IN FIND THIS ASTONISHING — WHO WOULD GIVE MONEY TO A STRANGER SELLING STOCKS DOOR-TO-DOOR
Jim Haston, a door-to-door financial advisor for Edward Jones Investments, hits the streets and attempts to get people warmed up to the idea of investing amid a very chilly economic landscape.
1/9/2009
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
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January 12th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
It is better than wearing a placard in the midst of Wall Street…I saw that this time, too…hoping to be employed…
January 12th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
A: a person who can’t imagine why anyone would give money to a blogger?
January 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I’d be more inclined to give money to someone I was reading for 3 or 4 years than to an utter stranger.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
The level of sophistication among the general population is appalling. They give tens of thousands of dollars to complete strangers all the time. I know several older folks who:
a) don’t know the difference between a stock and a mutual fund and b) couldn’t tell you five words on the investment philosophy of the guy who manages their retirement funds, and c) don’t care (or at least didn’t care until recently); yet they’ll hand over $80 or $90 K… no questions asked.
I think that will change after this recent crisis. Less people will feel comfortable with “investing” and will be happy to hold their retirement funds in cash or CD’s.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Even more significant than that: If you are going door-to-door, what craft is it that you are working on perfecting that makes me want to give you my money?
It isn’t the study of investing, or reading corporate balance sheets, or analyzing the economy, or learning asset allocation, market history or trading skills . . . I guess its door-to-door sales.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Simple Barry – you are working on selling the crap your firm tells you to sell, nothing more and nothing less. Then you practice telling people to “hold on, markets always come back.” Notice that his hand knocking on the door is wrapped around a golf ball so that it makes a firm noise on the door. This was in the journal on Saturday…
January 12th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Is it any different than “investing” with some faceless broker trainee who calls you on the telephone with the “hot tip” du jour?
January 12th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
The concept is even scarier than buying my first CD’s online directly from banks I couldn’t visit.
It’s just showing brokers for what they are: stock salesmen.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Comments about the general population’s lack of sophistication make me roll my eyes a little. Who’s been the worst at investing in products they don’t understand? – The genius, sophisticated, educated financial services industry, that’s who.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I think Edward Jones does something called 1,000 knocks.
For all those above, how about this, they get some of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the industry, year in and year out.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
oh and if the 1,000 knocks thing is in the video I apologize, I wasn’t interested in watching.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Always do research before making comments, guys (Barry included). Edward Jones has just made the number one ranking according to financial advisors from all firms in best places to work for the sixteenth straight year. That includes things like “least pressure to sell any given product”. That’s published in Registered Rep magazine. Also nine straight years in Fortune’s top 100 Best Places To Work In America. There’s also a few JD Power awards, etc.
The firm is also the best capitalized of all the major financial firms. Oh, and no layoffs since being founded in 1922. In fact, the approximately 11,500 current (mostly) one-person offices in the US, Canada and the UK are targeted to reach some 20,000 in ten years.
Yes, we knock on doors sometimes…serving people in the local neighborhood with no minimum account size. If we don’t win their trust the first time it’s okay because we’re in the neighborhood and chances are they’ll see us again!
January 13th, 2009 at 2:21 am
PS – My office is two miles from my house. I really am their neighbor, and they know where I live!
January 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I think Edward Jones does something called 1,000 knocks.
All right, I’m seeing a whole merger with the JWs thing here…
…it could work
Slogan:
It’s going to take forever for your investments to come back anyway