What the Mid-Term Election Means to You

Let’s try to put a practical spin on yesterday’s Republican take-over of Congress. First, it’s safe to say that the result was more an anti-Obama vote than one based on specific policy positions taken by the candidates. After all, since Obama’s election in 2008, the Republican Party has not taken positions or offered legislation any more substantial than voting “No” on everything the Democrats, including Obama, proposed.

When you have a polarized Congress like we do today—and a Congress that can’t agree on anything other than raining bombs down on hapless Muslim territories—what is a citizen to do? It’s safe to say that it will be at least two more years of gridlock until the next election, which pretty much takes the federal government out of the picture from a governance standpoint.

So here’s what you do. Make sure you live in a state and a community that supports your values. For example, if you have children, stay out of states like Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin that are making major cutbacks to education as well as other services important to childhood development.

For those who care about your children’s education, you may want to consider states like New York, California, and New Jersey (although that state has its own set of problems and there are large variations among communities).

If you care about clean drinking water, then stay out of states with loose fracking laws, like Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma and parts of Pennsylvania.

If you’re not comfortable being around a lot of guns, then stay clear of Virginia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, among several others.

Most states with Republican governors and legislatures will be looking to cut already inadequate budgets, which will mean poorer schools, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate medical care for the poor, and, in the case of Kansas, the very real threat of bankruptcy.

In a nutshell, expect nothing from the new Congress and the current president, because that’s exactly what you’ll get over the next two years. All politics is local now, so pick a place to live that coincides with your lifestyle, morality, social philosophy and personal needs.

I do wonder how long a nation can flourish without a functioning federal government. A pretty long time given that we’re still here and the legislative paralysis in Washington goes on and on.  

Why the Lottery is a Good Investment

When I bought my morning coffee today I noticed that the Mega Million jackpot stood at $289 million!  That’s $289 million! Wow!

However, many say that, given the gazillion-to-one chance of actually claiming the jackpot, only complete fools would bother wasting their money on a lottery ticket.

I beg to differ, and as a registered financial adviser, I think my opinion should hold some weight. A good investment is one that delivers a benefit in excess of its cost. That benefit could be in the form of cash or some other good, such as enjoyment, knowledge or some other kind of fulfillment.

I believe a lottery ticket provides two potential streams of enjoyment:

• ·       A huge monetary award
• ·       The fun of thinking about what you would do if you win that huge monetary award

Obviously, most of us will not win the lottery, but how many of you have not taken advantage of the second benefit?

I for one make it a practice whenever I buy a lottery ticket to lose myself in a brief reverie of how much money I would win in a lump sum after the state’s cut and income taxes. I think about how I would invest the money and spend the money and alter the lives of my nuclear family to enable us to realize all our dreams and wishes.

In other words, I allocate 10 minutes of my time to dream, which I consider a cheap form of entertainment. From a monetary standpoint, a $1 lottery ticket providing 10 minutes of pleasurable dreaming comes out to an expenditure of only $6 an hour (60 minutes/10 minutes= 6 x $1= $6.00/hr.). Compare that to other forms of entertainment.

• $15 ticket for a 2- hour movie: $7.50/hr
• $100 ticket to a 3-hr Yankee game: $33.33/hr
• $50 two-hour meal at a fancy restaurant: $25/hr.
• $4 ice cream cone (takes 15 minutes to eat): $16/hr

So if anyone tells you that buying a lottery ticket is a waste of money, challenge them to come up with a more economical way to spend their entertainment dollar!

Guitar vs. Sudoku

As I progress through my sixth decade, I’ve become quite concerned over the potential of losing…my…mind. Not in the sense of going crazy, that condition is a given, but rather losing the mental capacity to focus, remember, and apply my mind to complex problems.

I’ve been encouraged to take up Sudoku by several people, since it’s a demanding way to exercise the brain and, presumably, retard the retarding process. Problem is, I don’t really like games so much—that whole subset of Sudoku, crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles—just puzzles in general don’t excite me.

So I play guitar. As mentioned in a previous post, I’m not a natural musician and playing guitar is an avocation that I do purely as a challenge and a form of relaxation. And playing guitar, especially classical pieces, exercises a variety of muscles. It develops hand, wrist, and finger strength, not to mention overall digital dexterity. And if you hold the guitar correctly, it helps develop good posture.

But it also builds your mind. Classical guitar requires the ability to read music and translate music on the page to the fret board and strings of your instrument. Not only must you figure out the structure of the passages being notated, you have to determine finger positions on the fret board and your right hand movements, which can be very challenging since the same note configurations can be played several different ways on the neck. 

All this is results in significant mental exercise, especially when you begin learning a complex piece.

So I’ll take guitar over Sudoku anytime—you get both your physical exercise and brain work in at the same time. 

And sometimes it even results in some sweet music.

Do Good There or Do Good Here

A columnist for The New York Times by the name of Nicholas Kristof uses his refined journalistic sensitivities to plead the case of the poor and downtrodden in third world countries. He’s written a book in which he urges readers to donate money and/or time to help improve the lives of these people. He often works on your sense of shame to be more proactive to his pet causes.

Certainly his heart is in the right place and there is endless misery in the world that must be addressed, but Mr. Kristof and spouse seem to home in the most hopeless and most desperate. As a reader, I sympathize for the plight of the less fortunate, but where does one begin?

