Category Archives: Life Lessons

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Lessons Learned: Use the Right Tool

  By remymartini • December 17, 2012

When I worked at Best Buy, one of the 5 safety steps was “use the right tool.” Pretty harmless and common sense, but you’d be surprised the things that would be MacGyvered up to get something done. Well this same rule applies when you want to get things done, specifically your estate. I know I’m on shaky ground when I refer to a person as a tool (ok, go ahead and laugh now to get it out of your system) but hear me out.

I’m going to draw from my family’s experience with estate planning, more specifically creating a will. When my grandfather wanted to create a will, he went the “easy” route and used a lawyer that he used all the time for MDU in North Dakota. Now this lawyer did wonders with oil and gas law since MDU was a utilities company, so he can make an easy basic Will, right? I mean it should be pretty simple and straight forward. WRONG. Lawyers have specialties for a reason. When my grandfather passed away he left a Trust to his heirs; his children and their spouses. HOWEVER, his wife was not mentioned in the will. Not because of some dramatic reason, but because she had been in a coma for 20+ years. No one imagined that he would die before she did. When you’re an attorney, you should not take these assumptions when drafting a will and need to make sure it is drafted properly to account for whomever may die first. Luckily for our sanity my grandmother had no living relatives to claim the inheritance when she died 2 weeks later. So that was a happier ending to a case that could have easily turned rotten quick.

My grandfather did not have the right tool (still debating if the pun is intended here) to draft his will. Recently in the news Etta James hadn’t sought out the right tools to create a proper estate. Forbes has a great article that you should read here. Another one that comes to mind is the author of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Have you heard of that book (now movie)? I hope so. Stieg Larsson’s last known updated Will was from 1977. He died in 2004. Why would does it matter now, 7 years later? Given the MASSIVE popularity of the books, his estate is in a position to make a LARGE sum of money, but who does it go to? Who owns the rights? His dedicated partner of 20+ years, Eva, or his father & brother? The last updated will is vague on this point. Blood gets the inheritance while the longtime partner gets his manuscripts. Since the manuscripts were published after death, that seems to be a clear cut case for Eva, but if things were simple we wouldn’t need lawyers and wills. It’s a very interesting case, probably worth writing a novel about, but currently there is no ending. It’s just another example of why you should hire the right person for the job.

If you’re in the market for a great lawyer that does estate planning I would strongly recommend Sarah Thacker of Thacker Law Firm. I can’t say enough good things about her and how she helps her clients. She makes sure that not only do you understand the will but anyone reading the will understands it. No “where to,” “here unto,” etc. A well written will that people without a law degree can understand. Imagine that!

Do you have a will? If you don’t, make sure not to post it here because that means you have a target on your back and I’ll bug you until you do. If you do, is it up to date and can anyone that picks it up understand it? Let me know your thoughts!

Until next time my wonderful readers!

– Financial Landscaper

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Are you part of the 95%?

  By remymartini • December 3, 2012 ,

Are you a woman?

If you said yes, then you may be part of the 95% of women who will be their family’s primary financial decision maker at some point in their lives.

That’s a staggering number I wasn’t expecting, but at the same time not fully surprised. I found this fantastic JPEG on investmentnews.com and thought I would share.

I’m a numbers nerd, as I’m sure you should know by now. But even those that might not like numbers as much will be surprised or at the very least intrigued by these numbers.

What are your thoughts?

-Financial Landscaper

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The Economics of Plants VS Zombies

  By remymartini • November 26, 2012 , ,

Even if you don’t have a smartphone, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the popular game “Plants VS Zombies.” The plot of the game is that your neighborhood is under attack by a bunch of different Zombies. The only way to protect you and your family is by planting various plants that shoot, blow up, stall, or stomp on them to (re)kill them. It’s a strategy game that puts your Plants VS the Zombies…

You don’t get an endless supply of plants of course, because that makes the game WAY too easy and what’s the fun in that? You have to pay for plants with sunlight. Sunlight comes from either the sun (obviously) randomly or sunflowers (or a mushroom at night). Either way you start off with 50 in your bucket to spend on a plant.

Example of prices are as followed:

Sunflower 50

Shooting Plant 100

Potato bomb 25 (one time use)

The sun will randomly shine down to increase your pot (25 at a time), but do you choose to wait to gain more or do you plant a sunflower to hopefully make it increase?

There are different strategies to play the game, but the one that I have found the most useful is plant as many sunflowers as soon as possible so that you can get sunlight quickly. Then plant the attacking plants as needed when zombies start to attack. Don’t randomly start planting them until you see the zombies coming so that you can grow your sunlight bank faster.

Now what does all this have to do with economics?

