“I’ll trade you LAX for Fenway Park,” my daughter Judy said while playing monopoly with her cousin, Liz. As a fee-only financial advisor, Monopoly is one of my favorite games. It focuses on many valuable personal finance lessons, including making change, handling money, budgeting, and mortgages. I really took notice, however, when I heard her say, “I passed Go! Give me $2,000,000.” $2,000,000? What happened to $200? It was all down hill from there.

And, of course, Friday was a marvelous time to see this in action. With all the economic drama playing out in the world, there were plenty of opportunities to panic. The Greek Prime Minister has resigned! Sell! China devalued its currency a few days ago by 2%! Head for the hills! Chinese stocks are tanking yet again! Get out of American stocks while you can! The Fed might raise short-term interest rates from zero to very nearly zero! It’s the end of the world!

“Do you understand this investment?” I asked Betsy. My youngish 65-year-old client looked back at me with a quizzical expression. I was explaining Betsy’s portfolio holdings and, unfortunately, her broker, someone she thought was acting in her best interest, had taken advantage of her. She had no idea how this particular security operated; worse still, she lacked a clear understanding of most of what was in her portfolio. She just bought what her broker recommended. “He was such a nice guy,” she volunteered.

As I study for my Retirement Income Certified Professional certification, I often read about visualization. Research has shown time and again that visualization is key to financial success, or any success for that matter, especially for older adults. What is visualization? Basically it means picturing in your head or on paper images of your goals. I am a believer in visualization not just because of the research, but because it has worked well for me at various important points in my life.

Making a hard decision now is easier than you think.

There is nothing like the fear factor to motivate one to take action. I finally made an executive decision and purchased long term care insurance (LTCi). The possible need for long term care has weighed on my mind for years. If they had purchased policies, my mother, grandmothers, and grandfathers would have accessed them. Family health history should be one of the first considerations when pondering LTCi, and mine, unfortunately, is abysmal. As a fee-only financial planner, I have seen first-hand how a long term care event can decimate an otherwise healthy financial plan, and I am running scared.