Rock and Roll and the Success Effect

Rock & Roll and the Success Effect

“Music can be such a revelation.”

-Madonna

A person’s taste in music and books tells me a lot about who they are.

When John Eckberg, business reporter and columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, wrote The Success Effect, (Sterling and Ross Publishers) he interviewed Donald Trump, Jerry Springer and over 40 other successful business people. Eckberg showed us the traits that helped these successful people get to where they are today.

He also asked them what CDs were in their CD changer and what books were on their nightstand.

I am fascinated by what people listen to and what they are reading. Common musical tastes allow me to connect with people I might otherwise disagree.

A political commentator used to appear on a television show with me. If stayed on politics, the show would turn into a Jerry Springer-like event. They didn’t because we liked each other’s taste in music.

A guy who saw Joe Jackson in concert cannot be all bad.

Eckberg’s, The Success Effect is the opposite of his first book, Road Dog, about serial killer Glenn Rogers. While The Success Effect is about people striving to do their best, Road Dog is about people striving to do evil.

I return emails to most who email me. A time I did not was when one of Glenn Rogers’ ex girlfriends wrote me. I wanted to write back and tell her that several of Glenn’s ex girlfriends reside in cemeteries. I decided not to create a connection.

If any of Donald Trump’s friends want to write, my email is at the end of the column.

I suspect a friendship would be short lived. One of us would say “you’re fired” pretty quickly.

The only common bond that Trump and I is our first name. We look different, talk different, and have different ways of operating our businesses.

He has weird looking hair. I have almost no hair.

Yet, I feel some connection to Trump because one of his CDs is Elton John’s “Tumbleweed Connection.” He picked one of Elton’s greatest albums (from the days when they had albums), and I own a copy as well.

Trump’s selection in books shows me his lack of intellectual depth. He only has three books on his nightstand, and one allegedly is Bill Clinton’s autobiography.

No one has actually read Bill Clinton’s autobiography. I will bet even Bill has not read it. It is a 1008 page long ordeal that includes every piece of minutia from Bill’s early life. Despite being 1008 pages long, It rolls past the Monica Lewinsky story in about two sentences.

I received it as a gift, which is how everyone gets their copies. People buy Clinton’s book for other people, who put it on their nightstand to impress visitors. Showing off and putting on an act is the exact thing Donald Trump would do.

You can buy a copy of Clinton’s book for 32 cents on Amazon.

Unlike Clinton’s book, Eckberg’s book is easy and fun to read. He devotes about 5 to 10 pages to each person. He really gives us a glimpse into their souls by telling us the books and music they like.

I like professional golfer Dave Pelz. What little I know about putting came from his books. I really like him now that I know he is a Harry Chapin fan.

Unlike Trump, Pelz is upfront and admits he does not read much. Most Americans do not read books, and since Pelz spends hours hitting golf balls, I can see why he is not at home pretending to read the Clinton book.

Dr. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, gave The Success Effect a strong review.

I wish Eckberg had called Covey and asked what he is listening to. If listening to rock ‘n roll is an indication of effectiveness, I am definitely a success.

It bothers me Donald Trump also meets that definition.

Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky, a city where Donald Trump has never fired anyone. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com and read other columns he has written at www.donmcnay.com McNay is the author of Son of Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What To Do If You Win the Lottery.

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Lottery Winners: Don't Take the Money and Run

Lottery Winners: Don’t Take the Money and Run

“Take the money and run”

-Steve Miller Band

Brett Arends at the Wall Street Journal wrote a column titled, Take the Money and Run.

He said that lottery winners should take the lump sum instead of annual payments.

It was terrific advice for someone who lives in a vacuum or on a desert island. It was bad advice for lottery winners.

Arends made some excellent economic points. He said that taking the lump sum now would net more than normal. Many lotteries base their lump sum calculations on U.S. Treasury Bonds rates.

