Remember the Sandwich ... Taming the Caribbean Jerk War Pig

I travel a lot for business, which means I eat out a lot.  Honestly, you get tired of eating out after the second full day on the road.  No really!  it's the truth, so when I discover something special enough to even mention, you know it is worth your attention.

So, my youngest daughter and I were in Cleveland for business this last month and a friend told us to try this sandwich place.  I love sandwiches, so I have pretty high standards but I trust this guy when it comes to food.

The restaurant is called the Melt (Bar and Grill) and they specialize in grilled cheese sandwiches.  We split the Caribbean Jerk War Pig.

I'll just cut to the chase here ... it was transcendent, one of the top 5 best sandwiches of all time.  This from a guy that has had sandwiches all over the world.  I mean this sandwich was so good that I literally fell in love with it on the spot.  If it was a cult I would have shaved my head and donned a white robe and followed it to Africa.  It was so good the world stopped turning for a split second, sometime during the second bite.

Why am I mentioning it here?  Just to get a chance to say "Remember the sandwich with NuMemory+". Check out our memory supplement at www.intelligencetree.com and check out the Melt the next time you are in Cleveland!

What's Worth your Time?

When you're right you're right.  My dad always said you can tell what a guy really cares about by how he spends his time.  No doubt ... that is one true statement!  We all spend our time doing the things that are most important to us.  There are some things we have to do and profess not to enjoy (like going to work) but even those activities show people what is important to us.

The guy that goes to a job everyday for 35 years that he hates and takes all the overtime he can probably isn't a sadistic maniac.  He probably wants to provide for his family and give his children a better life and more opportunities than he had.

However, finding time to spend with your loved ones is one of the most important parts of your day.  It shows them that you think they are important, because you are spending the one thing you can earn more of ... time.

I'm lucky to have lived long enough to meet my first grandson.  I love spending time with him, and in his eyes that is the only thing that matters.  It really doesn't matter what we are doing either, he's happy to watch TV with me, walk around the house or sometimes we stand under the ceiling fan, and I hold him up so he can practice pulling the chain that turns it on and off.

Sure it's nice when people change his diaper, bath him, or feed him but in the end he knows that people care for him because the spend their time with him.  The rest of us recognize that new clothes, toys and health insurance are important but his life is pretty simple and is distilled down to time.

Take some time to spend with your favorite people this week ... and show them what they mean to you.

OMG ... I need Health Insurance! How am I going to pay for that?

Are you feeling stressed out by all the TV coverage and news articles telling you how bad the new health insurance rules are or how great they are depending on who you talk to?  Exchanges, subsidies and penalties oh my!

 

Take a deep breath, its going to be okay.  I'll give you the basics for free!  I am licensed in Indiana so I'm going to talk about the set up here, if you are in a different state you will need to talk with someone in that state to be sure how it will work for you.  Are you ready?  Here we go!

 

First if you have a policy and you've not gotten a cancelation notice it means for now your current policy and network will remain the same.  You can keep it for a year and maybe longer, but that is not set in stone.  If you have a policy and have received a cancelation notice, it means your policy must be changed to comply with the new law and it was not grandfathered in for some reason.  You will need to get a new ACA policy (ACA stands fro the Affordable Care Act, which is a misnomer because it doesn't make coverage more affordable it just gives subsidies for those that make less money).

 

In Indiana you have 5 basic choices depending on your age situation and income.  I'll run through the first three quickly because they are very limited choices.

 

1. Medicaid - If you qualify for Medicaid it satisfies the ACA requirements.

2. Employer plans - If your employer has a group plan available to you that costs less than

    9.5% of your income then you need to stay with it.

3. CHIP - This is for children of lower income families that don't qualify Medicaid.

 

Okay so for the other two options ... you can buy an individual plan through an insurance company direct or you can buy the same plan from the federally facilitated marketplace (commonly called the exchange).  Both plans could offer identical coverage but there are two very noteworthy differences.

 

1. Plans purchased through the exchange will most likely have a much smaller network than those purchased directly from the insurance company.  So you may not get to use your current doctors or hospitals.

2. Plans purchased through the exchange may qualify for a federal subsidy to offset the cost of the insurance.  Plans bought directly from the insurance company are not qualified for a subsidy.

 

The bottom line is that the law is requiring you to get some basic health coverage.  If you are at or below the poverty line you will have access to Medicaid, and if you make above the poverty line (up to 400% of that amount) you may qualify for a subsidy that can pay for most or part of your health insurance costs, but if you choose either of these options you'll just have a limited number of options for doctors and hospitals.

 

You can make an appointment with me to go over your options but do it quick, because you only have a small window to enroll before you'll be forced into a higher cost option while waiting on open enrollment.

 

Contact me about health insurance here!

 

Jason

Is Pizza More Important than Life?

