Marcus Neto

Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to what 2012 brings

Many moons ago a mentor of mine beat it into my dense skull that if you don’t set goals then you have no way of knowing whether you are moving forward, staying stagnant or moving forward. Looking at it now I don’t know if that is accurate but I have spent so many years planning and scheming on things that I want to achieve that I just don’t know how to do it any different. Perhaps I should have a goal of not setting any goals… nah.

Last year was amazing. Everything seemed to click. Not to say that it was all roses. I think a lot of us are scratching our heads wondering when the hangover called 2011 is going to end. My hope for us all is that 2012 will be a mind blowing year and that we will all check off our to-do lists early, achieve inbox 0 on Thursdays and blow the doors off of our New Year’s Resolutions by February.

In reviewing my goals for 2011 I did pretty good. I like to keep it fairly general when writing goals (I’ve learned). Below are my goals for 2011:

1. Bodyfat below 15% - possible (I haven’t measured it recently) but more importantly I stuck with going to the gym 3-4 times a week. I am now in better shape than I have been in a decade or so.
2. Run a 5k - negative. I have struggled with an achilles issue for the year. It is getting better. But now I have no desire to run a 5k. I can bench 250lbs though
3. Be more focused with my time and tasks - definitely. I am very pleased that I can say I achieved this goal. It is so easy to get off task. Especially for me. I feel I had a really productive year. I have learned tons.
4. Net (insert a specific dollar amount here)k - yup. Made it. Saved a bunch because of it. For whatever reason we have been blessed and I am thankful for it
5. Save 5-6 months of salary - Can’t believe it but we made it. Those of you that know us know that both Jen and I work pretty hard. It is an amazing feeling knowing that if something were to happen we have a little bit saved up. I know it definitely helps Jen sleep better at night.
6. Take 2 vacations with Jen alone - Yeeessss! Gotta get some alone time with my bride. I am excited about this year as we have our 20 year high school reunion in DC that we will be going to. I would also really like to arrange to go away for a long weekend to Jamaica for our 15 year anniversary since that is where we went for our honeymoon.
7. Spend quality time with the boys - So glad I did this. My little men are amazing. I think the world of them and can see them turning into amazing men right in front of my eyes.
8. Take date nights with Jen 2x per month - nope. Too expensive. Sitters cost us $10-ish per hour around here. Add that to the cost of dinner and a movie and you can spend $100 for a 3 hour date for a cheap dinner and a movie.
9. Have abs - close. This. will. happen. this. year.
10. Continue eating healthy - This is for my family. My father had a heart attack in his 40s. I am closing in on that. Fortunately I have the luxury of making diet and exercise a priority in my life. I am determined to not follow in his foot steps on this one.
11. Keep my office - yup. I love having a place to go work. I miss having my cohort in crime (Casey Lee) but at least I didn’t have to move into our closet when he took a job in Birmingham.

So what does this year hold? This year I have some of the same or similar personal goals.

1. Do physical activity 4 times a week - 3 times at the gym and some hefty yard work or something is good.
2. Continue eating healthy - Try to eat out as little as possible. Paleo if possible. Mmmmm Bacon.
3. Read at least 2 books per month - Time to dive into topics instead of just skimming the surface.
4. Spend more time with my parents - They just moved to ATL so this should be easier. In years past they have lived in Caracas, Soeul, Sao Paulo and DC. ATL is closer so I hope that this year we get to see them for Birthdays and stuff.
5. Watch less TV - see #3
6. Have abs by summer - I don’t care if it is a 2 pack….
7. Take 3 vacations with Jen this year - Time away for us to reflect on 15 years of marriage and 20 years of being together. So awesome. If we go somewhere for our anniversary and DC for our 20 year reunion then we only have 1 other trip to arrange. Perhaps NYC near Christmas?
8. Teach my boys something new, often - I think there are things every man needs to know. How to whittle a stick. How to operate a mower. How to be safe with a knife. How to build a really cool fort.
9. Keep learning - I would really like to dip my toe into PHP this year… I hope DJ doesn’t read this… I think it will help me understand a section of the ExpressionEngine community that has different needs than the average user.

