Preparing to Care for Aging Parents

Presented by: Mark Phillips

Aging can be a tough topic for everyone - both the one going through it and their families. Are bills getting missed and is memory loss starting to show up daily? Although a sensitive topic, there are ways to approach the conversations, one of which is to learn about your parents’ needs and wishes. Please read on to learn more what kinds of questions to ask to yield the best result for everyone involved.

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Why we believe in setting up “Tripwires” in your financial life…

Presented By Mark Phillips

Carl Richards, one of our favorite thinkers on the art of planning and advice – not all financial, shares a great reminder of the value of the “tripwire” in his latest post on his blog site (Behavior Gap). Using a story about a medical procedure he underwent Carl relates, with his typical elegant simplicity, the beauty of the well-designed tripwire.

We believe in a huge way in the tripwire tool. After all we are only human, life is ever more busy and complicated, and mistakes, especially those not caught for a long time, can be expensive.

Please give yourself a well “invested” five minutes to enjoy and think about Carl’s article.

Click here to read the article.                                                                                                                 

Please jot down 2-3 tripwire opportunities in your life to share with me at our next meeting. They need not be explicitly financial in nature. After all, we have all discovered that the non-financial problem eventually often becomes a financial problem as well.

How to Stop Most All Telemarketing Calls.

By Mark Phillips

Unwelcome telemarketing calls can be annoying at the least – and the beginning of you being defrauded at their worst.

In the past few months this issue of my friends and clients getting calls from telemarketers, often 2-5 per day, has come up in conversation numerous times. This has been more noticeable for those whom are retired and thus at home in the day time to receive the calls (as rarely do telemarketers leave you a message). I will share with you both my thoughts and some elements of my discussion with my friends and clients on this issue.

Firstly telemarketer calls, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), include all calls to your home or cell phone where selling a product or service is the ultimate goal of the caller or their firm.

The Federal Trade Commission is empowered to enforce the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003 (Public Law No. 108-10, was H.R. 395 of the 108th Congress, and codified at 15 U.S.C. § 6101 et. seq.), and the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007. These laws allow for individuals such as you and I to list our home and cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. The consequence of listing your phone numbers therein is that unauthorized telemarketers will be restricted from calling your listed numbers. The penalty they face for ignoring this is a fine of up to $11,000 per call.

How is the FTC doing with enforcement? On the FTC web site they share the following:

Enforcement of the Do Not Call Registry

The FTC takes aggressive legal action to make sure telemarketers abide by the Do Not Call Registry. To date, the Commission has brought 105 enforcement actions against companies and telemarketers for Do Not Call, abandoned call, rob call and Registry violations. The Mortgage Investors litigation produced the largest settlement for Do Not Call violations, resulting in civil penalty payments of $7.5 million. To date, 80 of these FTC enforcement actions have been resolved, and in those cases the agency has recovered over $41 million in civil penalties and $33 million in redress or disgorgement.

I have had numerous friends and clients complain to me about telemarketing calls, their frequency and the unhelpful entreaties of the callers. Yet when I share the option to list a phone number on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry there seems to be some reluctance. I hear the following:

Q:        Well I don’t want to cut off important calls from people and companies I need to hear from.

A:         No individual (non-business) caller is restricted in any way by your number being listed on the DNC Registry.

the Do Not Call Registry prohibits sales calls. You still may receive political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, informational calls, and telephone survey calls. Sorry, but this service will not inhibit these calls.

In addition, companies may still call your listed number if you’ve recently done business with the company, or if you’ve given the company written permission to call you.

However, if you ask a company not to call you again, it must honor your request. I recommend that you record the date of your request.

As such the calls from firms you are doing business with will not be interrupted.

Additionally, legitimate companies you are not doing business with don't call if your number is on the Registry. If a company is ignoring the Registry, there’s a good chance that it’s a scam. If you get these calls, hang up and file a complaint with the FTC.

Q:        But won’t I miss out on opportunities for me?

A:         I propose that opportunities will not come to you by virtue of a telemarketing phone call. If there is something out there in the universe that you would benefit from you will not likely get a call from a telemarketer offering this to you. They are selling what they have not what you want or need. The better bet to get what you want or need is to be proactive and go get it yourself rather than hope and wait for someone to call you and offer it to you (at a good price no less).

Further consider, as more people list their numbers on the DNC Registry the fewer numbers not on the list will be subject to ever more calls from the telemarketers. Do you want to be subject to this?

I recommend that you list our home and cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry today so that the annoying (and worse) telemarketing calls you are receiving may soon be restricted.

 

The search for Happiness is not done by direct route…

Presented by Mark Phillips

Emily Esfahani Smith's recent article "There's More to LIfe Than Being Happy"speaks to the pathway to happiness and vitality in our lives. She provides a thoughtful summary of the work of Viktor Frankl and others who have studied the issue of happiness and longevity. Her work on this matter has appeared most recently in The Atlantic.

