Your Greatest Asset: Yourself!

Written by Kevin Jacobs on August 26, 2009 in Motivational, Security - 1 Comment

What do you think of when you think of your greatest asset?  You may think of your home, investment accounts, vehicles or a family heirloom.  In reality, you have an asset that is far greater than any of the aforementioned items.  The greatest asset you have is yourself and the ability you have to earn an income.

When I worked for a commission-based financial advising firm, we would lead with the first question above to begin the long-term disability sales process.  We have insurance for all of these tangible assets (house, vehicles, etc) but many times we do not have any or we are completely ignoring the need to have insurance on our future income earnings.  I want to look at this question a little differently now, though.  I want to look at the “cap” you may be putting on your future income and future well-being at this very moment.

I work with many entrepreneurs and the successful ones have something in common.  They realize that their income and ultimate success is contingent upon their ability to create something of value and then market that item or service so others will pay for it.  I see a lot of people who have comfortable “jobs” working for someone else are putting a “cap” on their potential earnings.  If you are working for someone else, you are allowing them to tell you what your value is to the company or organization.  If you think you need a raise, what you are really saying is that your services are “undervalued.”  I used to think I would only be able to make XX amount of dollars in my previous career.  The thing I soon realized is that my self-esteem and the value I was giving myself was based on someone else telling me what I was worth.  It was not until I looked at my situation objectively that I realized I could provide tremendous value to others and be compensated fairly for it.

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To Keep or Not to Keep?

Written by Kevin Jacobs on August 19, 2009 in Security - 1 Comment

I was asked by a friend recently to post a blog about what financial documents to keep and which ones not to keep.  She said every month she finds herself at a dilemma of what to keep, to shred or to recycle.  With this blog, I hope to give you some suggestions of how to sort through the pile of papers sitting somewhere in your house right now.

My first suggestion is to buy a durable shredder (do not buy a cheap one or you will regret it).  The majority of the financial papers you receive will need to be shredded.  If it has any type of personal data or information on it the rule is SHRED IT!

Second, get yourself a box near your work space that you can throw all of the magazines and newspapers that don’t need to be shredded into a recycle box.  (Here in Broken Arrow, OK we have paper recycle dumpsters all over town which makes it easy to recycle newspaper and magazines).

Next, you will want to go to www.homefile.com (site is down as I write this blog) and purchase their Financial Planning Organizer Kit.  (I give this to my new clients and we have a meeting where I specifically teach them how to use it.)  This kit is awesome and you will not regret purchasing it, especially if you are a “piler” when it comes to your financial papers.  In our house, I have implemented this system and my wife and I now call it the “love box.”  It has that name because it is an act of love to your spouse or loved ones in the event something devastating were to happen to you.  Let’s say you do not make it home from work today, who in your family knows where all your important papers and documents are located?  If you love them, you will put these documents together for them.  (If you don’t even know, how will anyone else know?)  The Financial Planning Organizer Kit will show what important papers to keep, where to keep them and for how long.  (Unless you have a special attachment to them, you do not need to keep your tax returns for over 20 years like one of my clients has done.)

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