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Over at the Simple Dollar Trent responded to one critic’s comments about his qualifications to provide financial information.

The critic’s comments got me to thinking about exactly what constitutes an expert. Think about this. What does make one an expert?

 

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My students are in the nursing home. For many of them this is the first time they are confronted with the frailties of the human body and mind. Generally they approach this experience with a mix of excitement to be working with real people and fear/worry about what they’ll encounter and how they’ll handle it.

Most of the students, once they overcome their initial trepidation, find that they look past the physical ailments – the contorted limbs, drooling faces and slurred speech – to recognize that in that body lives someone who is worthy of the time and energy put into caring for them.

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I ran into a former high school student a few days ago. Harried with her college school work and working full-time to survive, she still looked happy.

Let me tell you a little about her. Mary had been kicked out of her mother’s house at age 15. she had lived with aunt for  few months – until she got tired of having a teenager hanging around, cramping her own lifestyle. (more…)

Wednesday’s news included an article about 12 insurance company employees winning the $212 Million dollar Mega-Millions Lotto. Somewhere I read that if taken as a lump sum the payout would be something like $171 Million. That works out to about $14.25 Million per person for each of those twelve people before taxes.

Winning the lotto or otherwise coming into a large sum of money is something that I think most of us dream of. And to be honest, I surely wouldn’t mind a little windfall myself. But Not $14 million. I’m not sure I’d want even $1 million.

Money is a double edged sword. We need it to get the things we need to survive and it’s nice to have a little “extra” to enjoy some of the luxuries in life.

On the other hand, though, having lots of money requires a lot of energy to manage. And I’m not qualified to manage it well.

Over on The Simple Dollar Trent relates a story about an interview in which the interviewer asked him if he wanted to be rich.  After thinking about it a few moments, his response was “no.” He went on to say that he only wanted to be financially independent.

Trent saw the realities of wealth. He pointed out the risks and limitations attendant with extreme wealth. Can Bill Gates or Warren Buffett spend an afternoon in the mall? Don’t you know that these men, because of their wealth and notoriety probably maintain a security detail of some type to protect them from the crazies who see opportunity in their wealth. Such are the “benefits” of wealth.

Rather than be freeing, allowing you to enjoy your wealth, the wealth becomes a cage, limiting your options and opportunities for a “normal” life.

For the lotto winners the problem is compounded by their lack of familiarity with handing wealth. Bill Gates, though he came from a fairly wealthy family as I recall, still had never encountered the kind of wealth he has amassed. But it didn’t happen over night. He was able to adjust and learn how to manage his wealth as he grew into it.

The same can be said for Warren Buffett and others. They weren’t suddenly blessed with lots of money, it came to them slowly. That gradual growth allowed them to learn how to manage and plan for it.

But, when you wake up one day with $14 million in your bank account, do you know what to do to manage it? Do you even know who you need to talk to for guidance? Can you trust them?

I like to think I’m a fairly knowledgeable guy, but I’ll tell you I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with that much dough.

And apparently neither do most lottery winners. that’s why so many are bankrupt in a few years; they don’t know how to manage it and don’t really comprehend how much money they have. It seems inexhaustible.

A couple of years ago Oprah did a show in which a homeless man was given $100,000. The question was: What would he do with it?

The answer: Blow it.

The lucky recipient bought cars and other things for others. Now that’s not a bad thing, giving to others, but he did it because he really didn’t have good understanding of the amount he had available. He said he was surprised when it ran out!

My girlfriend and I talked about it. She’s well educated and makes a decent living. When we started talking about what we’d do with $100,000 she starts off paying off her parents’ house and her house and so on. I reminded her that $100,000 was only a little more than twice her salary. She got a funny look in her eyes and said, “You’re right. I didn’t think about it that way.” Even those of us with a little bit of money believe that it will go farther than it really will!

I’ve said all this to say that these lotto winners have come into a lot of money. I hope that they are wise enough to squirrel some of it away and not on a buying binge or invest in some questionable enterprise. I hope that they seek good guidance and make smart decisions and really learn to understand the amount of money at their disposal.

Sadly, I expect they’ll be back in a few years working once again in their little cubicles to pay the bills they amassed during their time of wealth.

Well, I’ve tried not to let more than a day or so pass between posts. Unfortunately, the last few days have seen Vista totally screw up my video card configuration and nothing I did seemed to get it corrected. Had to start all over again. Well, actually, I booted back into the WindowsXP drive I still had hanging around under a dual boot.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the lady of the house wanted me to add a couple of menu selections to a DVD she had. That took some more finagling. Finally figured that one out, too. Adobe Premiere Elements doesn’t like .VOB or .MPG files very much. And all the digging around led me down all kinds of weird pathways. I was downloading all kinds of converters. None of which worked, by the way.

So anyway, I finally ran across a site that suggested that I simply change the .vob to a .mpg file and import them into Windows Movie Maker. Worked like a charm!

As I write this, the file is being saved as a single DV-AVI file which should allow me to then import that into Premiere so that I can create the menus that I want. Movie Maker may have that capacity, but since I’m not real familiar with it, decided better the devil I know. So, I’ll pull the file into Premiere, add the menu and go on about my business.

In other news, I’ll be back to writing something worthwhile in a couple of days. Right now I’m just trying to get my schedule settled out and figure out how best to work this blogging thing into my routines.