by admin | May 30, 2019 | Health & Wellness, Work From Home
The winter doldrums have left most of the country and we are witnessing the arrival of spring. Just like the budding trees and baby animals signify a new start, so does a fresh cleaning of your home. But don’t let the spring cleaning stop with the physical place where you live—extend it to all corners of your life. Give your life a good spring cleaning by organizing, decluttering, and setting goals.
ORGANIZE
By now everyone knows who Marie Kondo is—the master of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” What began a worldwide phenomenon of “sparking joy” in your home can be applied to your work life as well. Start by organizing your thoughts. Write down the tasks you want to accomplish whether it be daily, monthly, or yearly. Calendar the tasks so you know when you want them completed and prioritize them so you know what importance you assign to each item. Prioritizing tasks helps you accept a request or confidently say “no” when someone asks you to do something knowing it doesn’t fit in with your priorities. Organizing tasks works for both your personal and work life.
DECLUTTER
A good decluttering session is good for the soul! Step back and look at your workspace—are there piles of paper stacked on your desk? What about that mound of things you keep saying you’ll take upstairs in your house? Do you have relationships that are cluttering up your life? Take an hour each week to sort through your workspace piles. Choose to save only the papers/magazines/notes that you need to complete your job or that you want to save for sentimental reasons. Toss the rest of those papers in the recycle bin! After you are able to pare down the piles, begin asking yourself if the next paper that comes across your desk needs to be saved, trashed, or recycled so that those mounds don’t grow into mountains again. The same goes for stuff around your house. Start that garage sale box, begin a keepsake box, and trash the rest. Finally, kick those toxic relationships to the curb. You know the ones—the relationships that suck the life out of you. If you have someone whose values and priorities don’t align with yours, choose to keep them at arm’s length so you can spend more time with the people who hold priority in your life.
SET GOALS
Goals are unlike resolutions. Resolutions are a firm decision to do or not to do something. “I resolve not to eat dessert after every meal.” Goals give direction to follow to achieve a desired outcome. For instance, a career goal may be to finish your college degree or obtain a special certification. A relationship goal could be to have weekly date night or to start a family. Financial goals may include paying down debt, setting aside money from each check for a summer vacation, or to begin regularly giving to a non-profit dear to your heart. Set goals as you spring clean your life to give yourself direction in how you spend your time and effort this year.
As you begin spring cleaning your life, you will be surprised what good things are able to flow into those corners that were previously inhabited by disorganization, clutter, or lack of focus. By giving yourself a chance to have a fresh start in your life, you are encouraging new growth. And new growth is always exciting!
by admin | May 23, 2019 | Financial Planning
Preston Newby was a youth minister. He and his wife, Tara, were driving with their son to visit family—excited to announce a new baby on the way. In the keeping with the kind of person Preston was, he stopped to help at the scene of an accident. That’s when he was struck by another car and killed. He was only 24.
Fortunately, this young couple had done their planning and had bought life insurance. So despite the emotional upheaval that Preston’s death caused, Tara, a stay-at-home mom, and her two sons were able to carry on financially as they had before. You can watch their story here.
How many other people have prepared like this for the unexpected? Unfortunately, not enough: 43% of adult Americans don’t have life insurance, according to the 2019 Insurance Barometer Study, by Life Happens and LIMRA.
Many people think, “I’m young. That won’t happen to me.” Statistically they may be right. However, they could be up being one of the statistics. You just don’t know—and that’s the problem. The solution is life insurance.
If you have people you love and who depend on you, or you have financial obligations to meet, you need life insurance to protect against the “what ifs”—at every stage in life. Here are just a few reasons you may need life insurance, or more of it, throughout your life.
Single with no children: You may think you don’t need life insurance, since you have no dependents, but if you owe money, you need it. It ensures that your debts, including student loans and funeral expenses, won’t be passed on to your family. Additionally, if you are taking care of aging parents or a special-needs sibling, or know you will in the future, life insurance is a smart way to make sure that care can continue uninterrupted.
Married or partnered: As you begin your lives together, you’ll likely incur joint financial obligations like buying a home, in addition to monthly bills. It makes sense to protect your spouse or partner with adequate life insurance. It’s also a smart move to get coverage in place now if you plan on having a family in the future.
