Hypocrisy

My youngest turned 5 this past week and we had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday.

In our family at birthday time everybody gets a little gift or card. Michele and I began this little family tradition to prevent the younger children from becoming so “self-centered” on their birthday and in hopes that everybody in the family would look forward to other peoples birthday’s as well as their own. We are pleased with the way our little family experiment has turned out. All of our children greatly appreciate and anticipate the birthday of their siblings almost as much as their own.

Our five year old is no different. He had nearly as much fun preparing individual cards for all his siblings, as well as yours truly, as he did opening his own presents and cards. But the icing on the cake is always the birthday cake that Michele bakes and decorates specifically for the birthday child.

Throughout the years we’ve eaten train cakes, tractor cakes, doll shaped cakes, chain saw shaped cakes and animal shaped cakes. This time it was a clown cake and as one of the clowns came off the cake onto my 5 year olds’ plate he picked it up and said, “What a hypocrite!” Of course we all laughed but what he said was absolutely true. A clown is a hypocrite... “a person who pretends to be something other than what they are.”

I find this characteristic all too prevalent as I deal with people and their finances. Not so much among my clients but with those who are advising my clients. These advisors have told my clients to invest money in certain areas which they themselves do not, and would not, invest in. They’ve told them they have thoroughly studied and understand what I teach and they know it to be wrong, illegal or only taught in order to make large commissions. They have attempted to have clients invest with them or allow them to manage a client’s money so that they would begin to earn management fees off the client even though the client would lose control of their own money.

But most clients are just like my 5 year old, they see through the façade, and realize that they are dealing with a hypocrite. The results are amazing when people are exposed to the truth. It is no longer very difficult for them to act in accordance to what they know is the best for them.

Again just like our little 5 year old enjoys making “birthday celebration cards” for his siblings clients often enjoy spreading the news of what they have learned with others nearly as much as they enjoy the benefits of being in control of their own money. That’s just the way truth works. You can’t keep it from being expressed once it is understood.

That is why we continue to offer our free downloadable PDF file of Prescription for Wealth online for you and your friends to access at any time. We want people to understand the truth about their money.

By Tomas McFie