This Week in Your Wallet: October 9, 2012
This week, I want to start the newsletter with a little something different. I want you to think about yourgoals — and, more importantly, I want you to think about the goals you think you’ll never actually achieve. As you’re thinking about these seemingly impossible goals, I’m going to tell you a quick story.
As you may know, I’m training for the New York City Marathon. It will be my first marathon ever, even though running a marathon has been on my bucket list for quite some time. If I’m being honest, getting past the 13-mile mark was something I never thought I’d actually achieve. I’ve run half marathons before, but the full 26.2 miles seemed daunting, and nearly impossible.
Yesterday morning, my training schedule called for me to do a 20-mile run. To help get through that distance, I grabbed three gel packs. They’re these little squeezable packs that runners down to give them a quick burst of energy, and to help them get through the next set of miles. I had planned to take one every six miles. But, when I grabbed the first one at Mile 6, I must have knocked the other two out of my belt. When I got to Mile 12 and realized I didn’t have any jellies left, I panicked. I had been training with these fuel replenishers; I was counting on the burst of energy they would give me. Yet, I kept running, and running… until I hit Mile 20. I hit my goal without them. The fact that I was able to do it makes me even more confident that I’ll be able to make mile 26.2 when I have them (which, for the record, will be every single run from this point forward — I’m going to make sure I never knock them out of my pocket again!).
The lesson here? As you chip away at your goals, you’ll never know what you’re capable of until you’re actually doing it. And what does this mean for our wallets? Financially, we often hear that saving for retirement and investing in general is a marathon and not a sprint. We talk about years where we have to keep our eye on the ball and a finish line that keeps moving. The goal itself may be daunting, but if we focus on one mile at a time (or one savings milestone at a time), I know we can do it.
While we’re on the subject of saving for retirement, I want you to remember to factor in the cost of health care as you’re saving for that goal. A recent New York Times article revealed that many people are failing to consider health care costs when they think about retirement, and are therefore not saving enough.
Finally, if you’re concerned about healthcare and the impact it will have on your retirement, you’re not alone. According to a recent Gallup poll, the biggest fear of working Americans is a reduction of health insurance benefits. To that end, I am hosting a webcast with Wells Fargo on Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00pm ET. I’ll be joined by an economist, a retirement expert, and and a patient advocate and we’ll explore how to make sure we have the funds we need to take care of ourselves through retirement, how to deal with all the unknowns and how we can get the most out of our benefits. I hope you tune in!
And now, here are the other headlines for the week:
A house swap… with your parents?
So you’re aching for a new house but not so ready for all the open houses, broker’s fees and moving deadlines that come along with it. It would seem as if you’re fresh out of luck, but according to a new article in Reuters, there’s a solution for you: house swap with your parents. You and your family get a bigger (and likely, familiar) house, while your aging parents can downsize comfortably. It’s a win-win situation!
However, it only works if you do the appropriate financial planning and consider other family members (your siblings, for instance). “Make sure you deal with your professionals – your CPA, your financial adviser, your attorney,” Michael Eisenberg, a Los Angeles-based certified public accountant and personal financial specialist, told Reuters. He also noted that the IRS tends to scrutinize inter-family real estate transactions extra closely because of the potential for fraud, so the key to a successful house swap is documentation, documentation, and more documentation.
Antiques Roadshow, Money Matters Style
Have you ever held on to a family trinket — a tiffany lamp, an antique painting — simply because it might be worth something later down the road? Have you ever wondered if “that thing” in your attic really belongs on “Antiques Roadshow”?
Well, wonder no more. On my TV show, Money Matters, we’ve booked a leading appraisal expert to come on and tell us how to determine if our hidden treasures are, in fact, treasures. We’re looking for three things for our expert to check out — and this is where you come in. If you have an item that you’re convinced is worth something, I want to hear from you! Send me a few pictures of the item whose value you want to determine (a few because you’ll want to capture all the markings on the bottom, etc), and I’ll show the pictures to our appraisal expert. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Finally, we’re also still looking for those “Oh, I Shouldn’t Have” shopping moments to feature in the show, so if you’ve made a purchase that got you saying, “oh, I shouldn’t have bought that” and are willing to share your story with me, let me know. You can email your appraisal items and “oh I shouldn’t have” moments to jean@jeanchatzky.com. I hope to hear from you!
Have a great week!
Jean
