My Job Search and New Career

After the decision was made to end my time on my current contracts in the cycling business, I had some time to reflect on what the next step would be in my career before finishing out those contracts.  I thought about a number of opportunities.  I thought about going to Dev Bootcamp and becoming a software developer.  I thought about going back into mortgages.  I thought about going into IT.  And I thought about going into various areas of insurance.  I then thought about what gave me satisfaction in my previous careers.  This is where I focused my reflection.

In my past, I worked for Motorola, Tellabs, various mortgage companies, Giant Bicycle and a few contracts as an independent sales rep in the cycling industry.  I reflected on the times I far exceeded expectations.  When I first started at Motorola, when I first started in the Mortgage Industry and at Tellabs as a Marketing Manager for Element Management Systems.  These specific times stood out for various reasons, but they were all times I was well recognized and appreciated by management and my customers for going above and beyond what was expected of me.  What did all those opportunities have in common?

– Great support from management
– Sales oriented position
– A tremendous need that needed to be filled, and most of all…
– My efforts were recognized and I was appreciated
– The tremendous satisfaction that I was helping people.

I am a “pleaser”; I always have been.  So, I looked for an opportunity where I could help people.  Mortgages fit that bill, but I wasn’t looking forward to re-enter a market that has tremendous ups and downs.  I wanted to get into a market that had more consistent need.  I also was interested in working for a company that was willing to help me get started selling in a new industry.  Providing leads was also important.

I was being contacted by quite a few insurance companies.  These fell into many different categories:

– Supplemental (Aflac) – this is a good market, but I didn’t want to work for a company that was recruiting just anyone.
– Property and Casualty – this fell into 2 camps, Employee and Business Owner.  State Farm and Farmers were looking for people to start their own businesses and invest their own money in starting out a business.  With Liberty Mutual, I would have been an employee.  I learned a lot about the property and casualty business and found it interesting, but in the end, I did not pick P&C as my career choice at this point.
– Life Insurance – I have always been interested in Life Insurance.  It is a simple product that most people don’t fully understand how to utilize effectively.  But… it is a very tough business.  No one looks forward to speaking with a Life Insurance salesmen even though there are so many people that need help in this area.  With that said, this is not where I chose to concentrate my efforts.

– Health Insurance – With or without Affordable Healthcare Reform, this is a complicated area of insurance with a great amount of need.  As soon as you add in reform, it becomes much more complicated.  I love complicated.  I enjoy taking complicated and being able to explain it in very simple terms so anyone can understand.  Also, the individual and small business market are exploding with demand.  This is the career I have chosen.

Last week, I took a class so I could pass my Health and Life Insurance licensing tests.  I passed both of those tests on Saturday.  This week, I have been in training at Healthcare Solutions Team, the company that I chose to work with.

Regarding Healthcare Solutions Team, so far, it seems too good to be true.  They provide tremendous tools and support, including sales leads.  Also, they provide a wide variety of health insurance products from all the major carriers. 

I am very much looking forward to this new career.  I am especially looking forward to helping people one person at a time.

Rabid Fans, DirecTV and Why do all ISP’s suck so bad?

It’s Fathers Day.  I usually don’t go online and rant, but today, I will make an exception.

I have been unhappy with AT&T.  In the past, I was unhappy with AT&T because their service max’s out at 6/0.7 Mbps and because they refuse to complete the install of U-verse in Bartlett. In AT&T’s defense, the Bartlett government had a little to do with this since they dragged their feet in approving the install, but it is what it is.  With that said, I have been happy with their reliability so I have lived with slower speeds than what I could get with Comcast.  That was until the last few days.

Our internet has been very spotty over the last few days.  It still works, but websites just wouldn’t come up until you hit refresh a few times.  Then it would work fine.  So… time to call AT&T.  Yes, I expect to have someone answer the phone that knows nothing and my beliefs are confirmed when the person on the phone has no idea what a whole house filter is.  With that said, it doesn’t take more than about 20 minutes to get to someone that I can actually have an intelligent conversation with.  This person is helpful but cannot fix the problem.  She stated my line was “very saturated”.  I asked her clarify that statement and she said the line had a lot of traffic on it.  Ok, that made sense to me.  Probably a problem in the central office.  Sorry, more detail than I had intended.  Let me make the rest of this part of the story quick.

