Almost as Good as Elite Frequent Flier Status

Recently, we took an airplane trip with our daughter, her first since the adoption flight from China in 2005.  Having her along was as good has having Frequent Flier Elite status with the airline.  Here the Elite Status perks we received:

Priority line for security check.  We were able to use the much shorter security check line for people with young children.  This line was even shorter than the elite status and flight crew security check line.

No full body scan.  Full body scans are done randomly during the security check.  However, TSA guidelines are to: 1) Not do full body scans on young children and 2) Not separate parents and young children.  My spouse had already decide to do a full body pat down instead of a full body scan for herself and our daughter.  The TSA rep informed us that a parent and child would go through the normal metal detection device.

Seating assistance.   The airline took extra effort to ensure the family was sitting together.  This was good since we were unable to pre-choose seats on the outbound flight and I didn't try to pre-select seats on the returning flight.

Overall, the check in and flight experience was surprisingly excellent and much better than I expected, mainly because we had a seven year old in our travelling party.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or travel advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

My Ticket(s) to 1/2 Billion :-)

I have 8 Mega Millions lottery tickets for tonight's $640 million drawing.   While lottery tickets are generally a very, very, bad retirement plan, I still like to play when the jackpots are over $100 million.   The conventional wisdom is that the odds are 1:175,711,536 for winning.  My thinking is my personal probability is either 100% or 0%.  Either I hold the winning ticket or, more likely, I don't.

Here are the numbers we're playing:

22 32 37 40 41  MB: 13
07 24 29 40 41  MB: 22
07 10 16 30 31  MB: 20
04 07 15 39 54  MB: 41
03 09 27 39 48  MB: 39
01 07 13 16 20  MB: 09
02 10 48 54 55  MB: 28
11 44 51 53 55  MB: 16

Only 10 more minutes until we find out if we're a half billionaire :-)

Update:  Here are the winning numbers.  02 04 23 38 46  MB: 23 
For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial or lottery advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Hits to the Head in Sports

Brain bank examines athletes's hard hits caused me to think about my own "hard hit" experiences in football.  I was a fullback for four years on my varsity high school team and four years on my varsity college team.  I experienced several hard hits to the head.  Back then, we weren't checked immediately for concussions.  We only became concerned when there were nausea or vomiting overnight, which never happened.

I remember one particular hard hit my senior year in high school.  I was running up the middle and made it past the linebackers.  It was just me versus the safety, who was an excellent player.  He hit me squarely, helmet to helmet.  My helmet flew off and I was a little dizzy.  It was the hardest hit I had ever had playing football.

However, I had enough sense not to let him know that I had taken a hard hit.  So I picked up my helmet, put it on and jogged back to the huddle.  Before the next play was called, I told the quarterback, "Don't give me the ball this play. I'm a little dizzy from the last hit."  And the game went on.

Fortunately, I didn't show any symptoms of a concussion (e.g. severe headache, vomiting) that evening.

After the season, I was sitting at the same table with the safety at an awards banquet.  The conversation eventually was about the game we played against each other.   He mentioned the "big hit" and said that it had shaken him up and that he was dismayed that I appeared unaffected since I got up and jogged back to the huddle.  I confessed that the hit had made me a little dizzy, but that I didn't want to show him that I had been affected.  We both chuckled.

With the recent stories of concussion deaths in high school and brain damage in professional athletes, I'm wondering if I may experience some effects as I get older.  I asked my doctor about the apparent increase in head injuries, with some being fatal.   His perspective was there were two reasons.  First, athletes are diagnosed more often after a potential concussion that when I played.  Second, athletes are hitting harder than in the past.

Nevertheless, I am still mildly concerned of the long term effects of my high school and college sport days.  However, There is not much I can do now, except watch out for symptoms of potential health issues.

For more on  Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial, sports or health advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Three Signs of Being on the Fast Track

Career advancement is one of the best ways to increase income. Being on the fast track is a way to increase income even faster. For reference, I wasn't on the fast track for most of my career. My brief shining moment was when I advanced two management levels in three years, which is one the quickest that had been done. Based on my own short experience, and the experience of others, here are some signs I've noticed that people are on the fast track.

