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Football and Personal Finance-14 Corollaries!

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

Football and Personal Finance

We are in the middle of bowl season and about to hit the NFL playoffs.

American football has millions of  idiotic dedicated sports fans who think nothing of painting their face with team colors, wearing ridiculous outfits and acting like maniacs on Saturday or Sunday.  Doing things they would never do at home or at work…

Fanatic Football Fans

What does that have to do with  personal finance?

Well let’s just see….hmmm:

Football and Your Money:

  • Team-There is no “I” in team is common coach-speak.   It is impossible to know everything about your money these days. Think about it! Banking, investing, taxes, retirement accounts, insurance, real estate, precious metals, mining….the list goes on.  You need a team of professionals to help you succeed.  Too many people compromise on their choice of teammates.  Don’t use cousin Vinny’s wife’s sister who just got her real estate license…
  • Game Plan-You need a financial plan.  It doesn’t have to be as thick as Bill Belichick’s playbook.  You may just need a little piece of paper with the plays written on it like you see on quarterbacks wrists.  To be successful though, you need a general outline of how much you have, what you want to do and where you want to go with your money.
  • Improvisation-The current slang is “You gotta make a play!”  I know I said you need a game plan.  Most coach’s have a strict list of plays to start a game. The ball doesn’t always bounce the way you thought, so you need to be nimble and willing to make changes if circumstances require.
  • A Balanced Attack-Teams that depend only on the pass or only on the run become one dimensional and easily defeated. The investing corollary is using diversification.  Don’t put all your coins in one investment.
  • Persistence-fans get restless when a team runs the same play with small variations over and over.  Coaches know that with persistence, the play will eventually break open for a long run if executed correctly.  The same goes for investing.  Dollar cost averaging is one example of persistence.
  • Big plays-Big plays….making a long run or a long pass play or an interception for a pick 6….these big plays can make the difference between winning and losing.  In investing,  making big plays usually means letting your winners run.  If you have a winning investment it’s tempting to cash in your chips.  Let your winners run as they frequently will continue their winning ways.  If you have to decrease your stake to be able to sleep at night, just take part of your money off the table  rather than cashing in completely.
  • Playing Hurt-No, this doesn’t mean that you slam your hand in your safe deposit door.  All good football players know they will have to play hurt.  When it comes to your money, you have to be able to continue with your plan even when the market or world events are going against you.  By all means, evaluate and reassess your plan, but if it is sound, stay in the game and give yourself time for things to turn around.  Don’t sell with the herd, play hurt!
  • It’s a long season stupid-Don’t get overly focused on one game, the season is what’s important.  With your money, keep your eye on the prize.  Having enough money at the end of your working life when you’re unable to earn more is the focus.  Don’t let individual months or years, whether good or bad, cloud your judgment.
  • Defense can be as important as offense-Keeping your powder dry or not losing money can sometimes be as important or more-so than having everything at risk. Being defensive with part of your capital is a sound strategy.
  • Every team needs cheerleaders-having your family cheering you on can make the difference when times get tough.  Congratulate wise financial decisions of your teammates. If that means patting yourself on the back with a little reward, do it!
  • The Standings Count-Yes size matters,  the score matters,  whether you win or lose-It Matters!!!!  Hey, it’s your money!
  • Experience counts- Simple game plans and investment choices are smart early in your career-don’t do options straddles when you don’t know what an option is….  As you develop more knowledge and sophistication, you can check at the line and call your own more complicated plays-be  like Peyton well this year be like Drew.
  • Enjoy the journey-Great football players have trouble retiring because they enjoy the journey. They love the game!  Learn to enjoy taking care of your money rather than looking at it as a chore.
  • Next Year-Yep, when you’ve had a tough year with your money, don’t get too discouraged.  There is always next year!

Consider yourself the recipient of a ‘Pat on the Butt’ locker room speech:  get out there and make money for the Gipper, The price of victory is high but so are your IRA rewards and all that stuff!

Go Falcons! (no my face is not painted red and black…)

Reader Questions:  What are your favorite football/personal finance analogies?  Come on, let’s play a game and see how many we can come up with-you know you’ve got one….Remember practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!

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New Years Resolutions: An Alternative!

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

New Years Resolutions!

Forget ‘em.

You’re not going to follow through!

You mean well, and this year is the year, you think you’ll do better but nahhhh, you know in your heart it’ll be no different from last year.

