Archives For Paul McGuire

The morning rush

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Nothing sets the tone for your day more than your morning routine. Because we are all headed off to our daytime destination, we expect things to go right and we don’t have time for nonsense. Whenever the clock doesn’t go off, the car won’t start, someone wakes up sick or you’re out of milk, those things can throw your day into a tailspin. Some homes, though, just move at a frenetic pace and everyone feels like they are always five minutes late. How do you think this atmosphere affects your child as they are getting ready for school? You can make a huge impact on their day by getting control of your morning routine.

A good morning starts the night before. As mentioned in an earlier post, setting a regular bedtime and sticking to it is very important for adequate rest for your child. It also gives you a chance to relax and have some time for yourself or spend it with your spouse in the evening. But there are other things that you can do the night before. Go ahead and lay out your child’s clothes for the next day. You can get them involved in the selection process, and by the time they enter middle school they should be doing this themselves. Pack up your child’s book bag the night before. Once homework is finished, put all of the papers that need to go back to school in the right folders, make sure everything is signed, and load their bags for the next day. Have your younger children take their baths at night. This will help your child sleep better, lessen the morning rush on the bathroom, and save you several minutes in the morning. If your child takes their lunch to school, go ahead and talk about that the night before so that you know what to pack the next morning.

Just as important as a regular bedtime, waking at the same time every day starts your child off in an expected routine. Work them into a pattern that works for your family; maybe your kids make their bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth and hair, and finally put on shoes, jackets, and book bags. If possible, have everyone in the family sit down at the same time to eat breakfast. This makes for one cleanup and gives you a few minutes to connect in the morning. Don’t overlook breakfast; it really is the most important meal of the day because it stokes that energy furnace inside of you. Ideally you should give your child a well-balanced breakfast, but if both Mom and Dad work then that might be a difficult task to accomplish. No matter what, just make sure that they eat something before school. Many health experts bash the ready-to-eat breakfast but having something in their belly is better than having nothing at all.

Save any arguments or potentially heated discussions till later in the day. Your child doesn’t need to hear those before school because this sets the tone for their attitude and outlook for the day. Briefly go over any afternoon activities to make sure that everyone knows where they need to be and when, and that they have anything they may need to support those activities.

Parents, you set the pace for the day in your household by the way your morning goes. If you need to get up a few minutes earlier to alleviate some pain points in the morning routine, then by all means do so. Some of the unexpected events that happen in the morning are unavoidable, but most of the stress of morning goes away with just a little bit of planning and intentionality on your part. Your child is following your lead, and a cheerful, relaxed environment in the morning will do wonders for their day.

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Building a legacy

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My mom passed away over the weekend. She was 68. She and my dad are both gone now. I loved them both and as I think back on their lives I realize how much I learned from them. This post is dedicated to their memory.

First of all, I learned about work ethic. Neither of my parents ever went to college. In fact, my dad was unable to finish high school so he had to earn his GED. My dad worked as long as I knew him until he could work no more due to diabetes. When he was out of a job, he went and created his own work and didn’t wait around for someone to take care of him. My mom supported him when he needed to do that to keep food on our table. In order to keep us at home without the need for childcare, my mom worked many years on third shift while my dad worked first shift. He would get us ready for school in the morning, ensure we were off to school, then go to work himself. Mom came home, slept during the day, and was there with us as a family in the evenings. That brings to mind the second lesson, sacrifice. Both Mom and Dad did what was necessary to do the best that they could for us. Mom and Dad never made a lot of money, but we never went without anything.

The third lesson I learned was toughness. They both worked long and hard through sickness, disease, and trials to carry on and do what was needed. When life dealt them a blow, they never slowed down. I watched them both bury both of their parents, go through job loss, handle my mom’s first aneurysm, lose brothers and sisters, raise the three of us through vastly different circumstances, and deal with my dad’s sickness and his ultimate passing. Never did they waver, and never did they show any stress or strain to us. Through everything, they stuck to it and held on and made it all work. That was the lesson on perseverance, loyalty, and dedication.

