33) Navigating the Current

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'm a retired Aquatics Director; a 30 year veteran of a wide range of aquatic specialties, and non-aquatic cross training in the YMCA System.  The Y had everything; it was a microcosm of the world.

            Every spring that I could, I went off to NE Region YMCA Aquatic School at Springfield College in Massachusetts.  They're affiliated with the YMCAs (the Mind, Body, Spirit triangle is imbedded in their sidewalks).  They have the Art Linkletter natatorium with a 20-foot diving well including an underwater window.  There are movable bulkheads to change the length of the pool.

            The 10-meter platform was removed years ago for safety reasons, but we had used it to have blindfolded Special Populations Instructor Specialist candidates jump off, in order to create a feeling of empathy.

            Compared to most NYC pools, it was amazingly big and diverse.  There was even a rumor that their filtration system used bromine, rather than chlorine.  This would have been a rarity, but have accounted for the blue hew, rather than green with the smell of chloramines.

            We'd work hard and play hard for the better part of a week, and return home certified, exhausted, and ecstatic.

            I would probably be there right now since it's held in early June.

            But I digress.

            What I am telling you is that you should never swim alone, and you can't swim against the current.

            If you are trapped in a current or a rip tide, you swim across it, or with it.  You don't want to panic; you must keep your wits, and be mindful of slowing heading for shore.

            When you're steering a canoe or an upside-down kayak, in rapids, or hit a hurricane while onboard an ocean-going vessel, you don't throw the ship away.  The same with a life plan, a career plan, a financial plan or an investment plan.

You stick with the ship, and decide how, or if, to alter your plan.  You can’t control the water or the weather.  The storm will pass.

            The going gets rough, but you have a vessel, a destination, a chart & map, and a will to survive.

            You must be committed, and patient to ride out the storm, but it will pass.  At times, you may feel sick, tired, cold, and wet; but you must remain diligent and flexible, and on guard, trusting yourself and/or your captain.

            If you like the sea, but don't want to be the captain, you can hire one, leaving the day-to-operations to professionals; if you swim, you can go with a ‘buddy’ or swim where there’s a lifeguard.

            Since there are no guarantees in life (albeit Ben Franklin quipped, "except death and taxes"), it helps to learn what it is about yourself that you can always count on (e.g. knowing how to react in an emergency, body alarms).  It’s also helpful to make certain important, foreseeable decisions in advance (e.g. if a deer walks onto the highway, I am not going to severely swerve to avoid hitting it since I may run into a tree).

            I recommend you consciously learn & state these things.  Then forget about them, and know that they are a part of you, you can count on forever.  This way, you won't have to think about them anymore; instead, you can devote your time to new work, endeavors, inquiries, studies, and skills, and unburden your brain.

            You can live/survive/thrive better, especially when faced with potential threats.

            If you can identify threats, you can also practice preparedness, and devise responses.  This an Emergency Plan, and it’s a strength plan.

            This is part of a larger SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

            SWOT analyses work in almost all situations, and are a logical way to prioritize, and strategically plan.

            If you have a life plan, a career plan, a financial plan, an investment plan, a college plan, a parent's long-term care plan, or an estate plan, you know that you've set goals, maybe outlined or identified time-lines, and that you need to monitor and manage the plan.  Simple systems help; KISS (Keep it Super Simple - a more positive interpretation of the acronym).

            If you don't have goals and plans, you're either happy with your life/luck/karma/attitude/etc., or you may wish to consider setting some, either to help attain goals, or at least, feel better for having tried.

            You may not be able to swim against the current, and you may feel like a cork on a fast-flowing river, just bouncing around out of control, but you can learn to guide a raft down rapids, avoid big rocks & waterfalls, and steer to a bank (no pun intended).  These aren't just financial skills, they're life skills

            Do you swim?

32) The Bold, and the Beautiful

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 never watched that soap opera, but the title suddenly made perfect sense to me after watching a commercial: everyone is in, either, a nightclub or a fashion show; they are young, thin, chic, and beautiful.  They are bold and beautiful.

