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wbjournal.com | March 2, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 27 10) Plan backward. Get detailed with your vision of what a successful future looks like. Create a financial strategy to serve as a guide, and then outline the steps in an action plan. 9) Flip traditional budgeting. Budgeting can be cumbersome. Instead, determine how much needs to be allocated toward savings and future goals, and pay yourself first. 8) Automate success. Invest consistently and systematically by setting up monthly EFT transfers, through good markets and bad. Increase these rates during poor market conditions to be opportunistic. 7) Negotiate your value. Whether you are an employee or self-employed, you need quantify your value to your employer or clients. Stay current on your value. Support it with data, and confidently communicate this value to ensure you remain fairly compensated. 6) Manage your brackets. Take advantage of tax deductions and credits. If you're in a low- income year, consider using strategies such as Roth IRA conversions to take advantage of low rates. For high-income individuals, mitigate taxes with proper planning. 5) Conscious spending. Being conscious about your spending doesn't mean being cheap. Spend generously on things you value, and cut costs actively on things you don't. 4) Optimize your allocation. Invest in accordance with your goals, not based on Wall Street talking heads or tips from family and friends. Know your ability to assume risk, and don't let fear of missing out cause you to take on more than you can handle. 3) Replace your income. Build passive income sources such as rental real estate, investment income, and business interests to eventually replace your earned income. Health and earnings ability can change, so build something to help replace income. 2) Get comfortable with "No." Don't get distracted by things not advancing you toward your goals. Living with intentionality requires you to protect your money and time. 1) The best investment. For the best ROI, irrespective of economic conditions, invest in yourself. Continuous learning, career development, and self-improvement will give you the best shot at reaching your goals. Seek out mentors who have already accomplished what you intend to and draw strategy and inspiration from them. K N O W H O W Seeking meaningful results in lawsuits 10 1: C U S T O M I Z E D B E N E F I T S L ast year, recruiting technolo- gy company Jobvite surveyed 800 recruiters on hiring: 74% predicted hiring would be more difficult in 2020, and 67% said a lack of skilled, high-quality candidates was the biggest obstacle. Attracting the talent looking for work – no matter how scarce – is more important than ever. Customized benefit packages can give your company a competitive edge in hiring, offering new team members what they really want. Consider cafeteria-style plans. ey give employees a certain amount of money from the employer to choose their benefits, with pre-tax dollars. "For example, a young employee with no health problems might opt to spend his or her cafeteria plan dollars on a minimal health plan. An employ- ee with four family members might choose to spend their cafeteria dollars on a comprehensive health plan," writes Susan M. Heathfield at eBal- anceCareers.com. Cafeteria-style plans offer more take-home pay and benefits employees truly need. Offer broader, multi-generational plans, Jeff Oldham of Benefitfocus, at SHRM's Executive Network, HR People + Strategy blog: "Companies need to offer benefits that meet the needs of today's diverse, multi-gener- ational workforce and bring real value to their lives." Progressive companies see the advantages of offering employ- ees help paying back student loans, for example. Weed out the illogical. At USCham- ber.com, Gary Kushner of Michi- gan-based Kushner & Co. gave an example of a company needing a bene- fits overhaul: It offers retirement plans structured on longevity, but the average company tenure is only 4.2 years. "Ben- efits have to be based on your goals and objectives, who your workforce is and who you want it to be," he said. He advises questioning if hiring objec- tives are being met with benefits like accidental death & dismemberment policies. "While not costly, do they attract talent?" he said. 1 0 T H I NG S I know about . . . ...Building your personal balance sheet BY JARED A. FIORE Special to the Worcester Business Journal Y our business is involved in a lawsuit, or about to be. Have you thought about whether the result of a trial will be meaningful to you? If you are the plaintiff, winning at trial might not mean much financially if the defendant does not have any assets. If you are the defendant, winning at trial might not mean much if certain sensitive information about your company be- comes public. Conversely, those results might be meaningful to you if you really want your day in court for reasons con- cerning public perception. Each client is unique in terms of its goals, financial resources, business con- cerns, patience for the pace of litigation, tolerance for public exposure, opponent, etc. In evaluating your dispute, you should consider what a meaningful result would be and whether mediation or binding arbitration is an alternative. Mediation Mediation is an effort to reach a settlement agreement with the services of a neutral mediator who will attempt to bring the two parties together. Frequent- ly, the mediator is a seasoned lawyer who practices in the area of the dispute or a former judge. Mediation requires the participation of both parties, but gives them the freedom to control the terms of a settlement or to walk away. Whether you reach a settle- ment depends on the factors important to you and their costs. Perhaps you are willing to take a discount on your alleged damages if you can obtain an immediate cash payment; perhaps you do not want to subject your employees to numerous depositions and disrupt your business operations; perhaps you want to allocate payment to certain claims for tax or lien purposes; or perhaps you are willing to pay to make a problem go away before it hits the news outlets. Settlement allows you to take those considerations into account and control the outcome. Typically, settlement agreements contain clauses (1) requiring the parties to keep the settlement terms confiden- tial, (2) requiring the parties to refrain from disparaging each other, and (3) identifying neither party has made any admissions concerning the dispute. Binding arbitration An average track case in the Massa- chusetts Superior Court provides for a trial three years from filing. us, the process can be slow and expensive due to the wide-breadth of pretrial discovery and numerous court hearings. Binding arbitration is considered to be faster, less expensive, and less rigid. An arbitration is similar to a trial in the parties present evidence, elicit witness testimony, and make arguments; howev- er, the arbitrator's decision is binding, with limited grounds for having the decision reviewed. If the parties agree to arbitrate, they can usually schedule a hearing within a few months, and the proceedings can be confidential. e parties have significant control over the parameters of the arbitration, such as deciding whether an arbitration association's standard rules will apply or whether the parties will create their own rules. For instance, the parties might decide to limit discovery to two depositions and 10 document requests per side, require the arbitrator be an attorney with 10 years of commercial litigation experience, and provide for a cap of three days of presentation per side. e court serves an incredibly important role in our society, and trial might be your best course of action; but consider whether these alternatives can provide you with a meaningful result. Jared A. Fiore is an attorney at Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey, LLP. Reach him at jfiore@bowditch.com. BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal By Ryan M. Kittredge Ryan Kittredge is a partner and financial planner with Carr Financial Group in Worcester. He can be reached at ryan@ carrfinancial.net. W W W is is the first in a three-part Dispute Resolution series by attorney Jared A. Fiore. For part two, check out the March 16 edition of WBJ.