Your Wealthy Future

Creating Wealth is a decades long affair. Rarely happens overnight and a quick success can backfire.

A few people win lotto. Instant riches. But a few years later you find former winners in bankruptcy court. They did not know how to keep or invest money. Only how to spend it.

Basics Matter

Spend less than you bring home. 

Save for gifts, vacations, unexpected repairs and layoffs.

Pay off credit cards every month. Losing 18+% interest hurts.

Sign up for your 401K and take the company match minimum. Saving tax deferred your taxes go down more than take home pay.

Have insurance - auto, medical, long term care, renters or homeowners, plus a personal liability policy. Not having insurance can bankrupt you.

Attitude

Fear of Missing Out cause people to pay too much, buy luxuries or take expensive vacations. No one needs a $50,000 wedding. The debt incurred will hurt your relationship.

Diversify your investments. Nobody knows what stocks or bonds will do next. Everyone makes mistakes and have setbacks. Recessions and recoveries happen. Use ETFs - roughly 35% stocks, 55% bonds and 10% precious metals & REITs. 

Drive an uncool car. Cars lose so much value so quickly. Prefer 3-6 year old cars and paying cash. My investment advisor has only owned 4 Toyotas.

Investigate and talk with experienced people before buying. FOMO leads to over paying. Good investors don’t rush decisions, nor join in speculative manias. Bubbles burst and values return to earth quickly.

Real estate is not liquid. If you need to move selling costs are nearly 10%. Don’t buy too big of a home. Make sure the location fits your future plans, then check property is in good condition.

Time

First few years little accumulates in 401K or savings. After ~5 years the returns and dividends start adding up, plus debts are getting paid off. You can see where you are going.

Your mortgage use to be higher than rents. Ten years later less than renting a 2 bedroom apartment. Plus appreciation puts you are ahead.

Learn about subjects one at a time. No one knows everything. Admit you need to know more and ask what seem like foolish questions. If a salesperson is rushing your decision, sleep on it overnight and talk with advisors before buying. 

Your Future

Wealth and savings are desirable because they give you options. Paying for education, buying a home, or investing in a business or real estate. Your future self will be grateful for early sacrifices.

“These are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I’ve got others.” - Groucho Marx

Hubris

You hear it:

“I don’t have time for this.”

“We are too good for this.”
“They can’t compete with us.”

“We have done it hundreds of times.”

“Our technology won’t fail.”

You have been on a streak. Sales are up. The reviews are great. The competition is struggling. Everything is clicking. 

Watch out. Your trial is coming. 

Taking shortcuts. Not doing the homework. Relying on intuition or a ‘hunch’. Not studying what the completion is doing. Not using safety gear every time. There will be consequences.

Someday arrives before anyone expects it. Not only to you, but everyone. Today is not the same as Tomorrow.

Stay humble. Listen to customers. Be grateful to coworkers. Keep your eyes open for new technologies, products or services. The times are always changing.

Being Heard at Work

Recently read about a young professional not being able to get a word in edgewise in a meeting. It is uncomfortable not being heard, but their experience is not unique. With 38 years’ experience, and being (formerly) shy introvert in an extroverted world have suggestions to be heard:

• Ask questions first. Then when you have the floor, make a point. Actually got compliments for participation during different meetings where I only asked one question.
• Being able to project your voice is an asset. Look into Toastmasters to be able to present to a room. I start talking to the person furthest away to get my volume right.
• I had a baby face (could pass for high school till almost 30) and had to dress one level up to be taken seriously. Casual Fridays are still a weakness.
• Attitude makes a difference. EXPECT to be heard and taken seriously. Sit at the table and take up space in the meeting room. Make small talk with people before and after the meetings.

Should add interrupting with a firm “Yo!’” has worked on occasion for me.  Recommend reading Susan Cain’s “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking”

Try and use whichever tips works for you. It is only a matter of time before you will be a full team member.

Mom’s Pinto Wagon

Difficult for Profession Women to get the Respect they Deserve. Martin Schneider shared an inbox with Nicole and was getting grief working with a customer. He could not understand the customer’s resistance. He had worked with him before.  Yet everything he was suggesting was being resisted. Due to the common inbox, he had been signing his responses as Nicole.

Finally, he replied: “Hey this is Martin”, and the customer worked well with him after that.

Nicole & Martin switched names for a week. Everything Martin did took longer. Nicole had the most productive week of her life. Men are assumed to be competent. Women have to prove it.

My late mom was one of the first 3 women to attend Newark College of Engineering (now NJIT). She rarely talked about some of her treatment, but she also knew how to handle it.

Her used 1 year old Pinto wagon with only 11,000 miles was shifting off time. Dad and I both drove it and thought the transmission bands needed adjustment. However he was busy at work and I was on 3^rd shift that week on my summer job (about 40 years ago). So she took it to the dealer.

The service rep thought he ‘had one on the line’. So he kept talking until he said she needed a new transmission instead of an adjustment. Mom walked away from him into the sales area to talk to the manager (in front other customers) and in a LOUD voice said, “John, it looks like you sold me a lemon. What are you going to do about it?”

When they tried to tell her this was normal, she said, “No, I am an engineer. Could see my son’s Ford wagon with 110,000 miles needing a transmission. Not a car with 11,000 miles.”

When they further tried to push the issue, she replied, “John, I own 5 cars. Do you want to take me for a repair, or get the next car?” They gave in and adjusted it. Every time she brought it in for service she got treated with respect after that.