It’s a great way to have kids relate something they enjoy doing to saving. Instead of sunlight, they save their allowance/earnings for a rainy day or maybe the Zombie apocalypse, you never know. Kids typically have the urge to buy everything they “want” without really thinking about what that means to their money, but if you use this as an example they may see it in a different light. Help them realize that what they buy effects what they do later in the week/month/year. Show them that when they put their money in a bank it grows faster (like planting more sunflowers). When they stop putting money into the bank account or use that money to buy something it slows down how much money they’re making.

Here’s a way to help Translate:

Sunflower (allowance) $50 (just and example)

Shooting Plant (Bike) $100

Potato Bomb (Candy/Fast Food) $25

If you want to be creative and goofy like myself you can create a money chart with pictures from Plants VS Zombies to help track your kids’ progress. They get allowance = sunflower. When they buy something it represents one of the plants. When something unexpected happens, such as they break a window with their baseball and they have to pay for it, that would be a Zombie.

Now this is economics on a micro level of course, but it’s a great way to talk to your kids about money in a language they can understand and is fun.

So what are your thoughts?

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Black Friday – A Cautionary Tale

  By remymartini • November 21, 2012 , , , ,

Who’s going out in the crazy lines this Friday for some CrAzY savings? I’m down for a good deal and saving money everyday of the week/month/year but within some boundaries. Make sure before you go out to spend lots of money on those holiday gifts review a few of these thoughts:

1) Use the money you’ve saved for holiday presents – Ideally, you want to have a set amount of money already saved up to spend on that day/weekend. This is your budget that you don’t want to go over. If you don’t have some kind of budget or goal in mind you’re going to start spending like crazy. People like to focus on the amount they are saving, whether that’s in dollar signs or percentages off and then rarely notice how much they are actually spending. Don’t fall into the “I saved XXXX, how could I say no?” trap.

2) Create a budget – If you don’t already have your holiday budget saved up, make sure to set a budget for what you want to spend. Remember that all those sales that you put on your credit card will quickly accumulate interest fees. The less you can put on the credit card the better. Just because you saved 50% on the tag price, doesn’t mean that you’ll be paying only 50% of the tag price when you factor in the interest rate you have to pay for throughout this coming year.

 

 

 

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3) Figure out what’s important to you – A lot of stores are not only opening at midnight Friday morning but even Thanksgiving day. Depending on how often you see your family and what you do this may be the only time each year to spend time with them. Is saving money on a TV from Santa more important than spending time your family members? Don’t just think of the short term importance of spending time with the family, but what are your long term goals. If you want to go on that vacation next year or invest in your kids’ college fund, is going out to save money this weekend going to help save for that goal? If it’s not helping you achieve your goals, is it worth going out?

 

 

4) Set the right example – If you enjoy going shopping and like to make it a family affair, what example are you creating? Do you vocalize your limits and expectations? Are you the one where if you see it, you love, you buy it, you charge it, and pay for it later? If you make shopping a family affair, make sure to set boundaries and communicate them regularly before, during and after the shopping. Communicating the expectations so often will help land good habits in everyone’s mind. Don’t just charge it to the card, if you have kids it’s hard for them to wrap their head around money they don’t see. The more expectations you create around money for your kids, the easier it can create a healthy financial lifestyle for not only your kids but yourself.

 

Though everyone likes to save money, make sure not to get wrapped up on how much you’re saving but focus on what you’re spending.  Make sure to balance your wants/needs and what your overall life goals are.

If you have a Black Friday success story I would love to hear it. Please comment below if you have stories of self control, great deals that helped you achieve your goals, or setting the right expectations for your family.

Sincerely,

Financial Landscaper

 

 

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Real Winners Fail First

  By remymartini • November 12, 2012 , ,

I read an interesting article the other day about a school in England that’s making their girls take extra risk for a week to learn from it. I absolutely LOVE this idea!

In a time where EVERYONE gets a trophy just for showing up this allows REAL world experience. Take more risk and you either get a greater reward or you fail. This lets them understand input and output of life. It also mentally prepares them that things aren’t as predictable in life as it is in school. Failure happens in life and it seems a lot of people aren’t really prepared mentally for when that happens. This is a great way to teach girls the value of learning from failure as well as showing that failure is a way of life.

There are TONS of examples of this, but the one that is constantly on headlines and has “tips & tricks” is employment. So many people going from high school to college with THOUSANDS of dollars in student debt on the assumption that there is going to be a good high paying job on the other end. Unfortunately, reality is lately that jobs aren’t dime a dozen like previously thought. Even with people with years of experience and the right degree are having a tough time finding a job. Those fresh out of college have a much tougher atmosphere to compete and many times they fail. For those that have only dealt with getting trophies for just showing up and playing without putting in much effort, they’re having a tough time coping. This experience that the Wimbledon School is teaching their girls will last a lifetime. Bringing in famous & successful people through youtube to show that failure isn’t a brick wall to stop you. It’s there to help you learn and get stronger to get to where you want to go.

