I had a conversation with my 9 year-old to day about Memorial Day, about how traditionally people go and decorate the graves of their dead relatives. We talked about how we should honor their memory every day, not just once a year. One way I'm doing that is by naming my new project "Live 'Til I Die" in honor of Grandpa Green.
He put together working hard and working smart as well as anyone I've ever known. I had trouble keeping up while working with him on his farm even when I was a fit teenager and he was on Social Security with heart trouble and diabetes . The "Live 'Til I Die" comes from what he always said whenever Grandma would get on his case about his blood sugar when he put real sugar and cream in his coffee to go with his glazed donut. He'd always say, "I'm gonna live 'til I die!". We all worried that he would lose his eyesight, feet, etc. He had been so active throughout his life that we thought he'd be miserable in his final years. Instead, he was hit head-on and killed by a drunk driver, so I guess he showed us.
So am I saying to ignore your doctors and conventional wisdom regarding your health? Absolutely not. What I am saying, is to make the most of your time, because we don't know when it will end.
Many insurance companies, investment companies, etc., have some kind of planner kit that they say is to help you leave some kind of financial legacy. In the right hands, they can be very useful. However, like any other tool, they are only as good as the person using the tool. And sometimes the tool isn't very good. The biggest problem I've seen with them is that they are a one shot deal. The advisor or agent uses it to find out where the client has money and finds a product he can sell the client which produces a commission. Then he or she moves on to the next prospect.
"Live 'Til I Die" will be different. It will be a living document with no two of them looking the same. The base of it will come from a Reader's Digest article I read in college, something along the lines of "50 Things to do before I die" (If anyone knows how to track it down, please let me know). The story was about a guy who had made a list like that when he was in high school, then made his living by going on adventures, then lecturing, writing, etc. about them. I made my own list which has been lost in one of my moves, but I have rewritten. Some I have accomplished (having kids), some I've altered (watching the Olympics in person instead of competing in the Olympics), and some I've postponed (still plan to win a national cycling championship, but will be in the 70 and over bracket when I've outlived a bunch of my competitors). However, I can't think of any that no longer interest me. Instead, I just keep adding to the list. If I stopped working today and lived to be 100, I'd still run out of time to accomplish everything I want to do.
The goal of "Live 'Til I Die" will be to help people discover what they want to do, then help them do it. Fear of loss is a much bigger factor in decision making than potential reward, so my role as an insurance agent will be to remove or minimize the fear of loss, freeing people up to accomplish dreams.
I'll be writing more about this as I develop "Live 'Til I Die". Please let me know if you have any materials or suggestions to add to this, and also if you want to be a guinea pig for the development of it.
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