Management Conversation.People on the fast track are often identified early in their career, within the first five years.  Senior management will often have career conversations with potential future leaders and share the company's perspective.

Management Influence. Being on the fast track means being consulted as important decisions are being made.  Even though not directly involved, people on the fast track are sought after by senior management for relevant information.

Tough Assignments.  Being on the fast track means getting opportunities to work on tough work projects. Future company leaders need to take a company to good and bad times. It important to know how some will perform during the bad times.

Looking back, I was clearly not on the fast track in the first third of my career. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but the middle third of my career could be considered being on the fast track.  During that time, management let me know I had promotion potential, I was interacting with the GM even though there were two levels between the GM and me, and I was offered tough assignments. I was promoted two levels during this period to the top 5% of management in my organization.  The last third of my career was also not on the fast track as I had achieved what would be my final promotion level in the company.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Recycling Old Business Cards

Due to my multiple part time jobs, I have lots of business cards which I can't use during the time I'm not employed.  I used to throw the cards away.   However, my brother-in-law gave my spouse an idea recycling unneeded business cards:  use them as small note cards.   I thought this was a great idea for the following reasons:

Free.   Well, at least free to me.  Otherwise, the cards would be discarded since I usually need a card with different information the following year

Size.   It's a convenient size to carry. A business card is perfect for putting in my wallet or shirt pocket.

Easy to track.  I generally put one topic, idea or task on each card.   When a task is complete, I just throw away the card.  I occasionally do a short high priority to do list of the items that must be done before the end of the day.  I no longer have a list on a full page that I cross out as items are completed. 

I started using the system a two months ago and like it so far. The only issue is that I occasionally have a proliferation of note cards when I fall behind in getting things done.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every  Tuesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Jackpot!

In A Treasure Hunt for Silver Coins, I posted how I was ordering boxes of half dollars and searching for silver halves (pre-1965 at 90% silver, 1965-1970 at 40% silver) with our daughter  After searching 6000 coins, we found only 5 silver halves and ended the coin roll hunting project.  We did continue to get quarter dollar rolls to fill a state quarter book I had given our daughter.

However, the last time I turned in our change to the bank coin counter, our daughter asked to get more halves.  The bank happen to have 8 rolls in their vault and I took all of them.    In the first roll our daughter opened, she immediately found to 40% silver halves and then proceeded to find another.  Our total for the eight rolls was nine 40% silver halves. 

In reviewing the coins, virtually all the dates were before 1974.   I'm guessing someone inherited the coins and sorted out all the pre-1965 coins.  However, they apparently didn't know that 1965 to 1970 half dollars also are part silver. 

Since we hit the jackpot, relatively speaking, I've started stopping at local small banks and asking for any 50 cent pieces, and other hand rolled coins.  So far, we've only found one additional 40% silver half, a silver quarter and a silver dime.  Not as big a find as our jackpot, but still fun enough to continue for until the summer :-)

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.



This is not financial  or coin collecting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Retirement Farewell Tour

I think it's time for me to start my retirement farewell tour.  There are a number of people throughout my life that I've haven't maintained regular contact with that I'd like to see one more time.  I have no contact with people prior to my high school years.  I have limited contact with people from high school and college.    I have sporadic contact with many people I met in my twenties and thirties after graduating from college.

My plan is to focus on the chronologically nearest "lost contacts" and work backwards until I reach elementary school times.   Another opportunity is to attend 40th high school and college reunions, which aren't that far way.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every  Friday  for a new segment.
This is not financial or networking advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Being Cute Is Not Sustainable For Most

"If God had wanted us to be concerned for the plight of toads, he would have made them cute and furry." ~ Dave Barry

I wasn't a cute kid.  So I haven't personally experienced the benefits of being cute.  Our seven year old daughter is an extremely cute and adorable child.  Mine is not the biased opinion of a parent.  Everyone tells me how cute my daughter is.   In fact, some people at my church know my daughter by name and acknowledge me as our daughter's dad, instead of by my name.

