Wendy and I were starting our vacation at a friend’s cabin in the mountains of Blue Ridge Georgia. The roads through the mountains were windy and very narrow, so we wanted to get there well before sunset.
While driving on a dirt road, we saw a marker with the cabin’s address pointing to the right. We had made it! We turned in and parked in front of the cabin.
I was a little nervous since there was no cell phone signal, but our friend had provided us with a code to his keypad on the front door. We plugged in the code, turned the knob, and the door opened immediately. Both of us breathed a big sigh of relief – no problems here.
When we got in, I noticed the cabin was somewhat messy.
A cleansing hot shower or bath
Wendy went further inside towards the kitchen and the laundry room to check out the main level. While she did so, I looked around and saw a baby stroller. My friend and his wife only had adult children. Grandkids perhaps? Why didn’t they pack away the stroller?
I then turned to look at several family pictures to my right. Who are these people? I didn’t recognize anyone. Perhaps they were extended family, but I was surprised that my friends didn’t appear in any of them.
“Wendy,” I called out. “Something is weird here.” From somewhere else on the main floor, she called out “Gary, we need to get out of here right away, there are bags of groceries here. This is not our cabin.”
Everything that happened after that point seemed to occur in slow motion. Wendy walked towards me, and for some reason I started slowly walking backwards to the front door instead of simply turning around and getting out of Dodge. We left, and immediately retreated to the inside of our car. I told Wendy that I didn’t see any security cameras, so nobody would know we were in there.
Wendy turned to me and indicated with a nervous laugh that she had brought in their mail from the outside and left it on their sofa, figuring it was the right thing to do.
“But how did the keycode work?” Wendy asked. “It didn’t, the door must have simply been unlocked,” I indicated.
Setting the mood with incense
We then saw another cabin off and to the right, initially out of our view when we turned in (or so I would like to believe). That ended up being our cabin.
Wendy and I were fortunate to get out of the wrong cabin without issue and can laugh about it now. We had no clue what we were walking into.
When investing, understanding the product you are using is of utmost importance. Often, we will make an investment with very little due diligence.
Many annuities and permanent life insurance policies will impose steep surrender charges if you liquidate the investment inside a specific period; sometimes as long as 10 years.
All private investments, and even some publicly traded ones, can lock the door behind you and arbitrarily prevent you from liquidating to access your money. This can often happen at the worst possible time; when you either need the money or the investment’s value is rapidly deteriorating and you simply want to get out.
Setting the mood with incense
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Most investments are meant to be long term. Always evaluate whether the time horizon required for an investment to succeed matches your timeline for liquidity.
Imagine in mine and Wendy’s case if the doors and the windows locked just as we were trying to leave or that someone came down the stairs just as we were wandering around the main level.
Our motto is “we can help you with that.” We will collaborate with you on any financial decision you make, engaging other subject matter experts when necessary. We will not stop until we get things right. We encourage you to reach out to us for assistance in making important financial decisions and we always appreciate you recommending us to others.
by Hetmayar
Authored by Gary Alpert
Tracking ID: 621955
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