Was he angry about returns? Nope
Was he angry about fees? Nope
Was he angry about office location? Nope
Was he angry about frequency of communications? Nope

He was angry because they drove a Jaguar and wore nice suits?



I figured I'd post here to get some real insight as opposed to GD.

I just couldn't figure out the guys problem. I have zero business dealings with him so I knew he was telling me how he really feels. I mean, raised voice and profanity.

Pretty common. We had to stop buying 4 door 1 ton service pickups because every time there was a dispute on a bill they'd bring up that they couldn't afford to pay for us to drive fancy pickups (they were base models but still kinda spendy).

Pretty asinine also. It's worse here bc we are a small town but if you drive a nice vehicle and have a nice house then you're an asshole or a crook. Period. That's just how people justify their mediocre existence.

It's his roundabout way of saying he charges too damn much, and is also wasteful and extravagant..   Simple human nature.  

Charge whatever the market will bear, but don't rub people's faces in it.  Especially during economic down times.  

Yes, human nature can be counter intuitive and illogical.  However, it is consistent.

There is that from poor people of course,  but you missed the part where OP said "His financial advisor". .   The hate is coming from a guy that you and the IRS would consider "rich".

Disagree.

If he said "my guy is too expensive" that would be one thing.  Instead he gripped about what the man has -- that the adviser is successful.

He has no idea how hard or long the man works, but resents that he has nice things.

Thing is look at it from the other end of the spectrum.  Would you even think of using and discussing financial advice with someone who drove a beat to shit 1990 Honda Accord and wore raggedy old clothes?

The Accord would probably be more reliable than a new Jaguar.

A lot of companies down here drive huge bro trucks they are wrapped in their company logos and whatnot. They are always the most expensive people to deal with.... I'd like to think partly because consumers are footing their marketing bill
 



Also saw this in the Making a Murderer documentary everyone is talking about.  Stephen sued someone and got some money.... Lawyers were talking about how critical that was to Stephen so he can continue to fight for his freedom






A few clips later it shows both lawyers piling into their Mercedes




 

I get it; people work to make money. You make enough money you feel entitled to buy expensive things. Just don't be mad at a consumer when we see that and question how much you're taking me to bank.


My plumber does phenomenal work; employs Americans, charges competitively, and all his vehicles are pieces of junk. No branding, nothing but dented metal, rust, etc. But you know what? That's an honest man making a living and I don't feel bad about paying him

He is a high net worth individual and has assets more expensive than the Jaguar by a large margin.

I just don't know where to put the guys attitude. There are some people that any fee bother's them but he really wasn't talking about that.

It's like that down here, I can buy a 65k truck no one cares, if  I would buy a 15k Mercedes people would have somthing to say.

Lot of brand value with some of those companies. Around the same time we had a secretary buy a loaded suburban for over 60k and another buy a small used benz suv of some kind for 18k. I heard nothing but snide comments from the other employees about the benz, nothing about the suburban.

I remember a guy posting a thread on here about teachers being overpaid because a female teacher had a benz in the local school parking lot. He posted a pic of it. Someone linked the blue book value and it was like 4000 bucks.

The op was talking about the teacher buying lobster on our dime.

Happened to me.  New hires making $13 an hour were buying new Hyundai and Kias for $20-25k, no one batted an eye.  I bought a 6 year old BMW 3 series for half what they paid and people criticized me and my wages for owning a luxury car.  

I look at it this way, I don't care what kind of car a blue collar person drives, their work speaks for itself and their clothes and car mean nothing to me.  If I am going to hire a guy to manage my money, I want to feel like he knows how to manage his own.  I'd prefer to see my financial adviser buying a 2-3 year old luxury car than a brand new Honda, because that is the smart play.  If I see him driving a 15 year old beat to shit Corolla, I'd at the very least have to ask him why he chose to do it.  That said, FAs aren't the kind of people who can show you what they make for their other clients, so you have to take their word, a referral, or experience it on your own.

When I first got into the insurance/ employee benefit business from the car business I drove a high end mercedes.  I went to a doctors who owned a large group and had several hundred employees, and was my client.   We went to lunch in his ratty Subaru.  I went and bought an impala

Now I just drive an infinity suv most days, but have had to talk it away to some clients.  Most of my clients now I deal with are all ceo/exec type thay don't bat an eye.  I do have a feed mill and such and some other clients who are the opposite of that and if they ask I just say I got a good deal or something.

I will say that i am a bit leery of guys at either end of the spectrum when it comes to contractors. If i see i guy in an 80k dollar brodozer or a rattle box pos from the 90s, i pretty much know the circumstances behind it and proceed with caution. Most of the time i wont even bother getting a bid from them.

The trades are a very static industry by region. I know what they make, what markup, what labor cost, what overhead, what sales. There arent many variables. If something is variable then its a sign of something.