            I live in New York, and am compelled to sample much availed (e.g. cultures & peoples, museums, music, parks, restaurants, theater, architecture, services, subways, escapes).

            I like to sample a nightclub periodically, at least for a business event, just to try to keep up with the times.

            I'm concluding that certain rich, powerful, beautiful, and wanna be's are the majority of the people who frequent certain establishments - where you might even run into them - namely, nightclubs, chic restaurants, and in-spots.

            Different people have different values, and those who share those values tend to associate.  This is a big reason why people move to/from a city or specific community.  This is why we state, “you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.”

Similar values are particularly important for making relationships work long-term, whether they are societal, such as our nation, a cultural one, a religious one, a business, a job, a marriage, a family, or a friendship.

            I posit, at least for a marriage, and feel strongly, that shared values are more important than shared interests.  (A good dose of some mixed interests is much healthier, if not more fun.)  I don’t know if the masses consciously realize the spectrum of this.

            Do you know what's particularly important to you?  Going out on the town?  (If so, frequently or occasionally?)    What kind of transportation do you take?

            What kind of clothes do you wear?  Are you neat?  Do you make your bed?

            Do you care for your health?  What do you eat?  Do you cook your meals?  How frequently and correctly do you exercise?  What kind of personal care do you practice?  Do you sleep and rest?  Do you take vacations?  Do you pace yourself?  Are you balanced? 

How important is your career?  How at risk is it?

            How much are you in your head, your heart, your gut?

Do you like yourself?  Do you have/exhibit self-esteem?  Self-confidence?  Are you happy?  Angry?  Sad?  A loner?  A joiner?

Do you like to lead?  Are you good at following?  Do you compromise?

            How important are/what personal relationships do you maintain?  Are they healthy?

            Just as your values are truly unique, wouldn't you want your financial management to reflect such, and your financial plan and portfolio to be custom-tailored to support your values, your goals, and your individuality?

            Do it now!

31) Overwhelmed & Underwhelmed

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hat do you do when you have to do so much, you don't even know where to start?

What do you do when a 40-hour DAY isn't enough?  What do you do when everything takes 2.8 times longer than you think it will?  (In the 1970s, someone developed a statistic saying so.  And, I think the stat is subject to Schwartz's Corollary to Murphy's Law.  Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.  Schwartz’s Corollary states that Murphy was an optimist.)

            This is when anxiety starts, depression develops, and you end up just giving up.

            This is a bad path.  Life moves forward, not backward.  This is when you get to a fork a in the road, one way leading to a cliff (suicide?), the other, to a cave entrance with no light at the end of the tunnel.  You must make a choice or sit by the edge of the road.  Making no choice is still a choice.  You must put one foot in front of the other and walk.  Do you know how to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

            According to W. Clement Stone, developing a positive mental attitude will help.  Having faith may help.  Faith in yourself, in the universe, or something else.

  None of this is easy, and it must be built incrementally and consistently.  This is where meditation, prayer, and other spiritual tools become important.  That, in addition to friends, sunlight, a shower, getting out of bed, getting out of the house.  Less sugar & caffeine, more exercise to pump endorphins.  Socializing, watching comedy, singing & listening to music.  Reading the right books, watching healthier TV programs.  Many little, healthy things for your spirit,  rather than one big cure.  Pace, balance, be, do.  Space abhors a vacuum, so your head and heart will be filled with something.  This is where you must find a way to clean out the stale parts of your being and fill the space with new, healthy, nourishing thoughts.  GIGO: Garbage In; Garbage Out.  Put good food in.

            What do you do when everyone who's supposed to supply a product or service to you, does so poorly or not at all?  Do you scream?  Cry?  Yell?  Write letters?  Threaten?  Commit crimes?

            The world is stressed.  Are the Four Horseman saddled up and riding to December 21?