Parents with children: If you’re in the midst of this stage, financial obligations abound. Many couples rely on two incomes to make ends meet and single parents may be their children’s one-and-only. Life insurance is critical at this point. When figuring out how much you need, remember that the economic impact you have on your family can be measured not just by how much you earn now, but by how much you’ll earn over the course of your working life. Life Happens’ Human Life Value Calculator can help you figure out what that will be.
Empty-nesters/retirees: Your kids are on their own and your mortgage is paid off, so you may think you don’t need life insurance. However, if you are still building your retirement nest egg, life insurance ensures that if something happens to you that your spouse or partner can still live comfortably in retirement, despite any shortfalls.
Keep in mind, life insurance is a simple answer to an important question: Would anyone suffer financially if I were to die. If the answer is yes, it’s time to sit down with an insurance professional.
By Maggie Leyes
Originally posted on lifehappens.org
by admin | May 14, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Human Resources
While more and more perks — catered lunches, on-site gyms, immunizations programs — are about employee health, wellness, and happiness, they ultimately are also designed to keep workers at work. A recent article in Quartz at Work points out that more than anything, employees want more time off and out of the office. Unlimited time off, to be exact.
Once the perk of tech firms and startups, more companies are beginning to explore unlimited paid time off. And, though still rare at only one to two percent of companies, it’s a popular request in part because workforce demographics continue to shift. Nearly half of employees are Millennials, whose priorities are changing the benefits conversation. For this group, finding more balance and having more control of their time are key. In part, this may be because time off has fundamentally changed. Well and Good looks at the fact that, with near-constant connectedness, vacation days often still involve checking email and getting other notifications.
Add to that cultural and workplace expectations of accessibility and availability, and workers are at risk for burnout. One in four workers report feeling burned out all the time and almost half feel burned out sometimes. This burnout can cost employers in lost productivity, and employees in terms of health and happiness. Today, someone doesn’t need to psychically spend 90 hours a week at the office to be working 90 hours. With our always-on lives, restorative time off is rarer but still as important to prevent burnout.
That doesn’t mean every business is jumping on the unlimited time off bandwagon. Want other ideas? A writer for The Guardian suggests a middle ground, with more days off the longer an employee has worked at a company. And, while rollover sounds generous, it may make employees less likely to use it. Want to give it a try but concerned about misuse? Business Management Daily suggests it’s also more than reasonable to consider limits on unlimited and critical to set sound guidelines around pay as well as whether days off can be all in a row.
For many employees, unlimited time off offers the extra flexibility for life’s challenges and can aid satisfaction and retention. Before HR Departments worry the system will be abused, research shows that people take significantly less time off when it’s unlimited. In fact, what may be more impactful is a minimum number of days off may be required so as to ensure employees take advantage of a benefit meant to restore and replenish their energy, creativity, and engagement. To work, it needs to be modeled by managers and other higher-ups, as a CEO details in a Chicago Daily Herald article.
By Bill Olson
Originally posted on ubabenefits.com
by admin | May 8, 2019 | Hot Topics, Retirement
First off, great job on buying life insurance! You took an important step by protecting the ones you love.
Every life insurance policy requires you to name a beneficiary. A life insurance beneficiary is typically the person or people who get the payout on your life insurance policy after you die; it may also be a trust, charity or your estate.
You can also name more than one beneficiary, as well as the percentage of the payout you want to go to each one—for instance, you could designate 50% to a spouse and 50% to an adult child.
You’ll typically be asked to pick two kinds of beneficiaries: a primary and a secondary. The secondary beneficiary (also called a “contingent beneficiary”) receives the payout if the primary beneficiary is deceased.
Providing for Kids
A big reason why people buy life insurance is to provide for children left behind. Usually this is done by making the surviving spouse or partner who cares for and is raising the kids the beneficiary. But what if you’re widowed or—God forbid—-both you and your partner pass away at the same time?
First, know that it’s not a good idea to name a minor as a beneficiary. That’s because the law forbids life insurance payouts to anyone who has not reached the age of majority, which is 18 to 21 depending on your state. If a child were to be named, then it would be turned over to probate court. The court will name a guardian who has oversight of the money/estate until the child comes of age.
Fortunately, there are two options. The first is to name an adult custodian. The custodian should be someone you can trust to use the money for things like housing, health care, and education until the child reaches the age of majority. At that point, any remaining money gets turned over the child and they can spend it any way they want.
The second option is to work with an attorney to set up a trust. In this scenario, the trust is the beneficiary and a trustee is named to manage and distribute the funds. The main advantage of a trust over naming a custodian is having more control.
