October 2017
Award The
Letter
Send Your Kids to College, Keep Your Money at Home
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Fighting the Flood How My Boys and I Ferried People to Safety
It’s Halloween season, but those of us living in Houston experienced more than our share of scariness before October rolled around. Less than two months ago, Houston experienced its worst disaster in history. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes, and dozens lost their lives to flooding. Throughout the disaster, it was inspiring to see neighbors rescuing and supporting each other. At our house, we certainly tried to do our part. Our team at The College Money Guys was lucky. None of us had water in our homes, although two of our team members were blocked from getting into their houses by rising water. Sonya, our Director of First Impressions, returned home to discover that the water was too high to open the door. As her family stood in the water, a boat pulled up and got them out. She was able to spend the weekend with friends. At our house, we watched from our front yard as the water entered the houses across the street and crept slowly up toward ours. Miraculously, the water never got high enough to cross our threshold. But when we saw people in the neighborhood who weren’t so lucky, my sons and I set off in a canoe to ferry people to dry land. Some homes in the area had up to four feet of water. While passing one house, we heard voices. We carefully paddled into the front den and found a man and a woman propped up on the counter to stay dry. The old man seemed to be in bad shape; he was jaundiced and had a mask over his face. We found out he was in need of dialysis. We ferried him out and got him some help. We don’t know where he went or what happened to him, but responders told us that if we hadn’t found him, he might have died.
parking lot using landscaping stones from a Jack in the Box. We also found neighbors experiencing water damage and helped them get their belongings propped up on paint cans. As for The College Money Guys headquarters, we had to shut down for two weeks. Our downstairs almost completely flooded and needed a new floor. Our phones and internet didn’t work, and we didn’t have access to our server. We worked out of a temporary office to stay on top of emails. But we weren’t the only ones who shut down, so we can’t complain.
As I reflect, I’m proud of how everyone helped each other out. If you were one of the thousands who lent a helping hand, we thank you for your support. Like I said, we’ve had our fair share of scares before Halloween season even started. It’s also FAFSA season, which can be a scary time for parents. If there’s anything I learned from the last few months, it’s that us Texans have the spirit to overcome any scary thing that comes our way.
All told, we carried five or six families to dry land. Our strength eventually wore out. Before getting the cops, we spelled out SOS in a
“We watched from our front yard as the water entered the houses across the street and crept slowly up toward ours.”
– Bra nnon Lloyd
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HOW TO FIGHT THE NEGATIVE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF YOUR DESK JOB
“We’re sitting ourselves to death!”
It’s fair to say that Sven and Linda Wilson are living the dream when it comes to their kids’ education. They have three children, and each of them is studying at a premier, private university — it’s something a Hollywood screenwriter would attach to the narrative of a proud parent. But for Sven and Linda, it’s a reality. Their children, Amanda, Nathaniel, and Edward, graduated in the last five years from Cornell College, Rice University, and Texas Christian University, respectively. That’s a remarkable achievement for both them and their parents. But what’s perhaps more remarkable is how they were able to secure so much financial aid despite Sven’s high annual income. Sven makes well over $150,000 a year as a NASA engineer. He passed his brains on to his kids, but even with his income and their intellect, he worried about paying for their school with rising tuition costs. To help with that, Sven hired us in 2008. We worked our magic, and the overall savings between the three kids was massive. Cornell costs $52,000 a year to attend, but Amanda attended for just $9,000 a year. Rice similarly charges $58,000 annual tuition, but Nathaniel went for less than half the price. Edward spent $12,000-13,000 a year at TCU, while students paying full price spend $58,000. Dr. James Levins of the National Institutes of Health made headlines when he announced, after 15 years of research, that “sitting is the new smoking.” Dr. Levine determined sitting for prolonged hours leads to obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and can increase the likelihood of developing certain forms of cancer. To many people, the answer was clear: Just stand up! Standing desks have become all the rage as office workers everywhere switch from sitting in one place all day to standing in one place all day. And the benefits have been … almost imperceptible. While you do burn more calories standing than you do sitting, the fact remains you’re still not moving. Keeping your body in the same position for hours is what leads to all of those health risks Dr. Levins warns about, whether you sit or stand. It would be more accurate to say, “Sedentary is the new smoking.” Now, don’t think you can erase the damage from being sedentary at work by hitting the gym when you clock out. Research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that, among individuals who spend most of their day in a sedentary position, those who engaged in regular physical activity were only 30 percent less likely to die from sedentary-related health problems than those who didn’t exercise at all.
So, what are we supposed to do? Seventy percent of Americans have jobs that require them to remain confined to a desk. If switching to a career that keeps you up and moving all day isn’t a possibility, how can we cure our sedentary problems? The answer isn’t standing; it’s moving. Human beings are meant to be up and moving around! That’s why staying still all day hurts us so much. A desk job doesn’t have to destroy your health. If you need to send an IM or a brief email, walk over and deliver the message in person instead. Take phone calls while walking around or, better yet, conduct meetings while on a walk outside. Even periodic desk exercises can be beneficial.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you sit or stand. Make sure to move around at least once an hour to avoid serious damage to your health.
