We welcomed Donna & Russell from Carroll Community Bank. To reposition the bank and offer more benefits to customers, or potential customers, Carroll Community Bank is offering a great stock option program, as well as an increase in lending options. Holding stock in local businesses is a great way to stimulate local economy. Everyone’s situation is different and you should also review any stock options with a professional.

It is very important to understand the importance of a community bank. Donna believes that the best part of a community bank, is having customers or investors who live in Carroll County. Their projects and businesses are all local and it is easier to assess and help the situation. Different from a nationwide bank, Carroll Community Bank knows the details of the area and how to grow THIS community. They can also decide what fees they want to inflict on their local consumers. Large companies contemplate fees such as debit card fees and other new fees, branches of nationwide bank have no control over what they must charge. Community banks have more control over decisions that impact customers.

Next week, we welcome our 100^th guest to the Buzz! We are excited to hit this milestone and we will be talking about all of our wonderful past guests.  And we will welcome Commissioner Rothschild as our 100^th guest on the show.

October 16-October 22 is National Saving for Retirement Week! You have got to prepare yourself for the future and there are so many changing uncertain ways, making it more important to be able to retire independently. Its amazing the amount of money that you can accumulate if you plan ahead. Even saving $10 a week, over 40 years, can give you the means to cushion your retirement. There are different stages in retirement to keep in mind and plan for. Having a game plan is always key, know when you are planning on retiring, what do you want to do, where do you want to live, etc. Circumstances always change, but having a plan will put you ahead. Factors like social security, health care coverage and medical needs are something you have to always keep in mind.

Above all else, you want to strive towards financial independence.

We had a great LIVE show on-location at Maggie’s in Westminster! We wanted to address all the uncertainties in the economy and also answer any questions that may be out there concerning the current market. Our first guest to join us was Kevin McIntyre, Economic Professor at McDaniel College. Kevin joined us on the show last year and made a prediction about what the state of the economy would be like this year. His prediction – it will be BAD. He was right. 

Going forward, he is slightly more optimistic about 2012, because of the new election. It will relieve some uncertainty and will unveil decisions that will be made to move forward. The federal deficits have been revealed and hopefully, there will be actions made.

One of the biggest negative impacts is the job market. Unless the government is creating an environment that businesses can be successful, businesses won’t be able to grow, expand and increase positions.  These types of uncertainties are what keep businesses (and the economy) in jeopardy. Also,

despite a few positive things going on, such as low interest rates and the decrease in housing pricing, the uncertainty that lingers has not helped sustain the real-estate market.

Our next guests was Delegate Justin Ready, serving district 5A which includes, Westminster, Manchester, Finksburg, Hampstead & Silver Run. Delegate Ready explained that issues such as re-districting and tax increases that may directly affect our area. He and his colleagues are fighting to  keep tax payers and business owners as a priority. He also is fighting to keep unemployment rates in check to help business owners.  

He, with the support of the community and followers, was able to petition over 100,000 votes to help fight the legalization of in state tuition for illegal immigrants. The bill will be on the ballad for voters to vote for the bill. Delegate Justin Ready is confident that we can stop the bill because our budget simply cannot handle the magnitude of costs this will create. Ready believes that we need more business owners or people with experience working in a small business or running a small business in office that will fully understand the way to help/hurt business owners.  Go to www.justinready.com for more information about your representative in the House of Representatives!

Maggie’s owner, Jim Brewer joined us for the last segment to explain how stressful for small business owners to think about taking care of employees in such a low economy right now. Generating business doesn’t just affect him , but the other 60 employees that he has. By developing monthly specials and events, he can bring in diners in affordable ways for both the customers and the restaurant.  Steve explained how important it is to spend local. Visit locally owned and operated businesses to keep Carroll County thriving!

 We welcomed Tom Canon to the show to discuss all the details about the upcoming Westminster Fall Fest.  The annual Fall Fest runs from Thursday – Sunday over the last weekend in September each year. It’s a great way to stimulate downtown Westminster’s economy for local businesses, each year, over 40,000 people visit Westminster to attend or be a part of the Fall Fest.

Thursday always features the parade which kicks off the fest. Main Street is lined with spectators and volunteers for the event. Friday is always Midnight Madness for downtown shops, they have huge sales and stay open until 12am for excited shoppers to visit. It’s a great way to draw traffic to locally owned businesses and shops. Saturday and Sunday are the biggest days for the vendors, carnival rides, games and food suppliers/restaurants. Fall Fest is the largest event of the year in Westminster.

This month is life insurance awareness month. It is so important to have sufficient life insurance for you and your family. It is something that many people put off and wait until it is too late. If you do have life insurance, it is also important to annually review your current policy.

Examples of Why It is Important to Get a Policy Review:

1. Make sure you have enough – you can never leave your loved ones with “too much” but you can leave behind a shortage to cover expenses.
2. 1035 exchanges
3. Kill two birds with one stone
4. Update/review health insurance coverage in the process
5. Avoid waiting too long
6. Estate taxes are important to have and understand now

For our last show before the summer break, we were joined by Joe DiMaggio, Senior Vice President at Kelly & Associates and group health care consultant. Health care right now is having a major impact on the economy, which is what we wanted to discuss with Joe. At Kelly & Associates, they work with companies to set up group coverage and other services. One important task is to keep clients aware of the current state. With the Obama-care, Joe and his team has had to help customers navigate and understand the changes. It has made the insurance world much more difficult to follow and there are many uncertainties. The Obama-care changes have NOT made insurance more affordable. It increases costs and decrease the level of care. Mandates are going to be outrageous and include many unnecessary requirements.

Insurance companies pay the majority of medical costs in the US. People don’t know the actual cost of screenings, tests, exams, etc. because most just pay a small dollar amount co-pay. But when government starts to mandate health care coverage and requiring “one size fits all” products will waste money and increase costs. Someone in their 20’s doesn’t need extensive cancer testing or other screenings needed by someone in their 50’s or older. It will cause insurance companies to increase because of costs of unneeded procedures.

Group billing was created for individuals to be put together to qualify for the group rates. Age and health conditions are huge factors, so keeping a leveled, fair “pool” can be an issue. Another change was the movement to allow adults to stay on their parents’ health care coverage until the age of 26, regardless of marital status or career status.

Question from a caller: what is going to happen when someone new takes office and doesn’t agree with the ObamaCare system and the health care reform? It would take time to unwind it if someone takes office that doesn’t agree with it, but it will take time to change and will need the funding to do so. For the sake of the nation, changes need to happen sooner to stop the uncertainties before they are in place.

For information about health care options, you can call Kelly & Associates at 410-527-3400.

Biggest Mistakes Made Regarding Financial Planning:

1. Deferring saving for retirement to pay for other things
2.  Failing to plan for the impact of aging – physical restrictions and medical costs
3.  Not updating beneficiaries
4.  Fail to communicate within your family about money
5.  Avoiding to create/sticking to a budget
6. Making investment decisions based upon emotions
7. Neglecting to periodically conducting a risk management review