money really matters

Last blog post was an article from Trak.in about "India's Millionaires" and how the number got doubled last year even with all the economical uncertainity. I decided to continue the topic by writing about Millionaire Mindset and evaluating my own goal of becoming High Networth Individual (HNW).


I remember a funny saying, "You can easily get rich in two ways, by birth or by marriage." First one is obviously not in your hands but second option is feasible if you are confident about your people skills. But if you are a believer of  yourself, there are better ways. Things took a new turn especially during the dot com era and people mentality started dreaming on high places. Thats the same timeframe when "Who wants to be  a Millionaire?" show started airing and creating buzz all about becoming a millionaires. It surely boosted the moral of many individuals to aim big particularly many entreprenuers in the middle class.


Following the hit of the show and dot com era, many millionaires made news more often than ever and millionaires list started growing. According to the "World Wealth Report" which is a report on individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million in all assets except their primary residence. In the World Wealth Report 2007 - "The 11th annual World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch/Capgemini finds the World’s High Net Worth (HNW) population growing to 9.5 million with their assets rising to $37.2 trillion.


Talk about becoming a Millionaire was everywhere in the internet. Many self made millionaires called themselves as gurus and grabbed the chance to preach their very own mantras via seminars and books. To name a few, Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosoki and more... But recently due to economy crash, investment values plummented and many millionaires dropped from the list.  "The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more, not including first homes, fell by 2.5 million to 6.7 million in 2008, according to the Spectrum Group report, as reported by Reuters. As of 2009, there were 2,886,200 HNWI's in United states. 


Even after seeing the uncertainity of market, job losses and economy struggle, millionaire fire continues to live on among many brave souls. Whether I consider myself as a one among wannabe millionaires or it is just one of my goals, I strongly feel it is a challenging goal to have in your list. It is surely not a easy task for any one especially a guy like me who came from middle class indian family. But it is an achievable target for any hard working individual.


If there is a WILL, there is always a WAY to reach it.  Whether you choose to work hard in your profession, spend less and save more or putting money on different invest vehicles or trying to invent new business ideas or products like iPhone or Joined MLM network, every route has got challenges and worth trying it out.


First thing I did was started tracking my progress by updating networth every month towards my goal to become millionaire in 2015. It really helps me to put things in perspective like where I was, where I am now, know periodic progress and what I need to do move forward in my journey.


Being a hardcore wannabe Millionaire, many times I asked myself number of questions like,

Is the Millionaire goal truely worth it?
Do I have to become a millionaire to live happily?
Why do you need to have Millionaire goal?
Can I have my Financial Freedom when I become Millionaire?
Does only men are up against Million dollar goal?
What is Millionaire Mindset?
Are Millionaires lavish spenders?


Are some things just myths about being a Millionaire or real truth? I plan to dwelve more into these questions in my next post. If you have any questions like above, please share your thoughts and views.

Medical insurance is a big part of every American household. It takes about 5-10% of the income if covered by employer or more around 10-25% for self employed individuals. Self Employed individuals including myself are forced to shop for their medical insurance needs in the open individual market. With no proper regulation, they face lot of hazzles to get coverage for themselves and their family.  Without proper medical coverage is a major concern for many individuals.

The hazzle starts with coverage limitation for pre-existing conditions, even rejections in some cases, high premiums, high out of pocket expenses and much more. I myself changed insurers many times in the past 5 years just to keep low deductibles under the budget. With the new National Health Reform Act, we hoped for some relief and looks like some relief is here.

Drawbacks of Current individual insurance market

Let's first look at some major downsides in getting individual health insurance coverage which might help to appreciate the changes.

• An individual/self employed cannot buy coverage in the “group market” like small business or corporate companies. Employers usually cannot be turned down for coverage in the group market and also negotiation power.  Instead, the self-employed have to buy coverage in the open individual market which might allow flexibility to choose from different insurers but premium is not bargainable.

• Also Insurance companies many times rejects applicants with pre-existing conditions and are not required to cover them at anytime. They even cancel the insurance for many individuals when they get sick very badly. So people with serious health conditions was never able to buy coverage in the individual market. Even if they do, they can only get very expensive coverage in the high risk pool, if they can afford it. On top of that, there will be annual or lifetime benefits limitation.