My mom and dad accepted me just as I am. I had my own issues and gave them some heartache while I was growing up. They were proud of my academic accomplishments but I believe they were even prouder of us as kids. I never felt any condemnation or wrath from them even when I made some bad decisions throughout my young adult life. That was the final lesson I wanted to mention that I learned from them, unconditional love.

My mom is gone now and we will bury her tomorrow. It’s hard on us, but I believe she’s in a much better place now and she’s with my dad once more. Their 50th wedding anniversary will be on December 2 of this year, so they will be together to celebrate. What they left for me was character traits, a good name, and life lessons that I would never have gotten from anywhere else. They didn’t leave many things behind, but then again that doesn’t matter. The life they gave me and my brother and sister was worth far more than any stack of money or garage full of possessions that they could have left me. Truly what they gave us was a legacy, built over their years of marriage and parenthood. If your parents are alive today, give them a call and tell them thank you; better yet, give them a hug and tell them. Only when they are gone do you realize the legacy that they left for you.

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Student loan rescue?

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Last week, President Obama announced that he was providing relief to thousands of student loan borrowers. In short, it reduces the required payment on outstanding student loan debt to 10% of discretionary income, down from 15%, and that any remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, down from 25 years. All told, this will help up to 1.6 million borrowers. This was a plan that was already approved as part of the healthcare reform act and was to go into effect in 2014, but the president upped the timeline to 2012.

So here’s the real deal. In order to take advantage of this plan, a borrower has to take out a student loan in 2012. That means that this measure has not helped anyone yet. Recent graduates cannot take advantage of this plan because they are already out of school and the first beneficiaries won’t see this till next year. And, a similar program which had already set the repayment cap at 15% has only helped 450,000 out of 36 million borrowers or less than two percent, according to an article in National Journal. Plus the loan forgiveness part of the program comes after you’ve been paying on your loan for 20 years; it doesn’t mean that if you don’t pay then it will be forgiven after 20 years.

This is a political move. It is no coincidence that President Obama bumped up this timeline to appeal to the young voters. It was a program that was already set to begin in 2014, so nothing has really been accomplished. If you are in student loan debt, the best move is to shovel as much as you can as fast as you can towards paying off this debt. It is a huge burden, and even bringing down the required minimum payment by a third you’ll be better off to get this out of your life as soon as possible.

For those of you considering student loans, please don’t think that this program makes student loans any more attractive. You still have to repay it regardless, and you’ll be shackled to all of the other issues that having a student loan at such a young age brings. Instead, take the other approaches that we talk about and avoid these loans at all costs.

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The lifelong learner

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My oldest son is a natural learner. He is a curious type and just loves the process of learning something new. Some think he’s a walking Jeopardy game at some of the things that he knows. I love learning but sometimes I’m not so good at retaining. I like to read, to hear something, or experience something new that will add to my life’s journey. Some subjects are more attractive than others, but overall I like to learn new things.

One of the most valuable gifts you can give your child is to foster their natural curiosity through the learning process.  That’s a big fancy sentence to say that you should give your child an appetite, or maybe even a hunger, for learning. In today’s information age, those who know more will be those who win more. So what strategies can you use for your child, even if they don’t love school?