Thanks to Ben Bernanke and his pals at the Federal Reserve, Treasury Bonds are extremely low. If you plan on winning the lottery, make sure to win it this week.

Arends assumed that taxes will be higher in future years. It is a 50/50 guess. I don’t think he has a magic ball. If he does, I want him to help make my Kentucky Derby picks.

Anders noted that taking the lottery payments over 20 years would net a 5.7% rate of return. In a year when the stock markets is in free fall and foreclosures are everywhere, 5.7% doesn’t sound so bad. Not to Anders. He had one word to describe it to describe the 20 year payout.

Yuck.

I can’t find much about Arends so I don’t know if he knows an actual lottery winner. I do. I grew up around gamblers. Arends wrote a book about sports betting so he must know something about the breed.

Lottery winners are the last people who should be getting a lump sum. It is like giving opium to a drug addict.

Look at the history of people who have won the lottery.

With lottery winners, the primary concern is to keep them from running through the money.

Like Will Rogers said, “It is not return ON my money, but return OF my money, that I am most interested in.

5.7% would look good to those who blew their lottery lump sum. Right now, they have zero.

There is a disconnect between people on Wall Street and people who live in the real world. A good example is the products Wall Street created to package sub prime mortgages. They were supposed to improve up returns. Instead, they lost billions.

I’ve spent the last 25 years working with people who get large lump sums. I’ve watched hundreds blow through every dime.

I often use payout annuities to keep people away from their worst enemy: Themselves.

The people on Wall Street don’t get it.

I spent many years affiliated with a financial company based in New York. About once a month, some Ivy League MBA would fire off a memo outlining some complicated and convoluted investment scheme . The plan would propose a response to some complicated and convoluted plan that a competitor was offering.

I threw the memos in the trash. I never saw one that showed me how to stop people from going on wild spending sprees. That was the real rate of return issue.

If Jack Whitaker had taken the Powerball prize over 20 years, he wouldn’t have had been carrying $600,000 in cash when he was robbed at a strip club. If David Edwards had taken his $27 million jackpot in annual payments, he might not have been evicted from his house and living in storage bin.

I suggest annual payments for one reason. If a person run through all their money in the first year, they get 19 more chances to get it right.

The biography of Arends said that he had been living in London. The one in England, not in Kentucky. He might have missed an American idea called dollar cost averaging.

The concept is simple. Instead of dropping all your money in the market at once, you invest over time, like on a weekly or monthly basis.

The returns are usually better than timing the market.

Annual payments from the lottery set up perfectly for dollar cost averaging. If a person was smart and invested each year, the ultimate returns should not cause an observer to say Yuck.

I like the annual payments. The worst encouragement a lottery winner can get would be to take the money and run.

Don McNay is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group 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 his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com

Wal-Mart, Keith Olbermann, and the Injury Victim

Wal-Mart, Keith Olbermann, and the Injury Victim

Its tragedy.

-The Bee Gees

Keith Olbermann does a nightly feature on MSNBC called, “Worst Person in the World.”

Recently, he gave the award to Wal-Mart after he heard the saga of Debbie Shank.

Shank was a Wal-Mart employee who was horribly injured when a truck ran into her car.

She had health insurance coverage from Wal-Mart. When litigation ended against the trucking company, she received $417,000.

Wal-Mart wanted it. All of it. Under federal law, they are entitled to get it. They had paid out over $470,000 for Debbie’s medical care.

Even though Shank paid premiums to get health insurance coverage, the law says that Wal-Mart can have their money back

Olbermann put the wrong villain on his list. Wal-Mart is not the problem. Federal laws are written to favor health insurance providers over injured employees.

Wal-Mart shouldn’t be the Worst Person in the World. The United States Congress should have the honor.

There are thousands of cases like Debbie Shank. Few make it to national television. It is not an isolated case of Wal-Mart versus one employee. Shank is the symbol of a national outrage.

