What a tease this spring has sprung. After a few weeks of beautiful weather in April, it has been really hard to get in baseball games, golf, and yard work with all the rain.
This was supposed to be the spring when my 15 year old son Ryan played for two baseball teams and made some money as an umpire for Little League. Most of his games have been rained out and practices have been held indoors.
He has only umpired a grand total of six games. Not going to make much coin,, but watching him as he called balls and strikes behind the plate at Gill Field was a hoot. He really gets into it especially when he rings up a third called strike — ham like his father and grandfather.
While watching, I happened to be standing next to new Penn State football offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead (who just happens to be from my home town of Penn Hills). I asked coach which player was his. He said the pitcher. When he asked which kid was mine, I held my breath before I said, ‘um, my kid is the umpire.’
At that moment you realize the conversation is going to go one of two ways. Thankfully Joe enthusiastically said, ‘He’s calling a great game!’ I interpreted that as he must be calling a big strike zone.
With all the rain it led my family and I to a discussion about some age old sayings starting with ‘Save for a rainy day.’
‘Save for a Rainy Day.’
When you are out of work, your savings will work for you. In this age of commercialism it is doubtful that the average middle class family can avoid being in debt let alone have a ‘contingency fund.’ The conventional financial wisdom is that you should have 3-6 months of liquid assets available in case of an emergency brought on by downsizing or a major health crisis. It’s hard to save when you have been brainwashed into believing you must have the latest smartphone, a status car, a bigger house than you really need, access to more channels than you will ever have time to watch, and a $4 cup of coffee everyday.
‘Live within your means.’
I am constantly on my kids about spending less than you make and learning about ‘delayed gratification.’ Unfortunately they can’t follow our Federal Government’s example, which has managed to spend us into a national debt we may never see resolved. Don’t buy ‘wants’ when you can’t afford ‘needs’.
‘A penny saved is a penny earned.’
In a speech given at the graduate school commencement at Lock Haven University, Dr. Thomas Sweitzer gave the class this advice: ‘The best thing you could do when starting a new job is to immediately start an IRA. The pension plans your parents and grandparents had will not be around. And by the way, playing the lottery is not a retirement plan! Your odds of getting struck twice by lightning are greater than winning the PowerBall.’
Social Security, if still around, may require a higher starting age, less money per payout, may be taxed at a higher rate, or not be available to those who have a net worth above a certain amount in the future. So do yourself a favor and learn how to save.
‘Never stop learning.’
Everyone thinks you are taught about personal finance in high school or in college. The schools believe it is the parents job or up to the individual. I don’t really care except that it must be learned as we ALL end up being part of the bailout plan in one form or another when people grossly mismanage their money.
Parents need to buy their kids the modern version of Milton Bradley’s ‘The Game of Life’ instead of the next edition of ‘Warcraft’ or ‘Minecraft.’ I believe ‘Money 101’ should be taught right alongside drivers education.
When my Icer players graduated I gave the seniors a book about money. For most of my coaching tenure, I gave out ‘Your Wealth Building Years: Financial Planning for 18-38 Year Olds’ by Adriane Berg. When that went out of print, I switched to ‘The Millionaire Next Door’ by Thomas J. Stanley and ‘The Automatic Millionaire’ by David Bach.
Completely by coincidence my son Jonathon and I ran into one of my former players in town who told him that reading ‘The Automatic Millionaire’ was one of the best things he ever did. He thanked me for presenting that to him at his senior banquet and I could not have asked for a better endorsement for my own son to hear!
‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’
One of my favorite books, ‘Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt’ by New York Times Best Selling author Harvey Mackay, essentially describes the saying ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’
Think about Bernie Madoff who defrauded thousands of educated, wealthy investors out of $19 billion. That’s right, billions. It was actually $65 billion in fictitious gains that his clients believed they had earned but in reality it was the largest Ponzi scheme in history. There is plenty of ‘swamp land in Florida’ and ‘gold in them there hills too.’
Another white-collar criminal, John Ackah Blay-Miezah, who along with the Prime Minister of Ghana, promised investors a 1,000 percent return on their investment. Hmmmm, hard to believe so many smart people fell for that one too.
‘Trust but verify’
Not every con artist is after millions. There are a lot of crooks trying to scam senior citizens. They call up, tell the customer that they are from their internet provider and that they are receiving indications that the client’s account has been hacked. They tell the concerned customer to check their computer, take them to a fake website (that they manage) that brings up ‘error messages.’ Then they tell the scared customer that if they give them a credit card, they can fix the problem.
There will always be evil in the world and people who will prey on the naïveté that makes good people do strange things when influenced by greed.
‘No such thing as a free lunch’
This is a hard one for many people to understand especially in this age of ‘entitlements’. Every time I hear a politician make an outrageous statement promising unrealistic outcomes simply to secure a vote, it gets my blood boiling. I am equally upset that so many people fall for them.
I am an ardent supporter of higher education. However, ‘free’ college tuition for everyone? Really? Where is that money going to come from? Taxpayers. You, me, and those who don’t even realize they will get dinged. So those of you who are 25 and under who are basing your vote on that promise, remember you will be one of those taxpayers for 40 plus years for your 4-5 years of ‘free’ education.
Build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it? Really? Is that even financially doable and what will be the unintended consequences in the geopolitical world?
‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’
A private server, The Benghazi hearings, Foggy Bottom, Whitewater, Travelgate, and the Clinton Foundation. Need I say more.
This really could be the year to vote for ‘Nunuv D. Ahbuv’.
I personally want to vote for the ‘common sense’ candidate and when one comes available, be sure to let me know. But in lieu of such a wishful thought, I am sticking with whoever will take less of my money in taxes. I earned it, I would like a say in how it is spent.
If I ran my household and my checkbook the way our government handles our taxes, I would have been forced into bankruptcy long ago.
I could go on but will stop there. I have probably riled up every voter out there. But deep inside I believe most Americans believe as I do. That we need a massive overhaul of our political system, need term limits, need campaign funding reform, and need folks who are fiscally conservative, socially conscious, have common sense, and understand that compromise is not a dirty word.
So let me end on a positive note and recommend that you go to your local library or bookstore and grab a copy of Robert Fulghum’s best-selling book, ‘All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.’
Share. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry. Wash your hands. Flush!
I would also say to follow the Ten Commandments. They have stood the test of time.
When you think about it, there is a lot of common sense behind these sayings. Most of what our grandparents taught our parents, who then tried to teach us, as we have tried to pass on to our kids, just makes sense.
As for this spring, in all it’s wetness, I simply say:
‘Rain, Rain go away, come again another day.’
