Coffee to Car Payments

Making Your "Shopping List"

In my last post, I talked about meal planning and financial planning.  Now that you have your meal plan, it's time to make a list.  First, you decide what it is you need to prepare all the meals for the week.  Next, you check your pantry, refrigerator, etc. to see what you already have on hand.  Cross those things off the list.  Now we have our shopping list.

Just as you're getting ready to head to the store, the phone rings.  Your friend who was expecting has just delivered a beautiful, healthy baby.  You're excited and you want to dash up to the hospital to see the new cherub.  But wait, need to get a card and a gift.  You immediately shift gears.  Your top priority is what you need to prepare tonight's dinner and still have time to see the baby.  The rest of the list can wait 'til tomorrow.  See how this changes things.

The challenge with comprehensive financial planning is that you may not be able to do it all at once.  You need an efficient method to determine what should be your top priority and also to bring to your attention things you may have overlooked.  For some time now, I have used a tool called the Priority Planning Review.  It only takes about 15 minutes to complete, only asks general questions, and allows you to determine what to focus on first.  Then we do that one thing.  Once it's handled, on to the next.  This way, the financial planning process isn't so daunting that it gets pushed to the back burner indefinitely.

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Financial Planning Not All That Different From Meal Planning

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Think about how you typically plan your meals for a week.  First you decide what you want to make each night.  Now I'm a bachelor and cooking for one.  For me, I have a basic structure for each meal.  It's meat, carbs, and a vegetable.  and I don't want any leftovers because I probably won't eat them.  Therefore, all of my cookbooks stay in the cupboard because most of the recipes are designed to feed 2-6 people.  I bought a 12 pound bag of rice and several flavors of Mrs. Dash.  So, the carbs pretty much taken care of for at least a year aside from the occasional potato here and there because I'm sick of rice.  Each week when I go to the store I'll buy3 or 4 kinds of meat.  Pork chops, a steak, some kind of fish, maybe even some chicken breasts.  I keep four or five different kinds of frozen vegetables around.  Remember, I'm cooking for one and I'm not picky enough to get fresh vegetables and prepare them.  I'll grab some milk and some juice and I'm out the door for under $25.

When it's time to cook dinner, I throw on the rice because it takes 20 minutes.  At around 14 minutes I'll throw the meat on and season it.  At 7 minutes, time to flip the meat.  At 5 minutes, start the veggies.  Everything gets done at the same time and dinner is served.  It's a very simple routine.  I have enough variety to go probably 3 weeks without eating exactly the same meal.  This works for me.  If I do want to change things up a bit, I go out and eat and let someone else do the work.  My point is that I have a basic plan.  A framework that may include some variations.  This is not much different than having a good financial plan and then basing all of your decisions on your basic plan.  "Do I need this insurance? or "Should I make this investment?" or "Can I really afford this vacation?" or "Do I really need a new car this year or can it wait?"  All of these decisions become easier to make when viewed through the lens of a plan that works for you.

One other parallel I might point out is that I'm a bachelor, as I said, and my plan probably wouldn't work for a family with children.  This is no different than a financial plan.  Everyone is different and every plan should be too.

Monday, I think I'll talk about making a list.

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What is a Rule of Thumb?

The exact origin of the phrase "rule of thumb" is uncertain.   There's the mostly fictional medieval legend that a man was allowed to beat his wife so long as he used a stick no thicker than his thumb.  Another suggestion is that, in many languages, the words used for "thumb" and "inch" are either the same word or two very similar words.  This interpretation would assume that everyone's thumb is an inch long or very close to it. 

The one that got my attention is that in history, wood workers -many of them very skilled, mind you- used their thumbs as a measuring device "cementing its modern use as an imprecise yet reliable and convenient standard."  They did this due to the lack of the more modern and very precise tools that wood workers used today.  So, my question to you is this: Do you want to build your financial dreams around something that is "imprecise yet reliable and convenient"?  What if there are new tools available to allow you to be precise?  Wouldn't you rather rely on those tools instead of  "everyone's thumb is an inch long or thereabouts"?

A Brief History of Financial Planning

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Coming out of the Great Depression, our nation experienced 5 years of what could be called nothing less than a booming recovery.  From 1932-1937, the market averaged a whopping 38.7% annualized return based on the chart shown here. 