• Treatment for pre-existing conditions can be excluded for up to 18 months for coverage offered to self-employed people in the individual market. Usually it is only 12 months for the coverage sold to small businesses or corporate in the group market.

Changes on the way by New Health Reform Act

That's correct. Changes are coming on our way and we can only hope them to be good. Below are some of the proposed regulations, most of them are expected to go active by next year.

• Insurance companies would no longer be able to deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions.
• Certain annual and all lifetime limits on benefits would be prohibited.
• Insurance companies would no longer be allowed to drop coverage when policy holders get sick.
• Prohibits insurers from requiring policyholders to get prior authorization for emergency services.
• Insurance companies must also spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenue on direct medical care for individual policyholders — or pay rebates, starting next year. 
• Insurance companies will not be able reject applicants with pre-existing conditions or set premiums based on a person’s health status.
• Individuals and Self employed people can buy coverage in the Health Insurance Exchange (just like members of Congress), where he/she can choose among competing insurance companies.

As per reports, National health reform act is expected to help around 13.1 million self-employed Americans. At the same time, there are things which still need to considered like Pregnancy coverage. I don't see any relief for young self employed who want to grow their family. Maternity insurance is another area individual insurance doesn't cover and hope they do something about it.

Last month, it was bad one for my vehicles. I was involved in two accidents. Fortunately, I am ok but it is unfortunate to have accidents and none of 'em is my fault. Both times, I was actually rear ended and spared with minor damages. It is not fun to get involved in any type of accident. That's for sure. But what can we do, even if you drive safely and careful enough other drivers tends to just find us and hit.

First, it was my Ford Truck which is already 13 years old but runs quite well so I can't complain. It was a teanage driver who was trying to squeeze her Ford Tarus car on the left side to take left turn while I was waiting infront of the light. She hit me on corner and caused small dent with scratches on the bumper. We stopped and witnessed the damage. I decided to let her go because it wasn't that bad and truck was already old. I didn't bother to get it fixed. For the benefit of her, I let her go even without taking any insurance information.

Next my Honda Accord which is only 6 years old. It is in good shape and I like to keep that way because it is our family car. This time it was lady again who thought I started moving after lights change and read ended directly behind me. I felt little neck pain but not bad. We pulled out of traffic and stopped near by to assess the damages. It wasn't too bad outside but I was worried about internal cushion/absorber damage. So I took her license information anyways but didn't call any cop for the report and we left.  

Daunting Questions

In both the instances,  damage was minor and nobody was hurt. Like any accident, they came shocking and unexpected, bringing in some kinda of uncomfortable feeling. At that moment, one has to act fast and think what needs to be done next.  This only holds true when it's a small/minor accident and you are in stable and consicous condition. Questions I started thinking were,

1. Do I call the insurance company and report?
2. If I want to report, do I need to call Police to get report?
3. Am I ready go through the hazzle of getting this small problem fixed?

Answers to all the above question depend on analyzing various aspects like,

I. How old is your vehicle?
II. Do you own the vehicle or lease it?
III. Are you some one who care so much about your car, even small scratch bothers you?
IV. Are you willing to go thru the hazzle of insurance calls and fixing the vehicle?
V. Are you in hurry to go somewhere?

For example, if it's my own car, reasonably new and damage was physically visible, I would better call and report to insurance and also get  a police report if I and other party has more time.

Let me remind you one important thing. As per the insurance contract, we all are suppose to inform the insurance company of any accidents to our vehicles. But how many people do it for sake of avoiding the hazzle and insurance premium increase.There are surely Pros and Cons behind reporting.

Pros

1. Increased resale value because of dent/damage free vehicle
2. Peace of mind because your Vehicle is safe without any internal damages

Cons

1. Your future auto premium can go up according to your Insurance score were claims are part of calculation. If you make more claims whether it's your fault or not, insurer might have unfriendly logic to quote higher premiums as per my experience.

2. Hazzle and Time Consuming process - You either have to take your vehicle to body shop or make an appointment for an appraiser to come out and get estimate. Take to body shop to get it fixed. Meanwhile you need to get rental vehicle or alternative commute arrangement to work and list goes on.

3. Vehicle might not be safe to drive with damages unless they are cosmetic.

4. Carfax report gets updated with vehicle accidents and reselling might be hard. At the same time, if you didn't fix the damages you won't get price for the vehicle. It's a catch 22.

