I recently received this email from a financial adviser at a bank. It is a hard-hitting comment on the materialism and consumerism that have gripped our country. We have a culture where we do not plan for the future because we are too busy living today. Unfortunately tomorrow eventually becomes today.
I have withheld his name in publishing the email as his employer may not be comfortable with his views. I would be interested in readers’ comments on his email:
To put it bluntly, bank customers do not lose their jobs, they don’t die, they don’t get disabled nor do they retire, for that matter. I don’t know how it works, but they believe it is true.
All excuses are just the same from this bank customer to another, “Ja, give me your card, I will call you as soon as I return from overseas,” or “Right now I am paying off a loan from … but maybe same time next year I will be free of debt, then I will give you a call.”
Bringing the customer into the bank across your desk in your office space is not the problem, going through a customer’s profile is my second nature, doing a needs analysis and identifying the need is not a problem.
The problem starts once you have identified the need. For example, take Mr Bee Smart this week, with his big chequebook spread all over my desk, three cellphones with three different ringing tones, one next to the other. His legs crossed showing off the latest sneakers in the fashion industry and shiny tight pants while the keys to his Range Rover Sport are wanting my attention as well.
This with an attitude from hell that yells “I’ve arrived,” while you can smell a strong scent of a very expensive whiskey, Johnnie Walker Blue Label.
As far as Mr Bee Smart is concerned, he is not going to die, won’t get disabled, will not retire, let alone having to take care of the kids’ future.
That was this week; last week I had Miss Cute Mansion in the same office, going through the same process with her, only to find out that Miss Cute Mansion wouldn’t go for an HIV test for her bond insurance cover due to the fact that she doesn’t want to know her status and is very afraid to know as she is busy attending evening “business” meetings at five star hotels week after week.
Or maybe it is simply because Joe, the tycoon she was seeing, passed on the previous year in a mysterious long-term illness which is still unknown to all. Again Miss Cute Mansion, with her long fingernails, will not die, get disabled or ever need to worry about retiring.
Working in the banking institution has made me understand exactly where Mr Bee Smart and Miss Cute Mansion come from. I once thought at some point that I was the best salesperson ever to have existed in that I could sell ice to an Eskimo. But now I confess I was wrong.
Not in our new South Africa, where money spenders live for today only, tomorrow doesn’t exist in their vocabulary. One morning my customer went out of her way trying to explain to me why she won’t live beyond 50 years of age.
Even when I tried the life expectancy route, she vehemently shouted, “Do you think I will live that far, what for?” and a telling giggle followed. How should I convince her that all she has, or thought she had, belongs to the wrong side of her estate — the liabilities side?
This liabilities side is the side that destroys whatever is left of a home. It is the side that attaches all outstanding debts, the side that leaves young school-loving kids without school fees, the side that makes Burchmores famous by reselling repossessed vehicles to cash buyers, the side that creates pauper funerals for high-profile individuals like Mr Bee Smart and Miss Cute Mansion.
But this is just dealing with her debt. Now try talking to her about estate planning, risk cover, retirement, education and investment policies. Things that affect all of our lives — but somehow will never affect the abovementioned bank customers.
My conclusion is that the situation most families find themselves in is caused by this sudden rag-to-riches wave of young tenderprenuers that has cropped up.
But wealth accumulated out of hard work, and cannot get splashed in one day in the name of spending or showing off.
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