Que Sera Sera
Long before the now popular what-e-ver chant of our children and grandchildren became widespread, there was our generation’s equivalent put to music and sung by the perky and incessantly-happy Doris Day. I can’t help but wonder how many little girls or even little boys sat in their room and hypnotically recounted the lyrics of “Que Sera Sera” with the notion that if fate was surrendered to the whims of chance, somehow they’d inherit that ever-present grin and good fortune that seemed to be working for Ms. Day just fine.
Yes, I curse the day I must have decided to stay inside and watch that movie and commit to memory that song. Shouldn’t I have been out riding my bike or playing hopscotch or football or something? How many ill-fated “I do’s” or poorly-funded portfolios transpired from the resulting ambivalence of that one little song?
Still to this day I absolutely love to sit and watch those charming old black-and-white movies, though today I am much more attuned to their subliminal undertones. It’s too bad that when I was at such an impressionable age there wasn’t some type of rating system in place as there is today or at the very least some sort of caveat like they used in another of my then TV favorites, The Twilight Zone. I can almost picture a Rod Sterling-type pre-emptive, “You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…” followed by Doris Day skipping along merrily chanting, “Que Sera Sera.” (Doo-do-do-do, Doo-do-do-do).
My point is that with regard to finances, and relationships for that matter, “Que Sera Sera” just shouldn’t be the mantra of choice. Not unless you want to later replace “whatever” with “what the” at some point down the road. If you question that bit of hard-learned wisdom, just ask those with tech-heavy portfolios who naively sat out the stock plummet of the late nineties.
I realize that ideally one should begin financial planning for their senior years very early in life; and for those that have successfully done that, terrific. We look forward to your comments. On the other hand, if you should find yourself at an age where it seems everyone around you is patting each other on the back for a portfolio well done, and you realize yours, shy of buying a winning lottery ticket, looks hopeless, don’t give up just yet. I refuse to believe nothing can be done. Thinking otherwise would only chip away at one’s resolve and in time lower one’s feeling of self worth — and self worth and financial worth are not congruent terms.