Follow up - car was rusted falling apart years later with 140,000 miles and Dad driving it. The original transmission had no problems or further adjustments when they retired it.

Dad knew how to handle these situations. At a different dealer they were shopping for a car for Mom. Dad said to the salesperson this car is for Mom, get her what she wants. The man kept asking Dad questions. Dad would repeat his question to Mom and wait for her to answer. Finally the guy got the message, and talked to her.

Lesson: Expect and give respect. Do what is right. Ask questions, follow with suggestions. If it takes time, stay with it.

Here is Martin’s story

https://twitter.com/i/moments/839950218099576832

Grateful he shared this story.

  

Joining a New Community

Times when you move or just want to join a new group, it feels awkward. Like when we were teenagers nervously talking in front of a group, feeling like our hands and feet are too big and no idea what to do with them. What do you do?

First of all, Relax. Everyone is nervous meeting new people. Especially when you know no one.

Look around the space when you enter. What is where and are there signs? Make yourself comfortable.

Smile at people and greet them. They have to get use to you too. Helps if you can relax them too.

Concentrate on hearing their names. Try and use names as soon if you can. Will help you learn who people are.

Realistically no one is going to fall in love at first sight. Don’t expect to meet life long friends on your first visit. Have reasonable expectations and be present and enjoy a little.

Other tips:

Help out where you can.

Act like a host. Introduce yourself and others.

Plan to come back again. Take time to let other recognize and meet you.

Moving is hard, every time is has taken me a year and a half to feel at home or at least know where am going. Friends can take longer. Give yourself time to find where you fit in.

  

Fix Your Job Hunt

(Do you really want a job?)

Job Hunting is Frustrating and Very Stressful. You no longer have the income that you depended on. Bills are piling up and savings going down. Your social standing may be lower with strangers. You miss your old friendly coworkers who greeted and talked with you daily. We depend on social interaction to live.  We want our old life back.

We need to adjust our attitude to get our next job. This is only a trip to our next life. Not insurmountable. A phase to get through. Assume you will get a job. Then job hunting will be less stressful.

That is right, assume you grow through this experience. You will be a better person, more humble and more human after starting a new position. You will help other job hunters because you understand.

We don’t know how long it will take to get another job. We just know you will find one. You may have to move. You may have less stuff. But we, who have been unemployed before, found new work. You will too.

Now you know you will find work. What steps to prepare should you do?

1. Write down a list of your successes at work and in school. Does not matter if anyone else thinks they are a success. You do. Write them out.
2. What compliments did you receive? People have told you what you are good at. Don’t discount small compliments. What you find easy to do are your gifts.
3. What assignments or parts of your jobs did you enjoy? What tasks or skills do you want to do on your new job?

 Your strengths, gifts and experiences will help you excel at your career. Don’t skip this step of understanding yourself. Most people think they can do any job. But you get hired for the job you do well. The more focused you are, the faster you go back to work.

Assume you will succeed, put in effort, cultivate a positive attitude, and you will succeed.

The Resilient Employee

Do you want an employee who over-reacts to provocation from a customer? How much business could you lose because of one overstressed reaction? No one really wants to find out.

Resilient people do good work on bad days. They don’t take it out on customers, nor on their co-workers. You can tell they are tired, you can tell they don’t feel well, but they still do good work with a minimum of drama. Tomorrow they are back at it, feeling better, listening, collaborating and doing good work.

Resilience comes from having survived tough times, coming back from events out of our control, and preserving through failures and bad experiences. It is a faith that we can make it through crazy customers, clueless bosses and co-worker visiting from outer space. Just another day folks, nothing to see here. (or is there more?)

Emotional strength and intelligence comes from knowing life is about more than you. Common Goals and values drive better behavior. It is taking care of others. Serving the public. Loving people. Especially when they don’t deserve it.

What do you do when your world changes? Where do you find your resiliency? Is it in your history? in your family’s stories? Your uncle who served in the war? Your neighbor who is always calming and interested? Or is peace something deeper. After all God is Love.

Developing Soft Skills

Businesses love to talk about the best leaders have soft skills. In short they work well with people to get the most out of their teams. They are often very respected and productive workers as well.

Starting out, how do you get soft skills? Where does this reputation come from? What soft skills would you like to have?

First, most people’s reactions are not about you. They think about what affects them. So do you, but you don’t think about that. When someone is losing their cool in front of you, wait until they calm down enough to talk with. Then ask questions.

The person who listens more attentively learns the most. Don’t think about what to say next when someone else is talking. What are they saying, and what is behind it? Often the most important part of the message is not said. It comes through their attitude and phasing. Ask questions about what they are saying to keep them talking.

Was very shy as a young man. Talking with young women threw me. I literally had to practice talking with people. To be less nervous, would talk with people who I did not know and could probably not help me. Often would talk with any woman of any age about any topic. When I met attractive women of datable ages, was no longer tongue-tied.

If you really want to excel with soft skills, CARE about people around you. Get your own ego out of the way. You can learn something from everyone, and you can help more people than you think. Praise people every time you see something you like. “They won’t remember what you said. They won’t forget how you made them feel.”

Study Servant Leadership. John Maxwell is my favorite author on this subject. Leaders aren’t there to make every decision. They enable their teammates to do more tasks better, and even excel at them.

I care about your success. Otherwise would I spend the time to write this? Start trying to listen to and praise people now. Does not matter how awkward it feels at first. You will start making their day and your day.

“If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles, you would not be able to sit down for six months.” - Unknown