This may indeed provide great insight into the successful pursuit of happiness and longevity – or it may help confirm what you already believed to be so.

Share and discuss with friends and family freely!

Mega-Weddings: Say "I Don't"

By Melanie Vu

 

New research has found that there is no positive correlation between having an extravagant wedding and a long successful marriage. “We find evidence that marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony,” write Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon, two economics professors at Emory University in Atlanta.  This study was based on the wedding budgets and marriage track records of over 3,000 U.S. adults.

In their study, they found that 60% of couples whose wedding cost over $20,000, say their marriages ended in divorce. Men who spent $2,000 to $4,000 on their engagement ring ended up divorced 30% more often than those who spent between $500 and $2,000.

There are several reasons as to why costly weddings don’t necessarily lead to long and happy marriages.

·         Expensive weddings may attract the people who are materialistic and narcissistic – who are less likely to sustain a successful marriage due to money issues. Financial planners note that money troubles consistently feature as a leading cause of marriage problems.

·         A Fairy-tale wedding may also raise unrealistic expectations about marriage. Couples who plan an extravagant wedding may trap the fiancé or fiancée who is having second thoughts, not wanting to speak up because of all the effort going into planning the wedding and all the guests who have already bought their plane tickets.

According to Michelle Fait, a financial planner in San Francisco, “those who spend the most are often seeking external validation”. Modern couples are under pressure from family, social media and friends to spend more on the wedding. The wedding should be the special day for husband and wife, instead it turns into trying to please and impress guests. History has repeatedly shown that obsession with impressing others is all too often a formula for disaster.

These assumptions are only based on one study, so we shouldn’t put too much weight on the price of a wedding and the success of the marriage. Having an expensive wedding does not cause an unsuccessful marriage, but couples who plan a wedding need to ask themselves if spending more on the wedding will help the future of their marriage.

Click here to read the full article.

 

3 Scams You Need to Know About

Presented By Mark Phillips

It’s one o’clock in the morning and your sleep is interrupted by a phone call. Startled, you answer the phone and hear what sounds like your grandson on the other end, saying he’s been in a bad car accident while on vacation in a foreign country. While waiting for a tow company to come, he was mugged. Now, he’s hurt and has no money. He desperately needs you to wire him a few thousand dollars to get back home safely. He also asks you not to tell his mom and dad, as he doesn’t want them to know about his dilemma.

This story is just one of many similar tales that phone scammers use to target senior citizens. In what’s known as the “grandparent scam,” crooks scare their elderly suspects with a call in the middle of the night, catching them off guard with a heartbreaking story about someone they care about. The “grandchild” is always in need of cash, which he or she instructs the victim to wire through a money-transfer service, and repeatedly asks the victim not to tell anyone.

A real and growing threat

As the number of aging Americans continues to grow, more and more scams are targeting people 60 and older, who are often perceived as more trusting and polite. Based on their success with seniors, many con artists are now attempting to defraud people of all ages with similar schemes. In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission received 60,000 complaints about the grandparent scam and related frauds; in 2011, the number of complaints increased by 22 percent, to 73,281.

Besides the grandparent scam, those who prey on the elderly have plenty of other tricks up their sleeves. For example: 

1.  Scammers posing as telemarketers ask for donations to civic causes, attempting to appeal to the older generation’s patriotism and respect for authority.

2.  Imposters pretend to be with a government agency, such as the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, or another trusted source, trying to convince their targets that, in order to comply with new regulations, they must pay exorbitant sums for unneeded products and services.

3.  Claiming to represent Wal-Mart or another well-known company, scammers inform their targets that they’ve won a sweepstakes and need to make a payment to obtain the supposed prize. They may even send fake prize-money checks to their victims’ homes. But before the checks bounce, the criminals collect money for “fees.”

How can you protect yourself and older family members?

To safeguard your identity and finances from con artists, keep these tips in mind:

• Never wire or send money to someone you don’t know, no matter what the circumstances may be or how convincing the person is. As with sending cash, once you wire money, you cannot get it back. Also remember that legal sweepstakes don’t require you to pay taxes or other fees in order to claim your winnings.

• Don’t forget your common sense, especially in the middle of the night. Fraudsters call at times when they think they can catch you off guard, shock you, and cause you to panic. They also create a sense of urgency, pressuring you to send them money before you find out who they really are. As disturbing as the call may be, remember to keep calm and rely on your common sense.

• Question the caller. If someone contacts you claiming to be a family member, friend, or someone else you know, ask the caller questions to confirm his or her identity. You could quiz him or her on the date of a family’s member birthday, the name of a pet, or the restaurant you last went to together.

