That's it, the answer to it all: invest the difference. What a great philosophy. What a great goal. What?! It sounds so simplistic, but just what does that mean to invest the difference? Invest what? Invest where? What difference? Do you have the answer to all of those questions? If you do, congratulations! You don't need to read any further. You must have all the right answers, but do you have all the right questions?! Ah yes, sweet mysteries of life. I have heard that phrase so many times, invest the difference. Let me tell you about a few of them.
"I don't need disability insurance. I'll take the difference and invest it." That's true, as long as you have enough "time" before a disability strikes. If you can save 10 percent of your income each year and invest it, good for you. If you suffer a disability, you will go through about 10 percent each month, so in just one year you can wipe out a dozen years of savings. Maybe instead you should sell your home, live on the streets and "invest the difference!"
"I don't need a qualified retirement plan. It will cost me fees every year and I will have to put money away for my employees. Without a plan I could 'invest' the difference." So true, but all that money is with after tax dollars which cuts them in half. In a qualified plan, the dollars go in before taxes, so that you put up 50 cents and Uncle Sam matches it. No contest. Maybe you should consider cutting off the water to your house and stop taking showers, walk in the rain and "invest the difference!"
"Stanley, I don't need to have a financial plan to know where I am going. I've got things under control." Sure you do! Nobody needs a plan; just wing it. Your patients don't need a treatment plan either. With that in mind, maybe you should consider not paying taxes nor even bothering to file a tax return so you can go to jail and save all that money that you are spending to live, so you can "invest the difference!"
"A computer? I don't need one." Smart move. Why have one so you can tap into the information highway? You already know everything! Those new networks just for chiropractors don't have anything that you need to know. All a computer is going to do is use electricity, and now you can save that money and, you guessed it, "invest the difference!"
"I don't need life insurance." Big savings here. "When I die, I will have assets that my family can use to live on. Oh yes, I won't die until I have enough assets. If I do die 'early,' my family will just have to 'eat the difference!'"
Taxes, taxes, taxes: that says it all. Or, in other words, dumb and dumber; that says it all too! That is my description of those people who don't want to take full advantage of the tax laws that are there to save you money. Why be faced with the problem of having all that excess money that you now have to "invest the difference?!" That's about as smart as deciding to sell your car and buying skates and putting your family on your back for a skating tour of the US, and "invest the difference!"
"No Stanley, I have not written to you or used your advice, so I have no difference to invest. I figured I would save that 32 cents for the stamp and the 32 cent stamp for the return envelope and invest the difference. I know that you charge no fees, but why should I cloud my mind with ideas that will save me taxes and show me how to better utilize my dollars. I plan on working until I die. That wasn't my original plan, but now I have no choice because I have over the years 'wasted the difference.'"
Speaking of investing the difference, I have followed the great American way of buying high and selling low. The world can thank me for all those dollars that keep the market going. Is that your story? Can you relate to that? Is a passbook savings account as exotic as you can get? Well, that does eliminate the problem of what to do with the difference. You won't have that problem!
"I follow advisors, Stanley. Their advice has been poor, but it's like an old pair of shoes; it might be bad for me but it is comfortable." Is that your story too? May I ask why? Maybe if I charged big fees you would be willing to follow what I have to say. I don't charge fees so you will have a difference to invest!
So what is your story? Are you investing the difference? Do you have a difference? Would it make a difference if you had a difference to invest? Are you indifferent to a difference?
Stanley Greenfield, RHU
125 Crofton Hill Ln.
Rockhill, MD 20850