  1. Make learning fun. Kids and adults will do more of what is fun to them. So, naturally, to make children want to learn then you need to make it fun. Use games and other activities; there are all sorts of ideas on the internet for learning games so search and use some of those if you need ideas.
  2. Don’t use learning activities as punishment (study, writing sentences, reading, etc). Does anyone remember having to write 100 sentences like “I will not talk in class”? How did that make you feel about writing for the rest of the day? Or how about making you go read the Bible when you do something wrong? Why would we ever use something that we want our children to do (and repeat) as a punishment for something we didn’t want them to do?
  3. Capitalize on their learning style. As we mentioned earlier, identifying your child’s learning style (audio, visual, or kinesthetic) and creating an environment that plays to that style is critical to keeping them engaged and excited about learning.
  4. Reinforce them for discretionary learning activities. It’s refreshing to see children doing something other than Facebook, video games, watching TV or talking on a cell phone. If you catch them reading, studying, or creating because they want to and not because they have to, recognize and reward that activity.
  5. Dig in to their interests; you can figure out what things interest them by listening to them or watching them play. My daughter is the creative type. She makes things with paper, straws, skewers, popsicle sticks, construction paper, glue, crayons, markers, tape, and the like. She writes stories, she draws, and she explores. She has a decorative geode in her room and today just asked questions about where it came from, how it was made, what kind of rock, and so on. She made a broom out of skewers, straws, and tape. We just let her do it because it fuels her brain so much more than SpongeBob does.
  6. Celebrate their strengths. Don’t try to make them something that they are not.
  7. Be an example. Let your kids see you learning. Model the behavior for them through reading, continuing education, and so forth. We could all stand a break from the TV and computer screen.

Like it or not, learning is a lifelong process. The sooner our children figure that out, the better. Too many kids are running around, barely getting through school, thinking that once they finish high school they will never crack a book again. Technology changes too much for anyone to expect that they learned all they ever need to know in high school. In The Millionnaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley cites a statistic which says that the average millionnaire reads a non-fiction book a month. But another study shows that the average American spends 35 hours a week on TV and other media. Which average do you want your child to be part of?

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What your child won’t learn in school

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School has changed so much from when I was a student thirty-plus years ago. Back then, computers were only available in the dedicated computer lab. If a teacher had to show something to the entire class, she used an overhead projector and transparencies. If we were lucky, there was an 8mm movie on the subject or a Betamax tape that we could watch on the 13-inch television with rabbit ears. Even the copiers were old mimeograph machines (remember the blue ink?). You wrote all of your papers by hand or typed if you were lucky enough to have access to a typewriter. Research was actually done in the library and you wrote your notes on 3×5 notecards. I remember sorting through the microfiche and searching for articles that I needed for my paper. I even remember classrooms with radiator heating. We all walked to school and cell phones were non-existent. At least we had electricity and indoor plumbing.

Today, there are so many technological advances that make yesterday’s experience seem like a trip to the stone ages. Almost all of the buildings that were in existence back then would have been rebuilt or at least modernized and refitted with computer networks, cable or satellite television, video broadcast capabilities, and computers and printers in every classroom. A school without a website would be considered archaic. Teachers have more ways than ever to communicate with parents and post information about homework, grades, school activities, disciplinary issues and attendance, and much more. In some schools, classrooms have SmartBoards, iPads, laptops, electronic responders for every student, and more for instant feedback on how a class is going. Kids can even take some classes online. In the state of Alabama, graduation from high school now requires that the student have one distance-learning course. And the subject matter itself  – think of all the historical events and technical advances of the last 25 years. The educational world is a much different place.

No matter what changes come in school, some things remain the same. Whether you send your children to public or private school, they are there to learn the  academics. Decades ago, we called it the three Rs; reading; ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. There are some things that your child just won’t learn as a formal subject in school, but are probably more important to their ultimate success in life than their grades or IQ score. Here are some that I can think of:

  • Morals and values
  • Ethics and right from wrong
  • Interpersonal relationships
  • Respect for others
  • Manners
  • Religious beliefs
  • Personal finance
  • Work ethic
  • Self-esteem and confidence
  • Decision-making
  • Motivation and a desire for excellence
  • Personal restraint and self-control
  • Prioritization and time management skills
  • Love
  • Charity and a giving spirit
  • Care and concern for others
  • Integrity
  • Humility
  • Good attitude
  • Discipline
  • Perseverance

I will bet my readers can come up with a hundred more of these. Being around others in school, your child will get the chance to practice these traits but they just won’t be taught in school. More often than not, it is the absence of these traits that gets the attention of teachers and principals in the form of a trip to the office or a call to the parents. Even in today’s sterile, isolated, online world, the traits listed above are timeless. Life is still about dealing with people, both personally and professionally. Parents should take steps to teach and model these traits through example, behavior modification, opportunities for a child to practice them, and so on. What would you add to this list?

