Archive for July, 2009

Understanding Yourself

It is often difficult for people to understand what usually serves as the impetus for financial decisions they make because these choices are a product of internal factors, not just external market factors.  While the use of a Certified financial planner in Philadelphia, an NJ private wealth management firm, or a New Jersey wealth management group will help, a major component in decision making is still a person’s financial DNA.

Your financial DNA is your evolution from your natural behavior through the learned behaviors that you have.

It’s vital to your success, your wealth, and your overall happiness.

In fact wealth is just not confined to money. No wealth is much more than that. Wealth also includes your health, love and support of friends and family, knowledge, as well as the education you have. Wealth does not start and end with money. It ranges and covers the entire spectrum.

That is why it is important not to let money center around your life. The moment money becomes priority number one and the only true priority you think about, disaster strikes.

Today financial advisors are catching on, and making their business much more personal than it once was. The evolution has created a financial advisor that can serve as much as a family facilitator and relationship counselor as an actual advisor that handles and makes suggestions for your investments.

The ultimate goal of a financial advisor is to create an environment that will allow the individual to live their dreams and incorporate everything into they life that they desire.

In the end, it’s necessary to balance life and money equally. The purpose of financial planning is to address that exact need.

Part of your financial DNA includes finding out and discovering the real you. Who you are, what makes you tick, and what dreams and goals you have for your life. A personality assessment is vital into understanding your financial DNA.

Your financial DNA also includes your personal relationships. Both family and business relationships can help control and shape the person that you are. Communication is the most important key to a healthy relationship regardless of whether its business orientated or not.

You cannot blame all broken relationships on money. While it’s easy to point the finger at finances, the reality is that lack of communication is usually the primary reason.

You need to understand and accept that your personal financial DNA is highly important to a successful future. Obtain and keep a healthy communication link between your business partners, family and friends, as well as your financial advisor.

Know your financial DNA.”

By understanding this, investors can realize that when trying to find a financial advisor, it is not their perspective that will pull the trigger on a decision.  Using a financial planning guide may be another safe bet in investing as it will aid, but not cause a stark contrast to their opinion, which will automatically result in a decision for them.

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Some of the Best Healthcare

With all of the Certified financial planners from New Jersey, wealth management groups from NJ, or Philadelphia financial planners, it would seem that health care, from the surface, would be the least of many citizen’s worries.  Unfortunately, even with all of this financial planning help, it still is becoming increasingly difficult to gain affordable health care.  Sometimes a look to the past can be a good move for the future:

“It comes as a surprise to some people who had experience with VA health care during the 1970s and 1980s that this same system is now considered the best medical care in the United States. To illustrate this we quote below articles and comments from the several sources.

BusinessWeek, July 17, 2006 “The Best Medical Care in the Nation
How Veterans Affairs transformed itself — and what it means for the rest of us”

“To much of the public, though, the VA’s image is hobbled by its inglorious past. For decades the VA was the health-care system of last resort. … The huge system had deteriorated so badly by the early ’90s that Congress considered disbanding it.”

“Instead, the VA was reinvented in every way possible. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, then the VA’s Health Under Secretary, installed the most extensive electronic medical-records system in the U.S. Kizer also decentralized decision-making, closed underused hospitals, reallocated resources, and most critically, instituted a culture of accountability and quality measurements. “Our whole motivation was to make the system work for the patient,” says Kizer, now director of the National Quality Forum, a nonprofit dedicated to improving health care. “We did a top-to-bottom makeover with that goal always in mind.”. . . .

Robert Bazell, Chief science and health correspondent, NBC News Updated: 6:33 p.m. MT March 15, 2006

“We report a story tonight that is going to turn a lot of heads. The Veterans Administration Health Care System, once famously known for horrendous medical care, now offers what many consider the best health care in the nation. I am sure we will hear from many of you who have had difficult times with care at the VA. That is understandable, because the improvement in the VA has occurred relatively recently and inevitably many people will be dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of any medical provider.”

“But here is the evidence. In a study two years ago a group of researchers from the RAND Corporation and several medical Centers found that 67 percent of patients in the VA system received “appropriate care” as defined by expert panels on medical practice. Two thirds sounds short of the mark, but in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine the same researchers report on a survey of the country that finds only 55 percent of Americans in general are getting appropriate health care. And that number does not vary much with the patients’ level of education or income.”

“In addition, a telephone survey last January from the University of Michigan found that VA patients rated their satisfaction with care at 83 out of a possible 100 points for inpatient care and 80 out of 100 for outpatient care. By comparison, the same survey found rates of 73 and 75 in the general population. Another indicator comes from the American Legion, which has been surveying its members and finding similar high levels of patient satisfaction.”

“Indeed, the biggest complaint about the VA system these days is from people who want in. The VA provides unlimited care for service-related injuries and illnesses. but for other problems veterans must fall below a defined income level. As a result, patients at the VA tend to be poorer and sicker than the rest of the population, which makes the improvements all the more remarkable.”

“What happened? The change began with Dr. Kenneth Kizer, who became undersecretary of health for Veterans Affairs in the Clinton administration and has continued in that role during the Bush administration. The VA changed its emphasis from hospital to outpatient care where possible. It also set up genuine prevention programs. As a result, people with conditions like diabetes get the simple measures that can save enormous misery and thousands of dollars in treatment costs. Every patient is assigned a personal physician and the mandate from headquarters is to treat veterans with the respect and dignity they deserve.”

“The other big change was a massive shift to electronic medical records. At any VA facility in the country, a doctor or other health professional can access the records of any patient in the system, including lab tests, X-rays and chart notes that can be read easily. The electronic system challenges health providers who seem to be making mistakes, and it allows for a massive collection of data so the VA can know which treatments work and which don’t.”

“A big advantage for the VA is electronic medical records. The VA has the largest, and one of the most modern systems in the world. When a VA patient visits any facility in the country, the records are there. Indeed, after Hurricane Katrina, many VA patients received uninterrupted care even as they were forced to move.”

“’All of the information I need about any of my patients, including their X-rays and their tests, are always available, always accurate, always there in a legible form,’ says Gauge.”

“The electronic records also allow the VA to track its performance — to quickly learn what works and what doesn’t — providing what many say could be a model for health care nationwide.”"

The best way to find great health care is to use a method that most benefits you and your situation.  By trying to find a financial advisor, or utilizing other methods for health care, your odds at a successful, affordable health care are increased.

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