Greeting readers and bouffant followers. Glad you back for this month’s blog. We’re still adjusting to parenthood but, by and large, it’s been all positive. For those of you wondering if the #HazelNut could get any squishier, she done did.
While we’re talking about little children, I want to take a moment and give ton of credit to the working mom, especially those of newborns. It didn’t really hit me until I saw Heather return to work this week just how hard it is to return to the job after having a baby. To go from spending so much time with your little one to only a few moments each day is simply awful. When I hear my progressive European clients tell me how their countries have mandatory 12 month maternity leave, it makes me think about how behind our culture might be with regards to having children and being a working parent. By the way, this is not the diatribe.
ABC’s Rebecca Jarvis is paying close attention.
By now you all know how I feel about making the news, especially when its national news (you can hear my ego getting bigger — hey now!). Last month I had the pleasure of appearing on ABC’s World News Tonight to discuss credit card loyalty programs with Rebecca Jarvis. Apparently, there’s very little loyalty when it comes to these programs, but I chose to spend my precious air time letting you know to be careful when opening and closing credit cards. You could hurt your credit and that’s no bueno. Click the image to watch Rebecca and me in action. Moving on.
Last Sunday was the Oscars and is was nice to see Leo finally win one. That’s the only reason I tuned in this year. Heather, not so much. However, I bring up the Oscars because I wanted to talk about the movie that took home Best Writing, Adapted Screen play , The Big Short. My friends over at Kasasa, a national brand of free rewards checking accounts offered exclusively at community financial institutions, were kind enough to send us to the movies on them to check out the flick. Their only request was for me to blog about how I felt after seeing it and tell you a little bit about what they do. So, there’s my disclosure regarding them “compensating me”. Looks like I just sold out for two movie ticket. Damn I am easy. I digress.
First, the flick. I was familiar with Michael Lewis’s book and even more familiar with the financial effects that the recession caused, especially to my generation. We all felt it one way or the other and the film is kind to remind us of that pain. The movie is very entertaining for financial junkies and regular viewers alike. It provides plenty of laughs considering how messed up it all is. However, if you are like me, you are going to walk away very angry. That anger is specific. How can you not be mad at big banks for being so greedy that they would recklessly crash the global entire economy into a brick wall at 80 mph. What is really infuriating is that not much was done about it (e.g. few arrests, big bonuses) and how that greed still exists today in various forms throughout the banking system.
So, what can we do to protect ourselves from greed hurting us again? Well, the answer is to be financially literate of course. When you are informed, you are in control. Being in control helps you avoid financial missteps such as over leveraging your home, investing in what seems to be too much of a good thing or just spending beyond your means. It also means that you are aware of the products and services that are out there. Not all banking products are designed to hurt you. We need checking, savings, retirement and brokerage accounts to facilitate our financial lives. However, we also need to fully understand how they work and their associated costs.
Now, to hold up my end of the bargain, go check out Kasasa if you are interested in learning more about how to find the best free reward checking accounts out there. They’ve aligned themselves with more than 350 banks across 1,800 branches, making them the 6th largest branch network in the nation. Apparently, their checking accounts are free, have no minimum balance requirements and offer nationwide ATM fee refunds. So, if The Big Short pissed you off so much that you will never use a big bank again, or you are just interested in learning about alternative ways to open free, reward laden checking accounts, go look them up.
Like Ryan Gosling in the clip above, I too am jacked to the tits, so let’s go on a little rant, which stems from today’s earlier Facebook Page and twitter posts. I also had touched on it in my blog post from last summer, discussing fiduciary standard. But in case you missed it, here it is again:
Last month, I brought on three new clients who were all victim of some “financial advisor” selling them unneeded commission based products because they were (hardly) suitable. I won’t name names, but it’s border line criminal what these people and their firms are doing.
There continues to be a disgusting culture of “advisors” putting their own interests ahead of the client’s. It’s so bad that half of these “brokers” don’t even know what they are doing. They don’t even possess the capability of educating you. It’s a shame on my industry and is why there are more advisors over the age of 70 than under the age of 30. So, do what the meme says. Don’t get sold. Get empowered. Rant over for now, but it’s to be continued. I’ve had enough and I want to get home to my family! I like the way that sounds. Oh, and the next time we hang out it will be spring. Hooray! In the meantime, don’t hesitate to hit me up for a chat. My door is always open.