Stress

Making the Best of a Bad Situation

No doubt, you've been exposed to lots and lots of articles and books and various other communications about ways to cut down your stress. Even I address this subject both in writing and workshops as well as teaching my clients tools to deal with stress. Why? Because stress can have very adverse effects on your health -- both physically and psychologically. But there's also another side to stress. Stress can actually have some positive benefits! In fact, learning how to deal with stress can make you resilient. You may have heard the expression, "What doesn't kill you, makes you strong." Growing into it More…

Connecting Through Troubled Times

I certainly do not have to tell any of you that this is a time of great economic difficulty. This situation is occurring globally and in some form has an impact on everyone -- whether it is direct or indirect. No doubt, most of you are feeling the stress of this situation. In times of stress, people generally revert back to patterns that they have used in the past. And, many of these are, unfortunately, not ones that really help the situation. Rather, the typical types of reactions people exhibit are either lashing out in some form or shutting down. Having a good working relationship is no easy task. When you add stress to the equation, it makes it that much more difficult. How to make it better More…

Gaining Wisdom

In the middle of a very troubling customer experience yesterday, I came to a very pleasant conclusion: I am glad I am not young any more. I was trying to cancel a service I receive from a utility. (I won't name them because Verizon gets enough bad press as it is. Just Goggle "Verizon" and "customer service." You'll see.) Canceling the service took four separate calls and a total of 1 hour and 13 minutes on hold--my phone has a built in timer, and I kept a running tab. Somewhere around the third call, when I finally got through, I mentioned all the time I was spending on hold. The person on the other end said, "oh. You called on Monday. That's our busiest day." Right then I realized no baby boomer designed Verizon's customer service program. More…

Example 671 of Why to Think Long Term

It isn't often I get a chance to impress a bunch of 20 year-olds, otherwise known as my kids, but it happened yesterday. We are down in Florida on vacation, and over breakfast--well brunch; they don't get up early--I said with absolutely confidence that I could predict how the stock market would do for the day.I promised it would drop. How did I know? I didn't of course. But I did read a story in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal about how stocks were up 20% from their November lows. The story went on to hint that maybe the carnage on Wall Street was over. Any time a media person says "A," think "Z" and so I predicted the down day and I was correct. The Dow fell 2.7% The point: Ignore day to day gyrations in the market. More…

The 90%-10% rule

Because I have the world's most annoying accountant--the man has absolutely no sense of humor about meeting deadlines and filing accurately; he is in favor of both--I have already started getting my papers together to help prepare my 2008 tax returns. Here is something I have noticed in going through my files. I divided by savings/investings into two buckets: Some 90% went to my retirement. The rest to things like my emergency fund and general savings. I didn't consciously plan it this way, but I think it is a good way to go. Like you, I am not getting any younger. (I am 54.) And like you, I saw my retirement accounts get hammered last year. (Even with making contributions, I was down 30% year to year.) So, my retirement accounts are a priority. More…

A Home is Not a Piggy Bank

One of the reasons we are now officially in a recession is, of course, because of the meltdown in housing prices. In some places, especially on either coast, home prices have fallen 30% from their highs. All those people who were counting on the rising equity in their homes to keep them afloat--they planned to take out ever increasing home equity loans to pay for things like new cars and college for the kids--are now in serious trouble. More…

If you haven't finished your Christimas shopping...

...it could work to your benefit this year. This is just a guess on my part, but given the economy I think the mark downs you saw today, "Black Friday," will continue to Christmas Eve. That's the good news. The potential bad news (other than the fact that all the mark downs mean the economy is in trouble) is if retailers are smart, they will have cut back on their ordering. So, I wouldn't wait too long. The item you want could be gone. More…

Being Grateful in Difficult Times

No doubt, you are all aware that the Holiday Season is upon us. The calendar says so. Perhaps some of you are hosting the Thanksgiving dinner and, therefore, are a bit more sensitive to the upcoming traditional time to celebrate. Yet, in these recent economic times, for many of you, it will be difficult to think in terms of celebrating. Rather, in times when things are tough, the contradiction in emotions may even bring on a sense of intense anxiety. Clearly, soon after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah and Kwanzaa occur. This year, especially, it may be a hardship to make the usual purchases. Hard to find the good More…

We Might as Well Share in the Rewards

From today's Wall Street Journal: 'The U.S. government is expected to take stakes in nine of the nation's top financial institutions as part of a new plan to restore confidence to the battered U.S. banking system, a far-reaching effort that puts the government's guarantee behind the basic plumbing of financial markets." You can make the case, as I have, that the government should not be in the bailout business. (It simply isn't the way capitalism is supposed to work.) But, if taxpayers are going to be on the hook for guaranteeing loans to AIG and bailing out the banks, we might as well share in the upside. More…

Are you Rethinking your Retirement? (Drop me a line and you be featured here.)

The stock market has fallen more than 33% since last October. Even more depressing, collectively we have lost something like $2 trillion in the value of our retirement accounts. That has gotten me to start rethinking my retirement plans. I am wondering if it is affecting yours. I am not so much curious about people who are thinking about cutting back. Rather, I am wondering if you—like me—are seeing this as a chance to make lemonade out of lemons. The fact that our retirement accounts are plummeting means we are going to have to work longer. But that doesn’t mean we necessarily have do the same sort of work we are doing now. Are you using the current downturn to rethink what you will do for a living in the future, once you reach “retirement” age? More…