The technician came out the next day.  He checked everything…  in the field.  He checked the NID, the box in the backyard and the connection in to the house.  He replaced the card in the box in the backyard, changed out the DSL modem / router, swapped pairs and rebuilt the line (deleted the configuration and rebuilt the path as I understand).  This rebuilding the line did improve the situation, but did not fix it.  The tech they sent out didn’t do any work in the CO and his shift was up.  I was told I would get a call with an update.  Yeah, right!  I called back today and the person I spoke with had no information.  And then, I think the person just told me that someone would call me back by 5pm today.  I won’t hold my breath.

So, why not change to Comcast.  Well… that is a whole other story.  To keep this one short, I had called repeatedly to have them put the cover on the box correctly.  The techs and people who bury the lines in our area never replace the box cover.  This causes the inside of the box to fill up with water every time we get 2 inches of rain or more.  Guess what… When the family behind me wanted to have Comcast installed, the box was completely inoperable.  Big surprise.  Comcast had to come out to replace the innards of the box.  And when they came out to bury the cable, they did not put the cover on correctly AGAIN.  Why does this bother me?  Because it is a pain to mow around it as the cover bounces around when I hit it with the mower.  This wasn’t so bad when no one had service from the box, but now that someone does, I don’t want to knock out my neighbors service (although I am actually mowing this neighbor’s yard as the previous owner fenced off the utilities to make it my responsibility to mow this part of the yard.  But I digress…)

Anyway, my neighbor who has had Comcast for a year is not happy they made the change as the service is not reliable and the time to restoration is days.

I know it took a long time to get to this point, but why did I write this blog post?  The barrier to entry for ISP’s should be less.  The ISP’s in our area either have fair customer service but subpar product or they have a great product with the lowest of the low customer service.  Competition would be good.

Also, competition has always been a good thing.  Also, I feel like this country has lost the idea of “service excellence”.  Providing a customer with a good reliable service breeds loyalty.  Providing a great experience for a customer when they do have a problem breeds RABID FANS.  These are the type of customers that will lead customers to your door step.

So, who get’s this?  DirecTV does!  I have been a customer of theirs for about 10 years.  Yes, I do get rain fade.  Is it frustrating at times?  Yes.  So, why do I stay with them?  Because they have taken every opportunity to exceed my expectations when something goes wrong.  EVERY TIME!  The last issue we had was when our service went out.  This was not a problem they caused directly.  We had a cable outside that had become kinked and eventually failed.  Should the install have been a little better?  Maybe.  When I called them, the person read from a script that it would cost $50 to have someone come out.  I asked when the last time we had needed someone to come out and if they could waive that fee since we had been a loyal customer.  I think it was about 10 seconds from the time I asked until they agreed to waive the fee.  This didn’t blow me away but I was happy.

The tech came out and I showed him the problem.  He said he would replace the cable to fix the problems.  He also said he would replace the LNB’s in the dish to make sure they also weren’t the problem and to make sure I didn’t have a repeat service call.  I also asked if he could clean up the install.  He asked how I wanted it run. I gave him a basic idea.  He did the work and asked me to come out and ok the work.  He did a great job.  He gave me his cell phone number in case there was a recurrence of any problem.  Not only that… Here was the small thing he did that made it so I will most likely never leave DirecTV…  Our remote for our main TV wasn’t working very well.  We joked that it had one to0 many things spilled on it.  I had fixed it once already.  He politely excused himself, came back a few minutes later with a new remote, didn’t say anything while he was programming the remote to match our TV and just put it on the chair.  I asked “is that ours?”  He sheeplishly said yes.  I said “No charge?”  He said yes.  I know it was such a small thing, but it was step I didn’t expect.  It meant a lot to me since I wouldn’t hear the rest of the family complaining about how the remote didn’t work.

For the few people that are still reading at this point…  I know that this stuff is so small as compared to problems other people have in their everyday lives.  A friend of mine just had brain surgery to remove a tumor.  His prognosis is good but it won’t be an easy recovery.  This is so lost in the noise compared to what he is going through.  I get that.  

