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How To Retire in 4 Years

By Posted on In Finding Confidence, Investment Strategies, Personal Development, Retirement, Saving, Uncategorized

The story about a couple’s desire to retire in 4 year is compelling.

They have applied many of the important financial planning concepts:

1) The plan to live a very modest lifestyle in retirement – They plan to need 30,000 a year in retirement.
2) They have cut and reduced many of their expenses. They realized how freeing it is to not have a large mortgage.
3) They plan to work part time. Retirement is being redefined. Working part-time, doing a fun job, is becoming common.
4) They have a plan. While I have not checked their math, it’s appears they have thought through many of the common issues retirees face.
5) They are diversified. Between side jobs, investments, and real estate they will have multiple sources of income available for them.

Using The Money Management Tool: Connecting Accounts

By Posted on In Investment Behavior, Investment Strategies, Personal Development, Rule of Thumb, Uncategorized

Recently we introduced The Money Management Tool to help clients better organize their financial lives. The tool has lots of features and we will occasional explain how some of the features are being used by our clients (or should be used) to help them reach their financial goals.

This post will deal with a prospective client who has many accounts and struggles to keep track of where they are located.

Situation: A prospective client approached us looking for help managing his investments. He had about 10 different accounts – multiple checking and savings accounts and a several different retirement accounts from current and previous employers. These accounts were held with several different financial organizations.

Problem: He struggled to keep track of all the accounts. He was constantly forgetting passwords used to view his balances online. He was spending hours trying to stay organized and reading the statements. The inconvenience grew to the point where he just ignored his accounts.

Solution: The Money Management Tool could be used to connect all the accounts together. After establishing the connections between the tool and his accounts, he would be able to see daily account balances for all the accounts from a single account. No more trying to remember multiple passwords or trying to read different statements each month.

new account

If you or someone you know needs help getting their financial house in order, this tool can help.

Contact us today to get started.

The One-Page Financial Plan: A Book Review

By Posted on In Finding Confidence, Investment Strategies, Personal Development, Retirement, Rule of Thumb, Uncategorized

I recently read Carl Richard’s “The One-Page Financial Plan” and was impressed with Richard’s approach to working through some complex financial issues.  In particular, he focused almost exclusively on the emotional issues that investors face.  What does money mean to the investor?  What are the investor’s goals?  It’s these issues that overwhelm many investors to the point where they give up or procrastinate for years.

For folks that need a plan and don’t know where to start, this is a useful resource.  It’s simple and easy to follow and the principles are very similar to what I employ with my clients. This is a great guide to help investors think about money in terms of goals and how to get on the same page with a spouse on what the future looks like.  It is the most difficult part of financial planning.

It lacks specificity and implementation ideas.  Since every investor has a unique situation.  This makes the title of the book a little misleading since you don’t end up with a true financial plan on one page.  The book doesn’t go into detail about growth rate assumptions or serial payments or how to calculate time value of money.  Rather it focuses on concepts at a high level.

If the goal is to starting thinking and talking about the future, this is a great place to start.

Social Security Discussion

By Posted on In Economy, Investment Strategies, Retirement, Uncategorized

CNBC posted an article online yesterday about how to collect social security. It’s over simplified and generalizes the issues and concepts.  The interesting part was the number of comments the article received.  Close to 600 comments over the last 36 hours!  It was scary to browse through these comments to see all the misinformation that was being spread among the commenters.

If you’re thinking about Social Security, or have questions, talk to us.  We can help to think through the issues with you and help you avoid some of the common mistakes folks make.