Category Archives: Financial

Social Security – Why You Should Be Worried!

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UGH!! I just finished reading an article about Social Security running out a few years earlier than expected. In 2033, Social Security benefits will pay out only 75% of the scheduled amounts.

The article was quick to let those who have already retired know that they don’t need to worry. Their benefits will remain at 100%. But he went on to say, “If you’re under age 40, start worrying.” Really?! The only reason you should be worried about Social InSecurity is if it is your hope and only plan for retirement!

By the way, that’s a horrible plan. Even President Roosevelt felt so. From the SSA website: Social Security was never meant to be the only source of income for people when they retire.

For the love, please have a plan! Don’t put your trust in the government to take care of you when you get older. I can tell you. The government’s way of handling someone I loved wasn’t pretty.

Instead, take some easy steps to “secure” your future:

  • Get out of debt - Over and over, I tell people that debt robs them of their options. When you have all of your income and no debt, you can build wealth and build it faster. How do you do this? Get on a budget that works and live on less than you make. That’s pretty simple. The hard part is the accountability.
  • Invest already! - Investing isn’t as scary as it sounds. Once you are debt-free but your mortgage, start putting 15% away in a 401K and/or Roth IRA. Don’t invest in single stocks or gold. For right now, only focus on Mutual Funds.
  • Insure yourself - What you don’t want to happen is getting to retirement and something catastrophic wipes out all of your investments. Instead, make sure you have Term Life Insurance if someone depends on your income. Also get Long-Term Disability Insurance in case something happens to you and you can’t work, or you have outrageous medical bills. It’s also a good idea to get LTDI on parents over 60. It doesn’t cost that much.

These are just a few of the things you can do to keep from worrying about Social Security, as some would have you do. Now, without making this look like a total promotion instead of me wanting to help, I didn’t advertise all the ways to do it. Instead, you can click on the bullet points to see how. Or just ask a question in the comments.

Question: What are you doing to ensure your future?

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Financial Wellness And Corporate Culture

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Financial wellness in business? Here’s a great post on the need for corporate financial programs by Robert Lawrence. Follow Robert on Twitter. You can guest post as well! Read how to here.

Question: If you are dealing with money problems, do you turn to your workplace for help?

For most people, the answer would be “not on your life!” Few of us want anyone to know when we’re dealing with debt-related issues. So most of us manage quietly (or so we think) with the stress. But what if there was a better way? What if you knew your employer really cared about every aspect of your health, including your money?

I think financial wellness is a disposition or an outlook that people have when they are either experiencing financial success/security or are on a path towards that goal. It involves attitude and behavior. It’s why so much of financial wellness is geared toward helping people get out of debt and live within their means.

Teaching people how to become debt-free and live that way has to be at the core of any financial wellness program. Recently, Fox Business News posted a piece about how consumer debt is affecting many workers’ ability to save for retirement. It cites a Financial Wellness Survey that shows how 33% of workers are not saving any money for their retirement. Of these, 59% say they have too many expenses to set aside money for future needs.

When team members face personal money problems, their workplace productivity plummets. They often lose their jobs as a result. If they stay, the level of their participation in company retirement programs is almost nonexistent.

In an effort to protect their ROI (return on invest), employers should look to financial wellness programs to remedy these problems. Certainly every business is concerned about its ROI. But an authentic concern for the personal development and overall well-being of each team member is what defines a truly caring company. This is what creating corporate culture is all about. And when a company culture reflects a genuine concern for its team members, the ROI soars.

Financial problems cause stress, and there are plenty of studies that point to a correlation between stress and declining physical health. These problems also lead to a poor family life and even divorce. By personally promoting financial wellness, businesses are sending their team members a message: We care about your health. We care about your home life. We care about you in every possible way!

Question: How would a financial wellness program in your company benefit team members?

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Money, Can You Really Agree With Your Spouse In Business?