            Is the enemy you know, better than one you don't?  Do you forgive?  Do you take your business elsewhere?

            I don't have the answers.  We all walk our own path.  It gets lonelier for many every day.  The developed world population moves more and more to being single rather than married or coupled.  We don’t seem to have enough money, security, safety, happiness, fulfillment, love.

            On the one hand, we're overwhelmed by technology, work, chores, family, responsibilities, time, life.  On the other, we're underwhelmed with the hand we've been dealt.  The rich get richer, the poor get poorer - and no one's happy.

            The money doesn't make the difference.  That’s not how to measure wealth.  It's going be what goes on in your head, not your circumstances.  There are life coaches, therapists, psychopharmacologists, and all sorts of other professionals to try to help.  Nevertheless, the quest continues.

            Maybe it isn't about the destination, but the long, strange trip.  And when you're traveling, it helps to know whom you are, where you've come from, and some idea of where you think you're going.

            In financial planning terms, this is financial analysis of what you own and owe (i.e. Balance Sheet/Net Worth Statement), what your cash flow is (i.e. what money comes in & out - and when), what your values are, and what your goals are.  Your goals cannot conflict you’re your values or your values win (e.g. wanting to make more money, but then having less time w/family, wanting to climb a corporate ladder but refusing to step on toes).  From there you can make a plan for food, clothing & shelter.  And when that's tended, you can look at the rest of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

            Life's a struggle.  A struggle to be born, a struggle to survive, a struggle to grow, a struggle to live.  Giving up is easy.

            Napolean Hill said our strongest drive is to procreate.  It could all end right there, like the male bee.  But he also said, “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. Having a developed brain might you not want to use it?  On the other hand, just having a brane doesn't  obligate you to use it.

            Body-mind, and spirit; it’s an equilateral triangle.  Treat all of the sides - and don’t try to jam the square pegs in the round holes.

              What are your dreams?  What are your values?  What's your plan?

30) Life Ain’t Cheap

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ife isn't cheap, it's fleeting.  Life isn't cheap, it's valuable.  Life isn't cheap, it's expensive.

            Life is valuable.

            I am experiencing a death every 10 days since Christmas.  The sheer numbers are giving me anxiety - forget about the pain related to the individual deaths and funerals.

            I'm losing family, young classmates, other friends and/or their parents & family.

            I have enough stress with putting tax season to bed, business, staff, technology, travel, injuries, and other personal issues and obligations.  But life has a way of getting in the way of plans.

            Life is changing fast.  The world is changing fast.  Is the world really ending December 21, 2012?

            A new concept in financial planning has taken root over the last few years: Human Capital.

            As opposed to investment capital (your money available to invest, or that is already invested), Human Capital deals with the amount of money you earn over a lifetime.  That amount may be bigger dollar-wise (and/or more valuable if you measure wealth by health, happiness, and quality of life), than what you save, invest and grow.  Therefore, it may be a higher priority in your financial planning.

            People like to protect their investments (e.g. bank accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate).  But they often make this a priority over protecting their lives, their health, and livelihoods (e.g. health, nutrition, exercise, sleep insurance, disability prevention &  insurance, life insurance, death prevention and planning, estate planning, mental health & attitude).

            How many people do you know that take better care of their cars than their bodies?  How many spend more time primping than pumping (iron, or their hearts & lungs)?  How many spend more money on cigarettes than healthy nutrition? What percentage of the people you know who watch TV & drink alcohol, also meditate & invest in mental health?  How many stretch their hamstrings in addition to a buck?

            How many people that you know, have:

Ø  Adequate health insurance?

Ø  Annual physicals?

Ø  Annual dental check-ups?

Ø  Adequate/appropriate disability insurance?

Ø  Adequate/appropriate long-term care insurance?

Ø  Appropriate titling of assets?

Ø  Up-to-date primary and contingent beneficiaries on assets?

Ø  Up-to-date health care proxies (primary & secondary)?

