Financial Planning 101 with Julius #13

Take Advantage of Time & Compound Interest Will Take Care of You

What I Know Now Could Have Sent Two Babies To College

After I retired from the Navy with 20 years of loyal, dedicated service, that was also shortly after the time I shut down my publication, Singles Magazine, and Singles Magazine Online. I was a pioneer in online dating.

Hampton Roads Virginia and the Tidewater region was a perfect location for the publication I started. It is home to the world’s largest naval base and the proximity of each city to one another makes a perfect setting for a small social business. I lived in Virginia Beach, my business office was in Chesapeake and I distributed my publication to those cities, plus, Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. I had ties with each of these cities and many fond memories that were created with many of the local celebrities, media personalities, and most importantly, the active singles community back then.

When I retired from the Navy, I knew I was going to return to the Atlanta, GA area and I also knew that I would face many more business challenges with a publication like mine. At the time, I was considered adult entertainment. So, I decided to follow my passion for something to do with economics. That may have seemed like a hard left, but I’ve always had a thing for numbers.

When an opportunity to work in the financial services industry presented itself, I jumped at the chance. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had my email address since October 2000. I had to search my memory for this answer. In 1992, I was the Public Affairs Officer for Navy Recruiting District, Atlanta. I purchased my first house in 1994 on Flat Shoals Road. I left Georgia in 1996 for my final assignment in the United States Navy. I was assigned to Chesapeake, VA. This is where I started Singles Magazine. I retired from the Navy in July 2000. In October 2000, I started working with Western and Southern Life Insurance Company. I did have a work email address, but I wanted a home email address associated with my job. That’s where my [email protected] email address came from. It is still active today. In fact, it is my primary email address.

Anyway, as an agent for WSLife, I talked with clients about their financial needs. I was trained in selling life insurance and on a smaller scale a few other financial services products.

On one appointment, a mother asked me if we had a product that would help her send her two children, who were babies at the time, to college. Because they were so young, we were talking about a period of about 15 years or so. It could have even been longer. But I was out of my depth. I only knew life insurance products. I wasn’t disappointed I did not make a sale. I wanted to help her meet her needs, but she could only spend $25 per child and we did not have anything I was aware of that could help her reach her goal. I did not try to push her into something that would only provide a death benefit with only a small cash value.

But if I knew then what I know now, I most certainly would have been able to help her send her children to college on $25 per month per child. Here’s how:

We would have created a projection on calculator.net. I would have shown her how to add the particulars into the program. We would go to the investment calculator. We would start with $50. She would contribute her $50 for 18 years, she would earn a hypothetical interest rate of 12.63%. This would be compounded annually and she would contribute at the beginning of each month. Her calculations would show that in that time period when her children were out of high school and ready to go to college, she would have close to $40,000 to split by both children. This would be more than enough to get them into a junior college or even a state four-year college.

Now you might ask, where would she earn 12.63% in an investment product? I would have pointed her to a Fidelity Blue Chip Investment Mutual Index Fund or a Vanguard Index Fund. We would have looked at the history of the funds to find the 10-year average return. Go ahead. Look them up.

You see, all this information is out there. Many of us just don’t know about it, are reluctant to take action on them, or are given wrong information. I did my client a service by not pointing her in the wrong direction by purchasing something that would not have performed for her. But I did her a disservice by not being knowledgeable enough to answer her question or to point her in the right direction.

This was more than 28 years ago, so maybe those two children did finally go to college. Heck, they could be professors by now or writers on Medium. But I could have had a positive impact in changing their lives.

That’s why I wrote this article today. Take advantage of the time you have and allow compound interest to make a difference in your life. It’s a slow and steady way to wealth. I know this mother would have earned more and would have contributed more to her children’s college fund over the years. But we do ourselves a disservice by not taking action with our money today.

About the Author

Julius Evans is a 2X Top Writer on Medium in Writing and Music. He has a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI; a Master of Arts degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ; a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from City University, Bellevue, WA, and an Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies from Central Texas College, Killeen, Texas. He is a 1985 graduate of the Defense Information School (DINFOS) of Print and Electronic Journalism and Advanced Public Affairs. DINFOS was relocated from Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, IN, to its current location at Fort George Meade, MD.

If you really like this article, go ahead, buy me a coffee. ← Click here.

Copyright © 2022, Julius Evans, All Rights Reserved.