Lesson 7: The Big Things
Dreaming of the future inspires us to make the most of the present. Making a picture board of your dream wedding, designing the perfect lake cabin, collecting college brochures for your kids, planning a retirement party – we dream big, but what happens if things don’t go as planned?
Consider the life of a female honeybee. She is born and nurtured for a short time until she enters the workforce to care for young, gather pollen, and produce honey. Many factors can mess with this life plan: disease, extreme heat, cold, rain or drought to name a few.
When faced with adversity, honeybees have backup plans. When disease threatens the hive, they don’t just rely on their strong natural immune systems, they change their behavior to reduce transmission. Increasing the number of bees tasked with cleaning allows them to remove parasites and diseased brood before the whole hive becomes infected. When the air temperature gets too hot, the bees fan their wings to cool the hive. They can also collect water to spread through the hive for evaporative cooling. During periods of rain or drought when pollen cannot be collected, the hive adjusts by decreasing the number of brood and thus the amount of honey needed to sustain the hive through that period of time.
Honeybees don’t dream big, but we can definitely learn from their ability to adapt to life’s detours. Knowing that you have a sufficient emergency savings account, enough life and long-term care insurance and a robust retirement account can help you move past the obstacles in your path and focus on your dreams.
We want you to dream big. Leave the financial plan to us; it’s what we do.
To personalize your financial plan, contact Jonathan Kvasnik at 651-290-6114 or jkvasnik@securitiesamerica.com.