3 Kids, Hundreds of Thousands in Savings
All told, over four years, their cumulative college costs amounted to $216,000, which was over $450,000 less than if they had paid full price.
Congratulations to Sven and Linda on their children’s successful college careers. Most of all, congrats on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of savings!
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3 College Funding Mistakes
If you asked someone what the oldest college was in America, you might get three different answers. Harvard University, The College of William and Mary, and The University of Pennsylvania each claim the title. Regardless of which university is actually the oldest, this much is true: The struggle to pay for higher education in America is older than Harvard, which was founded in 1636. Perhaps billions of parents have endured the struggle, and many of them have made deadly mistakes in the process. Here are three to avoid in the 21st century. 1. Having your CPA or tax preparer fill out your financial aid forms. Not all technical paperwork is created equal. CPAs are experts at tax preparation, not financial aid planning. They might make mistakes that can kill your chances of getting it, like filling out forms in a pen instead of pencil, using white out to cover mistakes, or omitting Social Security numbers. Those might be acceptable practices in their work, but not in financial aid. 2. Waiting until January of your child’s senior year to work on financial aid for college. Since financial aid is based on your previous year’s income and assets, it’s crucial to start planning sooner than that. We recommend starting at the beginning of their junior year of high school, not midway through their senior. It also gives you enough time to save for your “expected family contribution.”
STUFFED JACK-O-LANTERN BELL PEPPERS 3. Going through the financial aid process by yourself because it’s cheaper. When you send your child to school, you’ll spend between $20,000 and $55,000 a year. Skimping on the planning will make a much bigger difference then than it does for your wallet now. We call that being “penny wise and dollar foolish.”
HAVE A LAUGH
INGREDIENTS
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6 bell peppers, any color 1 pound ground beef
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1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
4 slices whole wheat bread, cubed 1 small onion, chopped 1 small tomato, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced
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1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking dish. 2. Lightly mix together the ground beef, egg, bread cubes, onion, tomato, garlic, chili sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper in a bowl. 3. Wash peppers and cut jack-o’-lantern faces into peppers with a sharp paring knife, making triangle eyes and noses and pointy teeth smiles. Slice off tops of peppers and scoop out seeds and cores. Stuff peppers lightly with beef stuffing and place into the prepared baking dish so they lean against each other. 4. Bake in the preheated oven until peppers are tender and stuffing is cooked through and juicy, for about 1 hour.
Recipe courtesy of Allrecipes.com.
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2000 North Loop West Suite 200 Houston, TX 77018 713.422.2720
INSIDE
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How My Boys and I Fought the Flood Can a Desk Job Be Part of a Healthy Lifestyle? 3 Kids, Hundreds of Thousands in Savings
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3 College Funding Mistakes Stuffed Jack-O-Lantern Bell Peppers
BONUS MONEY-SAVING CONTENT INSIDE!
The Acropolis of Athens: Tips for Your Trip Back in Time
When people think of a vacation to Greece, the first images that come to mind are often the picturesque beaches of Mykonos Island or plates of delicately layered moussaka. But no trip to the cradle of Western civilization would be complete without a visit to one of the most incredible historical sites in human history — the ancient Acropolis of Athens. Around 468 B.C., while Athens was enjoying its status as the greatest cultural hub of the era, Pericles initiated a robust reconstruction of the Acropolis. Almost half of the population was on the public payroll during the project, generating what would become many of the most memorable structures in history, including the famous Parthenon. Today, the ruins of the Acropolis still stand, a testament to the ingenuity of one of the most advanced civilizations of the classical age. If you plan on exploring the breathtaking ruins and the Acropolis Museum, which houses over 4,000 artifacts from the site, it’s a good idea to avoid the Mediterranean cruise hordes and get there early, as close to 8 a.m. as possible. A four-day pass to peruse the Parthenon, both Temples of Athena and Zeus, and many other world-famous sites costs around 12 euro, but keep in mind you can visit each site only once per pass. Due to the scorching heat that hits the area in the summer, you may want to visit during late winter or early spring.
To absorb the incredible history of this ancient monument, it’s a good idea to either pay for the audio guide as you enter or go to the “Watch, Read, Listen” section of ricksteves.com and download his audio guide for free. You can also get a full tour from a local guide. Head to toursbylocals.com/Athens- Tours to find the perfect guide for your trip.
Thank you for your referrals!
A special thanks to the Hastreiter family, the Wolff family, the Wilson family, the Durrance family, the Schaberg family, and the Wright family for sending us referrals! It’s the nicest compliment you could give us! Published byThe Newsletter Pro • www.NewsletterPro.com
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