently about issues than I do, but they are still my friends. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you have to do is call and I’ll be there, you’ve got a friend! The team at the High Net Worth Advisory Group was founded on the belief that we are a group of people who serve and care deeply about their friends!