You’re  reading the best personal finance info on the whole darn planet,  so I know you mean well; your heart’s in the right place.

Revolution, not Resolution!

That’s why I’m saying screw the resolutions. This year we’re doing The Mighty Mantra Mumbles.

Mighty Mantra Mumbles!

What are the Mighty Mantra Mumbles (MMM)?

Glad you asked!

You’ve done MMM’s before.  I know you have…

When you were a kid, you used ‘em to get through all kinds of stuff.  Remember when you were pee in your pants afraid?

You said to yourself over and over:  “It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, orrr maybe you said  “I can ride this bike, I can ride this bike, I can ride this bike ……”

Of course you were afraid,  but you focused on your ‘mantra’ and believed in yourself enough to ‘do it.’ (Mostly you just didn’t want to pee your pants in public.)

Mantras can still work

You’re all grown up now.  Life is serious.  You hardly ever wet your pants (right?).

You’ve made some grand resolutions year after year. I know….lose weight, pay off your credit cards, get a handle on your finances, go to the gym 3 times a week.  I know ‘em all ’cause I’ve used ‘em all!

You never have a serious plan to do any of that stuff, so of course, it doesn’t get done.

Not this year.  No.  We’re a team and we’ve got the the 3M’s -remember the Mighty Mantra Mumble. 

Here’s how it works.

Read carefully and repeat after me.

You are going to say “I can do it.” Every time you start to fall back into your old habits.  That’s right, every time:

  • You want to buy that new pair of shoes you don’t need.
  • You want to just buy something disgustingly expensive for lunch instead of eating that brown bag.
  • You plan to spend your savings on something stupid.
  • You want to eat something unhealthy.
  • You open your mouth instead of closing it.  (If you know what I mean, you know what I mean).
  • You think about skipping exercise.
  • You think about going out for dinner instead of throwing something together.
  • You start to tell yourself ‘but I deserve this-woe is me!’.

“I can do it!” means “I can be successful at whatever I want to accomplish.”  You have to vocalize it, not loud enough for everyone to think you’re crazy, but say it where you can hear it.  It means more that way, trust me!

Have I made my point?  Don’t bother to make the stupid resolutions (OK, the resolutions are not stupid, they are noble just as you are).

You know what you want from your life.

  • You want to be fiscally sound, have margin in your finances and in your life, be able to give and help others when you see the need!
  • You want to be nicer (sometimes).
  • You want to be healthy and fit.
  • You want to be a good example for your family.
  • Your bullet point here!

Of course, if you don’t want these things for yourself….Quit lying, you wouldn’t be here otherwise. You’d be watching Snooki, or Snoopy or whatever her name is, drinking a beer, and farting.

This year is different, go for it!

In fact, instead of ‘I can do it’,  how about “Just do the damn thing’.  Sounds more forceful!

Come on, let’s get started.  Say it after me:  “Just do the damn thing.”  “Just do the damn thing.” That can be your Mighty Mantra Mumble!

You just have to decide what the damn thing is!

You can use my Mighty Mantra Mumble, but it’s better to come up with your own.  And you will fail from time to time, but much less than last year with your Mighty Mantra Mumble.

What motivates you?

It works best if it comes from your heart.   Decide what motivates you.

What moves you?  What makes you so happy you want to cry? or piss your pants?

Put that sentiment into a few words you can mumble at just the right time, then practice.  Nothing works till you practice. Say it out loud in front of the mirror.  See how it makes you smile?  You can’t help it!

You can go back to doing what you always do, write your resolutions, then forget about them by sayyy mid-January… and get the same results as last year….

Or you can try the MMM technique.  what have you got to lose?

If you’ve already written your resolutions, the Mighty Mantra Mumble will help you actually keep them this year.

I can already tell.

This year is going to be different.

Go get ‘em champ!

{photo credit: reddirtrose c.c.}

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Doctor Visit Soon? Read This!

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

HIPPA 5010 and why you should care!

When you’re sick, the last thing you care about is checking out after your medical visit.  You just want to get your “drugs” and go home to bed.

Doctor Visit!

If you’re just getting a checkup, you want to get it over with.  No one likes to visit a medical practice.

If you come into my office, here is a small sample of what might happen.

We stick a thermometer in your mouth or ear.  We ask you embarrassing questions. We WEIGH you, make you take off your clothes,  poke, prod, and pinch places you would never volunteer to be poked, prodded, or pinched…

Sometimes we even want to draw your precious blood.

