We all know that we need to plan for our financial future. Sometimes, though, the thought of even getting started can be overwhelming, and cause people to put it off. When it comes to planning, time is the best friend of your money, so it’s important that you start planning as soon as possible. Let’s look at some basic tasks you should be tackling to give yourself a more solid financial foundation.

Investing in your employer-provided retirement plan is one of the simplest steps you can take. Since your contributions come directly out of your paycheck, many people find it easier to save because they don’t actually have to write a check, and the savings feels more automatic. 

If your company’s plan offers matching contributions, you’ll want to be sure to contribute at least enough to take advantage of the full match. The company match is free money and is often as much as an extra three or four percent of your earnings!

If you’re confused about which investment options to select within your plan, speak with your financial advisor who can help you make sense of your choices. If you don’t have an advisor, many plan providers will offer one-on-one consultations over the phone, or at your worksite. You may also want to consider the so-called “target date funds” that many plans now offer. These funds are intended to become less aggressive as your get closer to retirement, and can be a good choice for people who want a simple solution.

Each time you get a pay increase, consider increasing the percentage of your salary that goes into your retirement plan. Doing this before you’ve allocated these new funds to your budget, can help you put more away without noticing it. 

While saving for retirement is an obvious need, protecting what you’ve got is often overlooked. When we feel healthy, the thought of a long-term disability or premature death seems like remote possibility. Insurance certainly isn’t sexy, but it’s a necessary part of your financial plan. 

Your employer may offer long-term disability and life insurance coverage at rates that may be less expensive than a policy you could purchase privately. Review these coverage options and select one that protects your income stream from the possibility that your become unable to work. Likewise, explore life insurance options that protect your family in the event of your premature death. 

If your employer doesn’t offer adequate insurance coverage, then work with an independent insurance agent who can help you explore options that fit you needs and your budget.

Employers continue to recognize the importance of workplace benefits in the lives of their employees, and often provide important options that you may not even realize are available. Take the time to discuss with your human resources team to find out what you may be missing. These options can go a long way toward helping you create a firm financial foundation.

Stephen Kyne is a Partner at Sterling Manor Financial, LLC in Saratoga Springs. Securities offered through Cadaret, Grant & Co., Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Sterling Manor Financial, LLC, or Cadaret Grant & Co., Inc., SEC registered investment advisors. Sterling Manor Financial and Cadaret Grant are separate entities

A moving GoFundMe campaign raises $10,000+ in two weeks.

Alyssa Lewis, 29, of Mechanicville, was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant. 

It has been a harrowing ordeal for Alyssa and her husband, Dustin, compounded by the fact that cancer treatments are expensive. They have been unsure how to make it through. Now, the community has stepped up to help. 

In just two weeks, they have raised $10,333 through a heartfelt GoFundMe campaign, surpassing their $10,000 goal. 

When the Unthinkable Happens

During her first trimester, Alyssa experienced slight pain and found a lump in her breast. Convinced it was harmless, she tried not to worry. 

Except for awful nausea, Alyssa’s pregnancy went relatively smoothly, at first. As her breasts swelled, pain increased. She convinced herself these were normal changes until, at 37 weeks pregnant, she finally mentioned the lump to her obstetrician. The biopsy confirmed it was cancerous.

“I’m young, generally healthy, with no breast cancer history… how could this have happened?” Alyssa wondered. 

To begin the cancer treatments as soon as possible, Alyssa was scheduled for an induction the day before her due date. There were complications. After 10 hours of labor, and with the baby’s heart-rate dropping, a C-Section was performed. On May 4th, a healthy baby girl, Harlow, 6lbs 5 oz, 19-inches, was born. 

Several weeks later, imaging detected Alyssa also has a cancerous lymph node. The hormones surging through Alyssa’s body during pregnancy fed the aggressive, fast-growing Stage 2 tumor.  

“The biggest thing I’m afraid of is, unfortunately, I could be losing my life, my daughter could be losing her mother, and my husband could be losing his wife,” said Alyssa.

Help for Today, Hope for Tomorrow

Today, Alyssa’s chemotherapy treatments have begun. Surgery will follow and with it, radiation, and long-term hormone therapy medications. 