So I would like to conclude by saying, Use your own judgement. My situation and decisions might not fit everybody's. Try to use the lists of questions mentioned above which might help you to make a sound decision. Don't drive a unsafe vehicle just because you need to spend some time and money. That would be my personal caution.

For many years, I never bothered to check the flyers and free entrance tickets offers to attend an investment  or business seminar which came via postal mail.  In 2004, when I was venturing out on different business options, I got 2 free tickets to attend an internet related seminar. It was all about internet marketing, SEO and ecommerce websites. Being a software professional, I was attracted and decided to check it out.

That changed everything. It was worth a attempt and was totally worth my time as well.  I got exposed to some pretty neat stuff which I never knew as a techie guy. I learnt many new things about search engine optimization(SEO) techniques and other aspects on how to get high rank in search engine. Actually it was an eye opener for me. May be I could have learnt them all by reading few books but it might have taken me months. First of, I wouldn't have known where to start and wouldn't have experimented it. With the expertise I gained in that seminar, I did my research and implemented few SEO techniques in my websites and got pretty good results. That was just a half day seminar and I was amazed by the impact of the free crash course.

After that seminar, my perspective towards free seminars changed and I started to look closely on the free seminar offers before throwing it out to see whether it's worth few hours to gain something or not.


What are these Investment/Business seminars all about?

These half/one day seminars are hosted by different organization who are either investing institutions or teaching institutions hired by them. They arrange these seminar at big 3-4 star hotels in many big cities every month mostly from Spring till Fall season.

Their motivation behind is to attract people interested in business/investing ideas and peek interest by throwing attractive figures and numbers, hoping to lure you into 3-5 days workshops. Thats their ultimate goal to make money.  They hope, if 50 people attend a session and atleast 20 signup, that would be enough to make profitable. Sometimes seminars are also conducted by wealth management firms and brokerage companies directly to explain their products and services.


Why should I go?

Are you an stock/bond investor or wannabe investor? Are you thinking about making some extra bucks by starting a new business or want to do something different?

If your answer is "Yes", you better start attending these free seminars matches your interest and goals. Think it's like a free crash course.  It is so effective than reading books all day.  Next question, you might ask whether it will be worth my time? I can assure you it will surely worth your time in long term. But only choose to go to seminars that matches your interest. If you been thinking about investing in stocks and funds, go and check out stock trading seminars. If you want to know more about real estate investing, attend seminars hosted by those type of organizations.

For example, "Rich Dad Poor Dad" author Robert Kiyoski started events to talk about real estate via his Rich Dad Education group. You can look out for their events at http://www.richdadeducation.com/

Gimme some or alteast 5 reasons to attend these seminars?

I can list down many reasons but there are the 5 importants reasons/advantages to attend these type of seminars.

1. Free Education

I won't say, you will learn everything. But you will surely learn some good and dirty tricks. You should be able to get some pointers and books which might help you to know where to start. You either pick up certain topic from the seminar and research more further to learn the intricacies which will surely help in your trade or future endeavors.

2. Learn new tricks

Even if you are Pro and knowledgeable in your field, you can still crab some funky tricks from these semianrs. I never knew a website called "Zillow.com" until I attended a real estate seminar. I got to know many great tricks and decent websites just by attending these seminars. I didn't know how real estate flipping or wholesale worked. Thanks to these seminars.  Many seminars are hosted really with entertaining and well prepared materials to create interest among auidence to attract them to sign up. You will surely enjoy it.

3. Free Materials

You might be lucky enough to get some giveaways and free offers in these seminars. It is just worth to get these giveaways like CD's and books even if the seminar is not upto your expectation. One thing tough, try to take seating in front rows so you can hurry and crab these giveaways if offered.

4. Networking

These seminars provide a great ground to talk and network with like minded people. You may even end up learning and partnering with those who attend these seminars.

5. Tax Advantage

Last but not the lease, do you know you can write off the time spent and vehicle mileage to attend these seminars in your tax returns? Especially if you own a business or file self employment tax return, you can claim them under business expenses. This is really a good kick to top off all the pros in attending these seminars.

Hope these 5 reasons will convince you to attend these seminars and workshops. I will also talk more about the do's and don't in my next post and share some experience about the new trend in the seminar industry, Webinars and Webcasts. Watch out...

Source: Image from web.