What's your background?

[jevd]

I'm also thinking about changing my name to "Responsible"

I'm the most responsible person in my household>

Every time somthing goes wrong.

You guessed it. I'M RESPONSIBLE !

[JanetM]

Hey Lori, you started this, what is your background?

Belgrath and jevd you are both too funny!

[Lori Friedman]

Hey Lori, you started this, what is your background?

Fair enough...

I spent my 20's working on Capitol Hill but eventually went back to school and studied Accounting. I passed the CPA exam and began working in private accounting. I later got an M.S. in Accounting and switched to public practice. I've been with public firms for about 13 years now.

The whole retirement/welfare area is sort of an offshoot. As soon as I began working in public accounting, I learned that CPAs are often required to work with benefits issues but lack the training to do so. Retirement and welfare benefit plans aren't taught in school, and they're not tested on the CPA exam. I decided to enroll in NIPA's APA program and get some comprehensive training and knowledge in those areas.

I hang around BenefitLink to keep those skills sharp. I learn just by reading other people's questions and comments. Oh...and I also enjoy chatting with my friends AndyH, PATA, Blinky, Kirk, Denise, etc.

[Erik Read]

Well, here goes - I started in college as a "trust balancer" - heaven forbid. Then this discussion board opened on AOL in I think 1993 or 94 (Dave?).... it turned into this MONSTROSITY called BenefitsLink, and has been going very strong as an actual site and board since 1998 - at least, that's when we all started to register to post here....

Back to my background - TPA's for 6 years, then moved into the financial side for the next 6, and now - ugh - I've graduated to TAFT-HARTLEY Health/Welfare/and Pension plans.... what a learning curve.

Have one year of law school - thought I'd like to be an ERISA attorney - nope!

Have an NASD license, that's going to expire soon since I'm not in the Broker/Dealer world any longer, have my APR from NIPA, am a member of the CFA Institute, and ASPPA among others, and LOVE to play devils advocate in all situations.

Personally - I have a loving wife, and two children a 2 and a 4 year old boy and girl respectively - we can't decide if the job or the kids have caused the pre-mature graying....

Thanks for the opportunity to share - and keep the banter going.

[jevd]

Trust me. Its not the kids yet but will be soon.

I have 5. 12, 15, 19 22, 24.

Been in this busisness since Pre-ERISA.

[pmacduff]

jevd - I think you are S to the 5th power with those kids!

[stephen]

Jevd,

I thought you were talking about the movie quiz not the number of kids you have.

[jevd]

The questions I get are far more interesting than the movie quiz.

What does L.P mean.

Elvis who?

Were there antiques when you were a kid?

Did you have a Nintendo?

For the record, I was born in the same year the political state of Israel was formed but some days I feel as old as "Israel" itself.

[Lori Friedman]

jevd,

L.P. must mean "likes to procrastinate"

Elvis Costello

I am an antique.

I've never had Nintendo, but I'm old enough to remember Pong.

Israel is really quite young. In terms of world history, it's probably equivalent to about age 18. Are you feeling better now?

[No Name]

Just spoke with my 80 year old mother. Scares me that I can't remeber what SHE said...

Only 2 kids. Sad. Should've had more. Maybe not.

[jevd]

You rember Pong.

But do you rembember "Winky Dink" ??

Speaking of putting a piece of plastic on your screen.

[Appleby]

Hey Lori- thanks.

Got into the business in 1997 by default. New to the country then, looking for something that would fit in with by banking experience. Hired by a brokerage firm to work in one area…on the day I stared, they decided to place me in the retirement plans customer service area- Thank Goodness!!

I read everything I could put my hands on- soon came to be know as the expert. Funny thing is, they (at the brokerage firm) thinks I know everything , because I always know the answers to their questions. But as I tell some of them, it’s all relative. You visit a message board like benefitslink, or other medium, including conferences, and you realize how little you know.

Got several retirement plans designations, one from NIPA…have been working on one from ASPPA for the longest- can’t seem to ever get enough time to study for the exams anymore, between my 9-5 (which is really a 8-8 most days) and my freelancing (no excuses Denise- She said to herself- no excuses).

Freelance writer-retirement plan articles- mostly IRA focused

Married

Three kids-boys- one set of twins. Last one three years old. He runs the house and everyone in it.