Unsure of how much the out-of-pocket costs for all this will amount to, Alyssa and Dustin know they are substantial. They are struggling to keep up financially. Also, Alyssa does not have life insurance.

In addition to the typical expenses of all new parents, Harlow must be fed exclusively with formula (costs only partially covered by WIC assistance). The couple, married since 2018, also care for three cats; Mittens, Scarlet, and Xena. Medical copays and the cost of transportation for treatments are adding up. 

On June 13, they launched a GoFundMe campaign. In less than three days, they reached 50% of their $10,000 goal. Within the week, they received nearly $7,500 in donations. 

“We live a private life, have a small circle of friends, and aren’t on social media. That so many people would help – words can’t express what I’m feeling,” said Alyssa, adding, “It’s definitely given me a new sense of strength I didn’t have before. In the beginning, it was hard to feel that way.” 

Immeasurably grateful, this support has pushed Alyssa into a place of empowerment, allowing her the grace to advocate for young breast cancer patients like herself. 

“Seeing the outpouring of support from friends, family, everyone (even strangers!) really has pushed me forward. I have a new sense of wanting to make a difference for others in my condition.”

Alyssa has joined a cancer support group, is participating in a clinical study to test the current standard of care (saving future patients from the awful side-effects of ineffective treatments) and is advocating for more rigorous cancer prevention measures for pregnant women. 

To read more of Alyssa Lewis’ story and contribute, visit gofund.me/77515d0c. 

If you would prefer to send a gift, visit amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/UK5AIRU4Z1PA

Did you know there’s an organization with a .gov web site called “National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse”? 

I sometimes get the feeling from my newsfeed and social media that terms like “mother” and “father” are increasingly considered by some to be outmoded and insensitive — characteristics that the U.S. government doesn’t want to be associated with — and yet, this organization has a .gov address! A .gov URL is considered to signify “trustworthy” and “legitimate” and “unbiased” for those writing academic papers (high school and college students are taught that when using the internet for their research papers, .gov web sites are “good” sources). Indeed, the web site for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse web site (fatherhood.gov) says that it’s “an official U.S. Government Web site managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services” and that the organization itself is “an Office of Family Assistance (OFA) funded national resource for fathers, practitioners, programs/Federal grantees, states, and the public at-large who are serving or interested in supporting strong fathers and families.”

I’m definitely interested in supporting strong fathers and families! I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I spend a great amount of time in mothers-only or mothers-predominate arenas (literature, online sites, my daily goings-on with my kids) and will defend with my dying breath the need for mothers, but I want you to know that I feel the same way about fathers! 

One of the things I loved reading on fatherhood.gov is that research shows “fathers tend to be more involved in play than mothers.” I fully admit this is true in our house! Additionally, “they tend to play differently than mothers do — engaging in more physical and challenging games and encouraging independence and risk-taking.” Again, true in our house! It reminds me of a funny story from when my biggest boys were tiny: we were visiting one of my dear friends from college, and her mother was there, too, whom I love. My husband was playing outside with our boys and my friend’s mom got my attention in a conspiratorial sort of way and said with a straight face while chopping vegetables in the kitchen, being careful not to look at me while she was saying it, something like, “I just want to let you know your husband is tossing your son in the air.” Or something like that! I can’t remember the exact details now, fifteen years later, but it made me laugh so hard at the time and it has made me laugh all these years — I loved every detail of that interaction, how she was so serious about letting me know that my husband was playing far too roughly with the boys, and how she even made it seem like she was risking it all to pass along this vital information. It is true, though, that my boys and their dad love doing things that I would never feel comfortable doing.

Another thing I loved reading on the site is that “[p]ositive father involvement has been associated again and again with better social, emotional, and cognitive outcomes for children at all ages. … it is correlated with higher self-esteem, emotional security, academic achievement, school readiness, and math and verbal skills.” Read that again, Dads: it is important and necessary for your kids’ well-being for you to be there, and for you to be a good father. “Present” and “good.” 

We all know “present” isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons, and even “good” can be defined in different ways that are “shaped by cultural and demographic factors,” as the web site noted, which is important to remember. Fatherhood.gov offers “positive engagement” (“direct interaction with children, including caregiving and activities”), “accessibility” (“availability to children”), and “responsibility” (“participation in decision-making and ensuring that children are cared for”) as three ways in which dads can and should be involved with their children whenever possible.

