The right brain is the reactive brain. It is the part of your brain that sees something you want including an intangible dream then buys it without any further thought. It is the part of the brain Wall Street brokers and investment property salesmen hope you will use.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s I was intrigued with the rebirth of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company. I even visited their factory in nearby York, PA. It was well worth the trip. I correctly concluded that Harley Davidson was not selling motorcycles. They were selling a dream. Well heeled middle aged men who always wanted a Harley could finally afford a Harley. In their dreams they could be Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, at least for a few hours.
In the article, “Are You a Right Brain or a Left Brain Investor?” Rick Ferri states, “I quickly learned that Wall Street isn’t about sound judgment and making prudent decisions for clients – it’s about selling to people who make impulsive right brain decisions. During broker boot camp, I was instructed to forget that facts – sell the sizzle, not the steak. Our text book was The Art of Selling Intangibles by Leroy Gross, a successful stockbroker in his day. Gross wrote that the key to successful selling is greed, and that we should use this to our advantage:”
Several years ago we were vacationing in the American Southwest. My wife had selected a nice looking motel on the Internet. It turned out it was not a motel but a front for a timeshare company that owned a resort elsewhere in the city. We were given the choice of a nasty little room or a suite overlooking the canyons. To get the suite we had to go to a timeshare pitch. Were heard beautiful stories, looked at the glossy photographs, and visited luxurious condos in that particular development. I never heard such a pitch in my life, the guy was good. However, I had read more than enough horror stories to know timeshares were a very bad idea.
The Federal Trade Commission warns against buying timeshares. You will almost always loose money, sometimes a lot of money. The property might be desirable when it is new but it will age. If the area is profitable competitors will build newer more luxurious timeshares to get in on the action. There are usually hidden fees the salesman failed to mention. It is a thoroughly disreputable business. When I returned home from our vacation, I investigated that particular company. The Internet was full of negative comments from angry victims and listings of law suits and court actions against the company.
Federal Trade Commission Timeshare Link
Of course the ultimate right brain financial decision is the lottery ticket. For a couple of days you hold the winning ticket. In your mind’s eye you can visualize the seaside mansion somewhere on the coast of Maui, just South of Wailea Makena. Hey, I have dreams too. Then the drawing is held and your ticket joins its brothers in garbage cans all over the country.
Ferri warns us, “Many investment advisors and financial planners are no better than brokers. They pitch their skill at beating the market by saying they have the ability to choose the right mutual funds at the right time. I am sure that a handful of these advisors do have luck or skill, but most don’t. History shows us that the real winners are few and far between, and it’s not possible to know who the winners will be in advance.”
Don’t become infatuated with the possibility of a big payday without judiciously considering the probability of loss. When you hear a hot stock tip on TV or read about it on the Internet, that is only the first step. Now, do your research. If you have an online brokerage account, you have access to at least a half a dozen investment reports from reliable companies on any major corporation. The same sorts of reports are available for mutual funds. Generally you will find that two of the reports will recommend buy, two will recommend hold, and two will recommend sell. If it was that easy a decision everybody else would have already made it. You would be too late to the party.
Back when I bought my Coca Cola (KO) stock, every research company, all of them, were recommending buy. Even Warren Buffet, the genius, was adding to his gigantic position in this company. Coca Cola stock promptly dropped in value. It didn’t come back for over two years. However, it did come back. Not because of what any financial seer wrote in his book of secrets, but because it is a well managed company with a wide moat that has a long history of taking good care of its shareholders. Today KO is one of my happy stories.
Please! Let’s be extra careful out there today.
The right brain is the reactive brain. It is the part of your brain that sees something you want including an intangible dream then buys it without any further thought. It is the part of the brain Wall Street brokers and investment property salesmen hope you will use.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s I was intrigued with the rebirth of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company. I even visited their factory in nearby York, PA. It was well worth the trip. I correctly concluded that Harley Davidson was not selling motorcycles. They were selling a dream. Well heeled middle aged men who always wanted a Harley could finally afford a Harley. In their dreams they could be Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, at least for a few hours.
In the article, “Are You a Right Brain or a Left Brain Investor?” Rick Ferri states, “I quickly learned that Wall Street isn’t about sound judgment and making prudent decisions for clients – it’s about selling to people who make impulsive right brain decisions. During broker boot camp, I was instructed to forget that facts – sell the sizzle, not the steak. Our text book was The Art of Selling Intangibles by Leroy Gross, a successful stockbroker in his day. Gross wrote that the key to successful selling is greed, and that we should use this to our advantage:”
Several years ago we were vacationing in the American Southwest. My wife had selected a nice looking motel on the Internet. It turned out it was not a motel but a front for a timeshare company that owned a resort elsewhere in the city. We were given the choice of a nasty little room or a suite overlooking the canyons. To get the suite we had to go to a timeshare pitch. Were heard beautiful stories, looked at the glossy photographs, and visited luxurious condos in that particular development. I never heard such a pitch in my life, the guy was good. However, I had read more than enough horror stories to know timeshares were a very bad idea.
The Federal Trade Commission warns against buying timeshares. You will almost always loose money, sometimes a lot of money. The property might be desirable when it is new but it will age. If the area is profitable competitors will build newer more luxurious timeshares to get in on the action. There are usually hidden fees the salesman failed to mention. It is a thoroughly disreputable business. When I returned home from our vacation, I investigated that particular company. The Internet was full of negative comments from angry victims and listings of law suits and court actions against the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment