Bad Old Days

“STOP PULLING MY leg, Grandpa. You’re kidding, right? Is it really true that people:

• used to believe they could beat the market?
• paid 2% of assets and 20% of profits to hedge fund managers?
• got their stock picks from a guy screaming on the television?
• thought cash-value life insurance was a good investment?
• believed that brokers would act in their best interest?
• studied stock price charts to figure out what would happen next?
• bought and sold exchange-traded index funds like crazy?
• were given 30 investment choices in their 401(k) and left to figure it out on their own?
• treated top money managers like they were rock stars?
• retired and all they had to live on was Social Security?
• didn’t object when companies spent billions buying back shares to disguise the dilution caused by employee stock options?
• bothered to listen to the forecasts of market strategists?
• paid 1% a year to financial advisors and all they got in return was a portfolio of mutual funds?
• imagined they could make money with a variable annuity charging 3% a year?”

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