Then things slowed down.  For the next 12 years, 1937-1949, virtually nothing happened.  Average loss over this time period was -.8%.  You weren't losing very much but, you weren't making much.  Dissapointing but livable to those with memories of the Depression still pretty fresh in their minds.

Then the worm turned.  From 1949-1968, the average annualized return was 15.3% per year. Here we go, boys and girls!!! 

Then the unthinkable happened...the beginning of what looked like a bear market.  Not willing to let people flounder and panic, and realizing that the planning needs of families were becoming more and more complex, a group of 13 individuals, led by Loren Dunton, met in the Chicago O'Hare airport and laid the groundwork for the Society for Financial Counseling.  This led to the formation of the College for Financial Planning which produced it's first graduating class in 1973.

1974 was a pretty bad year and these fledgling graduates had to find a way to reassure their clients that things were going to be okay.  But as things continued to stay the same, many were getting restless.  They weren't seeing the results that they had gotten all by themselves without the help of these "professionals"  In fact, from 1968-1982, the market returned an average of -3%.

Not sure what to do, we had to start talking about staying the course...over the long term the market averages x%...etc...  The only reassurance left now was rules of thumb.  Rules of thumb are going to be a big topic in future posts but this one is getting a little long.  In fact, up next, I'll be talking about long-term averages, and rules of thumb.

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Should I Stay or Should I go?

The recent financial crisis may have left you trying to figure out how to revitalize your retirement savings.  Should you stay put or try re-allocating a portion of your assets? Let’s take a look at two different scenarios and see why now maybe the ideal opportunity to re-evaluate your retirement strategy.   Get the scoop here

Health Care Reform...On the Back of a Napkin

Image by SavaTheAggie via Flickr

OK gang, I hope this doesn't sound like a rant but, I'd like to share with you a 6-step program that could fix health care.  I've thought about it a lot and here's what I came up with:

• No pre-existing conditions.  Granted, this would drive up costs but bear with me until the end of this post.  I'll address that later.  Here are a couple examples from my experience as an agent:

I had a client who got hit in the nose during a basketball game and had to go to the ER because his nose wouldn't stop bleeding.  When I submitted an application for health insurance, they put a rider on his entire upper respiratory system.  Really?  He was healthy except for getting hit in the nose.

Another client: 44 years old...had surgery when he was 2 to correct a lazy eye.  Insurance company put a rider on all diseases of the eyes.  What if he developed glaucoma totally unrelated to the surgery when he was a baby?

• Young Invincibles: Yes.  It's the ever-contoversial heathcare mandate.  It may seem a little socialist on the surface but, I'll get to that in a minute.  There needs to be a meaningful penalty for not having health insurance.  The young invincibles (age 20-29) go without coverage until they actually need it.  Mandating that they maintain coverage would drive the cost of coverage back down.

Why is this important?  Unlike home and auto insurance where there is a mandate and a meaningful penalty, doctors and hospitals are bound by the Hippocratic Oath which basically requires them to provide treatment and save lives and worry about the money later.  The cost of the uninsured gets passed on to you and I whether we see it or not in the form of escalating health care costs.

• Get rid of group plans.  This could easily be replaced with employer subsidies for having a qualified plan.  Group plans are the problem and here's why:  Let's say you have a pre-existing condition.  You take a job that you really don't like just to have access to the benefits.  Group plans do not have any exclusions for pre-existing conditions.  Doing this would also have the side benefit of allowing smaller companies to compete with the big boys.

• No more pooling.  This is a common practice in the individual market.  Every couple years, an insurance company starts a new pool.  All the healthy people can underwrite into the new pool and the sick people are stuck in the old pool and get their premiums jacked out of sight.  But they have no choice.  They're stuck.

• Flat commisions for agents.  Now I'm an insurance agent but, I've always said that the main problem with health insurance is agents who only sell health insurance.  If the commission received is a percentage of premium, what is my incentive to sell you a $50 plan when I can sell you a $300 plan.  I think agents should receive the same commission no matter which plan they sell.  For example:  I'm a 36-year old smoker and pay $63.55/month for pretty decent coverage.  I could pay north of $300/month but why?  I'm pretty healthy.  Flat commissions would incent agents everywhere to show you all of your options.

