McNay and Sowers will start their coverage at 7 p.m. and it can be heard on all on the stations that
Monday, November 5, 2007
McNay doing Kentucky election night commentary
Monday, October 29, 2007
My "Can You Hear Me Now" presidential campaign
My "Can You Hear Me Now" presidential campaign
And if there's anyone in space.
What they'll learn about the human race.
Will be listening to us
Talking on our car phone
-Roger McGuinn
In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman said he could run for President on one issue: Making American wireless technology as good as it is in the rest of the world.
Friedman said that if elected he would promise that within four years Americans would have cell phone coverage as good as Ghana.
In eight years we would equal Japan, provided that we made Japan stop improving their technology while we catch up.
He called it the "Can You Hear Me Now" campaign.
I've been waiting for Friedman to make his presidential move. Since he is holding back, I am borrowing his idea.
If you want better cell phone coverage, vote for me.
My campaign will be a refreshing break from the other announced candidates. I am not going to wave the flag and brag about America being first. The United States is getting its tail kicked in the battle for better communications tools.
In the technology race, the United States looks like a football game where the the world draws players from the New England Patriots and the United States get their squad from a local high school.
Instead of discussing whether Barack Obama should wear a flag on his lapel, we should make Obama and the other candidates wear a miniature cell phone. That would remind people that we have some catching up to do.
Go and visit Japan. You won't have your cell phone conversations cut off in mid sentence and you can find wireless internet wherever you go. The connections are a lot faster and reliable than anyone in the United States could imagine.
People in Japan wouldn't understand the "can you hear me now" television commercials. They can hear each other everywhere.
Americans aren't focused on my issue. Few travel the world and know how far behind weare.
The United States used to understand the need for technological advancement. Programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority and the national highway system showed vision.
We need that kind of leadership again. We don't appreciate the edge that technology can give business people.
I've had a cell phone for over 20 years. I paid thousands of dollars for my first one. I carried it in a bag larger than a suitcase. It worked in three Kentucky cities and no where else.
It wasn't a status or a novelty item. It was a valuable communications tool that gave me an edge on my competitors.
The kind of edge that other countries now have on the United States.
I used my original cell phone in my car or when I could not find a phone booth. I did not use it in church, in the middle of public meetings or while standing in the checkout line at grocery stores.
There is a segment of America that wants cell phones to go away. They probably wind up in the same grocery store lines I wind up in.
I recently stood in a line with 10 people. All of them were talking on cell phones and the clerk was talking on her cell phone, holding it to her ear as she scanned items with her other hand.
She didn't look up or engage anyone in conversation. Outside of myself, no one was going to turn off their phones and talk to her anyway.
My presidential campaign may be overlooked by people tired of idle chatter and stupid ring tones.
Ring tones might be my ticket to victory.
When people find that I can get them the neatest and coolest ring tones, it will motivate a new block of voters.
There are people who spend more time thinking about ring tones than war, famine and the economy. I understand completely. I would vote for any presidential candidate who would promise that I never have to hear the "Louie Louie" ring tone again.
Comedian Stephen Cobert is talking about running a campaign for president and only campaigning in his native state of South Carolina. I might copy his idea and run in Kentucky.
The Kentucky primary is late May, long after the presidential nominees will be decided. The vote will be completely irrelevant.
Just as irrelevant as the United States will be if we keep running technologically behind the rest of the world.
Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond Kentucky and the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Don McNay 2007 Book Tour: Frankfort, Prestonsburg, Florence and Bowling Green this week
Don McNay's 2007 Book Tour
Frankfort, Prestonsburg, Florence & Bowling Green this week.
Don McNay will be touring Kentucky to promote his new book, Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery and his 2006 book, The Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher.
"There has a been a resurgent of interest in the Ernie Fletcher book," said McNay. "As Kentucky votes on whether to keep Governor Fletcher or select Steve Beshear as his replacement, many people are turning to my book.
McNay is also signing copies of his book, Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery.
In Son of a Son of a Gambler, McNay reflects on the worlds of gambling, addiction, celebrities and business through the prism of his childhood as the son of a professional gambler.
