A dying father called his son & said, “Your grandfather gave this pocket watch to me. It is more than 200 years old. Before I give it to you, go to the watch shop & ask what price they would pay for it.” The son returned & told his father, “They would pay Rs500 because it has many scratches.” The father then sent him to a book shop to ask for the price. The son returned & told his father, “They didn’t have much use & offered Rs2000 for it.” Finally, the father sent him to a museum to ask for the price. The son returned & told his father with surprise, “The curator at the museum offered me Rs10 lakh for this watch!” The father said: “I wanted you to experience for yourself that the right people, will value your value in the right way. Know whom to approach to get the right worth.”
What do we learn?
We have our own way of optimizing returns on our investment portfolio. Some may prefer DIY or do-it-yourself & refer to publicly available information/ advice to create an investment portfolio. Some may talk to friends & family. Still, others, may follow a more professional approach & go to a financial advisor. While we cannot predict returns that each path can generate, the confidence levels are certainly higher if the portfolio is driven by a financial advisor. Like the curator knowing the correct value of the antique watch, the financial advisor understands the investment ecosystem much better than most of us & hence carries a better potential to generate value from your portfolio. To sum up, ‘When investing & in life, you don’t need to know all answers, you just need to know whom to approach for the answer.’