This Halloween marks fifteen years since Bethany Hamilton’s shark attack.
I don’t think I’m a particularly brave person. I’m not a coward, although there were certainly times I could have behaved more bravely than I did. But there are other times when I did step up. I hope I’m at least a little better than break-even, but in my day-to-day life, there haven’t been any monumental obstacles I had to bravely face. Now, Bethany Hamilton, there’s a brave person. In 2003, she had her arm bitten off by a tiger shark. She was a mere thirteen years old, and already well on her way to being a champion surfer, having won first place in the 2002 Open Women’s Division of the NSSA. The attack could have put an end to that career. Two arms are kind of important for surfing, both for paddling and for balance. And forget surfing--how many among us, after being bitten by a shark, wouldn’t swear off the ocean forever? I practically swore off the ocean after seeing Jaws! But not Bethany. She not only went in the ocean again, she learned to surf with one arm. On January 10, 2004 (less than three months later!) she entered a major competition. Read her book, or see her movie. Soul Surfer. She’s an inspiration. That people go on is amazing to me. Amy Copeland, Lauren Scruggs. Or all those we’ve never heard of, people who have lost a limb or suffered through a medical battle, only to come out stronger. Those are the brave. I’m not sure I could join their ranks. I hope I never have to. #TuesdayThoughts #BethanyHamilton #NSSA #SoulSurfer #Jaws #AmyCopeland #LaurenScruggs
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Wednesday morning, I ran a mile in under nine minutes. I was never a fast runner. I don’t even like running. Even in terms of keeping my heart healthy, I’d rather go for a brisk walk than run. But I do like to make goals for myself, and one of my goals that I made at the beginning of this year, to be accomplished before my sixtieth birthday in November, was to run a mile in under nine minutes. Now, nine minutes is not exactly a fast mile. There are plenty of people my age who can run faster than that. There are probably more people my age who can’t. But that doesn’t matter. Goals, to me, are personal. Somewhere along the line, I realized that life is not a competition. My goal of running a mile in under nine minutes was meant to push me, not to compare to anyone else. I was actually surprised to make my goal yesterday, I thought I was still a couple of weeks away from it. Maybe it’s the new Skechers GoRun running shoes I recently bought, with bungee instead of tie laces. They turned out to be the most comfortable running shoes I’ve ever owned. I’m not even getting paid to say that! But I got away from my point, which is this: make lots of goals! Goals to be more fit, to advance in your career, to be a better person! Long term goals and short term goals! Solid goals and flexible goals! Some of them you’ll achieve, some you won’t. The important thing is that you have something to strive for. Time is going to pass with or without your goals. There’s no way to live but to try. #MondayMotivation #MotivationalMonday #Sketchers #Goals Ah, procrastination. We all do it. Even with the best of intentions, we’ll say, “OK, I’m going to do that now. Just let me do this other thing first.” And sometimes it works: we procrastinate on a project we thought we had to do, only to find out later that maybe we didn’t need to do it at all. But procrastination is not a strategy. It’s not the same as taking the time needed to analyze, it’s just putting things off. And that can cost us, in terms of productivity or missed opportunity.
So, OK, your client has been procrastinating about putting in a retirement plan. They know they have until 12/31/18 to put one in for this year. But what if they want a safe harbor 401(k)? A safe harbor 401(k) plan is often the best option for a small firm. The owner wants to contribute $24,500, but the employees only want to contribute between 3% and 5%. The plan won’t pass nondiscrimination testing. On top of that, the plan may be Top-Heavy. The safe harbor match can satisfy the Top-Heavy minimum contribution. But your client cannot adopt a safe harbor 401(k) this December. The latest date to adopt a safe harbor 401(k) for 2018 is October 1, 2018. So maybe the right time to talk about a retirement plan isn’t in a minute, it’s right now. I ran across a pair of 50 y.o. attorneys recently, in business for about 20 years. They have an assistant, 55, who has been with them from the start. They have one other employee, 30, who they hired a few years ago. They’re ready to take the plunge and put in a retirement plan.
