The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into law in 2010, makes significant changes to our health care delivery system. Some of these reforms took effect in 2010 while many others take place in 2011. The following is a brief description of some of the most important provisions of the health care reform legislation that take effect this year.
Monday, January 31, 2011
In the "Test Kitchen of Life
A young woman was complaining to her father about how difficult her life had become. He said nothing, but took her to the kitchen and set three pans of water to boiling. To the first pan he, added carrots; to the second, eggs; and to the third, ground Starbucks coffee. After all three had cooked, he put their contents into separate bowls and asked his daughter to cut into the eggs and carrots and smell the coffee. “What does this all mean?” she asked impatiently.
“Each food,” he said, “teaches us something about facing adversity, as represented by the boiling water.” The carrot went in hard but came out soft and weak. The eggs went in fragile but came out hardened. The Starbucks coffee, however, changed the water to something better.
“Which will you be like as you face life?” he asked. Will you give up, become hard – or transform adversity into triumph? As the “chef” of your own life, what will you bring to the table?
Adapted from the AccessChristian Web site
Poulet Au Paprika
Rocke and I were recently introduced to a cooking show called French Cooking at Home with Chef Laura Calder. It is our new favorite show. This is one of the first recipes we tried from her show and found it to be easy to make, extremely tasty and makes great leftovers. We love to cook but during the week we are always looking for dishes we can make that are tasty but provide leftovers for lunches or a second dinner.
Supporting Your Aging Parents
Professional Alliance member Lisa Mayfield, who is a Certified Care Manager was recently featured on a podcast with other elder care experts. The podcast is about ten minutes long very educational. Those of you blessed with aging parents may benefit from the wisdom shared by these professionals.
Diversification Helped Weather the Storm
The graph above helps illustrate the results of staying on course.
• If you would have pulled out of the markets and went to all cash at the height of the market in September of 2007, you would potentially be behind an our clients using the balanced strategy who stayed in a diversified portfolio (as shown by the blue line).
• If you had pulled out in September 2008 (a more realistic scenario given the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers at the time), you would potentially be behind both our clients that stayed in a diversified portfolio and those investors who had just invested in the U.S. equity markets (as shown by the gray line).
Even though it appears the economy and the markets are gradually recovering, there still appears to be a lot of negative sentiment in the news about the capital markets and investing in general. Much of the media reports still focus on the damage incurred in 2008 and early 2009 and that drives investors to focus on fear and emotions as opposed to what is actually happening now. And what’s happening now isn’t all that bad. Don’t get me wrong, all is not rosy, but the reality is certainly different than the perception of total damage done to portfolios.
Investors in the hypothetical balanced index portfolios above who remained invested in a diversified portfolio through the course – before the crisis, through the market downturn and up through present – are actually holding larger portfolios than at the peak of the market in 2007. The change was minimal and certainly not the long-term results that one seeks, but it differs dramatically from the dark picture painted by media commentators and advertisers. And this doesn’t include any additional contributions to the portfolios. Investors who continued contributing through this period are even better off than those that didn’t.
This hypothetical example is for illustration only and is not intended to reflect the return of any actual investment. Investments do not typically grow at an even rate of return and may experience negative growth. Strategic asset allocation and diversification do not assure profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Returns represent past performance, are not a guarantee of future performance, and are not indicative of any specific investment.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Career Financial Smarts Self Assessments
The career intelligence financial resiliency self-assessment tool is a method to explore issues where financial decisions may impact your career and life today and in the future. We recently tested a group of 35 executives, all of whom were in transition between jobs. Out of 10 points possible, the average score for the group was 5.03 with only 14% higher than 7.
The following is a list of questions to provide a quick self-assessment of your financial resiliency proceeded by stories illustrating the impact of specific financial decisions. We provide two self-assessment modules, one for currently employed individuals and one for those individuals in a career transition. If you anticipate a potential change it may be valuable to take both assessments. It is our goal to make you aware of the impact of your current financial decisions and bring to your attention areas that may need attention.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Holiday Party Appetizers
Over the holidays our colleagues and their spouses gathered at out house and not only enjoyed many of our recipes, but participated in the cooking of the meal. Although Rocke and I had envisioned a mini cooking school format it basically turned in to organized chaos. Everyone enjoyed the fruits of their labor and we have posted a link to the recipes from the party for you to enjoy as well. The favorite appetizers were the Chipotle-Lime Chicken Skewers and Cheddar Cheese Mushrooms. The Cheddar Cheese Mushrooms were first introduced to us by our long-time friends John and Sharon Strong.
Turning Over a New Leaf
We were selected to participate in a study of electric cars and to receive one of the first all electric Nissan Leafs in Puget Sound. The first car arrived in Seattle on December 17th to a party at the Sculpture Park. Rocke had an opportunity to have his picture taken with the famous polar bear from the Nissan commercial.
Rocke and I had the opportunity to drive the car early in December and have been busy remodeling our garage to allow for two power stations. One power station is for the Nissan Leaf and the other for the Tesla Model S due for delivery in 2012.
Puget Sound Housing Style Trends - Chuck Reiling
Chuck Reiling is our Professional Alliance member expert on Seattle and Bellevue Real Estate. His blog http://greaterseattlehomesblog.com contains up-to-date information on the trends in this area. A piece I found interesting was a short history on the evolution of neighborhoods and properties in our area. If you know of anyone moving into the area it can be a helpful article to them.
New Tax Relief 2010 to 2012
Tax planning has become a lot easier now that most of the Bush tax cuts have been extended and a decision on the next two years of tax rates are now in play. The IRS is frantically scrambling to update the forms to make adjustments that may affect your 2010 tax filing.
Do not expect an early and quick tax refund this year. According to a recent IRS notice, many of the returns that can benefit from the recently passed tax breaks cannot be submitted until mid to late February.
Six Things Not To Do in 2011
Seattle 4 Rotary is a wonderful Rotary Club and through my participation I have met many marvelous individuals. One of special note is Rich Gaspar, of the family owned construction company Gaspar’s. The motto of his company is eat-drink and remodel, which could also be the theme for my husband and me.
He shared with me a very inspiring set of questions to help you with your new years resolutions.
Six things Not to do in 2011
By Jim Stevens
- Don’t panic – survivors keep a level head in the midst of turmoil.
- Don’t get distracted by bad news – turn off the news and turn on the power of positive thinking.
- Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow – hope is the heart of achievement and change.
- Don’t stop experimenting – changing times require nimble responses.
- Don’t trust your emotions – rely on following a well thought out plan defined by benchmarks.
- Don’t forget to measure what matters – you will always receive more than you give, so give liberally.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2010 Mileage Rates Announced
The IRS has announced the optional standard mileage rates for 2010 for use in computing the deductible costs of operating a passenger automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving expense purposes.
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