Thursday, August 2, 2007

It’s been a busy three weeks since I wrote last.

One of the fun things I did was go to an Albuquerque Isotopes luncheon with Tommy Lasorda. That was great getting to see him and hear him talk. I really enjoyed it.

I spent a grueling couple of weeks chairing the meetings of the Allocation Committee of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico—we heard a number of presentations and made the hard decisions about how much to award to whom. It made for long days with all the meetings in the evenings. But, it was a very rewarding task and one that I was happy to do.

I also gave another seminar at UNM Continuing Education on Retirement Planning—the course is called “Retirement Planning Today.” I give it a couple of times a year at UNM and a couple of times a year at College of Santa Fe. Each class is two evenings (or Saturday mornings), and I usually do two classes each time, in order to give prospective attendees options of days and times.

I’ll be teaching the course for the first time at Central New Mexico Community College Workforce Training Center in September. The days and times will be: two Saturdays, September 8 & 15, from 9-12 in the morning and two Tuesdays, September 11 & 18 from 6:30 to 9:30 in the evening. To register, you can call us here at the office. We have a special telephone line for these seminars—the number is (505) 345-2555.

To read what I cover in the seminars, see Financial Educator--News on Seminars on this website.

We added some new clients over the three weeks, also. There is always a lot of time-intensive work involved in getting all the information from the new client(s), writing up a Financial Plan, deciding how and where to allocate the money, doing all the investment transfers, obtaining Long-Term Care insurance quotes, if that’s something the client needs, and so on. In spite of all the work, though, I enjoy the process of getting to know new people and being of service to them.

I found time to squeeze in a couple of racquetball matches, also, over the three weeks, as well as my usual three times a week work-outs.

My wife, Iris, and I managed a three-day weekend trip to Denver for one of our grandkid’s birthdays. I have a great time playing with the kids, and they love to see “Grandpa Steve,” at least until somebody more interesting comes along, and then I’m chopped liver. Children really know how to put you in your place—they don’t hesitate to let you know how they feel, which is one of the wonderful things about them.

Cameron, who’s another Registered Rep in our office, went to his baby son’s 6-month medical check-up yesterday. All was well. The baby is growing by leaps and bounds and he and his wife, Sharon, are very proud parents.

Patricia, our bookkeeper, spent some time in Phoenix with her elderly mother, who’s been in the hospital after taking a fall—she didn’t break any bones but was severely bruised, which turned out to be worse than if she had actually broken something. Patricia was able to take her mom’s dog in to see her, which made both her mom and the dog happy. (Her mother is doing better and should be going home soon.)

Rebecca, our office assistant and receptionist, had an adventure recently. She went to a Native American film fest in Utah and, on the way back, the truck got stuck in the mud in an out-of-the-way spot in the mountains. She, and the friend who was traveling with her, spent all afternoon and night waiting for someone to come along and rescue them. When no one passed by, the next day they tried walking out and walked for three hours without seeing another soul, so they decided to walk the three hours back to the truck and make another attempt to get it unstuck. They succeeded that time by putting rocks under the wheels. So, they started driving, very excited to be on their way at last. They had only gone a short distance when the truck developed a loud noise and over-heated. After they waited for it to cool and put water in the radiator, they continued on for a short distance, again, but ended up having to repeat that sequence about seven times before they made it out to “civilization” (or at least to a garage). So, needless to say, she didn’t make it into work that Monday and, in fact, didn’t get home until 11:00 Monday night, two days after her scheduled return. At least they had plenty of water and a few snacks, but she said they were extremely glad to get a real meal. It’s a good thing it was summer instead of winter—she got a nice suntan instead of frostbite.

Janet, who is our Operations Manager, has been with the firm now for two years. We went to lunch at Mimi’s today to celebrate. She refused to give a synopsis of her two years here, saying it was “too painful” to remember. “It wasn’t just a steep learning curve—it was a lonnnnng, steep learning curve,” she says. Unfortunately, there is no coursework to take to learn the administrative side of this business—it is a trial by fire. But, she is enjoying the work she is doing now and hopefully will be with us for many more years. I rely on her in many, many ways.