At the same time, corporations/employees need to find ways to excite their customers through providing great service.  Why do people have such a hard time putting yourself in other people’s shoes?  If you think about what they want and you can provide it, why not do it?  For me, the satisfaction of a job well done is no greater feeling at the end of the day.  Of course, that can only happen when you work for a company that will allow that.

Thanks for letting me get that all off my chest.  Enjoy your Father’s Day.

Student Loans – subsidized/unsubsidized and legislation status

First, thanks to everyone that has been commenting in Facebook on my posts.  I have learned what I don’t know and will share some of this in a follow up blog entry.  Again, thanks.

For today, the focus (or lack thereof) is subsidized, unsubsidized and direct loans.  These are the loans where the current rates are in question due to the expiration of the law.  First, let’s explain the difference between these 3 types of Stafford loans.

Subsidized:  The “subsidized” term does not refer to the lower interest rate.  It means that the government pays the interest on the loan as long as you are a full-time college student and until you are 6 months beyond being a full-time college student.  This loan is allowed based on financial need and has a maximum loan amount of $3500 the first year and goes up by $1000 each year after that.

Unsubsidized:  With this loan, interest accumulates on your loan and is added to the loan amount while you are a student.  This loan is given at $2000 above and beyond the subsidized loan.  This loan is also based upon need.

Direct loan:  This is similar to the Unsubsidized loan but is not based upon need, as I understand it and is at a higher interest rate.

Ok, with that out of the way, let’s explain the current law before it expires.  The rates are:

Subsidized: 3.4% fixed

Unsubsidized:  6.8% fixed

Direct Loans:  7.9% fixed

What will happen when the law expires?  Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans will be at 6.8%.  Will this happen?  In short, NO.  Both sides want to help students pay for a college education, but have disagreements on how it should be done.  Here are the proposals:

1.  HR 1911 – The week before last, the House Republicans pass this bill.  It states that both subsidized and unsubsidized loans would be tied to the 10 year bond rate plus 2.5%.  Given Friday’s close, this would put the current rate at 4.62%.  The big “gotcha” here is that these loans would now be variable with a cap of 8.5%.  Direct Plus loans would also be affected and would be have both the rate and cap 2% higher than the subsidized and unsubsidized rates.  Interesting that this solution would have a lower initial unsubsidized rate.

2.  Obama proposal:  It is more similar than different.  It proposes a similar plan but with different add’rs, no rate cap and an extension of protection for low income families with a max payment for student loans.  The rates would be the 10 year note plus 1 and 4 percent for subsidized and unsubsidized loans, respectively, but these rate would be fixed for the life of the loan.  There is no cap on future rates, but this wouldn’t be as necessary since the rates are fixed for the life of the loan.  Also, his plan extends the income-based Pay as you earn program.  This type of plan seems like the smartest proposal to me.  With it being fixed, maybe the caps should higher, but the structure is the best structure.

3.  There are other proposals:  One proposal is to make the student loan rate variable at the cost at what banks lend at which is currently 0.75%.  This will only cost our country more money at a time we cannot go more into debt.  Also, there is another proposal put forth by a couple of democrats who I now have no respect for.  Let’s see, let’s just extend the current program for another 2 years while we figure out what to do.  Excuse me, you had a year to figure it out!  Why should we as voters and tax payers have any faith that you will figure it out with twice as much time?  These guys are morons who don’t want to put in the work to find a solution.  But I digress…

I think we should lock democrats who support the president’s plan and republican moderates who support the speaker in a room until they come to compromise.  The solution should have fixed rates at a minimum.  What the rates should be, they have to negotiate.  C’mon guys, you are close on this one.  Show the American people you are willing to get things done!

Financing a college education follow-up – 529’s not so bad after all

As I stated, I am continually learning during this investigation of paying for college and learning the pros and cons of each investment vehicle.  In the previous article, I talked about the disadvantages of the 529 and suggested the IRA was a better option.  Well… upon further review… I may have been premature in my conclusion.

The information I provided was correct but it left out some key information.  First, when calculating need-based financial aid, income has a much greater impact than does the assets of the parents.  Also, you submit a financial aid application (FAFSA) each year and are evaluated each year.  Anyone figure out where this is going?

