The Wealth Code

Preface

A frog if placed into a pot of boiling water will jump out and save itself. If that same frog is placed in the pot with cold water and heat is slowly applied, it will boil itself to death.

Running a financial firm in Santa Monica, CA, we meet hundreds of people each year and discuss their finances. Nothing cuts more to the core than people and their money. With each passing year, and seeing the faces of hard working people who have had their retirement goals shattered time and time again by the stock markets, I question, “Is the stock market just a big pot of water with the heat slowly being turned on?”

I feel that if this book were written in 2006, most people would disregard it. “The stock markets are great,” they would say, “It has made us a lot of money.” Though we had experienced a terrible correction between 2000 and 2002, and even though in 2006 most people were nowhere close to their account values before that market crash, the sense that all was right and their money was coming back was the prevailing belief. Even though the heat was being applied to the water pot, most people stayed the course.

I hope the timing for this book, during the eye of the financial hurricane we are currently experiencing and after the horrendous loss of wealth we just suffered with the market crash between 2007–2009, will give people a new perspective and control over their finances, for which many are currently searching. Most people are now beginning to realize that maybe the water pot is not the best place for their money, and the revolt against staying the course has begun.

Jason Vanclef

May 1, 2009