• Wellness Incentives.  Here's where I'll deal with the socialist thing.  The thought may have crossed your mind "I take good care of myself.  I work out...maintain a healthy weight, etc.  Why should I have to pay for someone else who abuses their body on a daily basis and is a higher risk than I am?"  Here's the answer.  Insurance companies offer a "rack rate".  That is the starting price for everyone.  Then you would have incentives to maintain a healthy weight, cholesterol level, blood pressure, etc.  You would be rewarded for getting regular checkups to monitor various risk factors.

Now, while I'm really proud of my plan, keep in mind that no one part would work without the other five.  It has to happen simultaneously.  I'm not sure something so simple would ever make it through Congress.

Honey, Make Me a List.

Before I took Sheri to the airport on Tuesday, she asked if I wanted her to make me a list of the things I needed to do.  I said "Sure!"  Here's what she gave me:

• "Plain chewy in the morning"  This was for the dog.  A chewy is a rawhide treat.
• "Flavored chewy in the evening"  Didn't know.  Good tip.
• "Put squirrel in garbage on Friday (garbage day).  It's between the house and the garage."  Okay.  Dead squirrel from front yard goes in the garbage on garbage day.  Got it.
• "Empty dehumidifier 2X/day."  Oops!  Better go do that.
• "Eat something."  Cool!  She still cares about me.
• "Eat tomatoes."  We've got an overload of tomatoes on the counter from friends.

Pretty detailed list.  Huh?  She thought of everything.  Wait a sec!  She didn't tell me to feed or water the dog.  Should I do that?  She's gone for 5 days.  What's my point?  In the age of the internet, it's great that people do enough research to have their own informed ideas about financial planning.  But, if your financial planner asks you a few extra questions, don't worry about what he's trying to sell you.  He's just doing his job.  In my case, had I followed Sheri's list to the letter, the dog might be dead but hey, at least the squirrel got in the garbage without stinking up the container and the basement smells nice.  OK.  Gotta go mow the lawn.  That wasn't on the list either.

A Trip to the Airport

Yesterday I was taking Sheri to the airport.  She's spending a few days in "The Big Apple" with four of her girlfriends.  Her flight was leaving at 8:20.  Since the Des Moines airport is relatively easy to navigate, we figured we'd be good if she got there at 7:30.  Since we live less than five miles from the airport, we left the house at 7:10.  After all, it's a 10-minute drive but it was rush hour.  We pull to the end of the driveway and "Bam!  There's a crane truck parked right in the middle of our street on one end and, the other end is closed (big sewer project...long story).  I immediately begin to weigh the options.  Do I drive up on the unfinished sidewalk to get around this thing?  Can I pull into my neighbor's driveway and then cut across the grass.  Neither of these seemed to be an option because it had rained hard the day before and, I might get stuck in the mud.  Oh wait.  I could go home and get the Jeep because then I wouldn't have to worry about the mud.  Sheri, meanwhile, went and asked the crane operator how long they were going to be.  "5-10 minutes" was the reply.  OK.  problem solved.  We wait and then we're on our way.  We'd already planned and extra 10 minutes for the unexpected.

Once the crane moved, Sheri says "Now, I know this is against your nature but, I need you to drive like a madman."  Out of sheer habit, I say "Yes Dear." and then proceed to drive the speed limit.  I'm doing 40 miles an hour down the road and calculating in my head that if I do 50, I could shave about a minute off the trip.  So, we're going along and Sheri says "You just got passed by an old, white-haired man."  "Yes," I replied "but the one sure way to miss your flight is for me to get a speeding ticket."  So I kept going 40 and bottom line: She made her flight.

Now.  What's my point?  Don't be influenced by outside forces when it comes to your money.  The old, white-haired guy passed me more than once.  So, that means, at some point, I passed him.  Focus on the plan.  My goal was to get Sheri to the airport on time without taking unnecessary risks.  Guess what?  It worked!  The crane, Sheri's advice to "drive like a madman", and the old white-haired guy were merely distractions from my ultimate goal.

Too Many Cooks In Your Retirement "Soup"?

If I asked you to give the tagline for Timex, could you?  Probably.  But that was two taglines ago.

