There is a plague that runs through the streets of Wall Street, and that is greed. If you have a stock broker, financial advisor, or financial planner, that is commission base, fire him or her now. I don’t care if he has five, ten, or fifty years of experience. It is not in your best interest to have an advisor that is compensated on a commission bases. I’m going to share with you some information that the public does not know or ever hears about.

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Hey, what’s all this noise about Baby Boomers worried about retiring? "Don’t Worry Be Happy", isn’t this the B-Boomers motto. Why is it that when we start turning 60 it’s "Oh crap how am I going to retire on nothing"?

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How Corporate America and Uncle Sam Have Made You Too Lazy To Have Wealth

I recently read an article about Corporate American ditching their pension plans and starting up 401(k)s in their place. While that’s not really news it’s the attitude of the employees that triggered these thoughts.
I understand that the termination of the pension plans will improve the bottom line of the corporation; which should be a good thing. But then in a recent poll taken by a prestigious New York marketing firm says employees are unhappy with this recent shift in corporate philosophy.

This begs a question, “Is the corporation there for the benefit of the shareholders or the employees”?

Many people today feel that their employer should provide them with benefits. Just look at the recent rule enacted by the government allowing for automatic enrollment of all employees into the company’s 401(k) plan. The White House and Congress have toyed with for years the notion of making it mandatory for businesses to cover their employees with health insurance. Tax breaks and incentives are the rewards for doing the right thing and being good to your people.

All of these good intentions lead to the belief that it is the government’s responsibility is to provide its citizens a certain standard of living. This couldn’t be father form the truth. The Constitution reads “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, not a carefree life, which some many people now expect as Americans.

Being a Jeffersonian (Free Market Capitalist) I believe that each individual should be given the freedom to follow his or her own path to wealth as they see fit, without expecting a handout from the government.

Which brings me to our Social Security system; know as the “Third Rail” in politics. Now with all due respect to FDR, I think social security may be evolving in to a crutch for the citizens of this great country. Think about it, people today expect their employers and the federal government to provide them with a medical and retirement benefits.

Is it their employers or the government’s job to provide these benefits?

No. We have created a segment of society that has become “Fat, dumb and lazy”. These people (registered voters) demand society provide them with a comfortable life from the cradle to the grave. Folks that is “Socialism”, the slutty sister of Communism. We can’t keep creating generation after generation of Americans looking for someone else to hand them a free ride. The next thing is we’ll all be speaking French and getting taxed up the butt to pay for all this.

Some people truly believe that as the “Social Security” system runs out of gas and “Corporate Pension Plans” go the way of the Do-Do bird life, as we know it will cease to exist. These people were obviously asleep in history class. America wasn’t built by the weak who went crying to their parents when something didn’t go their way. Wake up America! You are the only person responsible for your future, not your boss, not Uncle Sam, not your parents and definitely not me. I think our society would be better off if people relied more on themselves and less on corporate handouts and social services.

What do you think? Let me know. Leave your comment below.

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We just recently posted the story “6 Reasons Why You Can’t Get Rich in the Stock Market, and Why You Never Will” and we got a surprising spike in traffic and interest in our site. One reader submitted this story to us that we want to share. While it’s not your typical success story we think it makes Carlos a huge winner for seeing the right message. If you’ve ever wondered what millionaires say about stock market investing in private, here’s Carlos’ take on it:

Around the Holidays every year one gets invited to social gatherings and between sipping drinks and stuffing your face you enter into small talk. On several occasions this season I had the privilege of discussing worldly matters with some well-to-do (rich) individuals and each time I came away with the same bit of information about wealth or rather the accumulation of wealth.

I’ve always assumed that rich people (having a net worth over a couple million dollars) were invest heavily in the stock market as I had been for years. Not so. As a matter of fact I discovered they have only a portion of their money in the market; the rest is spread out over real estate and business or two. I found this bit of news both interesting and unsettling. I politely inquired how they had been able to accumulate their vast fortunes and they all said through owning their own business or partners in a business. Interestingly enough not one person I talked to became wealthy by investing in the market.

One never wants to feel like a fool in a conversation so I quickly defended my investing habits by quoting how well I had done in the market over this past year. This boast was only met with smiles and grins. It was then that I was given my education for the evening. Without much fanfare I was informed that a good business man could easily make 3 to 5 times the money invested in their business in a given year. And here I was bragging about getting over 20% for the year, which in their eyes would have translated into a bad year in business.

My new found friends went on to inform me that the market was “Unpredictable”, you’re in the money one minute then the next you’re loosing money. I gathered that this lack of control was something these individuals either couldn’t tolerate or went against their nature. I know from years of investing experience that the market can turn on a dime sending your portfolio straight down. You have got to watch your investments every day.

I remember somewhere in our little discussion I opened my big mouth a said something to the effect that “your stockbroker was working for you”. I think that was one of the other issues these well-off people didn’t like about investing, trusting someone else with their money. I mean its bad enough when you loose your money; it’s worse when someone else does it for you.

Well, so there you have it; my rich party-pals let the “cat out of the bag”. Rich people don’t use the stock market to become wealthy; wealth is created through other means such as owning a business or real estate. Rich people only get into the market after they have made it and use the market to grow their wealth.

Like my dad use to say, if you can’t beat’m, join’m.

Best Regards,
Carlos

Thanks Carlos! If you didn’t catch our previous blog that started this click here. Have your own story about wealth enlightenment you want to share. Email us your story at mystory@mywealthpuzzle.com. Let us know if you’d like us to share your full name or not. Thanks for reading. Before you leave share your comments below. We like to hear from you.

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Lately we’ve been hearing a lot in the news media about CEOs and their salaries, one of the areas of concern are the CEOs who are receiving a high eight figure salary package and company perks, but whose company stock is under performing.

A good example of this, is the CEO of Ford Motor Company, the CEO works in Detroit but lives in Florida, and flies home every weekend on the company private jet, all the while the company is loosing money every quarter its stock is at a all time low.

I can understand why the public is upset, and absolutely agree that there should be change in CEO pay. But some are calling for the government to step in to help make these changes; I feel that would be a big mistake. Once we give permission to the government to step in and help with this problem, you have now opened Pandora’s Box. Who will be next…. Will it be attorneys, doctors, nurses, small business owners, is this really what we want, I don’t think so.

Yes we need change, but it must come from the corporations, JP Morgan believed that a company President/CEO salary should never be more that 10 times the average company workers pay, how times have changed. There are ways that a corporation can tie CEO pay to company performance and I think they should, especially when they are a publicly traded company.

Give us some feedback. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Are CEO salaries too high? Should the government get involved?
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