Hasta La Gadget!

What Financial Health Means to Me, because your financial health matters.

We never stop hearing the importance of physical health, emotional health and psychological health. But it so happens that taking care of your financial health is a critical component in all three.

By DAVID RAE, CFP®, AIF®

The whole notion of health — whether with oneself or in a relationship — is one of consequences, for good or for ill. Eat well and exercise and chances are you’ll live happier and longer. Indulge in destructive behavior and the opposite is true.

With finances, it works the same way. Make smart, strategic moves today and, consequently, you’ll live better and with less stress. Or make dumb financial moves, max out a pile of credit cards and blow through every last dime you’ve got now and you’re guaranteed to suffer later. (Wake up call: Does a flashy new car every year look as good if it means being homeless as a 90-year old?) As a Certified Financial Planner, it is my job enable the former and to help my clients avoid the latter.

For myself and for my clients, I count three main tenets of financial health:

1) Pay yourself first: Once the bills are paid, this means socking away a set amount of money first — and regularly — without even thinking of spending it. You probably won’t even notice the money is gone but you will notice how it adds up. If you never keep anything you will never be healthy financially, or come close to being financially independent. What counts is not how much you make but how much you keep.

2) Plan and save for long-term goals: Whether it’s buying a house or taking a dream vacation, it’s more likely to happen if you make a plan and stick to it. I know tons of people who have huge “travel” budgets but who never really get to take a big glamorous trip because the waste all their cash on dinky little weekends away that they often don’t even enjoy. If it’s worth wanting, it’s worth planning for.

3) Have an emergency fund: With somewhere around half of Americans not knowing how they would cover a $400 emergency, this basic step may take some work. Set some smaller goals first, like $400 saved, work up to saving a month’s salary and then onto the more typical 3 to 6 month depending on your job security and family responsibilities. What’s a good figure? Six months salary plus the amount of your health insurance deductible in the bank will keep you sitting safe and sound. It sounds like a lot but look at it as a work in progress. If you’re financially prepared for an emergency, it becomes less of an emergency.

Financial health may even improve your plain ol’ health for a couple of reasons. First, you’ll be able to afford the good things to keep you in good shape. And, most importantly, financial health will mean you won’t be plagued by worst kinds of soul-destroying stress.

Until next time, remember your money matters, and so does you financial health too #finhealthmatters.

DAVID RAE, CFP®, AIF® is a Los Angeles-based Wealth Manager with Trilogy Financial Services, a regular contributor to the Advocate Magazine, author of Financial Planner LA and a financial adviser proudly serving friends of the LGBT community for over a decade. Follow him on Facebook or via his website, www.davidraefp.com.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Article originally published on the Financial Planner LA Blog “Financial Health Matters”

Securities and advisory services offered through National Planning Corporation (NPC), Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Additional advisory services offered through Trilogy Capital, a Registered Investment Adviser. Trilogy Capital, Trilogy Financial and NPC are separate and unrelated companies.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

PHILADELPHIA ― Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the outgoing Democratic National Committee chair, didn’t treat Sen. Bernie Sanders fairly during the primaries and should have resigned sooner.

Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, made his comments in response to a question about whether his party had a Plan B if something truly disqualifying emerged about Hillary Clinton in future email dumps.

“No,” he told The Huffington Post, but went on to talk about the DNC communications released so far in what appears to be a Russian-orchestrated hack.

“Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she’s always been good to me. I like her just fine,” Reid said. “I know she’s tried hard, but as some people probably know, I thought Bernie deserved somebody that was not critical to[ward] him. I knew ― everybody knew ― that this was not a fair deal. So I’m sorry she had to resign, but it was the right thing to do. She just should’ve done it sooner.”

As DNC chair, Wasserman Schultz had scheduled many of the primary debates on weekends, when viewership was likely to be lower. Without the opportunity to debate in front of large audiences, it’s difficult for an insurgent candidate to gain traction against an established rival.

“Bernie really had a movement out there, and it wasn’t right to treat him that way,” Reid said.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

What important lessons will you teach your children this summer? Riding a bike? Sharing with others? How about teaching them important financial skills.

