My partner is tied to an elephant, probably one inherited from his parents. He has a small amount to put into an IRA and we have been trying to decide how to place it so it would increase more than the CD's available at the Credit Union. We own a small lawn mower dealership which is supposed to be our support since I retired (he wants to die with a vintage tractor under him :)) This is our retirement dream.
We are just keeping our business together during these slow times because he can fix anything and we started our business with the notion to operate with as little use of credit as possible. We're over 5 years old now, and would have accomplished our debt-free plan if the economy hadn't tanked, but we can pay the bills and I have a teacher's pension from NYS (thank you, NYSTRS and NYSUT) so we eat.
This afternoon I received an excited phone call from partner; "How can I put my IRA money into Bain Capital?" "I don't think you can." I replied, "Why would you want to do that anyway?"
"Those guys are really smart!" he says. I say, " Honey, I think they're private equity, I think they have to invite you to join them." I continue, " Private, you know, not publicly traded; I guess you will have to get some of your friends together and create a company if you want to do what they are doing, sort of like starting a corporation but without all the stock, like a private bank. You could check and see if they are listed on the stock exchange."
"Oh, ok then, see you at dinner."
Twenty minutes later I get another phone call "They're selling OUR tractors at ( big box) stores!!" he howled, "They're painted a different color and have a different sticker but they are OUR tractors!!" "They are priced a little higher but they will mark them down and we won't be able to sell the new ones that we ordered!!"
I had him check the details as he ranted about how they broke their contract with us not to sell our tractors to any national chain and how he was going to call our sales representative and rip him a new one. I advised him to talk with our other local dealers first, and then said, " The rep can't change corporate policy, The Corporation doesn't care about you the small dealer, you the little guy; they are about making money for themselves."
"Oh!" "Cut that liberal crap out!"
I tried to redirect his thinking again to talking with his fellow small dealers so we wouldn't get into it with each other. Some days we can be at it all day; (good not to be married). He is always telling me that some day I will come around to his way of thinking, but my guess is that the way his world was rocked today, he will be leaning ever closer to my worldview just so his head doesn't explode. I will be kind to him.