THIS IS MY 146TH BLOG ON UNDERSTANDING MONEY
TOOLS
October, 2018
understandingmoneytools.blogspot.com
In this blog on “understanding money tools” we are going to
cover two tools that may speed up your time frame for success. These are the importance of mentoring
and coaching.
In the last 13 blogs, and approximately 51 pages, I covered
America’s build up of debt, and then the terms and facts related to our largest
industry, stocks and bonds.
As one thinks they covered a topic fairly well, of course
something pops up that was left out.
A person asked me what “par value” is on a stock certificate. It is a relatively meaningless figure
on each stock certificate normally located in the upper right corner of a
certificate. It will be defined as
“common stock, par value $.01 or $.001 or $.0001 each”. This defines value to each share, as
you can see….worthless, however required.
You most likely have never
taken delivery of a certificate when you bought stock. Your ownership is kept
with your brokerage account in “street name”. This way when you want to sell it can be accomplished
immediately without your signature assigning it to someone else.
Now we move on to the topic of this blog; mentoring and
coaching. Many people define it as
the same. I interpret it
separating the two. To me coaching
is pertaining to sports or business.
Mentoring is personal dealing with leadership, wisdom and lifestyle.
I believe in today’s mad world these two are very important
for younger people and I relate to both.
We all know what coaching is in a sport. In business a person starts out and has few opportunities
given to them, or perhaps have no idea where or how they can start life in the
business arena. This is where a
paid coach comes in. (If this
crosses over to an unpaid coach it could be a mentor and God bless you finding
that individual.)
I see a coach as a disciplinarian with knowledge in your
business field. This is similar to
your going to the gym and having a workout coach or instructor. Most young people starting out do not
set forth daily, weekly, monthly and perhaps yearly schedules and goals as to
what they want to accomplish in a given time frame.
In past blogs I have addressed these topics to some degree.
I believe that 50 years ago, when I started out in business, there was less
competition and a person could begin their career in real estate, insurance,
investment banking as a stock broker and other fields on their own. Today, it is wiser to buy out an existing
group or agency rather than “beating your head against a wall” and feeling like
a failure, thus eventually giving up.
Here is where a coach with experience and contacts can come in
handy. There are strategic buyouts
where you can use the company’s positive cash flow to pay down the purchase price
over time. This also gives the
sellers a nice cash flow, and taxes would be paid by the seller in the year
that they receive the money versus all at one time. (It would be wise to get the advice of an experienced
accountant.) Many times a person has
built up a small company, wants early retirement and will even stay on with the
company, or agency, to introduce you to clients and teach you the business so
it does not fail. This makes the likelihood of future payments more certain and
sense to both parties.
Now, to mentoring.
To personalize this I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. My father had three boys mainly for
possessions and to be “worker bees”.
As children we rarely could have fun or laugh as my father would say,
“this is a working family, there is no time for fun”. Through school and my peer group I saw a couple “normal”
families and when time was available hung with those families. Very fortunately, the fathers more or
less took me in to share sports and a healthier environment. Two of these men
were Bob Jacobi and Bud Shirley.
Both Bob and Bud were ranked tennis players in Wisconsin. Bud wanted his son to start playing
tennis in junior high school and brought me along so his son could have a
tennis/workout partner. By high
school Bud’s son, Jim, and I were ranked doubles players in the state. Bob Jacobi and his wife Alice included
me in many of the family’s social occasions. Bob was 21 years older than me, quite religious and kept me
on the “straight and narrow”.
It is so easy to fall astray when you are younger and
learning right from wrong and to get into good habits. For me, escapism involved working out
and sports. Young people need
older mentors to learn from! Go
find one or two; they are out there.
Along with work, I felt it was pay back time. I was a Big Brother to a 9 year old for
8 years until he went to college in Florida. Rod was his name and he was an African American. Eventually he became an accountant for
Rockwell International in California.
Great kid and smart! It was
also rewarding for me as it exposed me to an educated environment of black
Americans for the first time in my life.
In the latter 1990’s Joe Jester and I started a Wisconsin
501 C 3 nonprofit corporation to help underprivileged kids between the ages of
10 and 13. As I hold 9 black belts
in Taekwon Do and Hapkido to third degree and Joe having a couple black belts
more, we felt it was payback time.
We started “Kicks For Kids” in Wisconsin helping many children do better
in school and have more respect at home.
Fortunately, Joe and I had the financial where-with-all to finance the
endeavor.
Bottom line to this blog is to encourage younger people to
seek out mentors and organizations that will help them through life. In business get the help you need for
success. It is out there. If you are older, give back to society.
Most times you receive more personal benefit than you give.
Regarding coaching, if you are starting out in life or
changing to a new career path, talk with credible people and seek out a coach.
FOOT NOTE:
Before you donate, look into the nonprofit. Many of the telemarketing solicitors only need to donate as
little as 10% of money raised to a charity. The opposite should be the standard! Here are two I have been involved in
and are tops:
- Make
A Wish Foundation. Started in
Phoenix, AZ. By state charter each
office needs to return 90% of all money raised to the “cause” and children with
life threatening diseases. I was both a volunteer and wish grantor for 6 years
with Wisconsin Make A Wish Foundation.
- Special
Olympics. Started by Eunice
Kennedy Shriver. I was a volunteer
for Special Olympics of Colorado for 4 years and sat on their financial
committee 2 years.
If you are able, “Pay it Forward”!