Financial literacy may not immediately come to mind when many parents think of essential skills for students but what children know about money at a young age can shape the way they manage money in adulthood. As children develop, they are strongly influenced by what they learn in their formative years, and studies have shown the same holds true for financial matters. In fact, a 2015 study by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) found that credit scores among young adults improved in states with mandatory financial education.

However, not all states implement financial education, and when it comes to financial literacy, American education falls short. A 2012 study by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that American students performed below the world average on a simple financial literacy assessment. Additionally, over 7,000 American youths earned a grade average of just 60% on a 2014 financial literacy test administered by the National Financial Educator’s Council. Yet with students today graduating with an average student debt of $48,172 having strong financial skills is equally important as the degree they earn.

So how can we close the gap between what American students currently know about money and what they need to know?

Financial education standards vary widely from state to state, making it difficult to know exactly what kind of money skills your child may learn in school and even at what age. Since important financial lessons aren’t always taught at school, children often need learn these skills outside of the classroom. However, this doesn’t mean they have to sit through hours of difficult, tedious lessons: they can learn important life long skills in a fun way.

Edutainment – one of the key personal finance instruction tactics that Visa uses to reach people of all ages – is an innovative learning method that strikes a balance between education and entertainment. Whether through interactive games, comic books, or other methods, students can learn financial lessons without feeling like they’re studying. And it can help them retain the information better. According to a 2013 study commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, students who played educational games in addition to the standard curriculum performed better on tests than students who didn’t.

Summer is a great opportunity to teach your children more about money. It’s a perfect way to keep their minds active while school is out, and helping them learn through edutainment ensures that lessons are fun and engaging while still being worthwhile and informative. There are many great resources available to help improve your children’s financial literacy, whether they’re in kindergarten or about to graduate high school. Here are a few simple ways your children can learn about money this summer.

Learn together: Mymoney.gov offers activities and lessons for all ages, ranging from fun cartoons about American coins to guides on how to budget effectively. The site provides enough resources for the whole family to learn together in an engaging and entertaining way. The website features World of Cents, a child-friendly game for ages 5 and up designed to help teach the value of money through the concepts of earning, saving and spending money, while incorporating basic math concepts.

Begin with the basics: Knowing the value of money is essential to financial literacy. The sooner children learn how much everyday items are worth, the better. Visa’s Practical Money Skills initiative has developed a game, Peter Pig’s Money Counter, which helps children improve basic financial skills such as sorting and counting coins to learn their monetary value. Besides helping youngsters brush up on their math skills, the game also teaches the value of saving money. The free game is available online, as an Android app and from Visa’s Practical Money Skills website.

Animate it: Educational favorite Schoolhouse Rock! makes finance fun with songs about interest, savings accounts, paying bills, and more. Dynamic animation and catchy songs help children learn basic financial facts while having fun. Search for clips online or pop in a DVD to teach your children these important and practical lessons in a fun and memorable way.

Play the market: The Stock Market Game is an online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students grades 4-12 in the world of economics, investing and personal finance, and has prepared 15 million students for financially independent futures. The game is part of a program provided by the SIFMA Foundation.

Make it comical: Visa recently teamed up with Marvel Custom Solutions to create a Guardians of the Galaxy comic that promotes saving and smart spending and introduces young children to the difference between wants and needs. The comic, “Rocket’s Powerful Plan,” features an exciting storyline where saving money in an emergency fund is crucial to helping the Super Heroes. If your children are fans of Rocket, Groot and Ant-Man, they’re bound to love this comic featuring the same iconic characters.

Bring it to life: Jump$tart Clearinghouse offers a variety of games and resources that demonstrate how money skills transfer to real life. Children are challenged to plan their budgets, stretch their money, and be financially responsible. The website also provides a range of educational materials for both parents and teachers.

