Think of the delicatessen, the smell of the meats, the allure of the cheeses, pots of olives, some fine pate and wine perhaps, a crusty artisan loaf. I bet your mouth is watering already at the sights, sounds, aromas and feelings which arise!
The delicatessen, that wonderful experience where you leave with exactly what you wanted, just the right amount, tailored perfectly for your needs. No waste, good quality, they have taken the time to talk to you, to understand what it is that you really want, making your luncheon or dinner party all the more special. Your friends are amazed by the quality, you enjoy yourself, primarily, because you have no anxiety about the food on offer, no compromises, and none of the frantic behaviours which plague so many occasions. What you have, is right for your party, and only your party, it is a bespoke meal, made to your wishes, and what is more, the experience of buying it was rather relaxed and jolly.
This is a far cry from what you may find in supermarkets, where, whilst there may be aisle upon aisle of choice, you have to build the meal yourself, asking yourself does everything really go with everything else? What about the quality? You can’t think, music pumping out, children hanging off shopping trolleys, CDs being sold alongside hedge trimmers, alongside muffins – SO MUCH INFORMATION NOISE. At last you reach the till, and then comes the Gerry Cottle Challenge of trying to juggle all of your shopping into the bags and trolley before the enthusiastic checkout person sends your goods crashing to the floor. Hardly the best way to set up a relaxing chilled our dinner party!
There really is no reason why your financial experiences should not be the same as shopping at the delicatessen as opposed to the supermarket.
Take the latter example first, the financial shopping experience is almost pre-defined, an order in which you should buy your goods (unless you go to Lidl and enjoy the ‘random aisle’ in the middle). It is a process, not an experience. They may be independent and have everything to offer, but frequently, the focus is all about finding stuff to sell. Following a ‘tried and trusted’ method, the outcome depends (and is valued) on what and how much you buy. You are a number, a name, but maybe not a person. Maybe, just maybe, their interest is in your money, not in you as a person!
Having worked in a high street bank at the height of the ‘pile it high and sell it to anyone’ years, I saw this time and time again, the pursuit of a quick sale over anything else. Clients’ attitudes to investment risk suddenly swung from one extreme to the other – all dependent on what the favoured product of the sales period was.
The upshot of all of this, is that their main aim is to get you to buy stuff, to move your investments and pensions to them so they can earn money from you, perhaps at detriment to your plans, which they were in such a hurry to skip over, because ‘a sale is a sale’.
How would it be, if you worked with a Financial Delicatessen? Someone who took the time to really understand how your financial dinner party should unfold. What flavours and aromatic mixes you really wanted? How you would feel with the crusty crunch of the loaf of satisfaction? The ease and freedom you would find by knowing that all of your financial goods were neatly dealt with, and you had just the right amount, rather than a family sized bucket of olives (or needlessly working for additional years before you retire)?
Imagine a way of working towards the future, with that Financial Delicatessen who is interested in your dinner party of life, how the last party worked out, and making sure that plans for the next one are as easy and enjoyable as possible. It may not be as cheap as the supermarket in the short term, and that is a good thing, because you are not getting pre-packaged advice, you are getting just what you need, just when you need it, and an outcome that leaves you and your family feeling fully satisfied.
Together we can bring some Serenity to your life
Escaping The Bucket 