Late last year Bob Wacker joined others and made a fairly sizeable purchase.
Six years after selling his investment advising firm, R.E. Wacker and Associates, he saw the opportunity and repurchased it. Partnering with seven investment advisers, R.E. Wacker Wealth Partners, LLC was formed.
The 2008 Citizen of the Year sat down with us earlier this month and referred to procrastination as a bugaboo, slow foot speed as a family trait and financial discipline as a must.
Which personal quality do you like most?
There are lots of qualities in people I greatly value like honesty, compassion, even common courtesy, but there are two at the top of my list. The first is personal responsibility – recognizing your obligation, embracing it, and fulfilling it with passion. The second is joyfulness, which I describe as the decision (and it is a decision) to maintain a positive attitude and an ability to laugh regardless of what you’re facing.
Which personal quality are you working on?
Boy, I have no shortage of things I need to work on, and almost all of them involve greater self-discipline, where I suck on so many levels! Procrastination is probably my biggest bugaboo (an embarrassing admission for a “planner”). It may sound like a self-contradiction to be a sedentary adrenalin junkie, but so often I need a looming deadline to get me focused on projects. I was a very successful crammer in school, so that reinforced my bad habit for a lot of years. I just hope it’s not one of those things – like slow foot-speed – that I passed on to my kids.
Which living person do you most admire?
In truth, the people I most admire are those I know personally, like my wife, whom I admire greatly. But in terms of public figures, among those I admire the most would be Ellen DeGeneres. First of all, for someone like me who really treasures humor, she’s incredibly funny, but never in a mean-spirited or vulgar manner. I also think she showed incredible courage 17 years ago to risk – and almost destroy – her career by coming out as gay. Acceptance in 1997 was a far cry from what it is now, but she led the way for a lot of people to take that step and not be ashamed of who they were. And lastly, she always ends her show with “Be kind to one another,” which is such simple yet important advice.
What do you most admire in other people?
Tenacity and Perseverance. Many of us are blessed – or maybe more accurately “graced” – with a natural head start, both environmental and physiological. It’s those people who don’t have the natural tools of physical well-being or easy learning ability, or who come from upbringings where love, support, and stability aren’t a constant, that persevere through those challenges to reach a goal or be productive beyond what one could reasonably expect – those tenacious folks inspire and uplift me.
What’s the biggest myth/public misperception floating around the financial market right now?
We have seven partners on our investment team at our firm, and we all agree that the most frequent questions we get from non-clients involve individual stocks. It’s seductive and exciting to think that picking the right stock or few stocks is the important element in getting you to your financial goals. But it’s rarely going to be getting into the ground floor on Google or Apple – or WhatsApp – that will make the financial difference in one’s life. It will much more likely be the commitment to save with discipline and to invest with intelligence – and without emotion – that will build a solid financial future.
Is there a baseline salary or net worth that young people should achieve before seeking advice from a financial advisor?
There are some different triggers that make seeking advice from a financial advisor a good idea. Most young single people have more time than money, and they would be better off getting and reading a good all-around personal finance book like Jane Bryant Quinn’s Making the Most of Your Money to get schooled on the varying aspects of sound personal financial planning. Monetarily, it’s probably when people get above the 15% federal tax bracket or have a six-figure investment portfolio that would spark a need for professional review. More often, though, it’s life changes like marriage, children, or inheritance that provoke a need to have a more knowledgeable set of eyes help with those decisions.