Health Insurance…

On December the 1^st I’m slated to start my new job with Kentucky Farm Bureau. That job, as an insurance agent, waits for me only if I can pass my health insurance licensing exam this coming Tuesday. I’ve been in the insurance business for 15 years but in all that time I’ve never written health insurance; never needed to.

I started out as a life insurance agent, selling policies door to door. Those were lean days, let me tell you. At that time I only had my life insurance license, because,… well that’s all you need to sell life insurance door to door. Then later on when I joined my father in his crop insurance business it seemed to make sense to go back and get licensed for property and casualty insurance as well so that I could sell crop insurance, but also auto insurance, home insurance, etc… But in all that time I never wanted or needed to sell health insurance, which it seemed to me was probably the most difficult and complicated of all the insurance types.

However, now Farm Bureau says they won’t hire me without it. So I’ve got this month to complete my training class (which I’ve done), study the material (which I’m doing), and take the test (which I will do on Tuesday), so no pressure. On a positive note, I’ve never failed an insurance licensing exam. I don’t expect I will this time either. Once the test is passed I will have all insurance licenses and could write any kind of insurance under the sun if my company offers it.

So is health insurance as hard as I thought it would be? Well, yes and no. No in the sense that it’s still insurance and so many of the principles of insurance are the same. Everything from mitigating risk, to contracts, to companies, to terminology is the same no matter what type of insurance it is. So when we learn that an insurance contract is a unilateral contract (meaning that only party, the company, is required to perform its duties under the contract) we can know that this remains true for all types of insurance; life, health, car, home, etc… So in that way, I already know a lot of this material.

However, health insurance is indeed an onerous subject matter to master. There are numerous types of policies offered by numerous types of companies which cover numerous types of situations for numerous types of clients. Keeping all the different combinations straight and making sure you know the rules for the interactions of each is a monumental task.

I was pleasantly surprised to know that we didn’t have to fool with learning any of the new Obamacare provisions yet. It seems that because the law doesn’t fully go into effect until January 1^st that the licensing test has not been updated with the new material, so I didn’t have to learn it. That’s good and bad. Good that I didn’t have to learn it for the test, but bad that I’m going to have to learn it on the job later when the law goes into effect. So eventually,…. I’ll have to learn it.

I have opinions on Obamacare but I’ll save those for another post. Those of you that know me know what they are (I’m not a fan). At some point I’d like to lay out all the reasons why, but the points are too numerous to list here.

So, until Tuesday, I’m stuck in study mode. If you don’t see or hear much from me on the interwebs, you’ll know why. Nose in the book!!!!!

The Impossible Choice….

And there it is. Like something out of the movies, someone who previously had no options now suddenly has to make an impossible choice.

You recall from my earlier post that I had been unemployed for the last three to four months. I had a few really good prospects on the line. Some of which didn’t pan out and the rest of which were dragging their feet. Then suddenly out of the blue things began to happen. I had two offers; two different offers from two different companies at the same time. I’m not sure but this may be unprecedented. Surely this has never happened before in the history of man!!! How lucky I was to have the flood gates of employment suddenly opened to me. However, once that euphoria wore off, there was a very serious matter that needed attending to. The matter of the CHOICE!

The two companies that were soliciting me were Edward Jones (investments: socks, bonds, ect….) and Kentucky Farm Bureau (insurance: car, home, life, health, etc….). Both are dynamite companies. Kentucky Farm Bureau is a regional insurer operating in Kentucky only, but a part of the larger Farm Bureau family of companies. Edward Jones on the other hand is a nationally known name, though some would argue a small fish in the large pond of securities and investments. Either way, these are two great companies each offering me a great position and great future potential.