For business my main goal will be to help the ExpressionEngine community grow. The new position is something I am really excited about. Once I wade through the mountain of email that awaits me tomorrow I intend of formalizing a lot of my plans for this year. I definitely intend on attending more conferences this year. I hope to have more conversations with members of our community, especially the Pro Net (hint hint). I may be doing some speaking. I will definitely be giving demos. If you are a member of the community .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you have ideas of what you would like to see us do to help our community grow.

So maybe this is not your thing. I have a friend that will probably read the first paragraph of this and go ‘meh’. But for me it works. I keep these reminders in a folder in Omnifocus and refer back to them pretty often. And it makes me feel good to know at the end of another amazing year I worked hard towards some goals and achieved them.

Thanksgiving

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is here already. It seems like just yesterday I was dipping my toes in the turquoise waters of the Gulf Coast and chasing the kids in the water. I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on all that I have to be thankful for.

I have a beautiful wife that loves me and puts up with my crap. I will be forever thankful for that. It has been 14 years of marriage and 20 years of being together as a couple. She is an amazing human that I love spending time with.

I have three boisterous young boys that keep me on my toes. I look at them and I see a perfect blend of my wife and I. They are so awesomely amazing. They are healthy, smart and curious. Those are there qualities I want in a son. I would not trade their wonderful smiles for the world.

I have a wonderful extended family. My wife’s family has adopted me like a son. My own parents have recently decided to move to Atlanta to be closer to us which is going to mean we get to see them more than 1-2 times a year. #bonus

One of the bigger changes this year was my move to the EllisLab team. I love my work. I am so thankful for the camaraderie that we have. Going to work each day is a joyous experience. I am also very very thankful for the many friends that I have made in the community. They keep me on my toes and make me laugh… well some of them : )

I am thankful for my health. It has been about a year and a half since I decided to take control of my health. Short of a recent battle with an ice cream addiction (please don’t judge) I have been pretty good. I have been very consistent with my workouts and eating and my health has improved because of it. My Dr ha taken me off of most of my drugs including the Cholesterol meds that I was on.

I am thankful for my church. I have never been part of a church that cared for their local community as much as Bay Community does. I love that right before writing this blog post they sent an email telling everyone we have raised enough money to give away 3200 bikes to needy families this year. So many kids will get a gift this year because of the giving hearts of the Bay Community family.

Anyway, I do hope that if you are reading this that you have much to be thankful for. I believe that having a thankful heart is key to having a better life.

The Importance of Life Insurance

Jen and I have been quite involved in the Insurance scene over the last decade or more. Several of her family members have worked for NY Life and my father sold Insurance back when I was a wee lad. And full disclosure I spent 8 months of my life selling Insurance for NY Life as well till I decided that putting on a suit every day to talk to people about death and protecting their loved ones was not something I could do. It’s a hard sell to say the least.

With all that said I think Life Insurance is something EVERYONE needs.

Here’s why:

Parents should by their children permanent life insurance for two main reasons. First it guarantees their insurability. Most reputable insurance companies (NY Life, MetLife, State Farm, USAA etc) will have riders on the policy that state that the child can purchase additional levels of life insurance with no additional health checks. See kids have it easy. Since they are usually in fine health their insurance comes without a health check. And with this rider in place if they do ever contract something that would negate their insurability then they at least have a small policy in place that allows them to purchase additional life insurance.

For instance:

If a child named Bob has loving parents that have done their homework they will probably have purchased a small permanent life insurance policy on him. The smallest face value for permanent life insurance right now is usually $25-50k and will cost the parents somewhere in the neighborhood of $225-400 annually. Now let’s say Bob gets to age 9 and finds out he has cancer. No worries though as his cancer is operable and he will live a nice long life. But later in life Bob hits a trigger point built into his $50k permanent life insurance policy that allows him to purchase an additional $50k worth of insurance with no questions asked. He just checks a checkbox on the annual payment and Boom! He goes from 50k to 100k just like that and payments will go up slightly from $325 to $450 Annually. Say he does this a couple of times prior to his 30th birthday and has a total of $250k in Life Insurance. He ends up meeting a nice lady (Jane) that he falls in love with and they have kids. Because he is a responsible spouse and parent he meets with his agent to get additional life insurance to make sure his family is taken care of if he passes away only to find out that because he has a history of cancer and his cholesterol has been a bit elevated he cannot afford a new life insurance policy. Again, no worries as he has $250k currently and can purchase additional through that policy at similar triggers to what he has used before. Plus he is buying it at a lower rate than he would if he were to purchase it at his current age.

