3 Things 6-28

06/28/2021 Although MAS is a financial services company, not everything published herein will be about numbers or investing. But no matter the topic, we hope for three things: 1) That you find the time you spend engaged worthwhile. 2) That you’ll reach out to us for help in any of our areas of expertise if something we discuss creates an urging in you to do so. 3) That you’ll share this with somebody new each time you read it. Thing One If You Haven’t Shopped Your Insurance In A While, Do It Now “Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more”. We’ve all heard the ubiquitous GEICO tagline that reminds us that we should shop our insurance routinely. But the statistics tell us that most people don’t. In fact, one survey put the ratio of people who shop their insurance at just 16.8%. Now as for the reasons that Americans don’t shop around, financial experts cite the hurdles that come with it. According to one financial website, 88% of drivers find shopping for car insurance to be a frustrating experience with 50% saying that it’s too time consuming, 33% saying it’s hard to compare prices and 5% saying they don’t trust the advertised prices and have privacy concerns. So instead of going through the hassle, they stick with whatever they have. The problem with that approach? Not shopping around is a very costly mistake. The average annual savings that drivers get by switching to a new insurer is $387, according to J.D. Power. That means the average driver who hasn’t switched car insurance companies in 12 years will waste more than $4,600 on auto insurance over that period. The solution, of course, is a simple one - shop often. The rule of thumb among consumer advocates is that you should review your policies against other offerings every year. As an independent insurance agency, with access to multiple carriers, we happen to know just the place for you to get started with your shopping. Click here or visit mannadvisor.com and click on the insurance quotes link. Be sure to get at least three different quotes and make sure the liability limits, deductibles, etc., are the same so you can be certain you’re comparing apples to apples. And if it gets to be frustrating at any point, call us at 706 250 0085, email us at info@mannadvisor.com or fill out a contact form and well get in touch with you.

Thing Two Friedman's Four Things Explains Poor Public Education Milton Friedman, a renowned economist and author once explained that there are four different ways to spend money: 1) You can spend your own money on yourself. If you spend your own money on yourself, you’re very careful about what you spend it on. You make sure you get the most for your dollar. (Like you would if you hired MAS to help you with investing, insurance, etc.,) 2) You can spend your own money on someone else. When you spend your own money on someone else, you’re careful not to spend too much. You don’t worry as much about the gifts you buy for other people as the things you buy for yourself. (Like the Christmas gift you buy for someone from the clearance rack) 3) You can spend somebody else’s money on yourself. You’re careful to get good things for the money. But you’re not very worried about getting the best bang for your buck. You’re happier to spend more of somebody else’s money within reason. (Like the fancy meal you purchase at the fancy hotel you select when you know your company will reimburse you) 4) You can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. You become a “distributor of welfare funds.” You’re interested in making your own life as good as you can. But you’re not going to be anywhere near as careful as spending this money on other people. (Like the government officials who collect tax revenue and then spend it on public education for the masses) Friedman constructed a simple matrix (below) with the four categories and pointed out what will be obvious to anyone willing to spend a few minutes thinking about it: money spent in the top left quadrant (item 1 above) is the best spent with the best outcomes while money spent in the bottom right quadrant (item 4) is the poorest and most wasteful of all spending. While not many of us are unfamiliar with the generally dismal state of public education, our problem attribution tends to align with our political leanings. But if we set politics aside and consider Friedman’s matrix – honestly – it’s hard not to see it as yet another argument for more choice in education. And even if we end up spending the same amount of money being spent today, which is possible but not likely due to the benefits of competition, we should put that money directly into the hands of the consumers of education and let them make the purchase decisions for themselves. The suppliers of education would then be properly motivated to deliver the quality that is so sorely needed. By the way, for anybody who remembers the Ad Council’s old war-on-drugs commercial from the 1980s, you might agree that Friedman’s theory could easily be updated and repurposed with the appropriate image of a pile of money going up in smoke: “This is your money. This is your money being spent by other people, on other people. Any questions?”

Thing Three Just A Thought “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled” - Mark Twain