There are many situations where injured people wind up with little or no money. The health insurance company grabs their piece and the victim gets what is left over, if there is anything left over.

In 25 years as a structured settlement consultant, I’ve been involved in over 1000 mediations or settlements. I’ve watched health insurance carriers get more and more aggressive. No one has been able to stop them.

Until Debbie Shank made national news.

If you fall off your roof and spend a year in the hospital, your health insurance pays. If a truck runs a red light and rams into you, they usually don’t.

Health insurance is supposed to cover you when you are sick or hurt. It shouldn’t make any difference how you were sick or hurt.

It’s hard to find a sadder situation than Debbie Shank. The truck that hit her did not carry enough insurance. She has a severe brain injury and will need help for the rest of her life. She can’t remember things from day to day. When she is told repeatedly that her son died defending our country in Iraq, she hears it each time like it was the first time.

Wal-Mart is the perfect corporate heavy. They have oodles of bad media about how they treat their employees. They have a history of aggressively litigating claims.

Wal-Mart self insures for their health insurance and makes them an easy target to identify. The story would not have made national news if it had been a faceless health insurance company taking Shank’s money. It is the type of thing that goes on every day.

Olbermann must hope that Wal-Mart will cave to the firestorm of bad publicity and leave Shank alone. Not a chance. Wal-Mart had to go after her. If they caved on Shank, what do they do with the next injured employee? Or the next 1000 injured employees?

Collecting subrogation on health insurance claims has become a billion dollar business. Wal-Mart’s stockholders would be aghast if that company stopped collecting money that federal laws allows them to grab.

Doing the right thing would put Wal-Mart at a competitive disadvantage. If Obermann checks out Wal-Mart’s biggest competitors, I am sure he will find hundreds of people treated like Debbie Shanks.

If Wal-Mart is named as the Worst Person in the World, you need to add most of the Fortune 500 too.

Debbie Shank’s case highlights a practice that needs to stop. I hope she gets to keep her money but more than that, I hope her situation puts a face on a national disgrace.

fter Wal-Mart weighed in, Debbie’s husband decided to file for divorce so that Debbie can get more in government benefits.

The United States taxpayers will be paying more for Debbie’s care because Wal-Mart took her money.

Tax dollars are indirectly making Wal-Mart more profitable. Just like they are making a lot of health insurance carriers more profitable.

It is not just happening to Debbie. It is a practice that is going on everyday.

And it is a tragedy.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com

Posted by DonMcNay.com at 11:03 PM 0 commen

Wal-Mart, Keith Olbermann, and the Injury Victim

Wal-Mart, Keith Olbermann, and the Injury Victim

Its tragedy.

-The Bee Gees

Keith Olbermann does a nightly feature on MSNBC called, “Worst Person in the World.”

Recently, he gave the award to Wal-Mart after he heard the saga of Debbie Shank.

Shank was a Wal-Mart employee who was horribly injured when a truck ran into her car.

She had health insurance coverage from Wal-Mart. When litigation ended against the trucking company, she received $417,000.

Wal-Mart wanted it. All of it. Under federal law, they are entitled to get it. They had paid out over $470,000 for Debbie’s medical care.

Even though Shank paid premiums to get health insurance coverage, the law says that Wal-Mart can have their money back

Olbermann put the wrong villain on his list. Wal-Mart is not the problem. Federal laws are written to favor health insurance providers over injured employees.

Wal-Mart shouldn’t be the Worst Person in the World. The United States Congress should have the honor.

There are thousands of cases like Debbie Shank. Few make it to national television. It is not an isolated case of Wal-Mart versus one employee. Shank is the symbol of a national outrage.

There are many situations where injured people wind up with little or no money. The health insurance company grabs their piece and the victim gets what is left over, if there is anything left over.

In 25 years as a structured settlement consultant, I’ve been involved in over 1000 mediations or settlements. I’ve watched health insurance carriers get more and more aggressive. No one has been able to stop them.

