Hamilton Insurance Group - Q3 2020

Hamilton Insurance Group - Q3 2020

THE SILVER LINING To Your Life & Health

770-744-1855

THE BEST SPLURGE I EVER MADE

I learned not too long ago that there’s

later, though. I kept the house all through college until I moved away to San Diego to pursue my MBA. During that time, I leased the house out to renters. I had some bad tenants at one point, and nearly lost the house, but thankfully, I was able to get it back to the point where I could resell it. After I finished my MBA, I moved back to Atlanta with plans to ask my then girlfriend (now wife) to marry me. There was just one problem: I had no idea how I was going to afford the ring. That was where the house I had bought during my college years came in handy. After refinancing the house, I walked away with $38,000 cash in my hand. From there, I went straight to Tiffany’s and bought a ring to propose to Mignon with. Obviously, she said yes, and we’ve now been married almost 18 years. I should say that I did not spend all $38,000 on my wife’s ring — but what I did pay was still probably the biggest splurge I’ve ever made. I had known her since I was 10 years old, and we had been dating since we were 16. I felt justified in getting a ring that was a little extra special, and to this day, I do not regret it. Every time I see that ring on Mignon’s finger, I’m reminded of the best splurge I ever made.

actually a little-known holiday called National Splurge Day. It’s a day for saying to heck with smart diets and smart budget choices, and maybe making that big-ticket purchase you’ve been eyeing for a while now. When I learned that National Splurge Day existed, I immediately thought of one of the biggest splurges I ever made — and how I don’t regret making it for even a second. When I was a freshman in college, my dad recommended that I get my real estate license. Even though I spent my freshman year at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, I ended up transferring to Morehouse College back in Atlanta after that. That’s where I first put my real estate license to good use. I bought my first house when I was just 19 years old. It was in a pretty nice part of Atlanta, and I only paid $57,000 for it, if you can believe that. If only you could get a house for that cheap now! While it was a big purchase, that house is not the big splurge I mentioned earlier. It did help me afford the splurge a few years

As for the rest of that $38,000, I can’t remember what I did with it. I must have spent it somewhere, but buying Mignon’s ring dwarfed any other purchase I might have made in terms of importance. Lately however, she has been wanting to upgrade her ring. I don’t have another house to refinance at this point, though, so we’ll have to see!

–Duane Hamilton 1 770-744-1855

Feeling Renewed at Any Age

sometimes they also come with heavy baggage. The loss of a loved one, trauma, and other struggles can impact your life in later years. This is why it’s good to practice mindfulness. Take some time to focus on the present. Go for a walk and listen to the world around you, feel the fresh air against your skin, fill your lungs, and take in everything you can see. Meditation is also a good way to spend a few minutes to focus on your body in the moment and the things in life that make you happy. Practices like these can help you feel lighter, both physically and emotionally. Growing older doesn’t mean you can’t feel renewed and positive. This isn’t just an impossible idea — it’s a reality.

Adopt a new activity. As you get older, it’s not uncommon to drift further from the lifestyle you had in your 20s and 30s. Things have settled down, and you know a bit more about who you are, what you enjoy, and what you’re capable of. With this better understanding, you can make choices more aligned with your true interests and personality. Think about getting involved with a new activity you may have always wanted to try but never had the chance, like yoga or even a video game. Trying out new things keeps your brain active. You may even discover a new favorite activity along the way! Pay attention to mental health. Although more years provide more experience and knowledge,

If the mercurial spring weather has prevented you from getting out as much as you would have liked these past few months, you might be feeling a bit of cabin fever about now. Luckily, you can still introduce positive changes to your life that help you feel healthier and younger. Here are two ways to awaken your body and mind.

The Top 3 Craziest Insurance Policies

When you buy insurance, you’re essentially betting that sometime in your future, something will go wrong and you’ll have to pay for it somehow. Typically, people buy insurance to protect themselves from the financial ramifications of auto wrecks, serious injuries, or home invasions, to name a few unfortunate circumstances. However, some people out there have bet on much more outlandish and unique scenarios — and created insurance policies to match. Taste Bud Insurance This insurance policy brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “putting your money where your mouth is.” While most people can’t imagine a reason to ever get this type of insurance, it makes sense if you’re a superstar in a very niche career field: food criticism. Egon Ronay, a world- famous critic of British and Irish

restaurants, insured his taste buds for $400,000 in 1957, following the release of the first edition of his guide to British eateries.

