an article in the NYT about annuity pitch steak dinner

I had one more thing to consider. I asked my ladyfriend if she wanted to go and she said she did. The two advertised dates were already full so they added a third one in early February we will attend.


She has no money to invest so there is no way she can be pressured to do anything moneywise.


I will surely post here or in a new thread about the event after it ends.
 
DW and I have shredded 10s of thousands of dollars of meals and free vacations.
 
scrabbler1 said:
I had one more thing to consider. I asked my ladyfriend if she wanted to go and she said she did. The two advertised dates were already full so they added a third one in early February we will attend.


She has no money to invest so there is no way she can be pressured to do anything moneywise.


I will surely post here or in a new thread about the event after it ends.
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Unless they have really good loan rates :LOL:
 
scrabbler1 said:
I had one more thing to consider. I asked my ladyfriend if she wanted to go and she said she did. The two advertised dates were already full so they added a third one in early February we will attend.


She has no money to invest so there is no way she can be pressured to do anything moneywise.


I will surely post here or in a new thread about the event after it ends.
Click to expand...

I would go if the dinner/venue is a good one otherwise I pass. I can still buy a steak and eat it at home also if I want. So I will miss Wheel of Fortune....so what I know most of the puzzles by now anyway
 
I could see going again if it were an intimate group: 2-4 couples. The one time I went, they seated us with the tables organized like a classroom and brought all the meals out at once. Thus, most meals had been sitting under heating lamps far too long.
I don’t care if it is free; I’m not eating a warmed over dinner in a cafeteria or bright classroom. Those years are behind me. I want ambience.
 
I believe the price is good, and worthy of trial. We went to 12 or so over a period of a few years. After dinner, You just say no politely, and exit stage left. It provided opportunities for us to learn about various sales pitches. Also helps local restaurants fill the banquet room for an evening.
 
At my old zipcode I got a lot of invitations to these things. Now I am more in an urban college neighborhood and I get far fewer. I am not a gadfly, and I entertained myself by giving the host set-ups, and he knew what my game was and he appreciated it. Sales is a hard game without me trying to make it harder. I met a lot of single Asian women, which I enjoyed.

Now I don't get the invites. Many were at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which I found to be better than my daily meals but not anything special.

I am glad I had the experiences.

Ha
 
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I went to 1. The guy asked questions of us at the end. When asked 'how many stocks in the S&P500' I stated 502. He proceeded to berate my answer with everyone chiming is 'it's in the name.' I calmly informed him of the 2 companies that were now 4

Added: a few years ago
 
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Yeah, I always ask the presenter at the free steak history presentations "When was the War of 1812?" :LOL:
 
About once a quarter we get an invite to these held at a very nice restaurant. I have been tempted to go, but I don't feel comfortable going to waste someone else's time (I am getting a good meal out of it so I do not see it as a waste of time). I'd probably bring my tablet and surf the web or play games during the presentation portion, totally ignore it, and try to run out as fast as possible. Also, I get enough cold calls from folks interested in separating me from my money, I do not need more coming.


Of course, as the saying goes, "never say never..." :)
 
Just got back from the mailbox. DW got two free dinner offers, two different "advisor" groups. Both mailings were clearly from the same market firm.

This is out of control.
 
gayl said:
Its not other then he was only able to read off a script and did not even know the answer to his question
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I'm guessing that if you asked 100 forum members that the vast majority would have said 500.
 
Never thought about going for the "free" food and treating the pitch as "entertainment" of sorts. Maybe if we are bored sometime. But like spam, direct mailing, or many other marketing techniques, it catches enough business for them to make it worth their time. Just not sure it is worth ours...but I'm actually tempted to be a plate licker now.
 
I'm just hugely thankful that we don't get such solicitations... I'm sure that DW would want to go to get the "free" lunch or dinner.
 
I have gone to a couple of the more expensive ones. Guilty, but good food.
 
pb4uski said:
I'm just hugely thankful that we don't get such solicitations... I'm sure that DW would want to go to get the "free" lunch or dinner.
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I get the mail every day and I throw the free dinner invites away before I come back in so she can't see them. :LOL:
 
DW and I attended our first variable annuity steak dinner a couple weeks ago. While I resisted the temptation for my invitations she approached it with the same zeal she did with timeshare hucksters in Florida. How could we lose.
Dressed to the nines she drug my ragged tail to the dinner. We soon were seated next to another couple at a table for four. Nice. However it was soon apparent that they were shills and we were the mark. They've been retired for 24 years and still attending these functions?

The presenter started with charts showing the volatility to stock market returns and how this could kill your retirement. What set off the BS detector was when the presenter asked about what advisors tell you to do when the market tanks, the carefully spotted shills ALL responded - "Stay the Course". The couple at our table then informed us they had lost fortune in 2009 and this guys father saved them from further loses.

Ouch. I bit my tongue and took copious notes through the rest of the presentation. Long story short- never lose money and capture a portion of the stock market returns. Yeah we all know those numbers. Invest a huge chunk in treasuries (or CD's) a portion in S&P 500 covered by the interest on the treasuries etc..... and you'll beat this high fee proposition.

Since they bought me a decent steak I saw no need to call them out. However when pressed DW simply told the shills at our table that I must be a financial genius because she never saw any losses in the stock market because we didn't sell at a loss. EVER. And I thought she wasn't paying attention.
 
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