This brings up point number two for purchasing life insurance for kids. You are enabling them to purchase life insurance for the rest of their live’s at a lower rate. Life Insurance premiums are calculated by a number of factors including: Age, Health, Marital Status, Gender, Previous medical history, dangerous activities, credit history and more. The two biggest factors are age and health. So if you purchase insurance for a child at age 4 and they are assumed to be in perfect health then you are enabling them to purchase additional life insurance at a much lower rate in the future.

As for Parents you are in need of insurance as well. Most of the time you will have to buy Term Insurance though as costs will be prohibitive and your insurance needs are greater during certain portions of your life than others. You are purchasing insurance so that if something happens to you your spouse and children will be able to live the same life they live today. So you are in effect purchasing insurance to guarantee they have your income for as long as needed. If one spouse works by staying home with the kids then they will need insurance as well since if they pass away the spouse generating the income will have additional expenses of childcare and helper type expenses.

There are many reasons to have Life Insurance. It is not an ugly thing. It does not need to be morose. Life Insurance is really the a great act of love since you are saying ‘Even if I am not around I want you to be taken care of’ to your family. Think about it.

Finding a Life Insurance agent doesn’t have to be a difficult process either. There are some slime balls in the industry but for the most part Insurance People are knowledgable and are interested in making you wealthy. Many of them have licensing that means they handle investments as well. They know that the more money they can make you the more money they will make (at least the good ones). The first step is making sure you are protected by insuring the various aspects of your life (house, car, disability, health, life, etc). Then you can start to plan for investment. Insurance is first since if you have a large sum in investment and become disabled then you are going to eat through your investment portfolio to provide for you and your family. If you are insured for that aspect of your life, disability, then the insurance covers you and your investment is safe.

Anyway, if you have any additional questions just email… I get nothing from this other than knowing those that read this are a bit more knowledgable about the importance of insurance.

**** Additional Info: Someone just asked me on twitter if I am against the Dave Ramsey outlook on Life Insurance. I would say no. Life insurance as an investment is typically going to provide lower returns than the stock market or mutual funds when looked at long term. But I don’t think Dave Ramsey disagrees with life insurance. He tells people to purchase Term life insurance and invest the rest. I agree with that. I think everyone needs a little bit of Permanent life insurance as it is always going to cost something to bury you and it would be nice if those expenses were at least covered.

For adults I think Term is good enough. I would just look at term insurance that is going to cover you for the duration of time that you have till all of your kids are grown. And even then you may still need insurance if your investment portfolio is lackluster. By this I mean, if you are older 55+ and have no insurance and then pass away are your investments going to allow your stay at home spouse to live without having to subsist on Social Security only? If the answer is no then you may need Life Insurance later into life. And the premiums on Term insurance are RIDICULOUS once you get past 45. So while I typically agree with Dave Ramsey and have followed many of his principles this is one area that I think needs individual attention for each person and their family.

I will agree with his statement on the above link that Universal is typically not something that should be used. Universal Life Insurance is like permanent life insurance but it is tied to an investment portfolio (typically mutual funds). The idea is that you should see higher rate of return than permanent life insurance. But if you are wanting to invest then do it through a straight investment vehicle like an IRA or Mutual Fund or 401k where you do not have the overhead of handling fees and charges typically associated with life insurance.

If you are a diehard Ramsey-ite then his tenets may be true since you should be debt free by your 50s (or sooner) and have invested heavily so you have a nest egg for your loved ones. Reality is often different though.