What was your most notable failure and what did you learn from it? Though I understand this is typically an interview question, it’s a good question for you to reflect on personally, whether you have a job now or are looking. If it’s hard for you to think of one, think about a time you might have regretted. Reflect on why you regret it and what could you have done differently. What was in and out of your control and what you could have done to make a different outcome. Realizing what was in/out of your control can help you deal with “regret” and move on.

Don’t dwell on your failures, learn from them! The bigger the failure, the bigger the learning experience. How much have you learned?

Until next time wonderful readers!

Sincerely,

Financial Landscaper

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Money & Motorcycles

  By remymartini • November 9, 2012 ,

For those that don’t know, I use to ride a motorcycle. I guess I would still ride a motorcycle if I didn’t sell it years ago when things got financially tight. Car VS Motorcycle was a tough decision for me since I LOVED my bike and it saved me TONS in gas. However, given the seasons here and the fact that I occasionally like to buy build it yourself projects that are impossible to get on a bike, I had to make the hard choice of selling it.

I tell you this story because it’s part of my financial journey and even I have to make the hard decisions. Those that are logically are probably going “PSH… that’s not a hard decision, it’s only logical to sell the motorcycle.” Yes, of course you’re right and I made the logical decision, but that didn’t make the decision any easier. I had put time and memories into that motorcycle. I had my first wreck on it and then built it back together myself. It wasn’t a horrific accident, just dirt and gravel around a curve and threw me off in a field. 95% of the fairings had to be replaced because they were shattered, but I was fine. I had put money, effort, and time on my first motorcycle (it will not be my last) so having to make the decision to sell it was hard.

We come up with issues everyday that require logical decisions to be made but emotions will linger. Many times when I’m talking to my clients the basis of each decision is because of finances. Things we have to cut back on, find alternatives for, or eventually decide to sell. There are memories, time, and finances wrapped into each decision. Having to make the decision to sell car because it has payments to purchase a used car instead can be a logical one, but it doesn’t make it any easier at times.

Motorcycles:Accident::Money:Debt

Another reason to reference motorcycles and money is that there is another correlation that I can thank my friend Dawn for. We often discuss financial dilemas and brainstorm about marketing. She mentioned that many people don’t respect the money they make and if you don’t respect it, it will ruin them. For those that aren’t motorcycle enthusiast, it’s the same concept. If you don’t respect the bike and you think that you are invincible on it, it will eat you alive. When you ride you have to respect the power that is underneath you, just as you have to respect the money that you have coming in. The moment that you think you know EVERYTHING that the bike can do, it will surprise you and it’s typically not in the way you would like. Once you think you know EVERYTHING about money, it will eat you alive and possibly bury  you. Having the understanding that there is always more to learn about a motorcycle or money will keep a healthy balance of respect to either.

The Moral

Moral of the story is make sure you understand that there will ALWAYS be more to learn about money no matter what position you may hold, including myself. Keeping yourself open to learning more keeps a healthy amount of respect for growth.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you have a story where money has eaten you alive or the lack of respect on something has caused detriment to your life?

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November is Long Term Care Awareness Month

  By remymartini • November 5, 2012 ,

Long Term Care – what is it and why do I care?

It’s simple and complicated all at the same time, so let me tell a story near and dear to my heart because it’s my family.

My grandparents live in a small town, about an hour and half from here. They were very involved with town politics and social life. They were great business minded people and served the community well. When I visit them today and we go out, we can’t help but be greeted by 3 or 5 people, “HEY Jerry! How’s it going?!” Then I get introduced to Mr. so-n-so and his wife that went to high school, was on his city council campaign, or lived next to him growing up. Yes my grandparents, especially my grandfather, is was and will always be the social connection of his town. However, when it came to planning for their own personal future with retirement, they dropped the ball. It wasn’t for a lack of money and thought about money, it was the lack of knowing what kind of curve balls life throws at you and how to make sure you have a plan that can hit the curve ball.

Their basic plan was to rely on their investment properties throughout the town and the savings they had accumulated throughout the years. The curve ball that stroke them out the hardest is my grandmother’s health. Assuming medicare would take care of them is a common thought. However, at first the care she needed didn’t qualify for medicare. She needed personal day to day assistance for eating, going to the restroom, and so forth. It’s only when she needed skilled care could she possibly be covered under medicare and even that was limited. Most of their money is now drained and they rely heavily on my aunt and her generous husband to help fund the nursing homes they live in. I say homes because they live in different homes based off level of care needed.

I hear many stories of my parents’ friends that have to cut back at work to go and take care of their aging parents. They can’t afford to spend the money to have someone else take care of them for their daily living duties. Whether it’s preparing food to eat or helping them to the bathroom, it’s time consuming and can be mentally and physically draining doing it day in and day out.

