Danica Patrick On Finding The Motivation For Financial Responsibility

I recently asked race car driver Danica Patrick if she thinks there is any validity to the adage that more money simply creates more problems, as the near epidemic documented in professional sports would seem to indicate.

I wanted to know whether she has seen this firsthand, and whether it has been a challenge for her.

Danica Patrick (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)

“I can see how some would have difficulty managing the money they earn — especially if they do not have an existing mindset geared towards savings,” Patrick said.

“But for me, more money presents more responsibility,” she added.

We were talking because she’s advocating on behalf of Life Happens, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of life insurance. But to Patrick, it all flows from a mindset about personal responsibility and holistic self-care.  

“You have to take care of your body by working out and preparing for the future to make sure that it’s healthy,” she told me.

“Later, you do things to prepare yourself mentally, to make sure that you can handle all situations and have peace of mind and have perspective and know what’s important. So then why wouldn’t you also take that approach with what it takes to operate in the society that we live in–money?”

Good question, Danica. It seems so logical, yet year-after-year, I’ll bet two of the resolutions most often broken are related to maintaining health and finances.

So why do we have so much trouble doing these things that we all seem to agree we should?

Well, for one, we’ve learned through the fields of behavioral economics and finance that knowing what to do isn’t the issue. Knowing what to do is a System 2 process, as Daniel Kahneman teaches us. System 2 is our brain’s intellectual center that processes information.  

Doing what we know, however, is a System 1 process. This is our emotional processor, where the will resides. System 1 is notorious for resisting our well-conceived plans, but it can also be a powerful ally, as it’s where resiliency is fueled.

Jonathan Haidt gave us the analogy that System 1 is like an (emotional) Elephant while System 2 is the elephant’s (reflective) Rider. When the two are in conflict, we all know who wins; but when the team is aligned, they are a formidable force.

The Rider is in charge of what to do and how to do it, but the Elephant only cares why.  

The big challenge when it comes to getting and staying healthy, physically or financially, is that the vast majority of information out there is System 2 stuff–what and how. Think: “Lose 50 pounds!” or “Make a million dollars!”

But System 1 is the boss, the “decider,” and the source of resolve.  

When Patrick decided to become a race car driver, she chose the course her life would take with System 1. Then she used System 2 to chart that course.

When people said she was too small (read: a woman), she appealed to her System 1 to stay the course while plotting with her System 2 how she’d prove them wrong.

When it comes to your health, you know you should get more sleep, watch your diet and exercise, right?

When it comes to your financial life, you know you should spend less than you make, pay your bills and invest for the future, right?

But why?

Well, let’s start with an easy one, the one Danica Patrick is advocating for: life insurance.

Why do you need life insurance?

Well, maybe you don’t. If you’re independently wealthy and/or no one relies on you financially, then you don’t need life insurance. (There are a couple reasons why you might still want it, but they’re outliers and probably don’t apply to you.)

If, on the other hand, you’re like most of us–still on the path to financial independence  with people in your life who would suffer financially if you left this Earth tomorrow–you probably do need life insurance.

Patrick saw a twenty-something friend in racing lose his life on the track–that was more than enough motivation.

But perhaps you’ve heard some version of this “why” story, and it didn’t inspire the Elephant to apply for a life insurance policy. It’s likely because the very next thing that happened involved the Elephant getting spooked by all of the “whats” and “hows” of life insurance.

There are so many life insurance companies and so many more life insurance salespeople, all so highly motivated to sell you too many types of policies, that the end result is way too much information.The Rider might enjoy the mental gymnastics, but it simply tires the Elephant out.

So if you recognize the need for life insurance but you’re overwhelmed by the information overload, let me offer a simple life insurance plan that will take care of most:

Multiply your salary by 15 and buy that much 20-year term life insurance.  

Why? (Since I’ve argued that is the operative question…) Well, it’s likely your salary that needs to be replaced if you’re gone, and a multiple of 15 should create a sufficient pot of money that, conservatively invested, will replicate your income for a good while. 

Why term life? Because if you’re healthy, even though 15 times your income is a big life-changing number, the premiums tend to be small enough that they won’t change your lifestyle. That’s not the case with most forms of permanent life insurance.

And why 20-year term? Because for most, their need for life insurance will expire before they do (thankfully!). For most, 20 years in, the kids are out of the house and retirement is close. If you’re just starting a family, you might want to extend some of your coverage to 30-year term, and if you expect to retire in 10 years, get 10-year term.

And if you still need some additional motivation to get that Elephant moving, a final word from Danica Patrick:

There are only so many things in life that we can control – do everything you can to position yourself for success by being fit. When you’re taking care of yourself, whether it’s your health or what you eat or your finances, it’s about self-worth. Never doubt that you are worth it and invest in yourself and your future both physically and financially.”

When I’m Sixty-Four: Long-Term Healthcare In Retirement

The Most Complex Insurance Explained, Part 2

In 1967, the Beatles released the song, “When I’m Sixty-Four.”  The lyrics are a preemptive plea to secure a relationship even when the realities of old age set in.  Now, as the nation’s largest generation whistles this tune into retirement, the question seems less rhetorical:

Who is going to take care of us in retirement?