McNay's books are available at www.donmcnay.com
McNay will be signing his book at the following locations:
Wednesday October 17. Frankfort, Ky.
"Let's Work Together" Democratic Party Rally
Boone National Guard Armory, 100 Minuteman Way, Frankfort. 5 to 6.30 PM.
Thursday, October 18 Prestonsburg, Ky.
"Let's Work Together" Democratic Party Rally
Wilkinson/Stumbo Conference Center
Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, Prestonsburg 5 to 6.30 PM
Friday, October 19 Florence, Ky.
"Let's Work Together" Democratic Party Rally
Turfway Race Course-Paddock
7500 Turfway Road, Florence 5 to 6.30 PM
Saturday October 20 Bowling Green, Ky.
"Let's Work Together" Democratic Party Rally
Beech Bend Park
798 Beech Bend Park Road, Bowling Green 5 to 6.30 PM
Wednesday October 24 Somerset, Ky.
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
The Center for Rural Development
2292 S. Highway 27, Somerset, Ky. 5 to 6.30 PM
Thursday October 25 Louisville, Ky.
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
UAW Gettlefinger Hall
3000 Fern Valley Road, Louisville, Ky. 5 to 6.30 PM
Friday October 26 Lexington, Ky.
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
The Red Mile
1200 Red Mile Road, Lexington, Ky. 5 to 6.30 PM
Wednesday, October 31 Owensboro, Ky.
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
Rally-Beshear for Governor Headquarters
335 Frederica Street, Owensboro, Ky. 5 to 6.30 PM
Saturday, November 10 Frankfort, Ky.
Kentucky Book Fair
Frankfort Convention Center.
Frankfort, Ky. 9 AM to 4.30 PM
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Don McNay 2007 Book Tour
Don McNay 2007 Book Tour
Greenup
Boone National Guard Armory,
Wilkinson/Stumbo Conference Center
Jenny Wiley
"Let's Work Together" Democratic Party Rally
Turfway Race Course—Paddock
Wednesday October 24
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
The Center for Rural Development
2292 S. Highway 27,
UAW Gettlefinger Hall
3000 Fern Valley Road, Louisville, Ky. 5 to 6.30 PM
Friday October 26
"Let's Work Together", Democratic Party Rally
The Red Mile
Rally-Beshear for Governor Headquarters
Don McNay on Comment on Kentucky Friday October 13
Don McNay on Comment on Kentucky Friday October 13
| Sunday, 07 October 2007 | |
| Don McNay will be on Comment on Kentucky, Friday October 13. The show is broadcast live on KET-1 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and repeats at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday. You can also watch streaming video at www.ket.org, download the show to your IPOD or watch on a podcast. |
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Lessons from Powerball Jack
Lessons from Powerball Jack
"Looking for love in all the wrong places."
- Johnny Lee
Five years after hitting the Powerball, Jack Whittaker admitted that he doesn't have any friends.
Jack doesn't have a lot going for him. He has run through millions of dollars, been involved in over 450 legal actions, had his granddaughter die of a drug overdose, had his wife file for divorce, and has been a public embarrassment.
It took years of blowing money on booze and strippers, but Jack seems to be wising up.
I read an interview where he offers other lottery winners some sound advice.
Jack's best tip was to not start giving money away. "The more you give away," he said, "the more they want you to give. And once you start giving it away, everyone labels you an easy touch and they are right there after you."
Jack found out that money can't buy you love.
People come into money unexpectedly and think their newfound money will buy them respect.
Instead, it buys them a lack of respect. A person with a soft touch is seen as a "mark" by con artists or "friends" with an entitlement mentality.
Those wanting handouts try to befriend the Jack Whitaker's of the world. They figure a guy like Jack won't miss a million dollars or so.
People who didn't like you before you had money won't suddenly start to like you when you are rich. They may like your checkbook, but they don't like you.
At some level, Jack figured it out early on. He walked into strip clubs with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The strippers may have appealed to various parts of Jack's anatomy, but they were only concerned with Jack's wallet. Jack knew their motives, but he didn't care.
Now, the money is gone and so are his fast money "friends." I hope Jack enjoyed it but it doesn't sound like he did.