Long Term Care Awareness Month is meant for you to be a wake up call and push you to go out and seek the knowledge you need around your golden years. It’s meant for you to understand what are the options out there between medicare, medicaid, long term care insurance, and other similar products. You should arm yourself with the knowledge of what is covered under medicare and medicaid, how to qualify and how to prepare yourself in case something isn’t covered.

This is why long term care planning is so important. As people we WANT so badly to be able to take care of ourselves and we can never imagine a time where we can’t. Either pride or shame can get in the way of asking for help when the time comes that we actually need help. Long term care planning helps you stay independent without asking family and friends for help. Family members that would be the ones taking the responsibility of the aging parent would also be grateful.

Long term care planning consists of making a game plan in case you can no longer take care of yourself. This plan goes hand in hand with what kind of legacy you want to leave.

Would you prefer in home care or a nursing home?

How are you going to pay for in home care or a nursing home?

How does medicare factor in?

Do you want to leave your children or grandchildren a legacy of wealth?

What about medicaid?

These are all just a few questions to consider.

The sooner you can sit down with a financial planner to prepare a customized plan for you, the more flexibility you’ll have and typically the cheaper it can be. There are many products out there that can help you achieve your goals of staying independent through your golden years, but sitting down with someone that can explain the differences and help guide you to the right one for you is going to be key to your long term care plan success.

Do you have any long term care stories near & dear to your heart? If so, please share!

As always, I’m looking to bring out wonderful clients to help them achieve their life’s goals. If long term care has been on your mind and you don’t even know where to start or you have lots of questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me for a meeting!

– Financial Landscaper

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“Largest” Ponzi Scheme Hits WAY to close to home…. (And I’m not talking about Bernie)

  By remymartini • October 31, 2012

Maybe you’ve heard of Zeek Rewards. It’s a penny auction site that *was* based out of Lexington, NC. They would flaunt 1.5% DAILY returns on your investment if you help invest in the growth of the company by investing from $1,000 to $10,000. “Wow, 1.5% DAILY on $10,000?!? That would be AMAZING and I could be a millionaire in no time, especially if I keep investing” is probably what you, as well as many, many other thought. Then your next thought would be “sounds to good to be true,” right?

As of August 17th 2012, it was proven that it was too good to be true. The SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) filed an emergency junction to halt business immediately to protect the public. As of this morning (Monday, August 20th) it is estimated to be a $600 Million Ponzi scheme, with over 1 million investors.

You may remember that Bernie Madoff is in Butner consecutive lifetime sentences for the largest Ponzi scheme in history at roughly $68 BILLION. His ponzi scheme “only” effected a few thousand. Because people did not need large dollar amounts to invest the Zeek Rewards scheme quickly effected more people.

What is a Ponzi Scheme?

I think of it as “borrowing” from Peter to pay Paul and when Peter wants his money then “borrow” from Penny and then the borrowing just keeps going. For this example Paul would invest $10,000 into Zeek Rewards. When he would advertise about the penny site and get more people to use the penny site he felt as if he was contributing to the growth of the company and his online account would show $10,000 increasing by 1.5% a day. Paul tells his friend Peter what an AMAZING investment he has and knows his Peter wants the same kind of returns. Peter sees Paul’s account and wants in so he also invests $10,000. The online account shows that you have to be invested a certain amount of time (6 months I think) before you can withdrawal your investment. But if you’re making 1.5% DAILY, why would you take anything out? Wouldn’t you want to make it grow that much faster? Peter tells his girlfriend Penny and she’s skeptical, but trusts Peter who has been doing this for a few months now and decides to invest.

Now you can see how quickly this can get out of hand with multiple investors.

Who’s to blame?

Paul & Peter did nothing wrong. They felt and “saw” that their investment was working hard for them. Remember that it was just a website that would show a digital number. There was nothing physical they could hold until they withdrew their money, and for many, why would they want it not to grow so fast? When they find out they were doped in a Ponzi Scheme they are more than likely going to feel absolutely guilty for telling their friends to invest along side of them.

Some people did their due diligence and looked into the company and did not invest. Some trusting souls were guided by misguided friends, but should not take it out on those friends. They were fooled just like a million other people.

What lessons can we learn from this?

Always do your homework and ask for different opinions. Even if you don’t have a personal financial planner ask friends if they have one and ask a professional. I personally had 5 people ask about it and even before this happened I strongly suggested that they do not invest because it does sound too good to be true.

Check out this Forbes article for the full story

If you or someone you know were an “investor” into Zeek Rewards, please reach out I would love to chat and see if there is anyway I can help. No one knows yet if investors will be able to recoup the money they invested, but I’m crossing my fingers for all of them.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

If you have a personal story I would love to hear it in the comments below.