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Time Management for the College Student

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For new college students, college is often the first time in their life where they are completely responsible for managing their own time. For those that move away to school, mom and dad are no longer there to drag them out of bed, push them to get to school on time, nag them that it’s time to go to work, nor remind them that they need to go to bed. The student needs to figure it out on their own. The problem is that mom and dad’s best intentions might have created a high level of dependency or maybe even shielded their student from any sense of time management. It’s time they pick up these skills before they head off to college, and fortunately they aren’t that difficult to learn. 

For starters, create a list of categories for the activities that you have to do in the normal week.  That list might look like school, work, sleep, study, clubs, meals, fitness, church, chores, commuting, socializing, and free time. Realize that there are 168 hours in a week – no more, no less. To each of these categories, assign a number of hours that you plan to spend on each category for the upcoming week. Be sure to add in any known appointments to the proper categories. Total the number of hours assigned to each category; they should add up to 168 exactly. Then, plan each day accordingly, again factoring in any known appointments for each day.

If something comes up that needs to be added to the list for a week in progress, be sure to adjust your hourly allocation for that given day accordingly. The only rules you need to adhere to are that there are only 24 hours in a day and only 168 hours in a week. 

Just as important is the concept of prioritization. As you’ll learn, there will always be competing activities and appointments throughout your life. This is why it helps to know your priorities. When you choose between two conflicting activities, you are establishing your priority whether you are aware of it or not. Knowing your priorities and what things come first in your life will help you make those decisions more clearly. Remember that you are at college to learn, not to socialize and hang out, so I hope you keep that in mind when a party comes up on a Thursday night but you haven’t completed your study time for the big test the next day.

One more tool that I like to use for time management studies is from Stephen Covey. Habit number 3 from his famous seven habits is “Put First Things First” which is all about priorities. From the book “First Things First”, Covey introduces a matrix to help with this habit which drops all activities into quadrants based on urgency and importance. His recommendation is that we spend as much time in Quadrant 2 activities as we can, which is the important but not urgent. You can achieve this through planning and preparation as mentioned above. The best part about this is that it doesn’t remove all spontaneity and fun from your life. It simply helps us to focus on and manage the things that are important in our lives so that they don’t become urgent where we have to drop everything to take care of them. I’m including a picture of Covey’s matrix below to help you see what kinds of activities can creep in and steal time from you.

It has been said that our life is a gift from God, and what we do with that life is our gift to God. All we have is time, so I hope you choose to use it wisely. In the end, you’ll be a more productive, less stressed student who gets things done.

Merrill Covey Matrix Four Quadrants Urgent Important

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Choosing your major

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One of the common themes that is floating around the Occupy Wall Street camps is that folks feel like they’ve done the right things but haven’t been rewarded for doing so, especially as it relates to college education.  The common feeling has been that if you go to college and get a degree then you’ll always have a job, regardless of the degree that you may have.  There are some indicators that this is still true.  Today (September 2011) unemployment hovers around 9.1% and has been in the same range for the past 2.5 years.  But if you have completed your four-year degree or higher, the unemployment rate is 4.2%, down from 4.5% a year ago.  Even across ethnic and gender lines, the same thing holds true; those with the lowest unemployment rate are those who have attained their bachelor’s degree or higher.

This seems to indicate that you major doesn’t matter.  I don’t think anything could be further from the truth.  When going to college, you must choose a major wisely.  Although employers don’t really care where you went to school they do care what you learned while you were there, and the best indicator of that is your choice of major.  You also want to choose your major based on where you think your passion and calling aligns best, what jobs and careers are fed from your field of study, and whether your personality is suited for these jobs and careers.  You really need to be able to answer the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” before choosing a major.  Going into college without a plan is a recipe for a long stay and a lot of debt.  Relating my story, I started as an electrical engineering major.  When I didn’t do so well in physics and calculus, I switched over to computer science.  Although that major has served me well in my industry, I landed here by default because I did not have a cohesive plan. 

