I have hundreds of hours of Zig Ziglar on tape. I listen to him the way some people listen to music, over and over, in the car, on a walk. And somewhere in all those hours, one time, he mentioned a name I had never heard. Elmer Wheeler.
He said it in passing. One line. Then he moved on.
I could have let it go. Something in me said go look. So I did.
That one name turned into a week of reading. As best I can tell, Elmer Wheeler was the original. Back in 1937 he ran what amounted to a laboratory for words, testing tens of thousands of phrases on real customers to learn what actually makes a person say yes. Nearly everything I have heard about persuasion in my whole career traces back to him. People have been borrowing from Elmer Wheeler for ninety years, most of them with no idea they are doing it. I certainly didn't.
Here is the part that stayed with me. Elmer was the furthest back I could find. But I would bet my house he had his own Elmer. Someone older and wiser who taught him. And that person had one too. Back and back and back, probably for thousands of years.
Because the thing being taught never actually changed. Only the names did.
People are people. We are moved by the same things our great grandparents were, and the same things theirs were before them. That one quiet truth, the one I went looking for because of a single line on an old tape, turns out to be the most important thing I can tell you about protecting your retirement.
When I dug into what Elmer actually taught, one rule showed up everywhere:
"Sell the sizzle, not the steak."
In plain terms, people do not buy the thing, they buy the feeling the thing gives them. And the example he reached for to prove it, all the way back in 1937, was the insurance pitch. "The insurance man sells protection, not cost per week."
Think about what that means. Eighty-nine years ago, the man who basically wrote the book on persuasion was already teaching people to sell retirement protection on feeling, not numbers. The exact same way it gets pitched to you today. The wrapper is new. The move is ancient.
The oldest fear we have: outliving the money
Walk back far enough and you will find people building entire financial products around the fear of running out. Not decades ago. Centuries.
In 1653, an Italian banker named Lorenzo de Tonti proposed an idea to Cardinal Mazarin, who was looking for ways to raise money for France's King Louis XIV. Tonti called it a "tontine." Subscribers pooled their money together and each drew a lifetime income from it. As members died, their shares were redistributed among the survivors, so the people who lived longest collected the most. France went on to establish a state tontine in 1689. And the tontine was not even the beginning. Annuities trace all the way back to Roman contracts called "annua," promises of yearly payments for life.
More than 370 years ago, the fear of outliving your money was already strong enough that people built a whole financial instrument to answer it. That is not a modern problem invented by a brochure. It is one of the oldest money worries human beings have.
A century later, Benjamin Franklin was giving the same warning in plainer language. In "The Way to Wealth," published in 1758, he wrote:
"For age and want, save while you may; / No morning sun lasts a whole day."
Save now, because you will get old and you will have needs, and the good times do not last forever. We dress that idea up in spreadsheets today. Franklin put it in a rhyme.
(A quick myth-buster, since we are quoting Franklin. Most people credit him with "a penny saved is a penny earned." The Library of Congress confirms he never actually wrote that. His real line, from Poor Richard's in 1737, was "A penny sav'd is Twopence clear." Even the famous version is a remix of something older.)
The promise of a safe, solid place
The other thing people have always wanted is a place that feels safe. Solid. Permanent. Somewhere their money will not vanish.
In 1896, Prudential built an entire campaign around that exact feeling. Their slogan was "The Prudential has the strength of Gibraltar," and they leaned on the image of the Rock of Gibraltar to sell it. The message was simple: your money is safe and solid here, like a rock that has stood for ages.
Now think about every financial firm you have seen advertise in your lifetime. The columns, the eagles, the words like "strength" and "secure" and "trust." It is the same promise Prudential made 130 years ago. The logo changed. The reassurance did not.
"Pay yourself first" started as a marketing pamphlet
The advice you have heard a hundred times, "pay yourself first," is not modern wisdom from a personal finance podcast. It is a century old, and it began as marketing.
In 1926, George S. Clason published "The Richest Man in Babylon," with its famous rule: "A part of all you earn is yours to keep." But before it was a book, it started as pamphlets, the kind banks and insurance companies handed out to customers in the early 1920s to teach them to save. So the next time someone tells you the secret to wealth is paying yourself first, know that you are hearing a sales pamphlet from 100 years ago. It happens to be good advice. It also happens to be old industry marketing.
The fear of poverty in old age
And then there is the biggest fear of all, the one underneath the rest. The fear of being old, out of money, and dependent.