Although my daughter doesn't purposely leverage her cuteness, she does get a lot of benefits.  For example, she often gets extra "gifts" from retailers.   When she was four, the manager at a Burger King decided  to give her the toys from a child's meal even though we only ordered a hamburger.  At the state fair last summer, our daughter was admiring some inexpensive marbles and the proprietor decided to give her a small bag for no charge.  Last week, I took our daughter to a coin shop since she started collecting state quarter and the owner gave her three 100 year coins as starter for future options to consider collecting. 

Now, the gifts are typically less than $5 in retail value and probably a lot less in wholesale value.  Still  I don't want our daughter to start expecting "unexpected" gifts or using her cuteness to get her way.  Why?  Because there is a high probability that our daughter won't be cute when she is older.  So she it will be important to  develop more skills than just being cute :-)

My conclusion is based on limited observation that I believe is representative.

Teaching K-2.  For the past three years, I've been teaching a K-2 after school program.  I estimate that 60% of the kids are really cute, 20% are kind of cute, 10% are neutral and 10% are not cute.  So about 80% are cute and 20% are not cute.

Parents.  If cuteness was lasting, I would expect the same proportion of parents to have the attribute.  Based on my observation, only about 10% of parents can be categorized as cute, and they are generally the younger ones.  There rest are either neutral, at best, or more often, not cute. 

I don't know why cuteness declines with age.  Perhaps, the decline is due to stress, more responsibility or just getting older.  However, I do know being cute doesn't last so it's important to develop good skills on which one can depend :-)
For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial or parenting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Be Prepared for Bad Financial Times

"Be prepared." ~ Boy Scout Motto

The Great Recession has taught me a tough lesson. It's not how well I do during the good times; it's how well I survive during the bad times.  Here are some of the strategies that helped us during the bad financial times.

Live below means.   Earn large, live small. That way when income is reduced, it won't be as difficult do adjust. Living below my means was tough to do when I first started working since there were a lot of "start up" costs to be on my own after graduation from college.  However, over time were able to live on about 70-80% of my take home pay. 

Avoid debt. Debt payments remain constant in good and bad times.   Debt payments are nearly impossible to reduce, unless you're Greece, an underwater homeowner, or bankrupt.

Save early and often.  Additional corollaries to this are:  1) Pay oneself first and 2) Have an emergency fund.  There is nothing better than spendable liquid assets or cash during an economic crisis.

Of course, being prepared doesn't guarantee survival, but it sure does increase the chances significantly.

For more on  The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival is on Hold

Due to technical difficulties with accessing Blog Carnival, the site that helps manage carnivals, The Wealth Builder Carnival will be on hold until Blog Carnival is fixed or I find an alternate system to manage the carnival.

 For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday  for a new segment.


This is not financial or carnival hosting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

New Spending Strategy

I've started thinking about our budget in a new way: necessary expenses and entertainment expenses.   My goal is to make sure necessary expenses are always covered.  To me, the necessary expenses are the core expenses that are needed to live.  Entertainment expenses are everything else.

Here are some examples of each expense category:

Necessary expenses.  Rent/mortgage, electric/gas/water utilities, basic food, basic transportation, basic clothing, health care, and  federal/state/property taxes are what I include.  If I were not retired, I would include retirement savings and an emergency fund.  To note, I have not included  phones (cell or land line), Internet, TV, or computers.  The toughest one to exclude was the Internet, but to me, the other three are definitely not necessities.

Entertainment expenses.  This would be everything else.   Computers, cell and landline phones, cable/satellite, Internet, TV, eating out, movies, electronics, and upgrades to basic items listed in necessary expense.     In the entertainment category, I can live without any of the items.  No ________ (fill in the blank with an entertainment expenses)?  I can do just fine.  

I like the reframing because entertainment expenses, by definition, are not necessary.  Therefore, I shouldn't spend money on entertainment items until I have sufficiently covered the necessary expenses.   And after covering my necessary expenses, I need to make choices about with entertainment item to get since I don't have enough money to get them all :-)

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday  for a new segment.