The case for and against Edward Jones

Stock Brokers make a lot of money. We’ve all seen the movies; Wall Street, Boiler Room, The Pursuit of Happiness. So you know that “stock jocks” can make a ton of money. While Edward Jones isn’t like those Wall Street sharks that you see in the movies, instead offering conservative financial solutions in more of an “advisor” role, still the opportunity for huge salaries is there especially if you hook into a few large investors. The Edward Jones job was what I refer to as a “rock star” job. It’s the kind of job where you either make it big or not at all. Like rock stars, you’re either famous or you’re nobody. This job is similar. You either do very well, or you end up quitting a few years into it. Nobody in the stock market business is eeking out a modest living. It just doesn’t work like that. So like the stocks they sell, the Edward Jones job offers huge reward, but also huge risk. The question in my mind wasn’t so much could I do it (which I really think I could have) but rather, was I willing to risk it? I mean I’ve got a wife and two kids. I’ve got bills. I’ve got needs. I can’t be twisting in the wind on a maybe. I need a sure thing. That said, I love stock market stuff and would have enjoyed the crap out the work. It would have been tough starting from scratch; they expect you to build your client base from nothing by knocking on doors. Who does that anymore? But once I got going I would have really had a good time being involved in the markets.

The case for and against Kentucky Farm Bureau

I have been in the insurance world for the last 15 years. So it makes a lot of sense to stay with something I know. Kentucky Farm Bureau is a well-respected name in the private insurance market. People all around here, when they think of insurance, think about Farm Bureau first. It’s where your dad, and likely his dad before him, had their insurance. It’s a huge part of the community and people around here know and respect the name. Also, insurance is a different animal than investments. While everyone needs to invest very few actually do it. With insurance, most people are required to buy insurance of some kind; car insurance, home insurance, and now health insurance, etc… However, insurance is lower dollar stuff than investing. If someone came in and invested $50,000 at Edward Jones, how many $500 car insurance policies do I have to sell to make the same money? You see the dilemma. With Farm Bureau the clients will come to me because they have to, instead of me chasing them.  Even still, the potential earning power of the average insurance agent is far less than the average stock broker, but the insurance agent is more likely to be in business three years from now regardless of the economic climate. That’s what Kentucky Farm Bureau represented; less attractive but far more reliable and secure prospects.

So there’s the choice. I felt a little like I was at the casino in Vegas. Do I let it all ride and throw the dice hoping to win big with Edward Jones? Or do I play the safe bet and just win a little, without risking much, at Farm Bureau?

What to do? Who to choose?

I didn’t realize at first how much the decision would weigh on me. It seems like it might be an easy choice for you as I’ve laid out the options. You might very well say, “Well it’s obvious what you should do.” But I didn’t feel like it was obvious. I tossed and turned with this decision for two weeks. In my heart I really wanted to be the big shot stock broker, but I was unwilling to risk the welfare of my family to get it. At the same time I didn’t want to take the insurance job and then set there for the next however many years and feel like I missed out on something, or lament that I let my one big chance pass me by.

My wife and I prayed for God to give us the wisdom to make the right choice. But it was not easy. I even told Edward Jones I couldn’t work for them once and they came back and offered me more money!!! They really wanted me and I really wanted them. Edward Jones was the sexier job, the rock star job, all I ever wanted in a job. However, I kept getting this terrible feeling that I was being selfish; that I was jeopardizing my family for my own vanity. We asked God to show us what to do and the next day I talked to two professionals who both advised me the same way. These disinterested third parties had no agenda, and weren’t trying to move me one way or another. They just offered me sound logical advice. I think God was showing me the sign that I had asked for.

So in the end I chose Kentucky Farm Bureau. True, it’s the less exciting, less sexy job, but it’s the one that guarantees that my family will be provided for. Ultimately that’s worth more to me than all the money in the universe. And who knows, after some number of years when the kids are grown and we’re more financially stable,…. I just may go back and try that stock broker job anyway. After all, I’m still a young guy and plan to work till I’m 120!!!! So I’ve got time for another career change down the road.

Where have I been???

Those of you that know me online, especially on twitter, know that I have been notoriously absent from the online scene as of late.  Without any real notice or explanation, I cut off all communication with the larger internet world, aside from a few repost and facebook shares.  Other than that there has been nothing,…. Most people don’t know what’s going on with me or why I have subjected myself to this self-imposed digital exile. 