Alien Abduction Insurance This insurance policy is truly out of this world. All bad puns aside, tens of thousands of people in the United States and Europe supposedly have policies that can allow them to financially recover from an alien abduction — whatever that means. While there have been no independently confirmed alien abductions in the history of the human race, perhaps some people believe you can’t be too careful. While you’ll probably never need any of these types of insurance, it’s still good to know you can tailor your insurance policy to address any misfortune you might encounter in your life — even if those misfortunes revolve around food and beverages too hot to eat, razors, or UFOs.

Mustache Insurance For some certain famous individuals, certain parts of their appearance can become inseparable from the person themselves — to the point where separating them could cost that famous person dearly. Cricket star Merv Hughes certainly thought along those lines in the 1990s when he insured his trademark mustache for $377,000. That way, if he ever somehow lost his ’stache, he could at least make some cash.

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T he WWII V eteran W ho E scaped H is N ursing H ome

The Allied invasion of Normandy, France, during WWII is one of the largest scale military assaults in history. Over 156,000 Allied troops stormed five beaches along the coast of northwestern France on June 6, 1944, and began to turn the tide of the war. In the decades that have followed, various D-Day celebrations have taken place on June 6 all over Europe and the United States, commemorating the successful invasion and the role those brave veterans who were a part of it played in defeating Nazi Germany. For those D-Day veterans who are still alive, being a part of those celebrations is incredibly important. One nursing home found that out the hard way six years ago when one of their residents — an 89-year-old D-Day veteran — suddenly went missing on June 5, only to turn up in Normandy on June 6, taking part in events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Staff at a nursing home in Hove, Sussex, United Kingdom, were alarmed when Bernard “Bernie” Jordan, a former Royal Navy Officer, did not return from his trip into town on the morning of June 5, 2014. It turned out later that

he hadn’t planned on returning that day, but instead had secretly donned his war medals underneath his raincoat and taken a ferry across the English Channel to Normandy, to join his fellow veterans in Normandy for the ceremonies. He had gone out in secret because his nursing home had initially told him he couldn’t go. The nursing home received a phone call later that evening from another veteran, who said he had joined Jordan on the ferry, and they were both safe and sound at a hotel in France. Later on, some of Jordan’s friends said they would make sure he returned safely back to the nursing home when the ceremonies were done. To be fair, the nursing home staff should have figured that if the Germans couldn’t keep him out of Normandy, they probably couldn’t either.

Now is a great time to do benefit review. With all the uncertainty going around, the one thing you should not be uncertain about is your benefits. When things get back to normal you should be in a position to maximize your benefits. The best part is we can do this over the phone. Call today to schedule your over-the- phone benefit review. We would love to hear from you! 770-744-1855

We’ve Moved Our new office is located at: 1201 Peachtree Street NE Building 400, Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30361 Brand new location, same excellent service!

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1201 Peachtree Street NE Building 400, Suite 100, Atlanta, GA 30361

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770-744-1855

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The Best Splurge I Ever Made

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How to Feel Renewed at Any Age The Top 3 Craziest Insurance Policies The WWII Veteran Who Escaped His Nursing Home We’ve Moved!

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Care for a Pepsi, Comrade?

HISTORY OF THE PEPSI FLEET

Coke or Pepsi? This is one of the oldest brand wars in the world, but these days, most of us are willing to settle for whichever soda is available. But if you happened to be in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, Pepsi was the soda of choice. The Soviets loved Pepsi so much that they were willing to make PepsiCo a naval superpower in order to get more of that refreshing, sugary beverage. In 1972, PepsiCo secured a deal to sell Pepsi syrup to the USSR, where it would be bottled locally. Not only did this deal make Pepsi the first Western product to be sold in the USSR, but it also locked The Coca-Cola Company out of the market, giving PepsiCo a monopoly. But before the deal could be finalized, the Soviets needed to figure out how to pay for the cola syrup. Rubles, the Soviet currency, were worthless internationally. To get around this, the Soviets traded Stolichnaya vodka in exchange for the cola. This deal was great for both parties until the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the United States boycotted Soviet products, including vodka. If the USSR wanted to keep its supply of sweet cola, then they would need to give PepsiCo

something else. That’s when the Soviets offered up part of their naval fleet. In exchange for $3 billion worth of Pepsi, the Soviet Union traded 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer. This trade made PepsiCo the sixth most powerful naval military in the world. The deal was reported in a 1989 New York Times article, which included a quote from the CEO of PepsiCo to the United States’ national security advisor: “We’re disarming the Soviet Union faster than you are.” PepsiCo quickly sold the fleet to a Swedish company for scrap recycling, but for a few days, Pepsi had the potential to become the ultimate victor in the cola wars.

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