This is not financial or budgeting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Working for a Bully Boss

In the company from which I retired, managers go through significant training on being a manager.   While I didn't agree with all my managers, all of them were good managers.   I never worked for someone that I considered a bully boss.  Since retiring, I've worked a several managers that I consider a bully boss.

Here are some of the characteristics of these bullies:

Poor listening skills.  While the bully boss may ask for input, he hardly listens. He isn't really interested in the other person's points.   He is always thinking of what he has to say next.

Always right.  The bully boss believes he is always right, even when he is wrong. He will often cause additional unnecessary work to prove he is right. As we say in for engineering problems, "You can violate the the laws of thermodynamics." The bully boss will definitely claim it's possible to do so :-)

One way to do things. To the bully boss, there is only one way to do work: his way. That's because it simplifies his work process even though it complicates everyone else's work processes

Management yes person.The bully boss tends to curry favor from his superiors through excessive compliments and praise. In addition, he will implement management's plans without any constructive consideration.

In two of the jobs, I simply quit or did not reapply the following year. In the third job, I haven't decided whether to quit or wait for the inevitable replacement of the boss.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Mandatory Health Insurance Should Be Insurance

According to Wikipedia, insurance is "a form of risk management primary used to hedge against the risk of a contingent uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment."    As defined, insurance shouldn't pay for expected expenses.

For example, car insurance covers unexpected damages and losses (storms, theft, and accident).  Automobile insurance doesn't cover routine maintenance like oil changes, tuneups, brakes and tire replacement.  In addition, home owner's insurance doesn't cover repairs that are due to neglect or after market upgrades.

So if health insurance was modeled after automobile insurance, it would cover unexpected health issues, e.g. accidental injury, or sudden health decline.   It wouldn't cover expected, discretionary health costs such as annual checkups or birth control.   It definitely wouldn't cover lifestyle health costs like erectile dysfunction prescriptions.

While our family has chosen to pay for the maximum health care insurance coverage, I don't believe the same level of coverage should be mandatory for everyone.  When I was younger, my employee insurance premiums were zero.  I was glad to have low premiums for insurance mainly against unforseen health issues.  I had 100% accidental injury coverage after a deductible and payed the full cost of doctor visits up to a deductible.  As a result, I saw my doctor about every three years and only went to the hospital for severe health issues or injuries.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or insurance advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Not Getting My Perfect Job

After Trying to Create my Perfect Retirement Job, I am disappointed that my boss does not feel the work is high enough priority for the company.  As a counter offer, my boss asked me to do some work for the company that is important, but in which I have little knowledge or interest.  So I declined.

As a result, I plan to let my employment contract expire and will not accept an extension.  I will provide a resignation letter effective the last day of my contract so the company is aware of my intentions.  Then, I will complete my outstanding projects.  With any remaining time, I will put against the project which I declined   For reference, I can work on anything if the time is limited and short :-)

I'm already down to less than 10 hours a week this month as I do the final steps in transitioning to my successor.  So going to zero when my contract ends will be a smooth change back to retirement.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.



This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Journey to Become an Adult

In Life Principles from Kindergarten, I shared three principles of behavior my daughter was taught in kindergarten.

Take care of yourself.

Take care of others.

Take care of your environment.

I thought these were great princples for kindergartern and life. 

To me, these principles are a great way to check whether our daughter has making progress adulthood.

Take care of yourself.  Can she support herself without assistance from family, friends or government?  While this status is at least 10 years away, we can start by teaching her good financial principles as a foundation.

Take care of others.  Is she able to provide help when needed to family and friends?  Doing increase levels of household chores is one way to demonstrate progress.

Take care of your environment.  Does she take care of the family space and her room?  Picking up after herself and keeping her room clean is a start.

The best part about these princples is that our daughter has them memorized and can understand what she needs to do.  Hopefully, this will help us better guide her towards adulthood.


For more on  Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or parenting advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #70

Welcome to the seventieth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes. Unfortunately, Blog Carnival is having some technical difficulties this week, which has limited the number of submissions.