[Lori Friedman]

Denise,

I knew about your three-year-old boy, but you'd never told us about the twins. What a beautiful family you have.

Here's the real question for you: how do you do it all? A job, a marriage, 3 children...I feel exhausted from just thinking about it. You should be very proud of everything that you achieve, every day of your life.

[AndyH]

Hello gang. Now that baseball season is over (for some of us). have a couple of extra minutes to spare myself the agony of watching the Yankees come back again. Couple of comments-

1. It's a honor to be called a friend by Lori, even if she left out the ski area stuff.

2. I have read a number of Denise's articles, and her knowledge and writing ability are extremely impressive IMHO.

3. jevd - have always enjoyed your comments but what the (heck?) is that picture/work of art?

4. Why does Blinky never enter "Life Beyond Employee Benefits"?

5. There are too many people left out from getting kudos, but Erik Read's comments are also always interesting as well.

6. Lori, no follwup to Lame Duck?

[jevd]

Andy H.

Just an availble picture on the board. I'm trying to figure out something more appropriate to put up.

Appleby,

I echo Lori's comments. I was able to handle 1 at a time but twins. That's marvelous.

[Lori Friedman]

1. It's a honor to be called a friend by Lori

Thank you, Andy. Right back at you.

3. jevd - have always enjoyed your comments but what the ____ is that picture/work of art?

jevd looks like a giant band-aid, with arms and legs, who's about to hit himself (herself) in the head with a mallet.

4. Why does Blinky never enter "Life Beyond Employee Benefits"?

Um...because the Blinkster has no life beyond employee benefits?

6. Lori, no follwup to Lame Duck?

Rumors have it that Lame Duck and Ritchie have run off together into the sunset.

[Lame Duck]

Rumors have it that Lame Duck and Ritchie have run off together into the sunset

The sun sets in the ocean around here and I only run on the beach in the morning.

[jevd]

Here's the new Avatar.

[JanetM]

jevd, is that a seismograph or an EKG? I like the masochistic bandaid look better.

[jevd]

Seismograph. Or it could have been my Cardiogram the day I first kissed my wife!!!

I'll keep looking>

[jevd]

Here's one that stephen just sent >

Chinese symboy for earth quake and it still could apply to my previous post because the earth did move that day.

[jevd]

This ones the best. Thanks Stephen, and it still applies to the post regarding my wife.

[Appleby]

Thanks Lori, AndyH , Jevd. I guess I was lucky- the twins are great- almost too good to be true... The three year-old? He’s great too, but …let’s just say I don’t think we could handle more than one of him at a time. We love him just the same and would not want to have anything about him changed.

Awww Jevd. I hope your wife knows what you say about her behind her back.

[Kirk Maldonado]

I also have twins. We got a boy and a girl, so I like to say that we won the baby jackpot. Unfortunately, I'm getting divorced, so I think she'll get to keep that jackpot.

The smartest thing I ever did was moving to Washington, D.C. to work for the IRS in 1978 and the second smartest thing I ever did was leaving Washington, D.C.

After I left the IRS in 1981, I moved to Orange County, California and went to work for a sucession of law firms. The last one imploded and we were forced into an involuntary bankruptcy. Very expensive and ugly mess for all of the parties involved; not just the former partners. The claims by the landlords against the law firm for unpaid future rents totalled over $100,000,000.

Stayed there until two years ago, when I moved to Denver. Almost all of my clients are still in California. I like to go back to visit several times a year, but I can never imagine moving back there. Denver is a much less stressful place to live than California. But, to be fair, it does not have the great weather and booming economy of southern California. We got a ton of snow yesterday here in Colorado.

[JanetM]

We have four seasons in Denver too. Don't get that in southern CA.

[Lame Duck]

We have four seasons in California, too. We just don't have to live in them all the time. If I want fall or winter, I can hop in my car and drive to Lake Tahoe in a few hours. Southern California is the only place I know where you can go to the mountains, the desert and the beach, all in one day. I actually did that one day when I was in high school just to prove it oculd be done.

[Kirk Maldonado]

JanetM:

I don't consider having four seasons to be a postive factor.