Not everyone will need long-term care insurance (LTC), but everyone needs a long-term healthcare plan.  Your long-term care plan should incorporate the following: facts about you (and your spouse, if applicable), your age, your personal health, longevity of lineage, your retirement income and assets, your tolerance for risk, the costs and demographics of long-term care in your geographic area and information about any long-term care insurance that you own or have considered owning.

This post is the second in a two-part series.  You can read the first on Long-Term Disability (LTD) by clicking HERE.

Long-Term Care Insurance

One very important thing to remember is that Medicare does not cover the costs of most long-term care needs. Allen Hamm, in his book, Long-Term Care Planning, shares the following statistics:

  • 71 percent of Medicare recipients mistakenly believe Medicare is a primary source for covering long-term care.
  • 87 percent of people under the age of 65 mistakenly believe their private health insurance will cover the cost of long-term care.

You May Not Drive A Racecar, But You Still Need Life Insurance: Lessons from Danica Patrick

Originally in ForbesSince her early 20s, Danica Patrick has driven a racecar for a living, speeding 200 miles per hour around a crowded track bordered by concrete walls. It’s dangerous. Really dangerous. And she recognizes that.

“There are things that happen in the car that you can’t plan for and that are out of your control, like a tire blowing on you or an engine blowing up or a crash that happens in front of you or someone hits you,” Patrick told me in a recent interview. “So no matter what your skillset is, those things just happen. Absolutely it is a risk.”

But it’s a risk that she has chosen to manage, in part, with life insurance. Patrick has owned life insurance since she started racing, and the subject is important enough to her that she now advocates on behalf of Life Happens, a nonprofit founded to help consumers make smart insurance decisions.

Commendable though it sounds, I wanted to know more about why. Why was she motivated to buy life insurance at an age when most people don’t even think about it? Why did she feel she needed life insurance—then and now?

The Millennial Guide To Managing Risk With Insurance

Originally in Forbes“I’m too [fill in the blank] to worry about insurance.” If you’re a millennial, there are plenty of words you could choose from to complete that sentence. Perhaps “young,” “poor,” “busy” and “skeptical” are good ones (for starters).

You might have enough insurance.  You might even have too much.  But I’d bet you don’t have as much as you need in some categories, too.  Regardless, ignorance is neither blissful nor beneficial at any age, so let’s ask and answer the questions below, reviewing the most prominent types of insurance that may—or may not—be important for you to consider.

First, allow me to offer a fundamental insurance lesson that will serve you well now and into the future: Don’t just buy insurance. Instead, manage risk.

I offer the following Risk Management Guide as a template for making insurance decisions in my book, Simple Money:

Risk Management Guide

Simple Money Is Here

A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance

Unfortunately, personal finance has been reduced to a short list of “Dos” and a long (long) list of “Don’ts” typically based on someone else’s priorities in life, not yours.

But personal finance is actually more personal than it is finance.

Learn More and Get Your Copy of Simple Money

That’s why what works great for someone else may not work as well for you. Money management is complex because we are complex. Therefore, it is in better understanding ourselves—our history with money and what we value most—that we are able to bring clarity to even the most confounding decisions in money and life. As an advisor, speaker and author, I’ve made a career out of demystifying complex financial concepts into understandable, doable actions. In this practical book, I’ll show you how to

  • find contentment by redefining “wealth”
  • establish your priorities, articulate your goals, and find your calling
  • design a personal budgeting system you can (almost) enjoy
  • create a simple, world-class investment portfolio that has beaten the pros
  • manage risk—with and without insurance
  • ditch the traditional concept of retirement and plan for financial independence
  • cheat death and build a legacy
  • and more

Learn More About The Author

The problem with so much personal finance advice is that it’s unnecessarily complicated, often with the goal of selling you things you don’t need. Tim Maurer never plays that game. His straightforward, candid and yes — simple — prescriptions are always right on target. Jean Chatzky
financial editor of NBC's 'Today Show'

Here’s what others are saying about Simple Money:

“Reading this book is like having your own personal financial advisor.”—Kimberly Palmer, senior money editor at US News & World Report; author of The Economy of You

“You can’t manage your money without thinking about your life—and the system that Tim proposes can make a radical difference in both.”—Chris Guillebeau, New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit

“Maurer teaches us how to literally redefine wealth in a way that will both honor your life values and priorities while simultaneously reducing your stress.”—Manisha Thakor, CFA, director of wealth strategies for women for the BAM Alliance; writer for The Wall Street Journal

“Amen! Amen! Amen! Simplicity is a gift . . . and this book offers it by the truckload!”—Carl Richards, New York Times columnist;  author of The One-Page Financial Plan

Read more praise for ‘Simple Money’

10 Things You Absolutely Need To Know About Life Insurance

Originally in ForbesLife insurance is one of the pillars of personal finance, deserving of consideration by every household. I’d even go so far as to say it’s vital for most. Yet, despite its nearly universal applicability, there remains a great deal of confusion, and even skepticism, regarding life insurance.