A trust lets you specify how you want the money distributed—and it lets you do so even when your kids are adults. (One quick word of caution: Definitely consult with an attorney if you’re setting up a trust for a special needs child. They can help you create one that doesn’t impact your child’s eligibility for government assistance like Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income.)
Naming a Charity
Do you have a cause that’s near and dear to your heart? If so, you might consider naming a charitable organization as the beneficiary of your life insurance.
There are several ways to do this. They include naming the charity as a beneficiary on a new or existing life insurance policy, making the charity both the owner and the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, adding a charitable-giving rider to a life insurance policy, or working with a community foundation to figure out the best way to distribute a payout.
Final Tips
Think carefully about naming your estate as a beneficiary. This can trigger a long and costly legal process known as probate. A faster and more efficient solution is to name specific individuals or organizations as beneficiaries.
1. Get specific. Instead of naming “my spouse” or “my children” as beneficiaries, list their names along with their addresses and Social Security numbers. This saves a lot of time since the insurance company doesn’t have to track down information.
2. Always name a contingent beneficiary. Passing away and leaving behind life insurance without a living beneficiary could mean the payout goes to someone you never wanted your policy to benefit. It could also require a court-appointed administrator to sort things out.
3. Pick trustworthy custodians and trustees. Really consider who’d you trust your child’s financial well-being with if you weren’t in the picture. Your kids may love their uncle or aunt, but is he or she mature and responsible with money? If not, pick someone else who is.
4. Regularly review your beneficiaries. It’s a good idea to review your beneficiaries about once a year and after major life events like a marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or a death in the family.
5. Communicate your wishes. Let your beneficiaries know your intentions and how to find the policy.
6. Be aware of special situations. There are some situations that could trigger a tax on the life insurance benefit—for instance, when the policyholder and the insured aren’t the same person. Likewise, things can get sticky if you live in a community property state and don’t name your spouse as a beneficiary. An insurance agent can give you life insurance advice on this and much more.
By Amanda Austin
Originally posted on lifehappens.org
by admin | May 2, 2019 | Human Resources
2019 has ushered in many new trends such as retro cartoon character timepieces, meatless hamburgers, and 5G networks to name a few. Not surprisingly, trend-watching doesn’t stop with pop culture, fashion, and technology. Your company’s human resources department should also take notice of the top changes in the marketplace, so they are poised to attract and retain the best talent. These top trends include a greater emphasis on soft skills, increased workforce flexibility, and salary transparency.
SOFT SKILLS
Gone are the days of hiring a candidate solely based on their hard skills—their education and technical background. While the proper education and training are important factors in getting the job completed, a well-rounded employee must have the soft skills needed to work with a team, problem solve, and communicate ideas and processes. According to Tim Sackett, SHRM-SCP and president of HRU Technical Resources in Michigan, “Employers should be looking for soft skills more and training for hard skills, but we struggle with that.” While hard skills can be measured, soft skills are harder to quantify. However, soft skills facilitate human connections and are the one thing that machines cannot replace. They are invaluable to the success of a company.
WORKFORCE FLEXIBILITY
As millennials begin to flood the workplace, the traditional view of the workweek has changed. Job seekers report they place a high importance on having the flexibility of when and where to work. The typical work day has evolved from a 9am – 5pm day to a flexible 24-hour work cycle that adjusts to the needs of the employee. Employers are able to offer greater flexibility about when the work is completed and where it takes place. This flexibility has so much importance that job seekers say remote work options and the freedom of an adaptable schedule have a higher priority to them over pay.
SALARY TRANSPARENCY
In the wake of the very public outing of the gender and race pay gaps, companies are opening up conversations about wages in the workplace. Once a hushed subject punishable by termination, salary information is now often being shared in the office. Employers have found that the more transparent and open that they are about the compensation levels in their organization, the more trustworthy they appear to their workforce. One way to stay educated on the welcome trend of pay equality is to visit the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s website to review wage ranges across the nation. Another great resource is the Department of Labor’s free publication called “Employer’s Guide on Equal Pay.”
By watching the trends in the marketplace, employers can focus on what is important to their staff. Honest discussions about salary and compensation, when and where to work, and developing the employee as a whole, including soft skills, sets your company up for success. When you listen to what the market is saying, you show you are sensitive to what their priorities are—and this is always on trend.
