Canadian Personal Finance Blog

As I am on the road, I give you one of my favorite postings about financial advice Advice: Best Financial Advice Ever Given. I like this story for many reasons but specifically:

• It is my father’s advice at it’s best, not preaching and always causes me to think.
• It shows the importance of parents to talk to their children about money and their views on money.

Advice: Best Financial Advice Ever Given

My parents have been very helpful in my life, both financially, but also with very wise advice, and with that in mind, I’d like to share you a story my father told me (kind of a parable):

There once was a court jester who enjoyed a good joke, usually at the expense of the King, which got the Jester into deep trouble. One day the Jester was having a particularly “devilish” day and insulted the Queen in a large public forum. The King was OUTRAGED by this and ordered the Jester executed for his insolence and the guards dragged the Jester off to the dungeons.

Hours passed and the Jester (who was a quick thinking man) thought how can I get myself out of this mess? Finally the door to his dungeon opened and the guards dragged him back to the King. The King said, “I have enjoyed your buffooneries over the years, so I will give you one wish before I put you to death for your crimes.”.

The Jester thought what could he wish? Then he came up with a plan, he knew that the King adored his horses so he came up with the following, “Sire, all I ask is that you give me a year’s reprieve, and during that time, I will teach your horses to Sing! This will make you the envy of all other monarchs. If at the end of this year I am unable to get your horses to Sing you can execute me in any gruesome fashion you wish.”. The King looked perplexed and then confused, but finally he thought that he had nothing to lose, he would either be the envy of Europe or the Jester would be executed, either way was fine by him.

The guards then took the Jester towards the Royal stable, when one of the Guards asked the Jester, “Why would you make such an obviously impossible deal, surely you know no one can get a horse to sing?”

The Jester smiled and whispered to the guard, “Many things can transpire in a year my friend, I could die and thus I have cheated the executioner… the King could die and I might get a reprieve… or the horses could sing!”

My Dad told me this story after we discussed payments schemes for money he was loaning me to buy my first house. What was he telling me? I’ll leave that to you gentle reader, as usual with a story from my Dad, you get from it, what you think, not necessarily what he thinks you should.

Yes, that was the punch line to the story yesterday, but what does it really mean?

Well, in the context of my Father’s discussions with me about paying back money’s owed to him and my mother, his view was: wait a while. Maybe in a few years you’ll have a lot of money and you can pay me back then, or maybe my parents will pass away, or the horses might sing. Have I paid the money back? Well, that is none of your business, is my answer to that question, but good question!

So that was my context, what can this parable mean in terms of Financial Planning and Debt Reduction? No, I don’t think I am saying procrastinate or hope for a better day in the future where everything will be better, but I am saying that if you have the luxury of Time to put perspective on a problem or a financial decision, maybe take advantage of that luxury. Don’t rush decisions that don’t need rushing, you’d be amazed at what can happen in 6 months.

I seem to remember a very good financial writer stating that any time you get a “windfall” of money (e.g. large inheritance, large settlement, lottery winning, etc.,) DON’T leap into a quick decision about what to do with the money. Put it aside in a conservative slow growth but safe place and think for at least 6 months about what you think you should do about it. I might only append to that sage piece of advice with, if you can pay off your debts right away, and still have a “nest egg” left, maybe do THAT, because you never can be too sure if the horses will actually sing!

–C8j