We were sitting at an outdoor cafe having a cold iced latte on a summer day. It was bright and sunny and warm for San Francisco. While conversing with my friend, I not only looked at her but at the scene behind her. People went by walking their dogs or joggin or pushing a baby stroller. It was usual sidewalk fare. But something caught my eye that made me look away from my friend and stare. It was the sight of two rollerbladers coming towards us. It looked like a couple from far away, but I was more interested in their movement. They pushed out with each leg effortlessly, like they were gliding on air. The outline of their thigh muscles working showed through their pants. There was a beautiful rhythm, too. Out and in, out and in. with each leg. They were coming closer and I started to wonder if I could ever do that motion again. Here I am in a wheelchair with one leg elevated with nerve damage and another with a below the knee amputation. I knew it was highly unlikely that I would be able to do that but I did not feel any emotion or sense of loss. As the couple got close, I said to my friend, "Gee, look at that couple, do you think I'll ever roller blade again?" "Well, "she replied seriously, "I really think your days of being the roller-blade queen are over. " We both broker out into a fit of laughter since I never could roller-blade.
I could easily wallow into the loss of activities that I once did. But that was the past, and this is now. In the now I have a different set of possibilities available to me that are fresh and exciting. It is easy in this life to get bogged down in regret about what we can't do or should have done. While we fill up our minds with that, we cannot allow the new to enter. There"s just not enough space. Besides we are all so good at beating ourselves up for things we did not accomplish or regrets for wrong choices, that we never forgive ourselves so that we can move on to make each moment, new and fresh and spontaneous.
What have you done in the past that you regret that you still cling to? What would your life lookd like if you let go of some regrets or can't dos? What possibilites could you experience?
"I dwell in possibility" -Emily Dickinson
The one thing I dislike about the healing journey is setbacks. I always thought that you just climb a mountain one step up at a time and never look back down. My husband, however, was warned that there would be ups and downs and to expect them. I wish someone had told me, but then again, I was in sedation at that time. My latest setback hit me hard. I was practicing walking with my AFO brace and a walker. I did not quite lift my foot up enough, my shoe caught the carpet, and I went tumbling forward on top of the walker. I shook with pain and the thought that I had broken my knee. Once I got my composure I called my husband. I lay there until the ambulance came. They helped get me secured in the car so my husband could drive me to Stanford hospital where most of my care has been. (An ambulance will not drive you out of county we found out.)
Anyway, my Dr. B was there to see my x-rays. Luckily, there were no broken bones, just broken plans. And so, I am back on bed rest and pain meds until my body heals again enough so I get resume physical therapy.
Ugh! Moral of the story- the climb to the top of the mountain is filled with falls.
"On a breezy day I'll look at the wind in the trees and realize what a great day it would be to be sailing in Maine," Christopher Reeve told The AP as he looked out a window of his home. "Or I look at the puffy clouds and think, `I'd love to be gliding again.' And sometimes I'll say that to somebody nearby. ... And then I'll let it go."
Our practice cannot be perfect. But without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice. –Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising to one's favor all manner of unforeseen accidents and meetings, and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. -Goethe
Most financial planners believe that planning helps their clients to accumulate more wealth and accomplish their goals; if they thought otherwise, they’d likely be in a different profession. We’re now seeing a number of research projects that explore the relationship between planning and wealth accumulation. In addition, some researchers are starting to explore what they call a “propensity to plan,” in other words, individual characteristics or personality traits that are related to planning and saving.In recent research, John Ameriks, an economist with the TIAA-CREF Institute, along with researchers Andrew Caplin and John Leahy of New York University, have analyzed survey responses from TIAA-CREF participants who were asked a set of questions regarding the extent to which they engaged in planning for their financial future. As might be expected, the researchers found a strong correlation between planning and wealth: Individuals who plan have significantly higher wealth than those who don’t. But the real thrust of their work is to try to go beyond this simple correlation to understand whether planning, or “the propensity to plan,” can actually cause greater wealth. In their research, Ameriks, Caplin, and Leahy look at a variety of personal characteristics and behaviors and attempt to determine whether they are associated with financial planning — indicating a “propensity to plan.” For example, survey respondents were asked whether they like to plan vacations. The researchers found that answers to this question were positively correlated with financial planning at a high level of statistical significance. In addition, confidence in mathematical skills also proved to be strongly correlated with financial planning. As noted by one of the researchers in a recent interview, “In order to develop a plan, you have to be able to compute a few things.”Having established this connection, Ameriks, Caplin and Leahy’s work suggests that people with a “propensity to plan” tend to maintain personal budgets and save more than those who don’t. The researchers hypothesize that the mere monitoring of spending tends to result in lower spending.Further details about this research can be found in Mimi Lord’s article, “Financial Planning and Wealth Accumulation: Identifying Individuals’ Propensity to Plan,” published in the July-August 2002 issue of the Journal of Retirement Planning.
