“Fear the “Triple Your Money” Rabbit!”
Over the next several Blogs, let’s begin talking about several Skinny Rabbits many people chase. The first Rabbit we need to fear is the “Triple your money” overnight Skinny Rabbit. Here’s an example of what I mean.
When my precious wife, Cindy and I were first married, banking and retirement programs were very different. Nearly 30 years ago, there were no IRA’s believe it or not! What’s more, there wasn’t any internet banking to “roll over” funds online – because there was no public internet to do all your banking (or email, or surfing, etc). That meant when Cindy and I got married and moved from Arizona to Texas, she had to literally cash in her teacher retirement funds (accumulated over her six years teaching in Arizona before we married), and then take that literal check to a physical bank in Texas to reinvest it. (Can you imagine people actually had to do something like that without a single click of a mouse!)
The problem was, Cindy didn’t go to the bank. Cindy handed her teacher retirement check to me to invest for her. And in what I thought was a tremendous stroke of good luck at the time (actually, I thought it was God’s provision at the time), I met a man who said he was a “financial advisor” on our very first Sunday at our new church in Texas. Of course, he’d only been a final advisor for four weeks – but he’d been an FBI agent for 24 years! How trustworthy can you get!!! He’d worked for the government after all!
After listening to his “pitch” at breakfast about a “can’t miss” investment that would triple Cindy’s retirement funds in a year easy, I almost fell over myself rushing to hand him Cindy’s check. I was in a rush to follow that Rabbit – not take the time to read a perspective or ask for any specific details or real risks. All I heard and saw that morning was a “triple your money” Skinny Rabbit leading me to “big bucks” for Cindy. I couldn’t wait for the money to start rolling in and for Cindy to declare me her financial hero.
Unfortunately, you might guess the “rest of the story.” What I had invested Cindy’s money in was called then a Limited Gas and Oil Partnership (We were in Texas after all where I knew there was lots of oil!). Long story short, I lost every cent of her six years of teacher retirement funds in less then four month. Needless to say, Cindy wasn’t happy. I finally was able to get back in the house, but for the last 27 years, I have taken my “Ask all the hard question up front” wife with me to every significant financial meeting we’ve ever had.
Ever since that day I handed over Cindy’s check to a Skinny Rabbit, I’ve seen dozens of “get rich quick” Skinny Rabbits run in front of me. But now I’ve learned to stop, slow down and ask, “Is that a Fat Rabbit or a Skinny Rabbit?” No matter how good it looks, if it’s a “get rich quick” Rabbit, you’d better head the other direction.
One final and important thought. It’s not easy to put the breaks on so tempting a Skinny Rabbit, but keep one more thing in mind I wish I’d have known that day at breakfast. It’s the words of a very sobering Proverb (28:22) that could have warned me away from chasing this Skinny Rabbit had I known it. It reads, “A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth, and does not know that want will come upon him.” The word “evil” in Hebrew has two meanings here. The first is, “One who is unpleasing in the eyes of the Lord.” I think the reason why God isn’t pleased or excited about someone like me who “rushed” to gain wealth is because of the second meaning of the word, which is “to give pain, unhappiness, misery.” The only “return on investment” I created in my home were those three negatives (pain, unhappiness, and misery) compounded due to my chasing that Skinny Rabbit.
So the question is, are you chasing after a “triple your money overnight” Skinny Rabbit that promises you’ll “get rich quick” — like I did? If you are, it’s time to stop running into the financial wilderness. And if you have chased that kind of Skinny Rabbit in the past and learned from it like I did, then let me know your story. I’d love to know I’m not alone! (“Is this a Skinny Rabbit I’m chasing?”
October 28, 2006 at 11:46 am
I have been chasing the “skinny rabbit” with a passion of it being my dream. I spent a lot of our family and joint monies doing it. In doing so I have lost my soul mate’s trust and even gotten a “dear John” letter to star seperation to divorce. She comes from a divorce family and I from an alcholic family. I do not want our 2 boys 15 & 12 to come from either. How do I gain here trust back and not proceed to a divorce when it is not my choice? Chasing the skinny rabbit has led me down a path of total distruction. HELP!
John – My beleif in GOD is very strong!