Several months ago one of my clients came in and said, Irena, I am going to pull all my money out and put it in the bank, I feel safe with it there.

I said to him, OK, it is your money, you have been with me for over fifteen years, you know how I think, if this is really what you want to do, you know what will make you feel good, and you know what your money has done for you to date.

Sitting on my desk under a glass top is information. The information is related to what the markets have done in the past, how different trigger events have had an impact on the markets, here and around the world, he looked at that and said. Irena I am scared, the world economy looks really grim and I am 78 years of age and I don’t like what I see, I don’t think I will live to see the economy bounce back, tell me the story about your great great grandmother again.

My mother tells a story of her grandparents, they were wealthy people, had a business in the refined food industry in Poland. It was time for them to retire and spend their retirement time doing as they want. They sold their business. Got their money, had it in a brown suitcase under their bed, (why I do not know, I will need to ask mum about that) mum talks of the incident like this, they went to bed wealthy, full of expectation and woke up destitute. The monies they had, had been declared worthless. At that time, the 1920′s, it was a bad time.

If they had kept the asset, no matter what the governments of the time had done, they would still have the assets. Governments can control money; your assets are a different matter.

The client thought about that, as he had in the past, and he made a decision that felt more comfortable for him.

What was really interesting was the conversation I had with Liliana afterwards. We were sipping our tea and Liliana proceeded to tell me her story. Liliana was wealthy financially, caught up in the issues of Argentina she tells the story of having over one hundred thousand dollars in her bank account.  Early one morning in the 1980′s, it was valued at one hundred thousand, she said by 2pm it was worth twenty thousand and by five it was worthless. As she said to me, you do not have to go back to the 1920′s.

Why do I talk about this, it is just to make you think. There are opportunities all around us, just as there are difficulties; it all depends on how we think. Life will not stand still, it will go on, and the economic conditions will change, continually, we live in change, the important thing is to understand that and continue doing your best to make the economy around you as secure as you can. Under the cloud of fear we do not necessarily make our best decisions, as always make your decisions based on facts not through emotions.

Enjoy what you have every moment, worrying robs you of the joy you can experience now.