Seeking Certainty in an Uncertain World
From the archives: this post originally appeared on LinkedIn on August 3, 2023.
Confession: I own a deck of tarot cards.
I purchased them when I was an angsty teenager who wanted to know what my future held. Would the boy I was so desperately in love with, love me back? (No) Where would I go to college? (Duke) Would I ever be allowed to dye my hair pink? (Yes – about 30 years later)
I’m not alone. For thousands of years humans have relied on various rituals to gain insight into their futures. And while some forms of divination are widely known – horoscopy, taromancy – most of them are obscure, random and in some cases, pretty disgusting.
People have tried to predict the future by pouring molten wax into cold water (carromancy), interpreting atmospheric conditions (aeromancy) or inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals (extispicy). (Side note: mom and dad, you can thank me later that I brought home a deck of tarot cards and not the liver of a recently sacrificed sheep!)
And while one might scoff and say: “We’ve come a long way from the days of reading omens from the behavior of rodents (myomancy) or cats (ailuromancy)” I would contend that at least when it comes to the financial media, we haven’t. It’s why there have been multiple articles over the last year debating when inflation will be reined in and whether the Fed will lead the economy to a soft or a hard landing. Guess what? No one knows.
Or why Barron’s recently ran an article titled: “It’s a Stockpicker’s Market. What That Means and What To Buy.” Headlines like this raise my blood pressure because they are nothing more than financial fortune-telling.
Yet we still turn to all kinds of tools and patterns to tell us what to expect because we want certainty about the future. We CRAVE certainty about the future.
But we don’t live in a certain world. We live in a world of uncertainty, unknowns and the unexpected.
Which is why at Sanctuary, instead of turning to a false prophet to provide insights, we believe everyone should have a financial plan.
- A financial plan serves as the foundation to good financial health.
- A financial plan serves as a GPS and roadmap – ensuring you stay on course.
- A financial plan serves as a framework for navigating all your financial decisions.
Money is the number one source of stress in this country. In fact, I bet every single person reading this post has some stress around money. We all do. At Sanctuary we collaborate with clients on the planning process to build a solid financial foundation that has staying power – and that takes time. Just because we charge for our time instead of taking custody of assets as the basis for a relationship, it does not mean we are here to offer a quick fix or a one-and-done. Just the opposite.
We are excited to champion the hourly planning model as we believe it’s the most transparent, fair and straightforward way to deliver financial advice. And it’s why we are able to celebrate our ability to offer financial advice that goes beyond your assets.
