We just don’t seem to care enough about the future to spend any time preparing for it. I think most of us are too busy preparing to get through the next day.
But this is sad. According to a Harris/Decima poll conducted in November (2010), 70% of investors are not fully familiar with the mix of investments in their RSP’s, (i.e. they don’t know what they own). For the vast majority of Canadians, their RSPs constitute the entirety of their investments…..and they don’t understand what they own.
You can blame my industry for not explaining things better and you won’t get a huge argument from me about that, but the real problem is that investors don’t care enough to ask. Don’t believe me; just call an advisor, yours or even one you don’t deal with. Odds are they’ll be more than happy to sit down with you and explain what you have, warts and all. It’s what we do and for the most part we like doing it.
And if you don’t know what you own or why, my guess is you won’t understand when something goes wrong.
The future is what you make it.
