Hello
Speakers, Business Owners, Future Entrepreneurs and Americans,
Happy Memorial Day!
Today we pay tribute to those men and women who served in
the Armed Forces protecting our nation especially those who paid the ultimate
price that guaranteed our freedom. When I look at the flag of the United States
I have so much pride to know there was so much sacrifice involved and continued
sacrifice keep that flag-waving. We will always honor you and remember you.
This month’s topic is a true story and it started about five
years ago. Let me give you some background about myself so that you can understand what my true
purpose is in my current profession. In the early 1980's I started my career as a financial
planner for a well-known Life Insurance Company. After a while, I developed my own style of
recommendations and presentations based on what I saw in the late 80's. Many of
the families were not able to achieve the goals they had set for themselves because
of excess debt. I once knew a very loving couple that ended in divorce
because of fighting over money and expenses, and in some cases, if divorce
did not occur life in the house was so miserable they probably should have divorced. These are common occurrences. Over time I developed the philosophy to not sell, but to get to know people at a friendship level and discover
what their issues were with money, debt and income. The true problem is most
individuals or couples never put the brakes on for spending. Many
do not ask for help because of shame. To this day, I still go out and meet
couples and sit down and do what I call a life planning review. The problem
still exists because few want to ask for help.
This story takes us back five years. I was called out to an
appointment by a middle-aged couple who wanted to buy $150,000 of term life
insurance on each of them. When I pulled in to the driveway I noticed two newer
vehicles, the house was above average, yard was well maintained, backyard
well-maintained with a nice swimming pool and I thought to myself, they have
done well.
When I met with them I could tell by the look in their
eyes something was wrong. I let them know that I am in the business of helping people not just to
sell life insurance policies. I always do and
income to debt ratio with families because it is the starting point and it summarizes all the income brought into the
house and sets it against all the debt that sits in the house. After three
hours, of listing every credit card they were close to $100,000 in revolving
debt. I estimated they were paying these credit card companies almost $30,000 a
year in interest. They were living a sick existence. Basically they were looking for Life Insurance just to pay off their debt at the time of death.
I closed up the briefcase and told them to put on a pot of coffee. I took out a lot of blank papers and started to lay out a plan for them. I am not a credit counselor, a credit psychologist or credit adviser. I help people out through common sense advice that always seems to have worked for me over 30 years. This case however, I had to refer to professionals. It was a worst-case scenario. The plan we laid out back in 2009 was a plan of 5 to 7 years that involved sacrifice, discipline, and diminished spending to reconstruct their lives financially so that they could start living normal. The last thing I told them is you must put a Strawberry on your refrigerator. ”Finding the Strawberry” is just a metaphor that means to do something fun! For example: once a month, have date night together, pretend you're young adults again and you only have $15 to spend somewhere and make the best of it and have fun while you’re doing it. I explained to them that they needed to keep that Strawberry in front of them all the time, especially in the hard times when things aren’t always going so well. As time starts moving along you will need to start thinking bigger about what you’re going to do with all the money you’re freeing up in the future and you need to start planning for that now.
I told them you have to have look forward to things along
the way as you continue on your course of achievement, reward yourself in small ways.
I closed up the briefcase and told them to put on a pot of coffee. I took out a lot of blank papers and started to lay out a plan for them. I am not a credit counselor, a credit psychologist or credit adviser. I help people out through common sense advice that always seems to have worked for me over 30 years. This case however, I had to refer to professionals. It was a worst-case scenario. The plan we laid out back in 2009 was a plan of 5 to 7 years that involved sacrifice, discipline, and diminished spending to reconstruct their lives financially so that they could start living normal. The last thing I told them is you must put a Strawberry on your refrigerator. ”Finding the Strawberry” is just a metaphor that means to do something fun! For example: once a month, have date night together, pretend you're young adults again and you only have $15 to spend somewhere and make the best of it and have fun while you’re doing it. I explained to them that they needed to keep that Strawberry in front of them all the time, especially in the hard times when things aren’t always going so well. As time starts moving along you will need to start thinking bigger about what you’re going to do with all the money you’re freeing up in the future and you need to start planning for that now.
They wrote out their game plan and they turned in the direction
of the professionals for help. I stayed in touch with them for the first year to
make sure they were staying on track. On or about 2010 I lost my connection
with them.
Present day.
A few weeks ago I received a call from one of the spouses
I had worked with back in 2009. She said: “Hi John, how
are you?”. I told her I was doing great and asked her how she was doing and
she described to me that she received the certificate. I said to her: “What
certificate?”. She said the certificate congratulating us on being totally debt
free. She told me next month we don’t have to make any more payments. The
money that we were once paying out every month is all ours from this point on. She
said we always kept to the original plan you laid out for us and we made sure we kept finding
our Strawberries along the way. Even though we
didn’t spend a lot of money through the last five years my husband and I always
made sure to have great times together because it was our goal as a couple to get out of this mess. She
told me that the real big Strawberry that they planned together was a 10 day Caribbean Cruise. I told her that they deserved every bit of it. I told
her understand how successful that she and her husband were to have achieved their goal, because the
statistics for success in long term debt reduction are minimal. She told me that they knew it was going to be a very tough road, but they also knew they could
not live with the alternative. I suggested that we talk in the coming months about
securing their retirement and redirecting this money so they can continue to find the Strawberries when they stop working. For now, go out and enjoy that Big Strawberry (The 10 Caribbean
Cruise).
“The Insurance Coach”
John P. Slosek, Jr
"The Insurance Coach
™"
Insurance Coach Radio Show
Airs Every Saturday Morning 8am
Insurance Coach Radio Show
Airs Every Saturday Morning 8am
413-246-5037
