Tuggle & Russell, LLC

Sure!  Car, house & contents, boat, airplane, Medicare (whatever that may turn out to be), long-term care (maybe), umbrella, life, disability, and whatever else a smooth talking salesman can convince you that you need.  Well, that’s good!!

How about insurance that your worldly possessions will be properly handled if you are disabled?  Have you explained to your wife all your business dealings?  Even if she has a CPA or attorney to guide her, does she know all the bank accounts, IRAs, royalties, and such like you have accumulated over a life time of deals?  Have you made arrangements for the disposition of closely held stock or other business interests?  Does she know what they are?  Do you owe any money she isn’t aware of and the pay back arrangements?  Insure her peace of mind by giving her the benefit of your advice about what she should do if you don’t make it through eighteen holes one day.  You probably won’t care after that.

But what if you don’t have a wife?   Who will see to the many things you have to deal with?  Maybe you don’t even have any kids to dump it on.  Let’s say you make it through the eighteen holes, but that night you have a stroke and can’t walk or talk.  Who will make decisions about your care and keeping?  Who will pay the bills?  Who will look after the rental property or investments?  I have several clients who are in that very spot. No kids, in their 80‘s or 90’s and wondering what they should do. No one has authority to make medical decisions, or business decisions, and those are two very separate areas. Is that worth insuring?

Maybe you have kids, but which one will take the responsibility?  Will they be fighting over that “privilege”?  Do they have the same capabilities?  Do they handle their money well?  Would they handle yours well?  Is there one who has disabilities?  Do any of them know what you want if you have health problems?  Do they have any idea of what you own or even how big your estate is?   Do you want to insure that they know what you want if you are incapacitated, and what to do with your assets?

These are tough questions, and most people don’t want to even talk about them.  But sometime, somewhere they must be answered, whether you are ready or not.  Better decisions will be made if they are discussed without the emergency circumstances that will force them to be answered.  Some suggestions–

• Make a list of your assets and liabilities with notes on any unusual arrangements affecting them
• Call a  meeting of your entire family (even grandkids old enough to sit still) and talk about what you have, what you expect to happen to it, and who you expect to take care of the person as well as the property.  Face those tough questions about who you think would do better job of making decisions, both for health and property.
• Make some provision for compensating those whom you choose to be responsible because it takes a lot of work and time to handle either job.
• You may be pleasantly surprised at what good kids you raised.

Wow. It’s 2010. What does this year hold for all of us? Of course no one knows, even though lots of people try to tell us that they do. The unknown is always unsettling. I personally believe we still have some financial trials ahead of us this year. In some ways it seems rather grim. And I confess on December 31, 2009 I was feeling sorta glum. Then weirdly, this phrase from a song in “Fiddler on the Roof” ran through my mind:

“God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.  How much more can we be joyful when there’s really something to be joyful for!”

The visual of that usually makes me laugh.  Many of us feel like we ended 2009 with our hearts panting on the floor!!!  So do we just throw up our hands in despair?  Are we forced to ignore some significant realities if we want to “not worry and be happy?”  I don’t think so.  We have challenges ahead of us in 2010—financially, economically, politically.  We can let that tear us up or we can decide to tack into the wind and not just survive, but enjoy life.

Money obviously has a significant impact on our lives. It is important to manage it to the best of our abilities. Some things you might want to keep in mind as we go into 2010 are:

Invest in something that pays a cash dividend/interest/royalty. Income is your friend.

Keep your emergency “cash stash” as intact as much as possible.

Live within your means as much as possible which includes paying down existing debt. (P.S. The emergency cash stash can help you in true emergencies to avoid the credit card.  A new pair of shoes is not an emergency.)

But I refuse to let guarding my money be all that there is to life.  There are friendships, family, opportunities that only present themselves in pain, the beauty of nature, blessings of health, homes that shelter us from the elements, freedom to practice our particular faith, laughter, music, dance (what I wouldn’t give to be on Dancing with the Stars!), acts of kindness, imagination, creativity.  I’m sure you could add even more to the list.

So even though there will be financial challenges in 2010, as well as victories, let’s not lose sight of what really makes life worth living.  If we can be joyful in stressful times…how much more can we be joyful when times are good.  And there will be good times again.

My (much) younger colleague waxed philosophic in her musings for this issue, and to be truthful, the events of the past two years will cause us to look for good things in addition to money.  That’s what we should do in good times as well as bad.  However, “we” have to be concerned about our different circumstances.  “They” have much greater opportunities to recover their losses than we do.  Our time frame is much shorter.  We cannot afford to allow our potential asset recovery to any extent to go to waste.  Many of us were frozen after the fall over the cliff and much of our wealth disappeared in vapor.  On the other hand we have lived in times when the economy was not all that good and have made it through.  We have lived “poor”, and we have lived at a lower level than we were enjoying when the bottom dropped out.  However, the bottom has made a rather good recovery, particularly this past year, so we cannot remain frozen unless we know we have enough to outlast us.  There are many investments in the market place that do not necessarily follow the Dow.  It takes a little more work to find them and to manage them, and they can’t be turned over to a manager who has no concern for our individual circumstances.   Can anything be done about it? Try these:

• Investments that pay a consistent dividend
• Get a job!  An 80 year old widow client makes $50 a day working on a computer!  Makes her get up in the morning and think about something besides her aches and pains.
• Pursue your hobby!  One client makes glass decorations and sells them through a retail outlet.  One used to pay their way for three months in Colorado by selling blue jean jackets made out of used blue jeans at trade days.  Use your imagination.  $500 a month equals the income from a $300,000 CD!