The catch? They don’t want a 401(k). She does the payroll in-house (always has) and doesn’t want the burden of 401(k) deductions. He worries that they won’t be able to find a proper investment platform with so few employees, and would rather a pooled account. W-2 pay is $250k for each attorney, $80k for the long-term assistant, and $50k for the other employee. The budget for the plan is $125k. They want most of the contribution for themselves, and they want to favor the long-term employee over the newer one. “Make us happy,” they say. I propose a new comparability profit sharing plan. They can contribute $55,000 for each attorney, 10% of pay for their faithful assistant, and 5% of pay for the newbee. Total contribution: $120,500. With all objectives met, they are happy indeed. #WednesdayWisdom The Academy recently sent out a tweet asking followers to describe their favorite movie in five words. I love stuff like that. It’s a fun writing challenge, trying to say something in a prescribed number of words. But I also hate stuff like that. How am I supposed to pick just one favorite movie? Or one favorite anything? I once wrote a letter to one of my four sons, in which I told him he was my favorite, ¼ of the time. He was less than impressed.
Parents are not supposed to have a favorite kid, so that’s probably not a good example. But how about a favorite song? Probably something by Bob Dylan. No, wait, maybe something by Van Morrison. One of my favorite oldies is “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” by The Casinos. But I can’t say that’s my absolute favorite. If I were asked my favorite color, I would probably answer, “Blue, no, yellow…” and be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. But getting back to movies. Some of the replies were quite clever, and some took a little bit of thinking to figure out the movie. Some described movies that I liked, some described movies that should be nobody’s favorite. But there are so many great movies to choose from. I thought maybe “The Godfather” (Reluctant heir heads Mafia family) or “American Graffiti” (Teens cruise around California town) or even one from the hard-to-explain-why-everyone-loves-it category, “Escape From New York” (Snake must save the president). In the end I chose “In Bruges.” I’m a big Martin McDonagh fan, and I find something new to like each time I watch that movie. I tweeted my reply, “Hitmen hide out in Belgium,” and immediately thought I should have said “Hitmen lay low in Belgium.” I never could pick a favorite. #ThursdayThoughts #TheAcademy #Bob Dylan #Van Morission #TheGodfather #American Graffiti #EscapefromNewYork #InBruges #MartinMcDonagh I’m an OK swimmer, good enough that I don’t worry about drowning, but no so good that I’m willing to venture far from the shore. I always told my kids not to go past where the water is above their belly, because I knew that when a wave came in it could be over their heads. I don’t exactly follow my own advice, but I do try to stay where I can easily touch the bottom, so that I’m always a short swim to safety.
