Simple Economics

Obituaries Don't Discriminate

I have a habit of looking at the obituaries each day in my local newspaper.  If I were to take a random poll of subscribers, I would probably find that my daily habit is not unique only to me.

When you look at those who have passed on, you would hope that most would have lived long and productive lives.  Sadly, and often, you read of young children, young husbands, young wives, young mothers, young fathers, and young grandparents who've passed away unexpectedly, and certainly premature, in the opinions of those they've left behind.

I can't help but wonder, being in the business that I'm in, if many of those loved ones are leaving behind financial burdens that can only prolong the grieving process.

One of my clients, a real estate agent, recently told me of one of her clients who had just lost her husband.  Her client, let's call her, "Linda," a homemaker for most of her life, always depended upon her husband to handle all of the financial concerns, primarily the mortgage payment on her beautiful home.

Linda's husband passed away, unexpectedly, at the young age of 50.  He didn't have any life insurance.  Linda is now in the process of losing her home, and trying to find work in these perilous financial times.

Linda's story breaks my heart, yet her situation is more common than you would think.

If you are reading this and don't have a life insurance plan in place, or too little life insurance, or even if you have no idea what you need, please, please, take care of this issue today - before it's too late.

Obituaries don't discriminate.  There are broken hearts behind every picture, young or old.

I'm Todd Murphy, and I'm passionate about taking care of families like yours. 

"Love people.  Help them protect those they love, and the stuff they own." - That's my mission for my business. 

Ya think it could be your choices?

We've all made a few bad financial choices along this journey called life. Heck, a tractor trailer couldn't carry all the "not so good" choices I've made over the years.

(20 years ago) - "We would like to offer you a position as a claims adjuster here at State Farm.  In a couple of years you can get the opportunity to get your own State Farm agency."  I chose to turn it down.

(18 years ago) - You should buy Wal Mart stock.  I chose to buy a new car.

(15 years ago) - "I'll sell you my beach house and the adjacent oceanfront lot for $300,000, right smack in the middle of Gulf Shores."  I chose to quit my job and start a new business.

(11 years ago) - "Why don't you keep buying rental properties and keep the mortgage company?" I chose to start a business I knew nothing about.

Okay, you get the point.  Sure, I know my examples of choices involve relatively big choices, and that's fine, but most of our lives become about the small choices we make.

Single mom, two kids, and a $230 a month cell phone bill to support her iPhone.  No life insurance to take care of her children should something happen to her.  Poor choice.

Successful business owner, beautiful wife and kids, big house, big mortgage, big flat screen TVs, and if he died tomorrow, his family would have nothing.  He takes big hunting trips, buys season tickets to the football games, and drives brand new cars.  He doesn't have a life insurance plan in place to support the family he leaves behind, and to pay for his children's education. Poor choice.

Just graduated from college, got a job, got married, no kids. Alabama football games, dinner out three times a week, and two new cars.  No Roth IRA, no forced savings plan, no nothing. Poor choice.

You get my point. Yada, yada, yada.

The good news is that you can choose to make good choices even after you've made "not so good choices."  Yes, it will cost you more.  The good choices that follow bad choices always cost you more.  But you know what?  You'll figure out how to survive making good choices.

When you visit my agency, you won't get chastised for making poor choices.  The pot shouldn't call the kettle black, as they say.  You will be told, in love, what good choices are available, and how you can make them today.

You can start your good choices today, if you know what choices are available to replace the poor choices.

Fiddling while Rome burns.

I think that most people, when you get right down to it, know how to improve their lives without having to read a thousand books or attend dozens of seminars.

It's not knowledge we lack that causes us to be complacent and unsuccessful in some pursuit.  It's the lack of intestinal fortitude. Guts. Balls. Whatever else you want to call it.  It's having the will to just move in some direction and be persistent about putting one foot in front of the other.

We often act like Nero, fiddling while watching Rome burn.  Oblivious to the circumstances around us that prevent us from improving some area of our lives that needs improvement.

Wanna lose weight? Stop eating crap and start working out.  Burn more calories than you consume.

Wanna get rich? Stop overspending and live modestly while saving at least 20% of every dime you make.