Investing

D4L presents 11 Dividend Aristocrats Giving Stability And Higher-Yields posted at Dividend Growth Stocks saying, "How long have you gone without cheating on your diet? How long have you stuck to your budget? How long have you driven without speeding? How long have you gone since missing a day of work/school due to illness? Imagine stringing together a 25 year series of the above items, or anything else for that matter. That would be something very special.

Dividend Growth Investor presents Accumulating Dividend Stocks is a Long Term Process posted at Dividend Growth Investorsaying, "It is important to have some valuation guidelines, before purchasing a dividend stock. This is to protect the investor in the very likely event that they “fall in love” with a stock and purchase it regardless of price. After all, purchasing a stock at inflated price levels might lead to sub-par returns for several years."

Retiring

Super Saver presents Roth IRA Contributions for Higher Income Individuals posted at My Wealth Builder saying, "In 2010, Congress removed the income limitation to do a conversion to a Roth IRA. This created a loophole for high income people unable to make Roth IRA contributions due to income limitations."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Letting our Stocks Ride

I'm still very skeptical about the current market rally.  It seems to be defying gravity.  Eventually, there will an event that causes the market to decline significantly.  Then, I will get back into the market.

In the meantime, I'm going to hold onto my few long stocks.  Apparently, according to this Barron's article, the market can hold up for weeks or several months before finally succumbing to negative news.   So the stocks may have a nice run for quite a while.  Hopefully, I can get out near the peak when it comes :-)

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or investing advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

On Dying

"The act of dying is one of the acts of life." ~ Marcus Aurelius

How Doctor's Die was an interesting story about how many doctors choose less versus more medical treatment for their own end of life situtions.

I used to think that I would do what ever was needed to extend my life, even taking extradordinary measures.  After the death of my mom and dad, I've changed my mind.  My dad died after a three month coma, extaended hospital stay, and a short nursing home stay.  My mom died after five years in a nursing home. 

I'm sure now that I no longer want heroic measures taken to prolong my life.  To me quality is much more important than quantity.  A few high quality months would be of greater value than several low quality years. All the more reason to live life by  making every moment count.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Limit the Job of the Federal Government

"I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more." ~ President Barack Obama 2012 State of the Union Address

The Federal government should focus on three core areas which government is uniquely qualified to do well. Here are the (only) three things that the Federal government should do:

Foreign Policy -  The Federal government is the appropriate organization to represent the U.S. with foreign governments since each state can't develop a separate policy.  Also, the Federal government should define treaties and policies that benefit the country and its citizens.

Defense.The Federal government is the right organization to maintain armed forces, declare war and defend the country against foreign intrusions. 

Interstate Commerce.  The Federal government should regulate commerce between the states.  This includes construction of highways and other interstate  infrastructure.

The Federal government needs to focus on these core priorities and deliver them with excellence.  Based on recent results, I would give the Federal government a B- for foreign policy, a C+ for defense, and a C- for interstate commerce.  Based on the results in the Federal government's core priorities, I don't want the Federal Government working on other elements (e.g. education, health care, etc.) that should be left to the states or the people.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.
This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

No Longer My Job Responsibility

In my retirement jobs, I've decided that I will do a great job for my clients, but I will no longer commit to any extraordinary effort for the company.   I have no desire to develop a career, get promoted or help the company improve.  Here are some of my recent experiences:

Above my pay grade.  Our new office manager has been a "company man."  In my first discussion with her, she explained that it was my job to help the company get better by providing constructive feedback for her to pass along.  I told her that it wasn't going to happen since feedback in the past did not get results.  After a lengthy talk, where she didn't listen to my point of view, I told her simply that it was above my pay grade.  The company didn't pay me enough to do more than what I hired to do.

Beyond commitment level.  One company wanted me to take on an important and challenging assignment. My assessment was the role would be another full time 40+ hour a week assignment.  While I agreed to work a temporary full time position in 2011, I wasn't interested in making the same level of commitment in 2012.   I definitely wanted to work less than 10 hours a week and have the entire summer off.   So I turned down the new role. 