Until Debbie Shank made national news.

If you fall off your roof and spend a year in the hospital, your health insurance pays. If a truck runs a red light and rams into you, they usually don’t.

Health insurance is supposed to cover you when you are sick or hurt. It shouldn’t make any difference how you were sick or hurt.

It’s hard to find a sadder situation than Debbie Shank. The truck that hit her did not carry enough insurance. She has a severe brain injury and will need help for the rest of her life. She can’t remember things from day to day. When she is told repeatedly that her son died defending our country in Iraq, she hears it each time like it was the first time.

Wal-Mart is the perfect corporate heavy. They have oodles of bad media about how they treat their employees. They have a history of aggressively litigating claims.

Wal-Mart self insures for their health insurance and makes them an easy target to identify. The story would not have made national news if it had been a faceless health insurance company taking Shank’s money. It is the type of thing that goes on every day.

Olbermann must hope that Wal-Mart will cave to the firestorm of bad publicity and leave Shank alone. Not a chance. Wal-Mart had to go after her. If they caved on Shank, what do they do with the next injured employee? Or the next 1000 injured employees?

Collecting subrogation on health insurance claims has become a billion dollar business. Wal-Mart’s stockholders would be aghast if that company stopped collecting money that federal laws allows them to grab.

Doing the right thing would put Wal-Mart at a competitive disadvantage. If Obermann checks out Wal-Mart’s biggest competitors, I am sure he will find hundreds of people treated like Debbie Shanks.

If Wal-Mart is named as the Worst Person in the World, you need to add most of the Fortune 500 too.

Debbie Shank’s case highlights a practice that needs to stop. I hope she gets to keep her money but more than that, I hope her situation puts a face on a national disgrace.

fter Wal-Mart weighed in, Debbie’s husband decided to file for divorce so that Debbie can get more in government benefits.

The United States taxpayers will be paying more for Debbie’s care because Wal-Mart took her money.

Tax dollars are indirectly making Wal-Mart more profitable. Just like they are making a lot of health insurance carriers more profitable.

It is not just happening to Debbie. It is a practice that is going on everyday.

And it is a tragedy.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Ky. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read his award winning syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com

Lobbying and The Maximum Contribution

Lobbying and The Maximum Contribution

“Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted”

-Bruce Springsteen

Lobbying is not fashionable these days. I called a lobbyist friend and asked him if the media bashing was bothering him. He said, "no matter how much they complain, the lawmakers need us around."

He is probably right. Lobbyists know their way around government.

Rick Robinson knows about lobbyists and knows the political game. For the past 30 years, he's been a big time player in Washington and Kentucky. Rickwas legislative director for Congressman Jim Bunning and ran for Congress when Bunning moved up to the Senate.

Now he is a novelist. The Maximum Contribution (Headline Books publisher) is loosely based on Rick's experience as a candidate and inside player.

Rick and I go back a long ways. We became friends in student government at Eastern Kentucky University and shared an office when he was the student member of the Board of Regents.

He had pictures of Reagan on his desk. I had pictures of Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. We became close anyway.

His run for Congress was a rare time when I campaigned for a Republican. In fact, I think it was the only time.

I asked him to add a note for my book about Ernie Fletcher. He wrote, "I'm glad that SOB wasn't writing when I ran for office."

I printed it. It's on the back cover of the book.

He asked me to give a quote for his book. A no win situation for me. I didn't want to give the same style of quote that he did and I don't really like to read novels. I'm a non fiction kind of guy. I live in a reality show world.

I liked his novel. A lot.

Once I started, I literally did not put down The Maximum Contribution. I stayed up half the night to finish it.

It is a political thriller and an insider's guide to how Washington works. I don't want to give away the plot but Rudy Maxa, a former investigative reporter for the Washington Post, said, "Rick Robinson has vividly captured the essence of the deals that make or more than likely... break so many DC politicians."

