As everyone in the country saw last night, football is a team sport and no one person can will or lose a game.
In everyday life, we all depend on strangers to some degree, whether it’s the waiter serving food or other people at work doing their job so I can do mine.
Recently, there’s been some news that highlights the goodness in strangers but also raise interesting questions about whether we want to rely on others.
There was the story of the hard working family trying to achieve the American dream traveling to practice their faith. By all accounts, they represented a typical family.
Until a thick fog descended on the highway they were on.
Their story is here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teen-crash-survivor-lost-entire-family-car-wreck-won-t-face-deportation-undocumented-immigrant-article-1.1015644
Closer to home, there is the story of the popular middle school teacher and high school lacrosse coach doing a simple everyday thing – carrying a tray of drinking glasses.
One ruptured herniated disk later, life is completely different for this family and community.
His story is here:
http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_19826069?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com
(On a personal note, I’ve heard a lot about this story. My son goes to this middle school, though he didn’t have this teacher. And my older son attends the high school, and I am an alumnus of the high school.)
In both cases, fundraisers were organized to help the families and at least in the case of the teacher, I know that many people attended the events. I’m sure with the help of national news outlets, much support will go to the surviving daughter.
Now, I have no idea how these families handled their finances. But this does raise some interesting financial AND non-financial questions.
For example, who will now take care of the teenage daughter? Where will she live and what becomes of her after high school? And specifically mentioned in the article was the fact that she has no health insurance but already has had a surgery. Who’s picking up that tab?
For the teacher, how has life changed since the injury? What sacrifices has the wife had to make with her own business to help her husband with recovery? What if he is permanently disabled and can’t get back to teaching and coaching? If he carried the health insurance and can’t get back to work, what will they do then?
Besides the immediate families themselves, when tragedy strikes there is a ripple effect. Now other family or friends have to step in, which in turn impacts their lives to some degree.
Asked when everyone is calm, I’m sure family and friends will say that of course they will help. But accidents have a habit of happening at inconvenient times. Would those people have the time, skill or financial ability to help when an accident happens?
What about next year? Would the families get this kind of support next year? Most media I know tend not to report on year old news. It just doesn’t have the same type of impact.
And what if no one helped out or attended the fundraisers? What would the families do then?
While we can’t account for everything, there are some risks in life that we can plan for. And these stories illustrate the importance of planning when things are fine so there aren’t questions when things aren’t fine.
What would you do if these things happened to you?
How many people would go to your benefit fundraiser?
Do you want to rely on them?
Answer to last week’s trivia question - A – 1 in 3. The Great Recession and stock market performance have really impacted how people view retirement. Some of this change is because people don’t view retirement the same way. But most is due to the fact that the typical retirement nest egg is cracked. After all, “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
This week’s trivia question – According to the US Treasury Department, for fiscal year 2012, the expected budget deficit is $1 trillion. For every $1 of expected tax revenue, how much is being spent? Is it…
A - $1.05
B - $1.12
C - $1.28
D - $1.37