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, he named that fear out loud. He said "young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age," and he talked about protecting people against a "poverty-ridden old age." That was the whole point of the program. Not the rules, not the formulas, not the headlines we argue about today. The point was the fear. Will I be okay when I am old? Will I have anything? Will I be a burden?
That is the same question I hear underneath nearly every conversation I have around our firm. Ninety years later, the program has changed a dozen times over. The fear it was built to answer has not changed at all.
You can see the same emotional engine in how products were sold. Back in the 1920s, Prudential ran life insurance ads showing destitute widows and orphans, warning what would become of a family if the breadwinner failed in his duty to protect them. Strip away the sepia tone and that is the exact same "do not leave your family in a hard spot, do not become a burden" message you will hear pitched today. The wardrobe changed. The emotion is identical.
Why timeless beats trendy
All of this history is good for one practical thing. A filter.
When a new product launches with a slick pitch, or a headline tells you some 2026 rule change is a crisis you must act on right now, ask one question. Does this serve a timeless fundamental, or does it just dress up an old fear in new clothes?
Because that is usually all that is happening. The fear of running out, the wish for a safe place, the urge to save, the dread of being a burden. Those are the same four notes being replayed in a new arrangement. And this is what most people miss in a room full of shiny slides: the fact that something is new does not make it better. New is not a strategy. A new tool is still just a tool, and the job it has to do is the same job it has always been.
The fundamentals are almost boring on purpose. Do not run out of money. Protect against the few things that could actually wreck the plan. Keep enough that is safe and easy to reach for the surprises. Make sure your family can find everything when you are gone. That is most of the game, and it was most of the game a hundred years ago too.
How we think about it
This is why, around our firm, we build income plans around three simple jobs for your money instead of chasing whatever product is having its moment.
Some of it is safe and liquid, sitting where you can reach it for emergencies and everyday life. Some of it is guaranteed income, a paycheck designed to never stop, so the market can do whatever it wants and your bills still get paid. And some of it stays invested for growth, often with built-in protection on the downside.
Three buckets, three jobs. It is not flashy. It is just built on the same fundamentals that have answered the same human fears for a hundred years, because those fears are a hundred years old too.
What to do next
You do not need to chase every headline this year. You need to anchor to what actually works. Here is where I would start.
First, know your numbers. Pull your own benefit statements and account balances and look at them honestly, including your real Social Security benefit at different claiming ages. You cannot plan around numbers you have never actually seen. Second, stress-test your income with one honest question: if the market dropped hard tomorrow, would your monthly income still show up? Third, make sure the people you love could actually find your accounts, your documents, and your wishes, without a treasure hunt.
If those three things are solid, you can let most of the noise float right on by.
If this sounds like your situation, that is exactly the kind of thing we help people sort out every day. Give us a call, no pressure, no pitch, just a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has retirement planning really changed in 100 years?
The tools, products, and rules change constantly. The fundamentals do not. People still want security, dignity, and a legacy, and still fear running out of money or becoming a burden. From the tontine in 1653 to "pay yourself first" in 1926 to today, good planning answers those same timeless needs rather than chasing trends.
Should I switch to a new product just because it is new?
Not by itself. New does not mean better. The right question is whether something serves a real, lasting goal in your plan, like guaranteed income or downside protection, or whether it is just an old idea in fresh packaging. A new tool is still just a tool.
What does a simple, durable retirement plan actually look like?
One common approach gives your money three jobs: some kept safe and liquid for surprises, some set up as guaranteed income so a paycheck keeps showing up no matter what the market does, and some invested for growth, often with protection on the downside. It is not flashy, but it answers the fears that have driven planning for a century.
Easy Eddie's Take
Here is what I love about all this. We get told every single year that everything is new and different and that we had better keep up. But dig into the history and you find the same advice, the same promises, even the same exact words, going back hundreds of years. A pamphlet from 1926 telling you to pay yourself first. A slogan from 1896 promising your money is solid as a rock. A worry, named out loud in 1935, about being okay when you are old. The wrapper keeps changing. The basics never do. So when somebody waves a shiny new gadget at you, just ask one simple thing: does this help me do not run out, stay protected, and keep things findable for my family? Anchor to those three, and you can let the rest of the noise float right on by.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. Tax laws change frequently, and individual circumstances vary. American Retirement Advisors does not provide tax or legal services. Before making any tax-related decisions, consult a qualified CPA, tax attorney, or financial planner who can evaluate your specific situation.