Recently I had a chance to interview Howard Jaquay a retired Police Chief from Colorado who had over 31 years experience in law enforcement and who has a distinct passion for helping other law enforcement professionals learn more about finance and economics. During his career he consulted with numerous agencies on pension design, administration & investment and testified before several state legislative committees on police & fire pension issues
Howard now teaches a class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Denver entitled “Set Your Own Financial Course: How To Think About Money & Finance”. Howard thinks it’s very important for you as law enforcement professionals to take ownership of your financial future both to reduce your stress about money matters but also… to become more comfortable with what is happening with your money and your future. We both agreed that financial management should be taught in schools for everyone, but is of particular importance for law enforcement officers who are under a good deal of stress from other sources.
During our hour long interview we discussed issues like:
The importance of Money & Finance – particularly for people in high risk/high stress occupations
How controlling financial future can help manage stress now
How police officers deal with high risk situations daily and that these skills can assist in financial decision making
How factors in the current recession can impact on your financial decisions
Financial volatility and its effect on investor confidence including, real and perceived risks, and the importance of time in setting and sticking to investment goals
Why diversification is important in dealing with market volatility
The condition of public sector pensions today – trends and likely future actions.
Here are to web resources that Howard mentioned during our interview:
The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College at: http://crr.bc.edu/
Kuhn Academy at: http://www.khanacademy.org/ then search for “Personal Finance”
Also during our interview Howard recommended the book: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. You can find it on Amazon.com by CLICKING HERE
You can listen to our 58 minute interview here:
Or you can download the 11 MB mp3 file by RIGHT CLICK HERE to download (that’s CONTROL CLICK if you use a Mac then SAVE LINK AS…) a copy of the mp3 file.
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I’m John Marx, Founder of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and the Editor of CopsAlive.com. Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