Jack understands that he screwed up big time stating, "I'm only going to be remembered as that lunatic who won the lottery."
He is absolutely right.
He set up the Jack Whittaker Foundation, which built churches and gave out college scholarships. He made a positive impact on a lot of people, but no one is going to remember that. They are only going to remember all his screw ups.
If Jack had been smart, he would have given a big, tax-deductible, chunk of money to the foundation. Then he could have told all the beggars and borrowers wanting money that they needed to qualify for a foundation grant. The foundation would have decided which cause was worthy and which was not.
I doubt that strippers would be on the list.
If Jack's friends needed to borrow money that is what banks are for. Every city has one. Banks understand the criteria for making a loan and the likelihood of it being paid back.
Banks know a lot more about lending than individual people do. When people ask me for a loan or try to borrow money from my clients, I send them to a bank. Banks are in the lending business and I am not.
When Jack became the personal banker for his friends, he lost his money and his friends.
I understand why people give money to friends and relatives. They love the people and want to help them.
They are using the wrong device to show love.
There is a scene in the movie, Oh God, where a televangelist told his flock, "I want to talk about the kind of love where you reach down in your pocket and dig DEEP!"
Like the movie character, too many people equate love with receiving gifts and too many people equate showing love with how much money they spend.
Powerball Jack learned about love the hard way. Before he won the lottery, he had a wife and a granddaughter. His wife left and his granddaughter is dead. As Jack admitted, none of his "friends" from the strip club are hanging around anymore.
He learned that by looking for love in all the wrong places, he lost the real love he had at home.
He has gotten the message but at a terrible cost.
Story Behind the Song
"Looking for Love" was the biggest hit from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. It was one of the best movie soundtracks ever recorded. Ironically, it was for a terrible movie that almost destroyed John Travolta's career.
Although Debra Winger was incredible and the movie made her a huge star, Travolta, was terribly miscast in a part that originally was supposed to go to Dennis Quaid.
I am a huge John Travolta fan and have seen Saturday Night Fever over 40 times. I can't make it through Urban Cowboy. Mike Behler, my college roommate, described it as "Vinnie Barbareno goes to Texas" and Mike hit it right on the head.
"Looking for Love" made Johnny Lee a brief star and is one of those songs you either love or really hate. I love it, like I do every song on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack.
The Poll
The following are the results from the last poll:
1. What is your primary source of news?
Internet - 60.0%
Newspapers - 20.0%
Radio - 13.3%
Television - 6.7%
Other - 0.0%
2. How many newspapers do you subscribe to?
None - 55.0%
Two - 25.9%
One - 14.8%
Three or more - 3.7%
This week there are two poll questions:
1. Do you loan money to your friends?
2. If you won the lottery, what percentage would you give to charity?
To vote in this week's poll follow the link below. The poll will be on the left hand side of the web page.
Weekly Poll
Don McNay is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers, and What to Do You When You Win the Lottery. The book is available at http://sonofagambler.com/. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com and read other things he has written at http://donmcnay.com/. McNay's award winning syndicated column appears in over 200 publications.
"Looking for love in all the wrong places."
- Johnny Lee
Five years after hitting the Powerball, Jack Whittaker admitted that he doesn't have any friends.Jack doesn't have a lot going for him. He has run through millions of dollars, been involved in over 450 legal actions, had his granddaughter die of a drug overdose, had his wife file for divorce, and has been a public embarrassment.
It took years of blowing money on booze and strippers, but Jack seems to be wising up.
I read an interview where he offers other lottery winners some sound advice.
Jack's best tip was to not start giving money away. "The more you give away," he said, "the more they want you to give. And once you start giving it away, everyone labels you an easy touch and they are right there after you."
Jack found out that money can't buy you love.
People come into money unexpectedly and think their newfound money will buy them respect.
Instead, it buys them a lack of respect. A person with a soft touch is seen as a "mark" by con artists or "friends" with an entitlement mentality.
Those wanting handouts try to befriend the Jack Whitaker's of the world. They figure a guy like Jack won't miss a million dollars or so.
People who didn't like you before you had money won't suddenly start to like you when you are rich. They may like your checkbook, but they don't like you.