[JanetM]

I have lived in many places that had only two seasons (the Philippines, Okinawa, Mississippi, Texas) hot and dry or hot and raining. Other places I have lived had only two or three seasons, Upper Michigan, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Germany, Iceland, Korea..........

I like the variety here.

[jevd]

Military???

[Belgarath]

And here in the Northeast we also have four seasons: Fall, Winter, Mud Season, and Damned Poor Sledding.

[JanetM]

Lets see, my dad was military then dept of Navy civilian, I was military but got out, married someone in the military....... he retired, divorced now. Along the way, using many different schools I managed accounting degree and CPA.

Belgrath, that kind of reminds me of the seasons in Ohio, most of which include gray skies.

[jevd]

Belgarath,

You also didn't mention Skeeter & Shad Fly seansons. I grew up along the Hudson area in Westchester NY

[Santo Gold]

In Ohio, our 4 seasons are known as: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction season.

Graduated from college and somehow fell into the retirement plan field, and have been at it for the past 12 years. Our company's structure puts me into a lot of situations where I'm working without a net, hence my hobby of making frequent posts on benefitslink looking for help or verification. I try occasionally to offer my own input to others on this site, or at least try to sound like I know what I am talking about. Like the old saying goes: " You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time.....and those are pretty good odds".

[JanetM]

When I moved from Dayton last august I would have swore it was winter and fixing the roads. All that contruction at 70/75 was a nightmare.

[Guest ritchie]

Lori, see what we can do together?

3,671 views and 83 replies as of today and when I found your post you were all alone with 0 replies and no cross dressers or cross testers.

Time for a sing-a-long?

[JanetM]

Richie, time for a group hug.

[Effen]

Time to get back to work! :angry:

Actually, I love the thread.

[Guest lhinson]

I've been in defined contribution plan administration for about 8 years. I fell into my first position because my resume was on file at a related bank. I now have my QKA (almost, just have to send them money) and am working on my APA.

Prior to this life, I managed a fast food restaurant (don't ask).

I would like to someday be more into a consulting type of career, but as yet have not had any DB experience, which would probably be helpful.

2 kids, 4 months and 4 years.

Hey Maverick, I'm also a Packer fan, born and bred. I can't even describe the abuse I get living in Pittsburgh. My family lives a little north of Green Bay. I get home when I can (drive to Chicago and turn right).

Although they did finally (and resoundingly) win one, my sister called me with this joke: How do Packer fans count to 16?

0 and 1, 0 and 2, 0 and 3...

Hee Hee

[oriecat]

It's always road construction season here.

My background - my dad worked at the fire station with a guy who also worked part time selling medical equipment. One summer the accounting office needed someone to catch them up on their filing, so a temporary one month position before senior year of high school sounded good for a little extra cash.... and here I still am, having worked my way through accounts payable to payroll and now benefit administration... 17 years later...

[jevd]

OK, Since I got no takers on "Winky Dink", here's a site to tell you all about this early 1950's very first interactive kids T V Show.

"Winky Dink"

[ishi]

I remember Winky Dink! I was born in 1962, and remember watching the show until about 1967 or so. There was a clear plastic sheet that was put over the TV screen so that us kids could help Winky Dink out. As an example, Winky would come to the edge of a cliff and ask us to draw him a bridge to the other side. He would then wait 5-10 seconds, thank us, then escape the bad guys. Perhaps the demise of the show was that some of us did not use the plastic sheet to help Winky out.

[BeckyMiller]

O.K. I was born in 1951! And proud of it. I started with what was then a Big 8 accounting firm, one which sadly is no more. ERISA had just passed when I started and I was thrown at it and stuck. It has been a joy and pleasure to have been associated with a field that has contributes so much to society, such as this brilliant message stream!

Holiday wishes of Joy and Peace to all!

[RCK]

Winding down on a Friday afternoon, I discovered Lame Duck's post about Southern Californians going to the mountains, beach and desert in the same day. I believe that on (the big Island of) Hawaii that can be done in a couple of hours.

To Becky Miller, I hope that by a field that contributes to society you mean pension professionals of various types, and not auditors.

And to the original topic of this thread, I started as an actuarial sutdent about the time ERISA rolled around, became an Enrolled Actuary, worked in a number of different environments, and now a benefit manager.