Tomorrow will be my first member golf tournament, and I'm feeling a little apprehensive. Of course, that's the worst thing you can do in golf - start worrying and over-thinking. It should be a nice day though. The team I'm on is the host this month. We have a shotgun start at 7:00 AM, will probably finish around noon, followed by lunch, awards, a raffle and a meeting.
An aside about our dinner the other night. While Al's wife and her secretary were very nice to Angel, part of that contained an ulterior motive. She's an insurance broker. What I thought was all "girl talk" was also a sales pitch. Angel told me about it, and said that we were supposed to go to the lady's office the next day. By the way, this was not completely because she thought they'd found a rich American. When I told my other friend (the guy who picks me up for golf), he said she also put the rush on him. We went to her office, and met with her and her boss. While it is a very reputable London-based insurance company, the 2 ladies had no idea what they were selling. What they were trying to sell was a combination of whole life and medical insurance. I worked on Wall Street for almost 34 years. I was a bond trader, and also did a stint as a buyer for a bond fund. These guys were not prepared for my questions. They had steered Angel towards a particular policy, which involved what I considered to be a lot of risk based on the current and projected yield. When I questioned them about it, they said, "Oh, no, it's very safe. It's a balance of equities and bonds." I asked if I could see the portfolio. No, that's not available. I then asked if the bonds were of investment grade quality. Blank stare. She had no idea what I meant by that. By that time, Al's wife had taken Angel aside to another room, leaving me with the boss. After fumbling around, she found a list of their Equity Fund and Bond Fund holdings. "This is what's in that portfolio," she said. "It's a 50-50 balance." I knew from the yields of those 2 funds, that it was impossible to be what was in the one they were pushing, but there was no sense in beating her up about it. I didn't get the sense of a con; just a hard sell and ignorance of their product. Angel later told me that she had told Al's wife that we were still testing our relationship, and would be doing so for 6 months to a year. The lady then suggested that Angel take me to an attorney, and get papers drawn up making me liable for payments in the event of a break up.
Yeah, right. Sure I will. Anyway, we said we would take home the papers and talk it over. Al's wife then offered to pick Angel up on Saturday and take her to the Club to watch the tournament. I forgot to mention that the premiums on this policy would account for almost 10% of our budget. Well Al's wife just sent Angel a text, asking if we'd decided yet. Angel plans on telling her that we are not prepared to take any steps like that until we are secure in our relationship. Let's see how friendly she is after that answer. Another thing - we stopped in to see Angel's mom yesterday. Remember, she knows Al's wife. We told her about what happened and she told us not to sign anything. I was glad that she felt that way. It gives me faith.
Wish me luck tomorrow.
Macman
Actually living the dream.