The Scary Business You’re In
(and you don’t even know it)

There are a number of business entities. They include Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Limited Liability Company, and a dozen others. Probably the scariest business entity to be in is a partnership, because every partner is personally liable for all of the acts of the other partners. You are legally responsible to the courts, the IRS, and everyone else for something somebody else does. NOT A GOOD IDEA!!

I speak to a lot of large audiences, and if I ask how many of the audience is in a partnership, I get about 2% of the hands. Only two percent of the people think they are in a partnership. I will bet big money that there are at least 60% of the people in the room in a partnership – not 2% — yes, 60%.

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Since Thanksgiving I have been thinking. Kristy and I have so much to be grateful for. This Thanksgiving will have a lot of people thinking of their blessings that they may have taken for granted in the past. If you have a job this year, you can be grateful. So many have lost their job!! If you have a home that nobody is trying to take away from you, you can be grateful. These are the type of things that you may not have specifically included in your grateful list last year.

The times have changed. I am afraid that it will be years before we see the “good’ol days” again, if we ever see them again. Japan has been going through their “economic downturn” or “correction” for going on two decades. They even “lost” a decade along the way. With no growth they basically stood still for a decade. Their problems aren’t over yet.

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Trick or Treat? Asset protection is only good for assets. I wish there were physical protection also. The tragedies that can take away your family’s financial security come at any time and it only takes a split second. Medical problems are always one of the tragedies that are mentioned as a threat to your financial security. As you may remember, my health history is the kind that wipes out everything a family might have. This year Halloween brought us a trick, and we didn’t get a treat.

On Halloween, Kristy and I went home to eat lunch. We are having a little construction done on the house, and we walked up to see it. Our house is on a hill. Some of the construction has put loose dirt and little rocks on the front lawn. Kristy turned around to go to the house while I kept talking to the contractor. A second later she gave a low scream and I turned around to see her on the ground. She said, “I broke my leg.” I ran down and after one look, I had to agree. The foot was about 110 degrees off of where it should be. When the foot points toward the back of the leg instead of the front, there is a problem.

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