December 6th, 2006 by Atomictumor
Is what I need to have subtly tattooed on my head. Because geez, I don’t like it when people tiptoe around things.
The Friday BJ died, I went into PLAN MODE. It was pretty neat, because for once, everything was clear, I had to do several things, all in a row, and I had them all planned out. Get makeup and clothes to hospital. Pick the kids up. Buy them chik-fil-a. Take them to hospital. Plan wake. Plan other wake. Give up and accept donations. Contact work about insurance. Change beneficiaries. Make a will. Figure out who’d get the kids if I get hit by a car. Get decent life insurance to pay for said kids (although I suppose I could sell one of them). Talk to social security.
Make appointment with financial advisor.
So, I talked to my buddy Netmom, who is in on the know with everybody in like a 5 county radius, about who to talk to. She pointed me in the direction of this one guy, and I made an appointment. We met yesterday, at Panera Bread, to have a (free) chat.
As I drove over there, I realized that whatever reason I thought of to meet with a financial adviser was gone now, and I had no idea what I wanted to get out of the meeting!
However, he had a spiel, and went on about life insurance, mutual funds, and a bunch of stuff, and was apparently set on ‘old man’ mode, because he was using the LONGEST DAMN analogies to get his point across!
The way I figure, if I say “I understand” the first time you explain it, you don’t HAVE to explain it again!
It was kinda like the organ donation folks, all over again…
—
I’m meeting with the SS people today, and I don’t expect that. In fact, if the meeting goes quite as I expect, I’ll have a hostile woman with a Germanic accent demanding paperwork of me (”SCHNELL!”) that I was not prepared to bring, and have never heard of. Then she’ll shoot me, and eat my liver.
Thats pretty much what I’m expecting.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:22 am
At. just to try to put your mind at ease…MIL recently went through much of what you are going through. (At least the business type stuff.) She found the folks at the SS office pretty easy to deal with and rather nice. They may be nazis but they are people too.
Financial advisors are for the extremely well healed. They tend to tie up large amounts of money for long periods of time. At your age that may not be a bad thing, but penalties for early withdrawl can be huge. Most of them know their stuff, but frankly, you’re a pretty bright guy. Buy a book and hire a good tax attorney. It will be cheaper in the long run.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Ugh, insurance, mutual funds, taxes, sorry. I bet the idea of a German lady eating your liver sounds pretty sweet at this point. :-) Hang tough.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:50 am
If your SS office is anything like ours around here, it should be rather painless. They know there is a reason you are there, and they aren’t trying to get you on board with an IRA or anything like that.
I’m with you, though. If I am nodding and saying, “I know, I know”, why are you still talking about the SAME THING????
December 6th, 2006 at 8:06 am
I’m with daco on this. You’re smart enough to be your own finacial planner.
Anyone who keeps explaining after you say you understand is not listening to you, he’s selling stuff. You don’t need a financial planner who isn’t listening.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:08 am
Your Social Security person sounds like a physical therapist I used to have. Is her name Helga . . . ?
December 6th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Agree, you don’t need a finacial planner…unless he/she has money to give you. Usually, it’s the other way around. Good luck with SS. Ware your black boots.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:35 am
Good advice on get a book, hiring a tax attorney may be a bit much though. Anytime attorneys get involve the thing will get diluted and confused. It is thier job to confuse the issues, sometimes to the point even thier clients are confused.
Good book is Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. Not necessarily the budget stuff, or the handle money by the bible stuff but just the info contained regarding investing. Don’t have to buy it because it is probably at the Library and is a short read easy read ( I comprehended most of it if that helps :0 ) .
December 6th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Oh, and you can handle it any way you wish.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I agree with the Dave Ramsey suggestion. He has a website, too.
Get your rich uncle to be your financial advisor! He’s got to be good for something…
December 6th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I have a rich uncle…?
December 6th, 2006 at 8:54 am
“They may be nazis but they are people too.”
I thought when you signed on as a nazi, your personhood status was revoked by the dmv. Can nazis be people, too? That’s an ethical mudhole, if I ever saw one.
:)
December 6th, 2006 at 8:55 am
That quote was taken from Daco’s comment above.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Hi AT,
I’m an avid reader of this site and have been lurking for a couple of weeks….I just wanted to add (for what it’s worth) that I agree about Dave Ramsey! If you have time, he has a radio show at 2pm on 760am (you can also download his show if you miss it)…he’s waaaay easy to understand. I was clueless when it came to that “financial” stuff…I’ve learned a ton from his radio show. Also, visit his website www.daveramsey.com. There’s lots of great info there too!
December 6th, 2006 at 9:06 am
I thought everybody had a rich uncle.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:14 am
I could use a rich uncle, too. Actually a rich relative of any kind would be fine.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I was just going to suggest Dave Ramsey as well. I’ve got Financial Peace Planner if you want to borrow it.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Maybe you could skip your meeting with SS and sell that part of your liver on the black market? That might get you some serious dough…
December 6th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Rich uncles aren’t what they are cracked up to be. They didn’t get rich by giving money to relatives.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Sarah, my liver wasn’t worth enough, I’m afraid. I tried that. I had some clients interested in my gall bladder, but I screwed up the closing.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:56 am
I had a pretty complicated name change thing going on at one point (was adopted as an adult at the same time I was getting divorced *sheesh*) while I was handing over all the paper work I requested another copy of my daughter’s card.
The next day, I got a phone call from the SS office. Apparently a large group of them were sitting around a speaker phone. They went over everything (and got it all correct) then said, “we’ve got just one question. Are you still “A’s” mother?” Then 15 people busted out laughing.
SS office with a sense of humor. Who knew?
December 6th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Good luck with SS. I hope it goes better than you expect. :) I *wish* I had a rich uncle -well I do, but we don’t like each other very much.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:27 am
I have had pretty good luck dealing with SS. As government agencies go, they tend to be not as bad as most. They are used to dealing with grieving relatives, and they can be surprisingly kind.
For now, while cash flow is tight, term life is amazingly cheap. We were really, really worried that the people we wanted to keep Harry would not be able to afford to, but we were able to get enough to be sure that money wasn’t a concern when we had to make that hard decision about who was best, personality-and-philosophy-wise, to raise him.
Those decisions suck hard.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:45 am
SS was a piece of cake for me. Anna was on SS disability before she died, so I had to fill out new forms for survivor benefits and that was about it. All I needed was death certificates.
I have a financial planner, not because I can’t do it myself, but because I don’t want to. I pay him directly, so I don’t have to guess who he’s working for. Sounds like you should bag this guy and find somebody decent. I think there’s some sort of organization like the “Non Sleazy Financial Planner Network”. (It’s actually got the word independent in the name, but I don’t remember more than that). I found my guy because they do a show on the local NPR station and they don’t treat people like idiots on that show.
We have always had term life and I don’t intend to change that. Life insurance is life insurance. Investments are investments. Never the twain will meet.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Y’know, I didn’t have a problem with the guy himself. I don’t think he was sleazy, or unethical, he just communciated to me in a very irritating way.
But yeah, I don’t think I’d be working with him, all the same.
Jason, the NSFPN sounds pretty cool…
December 6th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Sometimes you have to try out a couple of planners before you find one that is a good match for you.
We have one (and we are faaaaar from rich, just a couple of teachers) and he must belong to NSFPN because my sleaze-dar is totally silent when we meet with him. Way cheaper than a tax attorney who will bill you by the hour!