ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

Photo by Joseph Chan

I’m not sure I can articulate this correctly, but whenever I hear someone say “trust me,” I immediately become skeptical. It’s like an immediate red flag in my head, and my knee-jerk response that comes to mind is, “Why should I?”

Don’t tell me to trust you—make me trust you. Show me through your words and actions that you’re a person of integrity. Until you demonstrate why I should give you my trust, I’m not going to take your word for it, so don’t even bother.

The word “trust” is so overused in today’s world that it has become almost meaningless. When every shady huckster you meet wants to fill your head with effusive guarantees for products and services of questionable quality, how can any of us hope to recognize when our trust is really deserved?

Food for Thought

You’ll rarely hear me say “trust me”—I won’t insult you like that. I know that trust is something I have to earn over time. You’ll either end up trusting me or you won’t, but you’ll do it for your own reasons, not because I told you to.

I encourage you to be introspective with this one. Catch yourself when you say it next, and follow it by asking what your true intentions are. It is perfectly okay to be skeptical of others who use words as comfort rather than take action. What can you do to prove that you are trustworthy? What can someone else do to prove it to you?

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Ask yourself- can my portfolio support my lifestyle in my retirement?