I also believe that if you are going to school to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an education, then you should view this as an investment.  You should choose a major that is worth your educational investment.  In 2010, the median weekly earnings in America was $782, or $40,664 annually.  If your educational pursuits are not going to yield a job that pays at least 25% more than that, then I recommend taking a hard look at your choices, either of major or of college altogether.  You can find some of this information by researching the Department of Labor or the Occupational Employment Statistics at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website.

I believe that you attend college for one of two reasons – it is either a means to gain the credentials needed to reach your employment goal, or it is an educational pursuit for the simple joy of learning something new.  If you are considering college for the second reason, I believe there are other avenues and alternatives for learning today that don’t require the classroom time nor the tuition, books, fees, and other associated expenses of college.  The internet makes these alternatives available at your fingertips.  We’ll look at some of those alternatives in an upcoming post.

I do fully believe that college is the single-best investment one can make in themselves regarding their lifelong earnings potential.  However, like any other investment, you should consider all aspects and choose carefully.  Perhaps the single most important aspect in this process if your choice of major.  If you plan to work for someone else, many majors can lead to lucrative careers, while others have little value in the marketplace.  Choose something that you’ll be proud of, that will lead to a job you’ll be happy with, and where you will be able to earn a great living.

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Saving for college – 529 plans

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In our last post we introduced college savings options.  Today we’ll explore the first of the tax-favored accounts for college savings, the 529 plan.  The 529 college savings plan is regulated by the state that it is originated in, but you can contribute to the 529 plan of any state regardless of where you live and regardless of where your child plans to go to school.  It is called a 529 plan because it is regulated by section 529 of the IRS tax code.  With the 529 plan, you can contribute annually up to the limit imposed by the state (subject to annual gift tax limitations), and if you elect to use the 529 plan in the state which you reside then there may be state income tax savings available to you.  Earnings are tax-free at the federal level when used for college but you pay a penalty if you use the proceeds for anything other than educational expenses. 

Within the 529 college savings plan, your investment options are dictated by the plan that you choose, so this is less flexible than other options.  An important note to remember is that you are not limited to using only the plan which is available in your home state.  For example, you may live in Alabama but choose to invest in the Nevada state plan.  You might do this because the investment options in the Nevada plan are better fit for your situation than the ones in the Alabama plan, and Alabama may not allow you to deduct your contributions to their plan. 

There is also a variation of the 529 called a prepaid tuition plan.  This one generally provides for the equivalent of four years of in-state tuition and fees at any public university in the state which holds the plan.  If you go outside of the state, you usually get the average of in-state tuition made payable to the university of your choosing.  You make your investment with the state and they handle the rest.  There are lump-sum investment options or monthly plans, and the plans can generally be transferred to younger siblings.  Most of these plans, however, are not guaranteed, and some of them have closed to new participants and are liquidating funds to current participants.  Some states’ plans have suffered financial hardship due to the bear market of 2008 impacting the holdings in the trust fund.  Your rate of return in this plan is tied to rise in tuition costs within your state.

Both versions of the 529 plan are transferable to other qualified beneficiaries, and can be used at any post-secondary institution which is eligible to receive U.S. Department of Education benefits.  If you save in a 529 college savings plan, you can use the proceeds for any qualified expense at any of these institutions, which means that you can pay for tuition, room, board, fees, books, supplies, even computing equipment, tutoring, and transportation.  With the prepaid tuition plan, you are limited to just tuition and fees; any overpayments may be applied to room and board but that is up to the provisions of your state’s plan.

Next time we’ll look at the Coverdell account, also known as the Educational Savings Account, and discuss how these two accounts can be used together to really flex your college savings muscles.

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