The search for easy solutions is especially hot in the money and retirement realms.

After listening, I wonder if many folks who’ve read The Number (and folks who say they probably won’t read The Number) aren’t seeking more of the “how-to” than they are of the “what-to-think-about” that Lee suggests.

I heard John M. Templeton address trustees at a well-known university. He told them, among a lot of other things that if they invested their money wisely, for the long term, and bought bargain stocks, that they could earn more “income” from the increases in share value than they could from interest on bonds or dividends on stocks. If they could tack on a couple of “skill points” (to historical returns) they could take out 8% per year to run the college and very likely never run out of money. That was 25 years ago. Anyway, what I witnessed at the end of the meeting I’ll never forget: The CEO of what was then Bank America came up to Sir John, and asked, in the presence of a lot of really smart people, if he had any good ‘tips.’ As Kinder says, “Aloha?”

At its very least, The Number prompts me to evaluate whether whatever work or activity I’m involved with is 1) work the world needs to have done, and 2) work that makes my heart come alive, because in the end, it really is about more than money.

Jonathan Smith
mailto: jsmith@jonathansmith.com
www.jonathansmith.com