We all also know that there are many children who are growing up and have grown up without a good and present father, my own husband being one of them. His dad, who was a wonderful man by all accounts, died when my husband was too small to really remember what it was like to have a dad around, and his mom did a bang-up job teaching him how to be a good man and father, so I can see all is not lost when the ideal isn’t met. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important to strive for the ideal! Men: try your hardest, within your circumstances and your abilities, to give your children the best possible chance at a healthy and successful life. I’m beyond grateful that my dad did so for my siblings and me, and that my husband is doing so for our children. 

In an article from 2000 — one that would no longer pass muster in academic writing, unfortunately, because it was published too long ago, but which I thought still offered some good things — Stephen Duncan, Ph.D., a Family & Human Development Specialist associated with Montana State University Extension Service, wrote in an article entitled “The Importance of Fathers” that fathers are not “optional family baggage” and that there “is a clear message out there: Dad, you ought to be a more nurturing and involved father and Mom, you need to let Dad get involved.” I will absolutely toast to all that, and I hope all you good dads have a very happy Father’s Day!

Kate and her husband have seven sons ages 18, 16, 14, 13, 11, 9, and 4. Email her at kmtowne23@gmail.com.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a problem of the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand. CTS occurs when the median nerve gets compressed in the carpal tunnel, a narrow tunnel at the wrist made up of bones and soft tissue. Nerves, tendons, and blood vessels travel through this tunnel, which when compressed may result in pain, weakness and/or numbness in the hand and wrist, radiating into the forearm. CTS is the most common of the entrapment neuropathies—compression or trauma of the body’s nerves in the hands or feet.

CTS typically occurs in adults, with women three times more likely to develop it than men. The dominant hand is usually affected first, and the pain is typically severe. CTS is especially common in assembly-line workers in manufacturing, sewing, finishing, cleaning, meat packing and similar industries.

What Are the Symptoms?

Burning, tingling, itching and/or numbness in the thumb, index and middle fingers are common CTS symptoms. Some people with CTS say that their fingers feel useless and swollen, even though little or no swelling is apparent. Since many people sleep with flexed wrists, the symptoms often first appear while sleeping. As symptoms worsen, people may feel tingling during the day. In addition, weakened grip strength may make it difficult to form a fist or grasp small objects. Some people develop wasting of the muscles at the base of the thumb. Some are unable to distinguish hot from cold by touch.

Why Does CTS Develop?

Some people have smaller carpal tunnels than others, which makes the median nerve compression more likely. In others, CTS can develop because of an injury to the wrist that causes swelling, overactivity of the pituitary gland, hypothyroidism, diabetes, inflammatory arthritis, mechanical problems in the wrist joint, poor work ergonomics, repeated use of vibrating hand tools, and fluid retention during pregnancy or menopause.

How Is It Diagnosed?

CTS should be diagnosed and treated early. A standard physical examination of the hands, arms, shoulders and neck can help determine if your symptoms are related to daily activities or to an underlying disorder. Your doctor of chiropractic can use other specific tests to try to produce the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The most common are:

• Phalens Test: Place your knuckles together and point your fingers downward, hold 30-60 seconds.

• Carpal Compression Test: Moderate pressure is applied with both thumbs directly on the carpal tunnel and underlying median nerve at the transverse carpal ligament.

Laboratory tests and x-rays can reveal diabetes, arthritis, fractures and other common causes of wrist and hand pain. Sometimes electrodiagnostic tests, such as nerve conduction testing, are used to help confirm the diagnosis. With these tests, small electrodes placed on your skin measure the speed at which electrical impulses travel across your wrist. CTS will slow the speed of the impulses and will confirm the diagnosis.

What Is the Treatment for CTS?

Initial therapy includes:

• Resting the affected hand and wrist.

• Avoiding activities that may worsen symptoms.

• Immobilizing the wrist in a splint to avoid further damage from twisting or bending.

• Applying cool packs to help reduce swelling from inflammation.

Some medications can help with pain control and inflammation. Studies have shown that vitamin B6 supplements may relieve CTS symptoms.

