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Thank goodness for good F/A’s (friend/accountants). I had a tax appointment with mine today and I left it impressed by his efficiency and depth of knowledge, and baffled by the fact that he seems to really enjoy accounting.

Towards the end of the appointment, I asked for some advice about a couple of my dormant retirement accounts from previous employment. Our conversation confirms why good graphic design is so important to each and every business (especially investment firms). As a relatively intelligent person and admittedly undereducated consumer, I must represent at least some part of the desired investment population.

Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: “So is there any benefit to combining those two 401(k)s into one account?”
F/A: “Probably not right now, unless one is performing better than the other.”
Me: “Well, one of them has nicer-looking graphs in their materials.”
F/A: “Like, the line goes up?”
Me: “Hm. There’s no line. I think I mean that the pie charts look nicer. They’re really clean.”
F/A: “That’s good, but you might want to look at the graphs.”
Me: “Yeah, ok. I’m sure the graphs look nicer too.”

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