The (Tall) Tale of Dr. Ivan Jenner

"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."
– Albert Einstein

Ivan Jenner was a German engineer whose fascination with the elevator industry brought him to the United States in 1902.

Dr. Jenner, who held a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the prestigious Universität Karlsruhe had followed in his family’s tradition; his father and grandfather were both engineers.

In school he studied the work of Elisha Graves Otis, the founder of Otis elevators. After graduation, Dr. Jenner accepted a job with Otis and moved to the United States, where the company was based. His first assignment was to plan the design and installation of six vertical hydraulic elevators in the Flatiron Building in New York City.

In 1910, Dr. Jenner left Otis and established himself as an elevator consultant, quickly becoming well known for his expertise in the burgeoning industry.

One day he received a call from the owner of one of New York’s largest high-rises. The building manager was inundated with complaints about the long wait for elevators. A number of elevator companies had been approached to study the problem but the quotes just to do the analysis were prohibitively expensive.

Now tenants were threatening to leave. Could Dr. Jenner assist? There was much at stake.

Dr. Jenner was sure he could solve the problem. He asked for an up-front retainer of $1000. He offered a full refund if the complaints did not stop.

The building manager agreed: He was ready to do whatever was necessary to appease the tenants. He figured he would be spending much, much more to implement the proposed changes.

Dr. Jenner went to work, studying all aspects of the elevators in the building. The elevators were working perfectly and their “response efficiency” was state of the art. The solution to the complaints came to Dr. Jenner almost immediately.

"What must I do?" the owner asked.

Dr. Jenner’s answer: "Install mirrors next to the elevators on every floor."

The owner followed this suggestion. The complaints stopped.

I made this story up.

But this tale does illustrate some points that are important to retirees and those planning for retirement.

The financial industry and employers have their own agenda.

They are determined to push expensive products down your throat. The fact is that simple, commonsense solutions are often better than complex, costly ones.

Keep this one concept in mind as you start the retirement journey: the advice you receive from many retirement “experts” is distorted, misguided, and as often as not, self-serving.

The goal of this book is to give you the tools you’ll need to identify and easily resolve the issues you will confront in retirement, from investing to estate planning.