Half the Battle

Everyone has pressure. And most everyone puts pressure on themselves; to succeed at school at work, as a business owner, professional, family member. It's how things get done, pressure creates diamonds and all that. Pressure also busts pipes and it's a matter of finding the balance between how much we can take on, how to alleviate it in healthy ways in order to function well.

There's no such thing as no stress. Even if you feel no stress, someone else feels stress for you, for something. Right now, everyone's feeling that stress - especially parents and it's gotten to the point of being considered a major health issue:

Health is wealth, the two go together as intertwined as anything else in life. The goal in the game of Life and IRL is to have both. Pursuing one while neglecting the other may work for awhile but it'll end up empty. We need to raise the sense of awareness and knowledge around these issues.

Listen to this on the invention of excersize from Derek Thompson and yes, of course I already sent it to Ariel Belgrave Harris . You all should listen too.

The awareness gap is canyon sized around these issues; and that does nothing but harm to people. Our lack of knowing what's going to happen is a source of concern and worry. When it comes to our money, income sources, business planning and succession needs...it's all very overwhelming and communication has been terrible all around. And that might be the understatement of the year.

Awareness is a great first step but it's not enough if it's not followed by taking action to actually make changes and embed new habits and behaviors into our lives. Knowing is good, and it's half the battle, of course, but knowing alone is not enough to cross the finish line.We all want to live a life of significance and it takes a lot of thought and planning to make sure that happens. Hoping for the best and planning for the worst. And it takes the right financial tools being in place to insure that things work out successfully.

Understanding how to use these tools available to us has become overcomplicated, with too much jargon and insidery language, complex add-ons and overwhelming bells and whistles, and confusing messages and communication that leaves too many of us bewildered. We suffer paralysis analysis...to the point we don't make decisions, and we don't take action.

Life insurance is by far the least sexy financial tool there is; it's not there to make us rich, it's going to require the worst case scenario for other people to benefit, we can't watch the value rise and fall. There's no ticker symbol on CNBC, nothing to brag about at the water cooler because you timed it right. And, as September comes around, signifying the end of the long summer days, it's Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Clearly, by now, people are aware of life insurance. Insurance companies sponsor every event you can think of, their ads are everywhere, they are usually the ones with the tallest buildings downtown in your city, but there's a huge gap between that knowledge and getting the right tools in the hands of those that need it. Especially those that need it most, the ones that can't afford a sudden loss. People need this product, for many different reasons, yet they do not have it. And, even if they do, it's not enough, or it isn't structured right, or there's lots of outdated information (does anyone, ever, need to change beneficiaries? Clearly yes)

Daryl Perry II, Bow Tie Guy and I will be talking about all these issues and talk about the fundamentals that are needed to make knowledgeable decisions on these issues on Wednesday September 4th at 12:30 EST - please join us and let us know your thoughts and questions. This will be a very engaging conversation, the only way to get real.

Life insurance has the ability and the power to change lives. Other accounts we open up, or investments we make a long can too - but those are much more incremental; they need to build up over a lifetime of saving. Unfortunately, and fortunately in many ways, I've seen life insurance play a role in keeping families in homes, kids in schools, lives continuing even after shattering loss within a few years of this tool, this contract that is so easy to push off agreeing to and paying for, getting put in place.

What can be more significant that that?

So, now you know. What will you do with that knowledge?

Secure the bag.