At some level, Jack figured it out early on. He walked into strip clubs with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The strippers may have appealed to various parts of Jack's anatomy, but they were only concerned with Jack's wallet. Jack knew their motives, but he didn't care.
Now, the money is gone and so are his fast money "friends." I hope Jack enjoyed it but it doesn't sound like he did.
Jack understands that he screwed up big time stating, "I'm only going to be remembered as that lunatic who won the lottery."
He is absolutely right.
He set up the Jack Whittaker Foundation, which built churches and gave out college scholarships. He made a positive impact on a lot of people, but no one is going to remember that. They are only going to remember all his screw ups.
If Jack had been smart, he would have given a big, tax-deductible, chunk of money to the foundation. Then he could have told all the beggars and borrowers wanting money that they needed to qualify for a foundation grant. The foundation would have decided which cause was worthy and which was not.
I doubt that strippers would be on the list.
If Jack's friends needed to borrow money that is what banks are for. Every city has one. Banks understand the criteria for making a loan and the likelihood of it being paid back.
Banks know a lot more about lending than individual people do. When people ask me for a loan or try to borrow money from my clients, I send them to a bank. Banks are in the lending business and I am not.
When Jack became the personal banker for his friends, he lost his money and his friends.
I understand why people give money to friends and relatives. They love the people and want to help them.
They are using the wrong device to show love.
There is a scene in the movie, Oh God, where a televangelist told his flock, "I want to talk about the kind of love where you reach down in your pocket and dig DEEP!"
Like the movie character, too many people equate love with receiving gifts and too many people equate showing love with how much money they spend.
Powerball Jack learned about love the hard way. Before he won the lottery, he had a wife and a granddaughter. His wife left and his granddaughter is dead. As Jack admitted, none of his "friends" from the strip club are hanging around anymore.
He learned that by looking for love in all the wrong places, he lost the real love he had at home.
He has gotten the message but at a terrible cost.
Story Behind the Song
"Looking for Love" was the biggest hit from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. It was one of the best movie soundtracks ever recorded. Ironically, it was for a terrible movie that almost destroyed John Travolta's career.Although Debra Winger was incredible and the movie made her a huge star, Travolta, was terribly miscast in a part that originally was supposed to go to Dennis Quaid.
I am a huge John Travolta fan and have seen Saturday Night Fever over 40 times. I can't make it through Urban Cowboy. Mike Behler, my college roommate, described it as "Vinnie Barbareno goes to Texas" and Mike hit it right on the head.
"Looking for Love" made Johnny Lee a brief star and is one of those songs you either love or really hate. I love it, like I do every song on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack.
The Poll
The following are the results from the last poll:
1. What is your primary source of news?
Internet - 60.0%
Newspapers - 20.0%
Radio - 13.3%
Television - 6.7%
Other - 0.0%
2. How many newspapers do you subscribe to?
None - 55.0%
Two - 25.9%
One - 14.8%
Three or more - 3.7%
This week there are two poll questions:
1. Do you loan money to your friends?
2. If you won the lottery, what percentage would you give to charity?
To vote in this week's poll follow the link below. The poll will be on the left hand side of the web page.
Weekly Poll
Don McNay is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers, and What to Do You When You Win the Lottery. The book is available at http://sonofagambler.com/. You can write to Don at don@donmcnay.com and read other things he has written at http://donmcnay.com/. McNay's award winning syndicated column appears in over 200 publications.
My 25th Anniversary: Reflections on 25 Years in the Financial World
McNay on Money
My 25th Anniversary: Reflections on 25 Years in the Financial World
"For 25 years of touring, we remained partners, brothers, and friends. We keep it together because we think we could be big time before it all ends."
-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
September 22nd marks the 25th anniversary of the day I joined the financial business. I was 23, right out of grad school at Vanderbilt, after a stop on the clean up crew at the Kentucky horse park.
The Dow Jones average was hovering around 1000, interest rates were in the double digits and we were in the midst of a horrible recession. Tax rates had approached 70% for some people.
Almost everyone told me it was a terrible time to get into the financial business. They were wrong. I started at the bottom and rode the wave upward.