Chiropractic joint manipulation and mobilization of the wrist and hand, stretching and strengthening exercises, soft-tissue mobilization techniques, and even yoga can be helpful. Scientists are also investigating other therapies, such as acupuncture, that may help prevent and treat this disorder.

Occasionally, patients whose symptoms fail to respond to conservative care may require surgery. The surgeon will release the ligament covering the carpal tunnel. The majority of patients recover completely after treatment, and the recurrence rate is low. Guidance on posture and movement, as instructed by your chiropractor, can also help prevent CTS recurrences.

How Can CTS Be Prevented?

The American Chiropractic Association suggests the following CTS prevention strategies:

• Perform on-the-job conditioning, such as stretching and light exercises every hour.

• Take frequent rest breaks.

• Wear splints to help keep the wrists straight.

• Use fingerless gloves to help keep the hands warm and flexible.

• Use correct posture and wrist position.

• To minimize workplace injuries, jobs can be rotated among workers. Employers can also develop programs in ergonomics, which is the process of adapting workplace conditions and job demands to workers’ physical capabilities.

Please feel free to stop by our office for a complimentary handout of carpel tunnel syndrome stretches and exercises.

Dr. Matt Smith is a chiropractor in Saratoga Springs providing non- surgical treatment of spinal disorders and sports-related injuries. For more information, please visit MySaratogaChiropractor.com or call 518-587-2064.

Life insurance isn’t sexy, but it’s an important component of nearly everyone’s financial plan. When death interrupts life, it provides a blanket of security that allows survivors to, well, survive.

As a Certified Financial Planner®, I find that many people are confused about what kind of life insurance they should have. At its core, insurance falls into two categories: permanent and term.

The type of insurance you have depends on your anticipated need. If you feel your need for insurance will be permanent, meaning you’ll need it whether you die today or at age 95, then permanent insurance should be considered. Most people, however, only need life insurance to cover a specific period of time, making term insurance a preferable option.

Let’s take a closer look:

Term insurance is intended to cover a basic need: to replace the economic loss resulting from a death during a specific period of time. It sounds clinical, but that’s all it is. For example, if I have a child today, I may want to purchase a 25-year term policy to ensure that, if I were to pass away before that child became independent, there would be sufficient assets to provide for my child. Once the child has left home, the need may no longer exist and the insurance term expires. 

With term insurance, you’re only paying for what you need, when you need it. Because of that, the premiums are much lower, relative to many permanent forms of insurance. 

Permanent life insurance is intended to cover a permanent need. The most frequent permanent needs I encounter are: 

1. Estate planning: In order to provide for liquidity at death, or to create a tax-free estate at death, permanent life insurance strategies can be utilized. 

2. Pension replacement: In the event one spouse elected a single-life only pension, a permanent insurance policy can be used to replace the pension in the event of the pensioner’s death. 

In both of these circumstances, a permanent insurance policy is used simply because the insurance need exists for an unknown period of time. It would be unwise to use a term policy in these instances. 

Many people have been sold permanent insurance policies who may not have had a permanent need, on the premise that permanent insurance can build cash value against which tax-free loans can be taken in the future. Truth be told, in my nearly twenty years in private practice, I’ve never encountered a person who funded their retirement using their life insurance cash value. 

This is true for a variety of reasons. 

In order to grow significant cash value, the policy premiums needed are significantly higher than just the cost of insurance (which is all you pay in a term policy). While many people are well-intentioned on the front-end, life happens, and very often people reduce the amount they pay into their policies, which dramatically affects the policy’s performance. 

Another reason these policies often don’t live up to expectations is that life insurance agents may use unrealistic assumptions when illustrating future policy performance. 

The only time I see permanent insurance work as a savings vehicle, is for a client whose cash flow is such that they have maximized contributions to every other retirement savings vehicle, and still have significant money they need to sock away.  So, if you’ve exhausted your ability to contribute to your 401k, 403b, IRAs, and other retirement vehicles, then permanent insurance could be another avenue for saving.

It should be noted that some people start out with a temporary need which evolves into a need that is more permanent. Luckily, many term insurance policies are convertible into a form of permanent insurance for just this reason. 

