It is 90+ degrees outside and there are six of us parents roasting on the baseball field bleachers at our sons’ doubleheader one late Saturday afternoon in July.   The conversation dies off after hour four.  Dehydration has set in.  One mom returns from her trip to search for a potty at the local convenience store and comes back with popsicles.  Yes! Yes! Yes!  Cool, sweet goodness. 

Our conversation picks back up and the talk moves to the subject of customized zip-seal bags that help you make your own popsicles.  Gone are the days of filling ice cube trays with juice and then adding a plastic wrap cover and some wonky toothpicks.   These sturdy, flexible zip-seal tubes even come with a funnel for mixing your own flavors in a neat and orderly fashion!  You can even add fruit to the tubes…I was impressed, can you tell?

And then the sun sets, and I started daydreaming about all the good things I could add to that funnel to make my prized treats.  My ice pops an 8-hour freeze away and in time for the next set of Sunday baseball games. Thinking about the entire freezer pop creative process made me happy.   I truly get this happy while daydreaming about only one other thing in life….creating a financial plan for a client.  Financial advice is so similar to making homemade ice pops.  What?  You don’t see it?  Look at the comparison.

  • Ingredients=Assets
  • Recipe=Diversification
  • Funnel=Advisor
  • Flexible Plastic Tube=Financial Plan
  • Zip-Seal=Consolidation
  • Deep Freeze=Compounding 

Final ice pop comparison.  Your ice pops have to stay in the freezer overnight to set.  You might move them around to make sure they are forming well and that the fruit is evenly distributed.  You might even taste test to make sure the recipe is correct.  But, a responsible ice pop master does not unzip all the tubes and let them spill out or eat them all too early…there would be none left for Sunday’s game!  Picture that Sunday’s game is your retirement.  The popsicles, your savings.