It's true - if you want to achieve financial success, you'll need to develop your delayed gratification skills.
It's true - if you want to achieve financial success, you'll need to develop your delayed gratification skills.
I never believed that a parent can’t have a favorite child – then again, I’m not a parent. But as a financial planner, I will admit that I do have favorite clients – my ‘Your Money or Your Life’ clients. We speak the same language; we understand the idea of having a healthy relationship with money, we get the concept of money equaling life energy and we value, value. We are inherently frugal and we are huge advocates of setting goals, such as becoming FI.
With the re-issue of the book in 2008, I have seen an influx of clients either having read the book for the first time, or re-aquainting themselves with the philosophy and for that I am grateful to Vicki Robin for the opportunity to have contributed to the latest edition.
Sunset magazine had an article in the Feb 2012 issue featuring 20 'dream towns' in a best places to live list. The criteria was that these towns had to be slow paced and stress free - not easy to find anymore in our crazy busy world.
Who could resist fantasizing about taking off for Nelson, BC or Whitsunday Islands in Australia. It's interesting to read about these couples who actually did it, leaving behind friends, family, careers and homes in search of a more mellow lifestyle.
When it comes to retirement income planning, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is the assumption for your projected rate of return.
Before the market crash of 2008, counting on your retirement savings growing 8, 9 or even 12 percent plus, year after year after year, are likely gone. In the ‘new normal’, cautious investors are learning to revise their expectations downward and for good reason. Recent market volatility, the debt crisis in Europe, a slower growing global economy, a weak real estate market and political gridlock have all contributed to revisiting long-term growth forecasts.
You Are Not Your Net-Worth
For any person on the journey to financial independence (FI), one of the most daunting tasks to contemplate, as well as figure out, is how much is enough?
How Much is Enough & The Nature of Fulfillment
You know the importance of having a will and power of attorney, but have you considered the peace of mind a letter of instruction would provide to your family once you are deceased? Along with developing a financial plan, preparing a letter of instruction is a responsible step to take in your family's comfort and security.
Simply, a letter of instruction is an informal document that provides your loved ones basic instructions and information regarding your assets and debts. We spend a lifetime caring for and loving our family, and taking this last planning step in preparing a letter of instruction will help make the transition smooth and less stressful for them. I want to be clear - a letter of instruction does not take the place of a will, but is used along with that and the other important documents such as a durable power of attorney, etc.
You don't want your loved ones to be trying to find any of this important information in their time of grief. You'll want to spell out very specifically where they can locate the following:
As a fee-only financial planner, I receive weekly industry publications which for years now, have been coaching us ‘financial types’ on how to really talk and connect with our clients. These publications continue to warn us that the ‘trend’ is going toward a more personable client/financial planner relationship. It worries me to think that someone has to be trained to care about the people they are working with. Like doctors, we are not all cold and numbers obsessed, many of us have a great bedside manner – and for some, it comes naturally.
