Financial Planning

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    Is College Still Worth It?

    ByMichael

    Just two weeks.

    That is all you have left until they leave. You have thought about this for 18 years. Sending your son or daughter to college. You saved and planned for the cost and now the day has come when it is time to walk back to the car and make the drive home after moving them into the beginning of their next step in life.

    No, they will not be there magically as if it was a dream when you get home.

    This begins a step towards their future life and it is time to let them go.

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    Which Way Are You Going?

    ByMichael

    DOES IT MATTER?

    One of the questions that I am often asked in general conversations is “where should I be investing my money now?”.

    My answer is always the same.

    “That would be hard for me to answer since I do not know what goals you are trying to reach with your money.”

    The questioner then follows up with, “well it doesn’t matter, I just wanted to know what you thought was a good investment right now.”

    Without having a plan, the odds are high that your future is much like a Financial Zombie!

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    The Ups and Downs of Getting Fit

    ByMichael

    Sunday morning at about 9:00AM Dallas time I will start my journey for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon by going down the hill at the Cuvaison Carneros Winery in Napa County to turn left and ascend up Butt-Burner Hill. It is ONLY 3/10’s of a mile but for me, it might be more like running the steps with Rocky. When I get to the top, I will see three things. Off to my left about 20+ miles will be the San Francisco Bay, and for the next 2 miles, the view is incredible. Check out my Instagram account and I will focus on getting a picture of the view and the other two things I will see.

    This past Wednesday at Executive Toastmasters, Mark Siegel, DTM gave the week’s inspiration. With his permission, I have incorporated into this week’s blog. Thanks Mark!
    While you are busy celebrating the 4th of July or just taking some time for yourself and your family over the long holiday weekend, I would like for you to take a simple quiz. The rules are easy, answer the questions below taking no more than a few seconds on each question. Be truthful and no using Google!

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    Budgets SUCK

    ByMichael

    Budgets SUCK!

    Yes, I think that budgets are the most ill-conceived idea of how to plan for your money on the personal level.

    Why? Very simply – Life Happens

    It is those fortunate or unfortunate turns in life that make budgets incredibly useless. I remember as a child my parents working to have a budget. The idea in the 1960’s called the Envelope System was to cash your paycheck and put the cash into different envelopes for each expense. It still exists today, and just like then it only works if and when you have the self-discipline to not reach into the other envelope and borrow from groceries to pay for entertainment.

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    THE FINANCIAL OLYMPIAN™ CREED

    ByMichael

    Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Pause and take a moment, remember those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we can live and make the choices given to us by our freedom.

    The Army, National Guard, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy all have creeds. A creed is an oath or saying that provides a value structure by which to live or work by. Creeds then set the tone of life in each service. If you join one of these branches, you will need to learn its creed.

    These military creeds are learned in basic training. The creeds are learned and lived until the daily activity and actions of a United States soldier or cadet are ruled and governed by their creed. The discipline demonstrated by these women and men is worth learning for our life.

    How can you apply this?

    Be a Financial Olympian™ and live the Financial Olympian™ Creed:

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    Is Retirement Still a Reality?

    ByMichael

    Is retirement still a reality? Yes, but it’s a shifting and evolving reality.

    “Retirement” Is Outmoded:

    Traditional notions of “retirement” are outmoded. In particular, the expectation that people should want (or be forced) to stop working at age 65 no longer makes sense in a world in which people live longer, live healthier as they age, and the ratio of old to young is considerable and growing.

    Yet as longevity has increased over the past century, we’ve tacitly tacked all the added years on at the end. Apart from the undesirability of making “old age” the longest phase of one’s life, it’s unrealistic to expect that most workers will be able save enough over the course of a 40-year working life to fund a possible 30-year (or longer) retirement.

    There should be no hard boundary on where work ends and retirement begins. Instead, we need to think in terms of a new “life script” that allows for greater flexibility, time off or part time work mid-career, more opportunities for education and retraining across our life course, and “phased retirement” in which people reduce their hours, shift into less demanding roles, and so on, but not abruptly leave the workforce at some pre-set (and arbitrary) age.