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Money problems are the number one cause of fights inside a marriage. Some studies show that 57% of the fights inside of a marriage are over money.

So if it’s that bad at home, what happens when a couple works together with the business finances? Well, here’s a very common question from one of our fans:

My husband and his father are running a small real estate management company. My husband hired me to start managing the finances/keeping the books for them beginning in September 2010. After working with their finances for several months now, I see that there is a substantial amount of credit card debt.

I have tried to explain to my husband that I need to apply the principle of the “debt-snowball” to this debt instead of continuing to make several minimum monthly payments that are several hundreds of dollars each. My husband argues with me about this stating that this will destroy the company’s credit rating, etc.

This is the same argument he made with me when I started FPU and told him we needed to start the debt-snowball on our personal credit card debt. In that case, he finally stopped arguing with me and let me go ahead. In terms of the small business, he is being a bit more difficult. I need to be able to show him the specific answer that the debt-snowball is applied in the same manner in a small company like theirs, as it is in personal finance. Please help!

The debt question is one that I get A LOT in EntreLeadership. So many leaders think that people can’t run a business without debt. So inevitably, during my event I will ask how many people are running their business debt free. It’s usually about 30% of the attendees. If people can’t run a business without debt, then how are so many doing it?

There are a few things to consider:

  • What does God say? – The Bible is very clear on the issue of debt. DON’T DO IT! In fact, Proverbs says that if you have gone into debt, get out as quickly as you possibly can. Nowhere in the Bible will you find God blessing someone with debt. Nor do you see Him separating out personal and business. He doesn’t differentiate.
  • It gives me options – Actually, I am a firm believer that debt robs you of your options. When your money is tied up paying off debt, you’re not able to take advantage of situations when they come up. On top of that, you are potentially holding God back from doing some of the things He want to do in His business. (It is His, right?) I have seen plenty of God situations that people weren’t able to capitalize on because they were bound by debt. Going into debt is saying that you know better than God on the speed of growth you should have.
  • But my credit score! – There is only one thing that you need a credit score/rating for – to go into debt. That’s it. It’s there to help you get into more trouble. If you have cash, you don’t need a rating. Besides, you get MUCH better deals when you pay companies with cash. Especially in a time when so many companies are not getting their receivables collected for months on end. Go ahead and destroy the credit rating, it’s not helping you.
  • Proverbs 31 – Who can find a virtuous wife? Her worth is far above rubies. Her husbands heart trusts safely in her; so he will have no lack of gain. Dude, listen to your wife! She’s onto something. Women have a sense of discernment that us guys just don’t have. And like fools, so many guys don’t listen to them when it comes to business. This is a mistake. God has wired them differently than us. Drop the pride and ask for her opinion. You’ll be surprised at how much money, time, and nose bleeds it will save you.

Question: What ways have you experienced this in your life?

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Why You Need To Celebrate Progress

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“People are afraid to celebrate winning the battle, because the war hasn’t been won yet.” – Kent Singletary

I was having a conversation with Kent, our Momentum Coach, and we were talking about completing the Financial Peace University (FPU) Baby Steps. That’s when he shared with me the above quote. (Yes, I could have written it into this paragraph, but it’s much better as a stand-alone quote.) He said people (especially men) are hesitant to celebrate accomplishing Baby Step 1 of FPU, which is getting $1,000 in an emergency fund, because something might happen and they would have to use that money.

He pointed out that people don’t celebrate what can be taken away. Think about the kinds of cards you can buy at Hallmark – birthday, anniversary, etc. But you don’t see a “Great job losing 10 pounds!” card. The same thing is true for emergency funds. Something might happen, and they will be forced to pull money out of their emergency fund for…wait for it…an emergency!