Ø  An appropriate Living Will with appropriate primary & contigent executors/executrixes?

Ø  An up-to-date & appropriate Durable Power-of-Attorney

Ø  Funeral wishes expressed & paid?

Ø  Appropriate primary & contingent guardians for their children & pets

Ø  A little black book of what's where, and who to contact in case of an emergency, disability, trouble, death, or travel?

Ø  A total financial plan?

            Failing to plan is planning to fail.  It takes away options and control.  And it usually adds insult to injury when stress and adrenaline are already at their peak.

            When a foreseen event is taking place, it's time for action, not research & planning.  Thoughtful planning & preparation take place in advance.

            And we all know that someday we will die.  What if it's today?  What if it's this afternoon?  What if it's tonight?  Who will pick the kids up?  Walk the dog?  Feed the cat?

            What if it's a disease that prevents you from getting insurance?  What if you need care, and now Medicaid won't pay?  What if it's a terminal disease, giving you only weeks or months to live - less time than the IRS allows for deductible gifting?

            What if it's sudden & unexpected?  At your desk, In the bathroom, crossing the street, in a car, the subway, the elevator, the gym, the dinner table, or in bed?

            Who's going to get your money, property & prized possessions when you die?  Uncle Sam?  State governments?  Lawyers?  Creditors?  Old Age Homes?  Hospitals?  Funeral Homes?

            There are no second chances, no do-overs, no summer school, or remedial classes.  It's water under the bridge, spilled milk - poof you're gone!

            It's how we live our lives that defines us.

            Life is valuable.  Death is inevitable.  You plan dinner, you plan marriages, you plan births, you plan education, you plan trips; have you planned for your final departure?

            How valuable is your life?  What's its cost?  How much is it worth?  Who depends on you?  What does disability cost?  What does retirement cost?  What does old age cost?  What does death cost?  What's the cost of not answering these questions?

            It's inevitable, why wait?

29) The Burden of Wealth

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t's so tough to manage money.  Forget that you have to earn it, now what do you do?  It's easy to spend it, but you worked so hard to earn it, are you sure you just want to piddle it away?  So many people resent the way they have to earn their money; it's a shame to have to also resent managing it.

            Managing your money means having to count it.

Did you collect the correct amount (paychecks, invoicing, reimbursements, refunds, rebates)?  Where do you keep your records?  Do you reconcile?  Do you save 5-20% of it?  Do you budget & plan what you spend?  Do you manage the timing of when money comes in and goes out (cash flow)?   Do you manage your taxes, investing, and credit, and appropriately insure against loss?

           

            People hate preparing their taxes, they dislike having to pay bills, they resent the bank paying so little interest, they don't understand the stock market, they have disdain for life insurance, and they’re scared of credit balances.  Not to mention the challenges related to bankruptcy, disability, divorce, entrepreneurship, estate planning, and unemployment.

            Even when you think it's going to be fun (e.g. buying new things, raises, bonuses, Inheritances, lottery winnings), it can become so difficult that people avoid dealing with it.  Then you find bonuses are cut in half due to taxes, you're laid off right after you moved and bought a big home, or you spend your lottery winnings down to where you were within five years of winning it.

If another is involved, it can cause fights, ends of friendships, and divorce.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

            Managing money may not be easy, but anything worth having is worth working for (e.g. a home you can call your own, nice clothes, nice things, vacations, college, retirement).  People can learn other languages, and other alphabets including shorthand, music, computer, math and science; they can learn how to operate technology, but they are often blocked when it comes to money.  Often, the stage is set during childhood.  But you're a grown-up now, and it's time to take responsibility for your own finances.

            Learning makes it easier, if not palatable and, even fun and rewarding.  Learning is the first step.  There are many resources out there.  And Simons Financial Network is producing short videos for our website (www.WomenAndMoney.tv).