Just came across this post from Drew McLellan.  For those two people who don't know Drew, he's the guy who, in his own words, "gets branding and marketing and he desperately wants you to get it too"  The post is about Timex changing their tried and true tagline, "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking" to "Timex.  Life is ticking."  all because some new guy came in and said that he could do better.  That guy's since been fired and so has the tagline.  Now it's "Timex.  Be there now."  "Be there now?"  Can't any watch do that?  Heck, my cell phone can do that.  So can the clock in my car.  What's so special about that?

I guess what hit me immediately is that this is what so many people do with their money.  They sit down with one financial planner and put together a plan.  Things are going according to plan and then they go to a seminar.  Maybe it's because they're unhappy or maybe it's just the free meal.  Then they switch gears and go with the new guy.  That doesn't work out.  So, they go to another seminar...you get the picture?  What happens is that they end up with a shotgun approach to financial planning.  They've got duplications and ommissions everywhere.  Odds are that they end going up back to the original guy who put together a plan and ask him to sort it out.   Someone once said (I wish I could remember who.  It's buried somewhere in the 500+ pages of the latest version of "The Intelligent Investor".  So, most likely, it was Benjamin Graham.)  "A lot of bad advice is given free."  If you've got a plan that's working for you, one that can, in fact, "take a licking", stick with it.  These are confusing times but, a plan is a plan is a plan.

Too Many Opinions About Health Insurance

A couple weeks ago, I walked into the doctor's office.  I presented my insurance card and started filling out all the paperwork.  The girl behind the desk ran my insurance card and said "What?!!  You only get 3 office visits per year and then you have to pay your deductible?"  I said "Yes, but I pay about 65 bucks a month vs. the $235 a month I could be paying for the "Cadillac" plan.  Plus, this is the first time in 10 years I've been to the doctor for anything other than a physical and those are covered under my plan as well.  So let's see...$235-$65 = $170/month I'm saving.  Over 10 years that comes to $20,400.  And the worst that can happen is I end up in the hospital, at which point, my maximum out of pocket cost is 5 grand.  Yeah, I think I'll just pay my $30 copay today and keep my "right-sized" health insurance.  Now, if I had a family with children, I may consider a little bit richer plan.
I guess my point is that taking insurance advice from the desk clerk is a little like getting financial advice at a backyard barbeque.  Everyone has an opinion (often valid) but, you've got to make sure that your plans align with your goals and that you've got a professional who's got your back.

5 Handy Excuses You Can Use For Not Saving For Retirement

I've even sorted them by age to make it easier for you.

Ages 21-30
"I'm just getting started in life!"

Ages 30-45
"I've got a growing family on my hands!"

Ages 45-55
"I have two children in college!"

Ages 55-65
"Things aren't working out the way I thought they would!"

Ages 65-70
"It's too late!"

Wanna Know How the Credit Crisis Impacts Your 401k? This Video Tells the Story.

This morning at the Central Iowa Blogger Breakfast, I was talking with graphic designer, Justin Brady about how to communicate complex financial ideas to people who are more prone to  thinking with the right side of their brain.  Justin asked if I'd seen this video about the credit crisis.  I had seen it referenced on several blogs that I read but hadn't had the time to watch it.  Anyway, I took the time today and it was well worth it.  I actually have a much clearer picture of what is going on and how everything works together.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Thanks Justin.

Online Calculators: Are They Useful Tools or Financial Malpractice?

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The truth is that for the most part, they are designed to sell you something under the guise of giving you peace of mind.  The truth is that you should have peace of mind if you followed the recommendations because you are most likely over-saving or over-insured.  Think about it for a minute.  Life insurance needs calculators are created by insurance companies and retirement savings calculators are created by companies who offer some form of investment or savings plan.

Life insurance: What is it that you are actually trying to protect?  It is your family's living standard in the event of your premature death.  If you over-insure, I guess it's technically not a bad thing for your survivors but, what could you have enjoyed while you were alive with the money you could have saved?

Retirement: The problem with over-saving is that you squander your youth pinching pennies and keeping your nose to the grindstone and then after you retire, you've got more money than you know what to do with and you've got 65 years of penny-pinching habits that you can't let go.

The bigger problem is what these calculators do for those who can't afford to save or insure at that level is that they simply do nothing to plan for the future.   The cost is prohibitive, they feel helpless, so they opt to do nothing when in reality, their living standard could have been protected possibly at a fraction of what the little 4 or 5 question calculator suggested for them.  (I'll save that for another post but, would you follow the advice of a professional who only asked 4 or 5 questions?)