But that’s what it’s there for. The sad thing is, people feel like they’ve failed if they have an emergency and they have to use the emergency fund. How is that possible? Well, to be honest, it’s because of the financial roller coaster we’ve all been on with our money since we started our lives as adults. We started using debt. We didn’t watch where we spent our money. We’re a culture that celebrates permanence; therefore, we don’t place as much value on the things that might last only a short time.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That means that all the money coming in is going right back out again. With life being this tight, any unexpected event is going to be a financial crisis. And what do we do when we have a financial crisis? Well, considering we don’t have cash to handle it, we go into debt. Thus, the pensive feelings when we finally have an emergency fund. These crises leave such deep mental scars that we’re still just waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

We get confused thinking that unless the fund stays at $1,000, we weren’t successful. The truth is, most people have never had that much money in their account on purpose! We also worry that if we have to use the money, and someone finds out, they will look at us as failures. It’s just not true! And if someone does, get that dork out of your life. Look for people who enjoy celebrating milestones.

So what do we do? Here are some suggestions:

  • Celebrate – Make it a point to get excited that you have that money! (Especially you men!) Get up and dance a jig. Or the Hokie Pokie. Or the Macarena. I don’t care, just get happy!
  • Celebrate with others – Again, as humans we are naturally concerned with what others think of us. If you see somebody doing something right, go crazy telling them how well they’ve done. They’ll soon begin to feel it as well. Then it will be okay for them to experience the fun! And don’t be afraid to celebrate the same win again if you have to go backward temporarily.
  • Plan for emergencies – Planning for an emergency doesn’t mean one will happen. It just means you are prepared. What if there is an emergency? What then? Well, since you’ve been working like crazy to protect yourself against emergencies, then it’s okay if you need to use that protection. By the way, stop calling this failure!

Always remember that we don’t get into financial trouble overnight. Therefore, it will take some time to get out. Celebrating the Baby Steps is just a way of saying along the way that you have no intentions of going backward for good. If we do for a time, it’s only for a time.

Question: Have you ever felt this way before, or noticed someone who has? Is there someone you need to celebrate with today?

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More On Student Loan Forgiveness

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I … am getting upset … at ignorant people! Why? Because I keep hearing all of the talk from folks wanting the government to pay for their student loans. Listen everyone. The government doesn’t have any money other than what those who ACTUALLY pay taxes give it.

There is no secret presidential bank account with your student loan/mortgage/credit card debt earmarked for payment. And no, big business doesn’t need to pay for your debt either. Why? YOU made the decision to go into debt. Nobody forced you to take out loans.

In fact, I was talking with Brandon Brison, one of our editors here. He said that when he went to college, his student loan papers had a bolded section that said essentially, THIS IS A DEBT. YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY THIS DEBT BACK. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CANCEL OR FORFEIT THIS DEBT. YOU MUST SIGN THAT YOU REALIZE YOU ARE TAKING ON THIS DEBT.

Sounds pretty clear to me. And yet on a popular Facebook site, I read through tons of comments from people saying how mad they are that they have to …wait for it … pay their loans!! Response after response, they are complaining how unfair it is to have to pay back loans that they took out for an education that most of them never went into that field.

Someone please explain to me how I should be able to make a poor financial decision, and then pass that bad decision on to someone else. Here’s a thought: Work your way through college. Most of the student loan amounts that are posted on the site could have been paid as they went by working at Starbucks.

Or here’s another option: Work and save up the money before you go to school. You don’t have to jump right into college after high school if you can’t afford it. And don’t tell me there’s not work out there. I had a lady from North Dakota come through my last EntreLeadership class who is paying her waitresses/waiters $15 an hour and can’t get enough workers. That’s 30K a year!

That doesn’t include all of the work that’s going on with the natural gas rigs in that area. These companies are paying people 80K a year. “That’s great Chris, but that’s ND!” So? Move! Consider it a tour-of-work duty. (Sorry, I think I just made that up.) Don’t like that option? Enlist in the military. Last time I checked, they were still paying for college.