Additional edutainment resources include:
• MyMoney.gov Youth Resources
• TreasuryDirect Kids MoneyMemory and Perry’s Pennies
• The United States Mint H.I.P. Pocket Exchange games
• Visa’s Financial Football and Financial Soccer

Looking for even more resources? Visit the Practical Money Skills website to explore personal finance topics and materials for every age group.

Bottom line: It’s important to teach your children about finance, and edutainment is both an effective and engaging way to do so. Use these summer months to teach your children important basic personal finance skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.

Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa’s financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney

This article is intended to provide general information and should not be considered legal, tax or financial advice. It’s always a good idea to consult a legal, tax or financial advisor for specific information on how certain laws apply to you and about your individual financial situation.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

<img alt="2016-07-27-1469655568-5758826-Privacy0027r2R.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-07-27-1469655568-5758826-Privacy0027r2R-thumb.jpg" width="400" height="278" style ="float: left; margin:10px"

If you fear a police state, look no farther than your smartphone. Your digital footprint is huge. If you have a social-media account, it’s over.

Yahoo, Google, Apple, Microsoft routinely share your info with third-party networks and, on occasion, the government. Yahoo and Google are happy to share info with foreign governments, too!

As Privacy, now off-Broadway at the Public Theater makes clear, technology is Big Brother. Only most of the power is in the hands of major corporations. In George Orwell’s 1984, the government controlled language, thought and action.

In 2016, it is Silicon Valley.

Every call, every photo, every location is known. So is what you buy, where you go, the status of your health and associates. Your Fitbit knows when you’re having sex; Siri knows how many people are watching TV in your house.

And all that meta data is stored. The ACLU worries about predictive modeling by police, but advertisers and politicians routinely use it to target voters and swing elections, which can be even more pernicious.

Sound like a scary recitation?

Well, so does the play, starring Daniel Radcliffe, whose considerable talents are squandered in a production that’s long on information, but short on dramatic tension. Radcliffe plays a depressed writer searching for his authentic self. But in the digital world, does one actually exist?

Interspersed with the loosely structured narrative are appearances by actors doubling as real-life figures, such as Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor, and Clive Humby, a founder of dunnhumby, the company behind worldwide loyalty programs. All offer insights, arguments and rants about the tech revolution.

Co-created by Josie Rourke and James Graham and co-starring Reg Rogers, Rachel Dratch, Michael Countryman, Raffi Barsoumian and De’Adre Aziza, the slick, fast-paced show is aided by Duncan McLean’s projection design and audience participation.

Privacy raises crucial issues, but while most people turn on, few are willing to turn off.

While Privacy worries about our digital selves, Who Mourns For Bob the Goon? addresses our fractured selves.

Now playing at the Here Theater, Joshua Young’s play is set in a group therapy session among military vets suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Each has a particular, occasionally harrowing, story to tell.

No surprise, the vets find their experiences difficult to process; haunted by past actions, they take on new personas.

To cope, they identify, in part, with comic characters — with a catch. They often identity with villains, like the six-armed Spiral, Spectre and Mister Gone, rather than superheroes. One exception, Alison (Jolynn Carpenter) becomes the Dazzler, originally conceived by Marvel Comics as The Disco Queen, with the power to make people tell the truth.

The title character, Bob The Goon (Alex Teachey), is from the Batman movie. He is the Joker’s closest friend. Unlike his colleagues, who acknowledge their dual identities, he doesn’t separate himself from his fictional character.

But what upends the group is the introduction of Langly (Alicia Goranson), who claims an anime personality. She not only distances herself creatively, her provocative nature threatens the collective therapeutic future.

The play posits an intriguing premise, aided by clever projections, to explore the mind’s fragility. Fans of the comic characters will appreciate their various manifestations. There is good stuff here, but in need of editing. The final two scenes are unnecessary and drain an otherwise interesting, ably performed work of its energy.

Photo: Joan Marcus

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

This is a surprise—Netflix’s rejuvenation of dystopian British anthology series Black Mirror is a lot closer than we expected. We’ve heard about the tantalizing casting
for a while, but now we know when we’ll finally be able to watch it.

Read more…