Not what I signed up for.  In 2010, I worked for the government in roles which confirmed my beliefs about government waste.  Although I am biased, I thought the organization for which I worked did a poor job of managing the work and me.  Rather than cut back on hours and let fewer people do productive work, the organizations would keep normal hours and have employees to nonessential "busy work."   The organization clearly had the right to do this according to my offer letter.  However, it was not what I signed up for and I didn't reapply in 2011.

What's the worse an employer can do to me:  not hire me again.  In all three cases, I am able to take a harder line position with my employers since I don't need the job.  If I were worried about keeping a job, I might have been convince to be more in line with the company.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial, career or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Lessons from Selling Girl Cookies

As a second year Daisy, our daughter participated in selling girl scout cookies.  Our daughter could have made sale by just being cute. She's a good natured seven year old and all the neighbors think she is adorable, which she is.  However, we used the opportunity for teaching her some life skills.  Although there was signficant resistance at first, our daughter did take our guidance and probably ended selling more cookies.  Here is what she learned:

Prepare a good sales pitch.   Our daughter's sales pitch was, "Do you want to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"   We coached her to introduce herself, explain why here troop was selling cookies and the ask about buying cookies.  Her final sales pitch was, " Hi, I'm (Name).  We are trying to raise money for a camping trip.  Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?"  We practiced the line a few times with her and then visited 3-4 houses an evening.

Thank the customers.  Since the customers were supporting the Girl Scouts, our daughter thanked them twice:  once after the order and once after the delivery.

Make timely deliveries.  Our daughter started delivering cookies soon after receiving them.  She called each customer to schedule a delivery, leaving messages  for those that weren't home.  Some customers called back and for the others, our daughter made a followup calls as needed.

Overall our daughter sold a little over 50 boxes of cookies.  A good showing for her first time.  In addition, she started learning some communication and selling skills.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Financial Stewardship

As defined in Wikipedia, "stewardship is an ethic that embodies the the responsible planning and managment of resources."  Since money is a resource, good financial stewardship means responsible planning and management of the use of money.  Here are some of the elements of finanical stewardship:

Spending plan.    How much money is needed for fixed and discretionary expenses?  This is also called a budget.

Income plan.How will money be acquired for the spending plan?   This is also a career and investment plan.

Sustainability plan.  How can one ensure results from the income plan are at or (preferably) greater than the spending plan for a lifetime?  This is also known as living below one's means.

While there are no guarantees, good financial stewardship can increase the probabilty of creating and building personal wealth.

For more on  The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or wealth building  advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Links to Carnivals from February 28 - March 3, 2012

Here are the links to the Carnivals in which My Wealth Builder participated from February 28 - March 3, 2012:

The Wealth Builder Carnival #68

Baby Boomers Blog Carnival #133

Carnival of Financial Planning #226

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Wealth Builder Carnival #69

Welcome to the sixty-ninth edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival. The purpose of this carnival is to collect articles from the blogosphere on building, preserving and keeping enough wealth for a comfortable retirement. For reference, I have tried to keep the carnival content tightly focused on wealth building and did not include submissions that were off topic. For reading convenience, the posts are listed with a brief summary or comment by the submitter and organized into seven categories: Earning, Insuring and Protecting, Investing, Living Frugally, Retiring, Saving and Taxes.

Earning

Super Saver presents Working on my Terms in 2012 posted at My Wealth Builder, saying, "Now that I've retired over four years, I will be working on my terms, instead of the companies' terms for my part time jobs."

Insuring and Protecting

Affordable Auto Insurance presents Variables to Consider for your Auto Insurance Policy posted at Auto Insurance News, saying, "When it comes to shopping for an auto insurance quote, you should consider several variables that will impact your premium costs for insurance coverage. If you are considering car insurance policies, use the tips below to avoid choosing the wrong insurance for your needs."

Investing

Pat Huddleston presents SEC Closes Alleged Scam Mall posted at Investor's Watchblog, saying, "Watch out for Scam Malls"

Dividends4Life presents 11 Dividend Stocks Delivering A Quick Payback posted at Dividend Growth Stocks, saying, "Years ago as a young analyst, I was assigned the project of streamlining my employers' acquisition model. As part of this project, I removed the payback calculation. The company's focus was on discounted cash flow and internal rate of return, so I didn't see the need for a payback metric. No one noticed the missing payback calculation, that is, no one except the CEO..."