The point I’m making here is that you don’t have to make bad financial decisions when it comes to student loans, mortgages or credit cards. It’s something you choose to do. And if you select it, then take the responsibility that comes with it. Don’t try to pass it off on me.

Question: Ha-ha … thoughts?

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Obama Is Forgiving Student Loans

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That’s what I heard from a young lady at the car rental place yesterday. She was very sweet and took good care of us. And on the way out she asked what we do.

Like always, I answered that we teach people how to handle their finances. And before I could talk about leadership, she excitedly asked me what my most important bit of information was. I told her to stay out of debt — Surprise, surprise! That’s when she asked, “What do you think about what Obama’s doing? He’s forgiving student loans.”

Ugh!! How does this happen?!

I told her I don’t think it’s right for people to go into debt and then pass the consequences of their bad money choices on to the rest of the taxpayers.. That’s when she made a comment about Obama having money set aside to take care of the loans. I quickly informed her that Obama doesn’t have any money for these student loans. The money to pay for Obama’s “forgiveness” will come from those of us who actually pay taxes — unlike the 47% of Americans who don’t pay taxes but want big business to pay for all of their debt. (Sorry, had to throw that in there.)

She responded by saying, “So I’ll pay for it anyway? I don’t know that much about it. I haven’t really read up on it.” And since my car wasn’t ready, she walked away and hung out in the little booth outside. I guess our conversation was over. When my car finally came around, she came back out and did the walk around with me. I asked her if what I said made sense to her. She told me she really didn’t read up on it so she didn’t know that much about it.

So I put it to her this way: It would be like me buying this Suburban with debt and then making you pay for it because I made bad money choices and couldn’t make my payments any longer. The government doesn’t have money except what we as tax payers pay.

I watched and waited for the light bulb to go off. It did, but she still seemed confused.

I left thinking about how many millions of people think Obama has some magic vault of money that he must have brought with him from his personal account to D.C. And he’s going to save all the people in America who have made poor decisions with money so they can keep making bad decisions. Or wait…maybe the “forgiveness” will cause all of those folks to start making wise money choices. It could happen…right?

Question: What are your thoughts on how people view the Government’s “bank account”?

Feel free to share this with your friends and family…or those you don’t like who think this way.

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Occupy Wall Street….Why?

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As I was on my way to the greedy corporate Starbucks in Colorado Springs to get my vanilla latte recently, I saw the Occupy Wall Street protesters. I couldn’t help but notice some of their signs. There were sayings like, “We’re the 99%.” Or my favorite, “Even in a good economy, I’m unemployable.” I couldn’t help but snap a picture of this sign. It made me laugh.

The demonstrators want the upper 1% to pay more taxes, so it’s fair to the 99%. (Although 47% of Americans don’t pay any taxes at all right now.) This makes sense: Most of our country’s taxes are paid by the 1%, but they should pay more. Huh?

When I got back to my room, I decided to look up just what the protesters stand for, since I was confused. I did some research online and found out …. so are they. The group really doesn’t seem to know what they are demonstrating about. The main theme seems to be that corporations are ruining our country. Their greed and tax loops are destroying our landscape.

Seriously? This is what you’re fighting for? Further explanation from an interview said that income and equality are worse than they have ever been in America. That 1% has never had as much as they do now, while the rest of us are buried in debt and have credit card bills piling up. When asked if the protest was anti-government, the interviewee said that it’s not. They want the government to step in to help people who have lost their homes through foreclosures or who are buried under student debt. They believe the government has done a horrific job.

He continued to say it’s not anti-government, it’s better government. Because, apparently, better government means allowing people to go deeply in debt, and then stepping in and cleaning up the mess. That, of course, would be passing their debts onto the rest of us. When asked if the protesters are aiming their fight at the right institution, meaning Wall Street, the interviewee said yes. Corporations have seen their profits rise, while not having to pay taxes.

