Organize | Witten Financial

CHAPTER ONE
A slim, hooded figure enters your store – you note his furtive glances as he closes the door and approaches your counter. He lowers his hood and you see it’s a young elf. “My name is Fendril,” he says, “and I need your help pilfering documents from my uncle, the local governor.”

He’s referring to Governor Ratherford, a real estate magnate turned corrupt politician. Seeing a way to help the populace (and make some coin on the side) you agree.

Fendril explains there is a party tomorrow night at the governor’s mansion. There will be enough commotion that you could slip inside relatively unnoticed and steal the documents from the safe in the governor’s office. You just need to figure out your approach.
- The less people that see you, the better. You hope to avoid detection at all costs by getting in and out through the roof.
- Hiding in plain sight is often the easiest way to get into a locked building. You will pose as a party guest to get inside, and improvise your way to the room with the documents.
While the party is in full swing, you approach the building from the side, hidden from the gas streetlamps and guards. You grapple your way up the side of the building and are able to gain purchase through an open window, landing softly into what appears to be a child’s room.

Avoiding the playthings scattered on the floor, you peek through the interior door and see your target, the governor’s office. Two guards stand outside the door, alert for any intruders.
Using your network of contacts, you manage to procure an invitation to the party on short notice. You arrive fashionably late and get inside without arousing suspicion. Once inside the main ballroom you take stock of the situation. Over 200 guests are in attendance. Some are dancing, some are standing at high tables with drinks in hand. Others mingle about trying to gain the favor of the city’s most eligible bachelors and bachelorettes.

Analyzing the situation, you spy a dumbwaiter in a hallway off the main room. You discretely set a noisemaker on a side table and make haste toward the hallway, leaving the party behind. When the noisemaker goes off, you fold yourself in the dumbwaiter and use the pulley system to pull yourself up to the second floor. You slide open the partition and see your next obstacle – two guards standing in front of the governor’s office.
CHAPTER TWO
The only way inside the office is through those guards – how do you take them out?
- You load your collapsible repeating hand crossbow – a stealthy weapon of your own design – with bolts dipped in a potent sleeping potion and aim carefully.
- You look down both ends of the hallway – if you can get the guards to investigate something at the end opposite them, you could slip inside the office without anyone knowing.
Your crossbow string wails as the first bolt streaks toward the lead guard, hitting him in the leg. He falls onto the soft carpet as you pull the string back for the next shot. The remaining guard bends over to look at his fallen brother and your second shot hits him in the shoulder.

He falls onto the other guard, and their armor hits together with a loud clang. You quickly move from your hiding place, pick the lock to the office, and slip inside. You put your ear to the door and listen for any movement. Although you weren’t as stealthy as had hoped, it sounds as though no one heard the commotion of the falling guards.
You reach into your tool belt and find a small firecracker. It’s not perfect, but it should get the job done. You light it with a match and toss it as far as you can down the hallway. The flash and accompanying bang startle both guards, and they dash down the hallway to investigate.

You slink from your hiding place, pick the lock on the office, and slip inside just as the guards turn around and head back to their posts. You put your ear to the door and listen to their conversation. They don’t mention anything that sounds as if they know of your presence.
CHAPTER THREE
Turning to face the office, you see a large portrait hanging behind an elaborate desk. Thinking it couldn’t be that obvious, you are surprised to find the safe hidden behind the portrait. How do you access the safe?
- The rotary combination lock looks sophisticated but still accessible. You crack your knuckles and get to work.
- Time is of the essence. You have enough explosives to blow the safe, and hope to take what you need and escape before someone finds you.
Working quickly but thoroughly, you discover the combination through trial, error, and a little bit of luck. Rifling through the papers in the safe you find the pertinent documents and tuck them in your tool belt. You unlock the office window and rappel down the side of the building to make your escape. Another successful job complete.
Prior to setting the explosive, you open the office window and prepare your grappling hook for the descent. There won’t be any time to waste once you set things in motion.

You hide behind a sturdy cabinet and light the fuse. Seconds later, the charge detonates, showering the room with dust. You hear the guards fumbling with the door as you open the safe and tuck all of the documents into your tool belt. You reach the window as the guards open the door. Pulling your cloak onto your face, you wave a cheeky goodbye as you jump through the window and rappel down the side of the building.