After all your humiliation, the worse thing of all happens.  We expect you to PAY when you leave!

Medical Billing Software

Medical billing is so confusing even those of us in the business don’t understand it.   If you don’t have insurance, it’s pretty straight forward. You get a bill for the level of service needed for your problem.   You may be able to get a discount for paying in cash, but the bill is your bill for better  or worse.

For those with insurance it’s a whole ‘nother story.

You’ve got the primary insurer, you may have the secondary insurer, you have co-pays, excluded services and deductibles.  The co-pays and deductibles may or may not apply, depending on whether it’s a preventive visit or a treatment visit (called evaluation and management or E&M).

Your health savings account, or your Flex account may help.

Most of us just pay the co-pay and hope the man behind the curtain gets the rest of the billing process accomplished accurately.

New digital healthcare billing requirements:

Why should all this matter?  Because a new federal requirement is in the house!

The software for medical billing has been changed this year by Medicare which in turn drives the billing for all the other insurance carriers.  Known as HIPPA 5010, this new software upgrade goes into effect January 2012.

If you have a medical office visit in the first few months of this new year, you may want to pay particular attention to your medical bills from those visits.

There are three likely scenarios:

  • If your practice is using a large national  medical billing software company, they should have all the bugs out of their system.
  • If your practice is using a regional billing company they are probably ready.
  • If your practice is using a smaller, off the shelf system it purchased 10 years ago, it is probably not fully compliant-possibly leaving you in the lurch.

What does that mean?

When your medical practice and the insurance company aren’t communicating properly, an error in your billing may occur.

If the medical practice doesn’t get paid by your insurance in a timely fashion, they will bill you.  And you are ultimately responsible, not your insurance carrier.

One of the papers you sign when arriving at a medical practice is a disclaimer that says you understand you are responsible for your medical bills. The office, as a courtesy, files your claim with your insurance company but it is your responsibility to see that they pay.

If the insurance carrier does pay, but the software was not up to date, the amount billed to you may not be accurate.

If you have a medical bill in the first few months of this new year, just take a moment to look it over.  Ask questions if something doesn’t look accurate.

Getting your medical bills paid properly should make you feel better!

Reader Questions:

What has your experience been with medical billing?  Have you had any issues in the past?

{photo credit: woodleywonderworks c.c.}

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Road Trip: Florida Style!

Monday, December 26th, 2011

Car Trips: Save Money and See The World!

Guest Post by FDL BSN.

Car trips are a wonderful way to see the world around us.  I love nothing more than watching a green terrain unfold before me.  Plants and trees and anything flowering – that’s great stuff.

However, offer me 8 looong hours of this, nonstop, and my enthusiasm begins to deflate like a punctured balloon.   This is a special trip to see dear friends, so what’ll I do?  Using my special personal finance skills, honed to a fine edge, I prowl my mind for alternatives:

Avoid the car trip – it’s a short hop in my Lear jet.  Did I mention all the choices in my list were also budget friendly?  Also, there is no Lear jet option except in my fertile imagination….

Just get in the car, suck it up and pass the time.  Not only is this the most budget friendly option, it is also a way to re-connect with your traveling companions.  Good memories are made inside boxes on wheels as the miles roll away.

How to help those miles roll more quickly and get you to your destination in a good mood and without brain mush?  Read on:

Background on the trip.

We spent a long week end in Hollywood, FL visiting with friends and their parents.

We’ve known these people since their oldest child came to live with us to finish high school as a Rotary International exchange student.  Hollywood, Florida is a great place to visit, and might not be so bad to live in, even if it is a city.

Our young friends live within an easy bike ride to the beach, inter-coastal waterway,  great restaurants, and shopping.  Cool stuff.

So, this is the reason we were quite willing to face an 8 hour car trip each way through the unbelievably long state of Florida.  We live 45 miles north of the capital of the state, Tallahassee, and dropped down to pickup one of the numerous interstates that connect the mass of land that is the state of Florida.

Observe the scenery!

As you travel, don’t forget to be curious of the ebb and flow of the land, water, and horizon.  Review with your car mates what in the world ‘those trees with the orange things on them’ could be. OMG! They’re oranges!  and the even bigger things, gosh darn if they’re not grapefruit!  The fruit laden trees stretch to the

Grapefruit Tree

horizon.

No wonder there are bags and bags of fruit for sale at every stop.