First let me say that if you enjoy the content that I produce, either from my rantings on twitter and facebook, or my musings on Alternate Reality, then I apologize for not being there and not filling your day with my sage-like wisdom (#selfindulgent).  It really was not good form of me to just vanish without a trace and offer no explanation as to what I was going through or why I needed some time to myself.  So without further ado I offer… THE EXPLANATION!!!!! 

On August the 9^th, 2013, I found myself suddenly unemployed.  I say suddenly because one moment I was employed and the next minute I was not.  However, it was not sudden in the sense that it was unexpected, because honestly we all suspected that something like this was coming.  Like standing blindfolded on a train track and hearing the train in the distance,… you know it’s coming,… you know it’s going to hit you,… but you just aren’t sure how long you've got.  That’s been my position at work for the last year or more.

Cast of "Dallas"

For the last 13 years I have worked as an insurance agent and the general manager of my father’s independent insurance agency.  For most of that time it was glorious.  We were prosperous, doing well, and building our very own “Dallas”.  For those too young to remember, “Dallas” was a tv show that aired in 70s, 80s, and 90s about a rich Texas oil baron and his family.  It was filled with the usual drama and angst that most soap operas are famous for, but the central theme of it was that this family ran their own business, together, and got rich off it.  I was convinced that this was what lay in store for my family as well, minus all the adultery, drinking, and attempted murder. 

I very much liked the idea that my father and I were building something together; a legacy that would be handed down from him to me, and maybe one day to my children.  However, that was not meant to be.  Through a number of factors, some beyond our control, others unfortunately not so, we found ourselves in dire financial straits these last few years.  The business wasn’t as profitable as it used to be and expenses had really ballooned.  Add to that a few failed business ventures and suddenly were on hard times. 

Things went from bad to worse this past summer and it became a struggle just to make ends meet and cover our payroll every week.  It was then that my father sat me down and informed me that we were out of money and that he had no choice but to let me go.  I was devastated.  Well, perhaps devastated is an over-exaggeration.  It’s not like I went out in the parking lot, sat behind the wheel of my car, and cried for an hour or anything like that.  No, I knew this day was coming but was still a little shocked to find that it had finally arrived.  I was also terribly disappointed in the overall outcome of my life to date.  I felt that all the time I had invested in this family owned business, all the sacrifices I had made, were a waste of time and that now at 37 years old I was starting all over at square one.  I felt more than a little naive and stupid.

My immediate concerns were the most basic ones.  How quickly could I become meaningfully employed at a rate of pay similar to the one I had?  Where would that job be?  How would I find it?  And how was I going to put food on the table until it arrived?

The situation was perhaps more drastic than you realize.  Yes, while I have been working for 13 years in that time there was no unemployment paid in on my behalf, to save the company money, so no unemployment could be drawn by me now.  Also I had only a small amount of money saved because any extra funds generally when back into the business which was suffering and needed the help.  I had no safety net to speak of.  If it had not been for my beautiful wife Debbie going to work at a factory I don’t know how we would have made it.

Most of you who know me already know I’m a religious person.  I am a Christian.  I hold a Bachelor’s degree in theology, and am a lay-minister.  So needless to say, God is very important to me.  It was at this time I began to pray and seek God concerning my situation and what I should do.  After some time I believed that God wanted me to rely on Him solely to get me though this situation.  I felt like God didn’t want me to talk to anyone about my problem.  God said, “Tell no one what is going on with you, that no man might say that they delivered you out of this poverty, but Me only!”  Yes, I felt like God spoke to me.  No I didn’t hear an audible voice.  Those among you that are religious know what I’m talking about.  The rest of you will have to just trust me.  The point is God was saying not to tell people about poor pitiful little me and my situation.  He didn’t want people having pity on me and giving me money.  Not that there is anything wrong with that but God wanted this opportunity to show off; to demonstrate that He alone got me though this situation and delivered me and my family out of this turmoil.  If anyone else gave me any sizeable amount of money then they might take credit for what God was doing.  God will not share His Glory with anyone.

