Chapter 10

Having met and enjoyed the company of five of the six ladies Ray had met at Peg's wedding, Ray was wondering if he would meet the one remaining lady, Megan. The ladies so far had been the ones that initiated contact with Ray. Ray remembered that the remaining lady Megan was a physician. She was a tall lady with very long red hair and a killer body. "Oh, well," he thought, "five of six isn't bad. Be thankful for meeting five very beautiful ladies."

Ray was thinking about these ladies and his sexual activities with them. He had enjoyed flirting with them, touching and caressing their bodies and their hands on him. The undressing and exploration of their feminine curves coupled with the oral sex both in giving and in getting as well as actual intercourse in the various positions was truly wonderful. He knew that he tried to give them as many orgasms as he could have or that they wanted. Giving them pleasure was giving him pleasure in doing it. Touching them in all of their sensitive areas enabled him to do this. Taking a shower with them in the morning enabled him to see appreciate their fabulous bodies. In thinking about the five of them and what he had done with all of them he concluded that there was very little variation in how he made love no matter who his partner was. Was his love making becoming routine? Maybe it was but if it was, it was a routine that many men would kill to have. Each of the ladies reactions to the way he made love to them seemed to be quite favorable and that could be an understatement. Was there something more he should want or should be doing? Could he be making love to them differently? He wasn't sure as there was only so much he knew what to do. He just thought he was missing something. What was it?

The thoughts were running through his mind when he was interrupted by his phone ringing. Ray answered his phone on the second ring and thought it must be fate because it was Megan on the other end.

"Ray this is Megan Sullivan. We met at Peg's wedding. I hope you remember me."

"Of course I remember you. How are you doing Doctor Sullivan?"

"I am fine but please call me Meg, all my friends do. I understand you help out ladies with problems and I have a problem. I hope you can help me."

Ray guessed that she was going to ask him to escort her somewhere. He was surprised when that was not the problem she had.

Meg said, "I was talking to Sara and she told me that you were an investment banker and since I was looking for a financial planner, she suggested I give you a call and."

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down," said Ray. "I am a retired but I was in the investment banking field. I haven't applied to be a certified financial planner although I have kicked around the idea that I would become one. I have a stock broker's license and I am a registered investment advisor but that's not a difficult designation to obtain. That being said why are you looking for a financial planner?"

"Well, medicine is an area I know but investing is something I am not comfortable in doing. I really don't have the time to spend to properly handle my investments. My investments or as you may say portfolio are in the hands of a broker and I am starting to wonder if he is handling my investments properly. I hear about how the market is going up and while I have made some money, it's nothing like you hear being said on the television or read about in the papers. I need someone, an independent person to look at my portfolio and give me an honest opinion if I am properly invested."

"If you want I can look at what your investments are and give you my two cents worth as to what I think. Maybe I can make some recommendations."

"Oh, that would be great. How soon can you do that?"

"Well, I don't really have anything pressing going, except for Tuesdays, that's when I golf and this Saturday evening. I am generally free during the week. What days are good for you?"

"Between my office hours, hospital visits and consultations, probably Friday is best. My office hours are over at three o'clock. Would you mind coming to my house at, say five o'clock. I have all my brokerage statements there and I could fix us something to eat while you look at the statements. My two kids are away at school, so you wouldn't be disturbed."

Ray said, "It's nice to hear a physician asking for advice. Most of them that I know give the impression that they know everything and don't need any advice."

"I can understand what you say. A lot of my fellow doctors have an ego that is way too big for them. It's like that joke that goes, 'What's the difference between God and a surgeon? God doesn't think he is a surgeon." Meg chuckled as she delivered the punch line.

"I can only wonder what the surgeons' reactions are when they hear you tell that joke. By the way, do you have a computer that can connect to the Internet?"

"With two college kids, how could I not?"

"Well, that will enable me to do some checking after I look at your portfolio. Where do you live?"

Meg gave Ray her address and told him that he should just tell the guard at the gate who he was and whom he was coming to see. Meg would tell the guard that Ray was expected.

On Friday Ray in walking up to Meg's front door hoped this wouldn't take too long. There was a NFL football game on television later that he wanted to watch.

Meg answered the door and invited him in. It looked like she hadn't changed her outfit from what she would wear to work. She had on a knee length dark blue skirt and a white blouse.