• Confirm the emergency situation. To determine if the story is real, call sources who can verify where the person in question is. If someone calls claiming to be your grandchild, contact your actual grandchild’s parents immediately, no matter how many times the caller asks you not to say anything to anyone.

• Be wary of strange messages. Usually, these scams don’t involve meeting anyone personally; rather, the scammers will keep their distance, contacting you by phone, letter, fax, e-mail, or even text message.

• Know that scammers don’t always ask for sizable amounts of cash. In most cases, it’s between $500 and $5,000. If you wire money once, the scammer may continue to contact you in the hope that you’ll keep sending money, upping the requested amounts until the total takeaway is far greater.

• Protect your computer, tablet, and smartphone information. Don’t let crooks get their hands on your e-mail account, phone contacts, or passwords stored on your electronic devices. To protect yourself, label the phone numbers of family members by their first name, rather than “Mom,” “Grandpa,” and so on.

• Contact your local law enforcement department if you’re concerned that a con artist is targeting you.

Remember, scams are ever-changing, and fraudsters are constantly coming up with new ways to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. To stay up to date on the latest scam alerts, visit the FTC’s website at www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/index.shtml.

So How Is Everybody Doing??

 

By Mark Phillips

The last few years sure do feel like a big improvement over the nadir of the economic downturn in early 2010, which followed on the heels of the US stock market nadir in March 2009.

So how do we feel?

Generally a good bit better is what I hear. The overall mood of gloom has lifted a good bit.

How are we, here the collective average of us all, really doing?

Well, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of the US (that Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen led money supply agency) the reality, when it comes to our financial security, not so much better at all – on average.

Sadly, according to their work, the percentage of households at serious risk of not being able to maintain a similar lifestyle in retirement as we, on average, have/had enjoyed when working remains over 50%.

The percentage has not really improved from 2010 to 2013. This projection even assumes that everyone will work to age 65 – which is not the average age for retirement in the past few decades – the real age of retirement has been closer to 62. Further, the projection assumes that everyone would reverse mortgage their home and annuitize the cash out proceeds to help fund their retirement lifestyle – also something very few people are emotionally ready to consider.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retirement-index-shows-many-still-at-risk-2014-12-17

So, while many of us feel considerably better, we have, collectively, not really improved our financial situation.

What is the disconnect?

Job prospects have improves in many job sectors. Investment accounts have rebounded for the minority of people that have investment accounts. This rebound has not helped most people in a meaningful way – even if it has helped a minority greatly.

Is this us just living in the now and leaving the future for then?

Perhaps.

Are the numbers way off?

Not likely as I see and read evidence. Close to half of current retirees, many of them working during the 1983 through 2001 surveys, are living measurably below their pre-retirement lifestyle. This is consistent with what the earlier surveys had projected. It suggests that this was predictable and unsurprising – and that it is a strong predictor of the future as it stands.

I suddenly feel as if I have been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future: “Tell me specter, are these images you show me the images of what will be or of what may be?”

I want to suggest you think of this communal/societal retirement security problem as a slow motion airplane crash, because it is in its own way. Over 50% of households are not ready for impact and will suffer for it.

Perhaps the safety announcement you hear (listening intently, right?) at the beginning of your air flights is a good metaphor: “If  the oxygen mask drops from the ceiling above you put your mask on first and then proceed to help your child and others around you.”

You know the oxygen mask is neither comfortable nor stylish – and yet you know that if it does drop down in front of you that you will look a whole lot better for having put it on so you will do it – right?

Here is my safety message for all:

First, ensure you have your financial security oxygen mask on:

·         Spending less than you make, save at least 10%, ideally over 15% of gross earnings

·         Protect your current and future assets (cash reserve, maximum disability insurance, adequate life and long term care insurance, etc.)

·      Save assets in an optimal tax treatment fashion before retirement, and extract them in a tax optimal fashion in retirement

·         Investing (not speculating) for long term growth and income

·         Establish a plan for aging and care as well as wealth transfer in alignment with serving your needs and goals

Next, proceed to help others with getting their financial security oxygen mask on:

·         Ask your friends what they want, really want, deeply want (not the stuff that they think they can have) in their life’s experiences

·         Ask them what is their plan and how you might help with that.

·         Share my above five point guide for getting a proper “Financial Planning Oxygen Mask” in place

·         Share your plans and the feeling of comfort that having a better understanding of where you stand gives you

·         Share interesting ideas and insights with others that have been helpful to you – or may be helpful to them

Because we may be a helpful component for your friends and family in this regard please introduce us and have us help.

After all, 52% of households not being able to maintain their working lifestyle even by working 3 extra years and revers mortgaging their home is simply an embarrassing group outcome. This, you may believe, will not be, and thus not effect you, however, my experience is that the shortfall of others you care about will effect you.

We all can help move the needle. We need to do so now as later will be too late.