With anything that is more dynamic or scalable then i dont pay much attention to it. If you manufacture something then money on a rolling billboard isnt a big deal. There is good margin in that industry. If you own a chain of retail stores or franchise hair cutting shacks, there is good volume and decent margin. I can understand that.

If you drive an 80k pickup and work in the trades then you either charge more, or reinvest less into the business that you should. Outside of a few anomalies, its a mathematical impossibility to run things properly, charge a price that i can accept, and drive an 80k pickup.

I still get comments from customers every once in awhile bc i get a fairly new or brand new pickup every year and pass mine down. But i dont have carpet or power anything. Last year i went buck wild and sprung for cloth seats. I had wanted cloth seats for 6 or 7 years. I still have the same old tool boxes the company bought me in 05 that drip rust all over my white paint when it rains.

Let me tell you a story about a guy I once new. Had a successful brokerage in Tulsa. Seemingly very successful with many, many clients and a couple of decades of experience. At some point the family spending ran away ending up with the construction of the largest house in town (over 10k ft2), wife with the bright yellow Porsche convertible, lake house w several sail boats, lavish parties, producing shows in Branson, etc, etc. As one might imagine, that attracted a lot of attention including some dissatisfied customers that got the state sec on their ass. It was headed south fast from there resulting in the collapse of the business, loss of all assets, family broken up, and the guy run out of town.

I'm not going to comment on the details of that case, but I do wonder if they had stayed in the previous 5 bedroom house (with servant quarters), the Porsche was a grey hardtop and the parties had less expensive wine if he could have simply flew under the radar for a few years and retired with several million in the bank.

Appearances matter, for better or worse.

They sure do, your Tulsa guy got caught up in the money. when times are good you'll never think they will get bad.

just goes to show how if you can very affordably pretend to be rich through brand selection, like if you want to impress young girls to get laid or something.

you are in the financial services business.  people are funny about money.  now you funny too.  

no, seriously, in our culture there are a variety of self-affirmation methods and for some reason people somehow associate a certain type of car with actual wealth.  whether the person has tangible money, that's another question, but again our "image is everything" society is at hand.  in any case, you could ask this "friend" whether he would be more or less worried about his investment portfolio if the advisor was driving around in a rusty pickup truck(*) -- would he somehow feel better?  keep in mind something like half the millionaires in this country drive around in a pickup truck.  

i buy vehicles VERY infrequently (e.g. link) and primarily based on utility and safety rating.  when folks ask "why did you get 'X', i tell them i wanted a safe car.  i don't give a shit what they think.  i don't look at someones stuff and think "worthy" or "not worthy", that's retarded.  i know a really well off guy who spent on the order of $1.2M above and beyond what his insurance company was paying, and his wife lived about four months longer.  he's not as well off now, but the people that know him know him.  

i stopped at the local dunkin donuts with my wife the other day and there was a masarati parked in front, i don't know too much about them other than it says masarati on the back.  we get out of her car and ANOTHER masarati pulled in next to the first one.  i commented to my wife, "well that sucks, you buy a fairly rare italian car and then you see another one at the dunkin donuts!".  anyway inside we go and we see a friend of my wife's from the stable she rides at, the woman has got riding gear on and her husband has a dirty pair of jeans and workboots on.  they own a few dozen thoroughbreds, grand prix dressage horses, and show jumpers.  and a Netjets QS.   their muddy pickup truck is outside, parked next to two masaratis.  

ar-jedi

(*) i drive a pickup truck.  

I guess perception is everything. What you say makes a lot of sense though. I guess it just made me laugh and puzzled me coming from a guy with high net worth.

I also drive a pick up truck.

I bought a used Mustang GT for 16k and an employee with a new 17k Harley in addition to his DD was bitching about disproportionate wages.


Fuck 'em.

haters going to hate I guess.

I bought a used Acura RSX one time for like 10k and everyone of my friends and family who weren't car people thought I was making 100k a year.

Depends on what kind of write off I need or don't need.  Some years your in a new pickup truck, some years your still in a couple year old one.

For some of us, Its cheaper to buy new run them for a year or two and go get another one.

Whats a masaratis?

Bitching about what kind of car the adviser drives sounds like a roundabout way of bitching about the fees the adviser charges.  Or maybe people who employ the services of others want the feelz that they are wealthier than those that they hire to do stuff.

On another firearms forum there was a medical doctor who had a BMW and a Porsche bitching about prices that CTD was charging during the panic

Some of the most well to do men I have known would fit that description if you change out the accord for s 20 yo pickup truck.  They could buy and sell with their pocket money the extravagant uppity over leveraged credit rich most folks consider wealthy.

So I might take their advice under the right circumstances.