If you save for college in an IRA, yes, your assets are not counted in the FAFSA calculation, but when you make your penalty free withdrawals, you will be inflating your income for next year’s FAFSA.  This will have a great affect on every FAFSA after your first year of college.  So, by saving in the IRA, you will have more need based aid the first year, but after that, you will have less.

So, in hindsight, the 529 is a better vehicle for saving for college than either an IRA or a Roth IRA.  Anyone know how withdrawals from a life insurance policy is treated and how that could be used to fund college?  It will be awhile before I will have a chance to investigate this as I have term life insurance, but I am open to new information and would like to share.

Saving and purchasing a college education

So… I have learned so much in the last 6 months that I never knew about saving and paying for college.  The 2 things do inter-relate and laws change all the time.  Here are a few things I didn’t know.

Finanacial Aid Qualification

Do you know what assets are counted as assets and which assets are not when qualifying for student aid?  I didn’t.  I found out when filling out the FAFSA form that IRA/401k assets are not counted, but 529 assets are.  So maybe you are asking “why is this a big deal?”  The real question is “what is the benefit of 529 accounts?”  529 accounts allow post tax contributions (contributions are not tax deductible) to accumulate tax free with no taxes assessed when withdrawn.  This is very similar to a Roth IRA.  The only benefit I can find is that contributions are state tax deductible with no state tax assessed when withdrawn.  But does this one advantage make up for the fact that all your contributions will now be counted against you when trying to qualify for grants/aid?  In my opinion, no.  I think either contributing to a Roth IRA or a regular IRA is the way to go.  This gives the student the best chance at qualifying for aid and not just loans.

American Opportunity Tax Credit

This one came as a bit of a surprise to me.  Here is how it works.  For the first $2000 in education expenses, you receive a $2000 tax credit.  For the next $2000, you receive a 25% tax credit, which doing the math, is up to $500.  I have a decision to make since you can only use this tax credit 4 calendar years.  Do I use it for the fall semester where my son will be going to Community College and cost less than 4000 or for his last semester at a university?  Will the credit still be around for his last year of college?  Hmmm…. more research to be done on that.

Another interesting little thing about 529’s is that you cannot use funds from a 529 to pay for college and still receive the tax credit, but you can use funds from other sources, including IRAs and even student loans.  Strike 2 against the 529.  And… Well, that is just stupid.  If you pay for the first 4000 with funds other than your 529 and use the 529 to pay for school beyond the first 4000, then you can still qualify for the American Opportunity Tax Credit.  This is what I will be doing.

Community College

Unless your child is getting a full ride somewhere, seriously consider your community college.  For my son, it was much more obvious that it was the best option for him.  He wants to go into Meteorology and, due to personal ties, we were very aware of the strength of the Meteorology program at College of Dupage.  But… we learned they have many more great programs.  Did you know that the University of Illinois has a great Engineering program?  Yeah, you probably knew that.  But did you know that the College of Dupage has a 2 year program that, if you meet the GPA qualifications, you will automatically be accepted into the U of I Engineering program?  Well, they do.  They also have a 3+1 nursing program with Benedictine University.  Also, their counselors work with you to make sure that what you are taking can transfer to the college you want to go to.

Is the College of DuPage the only community college like this?  I doubt it.  Check out your own community college.  It may not be right for everyone, but don’t make assumptions about it.  I admit, when I was a lot younger, I used to thumb my nose at community college.  I used to think that was for students that couldn’t get into Universities or just didn’t want to go to college.  I’m not proud of that opinion, but it was what I thought.  Boy, was I wrong.

With College of DuPage, it is $140 a credit hour for in district students.  With tuition and books, I am estimating between 6 and 6.5k a year.  The government, through the tax credit, will refund 2.5k back leaving only 3.5 to 4k a year left for me.  Not bad.  If COD was a 4 year college, I would definitely have enough saved up for my son’s education.

So to summarize, check out your community college or a family member’s community college where you son or daughter could “live” to see if there are programs that would be a good option for them.  Also, remember the tax credit and that 529’s are not usually a great option for saving for college.

I welcome comments and if you have corrections or additional information, I would be happy to include them here.