John Tooley

On a previous post questions came up regarding Disability Insurance. I will try to outline as simply as possible these products and also provide some reference material. There are two basic types of disability insurance. These are Short Term Disability and Long Term Disability. These are meant to replace some percentage of your income if you are unable to work. Each one of the policies will have a period of time that you must be disabled before you are able to draw benefits. This is called the elimination period. They also will have a maximum amount of time that they will pay out. A Short Term Disability policy will have a shorter elimination period and a shorter payout period. Inversely Long Term Disability will have a longer elimination period and a longer payout.

Of course each provider will have their own twists to the basic policy structure. Some have minimum requirements on length of time in profession if you are self employeed. Some policies are for accidents only. Usually you can add provisions that will pay you a partial income in the event that you are only partially disabled, other options include the ability to adjust the policy over time for cost of living changes.

One big question often asked is how affordable the coverage is. This is affected by how extensive the conditions of coverage are, the type of job you are doing, and of course the amount of income you would need to replace. Another option is that you may be able to gain access to a group policy through a trade organization or your management structure.

Things to look for: What are considered disabilities, what the elimination period is, your ability to renew, and the stability of the company that you are purchasing from.

For a detailed read I would encourage you to look at http://www.iii.org/individuals/disability/.

When I started college I had in mind that I would get college over with and get down to the real stuff, making a living. Education time would be over and I could get serious about making a living (I.E. cash flow... something we didn't have in college). As I progressed through the process to gain my Physics degree I started to see that with the gains in science I would be having to refresh my education continually.

Upon graduation I entered into the corporate world, into a job not directly related to my degree, so the lectures and lab time stopped. But you have already guessed, in order to get promotions and to keep up I was continually learning something new, or learning more thoroughly the process that I already was assigned. Later as I had employees of my own, I tried to improve the materials provided them to learn, tried to make more obvious to them the resources available. From time to time though I would still have employees approach me and say "nobody ever trained me". I would point out to them the classes that had been provided, the training meetings, and last but not least, the actual on the floor, on the job training. Unfortunately those employees usually never suceeded, they could not see the opportunity.

I say this all to say, I am seeing now more than ever that I need to be a student for a lifetime. In trying to make a small business go, I have started reading. Each book I try to put into practice, and see that it helped me get a little closer. But I always have to pick up another book and start reading and practicing. I am never completely there. At first it was hard to start reading again, but now I see what I lost in the time I wasn't reading. How much better would I have been at my other jobs if I added ongoing reading to the mix? I am reading to my kids and while they get a tremendous amount out of it, I think I get more. More opportunity to visit with them, to see how they think, to train them to think, to prepare them for life.

Be a student for a lifetime, read, practice, experiment, live.

Hello again. I thought that I would pop in and share some thoughts. In business our ongoing desire is to make our customers; or that prospect we have happy. We are ever striving to do it through "the best price" or " the best product" or the "best advertising". We all want the be the best, and that is great because that is what our country is built on. But as I write this I am thinking of another component, a lesson I learned from my family.

As my three children grow, I am continually looking for the "new" "best ever" thing to bring them joy and build lasting memories. It goes from the baseball glove and ball (which have now somehow completely disappeared), to the fishing pole (which my son reminds me continually of the danger of fish hooks). Next we move on to the motorcycle, which I must admit was barrels of fun until it was run into the wall. Yes, I had him get back on it and ride to get over the fear, but the boy still won't touch it. In an effort to help him over this phobia I even rode the thing around the backyard. All went real well until about 15 minutes before I was explaining to the neighbors how a grown man could run through their fence on a kids motorcycle.... you fill in the blanks. Yes, the motorcycle reminds me of some of my great marketing campaigns. Great on paper, but about the results... not so much.

Moving on, there was the new Play Station. This was immediately ditched for the out-dated, hand me down, Nintendo from somewhere in the 1990's. So as my oldest approaches his teens my search has reached a feverish pitch. Then suddenly it happened. Picture this, it is a Friday evening, the kids are all wanting dinner, but everything is on hold, waiting on the arrival of grandma. Grandma wants to eat dinner with us, and is traveling from 2 hrs away to do so, therefore we will wait dinner. Grandma arrives, but she has a box with her. The kids open the box, and out they start pulling.... bubble wrap. We are talking about what had to be 50 foot of 3 foot wide strips of bubble wrap. Not just cheap little bubble wrap, no the high quality big bubble, guaranteed to make a loud pop every time bubble wrap.

Hunger was forgotten. Desires to go to the park were forgotten. That ongoing plea for a capgun suddenly went silent. There was bubble wrap that required popping. As it was placed on the floor and the walking and stomping began you could not hear yourself think. Soon even my wife was involved. After several minutes of watching the kids my wife said "you just can't help but smile when you pop bubble wrap". On this there was no age limit, just simple happiness. Soon the kids came up with new ideas for the bubble wrap. The oldest wrapped himself in it and asked if his mother would tape him up. Of course she refused, but no worries, no dissatisfaction, just on to another bubble wrap idea.

So now I sign off to go on to my quest of the day, which is to figure out how to add a little "bubble wrap" to my agency. I want them to just have to smile every time they see me. Have a great weekend!

P.S. break out the bubble wrap this weekend.

Well, here goes my first attempt at a blog. Today I want to talk about relations and what they mean to each of us. Growing up in a small town, now living in a thriving growing town, I am struck by two stark differences between the two. First is the amazing difference in the ability you have to create a thriving business. The success of our friends and neighbors always brings amazing opportunities for those that surround them. The old adage "Love your neighbor as yourself" carries more water than most people seem to realize. But enough of that for now. The second thing that stands out is the ability for people in need to fall through the cracks. It is easier than ever in a booming community to get lost when you need something. But it doesn't have to be this way.

This last weekend I was in the store when I ran into a friend. She began describing to me how she ordered a cake from a bakery, but was now buying something completely different because her bakery had a disaster. She told of the scene where the air conditioner was overflowing water through the ceiling and all the orders were ruined with the exception of one wedding cake that they were trying to save. We ended our conversation and went our separate ways, but something nagged at me. What about the small business owners trying to recoup across town? Who was looking out for them? After thinking about it for a while it dawned on me... I know a small business owner who specializes in cleanups and is ready at a moments notice. He wants the job and this shop owner needs the help.

What I am saying here is that by nature of our business we have the privilege of meeting people from all walks of life. We can change peoples' quality of life by listening and responding. How much easier will it be to do business with someone after they find that just by knowing us their quality of life has improved? It really goes beyond business considerations; it just boils down to being a neighbor.

Well, yes, you guessed correctly. I went home and called the man with the clean-up service. In the end he had the option of following up with an immediate prospect, and the struggling shop owner had the option of just saying "I need help" to the next guy that walked through their door. After all, what else can you ask of a neighbor? Look out for your neighbor; they will look out for you.