Dwyer Financial is, in part, in the delayed gratification business. More accurately, the balancing the now-and-later gratification business. We just want, in a financial way, to help our clients allocate enough to the later gratification, while still leaving enough to the now gratification. This whole gratification issue is of varying importance to different clients. But we always try to lean toward more later gratification because the future is generally much bigger and longer than the now.

We Americans live in the world’s richest country. Yet many of us are suffering the consequences of a high level of income and wealth inequality. Perhaps one of the reasons is this gratification issue – that arguably too many of us have much more of a short-term orientation. To quote my very first financial haiku …