Colby mentioned that trainers that he has worked with in the past have their own goals and agenda for their clients and don’t really take into account what the client wants out of their workout plan. If this has been your experience, he suggested to either push your trainer to make the switch or find another trainer.

On the second note, he clarified that you can tell if your trainer ahs made a plan specifically for you based on whether he or she has looked at you analyzing how you are built and what health and physical condition you are in. Lastly, he spoke on how stress and other emotional issues can have a physical effect on how your body responds to your workout on any particular day. Therefore a good personal trainer will be able to vary your workout based on the type of day you’re having.

Here are a few of the audience questions and his responses:

Is there an advantage to vegan/vegetarian diet?
For the average everyday person there is no advantage to being vegan or vegetarian. Those diets are advantageous only for specific physical conditions, like people who have high blood pressure, blood sugar issues, or a hereditary predisposition for certain health concerns.

I have an active job so do I need to work out?
The professional recommendations  are 300 minutes of  light/moderate exercise per week or 150 minutes of high intensity exercise per week.

There were some different types of exercise he mentioned that you may want to add in if your job did meet the 300 minutes of light/moderate exercise recommendation, so check with Mr. Colby Ebanks for the specifics.

The next speaker of the evening was the one and only, the original WWW male speaker, Frank Demeno.

He began by asking the audience what do you think of when you hear the words ‘financial plan.’ Some of the responses from the audience were

• Saving money
• Investing
• Retirement – IRA/401K
• And surprisingly, Life Insurance (the topic which Frank was going to speak)

The audience member who mentioned life insurance had a personal story which I found moving. Her family thought they had done the right thing in purchasing term life insurance for her mother. Unfortunately, however, her mother outlived the term &  they only received $1.57 when she died.

People are often sold on term life insurance because of it’s low cost and don’t think about the reality that the majority of these policies expire without paying out (i.e. you don’t die during the term). The common phrase is to ‘buy term & invest the difference’ which is a good idea until you insert people. Americans don’t tend to invest the difference; this is a nation of consumers. That’s why a permanent life insurance like an indexed universal life policy is like a better strategy.

But permanent life insurance is too expensive?
Is it really? Yes it costs more but you can’t outlive your policy as long as you make those monthly contributions and you build cash value. Cash value that you can use tax-free, whereas with the other investment options (savings and retirement plans) you’re paying taxes continually or when you need the cash during retirement. What’s more expensive: sacrificing a little bit now to have a lot later or being in dire need later during your retirement years or during the turmoil of losing a loved one?

Life insurance builds a financial future by saving money, but you get the estate up front. An indexed universal life policy is like buying term and having the insurance company invest the difference for you. But while that investment is growing, if you happen to die your family still gets $250,000.

If you had to spend $70,000 now for a quarter million dollar estate, could you pay it? Most people would answer “No.”  Well, how about if we do it the American way & set up a payment plan $175 a month?

Now if you tried to save $175 each month, how long would it take you to get to $250,000? Frank had the audience calculate it and it would take about 119 years. So let’s say you get the inexpensive $250,000 10 or 15 year term policy and save $175 a month. At the end of the term, 1) you don’t have a $250,000 saved and 2) you no longer have a life insurance policy that pays out $250,000 on the event of your death.  Now you’re 10 or 15 years older making the next term policy a little more expensive and maybe challenging your monthly $175 savings plan. Which do find to be the more sound path to take?

Ladies, if you’re in the Jacksonville area be sure not to miss June’s Wine, Women & Wealth seminar with summer travel tips and how to create your own pension. Check back for more details.