Rick's gritty but realistic insight is how the game is played.

Lobbyist bashing has become a popular sport. I'm not sure who to blame. I don't know if I blame the lobbyists for trying to influence legislation or the elected officials for allowing themselves to be influenced.

Your view on lobbying probably depends on what the lobbyist is asking for.

I don't like the payday loan industry and think their lobbyists are probably slime. I make most of my income from setting up structured settlement annuities for injured people. I view their lobbyists as outstanding legislative representatives who are doing God's work.

It's all a matter of where you sit and where you draw your income.

Some lobbying groups are completely out of control. The groups that represent credit card companies have had their way in Washington. They passed "bankruptcy reform" which was a classic case of reverse Robin Hood. It took from the poor to give to the rich.

The Maximum Contribution's subplot revolves around an obscure tax break allowing businesses to set up off shore operations. I don't know why big corporations should be rewarded for taking jobs and resources OUT of the United States but I am sure some high powered lobbyist can tell me why.

Read the book. It is a fun read and gives insight into political lies that can leave us lost and brokenhearted.

Don McNay is 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

Sunshine Laws & The Town Crier

"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy."

-John Denver

March 16 to 22 was 'Sunshine Week." It was a week to focus on open government and freedom of information.

I am for all freedom of information, expect when it applies to me. It is the same sentiment that many public officials have.

I learned about public disclosure at a young age.

When I was 16, I got a speeding ticket. I did not fear the justice system. I feared my mother.

The Northern Kentucky Post had a section called the Town Crier. It listed people's secrets and dirty laundry. If you went to court for any reason, it wound up in the Town Crier.

Like my neighbors, my family denounced the Town Crier as a horrible invasion of privacy. Like my neighbors, my family read it every day.

I knew my mom would see my Town Crier debut.

I tried a cover up. For two weeks, I watched for the news carrier and rushed to catch the paper. I stood in the yard, read the Town Crier and brought the paper in after vetting.

I eventually found my name and proceeded to "lose" that section of the paper. The next day, mom was waiting in the driveway.

She had read the missing section at work.

She grounded me for the rest of my life but I eventually got probation.

The Town Crier was a better security measure than the police. I prayed I would never be in it again.

Joe Hackett, one of my high school teachers, took the Town Crier to a new level. He would read the list of offenders to the study halls and embarrass the student in front of everyone else.

Public humiliation worked. Few classmates made more than one appearance.

The Kentucky Post shut down last year. As papers decline in circulation, the Town Crier sections are the first to go. Few papers print minor traffic violations. If they do, few people read them.

We don't know our neighbors like we once did. That is ironic as our every move is being recorded.

I assume I don't have any privacy. I suspect all of my phone calls are listened to and someone is reading my mail. Someone knows what web pages I view and what television shows I watch.

I don't like it but I don't know what to do about it.

There was a comfort level when my neighbors were doing the watching. They had standards I wanted to meet.

Peer pressure and social acceptance shape a person's character.

Almost every president, with the exception of Theodore Roosevelt, came from a small town. A reason has to be that they grew up with a formal or informal version of the Town Crier.

They learned that it was hard to get away with doing something wrong. They learned it was even harder to cover it up.

A couple of years ago, I wrote that Eliot Spitzer might be president. I'm embarrassed that I said it but I missed a key element. Spitzer had grown up in New York City.

Elliot didn't have the Town Crier style of indoctrination.

Spitzer never experienced his mother waiting for him with the newspaper in her hand. I doubt he was ever grounded for the rest of his life. He never had to live up to his neighbors expectations.

He grew up thinking that he could get away with something.

I'm sure public officials hate the concept of freedom of information. If they screw up, they don't want the world to find out. They would rather us not know about insider deals.

Sunshine laws work like my mother waiting in the driveway. They ensure that people will be exposed and they keep public officials in line before they make a poor decision.

If you can't defend your actions in the newspaper, don't do it. Someone is going to find out.

