Have you ever used a Swiss Army Knife?   

Or do you even know what one is?  

So, it’s that tool that’s got all these other little tools around it.   

But the problem is that people that have them often don’t know how to use it properly. 

They don’t know when they would need it and they don’t know under what circumstances or what events that could take place where the swiss army knife would be handy, other than one or two of them.  

But yet, it’s got you know, some of them have got 20 or 30 different things that they can do, different problems they can solve, different ways that they can make your life easier.  

But people just don’t understand.  

And I thought, gee that’s like financial advice.   

There’s so much stuff that you do, that you’re almost like a swiss army knife.  

If you think about all the little tools on that knife, being all the tools that you’ve got access to, the different types of advice, the strategies, the technical, the tools… but you know how to use them.   

But there’s always that gap between you knowing how a client would use them and properly and the client knowing how and when to use it properly.  

So I was doing some reading up on the swiss army knife, not because I want to use a swiss army knife, but I liked the concept or the metaphor of the swiss army knife and financial advice.  

Those that really promote the swiss army knife well, they don’t just promote all of the tools that are on the knife that you get.  

What they promote is all the different things that could go on in your life that you would need the swiss army knife for.   

Now, typically, it does revolve around things in the outdoors, the camping, the fishing, the hiking and all of that. 

But they’re really clear on…if you’re out hiking, and this happened, this is where you could use this part of it.   

Or if you were fishing and x, y and z happened, this is where you could use that. 

Even to the point where when I was doing this reading, I found out you can make fires, you can start a fire with a swiss army knife.  

So if you’re out and you need to have food, and you need fire to cook to cook the food, you can start the fire.   

You can make a saucepan out of the swiss army knife, you know and some other utensils.  

But I thought it’s such a clever way for them to promote, not what the tool is, or what the different a range of tools are that you get, but how you can use them, when you would use them and the best way to get the most out of having this all in one convenience tool.  

So even if you don’t have a swiss army knife or don’t use it, I think the concept or the metaphor of it is a really great one that we can adopt in financial advice. 

Just to help more people understand better how they can really use all the goodness that you bring to the table at the right time and really connect those dots between all your tools and how you help them in their life.   

Because after all, You are Valuable