 

Sounds like a silly question, right?!  Could someone possibly think that a pizza is more important than a human life, or better yet the life of a loved one?  No Jason ... that's just too silly to imagine.  Now, what a minute, lets talk this out.  First off we need to establish what we are really talking about here.  I mean a pizza dinner at let's say Monical's Pizza, in Linton, if you order a large pizza Meat Eater Special with breadsticks and sodas for 4 people would cost roughly $32 (including tip).

 

Does that sound about right?  I think it does, and I think most of us will have pizza at least once a month (it's reported that 70% of Americans do).  So that proves to me that Pizza is more important than life!  Because nearly half of those folks having pizza this month will say that they don't have enough life insurance (according to a LIMRA study in 2013)

 

"But Jason", you say in a whiny voice, "Life insurance costs so much and pizza is so cheap!'  Most Americans greatly over estimate the cost of a life insurance policy.  For example, a non tobacco using man age 30 who is good health and a normal body weight can get a level term policy with a face amount of $500,000 for $28 a month.  How much does he need?  Well if he is 30 years old and he currently provides $40,000 a year for his family, he will earn $1,400,000 over the next 35 years until he retires, at age 65.  So lets say he wants to be worth 1,000,000 .. guess what the monthly cost would be?  About $46 a month or less than a pizza dinner and one trip to the Linton movie theater (full price adult tickets are $6.75) for a family of 4 ...

 

Life insurance is affordable and necessary ... don't make dinner and movie more important than your family's security.

 

Jason

Too Busy? Not Really!

Sometimes when I think about years ago, I imagine that I was less busy and that I had more time.  Maybe you think that too from time to time, but it's not true.  We chose to do different things today than we did when we were younger, and sometimes we have more responsibility than we did early in life, but all in all we still get 24 hours each day to spend as we see fit.  My brothers and I are good examples here ... we all seem to be too busy with work and life to visit each other very often but we all somehow manage to squeeze out a movie and dinner out every now and again.

 

Even as I'm writing this I look back and it's been a month or more since my last post, and I'm thinking I just didn't have time to write it.  But that's a lie, I did have time, I just chose to ignore some activities in favor of other ones.  The time we have doesn't change, we just change what we do with it.

Now, don't get me wrong we are all busy, but it is the important stuff that we should pursue and ignore the things that don't mean much to us.  I enjoy fishing, but I rarely get out to fish and I'm always saying I'll go when I have time, but if the truth be told, I could just go fishing and fill in the rest of my life around that time. 

 

So take a moment this week (and every week) and decide what is important, then do that and the rest of your life will still be there when you're done.

 

J

 

Protect what is really important with life insurance, call me for a quick quote!

What's really important?

No event in life ranks as high as the birth of a child.  The birth of my first grandchild a couple of weeks ago really punctuate that point for me again.  In everything that we do and all we try to obtain in this world we should realize that it is the two common experiences that we all have that bind us together in this world.

 

We are all born and we all die ... all the events in between pale in comparison to those two.  Our first day on this planet is a special one that should be celebrated and honored.  No matter how humble or expansive our beginnings, we come into life the same way.

 

Likewise, when it is time for us to leave this world, we do so alone and without the money, or possessions we've accumulated.  It is such a powerful and profound moment when you get to share someone's last second on earth with them, it will forever change you.

 

I make my living by helping people protect the things they accumulate after they are born and leave behind when they die ... sounds silly in the scope of things, doesn't?  That's why I'll always tell you that life insurance is the most important kind of insurance there is.  It's the only type of insurance guaranteed to pay off.

Protect the ones you love, FIRST!  Then we can talk about you car, business or home.

Call or email me for a low cost option for life insurance!

Secrets Revealed!

I'm often asked how to lower the cost of insurance.  People are quick to point out that their premiums have gone up every year and they want to know why.  I understand and while they don't typically blame me I'm a convenient target for their aggravation.  I try to be patient with folks but really I'd like to point out that everything increases in cost and your insurance is in place to protect that ever increasing replacement value.

 

In other words as the price of auto parts goes up the cost to fix them when the are in an accident will also increase, and like all businesses, the insurance company has to make money or it will go bust.  When repair parts and labor costs start going down the insurance company can begin to look at becoming competitive on pricing.

 

There are only two ways to lower your premium's ... here it is the big secret revealed;

 

1.  Buy less stuff ... if you have 12 cars you are going to pay 12 premiums ... if you have a half million dollar home, you will pay more than the guy with a hundred thousand dollar home.

 

2.  Accept more responsibility for your risk ... we talk about deductibles in the insurance business but really a deductible is just how much are you willing to share in the damage?  If you have a zero deductible or a $100 deductible you are telling the insurance company that you will make a lot of little claims.  If you set your deductibles at $1000 then they know you are not going to ask for their help until you really need it.

I hope this helps everyone!  But I know that rising prices get on our nerves, remember I pay the same insurance rates that you do, so find an agent you trust and have a conversation about the cost verses the benefit.  You may decide to down size or at least shoulder more of the cost of a loss.

J

Call me for all your insurance needs.