In the battle between term and permanent, as planners, we overwhelmingly favor term insurance. It is by far the most cost-effective way to solve for a need, while preserving the option to convert to permanent insurance if the need changes. 

Your Certified Financial Planner® will be the best person to help you assess your need by helping you to understand your overall financial circumstances, and can tailor a policy to provide proper coverage. If your advisor is independent, they will also have dozens of carriers to choose from, and can help get you the most competitive rates.

Stephen Kyne, CFP® is a Partner at Sterling Manor Financial, LLC in Saratoga Springs, and Rhinebeck, NY. 

Securities offered through Cadaret, Grant & Co., Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Sterling Manor Financial, LLC, or Cadaret Grant & Co, SEC registered investment advisors. Sterling Manor Financial and Cadaret, Grant are separate entities.

I was talking to a first-time mom recently who was sure that certain things her little one is struggling with are, somehow, her fault: perhaps she didn’t play with him enough, she suggested, or spend enough one-on-one time with him. Mind you, her son is barely more than one; she and he are just out of the intense newborn/infant/first year time when there’s little else parents do than spend time with their baby. 

During that same conversation, another mom joined us — one whose kids are in college — and, though she didn’t know what we’d been talking about, she was eager to talk about motherhood with us because of us all having children. She mentioned something about how she’s sure she made so many mistakes when bringing up her kids, but they don’t seem to be “broken,” as she’d worried they might be.

A colleague of mine recently retired; I met her twenty-five years ago when she went back to work after raising a large family (her youngest was three at the time). Because of the number of kids she had, my friends and I looked to her as all-knowing about mothering, so it really made an impact on me when she replied to a coworker’s comment that she’s an expert on motherhood with, “You never become an expert.”

I’ve spent a lot of time on motherhood-focused social media and web sites over the past nineteen years and, if they are to be believed, the world is rife with mothers who don’t think they know what they’re doing, who are sure they’re doing it wrong, who are sure they’re ruining their kids somehow. Even those moms who seem super confident about their opinions and decisions struggle with this — you might not see it, but I can almost guarantee that it’s there. I’ve suffered from this quite a bit myself — there are so many things I worried about in the moment when my big boys were little (too much TV), things I wish I had given to my kids throughout my motherhood (cleaner house), and things I currently wish I could do (be at everyone’s game even though they’re all at the same time at different places). 

Though there are certainly things that mothers shouldn’t do, and legitimately bad mothers do exist, I thought that an article I read recently called “For Moms Who Worry a Lot” (2011) by Elliot Cohen, Ph.D. on the Psychology Today web site gave a good perspective: he pointed out that if you are a mother who worries, it is because “you are a very caring human being. You want to do the right thing. You want to be there for your children.” How lucky your children are to have a mother who cares about them so! He also noted that a strategy that might help if you’re feeling overwhelmed with the certainty that you are a terrible mother is to “distinguish between morally responsible decisions and ones that aren’t. In general, the former are more caring, beneficial, and respectful than the latter.” I liked this a lot, because it might help weed out worry about whether or not to introduce a sippy cup, or whether or not to sign your child up for T-ball, or whether or not your children will be traumatized by having to share a room — in general these kinds of decisions wouldn’t fall in the “moral” or “immoral” category, and I find that a very helpful way to recalibrate my thinking and reduce my worry about possibly making the wrong decision.

I read another article called “You’re Doing It All Wrong” by Natalie Nevares on the Mommywise site, which presented a helpful perspective in an ironically stern way. She wrote, “You’re wrong to expect that you’ll ever be perfect. You’re wrong to feel guilty for anything you’re not doing right. You’re wrong to think that there is any right way to mother or parent. You’re wrong to believe that self-flogging will serve you or your family in any way. The media gives you trillions of reasons to feel like a bad mom, or not good enough in myriad ways. But that doesn’t mean it’s true, or that you’re failing at anything. You’re doing your best. You’ve got a hard job, but you’re showing up every day. The only thing wrong you’re doing right now is being hard on yourself.” 

I thought these were perfect reminders for all mothers of all-aged children on Mother’s Day! As my own mom always says, “Pray and do the best you can” — it’s really that simple! I hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day!