So once I became resolved to keep my problem to myself I quickly realized that there was no way I could go about my regular business of gabbing online without spilling the beans.  Rather than violate what God had said I decided it best to just be silent.  If I wasn’t saying anything then I couldn't say the wrong thing and cut off my blessing that God had planned from me.  So it was at that point that I instituted “Twilance” (twitter silence).  That meant no social media communication from me to the world at large until this issue was resolved.  At the time I figured it was no big deal.  This would be over in few weeks and I’d be back on my feet again and I’d give God all the glory for getting me through.

Only, a few weeks came and went and I had no solution, and then a few more, and then a few more,… suddenly I’m a few months into my new state of unemployment and I’m starting to get a little more nervous.  Yes I had a few dollars saved up, and yes Debbie was working, but it wasn’t going to be enough.  God needed to move on my behalf like He said He would.  I needed to see some manifestation of that promise.  That movement eventually came when I was offhandedly speaking to the agency manager of our local Kentucky Farm Bureau agency, and I told him that I was in the process of changing jobs, (without telling him that I was desperately unemployed and in bad need of cash).  It was then out of the blue he offered me a Job with his company making approximately about what I was making at my old job, with the opportunity to make more.  Hallelujah, God is good!!!!  It was the blessing I had asked for and the blessing God had promised me.  I was very excited but that excitement was soon to become anxiety.  In order to get the job I would have to go through two interviews.  However, it seemed I couldn’t get the company to schedule the interviews in a timely fashion.  The first interview was three weeks from the time that the Agency manager told me about the job, and the second was three weeks after that.  So now I’ve been employed about three months and even though I got the Job, which I did (thank you Jesus), I can’t start until December the 1^st.  That will make it approximately 4 months of unemployment before I can go back to work, and my first paycheck won’t come until December the 15^th.  UGH!!!!

Daniel Prays

I’m beginning to feel a bit like Daniel (you know, from the lion’s den?).  Anyway, Daniel at one point was praying to God for the answer to some problem and God sent an angel to Daniel with the answer.  However that Angel was held up by demonic forces that came against it and Daniel had to wait 21 days while the angel battled with the hellish foes before he could eventually get through to Daniel with the answer to Daniel’s prayer.  All this can be read in the Bible, book of Daniel, Chapter 10. 

I feel like God had this great job waiting for me all along but that something has held it back from me.  Something is keeping it just out of reach.  I have the job, but due to technicalities I can’t start for another month, and it’ll be 6 weeks before I get paid.  I don’t know if it’s the devil waging war against me and holding up my blessing or if it’s just unrealistic expectations about how long these things take.  It’s been really hard to get to this point and it’s liable to get harder yet.  But the most difficult part of all has been continuing to trust God in spite of all the difficulties I have faced/am facing/will face.  Faith and patience are two principles that go hand in hand.  Having faith is easy for a little while.  But when the answer to your problem doesn’t immediately present itself will you be like Daniel who had patience and waited upon God, or will you abandon God assuming He has forgotten you, and thus lose the answer to your problem?

I think I will have patience but it will be hard and I will need everyone’s prayers and support.  I feel like God has released me from my information embargo now that I have my new job, so I am free to tell you all about what has happened in my life.  I still have a long road ahead of me until I am fully restored and back on my feet but every time I get up in the morning I’m one day closer to my answer.  One day closer to having all this behind me. 

I also have learned a lot of lesson’s though this whole process.  First, nothing is a sure thing.  If you think something going to last forever, get over it, it’s not.  Be prepared for emergencies.  2^nd, whenever you are in need assume that whatever your answer is that it’s twice as far off and twice as expensive as you really think it is.  This cuts down on disappointment when you find your answer just out of reach.  3^rd, if you ever lose your job, assume it will be six months before you can find comparable employment of the same type/skill/pay.  It’s a tough economy and you will not be working in 2-3 weeks after losing a job, unless you flip burgers or pump gas for a living.  4^th, have an emergency fund of about 6 months’ worth of expenses put back so you can manage your employment in a much more reasonable fashion than I have and not feel nearly so desperate.  Lastly, trust God.  He will get through any storm in life.  He won’t guarantee that you won’t have problems but He promises to make a way for you to handle your problems and come out victorious.  Trust Him!!!

It feels good to be back.  I’ll see you guys on the interwebs…….