Did you know there is a winery, Lakeridge, just north of Orlando?  No kidding.  There are beautiful horse stables and farms that line I-75 around Ocala.

The Villages, in a coupla’ years I’ll probably want to stop and check out the retirement oasis…

Of course, if you need a sex toy or a pole dance, those places are there too – next exit, parking galore!

And alligator farms, I remember those same signs from the sixties when I was a kid-probably have the same ‘gators and we both probably have a few more wrinkles!

And yes, there are a few ‘Mickey Mouse Lives Here’ signs, just a few…

Listen to audio books.  We have been doing this since our children were young.

When I hear any mention of Stuart Little, a great kids story about a rat, I think of our trip to Tampa. 

The Education of Little Tree?   Our trip to Kentucky.

Bridges of Madison County?  A very romantic trip to Savannah, GA, with just me and my husband in the car.  What a great choice that tape was for this particular trip.  (I take full credit.)

We rent several audios from our local library, free of course, and have a choice if one is not good, playable or we finish one and need another.

Crossword puzzles have become our latest craze.  My daughter, the crossword fanatic, has us hooked.  Mentally sifting through the possibilities for clues – 12 letters, with blank, c,r, blank, o,blank blank…

Eating is one of my favorite pastimes.

It takes a while to make it through an apple but they aren’t as messy as those oranges…

Of course, Dunkin Donuts- strategically located at every service stop on the Florida Turnpike – go down easy, but too quickly.

I have become partial to salty foods with cold drinks-Chex Mix or Trail Mix-Diet Mountain Dew or Diet Coke for variation, water bottles (tap of course)…..  Those beverages lead to pit stops which lengthen the trip, but hey, the crossword is only half done and the audio is only on chapter 15.

Getting out and moving is good for blood clot prevention – I tell myself as I hurry and hope there’s no line.

And don’t forget to buy the Sun Pass  for your windshield to save a little cash on all those Florida Turnpike tolls, and it saves time! You can roll through at 25mph instead of having to stop and be accurate with those quarters!

Sun Pass, The way to go!

Write a post or journal about your trip.

You’ll have to do some serious proof reading after the trip unless you’re driving a Bentley and using Bose noise cancellation head phones-or maybe the Lear… but my editor is pretty tough  anyway.

And the family loves to give you their input.  In fact, on one long plane trip my traveling companions and I got silly and developed a couple of really funny (at least we thought so) travel articles.  We still laugh about how much fun we had on that plane ride.  No Lear then either, coach of course….  Imagine that.

See you on the road!

Wow, just writing about all that fun stuff to do on trips makes me want to hop in the car for another 8-12 hours.  The crossword is calling and the bag of popcorn is not even stale.

See you at the  rest stop.

FDL BSN is a public health nurse and frequent contributor to The Millionaire Nurse.

{photo credit: conanil c.c.}

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Merry Christmas Memories!

Sunday, December 25th, 2011

Memories at Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve enjoying the many traditions our family has developed over the years.

Our evening began with the community singing of traditional Christmas carols on the town square.  We then attended the candlelight service.

At home we sat around the fireplace with seasonal music in the background, a glass of wine for all.  We then took turns reading our favorite Christmas stories aloud.  “The Grinch” survived my attempt at storytelling.  My family thinks I do Grinchy  a little too well….I, of course, have no idea what they are talking about.

Yes you can take my picture, if I don't have to get up...

We close the evening reading Luke 2 as we have for many years.

I ended the night putting together my famous waffle batter that has to rise twice.   That always puts me to bed way later than an old man should be, knowing he will be up at the break of dawn Christmas morning.

As I write, the kids are beginning to stir.  Maybe it was the Neil Diamond Christmas CD I put on the surround sound a little to loud….Neil is dreaming of a white Christmas-we don’t do white Christmas’s here in south Georgia, but  I can’t think of a better alarm on Christmas morning, how ’bout you?

I gotta go attend to the Jimmy Dean sausage and my waffles-they won’t make themselves, as my bride likes to say.

I have a lot more memories to make today!

Thanks:

Thanks to all who read this blog.  I want to especially thank those having to work during the holidays.  It is a tough thing to do to leave home this time of year.

And a special thanks to all those serving in uniform all over the world.  And may God bless your families at home.

Merry Christmas All!

Reader Questions:

What are your favorite Christmas traditions and memories?

Posted in Quality of Life | 2 Comments »

Decisions: How YOU Can Improve!

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Decisions!

How do you make a decision?

