“What if this is an awful dinner?”

Picture this:   It’s a warm summer evening with my husband and children in the backyard playing. Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes and I am setting the table.

It is one of those evenings where I arrive home in a hurry. Needing to cook dinner, I find a couple ingredients that pique my interest.

The ingredients chosen: mixed veggies, leftover chicken, and rice.

The idea: chicken pot pie…ish

I busy myself gathering ingredients to fill out the creamy goodness of the pot pie. But as often happens when planning last minute, we don’t have many of the necessary ingredients – I concoct as I go. {The Queen of Substitutions kicks in gear.}

As I am setting the picnic table on my back porch, a thought hits me: “What if this is an awful dinner?”

Most people would simply taste-test to see if it needs more salt, pepper, or possibly to be dumped in the trash and replaced with a Hot N’ Ready pizza.

Taste the dinner? I couldn’t do this. Why?

Long story short – earlier in the summer I had a flare up of an autoimmune disease.  With the flare up, I decided that I would drastically change my diet to an anti-inflammation diet, per the recommendation of my doctor.  The diet works only when you do not consume even a drop of the laundry list of foods. Otherwise autoimmune havoc on my body will ensue.

So – tasting a dish that I was making for my kiddos and husband was out of the question. Instead, as I presented dinner I sat on the edge of my seat… literally holding my breath as my family took a bite.

Consensus of my family, you ask? A shoulder shrug. {Just a Domestic Goddess over here living my best life.}

When Investment Managers “Eat Their Own Cooking”

When given the choice, most would prefer to eat dinner crafted by a cook who has tasted it and knows it’s worth sharing. The same principle should go for our investments, too. 

Do you want to place money with a firm who has no vested interest in the performance of their mutual fund?

In our office we literally refer to this as “eating your own cooking” (very technical language here).

Simply put, we want money managers to have a portion of their life savings side by side with the money of our advisors and/or our clients.

Why? What better motivation to make better, more calculated, more efficient investment choices than when your own livelihood is at stake?

When a money manager has their own money in the pot, they will more likely treat the money with a fiduciary mentality: in your best interest.

 

Does your investment manager “eat their own cooking”? If not, it might be worth tasting other investment options.