So essentially, if I get this right, the reason people are suffering in America is because big greedy corporations, which employ much of America, have created products that we have no choice but to purchase by going deeply in debt. This, in turn, causes us to live well beyond our means.  And even though the rich pay the most taxes in this country, they aren’t paying enough. Hmmmm … WHAT?!?!

So again, it’s not my fault if I’ve gone deeply in debt and chose not to save money, as opposed to living beyond my needs. It’s because the 1% don’t pay enough taxes. OK, what if we make it equal by having everyone pay the same exact tax percentage? That way, the 1% can’t “hide” from paying taxes, and the 47% will start paying. Sounds fair to me. I’ll honk for that equality.

Question: What’s your take on the protest?

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Come Here Kid!

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The Washington Post reported on a new way that banks are taking advantage of people – in this case, college students.

Shortly after students show up on campus, they receive a welcome letter that contains a MasterCard from a company called Higher One. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill credit card. It’s a card that accesses student loans. That’s right, students can use the cards to add debt to their student loans that they already can’t afford. Not only that, but the cards also come with high fees.

So this company is essentially targeting kids who are in debt and have no money of their own (Right? Or they wouldn’t have a loan.), is encouraging them to spend more money they don’t have, and then topping it all off with high fees.

This is genius! Why hasn’t someone thought of this before? Let’s get all of our graduating students in horribly desperate situations and send them out into the workforce. That ought to make for some open-minded, creative, happy workers.

According to the report, college officials contend that the loan cards make it easier for administrators and can provide income for cash-strapped schools. So… let’s get students further in debt so the school can make more money? This is ridiculous!

The article goes on to quote Anne Gross, legislative affairs director for the National Association of College and University Business Officers, as saying, “Sometimes people are looking for evil intent where there is none.” Riiiiiiiiight, because this plan is angelic!

If you’re a parent of a college student or a soon-to-be college student, there are three things you can do to avoid the college debt trap:

  • Edumacate ‘em – It is your duty to make sure your kids leave your house as responsible adults. Please tell me you’re not expecting the school to do that. Make sure that they understand how to handle money by budgeting and living on less than they make.
  • Scare ‘em – Do everything you can to teach them the dangers of debt. Show them how they are going to be tempted, and basically attacked, by offers that sound really good but will make them slaves to debt.
  • Hit ‘em – On their cell phone, that is. Make a point to stay in touch with your kids and hold them accountable. You want to know what they’re doing in their relationships and if they’re staying out of trouble. It’s the same with money. Ask them how they’re doing financially and find out if they’ve been approached about debt. It will train them to always be on the lookout.

On top of all of this, pray! I promise, you can’t do too much of that. Think about the pitfalls you constantly had to navigate at their age – and then multiply them by 10!

What great advice do you have for students starting out?

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You Can’t Have That!

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Today we are in Kansas City for the EntreLeadership 1-Day event teaching business owners and leaders how to grow and build their business. And I just want to say that I am a capitalist! I have no problem with someone leaving the cave, killing something, dragging it home, and keeping it!

My New iPhone 4 Arrived today! - June 29, 2010

The Bible specifically says the diligent will prosper. If I decide to put my energy into creating a product that changes or enhances lives, and I make money for that, what’s the problem?

There is this crazy idea that you shouldn’t be able to make a lot of money for your hard work. If you do, you should give it all away. Who came up with this idea?

I don’t know who came up with the idea, but I do know who brings it up all the time. It’s always someone who doesn’t have anything. Someone who isn’t willing to work their tail off to obtain a better standard of living.

Someone who thinks that life and money should be handed to them. This is the same person who wants to partake in luxuries but doesn’t want the company who makes those luxuries to have any money.

Question for ya: How would Apple research, develop, and get the iPhone out to market if it didn’t have any cash? “Didn’t a lot of this stuff start in a garage somewhere?” Yes! And do you remember how long it took to get to market? Be reasonable.