Sunshine laws make me happy and make for better government.

Don McNay is the Chairman of McNay Settlement Group. He is the Secretary for the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. You can read his award winning syndicated column at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@mcnay.com

Peter Lynch & The Culture of Greed

Fidelity Vice Chairman Peter Lynch recently settled a complaint against him filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lynch was fined for receiving free trips and tickets.

Since Lynch likes freebies, I am surprised that he did not respond to my longstanding offer.

A one way ticket to Iraq.

I've written numerous columns bashing Lynch. His company peddled high commissioned products to soldiers during a time of war.

Fidelity sold contractual mutual funds. They had huge upfront loads. The funds were so bad that Congress finally outlawed them.

Fidelity pushed them in the military market and almost nowhere else.

When the sales practice was exposed, I offered Lynch a deal.

I offered to pay for Lynch to go to Iraq and take the place of a soldier who bought a Fidelity contractual fund.

I'm waiting for Lynch to respond.

Lynch might be inclined to grab my freebie if I were a Fidelity vendor. His lack of response may be because I'm not doing business with Fidelity and unlikely to be in the future.

There was a time when I sent Fidelity lots of business. When Peter Lynch managed the Fidelity Magellan fund.

Peter Lynch was the best mutual fund manager in the world. He had a reputation for integrity and honesty.

Something changed. Lynch retired as Magellan's manager and became Fidelity's Vice Chairman. He started hanging out with Hollywood pals like Lily Tomlin. He was in a position to know that Fidelity was peddling contractual funds to the military. He did nothing to stop it.

Squeezing profits out of soldiers never made sense. Fidelity is a huge company and the military is a small market. Fidelity sold the funds long after the unsavory practice was uncovered by the media.

In light of the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Lynch, I now understand.

Lynch and Fidelity were blinded by a culture of greed.

Lynch set a poor example. As Walter Ricciardi, deputy director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, said after Lynch's settlement, "the tone is set at the top."

Vice Chairman is as close to the top as you can get.

Fidelity's traders received more than $1.5 million in gifts, travel and entertainment. A 2005 Wall Street Journal article described a party in Miami that included Fidelity traders.

Party goers were supplied with private jets, female escorts and illegal drugs (Ecstasy). The vendors paid for a party activity called dwarf tossing.

After you done some Ecstasy and thrown a dwarf across the room, you can probably rationalize peddling high priced funds to soldiers.

As far as I know, Lynch was not at the bash in Miami but the Fidelity culture was set when Lynch started bumming free tickets.

When a top dog starts hustling freebies, it easy for others to justify it too.

It becomes also easy to forget that soldiers buying contractual mutual funds are being sent off to war.

Even though the SEC fined Fidelity $8 million, I still don't think that Lynch gets it.

Doug Bailey, a spokesman for Lynch, told the Wall Street Journal that the 14 Ryder Cup tickets Lynch improperly received, "had some real historical significance to Mr. Lynch because he used to caddy" at the course where the event was held.

I used to work on the clean up crew at the Kentucky Horse Park. I wonder if Lynch can get me 14 tickets to the 2010 World Equestrian Games? That would have some historic significance for me.

To help my sense of history, I would like a private jet. I can skip the drugs, "escorts" and dwarf tossing.

If Lynch can rationalize his Ryder Cup freebies, I can justify jetting with the rich and famous. I used to clean up after them.

And their horses.

Peter Lynch's grubbing sent a signal that everyone at Fidelity might look for handouts too. Or push improper products to soldiers.

As Mr. Ricciardi said, "it sets a tone."

I wish the SEC would have put me in charge of Lynch's punishment. He would have gotten his one way ticket to Iraq.

That would definitely set a tone. A tone that would snap Fidelity's managers in line . They would stop taking advantage of soldiers.

And tossing dwarfs.

Don McNay is 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 his award winning column at www.donmcnay.com