As a professional speaker I pay attention to trends. The popularity of investment seminars waned over the last couple of years.
Then came 2008 – 2009.
People want information; they need to know where we go from here. As a result, I relaunched public seminars as part of my speaking business late last year. Financial advisors hire me to present on their behalf to their clients and prospects, and the results are nothing short of tremendous. In addition, I meet with the local media in the cities where I present, and provide on-site sales training for the financial advisors that hire me and their sales teams.
Read the following article from such an event:
“New economy presents challenges and opportunities”
As seen in the Springfield (MN) Advance Press Pages 1-2
March 18, 2009
Credit problems, failing financial institutions, government bailouts, stock market downturns, economic uncertainties, downsizing, belt tightening, job losses, personal pain and tragedies are some of the many negatives that we hear and read about daily.
There always will be times when it seems there is nothing but discouraging news, said business strategist Michael Roby, who came to Springfield last week to bring perspective and common sense advice to those who question: Where we go from here?
Roby came at the invitation of David Milbrath and staff of The Investment Center. “We have had a fair amount of people calling our offices to ask, ‘What’s going on?’ There is so much fear and confusion. They want reassurance,” said Milbrath.
With more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Roby has the perspective of being able to look back and look at the present, and to provide timeless concepts and strategies for helping people save, invest, and manage their financial resources. The topic of the public forum was: Financial Planning in the New Economy: Where Do We Go From Here?
“These are unprecedented times, but too a certain extent the new economy is no different than it ever has been,” said Roby, who spoke at a public forum at the Springfield Area Community Center the evening of March 12.
“Unfortunately, people take the events of the last six months and extrapolate them infinitely into the future,” Roby said. “We get a sense that this time it’s really different; but it’s never different — it’s always a matter of supply and demand.”
“Everything cycles. Nothing goes up forever. Nothing goes down forever,” Roby said. “The inevitable progress of a capitalistic economy is that long-term values always go up, but they don’t go up every day.”
“There’s no question we’re in a recession,” Roby said. “Some call it a depression.” “I don’t mean to minimize what we see happening out there these days. But this is very different from the Great Economic Depression in many ways,” Roby stated, as he began listing the differences. During the Great Economic Depression our country had 25% unemployment; today we have 8.1% unemployment. During the depression there was no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — there was no federal banking structure; today there are safeguards. During the depression there were very few welfare or entitlement programs; there are safety nets today. During the depression, the United States government shut down, basically, all foreign trade during the 1930s, which did create a worldwide depression. That is not happening today.
“The biggest challenge we had during the depression was that people lost hope,” Roby said. “People are losing hope today. They are taking events of the last six months and saying that this will happen forever.”
Roby advised his audience to consider the positives: “Take a look at what has made America great,” he said. “We have the greatest country in the history of mankind.” “We have some very big challenges going forth, but the fact is our population is growing. We have about 6.8 million legal immigrants every year (almost 38 million now) and that will be a strong economic force. These new Americans, have dreams, goals and objectives for their families just as our forefathers did — they work hard, and they contribute to our society.”
“Believe in the power of America; do not surrender ourselves. The United States of America have an infrastructure that is second to none. What would other countries give to have our infrastructure, our roads, our power grids. Americans band together when times are tough,” said Roby. “Americans come together to help one another; we don’t erupt into a civil war including violence. We take care of one another.”
He also pointed to the strength of Baby Boomers who will continue in the workforce because they can’t afford to retire under the present economic conditions. “The retirement of that whole group of Baby Boomers would create some huge inflationary pressure because there would be huge competition for talented workers,” Roby stated. “These people are going to stay engaged longer and they won’t be drawing on their Social Security and pension plans as rapidly. They’ll be staying in the market place and continue to bring value. They are productive. They provide a huge amount of intellectual capital.”
“American agriculture is the model for any production industry in the world,” Roby said. “And agriculture is pretty sound right now.”
Small businesses have always been and continue to be the backbone of America. “Big business has never been what fired new job growth,” Roby said. “It’s always been small business.”
“The United States of America still have the most efficient economic structure in the world,” Roby said. “The things that we do — technology, intellectual capital, design and development — nobody does that better than we do.” People will continue to need to buy houses and to rent apartments, and they will continue to buy food and clothing, the speaker pointed out.
“There’s $8 trillion on the sideline that will need to be invested, and soon money managers are going to look at the fact that it’s time to get back in the market, and that will drive prices,” the speaker said. “One of my fears is that people think the government is going to take care of all their problems,” Roby said. “The government can’t fix our problems. We have to fix our problems.” “It’s about us getting out of there and creating business. And we’ve got to get back to work.” The government that claims to fix our problems was the source of some of the problems to start with, the business strategist pointed out. For example: The deregulation of lending in the banking sector; “It never made sense to do 125 percent loan to value,” he stated. We have to get back to the basics,” said Roby. “If it’s lending/borrowing, it’s things like loan-to-value. What is your mortgage payment as a percentage of your adjusted gross income? If it’s investments, is it reasonable price earnings? Is the company making money? If it’s a family, are you saving 10% of what you make?
People must take personal responsibility for their future financial security. “We have to get back to basics rooted in the values and principles that made our nation a great nation,” Roby stressed. “Live within your means. Pay yourself first. Spend the rest. Don’t go it alone.”
He also stressed the importance of the basics of prudent financial planning. Guiding principles to good financial management, he said, are: 1) Diversification, 2) Asset allocation, 3) Dollar cost averaging, 4) Manage and insure that which cannot be predicted, and 5) Use professional management.
“Challenges present opportunities,” said the speaker. “There will be huge opportunities for those who accept the challenges.
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