Take a good look; a very close look at the thumbnail for this blog post today. What you are looking at are part of the controls of a thermostat that I have at home. The blue is a very small button that engages the air conditioner of my house. The red is a very small button that engages the furnace at my house. This is a thermostat that has controlled the cooling and heating at my house for 15 years. Over the weekend the internal part of this red button bent over, which no longer allowed me to engage the heating element of my furnace. As I write this blog, even though the daytime temperature is in the 70’s, I have been unable to disengage our air conditioner.
Here is the takeaway I wish you to consider today. Even though this particular unit cost several hundred dollars, what has stopped it from working is a small piece of plastic that probably costs the manufacturers about 1/10 of penny to make. In fact, the day that I had called my heating and air conditioning specialist, I was told that this is the part that goes out most often on this particular brand of thermostat. So, something that cost about 1/10 of a penny, will actually cost me several hundred dollars to replace.
What small thing in your life can affect your entire life if it’s not put together with quality and craftsmanship. When a person puts together their financial security, often times people are looking at the cheapest price that they believe will save them the most amount of money, but they don’t necessarily understand the inter-workings of the products that they are looking at. I often find that this is the case with life insurance products, where many people believe that one product is just like another, and one company is just like another, but how might it actually play out. It’s important that you work with someone that you know, that you trust, that has experience, that has the educational background to know how products are constructed and the inter-working parts that can affect your family’s life years down the road. Don’t let your family’s life depend on the inexpensive piece that initially might have saved money, but over your lifetime will actually cost so much more.
For greater insight, for a better understanding, consider reading my book, “Investments Don’t Hug – Embracing the Life Insurance Asset.”
