For Whom the Bell Tolls - By John Donne:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Today the title of this poem by John Donne came to mind, but in a different sort of way. This morning I was “comparing notes” with a colleague and good friend in Florida. He has been in the financial counseling business longer than myself, over 45 years. He is older than me and started sooner. His son is now the principal of the firm.

My friend’s comment rang a bell with me. Pardon the pun. He said, “I hope people will come to understand that the transcendent principles by which we have operated our businesses and governed the counsel we have chosen to offer our clients, in the context of this malaise (CV-19), would come to bear and weigh heavily on all America.” I couldn’t have agreed more!!

You see, as we all can now see, many if not most businesses and individuals cannot sustain themselves for more than two weeks. The government is about to inject somewhere between $2 trillion and $8 trillion in relief and stimulus funds. By the way, the Federal Reserve doesn’t have this reserve so they’ll just create more money (press some keys on a keyboard and add it to the “treasury”) and put it on the balance sheet of America. The evidence of companies being forced to close their doors because of government emergency mandates will also most likely correlate into many companies and small businesses that may never reopen because they had no reserves.

For whom does the bell toll?? My Friends - All of America!!!! The clarion bell to be better stewards of all that has been entrusted to us is ringing about as loud as I can remember in my 63 year lifetime. America must turn(DO) to the Knowledge and Belief that transcendent life and financial principles matter!!! Do you know them?? If not, or if you know them and know someone who should and needs help applying them, give us a call. Or, better yet introduce them to us. We’re here to serve accordingly.

I am saddened by the loss of life that is occurring because of this virus. I am somewhat confident that in every family where there has been the loss of life from this virus there may well be significant financial hardship that follows. That’s hard. Like the HIV problem of the ’80s, it is possible before this coronavirus each of us may know someone or knows someone who knows someone who has died from the virus. At the very least we’ll know someone who contracted the virus and survived. Let’s be prepared to help. Remember – “The only value of money is in its use.”