Wanna learn a foreign language? Stop watching so much TV and spend two hours a day studying the language of your choice.

Wanna play the guitar? Stop playing Wii and spend two hours a day practicing the guitar.

Wanna stop smoking? Stop smoking.

Put down your fiddle (whatever your fiddle may be) and go put out your fire (whatever your fire may be).

My Fat Experiment

I'm into day number seventy-five of my "fat experiment."  I took a vacation at the end of March, and when I returned, I stopped working out. Period.  After many years of consistent morning workouts, with a few missed days here and there, I simply decided to stop working out and watch the changes to my body.

The result - pathetic.  At least an inch to the waist, an expanding jelly belly, and I'm not sure how much I weigh because the only scale I know of is at the gym, and of course, I'm not at the gym.

Why this madness?  Because I wanted to attract heart disease, diabetes, gout, or a myriad of other ailments? I think not. Here's the deal.  I kind of lost my "mojo," and I wanted to get it back.  I needed a challenge, physically, but I wanted to show how fast the body can change, you know like those corny TV commercials with the before and after pictures.

So, in a few days, I'll get the wife to snap a picture of the "before" bod, and give myself 12 weeks to change.  Hopefully I'll get my mojo back, and inspire a few folks to find theirs as well.

For now, would you pass the doughnuts?

When You've Lost the Will to Dream

"I stopped dreaming thirty years ago, " the old man said, "when I started seeing the world as it was rather than as it could be."

I could feel the old man's pain.  My mind, clouded with cynicism, had begun to shut out the dreams of my youth.  Oh, I know some of those dreams were wild and fantastic, but none were impossible, really.

"What happened to you that made you stop dreaming," I asked him.

"I settled with what life handed me, rather than the life I could have created."

"What would you do differently?"

The old man sighed, and with a tear in his eye said,  "I would have followed that still, small voice that kept telling me what I was created to do, and not listened to the average folks of the world."

I turn forty-two next month.  Forty wasn't bad.  Forty-one, okay.  But, forty-two, whoa.  For some reason this birthday bothers me.  I'm closer to death than I have ever been, and I'm average.  My dreams were never average.  I hate average, yet I find myself, like the old man, inching towards that comfort zone of accepting what life is offering me rather than creating the life I desire.

Everything fantastic in life starts with a dream.

For some reason this morning, I felt compelled to write about this.  Maybe it's because you need encouragement to dream again. Maybe it's because it's time for me to dust off my old dreams and get to work creating the life that my small voice keeps telling me I should have.

Whatever the reason, let's start creating.  I'm going to write down my dreams and goals and put a plan underneath them.  Let me know what you are going to do.

"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Thank you for your service, Uncle Ed.

Somehow, as fate would have it, my Uncle Ed ended up in pilot school during the WWII era  in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he met a knockout blond, Marty Murphy.  His silver tongue and Hollywood looks convinced my dad's only sister to marry him.  That's how we got our Uncle Ed, the war hero.

A member of the infamous Black Sheep squadron during WWII, Uncle Ed could always keep us entertained with his heroic stories of war.  He was also the only uncle we had who didn't mind using swear words around us kids.  In a sense, looking back, he really was the "black sheep" of the family, in the most beloved way.

We lost Uncle Ed on January 5, 2010.  He spent the last twenty plus years of his life confined to a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis, but you never heard him complain, and it never stopped him from telling those off-colored jokes that made us laugh though we had heard them a hundred times before.

He was a recipient of several combat medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, and he even received a Purple Heart for injuries he received in combat in the South Pacific.

I was just thinking about my Uncle Ed and how proud I am that he was a member of our clan.  I'm thankful that he fought for you and me.

Happy Memorial Day, Uncle Ed.  May you rest in peace. 

You can't tweet your way to success.

Wow. Sometimes the truth hurts, doesn't it?

A friend of mine, Frankie Mann, owner of Office Equipment and Supply, stopped by the office yesterday.  He's quite the businessman.  He's quite the salesman.  He's quite the honest friend.

"Todd, you've got to hit the street, at least two to four hours a day, three to four days a week.  You can't build your business sitting behind a desk," my friend said.

