Steve- Okay, now we've, we're covering, actually this is quite, going to be quite interesting. This should be a program on radio or something. You know, we're covering quite a range of professional sectors. But, Frank maybe you could tell us about how you got into the financial services area and some of the interesting things that have happened in your career.
Bob- Well, I don't know how interesting it would be to tell the story of how I got into the financial services industry. I found myself without a job and looked around for, an area that I might be able to enter and found myself going into financial planning. No mysterious or interesting, stories surrounding that.
Steve- But when you say you found yourself without a job, but then did you already have a background in financial planning, or did you then go and take some courses in financial planning, or did you just hang up your shingle?
Bob- No, I did not have a background in it. I was a salesman in various fields prior to that and, yes I did go into a series of or course of studies in order to gain some knowledge in the field.
Steve- And so then when you say financial planner, who would be your typical client? Is it an individual? How does one go about building a business as a financial planner?
Bob- Typically my clients would be families and individuals. My mandate would be to sit down with them and try to counsel them in how they could handle their finances, their investments, their insurance, to meet their goals.
Steve- And is, I, I imagine, like in most industries, experience is very important, so as you did more of it you gained experience and insight. But when you first started out, I guess you would have taken these courses. You might have had some of your own personal experience in terms of managing your own finances. Was it difficult to get started?
Bob- Most definitely. Although there's really no involved techniques in meeting goals. It's getting people to understand the simple ABC's. Yes, there are a great, there is a great depth of knowledge to acquire, to be acquired, but mostly that is to meet licensing requirements, not to meet the needs of your clients.
Steve- But you can say that about many aspects of education. I think a lot of our universities are handing out licenses. Much of what is taught, not necessarily in, in health, for example, but in other sectors could be learned by someone who is, you know, willing to study on their own. But I guess we have these licensing requirements. But I guess there's a lot of common sense that goes into financial planning, and, but my question is how do you get started? How do you build up a clientele? How do you build up a business in this field, as a newcomer, which you were when you first started out?
Bob- Building a business in financial planning is very much the same as you would build a business in any field of endeavor. It's, the greatest benefit is to be obtained through word of mouth. If you can provide good service to one client, obviously, they will mention it to their neighbor, their friend, their brother, their sister-in-law, and you would build your business that way.
Steve- Yeah, and I know when I started my own business too that, certainly we went for two years without generating any income worth talking about. It does take time. It's not, I mean you might have been more successful than I was when you started out, but, it certainly takes time to build up that credibility, and to get people to trust you and that grows from there as you deliver a service. Most people, I guess the average person, what, they are they looking at their investments or are some of them looking at coping with debt loads? Are people, some people more adventurous in terms of wanting to get into the stock market? What are some of the interesting scenarios or types of situations that you have dealt with?
Bob- Well, definitely everybody had. everybody hads different dreams, different plans. They also have different risk levels, so that they're, the way that they approach, the, they're attempt to reach their goals can differ quite drastically. One has to take into account their risk levels and guide them where they are most comfortable in order to have a satisfied client.
Steve- You know we read, of course, in the paper about North America, Canada, the United States, the great consumer society, people are spending beyond their means. They are buying big homes. They're relying on the value of their home as sort of their major saving for old age and stuff. I mean, generally, you deal with people who have a little more than the average, but to what extent did you find that people are being prudent in putting enough money aside for their old age? People you dealt with was that largely the case, or whether some people who were kind of overwhelmed with their expenditures and were hoping that their house would carry them through.
Bob- In my experience, and I'm comparing this, perhaps, to when I was a school child, people have much more money than they did then. They have a greater capacity to reach their dreams. The difficulty of course is that they're living longer, and they want to retire earlier, or they want to, attain their dreams, but they want to do it earlier. But there is more money available, and for most people it's just a question of sitting down and recapping what they earn, what they spend, and realizing just how much they can put aside to reach those goals. Steve- So, if I hear what you're saying, many people are, perhaps, more concerned about their future than they need be. That if they sit down, and look at how much they have, and how much they're spending, that they're, they perhaps have more discretionary room there to take holidays than they perhaps thought. Bob- In my experience, people are not concerned enough about their futures. Quite the opposite of what you assumed. For most people, they go along from day to day assuming that tomorrow will take care of itself. It's only after we've sat down and had a number of discussions and sessions, that they come to realize that if their future's going to be there they have to start doing something about it today. Steve- And, I guess just as technology has changed and schools have changed, the health care system has changes, the kinds of instruments that are available, the places where people can put money, has that changed? Do you find the kinds of products that you are offering or suggesting to them today are very different from what was available 10 years ago?
Bob- Certainly there are some differences, but again, this is not rocket science. There is, there are variations of a kind. It really comes down to the fact that you can spend money or you can save money, and from that point on, it's just fine tuning. Steve- So the difference between this insurance policy or this other insurance policy or bonds and stocks and so forth, there's sort of variations. As long as you're fundamentally committed to saving money, you'll look after yourself. Is that what I hear you saying or have I oversimplified?
Bob- Well, perhaps a little, along with that you have to factor in your risk tolerance, and so the fact that there are many different vehicles to, with which to invest your money makes a, for more opportunity to save, to grow your money, and do it within your risk tolerance.
Steve- Okay, well, thank you very much. I think that gives us a good sense of the financial sector. So before we go to the caregivers, we'll go and visit with the legal department.
