Monday, June 1, 2009

Financial advice, Las Vegas style

One of my ex-financial advisors sent me a chain e-mail today. One of those life-lessons messages with gems of wisdom like "When you lose, don't lose the lesson". OK, that one seems fine. But how about this one, "Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze"? Many people follow that rule, but it seems utterly useless to me. I see no purpose for it, other than to satisfy someone's superstitious itch.

The message also claims that "It has been sent around the world ten times so far." Not sure what that means, since the internet makes such a task trivial.

And here comes the icing on the cake... the message ends with,
Send this to at least 5 people and your life will improve.

1-4 people: Your life will improve slightly

5-9 people: Your life will improve to your liking

9-14 people: You will have at least 5 surprises in the next 3 weeks

15 and above: Your life will improve drastically and everything you ever dreamed of will begin to take shape.

Thoughts: How can my life improve slightly, but not to my liking? What would happen if I forwarded the message to exactly 9 people?

I have a personal policy that I NEVER take part in e-mail chain letters. It doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out that if everyone sent it to 5 of their friends within 6 minutes (as the e-mail directs), it would take only 90 minutes to reach every living human being. Of course, not everyone has e-mail, so what it really means is that this silly chain letter will fill the internet (and your inbox) with superstitious dribble.

I can't help wondering if sending this message to more than 15 people is this particular financial advisor's best strategy for financial success. I think I made the right decision in making them my EX-financial advisor.

This blog post is from
intelligent-falling.blogspot.com
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 7, 2009 at 1:38 AM

    I don't do the chain letter either. I take my chances with being smitted or smotted if I choose to ignore this message.

    I also can't stand the email forwards with cute pictures of kittens in cute positions and silly limrick. I don't have time for that shit.

    Good idea dumping the financial advisor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark SherryJuly 15, 2009 at 5:13 PM

    Thoughts: How can my life improve slightly, but not to my liking?
    If you send it to 1-4 people, while cleaning you find a pair of old shorts - now quite unfashionable - that you thought you'd lost years ago. You now have a pair of shorts that you can do whatever you want with, even though you might just give them away or use them as rag material. If you send it to 5-9 people, you find the shorts, but also discover a $20 bill in the pocket.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeffJuly 15, 2009 at 8:18 PM

    Yah, ummm.... good point?

    ReplyDelete

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