Ron Blum

December 31, 2008

As many of my clients now know I have suffered several setbacks over the fall months.  Suddenly losing a family member and being diagnosed with cancer in the same week takes a toll on oneself and family.  These events have gotten me thinking on how we prepare for major events in our life.  Do we have a plan in place, a will, long term care insurance or even enough savings to get us through a long term illness? 

Many of us go day to day without thinking of these things.  We think “it can’t happen to us”.  But as the commercial says “life comes at you fast”.   Many don’t “plan to fail” they “fail to plan”.  The only thing that I can brag about is that I have always believed in a lot of life insurance, and purchased it when I was younger.   It is something I highly recommend along with disability and long term care insurance.

What I want to review with everyone who is reading my blog are these simple things that you can do to plan ahead for life’s surprises:

1.       If you don’t already have one get a will.  Single, married, divorced, etc, take the time to have your will written or updated to save your family time and frustration.

2.       Make sure you have adequate life insurance to cover the costs of your funeral expenses, mortgage, college expenses, etc.

3.       Buy long term care insurance.  Many of us over look this, but this insurance with cover the cost for rehab hospitals or nursing homes when you need it. 

4.       Participate in a disability insurance program (Aflac).

5.       Make sure your spouse or partner knows pertinent information in case you suddenly become sick or hospitalized.  Does he/she know where the safe deposit box is, what bills need to be paid, where the will is, etc.

6.       Do you or your parents have their funeral planned or even paid for? Most funeral directors will sit with you and plan out your exact wishes so that when the time comes family doesn’t need to deal with those matters.  A few years ago I purchased funeral plots in my town before the price was due to go up.  I guess you can say it was an impulse buy.  My family still doesn’t let me live it down considering I was only in my 30’s

7.       Talk to your family about your wishes.  Even take the time to write them down and put them with your important papers and give a copy to your family.

With these simple steps taken many of us will have alleviated the stressful times that occur during these unplanned circumstances.   

Tonight I discovered a new show on TV called the Dan Ho Show.  This gentleman came to America in order to achieve the American Dream.  He succeeded having the big house, money, a restaurant; not to mention the stress, extra weight and an unhealthy lifestyle.  A seizure caused him to have a wake up call.  Now at 120lbs lighter and much healthier his goal is to help people live the more simpler, but happier life. 

 Somewhat like me, my goal is to streamline individual’s home and business surroundings to eliminates stress and save time and money.  One thing that each one of us can take away from this is that we don’t need tons of gadgets and toys to make us happy. Many times these turn into clutter and can actually make our surroundings more stressful.  Save the money you were going to spend on the widget and take the well deserved mental health vacation we all so deserve. 

As most parents battle the end of summer vacation, along with the thought of back to school shopping I offer this advice.  Formulate a plan before going to the mall and spending endless hours.  Last week I took one hour and emptied all existing school supplies onto the kitchen table.  I quickly took an inventory and then let both children take what was needed and loaded their backpacks.  After that I was easily able to make a list of needed supplies for each person.  I recommend that you do the same for clothing, shoes, etc.  If you take some time to plan you will have a much better idea of what is needed and you won’t spend valuable time and money on unnecessary things. 

Good luck and have an organized day. 

I just got done reading Loretta Laroche’s Blog.  She is a speaker who I often reference in my lectures.  If you ever have time to enjoy one of her lectures on humor I suggest you do so.  Something she so simply put on her blog I thought wrapped up my thought for the day.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.”

By now like most Americans you may have been exposed to Randy Pausch’s legendary Last Lecture which has been seen by millions on the internet.  Tonight as I sit here Primetime is showing the documentary on his last few months of life.  Sadly, Randy died last Friday of his battle with pancreatic cancer. 

In his lecture he speaks of how we need to make the best of our time, take chances, go for the risk.  It is better to fail on a grand scale than to succeed in a mediocre way.  With this in mind I challenge each one of you today to go out and make a change.  Live for the day, laugh, love and try to make a difference in just one person’s life and when you walk off the field at the end of the day make sure you gave it your all. 

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