Online retirement-planning tools can be useful, but only if you're careful

Five Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Health Insurance Plan.

 

Shopping for individual health insurance can be challenging and confusing.  Here are five questions that I recommend you be able to answer before you shop to help you or an insurance agent narrow down the options available to you:

1. Is maternity coverage important to you?  This question isn't just about whether or not you are planning to start a family.  If there is any chance that you may become or cause someone else to become pregnant, it's at least worth looking into the difference in the cost.  They don't call them "Oops! babies" because they're not loved.
2. Is it mental health and chemical dependency coverage important to you?  This can make at least some difference in the premium because it's not just about the mental health and chemical dependency treatment.  It's about other health issues that may arise as a result.
3. Aside from your annual physical, how many doctor visits do you typically make in a year (per person)?  There are some very affordable plans out there that cover say up to 3 visits per year without meeting your deductible.  Families with children may opt for a plan that covers unlimited visits per year for those little things that come up.
4. How interested are you in plans that can be paired with a tax advantaged Health Savings Account (HSA)?  The big advantage here is that, if you have the income to max fund the HSA every year and don't actually use the money, it carries forward to the next year...and the next...and the next and can eventually be taken out as income in retirement if it's not fully depleted.
5. How would you prefer to plan financially for your health care.  Is it more important to have it be predictable as in a higher monthly premium in exchange for lower co-pays when you do use it or would you like to have it the other way around?

As I said, whether you are shopping yourself or working with an agent, these questions will help you to narrow your focus and zero in on the plan that makes the most sense to you.

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• Do You Know Your Out-of-Pocket Costs (outofpocket.com)

Rick Santelli's "Rant Heard 'Round The World"

"This is America.  How many of you people wanna pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?  raise your hand!"

This video went nuts on YouTube yesterday and with good reason.  The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is just nuts on every level.

• The first and biggest misconception is that you have to be delinquent to benefit.  No, even if you are current on your mortgage, there is a provision to allow you to refinance to a lower rate even if your home value has decreased.  Sounds good on the surface.  Right?  Wrong!!  You are current on your mortgage.  You are a responsible person who's made good decisions and you don't need help.  But who in their right mind would not take advantage of this?  You're being forced as a responsible citizen to subsidize this program through higher taxes.  So, why not get your piece of the pie?  This is a complete waste of time and money.
• The second part of the program is aimed at the subprime market.  92% of us are paying our mortgages on time because we bought within our means.  We get nothing but the privilege of getting to keep our home.  Under this provision, the lender renegotiates the mortgage and gets $1,000 for every year that the borrower stays current.  The borrower receives incentives for every month that they stay current.  Draw your own conclusion here but a responsible lender or homeowner doesn't need to be rewarded.
  
• Part three is supposed to "keep rates low for new homeowners by restoring confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac".  Honestly, I have no idea what that means but, in context, I'd say it's an obscure waste of time and money.
• And the last part stipulates that bankruptcy judges can reduce the balance of your mortgage based on fair market value.  Who determines fair market value?  Is it the appraisers who contributed to this mess by "juicing" appraisals so that lenders could loan $150,000 on a house that could sell for maybe 80 grand on a perfect sunny day in June?  They could just do the reverse and say that your $150,000 home is only worth $80,000 and the $70,000 difference get distributed evenly to your neighbors.

You can verify everything I've said by checking this White House Fact Sheet

Dang!  I got a little long-winded.  Here's Rick's rant:

Rick said this morning that he wants "this discussion to get legs".  So share your thoughts here.

Just When I Think No One's Listening...

Here are some of my tweeple.  See anyone you know?

Get your twitter mosaic here.

What Exactly Will a Stimulus Package Do?

 There seems to be no shortage of opinions out there about how effective the New Deal was.   The consensus seems to be that the war was what finally bailed out our economy and not government intervention.  Forget politics.  Forget spending vs. tax cuts.  Either qualifies as government intervention.  Here's how it's worked in the past.

What do you think?

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Stop Busting Your Assets!

