A. Ikomoni:
All right. New year, new you. It’s a phrase that you hear a lot when you we’re at the beginning of the year, but when it goes into making it a reality, it can be a little difficult.
Redrick Terry:
Oh, yeah. Physical fitness is usually near the top of the list of resolutions, but what about financial, maybe even mental? We’re covering all of those things and the first Local 4 News Over Coffee of the new year. To start it out, we’ll send it out to the Local 4 News director, Mike Mickle. He’s at the Maid-Rite on Division Street in Davenport with a group of people that may be able to help you get to some of those goals. Mike, good morning to you.
Mike Mickle:
Good morning, guys. We are at the Maid-Rite on Division Street in Davenport and for this Local 4 News Over Coffee, we’re going to talk about fitness. We’re not just talking about physical fitness. We’re going to talk financial fitness. We’re going to talk about emotional wellness, all kinds of stuff, and we have another great group of folks gathered around the table. We’re going to start with you, sir. Everybody introduce yourselves.
Todd Kersten:
My name is Todd Kersten, and I’m with Rock Valley Physical Therapy.
Dustin Hawk:
My name is Dustin Hawk, and I’m with Rock Valley Physical Therapy.
Mark Dann:
I’m Mark Dann from the Iron Horse Fitness Club, Clinton, Iowa.
Sarah Larrabee :
I’m Sarah Larrabee, and I’m from Ultimate Fitness in Bettendorf and Rock Island.
John Nelson:
I’m John Nelson, financial planner with NelsonCorp Wealth Management.
David Nelson:
David Nelson, owner of NelsonCorp Wealth Management.
Mike Mickle:
Thank you all for waking up early with us and joining us today. I’m very appreciative that you’re here. We’ve got a lot to talk about. Let’s start with, I think when most people talk, think about fitness, they start to think about physical fitness, and I’ve got to drop that 10 that 15 that 20 pounds, but they don’t necessarily maybe think about everything else that can go into that as well. How you can get healthier emotionally by getting your finances in order, and also it can help your emotional wellbeing to get your life in order and to become more physically fit as well. I’m going to start down here. Thanks for coming in from Clinton. I got to start with you. That’s quite the drive. We appreciate it. Where do we begin if we’re looking in the mirror and saying, I don’t like what I’m seeing, I don’t feel good. What’s the way to get started?
Mark Dann:
Well, that’s a great question. Actually, first step is making it through the door. Making it through the door. And when you walk into a place like that, it’s the atmosphere. People say they’re going to do it at home. That’s awesome. If they can do it at home, do it, but when you’re around other people, that’s what we’re all in that building to do.
Mike Mickle:
They push you. Sarah, having an accountability partner is not a bad thing either.
Sarah Larrabee :
It’s not a bad thing. The idea is just to create some sort of community or something that makes you feel like if you don’t come, you’re letting somebody else down. It helps push those other people to feel the same way about you. If they don’t see you there, then they want to ask, hey, are you okay? Are you feeling all right? Are you coming in? They’ll work out next time. That’s why whether or not you pick somebody to work with just by yourself or whether you decide to join a class, it just creates that there’s somebody else there that’s waiting on you that wants to see you succeed also.
Mike Mickle:
I think it’s also important to talk about how do we know when we’ve done too much? How do we keep from hurting ourselves, especially when you’re old like me?
Todd Kersten:
Well I think the thing we’ve always talked to our patients about. Again, I think a lot of people look at physical therapy is you’re going to take care of us when we’ve overdone it, had an injury. I think we get people past that phase where they’re back out on their own. The big thing I think we try and do is teach them how to manage that. And the one lesson I always try and tell … I work with a lot of runners is that listen to your body while it’s talking to you so you’re not listening to it when it’s screaming at you. You have to pay attention to what you know is a normal ache and pain versus something that you definitely need to seek medical attention for, come and see an expert for it.
Mike Mickle:
What are some of the most common injuries that you guys see coming in?
Dustin Hawk:
Anything. I mean it’s a big, big spectrum of the simple overuse injuries and that’s all body parts from your head to your toe. We see a lot of some obviously surgical candidates and so it’s hard to say which one we see the most. But I mean even simple ankle sprains, those are a very common injury that people get. I’m sure probably most of us here have even just a common ankle sprain and a lot of times you’re able to push through that, but sometimes it is better to get an expert, a health care professional to work with you and make sure that doesn’t happen in the future. Not only getting you back to where you want to be sooner when you’re in the middle of an injury, but getting back, preventing it from the future [inaudible 00:05:24].
Mike Mickle:
Great advice. Let’s talk about our finances. That’s an important part of getting your life in order as well. If you haven’t really started, where do you begin?
David Nelson:
We have a saying around the office that we’ve never had a client walk in and say they started too early and they save two much. We hear just the exact opposite. I wish I would’ve gotten to this earlier. The start is for most individuals it’s scary because this is a foreign language for most people. It’s just stuff they don’t even want to think about. But it just making that decision to start and nine times out of 10 it’s going to be through the plan at work. Oftentimes, the plan at work has a match. Many times people come in and they’ll not take advantage of that and normally it’s a 50% match so you just have to do it.
David Nelson:
Find an individual that can help you as far as through that process. Somebody that speaks English will do their very best as far as to help and again, learn from other people’s mistakes. Don’t learn from your own. Starting as early as possible is really key.
Mike Mickle:
John, as we think about that, I know a lot of people watching are going to say, “Yeah, that sounds great, but I’m barely getting by. I don’t have any money to invest. I don’t have any money to put away.” Where do they begin?
John Nelson:
Yeah, there certainly are people in positions like that for periods of time, unfortunately. But even just putting small amounts away consistently over time, the compounding effect, like David said, starting as early as possible is really the real key. Even if it’s at $50 a month, if you could start there with the idea of scaling it up over time, that compounding effect can make a dramatic difference down the road.
Mike Mickle:
Yeah, just a little bit at a time adds up over the course of a year, and especially I look at the 529 plans and stuff like that. When my wife first talked about it, I was like, really? And then now we have a college graduate. Man, am I glad she’s smarter than I am. There’s a reason she handles the checkbook in the Mickle house because she understands that. But life catches up with you quickly if you’re not prepared.
David Nelson:
Yes, no question about it. Again, it’s vital. Today’s society we’re seeing less and less pensions as far as at work. Some people don’t even know what a pension is. I mean the younger folks because they really don’t exist. You got to put the money in the 401(k), Social Security. There’s always question marks surrounding that. What’s it going to be like as far as 20, 30, 40 years down the road?
David Nelson:
All these things put a lot of pressure on people as far as to get into those habits, and many people didn’t have that example growing up and so it’s hard. And so we go into a lot of schools and what have you, and we try to plant these seeds early, the importance of it and again, showing people the compounding effect over time. It’s pretty dramatic stuff.
Mike Mickle:
Right. As you can tell, we have a great group of experts here. They’re going to teach us a lot over the course of this hour, so you’re going to stick around. More Local 4 News Over Coffee will be coming back in a few moments from the Maid-Rite on Division Street. If you’re out and about, want to stop by, please do. We’ll get you a cup of coffee. In the meantime, let’s send it back to the studio.
Redrick Terry:
All right. Thanks, Mike. We’ll check in with you a little bit later.