            After you learn a little about how money works, and acquire some skills (like driving a car), it’s almost time to start driving - but you should know where you’re going (i.e. goal setting).  And it helps to have a plan (i.e. map).  And it’s prudent and smart to make sure the tank is filled, the engine is working well, and the tires are inflated.  Then it’s time to actually drive.

You can delegate managing your money - pay someone to help you or to do parts of it for you.  That's why there are financial planners, accountants, attorneys, stockbroker, insurance agents, mortgage brokers, and real estate agents out there.  Financial Planners tend to cover the broad spectrum of these fields.

            However, delegate, don't abdicate the responsibility; it's your money.  And it's foolish to not stay involved.

            Jesus Saves, Moses invests; what do you do?

28) Iditarod

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oal-Setting.  Bruce Mitchell is a family man.  Bruce Mitchell is an athlete.  Bruce Mitchell has Diabetes.

He runs the Iditarod, “The Last Great Race on Earth®”.  The Alaskan, two week, 975-mile dog sled race starts in Anchorage, and ends at the Bering Sea in Nome (where the Welcome sign reads, “There's No Place like Nome”).

            In 2008, he ran it in under 12 days.  That was his goal, and it put him in the top half (46 out of 96) of the diverse group of male and female Mushers.  Day and night, snow, and steady 8-9° F temperatures.  He had to care for his own health and that of his 12+ dogs.

           

            As of 2008, in the 15 years that he's had Diabetes, he has run 14 marathons, 3 Iron Man Triathlons, and 2 Iditarods.

            He does it to demonstrate his belief that a disease does not have to confine you from pursuing a goal so long as you have the ability to dream.

            Bruce Mitchell isn't asking kids to run an Iditarod, just to set goals and dream.

            What are your goals and dreams?

27) Fun with Taxes! (AKA Constructing a Tax Return)

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onstructing a Tax Return is an interesting exercise.

It is a customized financial exercise that feels good to finish, making it an emotional one as well.  It’s a moral exercise, and it’s an intellectual one.  It's also an insightful snapshot of a period in your life.

            Some of us enjoy putting the pieces together to get view of the picture of your life, just like constructing a jigsaw puzzle on a lazy summer night.

            Taxes provide for public services, and the redistribution of wealth (from those that have, to those considered to have not).

            Congress initially creates the tax laws, and on behalf of the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) implements the law.

            The law is complicated, it’s fascinating, it’s frustrating, and it’s full of minutiae, detail and mathematical formulae.  It‘s open to interpretation by taxpayers and practitioners, and can be challenged in different federal courts, although the Treasury Department and the IRS provide guidance.

            A Return, like a house, is constructed from the bottom, up.  Bottom pages feed information up to middle pages, and middle pages, eventually to the top two pages of some version of the Form 1040.

            The system is also complicated and there are many 'tests' a Return must pass to make sure you can do certain things (e.g. deduction amounts, deductible retirement plan contributions, minimum taxes, i.e. the Alternative Minimum Tax, etc.).

            Records must be kept to support your claims, in case a tax authority ever asks for proof - after all, the US Tax System, is a voluntary system and an honor system - one that many people selfishly abuse.

            There are generally two sets of rules of which to be aware: those that trigger the need to file a Return (e.g. electronic or paper), and those that govern the settlement of accounts (i.e. money).

            Generally, a single person must file when their income is $9,500 or more (unless they're filing to get a refund, are due credits, or are self-employed, or have capital gains/losses).

            The average American Taxpayer pays about a third of their income to federal, state & local income taxes.  Therefore, tax planning is one of the best investments you can make.  Few stocks and investments can consistently earn you 34%.

            Good tax planning involves:

ü  Good record keeping

ü  Engaging a qualified tax/financial professional who can patiently and clearly explain things, identify issues & solutions, and integrate taxes with your other financial planning

ü  Education

ü  Solid tax preparation

ü  Smart tax planning

            Former Associate Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland said, "The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid them, by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted."

            Who's your Trusted Family Advisor©?