Busy Executive presents Looking to profit from the next real estate bubble posted at The "Busy Executive" Money Blog, saying, "In my opinion, it's never a time to dive headfirst into completely unfamiliar territory where a significant amount of hard earned capital could be lost. If you've never held a hammer, changed a light bulb, or evaluated a property, don’t believe that you can purchase and rehab a house back to market value this upcoming weekend. You must prepare to succeed."

Living Frugally

Dr. Dean presents How To Get A Raise: In Three Easy Steps! posted at Dr. Dean's TheMillionaireNurse.com Blog, saying, "Looking for a raise in pay? Don’t overlook the homemade kind. Get rid of those automatic deductions that easily become slick demonic seductions taking wealth rather than giving pleasure. You’ll think you got a raise with the money you’ll save!"

Daniel Rosenstein presents Do you spend a $1,000 a year on a cup of morning Joe? | Miss Money Bee posted at Miss Money Bee, saying, "Being shouldered with credit card debt or finding it difficult to make ends meet every month can be a stressful situation, but many people may not be aware of the small changes they can make to their spending and the large results these simple alterations can have on their overall financial condition."

Laura Edgar presents 4 Ways to Apply for a Credit Card So You’ll Get Approved posted at NerdWallet Blog - Credit Card Watch, saying, "When and how you apply for a credit card can make all the difference in your credit limit, terms and even whether you are approved. Some factors you can’t really change, such as a history of bankruptcy or missed payments. Some require a change in behavior. But some can be altered just before you apply, and a little planning can help you qualify for the credit card you want."

Taxes

Kurt presents Capital Gain Tax Rates posted at Money Counselor, saying, "Chances are good that your 2011 federal long-term capital gains tax rate is ZERO. And few will be taxed at more than 15% of the gains."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The Wealth Builder Carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: the wealth builder carnival, blog carnival.  

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday for a new segment.

This is not financial, earning, insuring, investing, living, retiring, saving, tax, or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Reapply Instead of Reinvent

As a young engineer in R&D, I wanted to invent.  So I would try develop everything on my own, ignoring what others had done before me.   Through 27 years in R&D, I learned a better approach was to use knowledge that already existed and invent only what couldn't be found.  Now I am happy to reapply that which already is known or been done before and invest my limited time on inventing for the unknown elements.

A great example of this is the store layouts at large businesses such as Lowe's.  When new stores are built, the same plan is reused. That way the new store will have a layout that has already been demonstrated.  In the  manufacturing area, Intel has a strategy of "reproduce exactly" for its chip manufacturing plant.  That way, there will already be people who know how to solve issue even before the plant is built,.

IThe strategy of reapply instead of reinvent also works for personal finance.   There are numerous articles on successful personal finance practices.  By reapplying proven personal finance strategies, we were able to make significant progress on our own wealth building journey.

For more on Strategies and Plans Ideas, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial or wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Holding Back from Buying Stocks

Usually by this point of a market rally, I'd be jumping back into the market.  With the exception of my company stock, company stock options, one college 529 account, and a dozen small stock positions, we have have been out of the stock market.  So I've missed the 25% gain in the stock market since the October 2011 low.

So here's why I'm still holding back;

• Low volume market. The market indices are rising on low volumes.  That mean very little demand is driving the market up. Once this demand is gone the market will have difficulty rising.  For reference, investors pulled $137 billion from stock mutual funds during June 2011 through January 2012,
• Negative event potential.  The market is one major negative event from a significant decline. Possibilities included a sovereign default in Europe, spiking oil prices, and conflict with Iran, Syria or other middle east country. 
• Low business commitment.  Businesses are still hoarding cash and holding back on hiring.  Many  businesses have increased profits through cost cutting and are using overtime instead of hiring.  If businesses thought the economy was going to get better soon, there would be more investment and hiring.

So for now I remain on the sidelines instead of getting back into the market as I usually would.  I will also continue to cash in on the rising market by exercising stock options when my company stock reaches new 52 week highs.


For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.