Are you a worrier or do you make quick decisions?

Examples requiring a decision:

“I can’t decide about taking that new job.  The pay is better, but it’s a start-up, how do I know if they’ ll be in business next year?”

“I can’t make up my mind whether to rent or buy a home?  The prices are great, but it’s such a big decision!”

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

“Do I buy an LED or Plasma TV?  Every  time I buy something, it’s outdated by the next month!”

How we make a decision tells a lot about us as people.

  • Procrastinators-either can’t make or put off any decision-making.
  • Failures-people who seem to always make poor decisions.
  • Lucky-people who seem to always make good decisions.

Then there are the rest of us who’ve won some and lost some.  We just do the best we can.

 Are you impulsive?

“Let’s go to Vegas tonight and get married!”  (is being drunk impulsive???)

“Where do you want to go on our vacation honey, you know we leave tomorrow?”

Or are you a perfectionist?

The other extreme, the planner from hell who never does anything unless it’s perfect, therefore frequently is not doing anything?

“I decided what I want my wedding to look like when I was 14 and have been working on it ever since….”

“When are you getting married?”

“Ohh I have to get a boyfriend first!”

Or “I’ve been planning my trip to Europe for 2 years.  I will be spending 6 hrs at the Louvre on day 5 after doing the Chunnel  the evening of day 4!”

“Sounds great, when are you leaving?”

“Well, I’m not sure it’s the right time-you know, with the exchange rate and stuff….”

Improve your decision making:

We can spend hours researching social science literature trying to find a better way to make decisions, but I’d rather just tell you what has worked for me (or not).

First, though, we need to lay out the background. I’m not a type A detail guy. And I’ve made my share of bad decisions.

I’m a big picture person.  Science has shown us that too many choices get in the way. So, narrow your choices quickly to the top two or three.  Too many details  get in your way.

How do you do that?  Perform mental triage.  In medicine, triage is the winnowing process of treating the worst first.  The chest pain is evaluated before the headache.

That doesn’t mean you will always be right!  What happens if the headache patient has a seizure in the waiting room, and his brain tumor kills him before it’s identified? The chest pain patient you rushed into the exam room turns out just had indigestion from eating 3 hot dogs at the stadium and is fine with a little Maalox.

Yep, you screwed that one up, but over time, the odds favor the triage process for saving lives and you’ll make better decisions.

How do you improve your decision making skills?

Do a self-analysis and practice. Think about your “easy” decisions. What makes them easy?  What is your usual default method of decision making and how have the results been?

If you have been married 4 times, and the new guy you are lusting after looks just like the four you’ve dumped, maybe, just maybe, you need to slow down and try to figure out what makes YOU tick? What makes you chase losers?  There is a reason and maybe you need to figure it out before you get married again.

The same can be said if you make a decent living but are always broke.  Face up to the fact that your financial decision making is poor.  Quit blaming others, and look in the mirror.

Try these decision making tips:

  • Lists-Lists can be a big help.  Make a list of the benefits and risks of your top choices.
  • Sleep on it.  Give yourself a little time to allow your sub-conscious to have a say.  Don’t let this drag into procrastination.  Just don’t make “spur of the moment”  “knee-jerk” “snap judgments”.  There is a reason there are so many cliches here, ’cause this is such a common problem.  Walk by the shoe store, see a pair of little darlin’s, slap down the credit card, then regret it for the next 6 months paying minimum payments.
  • Mentors-Have a sounding board  on your team.  Make sure these are people successful in the area of concern.  Don’t ask your broke uncle for investment advice.  Don’t ask the parents of the juvenile delinquent for child-raising tips.  The process of talking through your problem and your choices with your mentor will help you see holes in your own logic.  If you are laughing at yourself halfway through your presentation….Can you say “breakthrough”?

Make sure your decision making process includes all  stakeholders. Get them on board early.  Marriages often fail because one spouse makes big decisions without the others input.

Gosh I’m glad I decided to write this, are you?

Reader questions:

What have been your big problems with your decision making processes?

What mistakes have you made and what did you learn from it?

How have you improved your decision making prowess as you’ve gotten older?

{photo credit: InaFrenzy c.c.}

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Newsletter, for special people, with my special mini-e-course on personal finance and my special  free e-book, at no extra charge-cause that’s the kinda guy I am! Don’t you want to be special?

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Posted in goal setting, Personal Finance 101, Quality of Life | 11 Comments »

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