"But I hate making sales calls," I whispered because I didn't want anyone else in my office to hear me.

"Leaders lead by example," he paused and then said with a smile, "and if you want everyone building the business, you have to build too."

"People have to see that you want their business and are passionate about what you are doing.  Go let them know that you want their business."

I do business with Frankie because he shows up and ask me for it.  And he delivers on his promises.

I've been building a really good business, but not a great business.  You can tweet and Facebook all day long, but business is still about relationships, and it's still about asking people to do business with you, and giving them a dang good reason why they should.

This truth only hurts when it should, and you can't tweet your way to success.

In your underwear, watching your home burn to the ground.

"Who are you going to call when it's the middle of the night and you're standing in your front yard, in your underwear, watching your home burn to the ground?"

And who's going to answer the call and say,

"No worries, I'll be right over.  You have great insurance coverage, and I'll bring my checkbook to make sure we get some things handled tonight."

(I always ask this question of prospective clients.)

I just got an email from a friend (with another insurance company) who had a minor kitchen accident that could have turned into a fire disaster, burning down her home.  She started thinking about proper insurance coverages and reached out to me.

I'm reviewing her coverages now.  Here's what I've found:

1. If her home burned down, not only would the bank mortgage not be paid off, she would still owe the bank more than one hundred thousand, and there certainly wouldn't be enough money to re-build.  Not even close.

2. She's never had a review with her agent to determine proper coverages for her greatest asset.

Wow. This is tragic, yet I hear this at least two to three times a week when having a discovery conversation with prospective clients.

The truth is that 99% of the people who I have conversations with about insurance coverages have never had a conversation with their previous agent.  In most cases, they have never met the actual agent.

Proper home insurance coverage is a critical part of having a good financial plan.

So, you're in your underwear, watching your home burn to the ground.  Who ya gonna call?

(If the person on the other end of the line answers, "This is Todd Murphy," you don't have to worry about proper coverages.)

It's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar.

I've come to realize that many people don't mind being average.  It's comfortable.  There isn't much change involved with being average, and the life of an average person is fairly predictable.  It's also incredibly boring for many of us who thrive on getting outside of our comfort zones.

It's hard to see that the world is changing and longing for people who "dare to be different."  Thinking outside the box is needed more than ever to solve so many evolving challenges.

Sometimes our comfort zones of average prevent us from seeing who we really are, and the potential we really have to be extraordinary. The potential to actually rise up to the new challenges of our world and thrive.

It's like being inside your own jar and having no idea what the label on the outside says. You can never see things from a different perspective when you stay inside your jar.

So it goes with being average. 

The world is crying out for extraordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Will you be content with average?  I hope not.

By the way, I left the top of the jar open for you in case you want to get out.

How to Get Out of Debt

Debt sucks.  I hate it.  It causes stress, sleepless nights, divorce, premature death, and many other conditions that aren't helpful to living a happy life.

Somehow we've (Americans) become accustomed to carrying the burden of debt, and have become numb to it's throbbing pain.

But, for those who are realizing that it's time to unload the debt, here are a few thoughts.

There are only two ways to get out of debt:

1. Make more money and pay it off.

2. Spend less money than you make, and pay it off. (Hint: Find your margin money - I'll talk about this later.)

I'm for real.  The challenge for number one is that many people are employed by someone else who requires at least 40 hours of their time each week, and may not be inclined to pay you more money just for the asking.

The challenge for number two is that it's hard to change your lifestyle, sell your house that's too big, cook at home, quit hanging with the silver spooners, turn your thermostat a little higher in the summer, and, well, you get my drift.

Whichever route you choose to debt freedom, it's not gonna be easy.

The good news is that you can get out of debt.  The first step is to come up with a plan, any plan that requires a different mindset about debt, and a plan that requires you to take action.

I recommend you find a financial coach to help you. 

In my process of SimpleEconomics^TM , I have a method for finding "margin money."  Margin money is money that you can free up by making a few changes to the debt and other financial obligations you already have, and using this new found money to pay off your debt faster.

By the way, number two is easier.  It just requires the abandonment of false pride.  That's the hard part.