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain
way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
Thomas Edison
Fidelity Investments in Boston estimates that a person turning 65 needs $174,000 to cover much of what Medicare doesn’t cover. That factors in premiums for Medicare’s physician and prescription coverage, a supplemental health insurance policy, as well as other out of pocket deductibles and non-covered prescription costs. Long term care insurance and services are not included.
Baby boomers are also at risk. For those who are 55, the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington estimates that they will need to save between $151,000 and $550,000 for similar coverage – a range that depends on whether the individual lives to age 80 or 100. You can find information to figure out your health care needs and the costs at www.planforyourhealth.com.
The new HSAs (Health Savings Account) can help. They allow those who elect to purchase a high deductible health insurance to save up to several thousand dollars annually on a tax- free basis. Talk to your financial advisor to see if you qualify for one.
I was lucky to have very good health insurance coverage and I still have problems. Right after my accident, 11 months ago, my first four days in the hospital costs over $250,000, and the insurer still has not paid.
The number of Americans in poverty rose by 1.3 million to 35.9 million, or one in eight people.
The number of Americans without health insurance rose by 1.4 million to 45 million, or 15.6% of the population.
Both sets of figures rose for the third straight year.
(Figures provided by the Census Bureau.)
Do something about it and vote.
Okay, you’ve heard it before- past performance is no guarantee of future results. But check out these stats from Segal Advisors Inc., a New York based consulting firm. They analyzed returns of 129 large-cap growth managers during the three-year period at yearend 1999 and 2003, and found that 48% of those in the top quartile for the first period finished with negative returns of 12% to 16% for the 2001-03 period. Only 9 % of the bottom-quartile managers in the 1997-99 period had similarly negative returns for 2001-2003.
In 1999, the aggressive growth managers were hot performers until the downside came. Those managers in the third or fourth performance quartile at the end of 1999 were the more conservative ones, who are even outperforming today.
Take that, Morningstar and your four stars, too. You need a lot more data that the old news that you get from the newspaper, for sure. But there’s a lot more to the decision of what mutual fund to buy than pure research. It has a lot to do with what your goals are, the return you need, how much risk you are willing to take, how does it interact with your other holdings and what sectors does it invest in which may overlap with what you currently own.
Answer those questions in addition to your research and you will find the right mutual fund.
What’s the difference between a stockbroker and a financial advisor? Most people don’t know. Let me fill you in, but first a little background.
I got my start in the financial services field in 1981 at Waddell and Reed, an old line Kansas City firm that professed to do financial planning. It didn’t take me long to realize how slimy the brokerage industry was. There were about 160 of us hired as new trainees. About 86 passed the eight-month evening training sessions, which was a sales course. Fast-forward to more than 20 years later and there is less then 10 that I know of that are still practicing.
Back then Venita Van Caspel wrote the Money Dynamics, the first book about financial planning, and still a great primer for anyone interested in the topic. By 1989, Van Caspel got into trouble by selling limited partnerships that she owned interests in but did not disclose to clients. Note- everyone back then was selling limited partnerships, even moi. But not disclosing a conflict?!
When those Limited Partnerships went under, her clients sued. Van Caspel’s defense was that she was only acting as a stockbroker and under the broker’s exemption to the Investment Advisors Act of 1940, didn’t owe clients a duty to disclose her conflicts of interest. The courts agreed.
Now the FPA (Financial Planning Association) is filing a lawsuit to close the loophole that Van Caspel used. The Investment Advisors Act of 1940 requires a financial advisor to act as a fiduciary (meaning putting the client’s interest first) and to disclose any conflicts of interest. In 1999, the SEC proposed a rule that would exempt the fee-based brokerage programs from the fiduciary and disclosure standards of the Investment Advisor Act of 1940. This allowed brokers to start operating under the exemption immediately without waiting for a final rule. Since then stock brokers got to expand their wrap accounts and other fee-compensated programs without disclosing conflicts of interests to their clients. Now as the public clamors for more fairness, and more disclosure, real Financial Advisors have filed ADV Part II forms with the state or the SEC, have disclosed their compensation, their conflicts, and their fiduciary responsibility. Stockbrokers have hidden behind the broker’s exemption to the Investment Advisors Act of 1940. That is up until now. The FPA as well as NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) have joined together to force the SEC to take action to eliminate the broker’s exemption and its implications that brokers can act like they’re on the client’s side, but legally and actually represent their firm. The people who do understand this are going in droves to places like www.napfa.org to seek out committed fee-only financial advisors and you should, too.