For the most part, the greatest misery is found in the regions of the world with the most dysfunctional leadership, which leads me to conclude that without addressing that underlying situation, our charity will be wasted or otherwise usurped by the power structure.

Mr. Kristof is an intrepid traveler and visits and meets with the most afflicted populations in the world, so naturally he is greatly moved and inspired to call the first world’s attention to the most horrific situations. But again, with the need so great, how can our pittance of support make much of a difference?

I hate to say it, but charity should begin at home. It begins by providing education and other opportunities to the next generation, your kids for instance, before you can adjust your sights outward to volunteer time and money for the community. I believe in local first. Help bootstrap the less fortunate in your town or in less affluent areas where your contribution can make the most impact.

Yes, I’d love to provide a roof and an education to the masses of unspeakably poor and abused in the Sudan and Congo, but my humble efforts are little more than spitting into the ocean. When the system is so broken, how can we know that our dollars are well spent—or spent as well as they could be if we take a more local approach? 

Are You Cut Out For the Corporate LIfe?

I’ve had a moderately successful career in middle management at a major financial services company, despite the fact that I lack many of the qualities needed to be extremely successful in a corporate environment. In fact, the only reason I’ve survived is because I offer a valued skill set, specifically an ability to write and produce a wide range of marketing communication materials in all formats and for almost any audience.

This is a quirky skill set that’s essential to a firm offering its products and services to various audiences, but it limits the upside potential for such a person if he or she doesn’t have the other attributes needed to really climb the ladder. In fact, the following attributes, which I lack, are far more important than the ability to create a web site, write and produce brochures, produce videos, and so forth if you really want to advance into the executive ranks.

Here is what is holding me back from being a smashing corporate success:

I’m an introvert. Organizations dote on outgoing people who like being amongst other outgoing people. Those who can’t function at cocktail parties, conferences, and team-building activities don’t get very far. Plus, I hate public speaking, which is a must when you work in a group.

I’m not a team player. Organizations are all about collaboration and doing things as a team. I tend to create my masterpieces alone in my office and present them to others. When creativity is involved, adding cooks to the piece is not usually synergistic. And I want the credit when I do something well and not have it dispersed to lesser contributors. If it sucks, I’m more than willing to accept the blame.

I don’t schmooze. Schmoozing and small talking your peers and bosses and forming mentor relationships are essential to career growth. I have a physical gag reflex that prevents me from sucking up to superiors and mouth sweet nothings to people I care nothing about.

I resent authority. I’m usually smarter than those in charge and since I’m self-motivating and self-guiding, my bosses usually can’t tell me anything about my performance that I don’t already know.

I have zero leadership skills. Leadership is big in corporations—they look for future leaders. Don’t look at me—I hate supervising people, have no desire for power, can’t do the “rah-rah” thing without suffering bouts of reflux, and, of course, my personal goals always take precedence over corporate goals.

Devoted to the company mission. You must make your company’s goals your personal goals. I’m way too self-centered to care about the company’s mission. If I do my job well, then the company directly benefits. That’s the order of importance for me.

So, if any of my negative traits apply to you, you will not be happy in the corporate life. You’re better off starting your own thing, since unless you’re willing to become the corporation, you will never go far in the corporation.

Ebola? You’re Worried about Ebola? Oh Puhleeze!

Sure, Ebola is a frightening disease and a grisly way to go. But did you know that you are 23 times more likely to die from a lightning strike than contracting and dying from Ebola? Consider:

NUMBER OF DEATHS IN THE U.S. FROM:

Ebola:  1 in 2014

Lightning strikes: 23 (2013, NOAA National Weather Service)

Skateboarding: 30 (2013, skatepark.org)

Helicopters: 133 (2012, helihub.com)

Guns: 30,000+/year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Vehicle-related: 33,561 (2012, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)

Drinking: 80,000+/year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Smoking: 480,000+/year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Really, aren’t there better things to worry about? 

France and Italy Finally Step Up

It's supposed to be the eurozone, not the Germanyzone, which is something that France, Italy and other member countries are finally realizing. Eight years of economic mis-rule by Merkel and her ilk in Germany has Europe teetering on the brink of deflation and a third descent into recession since 2008.

Isn't that enough proof yet that austerity, budget reductions, and cutting back on government spending is a sure way to economic disaster in the face of today's negative demand enviroment? It's death by wayward ideology!

So it's heartening to see that France, Italy and the European Central Bank are finally rebelling against Germany and its austerity gangs by finally talking about stepped up government spending to stimulate their economies, put people back to work, stoke demand and actually lay the foundation for sustainable growth.

"We need to show that Europe is capable of investing in growth, and not only in rigor and austerity," said Matteo Renzi, Italy's Prime Minister. Here here! Europe's economy is as large as the U.S.'s, so a European stimulus helps international trade in the U.S. as well and may finally snap the Western world out of a slow-to-no growth treadmill that we've been on for the last four years.

It may just happen, because even Germany--the eurozone colossus-- is spiraling towards another recession, so it may finally be receptive to some stimulus itself. This is not the Weimar any more. Inflation, rather than being an evil, is actually needed in times like these.

There are certainly times to tighten the purse strings. But now is not that time! Let's go out and fix some roads, build some bridges, and hire more teachers.