Does this mean that I don’t think businesses should give? Not at all. In fact, David Green, CEO of Hobby Lobby, recently gave $70 million to a university. $70 MILLION! Now ya can’t do that if you don’t have any money, can you?

On the way back from lunch today, I saw two people standing in a median, each with a stop sign on a stick that read, “STOP CORPORATE TAKEOVER.” That’s right. Two healthy-looking people, in the middle of a workday, denouncing corporate “greed” to everyone who drove by.

I didn’t see that they were getting much support. After all, most of us were on our way to earn our living by working for those “greedy” corporations who pay us.

I believe most people are not upset about what other people have. They’re upset about what they don’t have. Again, the diligent prosper. If you want more, instead of being jealous of someone else, try working harder. Or come up with other ways to make money.

Don’t be a hater! (That’s street lingo.) I once heard that the difference between jealousy and envy is with envy, you want what someone has. With jealousy, you want what they have, and you don’t want them to have it.

Let’s just work on getting what we want and not worry about what others have, mmmkay? Please share some situations that you’ve experienced.

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Celebrating Progress

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“People are afraid to celebrate winning the battle, because the war hasn’t been won yet.” – Kent Singletary

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with Kent, our Momentum Coach, and we were talking about completing the Financial Peace University (FPU) Baby Steps. That’s when he shared with me the above quote. (Yes, I could have written it into this paragraph, but it’s much better as a stand-alone quote.) He said people (especially men) are hesitant to celebrate accomplishing Baby Step 1 of FPU, which is getting $1,000 in an emergency fund, because something might happen and they would have to use that money.

He pointed out that people don’t celebrate what can be taken away. Think about the kinds of cards you can buy at Hallmark – birthday, anniversary, etc. But you don’t see a “Great job losing 10 pounds!” card. The same thing is true for emergency funds. Something might happen, and they will be forced to pull money out of their emergency fund for…wait for it…an emergency!

But that’s what it’s there for. The sad thing is, people feel like they’ve failed if they have an emergency and they have to use the emergency fund. How is that possible? Well, to be honest, it’s because of the financial roller coaster we’ve all been on with our money since we started our lives as adults. We started using debt. We didn’t watch where we spent our money. We’re a culture that celebrates permanence; therefore, we don’t place as much value on the things that might last only a short time.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That means that all the money coming in is going right back out again. With life being this tight, any unexpected event is going to be a financial crisis. And what do we do when we have a financial crisis? Well, considering we don’t have cash to handle it, we go into debt. Thus, the pensive feelings when we finally have an emergency fund. These crises leave such deep mental scars that we’re still just waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

We get confused thinking that unless the fund stays at $1,000, we weren’t successful. The truth is, most people have never had that much money in their account on purpose! We also worry that if we have to use the money, and someone finds out, they will look at us as failures. It’s just not true! And if someone does, get that dork out of your life. Look for people who enjoy celebrating milestones.

So what do we do? Here are some suggestions:

  • Celebrate – Make it a point to get excited that you have that money! (Especially you men!) Get up and dance a jig. Or the Hokie Pokie. Or the Macarena. I don’t care, just get happy!
  • Celebrate with others – Again, as humans we are naturally concerned with what others think of us. If you see somebody doing something right, go crazy telling them how well they’ve done. They’ll soon begin to feel it as well. Then it will be okay for them to experience the fun! And don’t be afraid to celebrate the same win again if you have to go backward temporarily.
  • Plan for emergencies – Planning for an emergency doesn’t mean one will happen. It just means you are prepared. What if there is an emergency? What then? Well, since you’ve been working like crazy to protect yourself against emergencies, then it’s okay if you need to use that protection. By the way, stop calling this failure!

Always remember that we don’t get into financial trouble overnight. Therefore, it will take some time to get out. Celebrating the Baby Steps is just a way of saying along the way that you have no intentions of going backward for good. If we do for a time, it’s only for a time.

Have you ever felt this way before or noticed someone who has? Is there someone you need to celebrate with today?

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