She said, "I just got home myself. One of my young patients had a re-lapse and had called the office. I stopped on my way home and saw her. I checked her and prescribed some medicine. I do make house calls but rarely. While house calls serve a purpose I can see and help more patients during my office hours, but this was an exception."

Ray understood that Meg was telling him that she took her Hippocratic Oath seriously. He admired people who had strong convictions about their work.

Meg showed him to the room she used as an office. Her brokerage statements were all on the desk as well as a pad of paper and a pen. The computer was turned on and connected to the Internet.

Meg offered, "Can I make you a drink?"

"I'll accept one if you will have one as well."

"I will. I need one to help me unwind. It has been a rough day"

Ray started to go though the brokerage statements. The most current statement indicated that there was a little over 2.3 million dollars in the account and it had grown less than one third of what the S and P index had done during the same period. In looking at the individual investments, he saw that most of the stocks were speculative and while two stocks had done well most of the stocks were flat for the year. Two stocks had lost about half the value of what they were purchased for. There was considerable turnover in the individual stocks. The mutual and bond fund investments were made in the funds of this brokerage house and carried either front or back end loads. While Ray wasn't against load funds per se, these funds also had high expense ratios and most of them had 12-b1 fees. The year to date performance of the funds was nothing to be proud of. Ray switched from the internet into the computer word program where he listed what his specific recommendations were for Meg. He also printed out a copy of these recommendations.

Meg came back in and asked if he wanted a refill on his drink. She said it tasted so good that she was going to indulge herself and have another one. She also said that the food was ready when Ray was ready to eat. Ray opted for the drink and said he was finished in looking at her account. If the food could wait, he would like to talk to her about his observations after she brought back his drink. He observed Meg walk to refill his drink and thought she had one sexy ass. She also had great legs and thin ankles.

Ray remembered all the ladies from Peg's wedding and thought they all had cute asses. He wondered why? Was this out of the norm? Ray concluded that if a woman keeps her weight in proportion to her height and is somewhat active, Mother Nature will give her a backside that a man finds attractive. Maybe he was wrong but to him it seemed like a logical explanation.

Meg coming back into the room put a halt to Ray's analysis of the female form. Sitting down across the desk from Ray, Meg asked, "What is your opinion of my investments?"

"Let me first ask you about your relationship with your broker. How did he become your broker and what if I was to suggest you switch to a different brokerage firm would that cause problems? Another thing, would you have problems in entering trades via the computer or are you hesitant to use the computer?"

Meg said, "The broker is the uncle of a former patient of mine. I have no close relationship with him and when I was looking for a broker after my divorce he was recommended. On using a computer, that's all we do now days. In my profession we use a computer now to entering patient histories, to ordering and reviewing test results, to authorizing prescriptions and for a multitude of other things. No, I wouldn't have problem on entering stock or mutual fund trades if that's what you mean. The problem is I don't know what to buy or sell."

Taking a sip of his drink then putting the glass down, Ray said, "Well, as I see it the broker has two interests here: yours and his. The investments that he is putting your money into such as the mutual funds are performing below the category average. They are however generating a nice fee for the broker. The individual stocks he is putting you into are speculative and while he has hit on two of them, most of them have not gone anywhere. The constant buying and selling the broker is doing is only benefiting him with the stock commissions."

"I have written my recommendations on your computer and put them in your My Documents folder as 'Investments.' Here is a copy of my recommendations. My first recommendation is that you open an account with one of the online brokers such as Schwab or Ameritrade. You need to send to that firm a completed form you can download a completed application, which will give them permission to transfer into your new account all of your investments from your current broker. Once that is done and the investments are transferred in, then I would recommend you sell all the mutual funds and sell all the stocks that I have indicated. Going on line you can enter buy orders for these large and mid-cap stocks as well as these mutual funds. I have indicated how many shares of stocks and how much money should go into these no-load mutual funds with the balance into a money market fund."

"This way you will have diversity in your portfolio which will reduce your total risk. Owning stocks, bonds and money market funds gives you diversity. These investments will also give you decent dividend returns and some real estate exposure. Compounding the return through dividend reinvesting should be done. You are a rich woman now and with some luck in a rising stock market you should be able to increase your wealth while at the same time minimizing the risk. Any questions about what you need to do?"