My first clients, the few who would talk to a 23-year-old with no experience, did incredibly well as the economy improved and more opportunities became available.
It has been a very good run.
The defining moment of those 25 years was the 1987 stock market crash.
I had about 400 clients on Black Monday. I talked to almost every one that day and only four pulled their money out of the market. They got burned. The rest did extremely well and many are still clients today.
Although the stock market crashed in 1987, the bond market went dramatically up on the same day. People in fixed investments, like annuities or certificates of deposit, remained fixed. They did not lose any money or any sleep.
The 1987 meltdown was a great lesson. My clients learned to stay calm during fear and irrational panic. They learned the value of being diversified in the first place.
It was harder to communicate in 1987. We did not have email or the Internet. Only a few people had fax machines. I got my immediate news from cable television. I watched FNN, a forerunner to CNBC and Moneyline, with Lou Dobbs on CNN.
Many people did not know about the drop in the stock market until they read the newspaper the next day.
Today, very few daily newspapers carry stock market quotes. It is easier to track investments on the Internet.
This week, when the Federal Reserve got in touch with the real world and cut interest rates, the announcement made it around the world in seconds and the Dow Jones average immediately jumped over 300 points. If Bernanke and his crew had done something stupid, which had previously been their pattern, stocks would have dropped in that same warp speed.
The key to doing well in a rapidly changing world is having clear goals and sticking to them. I've been reading a tremendous book called Poker Nation and it had an interesting point. The key to success in gambling is the same key in money management. You have to ignore the ups and downs of each day and look at the long term trend.
Casinos keep making money as they know the long term trend favors them. Individual investors do well when they stay focused on the long term too.
Like the song says, if you keep it together, you might be big time before it all ends.
Like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, I plan on being big time and will give you another report at the end of the next 25-year run.
"For 25 years of touring, we remained partners, brothers, and friends. We keep it together because we think we could be big time before it all ends."
-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
September 22nd marks the 25th anniversary of the day I joined the financial business. I was 23, right out of grad school at Vanderbilt, after a stop on the clean up crew at the Kentucky horse park.The Dow Jones average was hovering around 1000, interest rates were in the double digits and we were in the midst of a horrible recession. Tax rates had approached 70% for some people.
Almost everyone told me it was a terrible time to get into the financial business. They were wrong. I started at the bottom and rode the wave upward.
My first clients, the few who would talk to a 23-year-old with no experience, did incredibly well as the economy improved and more opportunities became available.
It has been a very good run.
The defining moment of those 25 years was the 1987 stock market crash.
I had about 400 clients on Black Monday. I talked to almost every one that day and only four pulled their money out of the market. They got burned. The rest did extremely well and many are still clients today.
Although the stock market crashed in 1987, the bond market went dramatically up on the same day. People in fixed investments, like annuities or certificates of deposit, remained fixed. They did not lose any money or any sleep.
The 1987 meltdown was a great lesson. My clients learned to stay calm during fear and irrational panic. They learned the value of being diversified in the first place.
It was harder to communicate in 1987. We did not have email or the Internet. Only a few people had fax machines. I got my immediate news from cable television. I watched FNN, a forerunner to CNBC and Moneyline, with Lou Dobbs on CNN.
Many people did not know about the drop in the stock market until they read the newspaper the next day.
Today, very few daily newspapers carry stock market quotes. It is easier to track investments on the Internet.
This week, when the Federal Reserve got in touch with the real world and cut interest rates, the announcement made it around the world in seconds and the Dow Jones average immediately jumped over 300 points. If Bernanke and his crew had done something stupid, which had previously been their pattern, stocks would have dropped in that same warp speed.
The key to doing well in a rapidly changing world is having clear goals and sticking to them. I've been reading a tremendous book called Poker Nation and it had an interesting point. The key to success in gambling is the same key in money management. You have to ignore the ups and downs of each day and look at the long term trend.
Casinos keep making money as they know the long term trend favors them. Individual investors do well when they stay focused on the long term too.
Like the song says, if you keep it together, you might be big time before it all ends.
Like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, I plan on being big time and will give you another report at the end of the next 25-year run.
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