Sophie Says | Financial Planning Insights

Hello world! I have accepted Sophie’s invitation to join this crowd, so, here I am! This is my maiden voyage down the road of the Simplifi blogosphere. My intentions are to point out some of the very common areas of the insurance and planning world that we all tend to overlook and, quite frankly, think we have licked but don’t. I thought I’d start with a quick check-list for Men and will follow this with our Female list next time…have a great week!

1.) DOES EVERYONE IN YOUR FAMILY HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE? 0YES. 0NO.

If you checked no, well, we need to talk. Not having Health Insurance for yourself, your spouse or your kids can be a serious financial drain if someone has an accident or serious health issue. Divorce situations also need special attention so that everyone remains covered. If you’re self employed, we can help you find the policy that’s affordable and fits your needs.

2.) DO YOU HAVE DISABILITY INSURANCE? DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT WOULD PAY IF YOU ACTUALLY HAD TO STOP WORKING? 0YES. 0NO.

If you’re a working adult, your #1 asset is your ability to earn income. Your employer may offer a Group Disability Plan – but have you checked to see to what extent it will protect YOUR income? Do you have a taxable insurance benefit? We can help you read the fine print and figure out if you need Supplemental Disability Insurance.

3.) DOES YOUR SPOUSE HAVE LIFE INSURANCE? 0YES. 0NO.

If you’re married, or married with kids, your spouse needs life insurance too. Think about what it would cost to have someone do the day to day jobs that your spouse does. We can help you find affordable Life Insurance or evaluate the policy you have now to see if you could save money.

4.) DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR INSURANCE POLICY INFORMATION IS? DOES ANYONE OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSEHOLD KNOW WHERE IT IS? 0YES. 0NO

This may seem basic, but you’d be surprised how many people can’t find their insurance information right when they need it most. We can help you get your policy information organized and make sure you have the right kind of insurance to protect your assets and your family.

5.) COULD UPDATING YOUR PRESENT POLICIES SAVE YOU MONEY? 0YES. 0NO

The answer could be “yes.” Life Insurance costs have come down in recent years and many insurance products have changed. That’s why we recommend you do an “insurance checkup” every year. You may find you can get the same coverage — for less money.

6.) DO YOU HAVE AN INSURANCE AGENT THAT YOU CAN TALK TO? ONE THAT YOU TRUST? 0YES. 0NO

There are literally hundreds of insurance carriers and policies you can buy. But how do you know what you need and what company to trust? We say find a friend in the insurance business who knows what they’re talking about. We help customers find the right insurance mix every day. And we’d like to help you.

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It’s no secret that I’m not the most patient person in the world. With people I tend to be patient—I think I’m pretty good at teaching, for example—although there was that time when I flew into a rage when my brother ate my Snickers and I demanded he go buy me a new one. Sure he was only 8 at the time, but he had a bike.

What was I saying?

Oh, right. But when it comes to projects I’m really excited about, I tend to go at them full-steam ahead steamroller style. In an effort to finish, I often think “Eh, this’ll work,” right before doing something dumb that ends up setting me back.

So we’ve been working on this home office. The desk/table turned out well, and actually so did painting the floors—but you’ll have to wait for photos, though  I know you’re all dying to see the results, right? The next step was repainting a couple of vintage steel file cabinets from my dad’s old job.

These things are five feet tall, and roughly 4,000 pounds apiece. (Helpful hint: when moving heavy stuff yourself, invest in some forearm forklifts. Amazing.) We bought four cans of white spray paint for metal, thinking it would probably take two per cabinet.

In theory, we were right. In practice…not so much. See, we skipped what was apparently a crucial step—we didn’t spray with primer paint first. It turns out, when it comes to spray painting a metal cabinet, the same advice applies that one might give to a virgin bride: Priming is essential and definitely affects the quality of the end product. We used all four cans for one cabinet. It probably didn’t help that we did the 80s hairspray application technique rather than the recommended overlapping-row style. Either way, I give props to graffiti artists.

We bought some primer for the second cabinet, and only had to use a can and a half to get the same even coating as the first.

The moral of the story is, do-it-yourself projects are always a cost savings. But it’s worth it to do them right.

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So on my last post I confessed that Noah and I were doing the unthinkable—attempting to build a piece of quality furniture on our own. And guess what? It worked!

We haven’t finished the new office/guest room yet (obviously), but I just couldn’t wait to show you the results. Thirty bucks worth of wood, $15 of hardware, and a few coats of Cabot PolyStain in Dark Oak, and bam! A farm table-turned-desk!

We customized the plans to make the table long and skinny. You know, so there’s plenty of room for all my manuscripts and future awards. (For now, we’ll just keep the printer and a few notebooks on it.) Also, I bought a vintage wooden swivel chair on Craigslist for $20 that I re-stained—the very same kind that jaunty newspapermen used to sit on, and the kind that Pottery Barn now sells for $200 a pop.

Up next: Rip up the nasty old builder-grade carpet and…paint the floor. Yep. Another crazy idea. Our living area and kitchen have lovely laminate floors, but the bedroom carpet, well. Let’s just say it doesn’t take a visionary to see that these rugs are past their prime. We looked into peel-and-stick faux parquet tiles (which I’ve seen used on several design blogs, and they look surprisingly good), but I came across the idea of floor paint on another favorite DIY blog of mine, Young House Love. In addition to having painted their sun room floor, they recently featured a reader’s project in which she painted her bathroom floor—she even painted a “rug” onto it! (Click here to see that project.)

So. Tonight’s task? Pull up the carpet, sand and fill in the seams between the plywood subfloor, and prep for painting. With a $25 cost for materials, the price was definitely right. Fingers crossed it looks good as well.

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