One time when I was swimming in the ocean, my son pointed out that two teenage girls and a younger boy thirty feet past us appeared to be in trouble. “Are you all right?” I shouted. The girls shook their heads. My son swam in to get a lifeguard while I swam out to the kids. “He can’t get in,” one of the girls told me. “If I take him, can you girls get in?” They assured me they could. As soon as I reached for the boy, he reacted as I’d expected he would. He grabbed for my neck, pushing me under as he clung to me. I was surprised that the girls had been able to keep him from doing this to them. With a bit of struggling, I was able to swim in enough to be out of danger, where the lifeguard met us and took over. The two girls had also made it in safely. Later, the boy’s mother found me on the beach and thanked me for saving him, but the credit goes to the two girls. If they hadn’t been there, the boy would have been pulled out by the ocean without me even knowing. I had assumed they were all together, that maybe the girls were his older sisters, and didn’t learn that they were heroic strangers until the boy and his mother came to thank me. Drowning is a leading cause of death. It’s the number one killer of children age 1 to 4 except for death related to birth defects. Among children age 14 and under, drowning is among the top five causes of death. And for every child who dies from drowning, another five are treated for drowning related injury, some suffering severe brain damage and/or lifetime physical disability. In the United States, there are about 3,500 unintentional drownings each year. The boy I swam to shore with was very nearly one of these statistics. I regret that I didn’t heap praise on the girls that day in Ocean City, NJ. In the unlikely event that they read this and recognize themselves, I just want to say that I’m grateful they were there, grateful that they held the boy afloat, and grateful to know there are caring people in this world. And I hope the boy, now a young man, realizes the gift they gave him and, in whatever small way, pays it forward. #MondayThoughts #MondayBlogs There’s an amusing saying that goes like this: “I’m unique, just like everyone else.” It made me smile the first time I heard it. It sounds contradictory, but there’s a lot of truth to it. We’re all unique in one way or another, and it’s our differences that make life interesting. In other ways, we’re pretty much the same. It’s universal, for instance, that we hate being stuck in traffic. Me, I don’t handle that well. I find myself having bad (if not evil) feelings toward the other drivers, particularly those drivers that don’t merge well or pass others on the shoulder. And, though I hate to admit it, I sometimes get annoyed at my wife for not being as angry at the traffic as I am.
We travel from PA to NY often, leaving by 6:30 am on Saturday to beat the traffic on the George Washington Bridge. That works out well. Coming back on Sunday, we’re not so lucky. Leaving pre-dawn would mean not seeing the kids, and leaving any other time means we’ll hit traffic. We usually opt for the traffic. Occasionally, being stuck in traffic has provided an opportunity to do a small bit of good. On the Cross Bronx Expressway during traffic times, there are always homeless or otherwise needy people, standing on the highway, asking for help from the passing cars. My wife and I have taken to traveling with a care package to give: peanut butter, crackers, canned tuna, Breakfast Essentials, etc. The recipients seem grateful for our gift, thanking and blessing us. You could argue that we haven’t changed anything, but you’d be wrong. At the very least, we’ve changed our outlook. I know we’re not unique, that more people than not want to help others. Yet doing something big can be overwhelming. So don’t start with something big. Do something small, something that helps just one person or just one family. And if everyone else is just like you, maybe the world will become a better place. #TuesdayThoughts I showed my father a picture of a cooler I made for a friend’s retirement. It was a simple design, a wooden box with legs, built around an Omaha Steaks shipping container. It had a bottle opener on the front and a lower shelf. My father loved it and asked me to build one for him.
Each year, I rack my brain to think of some unique gifts for Father’s day and dad’s birthday, so I welcomed the thought of making him something he wanted. But I decided to take it a step further. “We’ll make it together,” I told him. “Next time I’m in Florida.” Next time is now. We spent Friday, in the Florida heat, building the cooler. We talked a bit, joked a bit, and worked more than a bit. We took a break for lunch and a trip to Lowe’s, and finished about 3:00. We were happy with the finished product, but more important, we had a good day together. Building the cooler with my father was as much a gift to me as it was to him. If you’re lucky enough to have parents, spend time with them. It will mean a lot to them. But just as important, it will mean a lot to you. #mondaythoughts #mondayblogs #mondaymotivation My CFP friend has a client, an author, with no employees. His income (net Schedule C - ½ SE) is consistently about $300,000 per year. “He’d like to contribute $100,000 per year,” my friend says. “But he’s only 38 years old, too young for a defined benefit plan. What can he do?”
My friend remembers a time when DB plans were for older business owners, but now 38 is not too young. For this particular client, we designed a plan with a required minimum contribution of about $75,000 and a maximum deductible contribution of about $180,000. It’s a perfect fit! Even if this client had been in his 20s, we could have designed an appropriate plan, using the DB plan plus a 401(k) plan. For those clients who want to contribute more than the defined contribution limit of $55,000, it’s worth looking at a defined benefit plan. #MondayThoughts #MondayBlogs #MondayMotivation |