Bram
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 227
frayne said:You just can't fix stupid.
Or am I being too critical ?
I don't think people are necessarily stupid, probably most aren't. I was mostly just a passive participant in my employers offering of a 403(b). I'm positive I wasn't alone in my thinking that investing, stock market, mutual funds, annuities, blah blah was VERY complicated and best left to the "experts" and those who are titled "Advisor". After all, you can dedicate an entire college education to pursue a career in dealing with those things.
I would guess that the man in the article was a passive participant in the accumulation of his $700K. It probably came thru hard work, yet the retirement savings was "easy" in that he didn't have to make decisions as to allocation, or study the pro/con of this or that. His was a sizeable chunk of money & he reasonably thought he could make it grow even bigger. We hear stories all the time of stock market millionaires. NONE of us ever expects to be duped, yet you hear of some really smart people who are taken by con artists.
My DH is very smart about fixing things around the house or in working on a motor vehicle. Some of his expertise has come thru trial & error. He just can't relate to people who glibly take their car to a shop & say "fix it" and pay out the nose for some minor 5¢ bolt-on widget. "Anybody could fix that," he says. Same with home repairs. Well *I* understand that some people just aren't inclined nor interested in learning how -or- even attempting to DIY.
To me it somewhat boils down to a matter of trust. In a perfect world one would be able to trust their broker, financial advisor, insurance salesman, home repair person, or auto mechanic. I think it's pretty simplistic to blame the victims of shysters in any of these or other fields.