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I've been doing a lot of reading lately on investing.  I'm currently reading 'The Intelligent Investor' by Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett's mentor.  He talks in depth about two types of investors.  The defensive (passive) investor is one who takes the safe route and just invests in the overall market.  The aggressive (active) investor is one who knows how to read a company's financial statement and make decisions as if he were actually buying the business.  Basically, you don't buy anything that you don't understand.  When the active investor finds the business he wants to own at the price he wants to pay, he buys it planning to hold it indefinitely.  He has bought into a business and not a number on a ticker somewhere.

I found a great blog today that I will be referring to often.  It is called the Behavior Gap by a financial planner named Carl Richards.   I just want to highlight a couple posts for now.  The first post describes why the average investor does considerably worse than the average investment over time.  In short, you can outperform 99% of your neighbors simply by changing your behavior.  The role of a financial planner is not to find great investments but to develop better investors.  The second post describes what happens by the time that you find out that something is a great investment.   I mean, think about it.  What happens when you do exceptionally well at your job?  You are given more responsibility, more money, and so forth until eventually, you have reached a plateau.  Then the excellence turns to mediocrity and pretty soon, if you're "too big to fail", you end up asking Congress and the taxpayers for bailout money but, I digress.  These hot fund managers do well when they are small enough to fly under the radar but then, when more and more money gets dumped into the fund, the manager can perform about as effectively as the Hindenburg in a dog fight.  Then you, the investor, are back to square one looking for the next hot manager based on what?  His historical performance.

I wrote in an earlier post about advisors needing to manage their clients expectations and, Carl does an excellent job of showing how you can take control of the situation by managing your own behavior.

What are your assumptions about money?

Doctors, Advisors, and Cab Drivers.

It's a little amusing to me how a lot of guys in my business, whether they call themselves an insurance agent or a financial advisor, feel the need to tether their level of professionalism to something totally unrelated to the task at hand.  They say things like:

• "It's like when you go to the doctor..."
• "You wouldn't want the doctor to just walk in and write a prescription without asking you a few questions."

There's a lot more but, you get the point.  A lot of the statements made have some validity but, we really are nothing like a doctor.  First off, we don't have a cot in the office where we sleep just in case you need us.  If you paged us in the middle of the night, there'd be no point in responding outside of normal business hours.  There are no lives in the balance.  Last but not least, do you really want us to act like a doctor, lawyer, or anything else that requires more than an undergraduate degree?  We could talk over your head and use big confusing words that you'd never hear anywhere else.   We could make you feel like our time is so valuable that you're lucky you've got a few minutes of it.  Do you really want to worry about the outcome of our next or last meeting?

I don't think so.  Financial planning can be very intimidating.  Since they don't teach financial literacy in school (yet), it's a topic with which many of us are unfamiliar.  It's kinda like going to a major city that you've not been to before or maybe you have been there, but you don't really know your way around.  You arrive at the airport and you can do one of two things.  You can rent a car or hail a cab.  Remember, it's a big city where the natives drive like maniacs, parking's a bear, and you're not real sure where you're going.  So, you opt for the cab because everything you plan to do is just another short cab ride from your hotel.  What are you really looking for at that point?    You want someone who you can count on to get you where you want to go, get you there in one piece, and speaks your language.

What's Your Career Plan B?

With unemployment hitting a 15-year high last month and mounting uncertainty about when things are going to get better, I just wanted to share a few links that I've stumbled across that may help you get an edge if you happen to be in the market for a new job.

• If you're out there hitting job fairs or making a lot of in-person contacts, this may be a useful idea to make your resume' stand out.  Use this Power Point template to create a unique and attractive resume' that may get more than just a cursory glance
•  Top Ten Tips for Getting a New Gig from Business Pundit.  Just don't bring that fancy new resume' to a Super Bowl party.  That's just weird.
• The job market is even more discouraging for those under 30.   My friend, Victor Kennedy, a recruiter at SOS Staffing sent me this article that you may want to look at if you happen to be just a few credits short of a degree: The 5 Most Marketable College Degrees for 2009
• And finally, I recently read Keith Ferrazzi's book Never Eat Alone.  It is arguably the best book ever written on networking, and the most powerful thought for those who are still gainfully employed is "Build it before you need it." (your network).  Don't try to start networking just 'cause you're desperate.  It's like that family member who only calls when they need money.

P.S.  If you've recently left a job, don't forget to roll over your 401k to an IRA.  There are lots of reasons why which I will cover in another post.