My wife has been having problems with her car lately and… your old pal Uncle Gluten knows a thing or two about how to fix cars.
I’m no pro, mind you, but I know enough to do regular maintenance and… a little extra.
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yes, the car.
So, her car wasn’t running right.
First, it started idling too high, then too low… couldn’t find the Goldilocks.
It was sputtering and bogging down and making all kinds of funny noises and jerking and “blub blub blub”’ing at stop lights.
Took it to several big-name outfits to have each of them run a diagnostic check on it and… got multiple different answers.
ugh.
Went poking around under the hood and… found a teeny tiny hose dangling around under there…
Turns out it was a vacuum hose.
Now, if’n ya not know nuthin’ about cars, vacuum pressure is very important in an engine because it’s basically an oversized air pump that uses a small amount of gasoline to cause a ‘splosion which moves pistons and, ultimately, tires, down the road.
No vacuum pressure, no worky.
And even a small vacuum leak can trick you into thinking you need to scrap your car and buy a new one.
Now for the funny part.
Turns out it wasn’t just one problem… it was MANY problems.
You see, years ago I gave up working on cars. It got to a point where it just wasn’t fun for me anymore.
So, we started taking our cars to a mechanic.
Somewhere along the line, we had to do regular maintenance. A timing belt had to be changed, and a few other things inspected, serviced, and parts replaced.
And… at some point, one (or maybe several) mechanics didn’t do their job 100%.
They unplugged a wiring harness and forgot to plug it back in again… they neglected to reroute wires properly after doing a job… yada yada yada.
It finally caught up to us.
What does any of this have to do with the price of tea in China (as my mom would say)?
Well… it reminds me of some of the stuff I see wafting across the Interwebs.
Advisors, bloggers, insurance agents, you name it… they be good people but some of them also be lazy or forgetful or… just ignorant about certain topics.
The good thing about a forgetful or lazy mechanic is your car will let you know when it breaks.
With a financial plan, you won’t know until it’s too late to fix.
Most common breaking point?
Risk management.
How do you manage risk in a financial plan?
Insurance.
It is the single-most overlooked piece of any financial plan.
So overlooked that the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) Board of Standards barely includes it in their course syllabus and financial planners are routinely taught that insurance is less important than investing (it accounts for something like 11%-14% of the total course material).
Not to beat up on investment professionals. They certainly have their place.
Anywho, on to bid’naz.
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