Perhaps this is due to life insurance’s complexity, the posture of those who sell it or merely our preference for avoiding the topic of our own demise. But armed with the proper information, you can simplify the decision-making process and arrive at the right choice for you and your family.

To help, here are 10 things you absolutely need to know about life insurance:

  1. If anyone relies on you financially, you need life insurance. It’s virtually obligatory if you are a spouse or the parent of dependent children. But you may also require life insurance if you are someone’s ex-spouse, life partner, a child of dependent parents, the sibling of a dependent adult, an employee, an employer or a business partner. If you are stably retired or financially independent, and no one would suffer financially if you were to be no more, then you don’t need life insurance. You may, however, consider using life insurance as a strategic financial tool.

The Top 5 Ridiculous Reasons NOT To Buy Life Insurance–With Anthony Anderson

Originally in ForbesAnthony Anderson is a funny dude. The Emmy-nominated actor has been making people laugh on television and in film for 20 years. But now he’s bringing his sense of humor to a surprisingly unfunny topic—the need for life insurance.

The big question I had for him was: Why? Why, with your career exploding and recent Emmy nomination (for lead actor in the show Black-ish), are you investing time and effort to be the spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month?

“I know firsthand from friends and other family members who’ve never had a policy, who’ve never thought about having a policy.  And then all of a sudden someone passes in their family and they don’t know what to do,” Anderson told me.

Fair enough. Many people aren’t even aware of the need for life insurance, and that lack of education is a big concern for Anderson, and a major driver of his dedication to public awareness.  But as we continued our conversation, it shifted focus. What it seemed to begin revealing were some of the tragically comic, ridiculous reasons that many people choose not to buy life insurance. Here are the Top 5:

5) I’ve got more important things to insure.

“People insure their flat screen televisions, they insure their cars, they insure jewelry, but they don’t insure themselves,” says Anderson with a chuckle. He’s also evidently frustrated by this reality. “If it weren’t for themselves, they would have none of those things to insure.”

How to Protect Your Biggest Asset–Your Income

The Most Complex Insurance Explained, Part 1

Originally published CNBCYou’ve got a machine just sitting around your house. It’s a money-printing machine, and it’s perfectly legal. This machine is expected to print $75,000 this year before taxes. You’ll use that cash to pay your household expenses.

Each year, the machine will print 3 percent more than it did in the previous year, and it will continue doing so for the next 40. That means, over its lifetime the machine will print $5,655,094.48, easily making it your most valuable asset today.

printing_money_for_aig_xlargeYet there it sits, maybe in your garage, between an inherited set of golf clubs and a wheelbarrow with a flat tire, unprotected. Uninsured.

The machine, of course, is you, or more specifically, your ability to generate an income. It didn’t come cheap. You and your parents invested years of training and likely tens of thousands of dollars in hopes that your machine would not only support you financially for a lifetime but launch another generation as well.

We don’t question the need to buy insurance for the things our money machine purchases. But few of us know if—or at least how and to what degree—their income-generation engine is protected.

Do you?

Boomer Esiason’s Advice For Millennials: Plan For Tomorrow, Live For Today

Originally in ForbesBoomer Esiason is busy—I mean, really busy. “Starting next Tuesday, all the way until after the Super Bowl in 2015, I think I’ve got about four days off,” he told me.

Why, then, was he anxious to talk about financial planning and life insurance?

It’s because he has a message for today’s youth: “Protect your future and make sure that whenever adversity strikes, you are prepared for it.” Prepared, among other things, with the appropriate level of life insurance.

But how did one of the National Football League’s great quarterbacks and commentators become an advocate for life insurance and the spokesperson for Life Happens, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of planning with life insurance? 

Back to School — Back to Financial Fundamentals for 3 Generations

Originally in ForbesAs kids head back to school, adults spanning several generations set their sites on getting their financial house back in order.  What are the most important financial planning considerations in three major demographics—Millennials, Generation X and Empty Nesters?

Millennials:  First things first – Before making any big financial commitments, like buying a house, figure out what you want life to look like.

  • Are you in a relationship and looking to “settle down,” or do you highly value freedom and flexibility?  If the latter, you shouldn’t be buying a house or committing to a job that is geographically tethered.
  • If you’re in your twenties, the primary factor that will influence your financial success is how well you establish yourself in a career.  Invest in yourself, and that will likely help you invest more money in the future.
  • Save as much as you can in tax-qualified retirement accounts at this phase of life, because once you get settled down and have kids, your expenses will rise dramatically.
  • Don’t default to 100% equity portfolios just because you’re young.  After getting burned by the market crash of 2008, many Millennials got scared away and didn’t benefit from the subsequent market rise.  Your portfolio should likely be predominantly stocks at this age, but consider some fixed income exposure to keep from losing your shirt (and abandoning your strategy) in a downturn.