You hear shouts echoing through the building as you make your escape, but you know it’s too late for them to catch you. Another successful job complete.

Chapter One: From the Advisor's Perspective

Being a rogue, planning comes easy to you. From your many years of experience, you have learned that it’s better to be unseen in these situations and accomplish your goal rather than to make a grand entrance.

Timeless wisdom in dealing with your finances is often not exciting, showy, or necessarily appreciated by those around you. But by relying on that wisdom to spend conservatively and avoid flashy purchases, you will likely end up better off at an earlier age and be less stressed with not worrying about “keeping up with the Jones”.
Chapter One: From the Advisor's Perspective

In your many years of experience, you’ve become quite the illusionist with your slight-of-hand and acrobatic skills. Being seen by some of your peers at the party potentially gives you an alibi, should your cover get blown.

While this course of action may have also gotten you to where you wanted to be, you took a risk that was not necessary in hoping that the noisemaker would attract all the attention of the room, or at least enough for you to slip away unnoticed.

In planning of your finances, it is often better to completely avoid the risks that you can, because even calculated risks sometimes lay waste to your best planning efforts.
Chapter Two: From the Advisor's Perspective

In realizing that your best path lies with nobody laying eyes on you in your mission, you figure that knocking the guards out was the better of two options for accomplishing this goal. It was a calculated risk, and one that had a chance of failure with the clanking of the armor you did not anticipate, but a good one as neither guard seemed to notice you, and putting them to sleep gave you time to stay in stealth mode to continue your mission.

The best real-world scenario I can relate this to is in dealing with debt and creditors. Many try to refinance, do a balance transfer from one place to another, or even renegotiate a debt to stave off the inevitable – the fact that the debt must eventually be repaid.

The best way we feel to take care of a problem staring you down like debt is to face it, head on, and take it out, like Lanera did in this scenario. This in turn frees up cash flow to help you accomplish your longer term goals, and greatly reduces the stress that time pressure puts upon us (i.e., making those payments every month).
Chapter Two: From the Advisor's Perspective

Your trickery worked. You must love the thrill of messing with people. Yet again, you took a risk and it paid off in spades.

The best real-world scenario I can relate this to is in dealing with debt and creditors. Many try to refinance, do a balance transfer from one place to another, or even renegotiate a debt to stave off the inevitable – the fact that the debt must eventually be repaid.

But, for now, you live to play another day. Let’s just hope those guards aren’t at the local tavern and catch you bragging about fooling them with your trick!
Chapter Three: From the Advisor's Perspective

As you rappel from the window, a thought crosses your mind, “You never hear the stories of great rogues, because they never get caught.” A smug grin comes over your face, as you quickly exit the building with the staff none-the-wiser, and head back to your office to store the valuable papers.

Lanera was confident enough in her abilities to where cracking a safe was no big deal. Why take the risk of blowing-up the safe before trying a less-risky option first?

Planning could just be your talent, like Lanera in this story. Some of us are great at creating budgets, building a debt snowball, and doing financial projections into the future. If this sounds like you, then congratulations – you may be ready to move on to step 2 of the Witten Financial process, Protect!
Chapter Three: From the Advisor's Perspective

Lanera realizes she made a hasty decision in using the explosives without looking to see if the safe could be opened in another way. She realizes this the moment the guards come bursting in, and makes a narrow escape.

Exhausted from the escape, Lanera knows she will sleep well tonight, provided the adrenaline rush of taking an unnecessary risk wears off and she calms down enough to do so.

Acting in the moment is usually not in your best interest. It leads to unnecessary risk taking, which then manifests itself as wasting your money and resources versus following a plan.

Yes, planning and executing is not as exciting as winging it, but we find it as a necessary first step in the wealth creation process we have at Witten Financial.
Planning and organizing your resources can be a challenging task. If you want a professional help to organize your financial life, contact Witten Financial. Aaron Witten, our founder, is a game industry veteran and dedicated to helping fellow gamers get the financial advice they need.

Contact Aaron Today
Name
Email
Message

Chapter One: From the Advisor's Perspective

Chapter One: From the Advisor's Perspective

Chapter Two: From the Advisor's Perspective

Chapter Two: From the Advisor's Perspective

Chapter Three: From the Advisor's Perspective

Chapter Three: From the Advisor's Perspective

Contact Aaron Today