Continuing Education
I found years ago that Continuing Education was all voluntary. The
quality of the training was excellent and we could select some high
level of information and training coming from those who are voluntarily
putting it together.
When
the law changed, required us to have Continuing Education, it was
stamped out, commercialized, standardized, down to where Continuing
Education credits were perfunctory. You go and sit in a class, they
didn't grade you, you just had to get your hours done, typically 12
hours a year or 24 hours every two years so the quality went way down.
Most
recently, I have taken the Continuing Education classes that do allow
for my proper credit given but from attorneys and CPAs that it's
Continuing Education for attorneys. It's Continuing Education for CPAs
so it's very difficult. Just recently, I was in one with 63 attorneys,
talked about estate planning. I was the only one who was the
non-attorney in the meeting. I received my credit and we also had
wonderful opportunities to visit many, many different situations with
case studies of their clients. There were four different attorneys
making the presentation and I was able to ask any question I wanted,
which I asked several, throughout the 8-hour period during the day.
I
found it kind of interesting to pay a fee of $279 and be able to ask
any question I wanted to four attorneys on estate planning for an
8-hour period. Personally, I was thrilled with that value. I can't
imagine where you could go to find anything better. The conclusion is
that I've found that I have a thirst for knowledge and if we do not
continually challenge our beliefs, challenge the way we think,
everything is changing around us, so to challenge our beliefs, give us
an opportunity to learn and to grow and improve so that we can do much
better for our clients.
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Stage Of Life Financial Decisions
Financial decisions are more successful when you take into count the
stage of life you're currently in. If you go by age, you can be far off
the mark. Some 65 year olds are healthy and happy and doing well
financially, so much so, they don’t think of themselves as "old". Where
as another age 65 year old may very well be discouraged and living with
their children, even hoping to die. Rather than worry about your age,
take more time being concerned with what financial life stage you're
in. Wise thinking involves where you are financially more than what age
you are.
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Numbers Drop For The Married With Children
According to research done by Blaine Harden of the Washington Post, our
culture is shifting away from married with children. Those who get a
college education seem to marry others with college degrees and have
44% higher incomes than do those without college. And those without
college degrees are not bothering with marriage. This whole slow change
means the income difference is widening across the nation. This group
of couples who do get college degrees and do get married, have
increased their incomes by 59% in the last three decades. Education is
good, but the trend says income gaps will widen because of it. Which
group are you in? More to come……
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Divorce And Its Rising Costs
In the last 35 years the divorce rate has steadily increased. So has
the income difference between those with college degrees and those with
out. It seems that the less educated you are, the higher the divorce
rate, until the change started to occur in the 1970's. It seems that
when the less educated decide not to even get married the divorce rate
thus didn't apply. But today the number of single mothers with children
who have been forced to enter the work force, has come at a huge cost.
Twice the household expense, with twice the legal costs for both
husband and wife, with income tax increase by not filing joint tax
returns has made it difficult for anyone to have surplus money other
than the basics. Researchers say that those with college degrees don’t
divorce half as much as those without. What is the moral to this story?
Get a good education, get a spending plan, and open lines of
communication.
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Changes In Men Who Marry
When men marry, among its many benefits, marriage raises the earnings
of men and motivates them to work more hours. It also reduces by
two-thirds the likelihood that a family will live in poverty,
researchers learned. The marital unions of high earners are a
significant factor in the growth of income inequality since the 1970’s
according to Gary Burtless, an economist at Brookings. His research
attributes 13% of the increase in the nation’s income inequality to
such couples.
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