This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Book Review - Delivering Happiness

Today's book review is on Delivering Happiness - A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos.com, Inc.

Tony Hsieh has been a successful entrepreneur twice.  His first company, Link Exchange, was sold for $250 million and his second company, Zappos.com, was sold to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion.  An qualitative summary of his experiences and values that led to success. Although he touches on business challenges, he doens't spend much of the book providing in depth details on the challenges and how they were solved.
Instead, Mr. Hsieh spends most of the book sharing how he focused on creating a culture and corporate values that are the essence of Zappos.com.

Here were a couple of values that resonated with me:

• Provide amazing customer service.  Zappos' goal is to provide the best customer service and customer experience.  While many companies say they value customer service, I have not experienced the level that Tony shares in his book.  The book provides some outstanding examples of customer service that are beyond expectations.  
• Hire people that embrace the company culture.  I fully agree with this one.  This is a tough standard to maintain as a company grows and the founders cannot interview every candidate.  The solution was to create a company culture book and offer new hires that don't meet the stand a payment of $2000 to leave the company. 

Tony does provide examples of tough strategic choices he made (e.g. locating warehouses in Kentucky and relocating the company to Las Vegas.   However, most of his book focuses on culture, values and how his previous experiences helped.   More details on how this approach enabled better operational and strategic choices would have made the book a better learning tool.  While I did enjoy the book and agree with his perspectives on customer service and company values, I would have liked some more details on the challenges of making these the foundation as the company grew.

For more on  Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial or business advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Trying to Create my Perfect Retirement Job

After four and a half years of retirement, I haven't found the perfect job...yet.  In My Perfect Retirement Job I listed the four criteria:  seasonal, flexible hours, working directly with clients and good pay.  I thought I had found three jobs that met the criteria.    Since that time, I've learned that none of the jobs completely meet all four criteria.  So instead, I'm going to try to create the perfect retirement job.

What changed?   First, in two of my jobs, management decided to become more "corporate."  By more "corporate," I mean actively systematizing work processes and taking action to significantly grow the business.  While I agree both companies are taking the right steps, I really didn't sign up for investing significant time and effort on corporate activities at my pay rate.  As I've told one supervisor, some of the work they are asking me to do is above my pay grade.  Since I am not interested in advancing further in either company, I have no interest in taking on additional responsibility without first being paid a lot more. In the third job, I learned that I am better working with one client at a time instead of a group of clients such as a class room.

None of these changes or revelations are show stoppers.  I haven't quit any of the jobs, although I have cut way back on my hours in all three jobs, as low as zero in one job.  I expect that I will be phasing myself out of these jobs in the next couple of years.

Creating my perfect job.  I know my strengths and what I enjoy doing. I know some companies that may compensate me highly to benefit from my experience and knowledge. I've put together a brief proposal, floated a trial balloon among key stakeholders and received positive feed back.

At this point, I've received some interest in my proposal.  I will let the interested organizations give the idea more consideration before inquiring again.   I believe there are some companies and individuals that would benefit significantly and pay for my services While I'm waiting, I'll start preparing materials, so that the initial elements will be ready when someone is interested.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.


This is not financial, career or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Joy of Nearsightedness

I've been nearsighted most of my life.  However, I didn't start wearing glasses until I started driving at age 16.  I never wore glasses for sports and started wearing contacts for when I was 26.  Throughout my life, I have always felt my eyesight was handicap.  Until now.

My spouse has always had perfect 20/20 vision.  She has never needed glasses.  Well, until now.  She now needs reading glasses for close vision.  So now she has to adjust to wearing glasses when she has never needed them before.  In addition, she needs to wear glasses when ever she reads or works with small objects.

For me, my eyesight is now perfect for reading and close vision work.  I no longer need glasses when I read a book or work on the computer, which is what I do for most of the day.  In fact, I now need to wear reading glasses when wearing contacts, but I feel my close vision is much better without any corrections.  Therefore, I no longer wear contacts except on days when I am doing activities that require mostly long distance vision, like sports or driving.

I never would have guessed that some health things get better with age :-)

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.


This is not financial or health advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC