When it comes to our finances, a lot of us look at our finances on a “per month” basis. How much is the car payment per month? The student loan? The credit card? The monthly membership dues? Our house payment or rent?

Have you ever stepped back and ask why we do that? On today’s lesson we will discuss why that is and attempt to answer if asking ourselves “How much a month” is the right question to ask

It’ important to discuss this topic because most expenses and debt options are presented through the month payment. This can include things such as our mortgage payment, car payment, credit card statements, store financing options, etc. But there are others things as well that we look at per month, life insurance premiums, phone bills, Netflix/Hulu subscriptions, etc.

These payments are presented on a “per month” basis because it is easier for our minds to digest. We can related to “per month” payments a lot easier than the whole amount. Take for example an automobile. Often when I suggest paying for things in cash, like a car, the pushback I receive is “I wouldn’t pay $25,000 for a car.” However if asked if they could “afford” a $380 car payment the answer is usually something along the lines of “Yeah I could probably do that.”

That’s because we associated a lot of financial “pain” with the $25,000 purchase but as much with a $380 payment. Even though over time those $380 payments include interest and add up to a few thousand over $25,000 payment. When looking at “How much a month?” we rarely look at how long the payments will last.

To me looking at “How much a month?” is not the right question. The right question is simply “How much?” Asking “How much?” forces us to look at the long term and ask ourselves if this purchase fits where we want to be instead of seeing how we can fit this payment into our budget. It’s a really powerful way to look at money.

When I stared to realize this and put this concept into practice my beliefs, attitudes, and my bank account had drastic changes. I had a more long term view on money. When we have a long term view of money, instead of week to week or month to month, we're less likely to make long term mistakes as well.

What Lisa and I try to do then with our monthly payments is to look at those payment and compare it to our monthly income. Instead a lot of times we look at our annual income and compare our monthly payments against that. But when we look at our monthly payment compared to our monthly income we get a better understanding of what this purchase will cost us.

Other resources mentioned in today's lesson

Ask how much instead of How much a month? How much does it really cost? How much is your car payment really costing you?

To send in your questions email me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“It is a kind of way to play games with monthly payment. Stretching out the mortgage maturity is simply a way to lower monthly payments and stimulate sales. ”  ~ Dick Bove

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or Apple Podcasts. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or Apple Podcasts, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

On today’s lesson we are wrapping up our series we’ve done on looking at employee benefits by focusing on some obscure benefits that not every company offers or that you even think about as a benefit.

Child care

Now when it comes to child care there are different federal, state, and local programs out there for child care. But we’re talking about today is child care provided by the employer.

There is a program called the Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP) that offers tax favored status when your employer either reimburses the employee, pays the provider directly, or offers a day care center on site.

The most common way is money is put into a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA) which the employee then uses to pay for dependent care. Currently the tax code is written that employees don’t pay taxes on this money up to $5,000 per year.

Adoption Assistance

The more and more I research this topic, the more I realize that some form of adoption assistance is becoming more common. There are also a growing number of folks who want to adopt, so this seems to be a win-win situation.

Now like all benefits, this will vary by employer but how most adoption assistance plans work is the employer will reimburse, up to a certain dollar amount, for the cost of an adoption. This can include the payment of fees including court cost and legal fees, foreign adoption fee, and medical care for the mother.

There are also programs that help get you in contact with adoption agencies and support groups as well as adoptions for children with special needs.

Health and Wellness programs

There are a lot of different examples that fall under the umbrella of Health and Wellness. They can range from things that encourage exercise and good health such as providing a physical work out center in the office and encouraging employees to joins smoking cessation programs.

Or it can also including providing programs for health monitoring, alternative modes of transportation to work, to getting in touch with a counselor.
The thing is to look and see if any of these programs work for you or fit a need and they might be able to encouraging you to join an activity that promotes your health or wellness.

Employee discounts for services

This is something you might not think of as an employee benefit, but employers, especially large ones work with a lot of other vendors to provide services. That leads to these vendors giving the employees some discounts on some of those services.

So check and see if your employer partners with any other business. Some of these discount services include discounts on

Hotels, Car rental Airline travel New car purchase Phone provider

I know through my employer, we receive a 20% discount off of our data on our phone plan each month.

I also got a discount on the closing cost of my mortgage through an employee program.

These things aren’t going to make you a millionaire but they are ways to save money on stuff you are already consuming or are going to consume in the future.

Overall my hope with this series is to encourage you to take the time and look through your employer benefits and see if there is anything you are missing out on that can either save you money or enrich your life.

Depending on your situation you might be leaving hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the table by simply not taking the time to look at your benefits.

To send in your questions email me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Jeff Goins' new book titled Real Artists Don't Starve

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

I have the privilege of welcoming guest Elle Martinez to the show to discuss her new book titled Jumpstart Your Marriage & Your Money.

I wanted to have Elle on the show because her podcast is great and I couldn't wait to pick her mine on a topic that most of will face at some point in our life, if we haven't done so already, and that is money and marriage.

It was a blast interviewing Elle and I could have asked her questions all night, but some of the topics we discuss included

How Elle and her husband got on the same page financially Why couples struggle with money so often The importance of focusing on your "Why" and not the "What" What Money Dates are and why they are important to take How to have the hard conversations with your spouse on money What motivated to write her book What she learned about couples and money through years of podcasting and writing the book

Elle's book, Jumpstart Your Marriage & Your Money, will be released on June 13th and can be found on Amazon.

In addition I recommend you subscribe to Elle's podcast, Couples Money, if you haven't done so already.

Other resources related to today's lesson:

Money and Marriage with guest Lisa White The key to handling money in marriage is communication! Get naked-stripping to down to money and marriage with guest Derek Sisterhen Five ways that budgeting will improve your marriage Financial Infidelity and the power of joint accounts

To send in your questions email me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“Money is an opportunity to reach unity in marriage. When couples work together, they can do anything.” ~ Dave Ramsey

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

With the ongoing burden that student loan debt has become in our country employee tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment programs are a great way to either increase you education while paying nothing or a fraction of the cost, or reduce your current outstanding loan balance.

Today we continue our series we started last lesson looking at employee benefits that you are missing out on. While they might seem similar tuition reimbursement programs and student loan repayment programs are two different things.

Tuition reimbursement programs work like this: you go to school to further your education and knowledge in a particular subject. After you prove that you passed the class, your employer will pay for some or all of the tuition.

This can be a great way to increase your value in the market place for a lot less than what it would cost you if you did it on your own. It also ties you closer to your employer as they are investing money in not only your future success but the company’s future success as well.

Before you consider going back to school because of tuition reimbursement consider the following things:

How much does the company cover?-Not all plans are 100% covered. Some are a lot less than that and others are tied to the grade that you get. What will be the method you pay?-Your company will reimburse you once you can prove that you passed the course, but it is usually up to you to pay the institution upfront for the class. How will you come up with the money to pay? I would never recommend a student loan but what can you do to come up with the cash up front? Is this something you want a degree in?-You can’t just get any old degree that you want. It has to be a degree that your company deems as beneficial to the role you are in. So if you aren’t really excited about what you are doing now, how is a degree or certification going to change that? Is there are time period you have to work at the company after the reimbursement?-Your company is going to be investing a lot of money in your pursuit of this degree, and often there is a time period in which you need to stay with the company or you will have to pay back all or a portion of the tuition reimbursement. So do you like the company? Do you plan to be there regardless of whether you get a degree there or not? If the tuition is not 100% covered, is this still a good deal for you?-Just because you are getting a tuition discount, it doesn’t necessarily mean it might still be a good deal for you. Again if you don’t want to stay with the company or are thinking about a career change to another field, spending the money and time to get the degree might not yield a proper payoff.

Student Loan Repayment

But what if you already went to school, and got your degree or not, and ended up with any kind of student loans? There are a small but growing number of firms that are offering that are trying to attract employees by offering to repay part of their student loans directly to the student loan servicer.

Now before you get too excited, realize that as of now the amount they are offering to pay is very small, often between $1,000 to $2,000 a year with a lifetime limit. So if you are drowning in student loan debt, working for one of these companies will not take you totally 100% off the hook.

But here are some other things to consider as well:

This is basically another form of compensation-This just takes the place of some other kind of benefit including momentary compensation, 401(K) contributions, health insurance premiums, etc. In fact any money that they put towards your student loans is actually considered taxable income for you. So if you get an offer of $40,000 with a student loan repayment of up to $2,000 a year, it is the exact equivalent of getting $42,000 from another offer. Except you are guarantee to use the $2,000 towards student loan repayment. You still have to pay your minimum payment-The money they pay towards your student loan won’t get you out of making your monthly minimum payment. This is actually a good thing in that it will help to pay your loans off sooner, but it won’t free up any more money in your monthly budget, at least in the short term. Lifetime limits-A lot, but not all companies that I researched who offer this benefit, have lifetime maximums on how much you can payoff through this program. Most were around a $10,000 maximum cap. But some companies had no cap, but only paid off about $1,000 max a year. Which means you really can’t count of this program to pay off a significant amount of student loan debt. Only you can do that.

I think that these are a great benefit for employers to offer to their employee’s, however I don’t feel that it is a long term plan to pay off your student loans as mentioned earlier. But I think it can be helpful and we’ll see this becoming more and more popular as many college graduates continue to graduate with large amounts of student loans.

Other resources mentioned in today’s lesson:

Does it matter what the student loan interest rate is? Taming the high cost of college with Brad Baldridge Student Loan repayment: The Hottest Employee Benefit of 2017

To send in your questions email me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Jeff Goins book "Real Artists don't Starve

“When bright young Americans can't afford college, America pays the price” ~ Arthur Ashe

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

In doing some research for my upcoming book, on how debt free people think, I’ve been doing a lot of research lately on debt statistics. Recently I did some research on credit card debt and the recent surveys and statistics coming out in regards to credit cards and their usage are quite startling.

Gallup found in 2014 that 71% of Americans own at least one credit card [1] As of March 2016 38.1% of households that have a credit card have a balance at the end of each month with an average debt of $16,000 [2] Among all US households the average credit card debt as of 2016 is $6,184.16 [3] Among those who carry a credit card balance the average household will pay $1,292 in interest [4] Total Outstanding US Credit Card is $762 billion[5] Credit card ownership by Age:
Age Range    Percent that own a credit card
18-24               67%
25-34               83%
35-49               76%
50+                  78% 56% of Undergraduate students owned a credit card in 2016 Credit Card Debt by Age as of 2016
Age Range    Average Credit Card Debt
18-34               $5,808
35-44               $8,235
45-54               $9,096
55-64               $8,158
65+                  $6,351

Average Credit Card Debt by Income as of 2016
Income Range           Average Credit Card Debt
< $25,000                    $3,000
$25,000 to $44,999    $3,900
$45,000 to $69,999    $4,900
$70,000 to $114,999  $5,800
$115,000 to $159,999 $8,300
$160,000+                   $11,200

Average annual credit card interest cost by household income in 2016
Annual Income Range    Average annual interest paid
Less than $21,432                   $677.43
$21,432-$41,186                     $839.60
$41,187-$68,212                     $1,135.91
$68,213-$112,262                   $1,303.76
$112,263-$157,479                 $1,882.85
More than $157,490                $2,515.05

Annual credit interest paid by employment status in 2016
Employment Status        Average annual interest paid
Employee                                $1,210.58
Self-employed                        $1,630.84
Retired                                    $1,321.84
Other, not working                  $1,554.57 Average Credit Card Debt by Gender
Gender        Average Credit Card Debt
Male            $7,407
Female        $5,245

What does this information tells us? What I noticed was that credit card debt isn’t just a thing for those who don’t make a lot of money or are young. There are people in their 50’s and 60’s and those make well over six figures that have credit card debt.

The fact that we as a nation have $762 Billion in credit card debt is absurd. So today’s show I share ways to avoid credit card debt in the first place. On the surface they might seem basic, but a lot of times when it comes to personal finance, basic is usually the best answer.

Don’t have a credit card in the first place. Do a monthly budget Have an Emergency Fund

We break down each of those ways further and share why whether or not you carry a balance on your credit card is not a good measure of whether it is wise for your to use one.

Other resources mentioned on today’s show

How to rent a car or get a hotel room without a credit card Want to earn money on your credit card? Pay it off Beware of the Corporate Credit Card My Take on Credit Cards 0% Credit Card transfers

To send in your questions email me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“Credit Cards are the WORST investment you can make” ~ Mark Cuban

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/168668/americans-rely-less-credit-cards-previous-years.aspx

[2] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt

[3] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/

[4] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/

[5] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt

Personally, I don’t know about you, but spring cleaning is one of those things that I know I need to do every year and that I will be glad I did once it is over. But in the end I procrastinate doing it and usually don’t get around to doing it.

Truth be told we do similar things our finances. There are some small stuff that we know we should do each year, not major things. But in the end we don’t do them or push them off until when we’ll have “more time”.

Since it is that time of the year to do actual spring cleaning, I thought it would be fun to discuss four things that come to mind when I think about doing spring cleaning with our finances

Yes it can help our finances to do some actual, physical spring cleaning. I’m amazed at how demotivating clutter can be for us.  Currently we have three children under six so I know how it happens. You clean up your house and like 10 minutes later it somehow looks worse than when you originally started. So instead you just put stuff into our “get to later pile” and we never get around to it.

But it is good to take a weekend every once in a while to put stuff away where it belongs or actually to get rid of the unwanted stuff. The benefits are we get to make some money. By selling or donating things off of Craigslist, having a garage sale, or donating toys or clothes to charities.

De-cluttering can also help us by stopping the need to spend money in the future. How much we spend each year on a storage unit or storage bins to use in our home? How much are we paying to store that 3rd car we hardly use or to storage the boat we take out once in a while?

It also helps our energy to give stuff to people who will use it a lot more than we will. In addition to helping our creative energy by simply eliminating the stuff in our lives.

Life insurance is never a fun topic to discuss. But now is as good of a time as ever to review your life insurance needs and current coverage and determine if you need to add or eliminate certain types of coverage.

When it comes to life insurance you need to remember why you need it in the first place. Life insurance is needed if someone depends on you financially. This often is a spouse or if you have children still at home. Also if you aren’t independently wealthy there is a good chance you need some kind of life insurance in place.

You don’t need life insurance as a way to invest for retirement or your children’s education. You also don’t it if you don’t have anyone who depends on your financially for their support. You also may not need it if you are independently wealthy.

As for how much coverage you need, well a good place to start is 10x your income. Some might need more or some might need less depending on your situation. But I would only recommend purchasing term life insurance, as hopefully there will be a point in your life where you get to a point when you won’t need life insurance any longer.

You know with it being April I had to sneak in a section about taxes. Are you getting a huge refund this year? Do you need to adjust your W-2? The W-2 is where you claim how many dependents you expect to claim on your taxes and that determines how much money is withheld from you paycheck each month. The more dependents you claim, the less $$ is withheld.

The thing is that you don’t need to match the real number of dependents you actually claim. For example we have five dependents in our home that we claim each year on taxes. I claim 20 on my employer paycheck . . . . and we still got a $800 refund for 2016’s taxes.

Now everyone’s situation is different and please consult a tax professional for specific advice in your situation. But I see so many people struggling to make their minimum payments each month but they are still getting a big refund each April. Instead have that amount come to you in your paycheck throughout the year so you can manage it better and not get in the predicament in the first place.

Investment are not a fun thing for us to do. But take a hour or two and look at what your investments are and how they are performing. You’ll also want to check your fees that you are paying on your investment to see if they aren’t too high relative to their performance.

You’ll also want to see if you are contributing enough. I recommend after you are debt free to work towards contributing 15% of your pay into investing for retirement. If you don’t like to do this stuff on your own or you feel that it is intimidating than I would recommend working with a professional to help teach you the basics and get you comfortable with investing.

Again these are four small things to do and there are other similar smaller things that you can do as well. They aren’t going to be earth shattering moves like starting an emergency fund or becoming debt free, but they will help your finances and you’ll be glad you did them once they are completed. I recommend just taking one of these a week and try to accomplish the task.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“Clutter causes stress, and clutter is one of the main barriers of productivity” ~ Charisse Ward

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Today’s lesson I want to welcome Coach Greg Pare back to the show. I wanted to have Greg on the show to discuss an event he is rolling out soon titled the 5 Day Money Challenge.

When Greg mentioned to me the 5 Day Money Challenge I knew I had to have him on to discuss what the challenge is actually and why he developed it.

The challenge starts on Monday April 3rd and encompasses notifications from email, Facebook Live, and the Private Facebook group.

In addition we also talk about what the #1 takeaway someone will get from going through the challenge. Can anyone in any financial situation take the challenge? Finally what happens after the 5 days are over.

We also ask Greg what are some of the common financial mistakes he see’s people make when he is talking about finances to a group or in individual coaching. Get his take on why we struggle so much as a culture with our money and the difference it makes in our life when we get our money under control.

Other resources mentioned on today's lesson:

Lesson #63 How to B.A.N.K more in One Four with guest Greg Pare 5 Day Money Challenge GregPare.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself" ~George Horrace Latimer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

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When it comes to the way we handle our money most of us are trying to manage it the best way we know how. I rarely run into someone who is just flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to how they handle money.

However a lot of us are trying really hard but feel stuck in our current situation. That leads to feelings of frustration, embarrassment, and shame that we can’t figure this whole money thing out.

Now there is no one size fits all solution to everyone’s problem. But I have noticed that a lot of times we feel stuck with our finances because we’re trying to do ten different things at once. That is the reason why we feel stuck and hopeless.

Some common examples of the many things we are trying to do include

Becoming Debt Free Saving up for the down payment on a house Saving for our child’s higher education Taking a trip Emergency Funding Investing for retirement

Now after going through the list, you’ll notice those are all good things to be doing! In fact I encourage you to do all of those things. But it is really hard to do all of those simultaneously and impossible to get all of those done at once.

That’s because money is finite. It’s hard to get traction when you are doing a little bit here and little bit there. You never see any wins or improvement and getting wins is a big key in getting the momentum necessary to keep going.

It also leads to not being very consistent with your money as you are constantly jumping from one money fire to the next. This easily leads to you becoming derailed in the pursuit of your goal.

Rather than do ten things at once, I coach people to step back and reflect on what's truly important in the moment and focus all your attention on that one thing.

By focusing on one thing at a time you are going to see improvement in that area right away. That will keep you motivated to continue to pursue it. It will also lesson the time you are actually doing that goal and soon you’ll be able to move on to the next item on your list.

There is an incredible power to having your money focus solely on one or two main goals. We often think slowing down and doing just one thing at time doesn’t help out. But there is actually a multiplier effect when a singular focus is present.

That’s why I love the baby steps so much. It sets clear guidelines on what to focus on and in what order. In case you aren’t familiar with the baby steps here they are in order.

Save $1,000 in an emergency fund Pay off all your non-mortgage debt using the debt snowball method Save 3-6 months’ worth of expenses in an emergency fund Begin to invest 15% of your income into retirement Save for your children’s education fund Pay off your mortgage Build Wealth

You start with saving $1,000 as your first goal. You don’t do anything else with any extra cash. You don’t pay any extra on your debt, you don’t invest, and you don’t go on vacation. You save $1,000.

Then you pay off your debt, one at a time. You don’t still don’t invest, go on vacation, or save up a down payment on a home. You put all your extra money on your smallest debt. Then the next smallest debt, and on down the line until you are debt free.

Now are you going to be doing just one thing with your money for the rest of your life? No, eventually once you are debt free and have an emergency fund that is when you can do things like invest in your retirement, save for your children’s education, and travel.

We have good intentions when we try to do 10 different things at once, we really do. But that is not the way to get control of your money. It’s a good way to get frustrated and become frustrated.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself" ~George Horrace Latimer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Yes we’ve all heard how our decisions today impact our future. But in our instant gratification culture it’s hard to look ahead and make decisions for tomorrow while seemingly hurting our ability to enjoy life in the present.

But our decisions today do impact our available options for our future. Today’s lesson we are continuing with our podcast series on lessons learned in coaching by sharing where this is an issue, why we put certain things off, and why ultimately we should do them today rather than later

There are a lot of examples that come up when I’m working with clients and they are pretty broad issues but here is a list of the common ones.

Taking control of our finances-realizing the impact money has on our life Doing a monthly zero based budget Paying off debt Starting to invest Starting a side hustle

We put them off because we look at our life how it is today, instead of how it will be 10 years from now. Chances are your life will look different from either a family, friends, career, or lifestyle perspective.

We also put them off because currently we might not have much in terms of assets to manage so we don’t take control of our finances.

We might be scraping by on $20,000 or $200,000 (seriously) and don’t think we have any extra money, so why bother budgeting?

Our debt might not be impacting us because the minimum payment is “comfortable” and everyone else has debt.

Maybe we can only afford to invest $50 into our 401(K) a paycheck so why bother as it won’t add up to much?

We’re so busy so we never get that side hustle off the ground.

How will doing this then give us future options? It will in a variety of ways:

It will start to develop habits that will last a life time and those habits will lets us take control of our finances. This will enable us to weather the storm during life events such as marriage, children, job loss, etc. It will also open doors to more success and those habits will allow us to handle the bigger success.

The decision to pay off our debt now, instead of later, will allow us to prosper which in turn will stop us from going further into debt in the future.

When we invest for our future, we look up and one day we actually have money in our account that gets our attention. That money in turn continues to get greater and then we’re able to put ourselves into position to live the retirement we want to.

Having ownership in an asset that creates income either passive or normal, like from a side hustle gives you a variety or career and income potential.

There will always be a reason to put off something. Your age, relationship status, children or no children, income, too busy, etc.

But instead of finding reasons why not to do something, instead make a financial decisions today that might not improve your life next week. But will make your life easier, less stress, help your spouse or family, and give you more options in the future.

Other resources mentioned in the show:

Lesson #88 What to do today to help your financial tomorrow

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“Everytime you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self." ~ Nathan W. Morris

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Every time I suggest it to a client, I get a weird look from across the table or there is an awkward pause on the other end of the phone line.

Them-You want me to cut back on retirement?

Me-Yes I do

Them-But what about my age? The match? Compound Interest?

Me-Don’t worry it is only temporary and you’ll more than make up the lost interest gained, match, and contributions in no time.

Today’s lesson in the lessons learned while coaching series is about cutting  back on retirement temporarily to reach goals. This lesson is a little different than the first two in the series because investing for your retirement is a good thing. That is why I get weird looks from people when I suggest that they do it.

Now I don’t recommend you do it 100% of the time, but on certain occasions I do push the suspension of retirement contributions issue.

When?

Typically the only reason why I would temporarily postpone retirement savings is when you have a special financial goal you want to accomplish and you are going to be super focuses on completing that goal.

Basically the money must be used for good, not for life style inflation, self-indulgence, or making yourself look good. It’s when you are going to use every dollars not put into investing and instead put it towards you goal.

With that being laid only, I recommend that when you have debt (excluding your mortgage), to halt any retirement contributions and instead put that money towards your debt.

That is regardless of how much your employer matches, how old/young you are, or if the market is hot or not.

Why?

With that being said I still get funny looks and comments like “You mean stop ALL retirement savings?” Which my answer is yes.

It’s a tough thing to do because we’ve been told that we need to save diligently to have enough money for retirement and that in our country a lot of us are under prepared in that area. Also by stopping retirement you’ll lose out on the power of compound interest and you’ll also miss out on the match.

While I can’t argue any of those points, because they are true, I can try to shift the focus a big. I do believe that the power of being out of debt supersedes retirement contributions.
What I’ve found is that by being focused on one singular task you are able to get that task done better and faster than if you are trying to do three other things at once.

Also by getting control of your money and paying off your debt you’ll more than make up for the temporarily loss of compound interest and the company match by having more money to invest in the long run.

My recommendations

I look at this as a two year thing. Often if you are super focused and intense on paying off your debt, you can become debt free or close to being debt free in two years.

So if you stop funding your retirement and take ALL that money and put it towards your debt, not using that money for lifestyle you will gain control of your income.
Now with that being said you need to be serious about it. If you are ‘kind of” going to get out of debt, then it probably isn’t worth it.

But what if you have a ton of student like student loans and it is going to take your longer than two years. Would you still recommend holding off on retirement savings? The answer is yes, I would give it two years and see where that takes you. If you are still a long ways off then I might consider starting contributing to retirement to get the company match. But no more than that.

Bottom line is that investing is important, but so is being debt free.

Other resources mentioned in the show:

Invest for retirement or pay off the mortgage? The Cardinal principles for retirement investing Prioritizing your retirement of your child's education The most important thing to remember about investing What increasing your retirement contributions 1% can do to your finances

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started". ~ Mark Twain

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

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Part of the job of a coach or mentor is the ability to shed light on an area or issue that needs to be improved upon.

One of the common areas I get to shed light on when I’m coaching with clients is the impact of debt on that individual or families life.

It’s very rare that I work with someone who has no debt what so ever. Often the client knows how debt is impacting their lives but that isn’t always the case 100% of the time. Sometimes I work with clients who don’t realize how much stress, negativity, and financial loss their debt is costing them.

On today’s lesson I’m going to continue with a series I started last lesson on lessons learned in coaching and today’s topic is about the impact debt has on our lives.

Part of the reason why we don’t realize how much our debt is impacting us is because debt itself has become so normalized that often we can’t imagine life without it.

The problem with that line of thinking is that if we think debt is normal, we’ll never look for ways to get out of it and instead use debt as a way of life.

But debt does have an impact on our lives. Some more so then others and most of the time debt is negative. Debt impacts mostly through the following five ways

Pre commits future income Increases the amount we have to cover for our “needs” Reduces our options We’re paying interest, not earning it Opportunity cost

With that being said what do I recommend people do to realize the impact of debt in their life?

First I recommend you take the time and sit down and write down your down. Every single one. If you have 13 different student loans, break each one out. Then list them smallest to largest as you’ll use the debt snowball method to eventually pay them off. Often when you write down your debt you get that “ouchie” moment of realization instead of having a general idea of your debt floating around in your head.

Second, then take all your debts and add up the monthly payment amounts. Separate the mortgage debt, if you have any, from your non-mortgage debt.

Next determine how much interest you are paying a year. A good quick and dirty way it to take your latest statement from Dec of the previous year and it should list the total interest paid. If you want to be more advance, take that total and divide by 365 to determine your daily interest charge.

Finally doing the three steps above should give you a better idea of how much your debt is impacting you. You can then ask yourself the question what you could be doing instead with that money each month. It is every eye opening to see how much money is going out each month and how much interest you are paying a year and it can be a good motivational tool to pay off the debt.

Other resources mentioned on the show:

Lesson #105 The morality of debt Lesson #41 The 3 steps you need to take before getting out of debt What appeals to you most about becoming debt free? Debt Free Living Podcast

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“Debt is the slavery of the free".“ ~ Publilius Syrus

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Back when I first started the show, I would group a lot of shows together and do a series on them. I love doing series because the shows have a similar theme and they build upon each other. If you look through the archives of the show you will see a variety of series I’ve done in the past.

But it hasn’t been something I’ve done recently, until now. Today I’m starting a series on lessons learned in financial coaching.

As someone who has been doing financial coaching for seven years now, I’ve noticed several reoccurring topics or themes that pop up when working with clients or talking with potential clients.

What I’ve realized is that if there are constant themes with clients, then odds are the other people are experiencing the same issues and have the same questions.

Today we start off with working together with your spouse on being on the same page financially. I choose this one first, because if you are currently married or are thinking about marriage one day, and you can’t solve this issue it doesn’t really matter about what you do for the other issues. The thing is that our money issues are probably due to a result of not being on the same page financially

What typically happens is one spouse contacts me about possibly working together. This spouse is usually the one who is “in charge” of the finances, and things aren’t going 100% well for any variety of reasons.

There is no communication with their spouse on money. It’s not necessarily that they disagree and fight all the time, although often that can be the case, but rather that there isn’t any communication to begin with and each partner is doing their own thing.

This is an issue because it is very difficult to do anything in marriage if one person is doing their own thing, doesn’t know what is going on, or is up to one spouse to do it. This not only is with our money but also in other areas of our marriage such as faith, family, housework, etc.

The thing is that I think a lot of couples get into this predicament because initially in a marriage you can “get by” without being on the same page. However once you start to earn more money, your lifestyle increases, you have children, buy a bigger home, and your children get to college the more your lack of togetherness is exposes.
Now it’s going to be hard to do something different, especially if you have never done it before. Also as a warning, if you try to talk to your spouse about money and you never have had serious conversations about it before, your situation will probably get worse before it gets better.

However, IT IS WORTH THE EFFORT!

I always tell people that these changes are good for your marriage, not just your money. By working together and beginning the conversation you will see great changes in your marriage. Now you might have some apologizing of confessions to make, but if you share why you want to change and work together, not just the what, you will start to experience a breakthrough in that area of your marriage.

Granted, this won’t be easy at first, but if you sit down, be open and honest, and see where your money is going it will be eye opening to both of you and allow you to dream again

If you want change to occur this must happen. Doing the same thing you’ve always done and expecting a different result isn’t going likely to happen.

More resources I have done on this topic:

Lesson #40 How to get you and your spouse on the same page financially When you and your spouse agree on your money, you agree on your life "The 4-1-1 on" series Author Month Series The top 10 Money sayings to know countdown Series "My experience in . . ." Series "Love and Money" Series Life and Money Series

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“One thing that is always more expensive than a good system is not having a system at all." ~ Dave Ramsey

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When I first started the show back in 2010 one of the things I set out to do was to answer listener’s questions on personal finance issues.

It’s part of why I got into coaching in the first place, to teach and help people in their situation. Well on today’s lesson I get back to that a little as I’ve been looking around on Facebook and on other money forms and have found a few questions from real life people I’d like to answer. I want to answer them today because they are questions I receive often when coaching or talking with people about their money.

First Question-Balance Transfers

The other day I decided to do a balance transfer to a 0% card. My card I am transferring from has a balance of $2048 the new card only approved me for $1000 @ 0% for 15 months. Any suggestions on how to proceed with the payoff since I will still have a balance on the old card? Is it possible to contact the new card and request a balance transfer increase? What are the odds that would work?

Balance transfers are quite popular when trying to get out of credit card debt. For those who don’t know, balance transfers are when you transfer part or all of a balance on an already existing credit card to another card via another company.
This is done because credit card companies typically offer low introductory interest rates which allows you to pay off the credit card faster, in theory. Credit card companies offer these to 1.) Get your future business 2.) Get your money by you hopefully not paying off the balance.

You can always call the credit card companies and ask to increase your limit on a balance transfer as it never hurts to ask. You might need to make multiple phone calls until they bend however. Another option is to do another balance transfer with another credit card company.

As to how to pay these off, assuming these are your lowest debt on your debt snowball, you have gone from one credit card with a $2,000 balance to two credit cards with a $1,000 balance each. I would pay off the credit card with the interest rate first, before going ahead and attacking the other one.

I say attack, because the problem I see often with balance transfers is that by moving your credit card debt to a zero percent interest credit card, people often feel a sense of accomplishment. They shouldn’t!

The debt still exists though! You really didn’t do anything, and that is the problem with debt. Interest rate is *NOT* the problem. The actual debt is the problem! As I’ve mentioned before I’m not against balance transfers in general, but I’m against them as a way to get out of debt. Because simply moving your debt to a lower interest rate is not removing the debt.

Other resources I’ve done about balance transfers

0% Credit Card Transfers Interest rate isn't the problem

Second Question-Taking a vacation while in debt

When paying off debt what's recommended for taking vacations?

This question comes up a lot in different varieties when I work with clients. The premises of this question is do I have to wait to be debt free before I can have fun? Or can I have some fun now?

Let’s be clear hear, there is no clear cut *right* answer to this question. It all comes down to what are your real priorities? What do you value more, a vacation or anniversary gift? Or getting out of debt?

From my point of view, vacations aren’t a right, they are a luxury. For some of you, you might not agree, but because I have this view point I’m can’t recommend taking a trip while in debt. I believe this because I’ve been debt free myself for many years and have seen and talked with others who have been the same and I see what being debt free means to your life, not just your finances.

The sacrifice is worth it, I know the feeling of being debt free is better than the feeling of going on a vacation, and the short term pain is worth it for the long term gain.

Another way to answer this question is to ask yourself the following question-would I borrow money to go on this vacation? If the answer is no, then what are you essential doing by going on vacation while in debt? You are borrowing to travel.

Ultimately the choice is up to you, and it depends on a variety of things including debt level, income, and what you are prioritizing. But I would only consider doing this if I could save the money to do so. No way would I recommend traveling on a credit card, home equity loan, stop contributing to retirement, or depletion of emergency savings.

Other Resources mentioned in the show on this topic:

Lesson #116 How to decide between enjoying your money now vs enjoying it later Traveling is nice but spending time together is most important

If you would like your questions answered on air, please send them to me at Jon@JWFinancialCoaching.com

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“One thing that is always more expensive than a good system is not having a system at all." ~ Rory Vaden

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When I use the word "risk" associated with your finances what comes to mind?

Do you think of putting all your money into one investment that could go boom . . . or bust?

Do you think of quitting your day job on a whim to start a business with no money in savings?

Those are indeed risk, but risk in our finances doesn't mean all or nothing. We face risk each day when we invest in the stock market. The stock market could lose value tomorrow.

When we buy a home, their is risk in the house dropping in value or becoming a money pit. (For more info on how to buy a home the right way please check out the book I wrote A Tale of Two Houses.)

The thing is that it is almost impossible to avoid any kind of risk with our finances. Yes there is the possibility of losing money when it comes to taking risk, but there should also be a chance at reward as well.

On today's lesson I share why our family took a "risk" with our health insurance this year and share how we are able to do it in the first place.

Like most of you, our open enrollment for our health insurance benefits at my company occurred in late October/early November. Typically when it comes to that time, I usually just go in, select the same coverage we had last year and see how much the coverage increased.

Instead though I looked through all of our health care plans options and an interesting situation arouse. Typically we have gone with a high deductible plan which has a Health Savings Account (HSA) attached to it. The deductible is $3,000 with a 80/20 co-pay after that up to a maximum out of pocket amount of $6,000. The monthly premium was $274.96 or $3,299.52 a year.

However I noticed that there was another high deductible option with a $5,000 deductible with a 80/20 co-pay after that with a $10,000 maximum out of pocket. But the monthly premiums for this plan was only $63.55 a month or $762.60 for a whole year. The difference in monthly premiums was over $211.41 a month, which translated to a savings of $2,500 on an annual basis!

But of course that also involved more risk. So what did I do? I ran the number of course. In addition to the premium difference, my employer also contributes an amount into our HSA each January. The amount was $800 for the $3,000 deductible plan and $300 for the $5,000 plan. I counted that as a deduction to annual premium because that money covers the first medical expenses you have for the year.

That was the upside, but what about the downside? Well taking the numbers above, I then ran some scenarios on our medical expenses for the year. Below is what I came up with:

Basically as long as we didn't have $20,185 in medical expenses for the year we would come out ahead and our total exposure to loss was only $1,963 and that is if we had the medical expense year from hell. But on the plus side if he had our normal medical expenses per year (non counting labor and delivery years) we could come out ahead $2,000 a year.

Ultimately we decided to take the risk and go with the $5,000 plan and take the difference in premium and put it away in our HSA that way we were paying ourselves the difference instead of the insurance company.

But the point on today's show isn't about changing your health insurance coverage. It's about why we were able to take the risk. We were able to take the calculated risk because we're debt free, we have an emergency fund, we have money already in our HSA in case we had a medical emergency, and we know what our money is doing.

Ultimately we're taking a slight risk. Yes we could have multiple emergency rooms visits or one of us might need surgery this year. But odds are we won't and the reward is worth the risk.

The bottom line is that winning with money allows you to take more calculated risks in health care, investing, and in our career. It's just simply another reason to get our financial houses in order.

Other Resources mentioned in the show

Talking about HSA's Why I love my HSA Saving is different from investing Survey on how you view money

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“Don't think in terms of taking huge risks to get rewards. Think about the least amount of risk for the greatest reward, and be extremely disciplined in that." ~ Tony Robbins

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When I first got into paying attention to my finances one of the first books I ready was the classic Millionaire Next Door by Dr. Tom Stanley. What I loved particularly about this book was the research Dr. Stanley did on real life millionaires. Not just athletes and entertainers. You really got insight into how millionaires think about earning, saving, and spending money.

Since then I’ve read other books by Tom Corley and Steve Siebold on how the wealthy think vs. the non-wealthy. Also there are books and research out there on how entrepreneurs think vs. traditional employees.

But today we are going to focus on how debt free people think. I focus on being debt free because that’s how Lisa and I live when it comes to our finances and after interviewing those who are debt free and coached with people on becoming debt free I’ve come to the realization that in general they seem to be doing better with money than most.

On today’s lesson I’m sharing some observations I have had about debt free people and how they view money. In addition I also share how I’m doing some research to help confirm these observations and how you can help.

The good news about looking at those who are debt free is that pretty much anyone can fall under that heading. You can be young or old, make a great income or make a little income, or be married or single. They can also have a lot of children but also have none. They can live in any part of the country, be of any race, ethnicity, or religion. But to me there are four main areas where debt free people think differently then those who are not.

They have an idea of where there money is going They are prepared for emergencies They are continuous learners They are big givers

Debt Free people know where their money is going by having a budget they review and stick to each month. They also have financial goals and review them at least once a year to see how if they have accomplished those goals. They have a great sense of where their money is going each month which allows them to have a knowledge of how each financial decision they make impacts their finances.

They are also prepared for emergencies. Debt free people face fewer true financial emergencies because they are prepared for them to happen. If an unexpected expense does occur they simply have the money in their emergency fund to cover the cost. Know there is a chick or the egg debate on which comes first, having an emergency fund or becoming debt free, but those who are debt free very often have money in an emergency fund.

Continuous learning is also a big part of the thought process of those who are debt free. Whether it is books, podcasts, blogs or other medium, those who are debt free are always those who continue to learn in different areas of money. These areas might include thinks such as investing in stocks, investing in real estate, starting a small business, how to make more passive income, ways to cut your cable or grocery bill, better ways to budget, or how to cut expenses to pay off their mortgage sooner.

Finally giving plays a huge role in the lives of those who are debt free. They don’t become debt free just to be able to save and spend more on themselves. They do it so that they can then bless others in causes that they believe in.

There are a lot more ways that debt free people think differently about money but those are for another podcast. But those are my observations and would you be willing to help prove out these observations?

I’m currently conducting research for my next book project and want to know your thoughts on debt and money.

It’s a 9 question multiple choice survey and should take only a few minutes to complete. Please consider taking it no matter if you are debt free or not. Your opinions matter and will help validate the research either way.

The survey is 100% anonymous but depending on your answers you might be contacted for a followup survey as well which we’ll need your email for.

Please visit JWFinancialCoaching.com/Survey to participate and thank you in advance for your help. I’ll be using the research for at least a future upcoming webinar and hopefully can use the data for a new book release.

Other resources mentioned in the show:

Lesson #103 How our mindset impacts our finances The Debt Free Living Podcast I'm Debt Free, now what?

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“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." ~ Wayne Dyer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

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Goal setting is something we’ve discussed on the show before around this time of the year. It’s a good time to talk about financial goals because usually at the end of the year most of us are reflecting on what we’ve accomplished the previous year and look ahead to what lies ahead in the next one.

With that being said you might not be a big goal setter and you start to roll your eyes whenever you read or hear someone talk about goals. But I believe in setting goals because for me they have

Helped Lisa and I achieve what we’ve wanted to financially Allowed us to dream together Propel us to things we didn’t think were possible!

But goals aren’t magic, you still have to do the work to achieve them. A lot of times we don’t reach our goals because they are too vague. Goals like I want to do better with money, I want to save more, I want to spend less, contribute more to retirement, reduce debt, aren’t likely to get achieved.

So instead of doing that this year, today we discuss how to create goals that are S.M.A.R.T. I didn’t come up with the acronym but making S.M.A.R.T goals for our family has really helped out.

S-Specific. Goals needs to be precise and leave no doubt. Instead of saying “I want to lower my spending in 2016” change it to “I want to lower my spending on groceries, eating out, and utilities in 2016”

M-Measurable. Goals need to be quantifiable to succeed. Instead of saying “I want to save more in 2016” change that to “I want to save $100 a paycheck in 2016.”

A-Actionable. This is always a tricky one. You have to create a goal that is reachable but also a stretch. If you make it too easy, you’ll more than likely procrastinate on it and then barely achieve your low goal.

R-Realistic-You have to be willing to do the work. If your goal is to pay off all your debt his year, but to do that you’ll have to work 100 hours a week, live in the dark, and eat two meals a day you won’t accomplish that go. Because you won’t see it through. There is a level of sacrifice of either time, energy, or money when it comes to reaching your goals however.

T-Timeline. Expected results need to have a timeline. We don’t like to have deadlines but for most of us we work better when we do. Instead of saying “I want to pay off my student loans in 2017” change it to “I want to pay off my Salie Mae Loan #1 by the end of February.” That will force you to put your energy and money into Salie Mae #1 and you are more likely to pay it off in February.

In addition to having goals that are S.M.A.R.T it’s important to write them down as well. Don’t ask me why but when I write things down they are more likely to happen then not. I’ve also created an easy to use worksheet that has you write down your goals, determine the cost, and develop the action steps needed to accomplish them.

Also if you need help determining what your goals should be in the first place check out this short 10 video series I put together a few years back on taking control of your finances. The video are supposed to be consumed daily and feature small actionable steps to take to gain control of your money. They were designed for the year 2015 but apply to any year you do them in.

But what if you are listening to this after the beginning of the year. Can you still use these strategies? Of course you can, goal setting can happen at any time! It’s easier at the beginning of the year as January 1 is a good starting point for a fresh start. But it doesn’t have to be a certain date, you can start your goal journey at any time.

Below are some more resources on goal setting

The importance of writing down your dreams and goals Three ways to help achieve your financial goals Our goals and desire will change over time Is it a resolution or a goal? Personal Story-Setting financial goals Goals: An Adventurous journey awaits us

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“People with goals succeed because they know where they're going" ~ Earl Nightingale

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

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Savings vs. Spending. We can tackle this subject through a variety of lenses and as mentioned in the show we have. But today we are going to talk about it through a unique way that was helped inspired by a client I was working with a few months back.

The client wanted to save more money but wasn’t able to save as much as they wanted and instead was spending it on other areas. We tried to focus on ways to spend less in those areas, but for whatever reason it didn’t seem to work. So instead of focusing on where to spend less, we instead focused on where to “spend” more, and that happened to be “spending” more on savings.

To “spend” more on savings we had the client transfer money out of their main account into their savings account each day they got paid. That way the money wasn’t floating around in the main account looking to be spent.

It might seem like a psychological ploy but by having a “spending” goal of savings allowed the client to reach their savings goal and was able to feel more empowered with their finances.

In addition we also share some other good ways that you can employ to start to save more in 2017. Hard to believe that a new year is right around the corner, but this time of the year is always a good time to start to write down some your financial goals.

Other resources mentioned in the show

Lauren Greutman’s book The Recovering Spender
Amazon Audible-Get it for free through this link
Lesson #77-Can a saver learn to spend? Lesson #76-Can a spender learn to save? Lesson #38-How do you decide when to save and when to spend? Lesson #14-When to loosen up your spending Lesson #123-Is there a need for multiple bank accounts for saving? Lesson #99-Why we don't have a car payment

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“Rich people stay rich by living like they're broke. Broke people stay broke by living like they are rich." – Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

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A few lesson’s back we shared how loaning money to family and friends can be a difficult situation to be in, both from a lender and borrower’s perspective. Well on today’s lesson we’re going to talk about friends and money but from a different angle.

It’s been said that you act like, earn about the same, and behave similarly to who you hang out with the most. With that being said then, do the friends we keep impact our finances?

I think we do, and they can be a powerful influence in how we make our money decisions.

The thing is though that when we talk about influences, they can be either a negative or positive influence. So this lesson is all about determining what a negative influence looks like and what a positive influence looks like.

The encouragement on today’s show it to look at your current relationships and see if they have either a positive or negative influence on your money. I don’t believe you should just cut off a relationship because it has a negative influence on your money.

However if there is a negative money influence on your life, instead of hanging out with that friend for a day at a time. You may need to hang out a hour at a time.

We also discuss how keeping up with the Jones’s is often a pressure we put on ourselves, instead of pressure put on us by friends.

Below are some Facebook groups that help propel me to good financial decisions and are a positive influence on my life

His and Her Money Debt Freedom Fighters How do I money

Resources mentioned in the show

Top 10 Money Sayings to know-Stop caring whatever people think

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." – George Horace Lorimer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Whenever I receive feedback from listeners of the show one of the main topics they would like to cover more is investing. I'm always a little hesitant to discuss investing because I am not a registered investment professional.

Yes I can speak to the differences between a ROTH and Traditional account, a 401(K) and an IRA, stocks vs. bonds vs. cash, and the importance of diversification. But not what specific investment is right for you.

I've attempted to learn more and self-educate, but the thing with investing is that if you search around people who are actually qualified, you'll see that it seems like everyone has a different approach to investing. This makes it hard to decipher which is the right way for you.

Of course there is no one right way, but how do you determine whether an investment is right for you or not? Today we are focusing on whether to invest yourself or hire a CFP or advisor to help you choose. Based on a recent study, it's about 50/50 on whether or not you invest or have an advisor help you.

For those of us who invest on our own, we mainly do it by default with our 401(K) at work. We have no clue what to invest, so we pick a few funds and let our co-worker tell us about what they invest in. But there are legitiment reasons to invest in yourself, some of the reasons include:

You have self taught yourself investing strategies You have experience with investing Have a level of comfort and understanding Not going to be scared by down turns in the economy or market

Just starting out or you have no idea what you are actually doing You find the topic investing very confusing Very impulsive Need help determine what your financial plans for the future are

Again to me, there isn't a one size fits all approach to investing. There are legit reasons to go at it alone and equally legit reasons to have some advice. Of course it will cost you something to invest with an advisor, but if you aren't investing or are investing in a product that is under performing, isn't it worth paying someone to help give you an even bigger return down the road?

Paying a fee isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it is helping you to invest more each year, increasing your rate or return, causing you to knock panic and withdrawl everything over a news event it it well worth it. The fee is bad however if the advisor is just filling out paper work and not really teaching you about investing.

Whenever we do invest in something, either on our own or with an advisor it's important to know

Why you are investing in it What's the investment's goal and risks What is the investment's fee structure

If you know those things with investing you are well on your way. Again I don't think there is a right way or a wrong way. It all depends on your comfort level and knowledge of investing.

In the past Lisa and I have used an advisor to help us out with selecting funds, and we're not against doing it in the future.

Right now we investing primarily in low cost index funds on our own which keeps the costs down and makes whatever the market is doings. But that's just us.

My hope is this lesson provides you with knowledge to decide whether to invest on your own or hire an advisor.

Lesson #114-Why the 401(K)'s are not the safe investment we've been led to believe with Greg Whitaker The most important thing to remember about investing Lesson #24 The 4-1-1 on Investing with guest Devin Czech Why I continue to invest when no one else does

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy." – George Horace Lorimer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

On today’s special lesson of the show, I do an impromptu discussion on how fear is one of the biggest inhibitors of achieving financial success.

Today’s discussion was spurred on by the event’s this past week revolving around our election on Tuesday. When it became clear that Donald Trump was heading towards getting the magical 270 electoral votes needed the stock market futures, not the real stock market, dropped more than 750 points.

Of course then the next day on Wednesday the real stock market closed at an all time high. But it got me thinking to how fear drives so many of our financial decisions. Not just because of an election result but fear in our every day life.

A couple of things that we discuss today on fear and our money include

Stock Market Credit Cards Starting a budget Changing careers

We’re all going to face fear at some point, it’s natural. But how do we differentiate between true fear and worrying about the worst case scenario? To me it is use judgement and test that fear. Am I afraid because I read something on Facebook or because I’ve thought it all the way through? Anytime I hear about the total collapse of _______ (Fill in the blank) I get skeptical. But I’ve realized personally that if I am doing something different to change my finances and I have some fear, the more I do that thing and get comfortable with it, the more the fear goes away.

My challenge to you today is to think about if there is any fear that you are facing that is holding you back financially?

If so why do you have the fear?

What is it preventing you from doing it?

What would be the positive result of you doing the action?

Below are resources mentioned in the show to help remove the fear from making changes with your finances:

Free Financial Resources for Budgeting Life is going to happen, so let it happen with an emergency fund The most important thing to remember about investing

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“F-E-A-R has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. The choice is yours” ~ Zig Ziglar

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, Google Play or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

When I hear stories of people getting out of debt, the debt that gives them the most trouble is often a loan from a family member or friend. Giving or receiving loans from relatives or friends sounds like a good idea, but if you aren’t careful they can easily turn into a nightmare and easily lead to a ruin relationship.

Now most of you know I don’t recommend borrowing for anything, but what if you are already in the position of owing money to friends and family or are considering loaning money to a relative to help them get through a rough spot?

Today’s lesson we cover why it can be enticing to take out loans from family members and friends, discuss the dangers in doing them, how to handle these loans in the debt snowball, what happens if you can’t pay back a family member or friend, and a special discussion about co-signing and student loans.

Giving and receiving loans from a family member or friend occur often because it is easier to do then go to a bank or lending institution and go through all the paperwork and hassle. Perhaps you have bad credit and aren’t able to qualify for a loan from anywhere else. Or with low saving interest rates, you can make more by loaning it out to someone and get a better return than keeping it in a savings account in addition to “helping” out someone you care about.

However they often don’t work because since they are family or friends you don’t do the proper documentation and have a hand shake agreement. But after a few months go by, the “pay me back whenever” lender gets tired of not having his money back and seeing the borrower post on Instagram and Facebook about the nice dinner or vacation they just had. The leads to bitterness and resentment and at best leads to a strain in the relationship and at worse a total disolvement of the relationship and leading people to not talk for years.

In addition giving out a loan might not actually be a help to the individual, it might actually harm someone. Quite often these loans are given in a crisis situation due to a job loss or medical event and are used to not miss a payment on a car or mortgage.

But is this loan you are giving to them actually going to help their situation? Or is it just going to perpetuate the problem of poor financial management? That is something that needs to be considered before lending out money.

Since they cause a lot of strain on relationship I recommend treating them a little differently in the debt snowball. If I can move them up and pay them off sooner I would try. For example if you owe your in-laws $5,000 and have a $3,000 credit card balance I would try and pay off the $5,000 first, as long as you can make your own minimum payments. However if that loan from the in-laws is $20,000 I wouldn’t move it up the debt snowball.

What happens if you can’t pay? Well then you need to have clear communication with the lender and give them your entire financial picture and share why you can’t pay them at that particular time. Now this might be embarrassing to admit to them that you can’t pay. But it will help the relationship a lot more to sit down and be vulnerable instead of telling them “I’m working on it” and have no plan on how to actually do it.

With that being said I can’t recommend lending money to or borrowing from family or friends. The risk of running the relationship is too great.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by A Tale of Two Houses 

“Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.” ~ American Proverb

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

I got into Financial Coaching back in 2010, not because I knew everything there was to know about how to handle money or because I was going to make a full time gig out of it.

I got into Financial Coaching because I was tired of seeing those I know and care about make unwise financial decisions that either hurt them in the moment or gave them a higher degree of financial risk in the future.

Since getting into coaching my style has evolved and I have a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t work. I’ve coached a lot of different people from a wide range of income, marital status, stage of life they are in, and financial situation.

I’ve also learned that there is a specific client type that I work best with and who usually gets the best results. Those characteristics are those who

Are teachableWilling to learnReady to make changeWant to do that work

But enough about me, why do I share that with you today? Because on today’s lesson we’re talking about what financial coaching Is and what financial coaching isn’t. When I first got into coaching, people would ask me all the time what the difference was between financial coaching and financial planning and I really didn’t have a good answer. But over time I have a better understanding on the differences

What financial coaching is:

Helping you identify your overall financial pictureEnabling you to implement changes into how you handle moneyKeeps you accountable on getting your main objectives accomplishedHands on help that is a lot more personal, intense, long term changing then a podcast or DVD

With that being said financial coaching is not:

Just telling you what to do and expecting you to listen and obeySelling you products such as insurance or investmentsMe just spewing out advice and knowledge-you already know what to do, it’s actually doing it that is the hard partMe doing the work and you just sitting back and enjoying the fruits of it. Personal finance is personal! You need to have an idea of where your money is going and what your money is doing for you.

So with that being said, what can you expect from this show, considering it is titled the JW’s Financial Coaching Podcast? The podcast is me taking scenarios and situations that I have seen working with clients and turning them into teachable lessons in verbal form. Because it is a medium for all to listen to I try to cover all financial situations but I can’t personalize it for each situation. My hope is that you can get bits and pieces of each lesson and apply it to where you are currently and ultimately this show is an encouragement to you to continue to make changes in the way you handle money.

Know that you have a better idea of what financial coaching is, if you would like to work with me one on one please fill out the financial overview form and we can set up a time to chat over the phone to better learn about your situation.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be” ” ~ Tom Landry

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

Today we are talking about a nice problem to have, how to track all of your savings accounts. If you aren’t there yet, don’t worry, you’ll get there as soon as you develop a plan, stick to it, and start to pay off your debt.

But how do you keep track of all the different saving funds? Once you become debt free and are able to bank more money each month you’ll be able to save money for variety of funds, including:

Emergency FundVacation FundCar replacement FundDown Payment Fund

We’ll try to answer the question today if it is better to keep all your savings fund separate or lump them all together and keep a balance each month. Like much with personal finance, there is no one right way to do things.

But it is important to track it somehow, because the tendency is to just let it pile up in our checking account. Which makes it a lot easier to spend it and let it slip away like sand in our hands.

There are a few things to consider however before you decide whether or not to separate your savings account.

What is your financial temperament?

Are you a saver? A spender? Do you like your finances to be detailed or are you more of a free spirit? Answering these question will you determine whether you want your funds separated so they aren’t as easily accessible or if you want to spend the time breaking the dollars out.

How much money are we talking about?

If you are tracking a few hundred bucks here and there it might not be worth it. But if you have a significant balance over a longer period of time, it might be better to separate it out, so you know exactly what the money is for.

How detailed do you want your savings?

Are you someone who has multiple savings projects occurring at the same time? Or do you like to be spontaneous and decide to do one thing like a vacation, car, or home remodel once a year? If you know you just want to do something, but not exactly what, just having one savings account would probably work best.

What Lisa and I do

Lisa and I do a hybrid when it comes to our accounts. We have three accounts. One is our main account, one is where we write our checks out of each month, and the other is where we put excess savings into. At the end of each month I take the balances in these accounts, add them up, then break them out the following ways

Emergency Fund-Pretty constant, rarely changesStock Purchase Plan-Money we are saving to cover contributions to our employee stock purchase programInsurance/Utilities sinking fund-The money not paid on a month basis that we still budget forCar Repair FundChildren’s college fund-Any money we get as a gift that we will put in our children’s education account by dollar cost averagingCash that we get for giftsFixing the house fundCar Replacement/Vacation Fund-We don’t separate these funds out

This way works for us since we are both natural savers and aren’t likely to spend the extra money in our checking out. It’s less maintenance for us then having a separate account to track everything. But we have looked into ways into improving our savings.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“To be rich, is not what you have in your bank account, but what you have in your heart.” ~ Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

Whenever I communicate with listeners of the show and ask what topics they would like me to cover on the show, one of the more popular requests is how to make more money through a side business or second job.

Starting something on the side is a great way to earn some money on the side. To improve you financial situation you can either do one of two things 1.) Cut back or 2.) Earn more income.

On lesson 4 of the show we discussed whether it was more important to spend less or make more when trying to get out of debt. The obvious answer of course is to do both!

Well to help out with learning how to side hustle I had the chance to interview Tracey Minutolo over at TraceyMinutolo.com. Tracey is a Side Hustle Coach & Financial Freedom Fighter.

Tracey shares what the term “Side Hustle” means to her. She also talks about how she got involved in side hustling and how she was able to start her virtual assistant side business.

We also talk a little bit about Tracey’s debt free journey. She started out with about $60,000 in debt a little over two years ago. But she’s paid off her car loan and is going at her student loans with aggression. Her goal is to have it paid off by the end of 2017.

But most importantly the thing the stuck out to me was Tracey’s story of how becoming disciplined changed her life completely. It was no coincidence that Tracey’s side hustle and debt free journey took off around the same time.

You see about two years ago Tracey started to listen to podcast’s which taught her new information and gave her hope to make changes in her life. She took that hope and became focused and the disciplined she gained in those life changes not only impacted her career and finances, but other areas of her life as well!

Tracey’s story is very inspiring even if you aren’t looking to start a side hustle or get out of debt. She just got tired of carrying her student loans and decided to do something about it! My hope is that her story will inspire you to make changes in your life and think of something you can do on the side to increase your income.

Resources mentioned in the show

TraceyMinutolo.com
Tracey's Facebook community
Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“Discipline begets discipline.” ~Jon Acuff

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

A few weeks back I was reading “Eventual Millionaire” by Jamie Tardy and read upon a quote that made me pause and ponder for a few moments. The quote was from author and management consultant Peter Drucker.

“Don’t tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you stopped doing.”

The quote blew me away and make me think about changing how I work with people when creating new financial habits.

Normally I focus primarily in four main areas

Spending your money before the month starts with a budgetBecoming Debt FreeSaving MoneySpend money on thing that you value the most

Doing those four things allows us to stop overspending, committing future income before we earn it, and stop living with no financial margins in our life.

However maybe instead of focusing on new stuff to do, we should focus more on removing negative financial habits like overspending, having no control of our money each month, living with debt, and a continual increase in lifestyle without an increase in saving and investing.

Because it is hard to develop good habits when we still have negative ones. It is hard to save money when you are still in debt and don’t know where you spend your money each month.

I think a lot of times this is why we struggle with changing our financial behavior, because we focus so much on what we should be doing instead of focusing on what we need to stop doing.

The goal of today’s lesson is to help you reflect on what are some things you need to stop doing to improve your finances

Other resources mention in today's show

JW's Financial Coaching VIP list
Difference between knowing and understanding your finances
5 Good Financial habits to start today
5 toughest financial habits to break

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean.com

“Don’t tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you stopped doing. ” ~Peter Drucker

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

How well do you know your finances?

Even better, do you understand your finances?

Most of us don’t know our finances, and even less of us understand our finances.

What’s the difference you might ask, well it turns out there is a big difference and on today’s show we’ll discuss what both are and why they important to winning with money.

Knowing our finances means we are aware or are informed about our money. This means we know things such as

What our income is
How much debt we have
How much we save or invest per month

Understanding our finances means we are comprehending our decisions on money and are aware of how these decisions impacts us. Things we can do to understand our finances better include:

Knowing what our net worth isCreate and stick to a monthly spending plan/budget
Have short term and long term goals
Making short term sacrifices to achieve long term goals

Understanding our finances allows us to look at the big picture when making financial decisions instead of having the mindset of week to week or paycheck to paycheck. This lets us make wise financial decisions, frees us to become more creative and take “risks”, lets us determine what we need to do to life the lifestyle we choose to, and ultimately allows allow us to make our financial dreams a reality.

In short it allows us to take on short term pleasure for long term treasure.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“Knowing is not understanding. There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it. ” ~Charles Kettering

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

The other day I went to get my mail and saw that I had gotten a new debit card in the mail. After opening it up I noticed something different from my previous card. On the side of the card was a chip that I had never seen before. After doing some research I found out that the chip is the EMV chip and is now standard on most debit and credit cards.

Today we’re going to talk about the EMV chip debit card and lists its features. It is mostly the same but there is a slight difference between your old debit cards and the new EMV chips. It’s also confusing because retailers are in a state of flux of getting new machines that use the EMV technology so it’s hard to determine whether you need to swipe your card or insert it (or “dip it”) into the reader.

I share my experiences with it so far so when you get your card in the mail you’ll know exactly what to do when you get your card. As the EMV chip cards are more secure they will become more and more commonplace in the market, which to me is a good thing.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“If you don't have the money management skills yet, using a debit card will ensure you don't overspend and rack up debt on a credit card.” ~ T. Harv Eker

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

My wife and I have had a lot of changes in our life this past year. We’ve added a new member to our family, spent some money updating our home, bought a new van, and got a raise in income.

Because of these life events we have been forced in the past year to look at some things in our finances and determine if we need to make any updates. This got me thinking on that others might have these same “problems” or “issues.”

So today we’re going to talk about things we need to review once a year to make sure our coverage or amount saved is enough. They include

Emergency Fund-We recommend you have 3-6 months’ worth of expense saved after you become debt free. But the problem is that we originally setup an emergency and as the years go by our life changes. We might have more or less expenses now, then we did originally. Life has happened so we might want to consider whether we would want a six month or a three month emergency fund. After determining what your expenses are today you might learn that you have too much or too little in your emergency fund at the momentLife Insurance-Life insurance is not a fun topic to discuss, but make no mistake, it is an important one to discuss. Most advice says to have 8 to 12 times your income in life insurance. However what if your income has increased since you originally bought the term policy? Is your coverage still enough? If not you might have to buy an additional second policy or buy a whole new one to insure you have the right coverage.Car Insurance-How often do we just buy car insurance and then never compare whether or not we are paying too much? More often then we think. Go ahead and look at quotes on online and see if they can beat your current rates. In addition look to see if you want to lower or raise your deductible or if you need to add or drop certain coverage.Investing-Most of us invest in our 401(K)’s at work via a certain percentage each paycheck. However IRA’s are usually deposited by an amount each month. But if your income changes have you updated your IRA contributions to reflect that change?Giving-The first four issue make sense to you probably. But why would I need to review my giving you might ask? Because let’s be honest when was the last time we looked at our giving and honestly looked at if we should be doing more in that area.

Now I don’t think we need to review these each month, but annualy or every few years make it a priority to see if you can save some money , cut back, or increase your contributions in a certain area.

If you are like me, you like to do something once, set it up on auto draft and be done with it. But sometimes putting our finances on autopilot can hurt us and actually cost us money. So it’s good to take a minute every once a while and ensure you are still setup properly.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

"80% of what we worry about doesn’t happen.” ~ Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

When I first started the blog and the podcast, one of my most popular posts that gained some traction was the Don’t be Average blog post. In this post I shared some average financial statistics on income, debt, and savings which I tried to paint a picture that the average financial situation in America isn’t all the great. Since the original post back in 2010 I updated it for 2011 and did one of my original podcast lessons on the same topic.

But I realized I hadn’t had an updated version since 2011 so on today’s lesson we’re going to cover the average financial stats in America for 2016. Among some of the statistics discussed in the show:

The Median Household income is $53,657 [1]
1% of households that have a credit card have a balance at the end of each month with an average debt of $16,000[2]
The average car payment is now $503(!) over 68 months[3]
The average car lease payment is now $400 [4]
2016 college graduates had an average student loan balance of $37,000[5]
For all households that have a student loan, one in seven, the median balance is $13K[6]
The savings rate is currently 5.3%[7]
50% of Americans would have to borrow or sell something to pay for a $400 emergency[8]
1 in 7 Americans have a negative net worth [9]

We go into depth more on each stat and explain why these are troubling statistics.

But we also explain why it can be used as motivation to get out from under the rut of being at or below average and what you can do to having a good personal economy.

This is just a great reminder that we can’t go through life taking advice from “He said, I heard, and everybody does.”

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

"Average People live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs. ” ~ Steve Siebold

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

[optin-cat id="13626"]

[1] http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us/

[2] http://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-debt

[3] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/02/us-borrowers-are-paying-more-and-for-longer-on-their-auto-loans.html

[4] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/02/us-borrowers-are-paying-more-and-for-longer-on-their-auto-loans.html

[5] https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics-2016/

[6] https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-typical-household-with-student-loan-debt/

[7] http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/personal-savings

[8] http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2014-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201505.pdf

[9] http://www.whig.com/20160808/household-debt-concerns-economists-lenders#

One of the most common issues that I encounter when I’m working with an individual or a couple is how to balance long term goals like saving, investing, or paying off debt vs. making a big purchase such as a car or a fancy vacation.

It’s a great question, because while we do our monthly budget and perhaps do set aside money for big purchases, the budget can’t tell us whether or not we *SHOULD* do it, it really can just tell us if we *CAN* do it.

On today's lesson of the podcast I'm going to share the process that Lisa and I use when making a big spending decision and whether or not we should do it now or later.

Now much like most thing in personal finance, the decision is a personal one that all depend on your situation and financial goals. But when it comes to making big purchases decisions below is the process that Lisa and I do when we look to make a big purchase.

We always like to ask ourselves the following three questions first

How much is it going to cost?How are we going to pay for it?If we have to budget for it, what will we need to change in our budget?

It’s important first to determine how much the purchase is going to cost. Doing so will help give you a clearer picture and will assist in determining whether or not it is something to do now or wait for another time.

After you know how much it costs, it’s then time to figure out how you will pay for it. Is it going to come out of savings? Will you have to adjust your budget for a few months to save enough cash? Is there something in your home that you can sell on EBay or Craigslist to get a cash infusion?

If you already budget for it, such as a car replacement fund, do you have enough time to save the correct amount between now and when you would like to make the purchase? If not, what will you need to change in your budget to have enough saved by then?

Some other things to consider as well is, if I make this purchase, what else is this going to prevent me from doing financially in the next few months? Save for my emergency fund? Not going out with my friends on the weekend? Postpone my debt repayment plan? You then have to weigh that loss against the gain of the purchase.

As for me, my #1 goal would be to have my $1,000 emergency fund funded first. Because if I don’t have my emergency fund fully funded and I make this purchase it’s like I’m spending my emergency fund on a luxury and a luxury is not an emergency. There’s nothing wrong with spending on luxury, but not at the expense of an emergency.

In addition, I personally wouldn’t be going on trips or spending big purchases on wants if I’m still in debt. I just think it is unwise. Often though I hear back from young adults in their 20’s and early 30’s who are looking at huge student loan balances, lower incomes, and don’t feel like they are ever going to get to spend their money on something nice so they want to go on a trip to be with friends.

While I might not agree with the purchase, I’m OK with it as long as it is paid for in cash and credit isn’t being used to fund a purchase. I’m never going recommend borrowing money to travel for luxury for example, but if someone can save up the money then going on the trip isn’t a “bad” or “un-wise” financial decision necessarily. It’s just different from what I do and teach.

However there needs to be a point where we focus and are more serious on paying off our debt then on travel. If the travel is a once in a few years type of deal that’s ok, but if it is a once a year thing I think I you might need to reevaluate how much getting out of debt is important to you.

To me this example it is a great opportunity to ponder on what your goals and priorities are. Yes you can go on vacations or buy a new car, but that is probably going to slow down the acceleration of getting out of debt, postpone your investing, or subtract money from your ability to do something else. Is that worth it to you? There isn’t a wrong or right answer but a question to ponder.

Hopefully that is enough information for you to make the best decision next time you are in this position. I think going through this exercise, whether you make the purchase or not, is a good real life example of how to handle money. You aren’t just acting on a whim and just making an impulse purchase, rather you are thinking critically whether or not to go and I’m sure you’ll make a wise decision.

Other resources mentioned in today's lesson

Podcast Lesson #113-The result of 30 years of frugal living with guest John Pugliano
Podcast Lesson #38-How do you decide when to save and when to spend
Podcast Lesson #7-What to do with all your extra cash

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by book on our experience of buying and selling a house titled "A Tale of Two Houses"

"Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving” ~ Warren Buffett

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

On the heels of last week’s lesson of the podcast with guest Greg Whitaker discussing the risk of 401(K)’s and how fees impact your return, I decided to do a review of website I discovered about two years ago called FeeX.com

Feex.com bills itself as the “Robin Hood of Fees”. It helps you in finding out how much in fees you are paying within your IRA and 401(K), tries to find alternatives, inside your 401(K) or outside, that have lower fees, and shows you how much those fees are impacting your balance over the long run.
I originally got an email from FeeX asking that I check out their service. I get these emails a lot in my line of work and I usually pass on them because they are for something I don’t personally agree with or recommend like credit cards, pay day loans, or debt consolidation. But I gave FeeX a try and I’m really glad I did as I believe their service can really help people in their investing and determine how to get mutual funds with lower fees.

Using the site is pretty simple. You start by logging in with your email. You then select your providers of any current or old 401(K)’s or any IRA products from a list of hosting companies. In the 18 months I have been using the site they keep adding new providers all the time. In addition you can also submit your companies 401(K) listing of accounts if your company’s aren’t already included.

After you add all of your accounts with FeeX it will then breakout the fees you are paying by account and then determine if there are other fees similar to the ones that you already own that have lower fees. For 401(K)’s that is usually just a fund or two. For IRA’s there are more since IRA can use thousands upon thousands of funds.

Overall I think FeeX is a very useful tool when it comes to retirement planning. The one thing you need to remember is that FeeX is only designed to look at fees inside your investments. It can’t tell you if your portfolio is well diverse, if you are contributing enough into your account each month, or if you are on pace to have enough to retire. It’s a site to help reducing the fees you pays.

With that being said I’d recommend checking it out. FeeX isn’t the only site that provides the service, but as of now it is 100% free and really is easy to use. In addition currently they can also help out with moving an old employer 401(K) to a IRA if you so desire which is a nice plus.

If you have used FeeX before, please let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean.com

"Knowledge has a beginning, but no end.” ~ Geeta Iyencar

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Greg Whitaker from DebtSheperd.com joins us today to share why the 401(K)’s are not the safe investment that we have been led to believe.

Greg teaches financial freedom gained from 16 years in the mortgage business and 10 years of financial literacy training.

I love Greg’s passion for teaching and sharing financial wisdom. In short he believes the 401(K) isn’t a safe investment primarily due to the following primary reasons:

No way on insuring against lossFee structureIndividuals not knowing what they are investing in

One of the main ways we get in trouble with our 401(K) is that we have no idea what we are doing when it comes to investing. Rather we just pick a random fund or pick one at the advice of a co-worker who may or may not know what they are doing. Greg and I discuss what you can do to learn about investing, not just in a 401(K) if that is what you choose, but also investing in other areas such as a business, real estate, commodities, or anything else you feel comfortable putting your money.

The main point of this lesson is to basically pay attention to what you are investing in. Know the fees that you are paying for each fund. Know what you are investing in, know what the goal is of the investment, know why you are investing in it, and properly diverse.

For more financial information and opinions that you don’t hear in traditional financial media, please check out Greg’s podcast Debt Sheperd radio. In addition below are material Greg mentioned in the interview.

The Retirement Gamble-PBS documentaryHow Wall Street Fleeces America-Book
Greg's YouTube Channel

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

“I didn’t sign up for my 401(K) at work, because there is no way I can run that far”

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John Pugliano from wealthsteading.com joins us today to share the impact that 30 years of frugal living has had on his family's finances.

I heard John give an interview on my friend Steve Stewart's old MoneyPlanSOS podcast over a year ago and I knew I wanted to have John on the show as his story is really inspiring.

Usually when I have guests on the show to share their story, it is a story of getting out of debt in the last two to three years. However today story is unique in that John is sharing his story of over 30 years of wise purchases. What I love about his story is that he stuck to a plan and it has paid off quite nicely for him.

John and his wife’s story is one from the Thomas Stanley classic, “The Millionaire Next Door”, in that their plan was nothing flashy. Instead is what just being consistent over and over. John and his wife had similar views on spending and saving which helped a lot. In addition they didn’t simply ever spend more than they made, outside of a mortgage only ever had one car payment, no student loan debt, and no credit card debt.

But it always wasn’t a smooth ride, there were ups and downs and bad decisions regarding career choices were made. In fact John didn’t really start to make progress on becoming financially independent until he was 35 years old. But it didn’t deter him and now John is a money manager and founder of Investable Wealth LLC.

To John there are three main wealth building principles to master:

Learn to earn an incomeDevelop the discipline to saveLearn how to invest

For John there really isn’t one way to build wealth. You can do so via real estate, stock investing, commodities, or starting a small business. However being debt free was crucial to building wealth for John and his family.

I’m honored that John shared his story and I hope you find it encouraging in your journey towards improving YOUR economy.

To check out John’s podcast visit wealthsteding.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean.

“Never compare your beginning to someone else's middle”
― Jon Acuff

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Quite often when we hear debt free stories we assume that it is all fun and games and whenever you start to pay off your debt that it will automatically.

However that rarely happens.

A lot times it takes people a few tries before they are done with debt for good.

Today’s guest on the show had a similar path.

Phil Danley from consumerdebtcoach.com joins us to share how he and his wife paid off $28,000 in consumer debt then paid off their house just two years later.

But this wasn’t their first time in trying to get their finances under control. In the 90’s and 00’s they went through debt management and even a bankruptcy.

But what got them serious in 2010 to knock it out for good? Good old fashioned anger. They got tired of their debt, created a budget and compromised on their spending so they would have enough money each month to pay towards their debt.

It was a little slow at first but once they paid off their first debt, they gained momentum and were able to pay off their consumer debt in about 28 months. In working together and compromising with his spouse it helped their marriage as it felt more like they were partners in paying off their debt.

They then decided to stay focused and pay off their house just two years later.

Phil says that there is a big difference in knowing what to do and actually doing it. His keys to getting out of debt are

Get an emergency fundDetermine what monthly expenses you want to dump and which to keepDo a monthly budgetTithe your income

What have they been able to do know that they don’t owe anything to anyone? They’ve been able to max out their 401(K) contribution. But even more important Phil has been able to step back a bit at his work and has become a certified life coach.

To learn more about Phil please visit his blog at consumerdebtcoach.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean.

“The expert at anything was once a beginner.”
― Helen Hayes

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Today we continue with our series of guest interviews by welcoming Monica Louie from OurDebtFreeFamily.com to the show. Monica is a fellow financial coach and today she shares how her and her husband paid off $120,000 dollars in exactly two years.

They always wanted to become debt free, but something really clicked when Monica heard a story of how another couple had become 100% debt free including their home. After Monica heard that story she felt like her family could do the same thing.

When hearing the Louie’s story, what stuck out to me was the extreme sacrifice they made to reach their goal. Not only did they downsize from the home they bought right when they got married, but they also sold a car, a motorcycle, and lived away from each other for a while to earn extra money.

Also listing out all of their debt and sticking to a budget each month went a long way towards keeping them motivated to pay off their debt.

Today the only debt they have is the one on their home and their goal is to pay that off by the time they are 40. Monica says that having a common goal and being on the same page with her husband has greatly impacted their marriage.

"If you want something bad enough, then you iwll do whatever it takes to make it happen" ~ Monica Louie

For more information on Monica please check out the following

Website-OurDebtFreeFamily.com
Checklist-For a strong financial plan
YouTube
Facebook-ourdebtfreefamily.com/yourfamily

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com.

“You'll only truly sacrifice when you passionately believe in the outcome”  – Dave Ramsey

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Today we are joined by guest Brad Baldridge of TamingTheHighCostOfCollege.com to talk about how to plan for college.

Brad Baldridge, CFP®, is a College Funding Consultant specializing in late stage college funding planning and the chief podcaster of Taming The High Cost Of College.  He provides customized planning using the latest financial aid, tax, cash flow and academic strategies.

Brad is based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and about 10 years ago started to help people in late state college planning.

Brad and I discussed about what you need to do as a parent and as a student to get ready to pay for school. Both from an early planning point as well as a late staging perspective.

Brad also shares what are some of the common mistakes people make when planning for college and why it's important to start early when preparing to save for college.

We also discuss topics such as how your college choice is an important step of the college selecting process, should your child work in college, and whether or not you should you should help your child pay for college in the first place.

For more information on Brad please check out the following

Website-Tamingthehighcostofcollege
Podcast-Taming the High Cost of College
Video-Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents
Calculator-Expected Family Contribution Calculator

For more information on college planning please check out the following podcast I've done in the past on the subject.

Should parents have a say in their child's college major?
My experience in paying for college
Answering your questions on college funding

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean. To

“Don't go to college, unless to get information”  – Satchel Paige

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I think giving is something we'd all like to do a better job of, but usually don't. There are a lot of reasons for that but today's lesson is about encouraging us to become better givers.

Because let's face it, when was the last time you gave and didn't enjoy it? I think when we truly give money, not out of obligation or of guilt, it is one of the best things we can do with our money.

Then how come we don't give as much as we'd like to? Today we're going to discuss four ways to become a better giver. Now normally when we talk about giving, we're talking more than just money, but today we're talking about money.

The good news is that anyone can give! There isn't a certain income threshold that prevents us from giving. Of course the more you make, the more you can potentially give, but don't let a certain dollar amount prevent you from becoming a giver.

Being thankful for what you got

We won't give unless we are first content with what we currently have. Sometimes we forget that we have so much and instead compare ourselves to what we don't have.

But the mindset of being content means we free ourselves to give. Being discontent holds us back a lot of time with giving. I think that's because we fee like we're missing out on something if we give. But when we are in a state of thankfulness and contentment, we're able to give without worries.

Doing it the whole year

When we think of giving most of the time it is around the Christmas season. There's nothing wrong with giving at Christmas, but if that is the only time we give, I think we're missing out.

Lisa and I have personally found that we give more when we do it consistently through the year. It builds up that giving muscle of discipline and giving has now become something that would crush us if we had to give it up.

Budget for it

Giving works best when you set aside the money to do it. When I coach people the first thing I have them do with their budget, after taking care of the four walls, is to put an amount in the giving section.

Putting giving in the budget works a lot better until waiting towards the end of the month and giving what is left over. That is because when you budget giving you are making it a true priority.

If you don't have much to give, still budget for it. What if you are someone who likes to give more spontaneously based on need? No worries, you can still budget for that. Lisa and I did that last year and it has been a blast to give when needs arise.

Visit a place you want to help

Finally to help encourage your giving, I suggest visiting or volunteering to help causes that you are giving to or want to give to. For example if you want to give to your place or worship such as a church or synagogue, go ahead and plan a visit. Or if you are interested in a inner city or homeless program, make a trip down there.

By visiting and seeing what your money is actually doing and how it is helping your cause or impacting lives, that will be enough motivation to keep giving. Which will ultimately leave you to become a bigger giver and leave a bigger impact.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Podbean. To

“No one has ever become poor from giving”  – Anne Frank

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

This time of the year is graduation season. I love coaching with people in the life stage because it is an important time in their life and they are full of energy and questions and are also very teachable.

Today's lesson we are going to be discussing the three things that recent college graduates can do to take control of their finances. The good news is that even if you aren't a recent college graduates, these three things still apply to your situation.

For college graduates however, it is a little different in that transitioning from college to the "real world" is a tough process. Not are you dealing with money, most likely, for the first time in your life, you are also transitioning to word life. This includes working Monday through Friday, shifting your body clock and time schedule, as well as working with the same people everyday instead of getting a fresh start every semester.

But in order below are the three things recent college graduates should do to get a good control of their money:

Know where you stand financiallyDevelop a Spending PlanDebt Snowball

A lot of times we can't get anywhere because we don't know where we are. So knowing where we stand financially gives us a snapshot of our current financial situation.

As a recent college graduate this might not look pretty and in fact it can be also really eye opening. Which is a good thing. But knowing where we stand will help guide and motivate us through the things we are going to talk about next.

For more information on knowing where you stand financially please check out:

Calculating your net worth
The 5 ways tracking my net worth helps my finances
Net worth spreadsheet

After knowing where you stand, it is time to develop a spending plan. The good news is that a spending plan is something you get to control, so if you think it is too restrictive then guess what? You can always change it!

If you don't make much money it's still important to do one. You might think you'll do it later when you make more money, but I've found that it is important to develop the budgeting muscle a soon as you start making money. That way you do start to earn more you are less likely to get sucked up in the lifestyle inflation trap.

Now with a spending plan you might not have enough money to do everything you want to. But if you develop and stick to one it will ensure that you get to spend money on the things that are most important to you.

For more information on developing a spending plan please check out:

What are the four walls in budgeting?Budgeting for an irregular income
Budgeting spreadsheets

If you are trying to get somewhere new for the first time and you don't have a map, you're just guessing on how to get there.

That is often how we are with our debt, we want to get out but we have no idea what direction we need to take.

The debt snowball is simply listing all your debts smallest to largest. But in addition to listing them out, you are also labeling how much the monthly minimum payment is, the interest rate, and the lender. This gives you a list of all your debts and from there you can decide on which debt to attack first.

I personally recommend paying off the smallest debt first, but whatever way you decide to pay off your debt I do recommend to focus on just one debt at a time. That intensity and focus on one debt at a time will take you really far.

For more information on setting up your debt snowball please check out:

Is it more important to spend less or make more when getting out of debt
Best way to pay off our debt
Debt snowball spreadsheet

If you are a recent graduate and would like someone to walk with you and teach, encourage, and show you how to do all of these things and more, please fill out the financial overview form. We can then work out a time to get together and see if we'd be a good fit working together.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my book on buying a house titled "A Tale of Two Houses"

“You either master money, or, on some level, money masters you!”  – Karl Pearson

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

There are tons of resources online about the credit score: ways to improve your credit score, how the credit scoring system works, and products you can buy to boost your score. But most of those resources harp on the importance of a credit score.

But why do we need a credit score? If you don't plan on borrowing money, do you actually need to worry about it?

On today's podcast lesson we are going to discuss the credit score and why I think it might be the most overrated measure in the financial world today. Do you need a credit score? Well perhaps, it mostly depends on your view of debt and whether or not you are going to be borrowing in the future.

Whether or not you need a credit score, I think it is more important to focus on what a credit score can't do with your money. It can't help us:

Save moneyInvest moneyPay off our debtHelp us follow our budget

The way I look at a credit score is this-what's more important than a great score or no score, is NOT to have a bad score. Bad credit will haunt you in many ways, so if you have fallen behind or gotten dinged due to a foreclose or repossession, working on paying those old debts back is paramount to getting on solid financial ground.

If you do have a great credit score, there's nothing wrong with that, but what is it costing you? I've worked with a lot of couples who are struggling to save money but have a great credit score.

I just want to fight against the whole idea that the credit score is the be all, end all. It isn't and it isn't even close. In my opinion instead of focusing on improving your credit score first, I'd rather focus on saving, investing, paying off debt, and developing a solid budget. Doing those things first will improve your credit score, but focusing on your credit score first won't improve those other things.

As mentioned on the show, I've done a lot of other podcasts and blog posts on the topic of your credit score.  You can check them out below:

Podcast Lesson #34-Don't be fooled by the build your credit score LIE with guest Steve StewartDoes your credit score matter?Podcast Lesson #80-The FICO Score is a PRODUCTWhat your FICO Score is and isn'tDon't be defined by your credit scoreDo you need a FICO score if you are not borrowing money?eCredable: The alternative to the FICO score

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

“You either master money, or, on some level, money masters you!”  – Tony Robbins

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

What is more important, determining what the most amount of debt you can take out or determining how you can purchase an education, home, car, etc the cheapest way?

Inspired by an article titled "How Much Student Loan Debt is Too Much? Here's a Formula' that I found on Yahoo Finance we are going to talk about the too much debt game that our culture likes to play.

The article has some good information, however it starts off with the position of determining the maximum amount of debt once should get for a degree. It's the old game we used to play as children. Where we would jump off something and see if we could do it or not without getting hurt. However the game always ended the same, the last person to jump from the highest spot, always got hurt.

Instead of asking what is the maximum amount of debt we can take out for a purchase, isn't it better to determine what is the minimum price we need to pay for that purchase?

The problem with determining what the maximum amount of debt we can take out is, that it gives us no financial margin in our life. If one thing goes wrong, our plan goes out the window. The problem is that kinds rarely goes as planned.

I'd rather see an article dealing with out to get an education on the cheap that requires the least amount of borrowing, or no borrowing at all. Again it is a mindset thing, but when we ask ourselves the question, How much? Instead of, how much a month? Our finances will go to another level.

I'm not against owning nice stuff, I'm against owning nice stuff with debt.

Below are other resources mentioned on today's lesson:

Podcast Lesson #103-Mindset on Money
Should parents have a say in a child's college major?
Financial Tips for College Graduates

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

Do creditors have an obligation to lend money and treat borrowers with decency?

Do borrowers have a responsible to pay back their loans, even when it isn't convenient or beneficial to do so?

We tackle those tough questions on today's lesson. This lesson was inspired after listening to other shows and reading material such as David Graeber's book "Debt-The First 5,000 Years" that left a bad taste in my mouth.

To be honest doing research on this lesson really helped me form my opinion on this topic. Therfore my thought might be a little raw and hopefully they come across clearly.

But today we focus the morality of debt and we look at it from both a borrower and lender point of view.

What do we mean by debt? I'm focusing on the traditional borrowing of money from a bank or other lending institution. I'm not talking today about a debt to a friend or family member that is non-monetary.

But in my opinion from the borrowers point of view, we have a moral obligation to pay our debts if we have the money to do so. If debt becomes inconvenient, I don’t think you should just simply walk away. There is an obligation to pay when you signed the note. Not a promise to pay as long as you are able to, or a promise to pay as long as you have a job. It was to pay back no matter what. That’s why debt is often compared to slavery.
Now if you currently are behind to your creditors, you’ve walked away from your debt either voluntarily or involuntarily, or have filed bankruptcy in the past this lesson is not to judge you in any way. But I am fighting against the “It’s not your fault!” mentality when it comes to your debt.

On the flip side let’s look at the lender’s point of view. Obviously I’m not a big fan of debt, and because of that I could never be a lender because that would be hypocritical on my part. However I’m also not for making it illegal to lend out money either. But if you are going to loan money out, is it too hard to make sure you can loan money to people who have a realistic chance of paying it back?

It is too much to ask to take responsibility for your risky loans and not ask for protection from the government when those risky loans come in default? Subprime loans are risky, so if you take the risk, you should also take the loss. All I’m asking is for you to be fair.

Ultimately the best way to avoid the whole morality of debt to begin with is to not play the game all together. If you are in debt, make it a goal to payback all your creditors as soon as possible so that you can be done with them.
When the option of debt is removed from the table, you have to think differently and make different choices. Those choices might be painful at the start, but over the long run they will lead to growth.

Previous lessons mentioned on the show:

What are the four walls in budgeting?
Debt
JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter

"Better to go to bed hungry than to wake up in debt.” – Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Financial setbacks happen more times than we like to admit. It's not something we like to talk a lot about and who can blame us? It's easier and more enjoyable sharing and listening to shows that share their debt free stories or other stories of success. Not so much fun to share our failures. Often because their can be a lot of shame, embarrassment, and frustration associated with a financial setback.

There are a lot of reasons why financial setbacks occur. It can be a result of a job loss, illness, divorce, major repair to a home or car. Or it can be we just took our eye off the long term goal of we had a financial relapse and went back into debt.

Whatever the reason for our setback, it's important to take steps to learn from our setback and ensure that it doesn't happen again. Today's lesson we share five things to do to get back up after a financial setback. They are:

Get back to the basicsMake yourself a new goalDon't try to hide from the setbackLook at what caused the setbackRemember how the setback felt

Financial setbacks are painful in the short run, however they can be beneficial in the long run IF we learn from the lessons they bring. Setbacks come in various ways and different dollar amounts, but they do and will happen. But it doesn't have to be a life changing event in a negative way. Rather it can be a turning point in the right direction as well. It is all about how you react to it.

If you are going through a financial setback please get in touch with me and I would be more than glad to walk with you in recovering.

Other material referenced in the lesson:

Lesson #82-What's holding you back from accomplishing your dreams and goals?
Lesson #86-Our financial situation is never permanent
Lesson #33-Do you have the power to control your finances

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

"Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching the goal.” – Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

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A lot of us are scared to look at and manage our finances. Often because the thought of dealing with numbers is a scary proposition. But the more and more I study and learn about personal finance, the more I realize that the numbers are actually a small part of the process and that behavior is actually more important.

I think Dave Ramsey says it best that "Personal Finance is 80% behavior and only 20% head knowledge." So today we're focusing on the behavior aspect our finances. But we're going deeper then just behavior, we're actually going to talk about the mindset that allows that behavior to happen.

To me mindset is actually even more important than behavior. That's because the behavior is important, but the mindset that allows us to change our behavior is even more important than the behavior ourselves. In today's lesson we try to prove that out by using the following three examples:

Our mindset in paying off debtOur mindset in saving for a down payment for a houseOur mindset on how we actually view money

What is the point of today's lesson? The point is to challenge you how you view your finances and look at your own mindset when it comes to money. Do you have a negative mindset towards money? What about debt, budgeting, saving, investing, etc.? Mindset alone won't pay off you debt, save for emergencies, or start to give more. But it will keep you motivated and grounded as you move towards you goal.

Below are other podcasts and blog posts mentioned in the show:

Lesson #84 Money is a good servant, but a bad master
Lesson #78 Put our finances on autopilot
Lesson #71 Disease of more
Lesson #101 Where NOT to get a down payment from
Debt Free Living Podcast

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

"Big waves start with small ripples.” – Adam Braun

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Now that my new book "A Tale of Two Houses-Our journey of buying a house the right way after buying one the wrong way " is now available for purchase I wanted to take some time and share why I wrote it.

Writing a book is a big undertaking. The actual writing of the book is very hard, but that might be the most easiest thing in the whole process. But why did I finally decide last December that enough was enough and that it was time to finish up already and release the book?

Because the message of "A Tale of Two Houses" is needed. Having talked with other individuals, either in one on one coaching or in promotion of the book, I have come to realize that many of us don't actually know what we are doing when we buy a home, especially for the first time.

There's nothing wrong with that except for the fact that buying a home is probably the largest purchase we will have ever made, and we put little or no thought into the process.

Because of that I wrote "A Tale of Two Houses" to help guide you a long the process. This is not a technical, step by step, guide written by a real estate agent. Instead this is a book about our journey, with real life numbers, of first selling our condo and they buying a new home for our family. After reading "A Tale of Two Houses" I guarantee you will be more aware of what the process is and you will be able to take control and save you thousands of dollars.

My goal is to sell 500 copies in the first 90 days of its release. While that is a big goal, I need your help. If you know of someone who is looking into buying or selling their home in the near future would you mind forwarding them a link to the book? I truly believe that if you read the book and apply it's principles you will easily save at least $1,000 on your purchase. At its current price that is more than a 100x return on investment!

You can purchase a copy directly from Amazon at JWFinancialCoaching.com/Amazon

Or you can visit JWFinancialcoaching.com/TaleofTwo to learn more about the book and even download the introduction and first chapter for free.

Thank you so much for your support of "A Tale of Two Houses" I couldn't do it without you guys.

To check out guest appearance I've made in the Media for "A Tale of Two Houses" please check out the Media page.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com

"'Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options.” – Chris Rock

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Having a down payment for your next home is an important thing to do. So much that I spent a chapter in my new book on buying a home, A Tale of Two Houses, talking about it.

But today we are going to be talking about where to NOT get a down payment for your next home. Not all down payments are the same and I would avoid recommending getting a down payment from these sources.

401(K)Roth IRALoan from familyHome Equity LoanGovernment program

We go through each one and share why I wouldn't use these sources as a down payment for a home.

Other resources mentioned on today's show

Lesson #31-Answering listeners questions on 401(K) loans
Why taking out a 401(K) loan is a bad idea
Using Financial Products for what they were intended for
How to use a retirement account for a down payment on a home (Dough Roller Podcast #206)

Also, join myself and Steve Stewart this Tuesday, April 5th 9:30 PM EST for a Blab session on the Best practices for buying a home.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"'The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor.” – David Henry Thoreau

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

For the 100th lesson of the JW's Financial Coaching Podcast, we're going to do something different. I'm sharing 100 different money thoughts I've learned since I started the show.

If you have been a listener to the show for a long period of time you know that there have been more than 100 lessons of the show. I originally started the show back in 2010 and only started to number the lessons in 2012.

Either way for today I started out by coming up 100 short thoughts I have come to believe while doing the show. These 100 then were grouped in 14 different categories.  They are:

Money is . . .DebtOwning a homeGivingBudgetingSpendingJoint FinancesInvestingSavingCredit ScoresEducationTaxesEmergency FundPodcasting

Hopefully you enjoy the show, I'd love to hear feedback on whether or not you enjoyed it. Ultimately thought I couldn't do it without you. I know I always say that, but I say it because it is true. Thank you for being a listener to the show, I am excited to share with you some big things I have for the show later on this year.

Also "A Tale of Two Houses-Our journey of buying a home the right way after buying one the wrong way" is now available for pre-sale. The book releases April 12th but order now to get the lowest price you'll find it and receive two exclusive bonuses for pre-ordering the book.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Today's lesson we share a recent personal story of how we paid cash for our latest vehicle purchase. Paying for a new vehicle in cash felt amazing, but also left me in a little bit of a haze. Find out what put me in the haze, and how I snapped out of it.

Just for fun I decided to determine what our payment would have been had we took out a loan. I then compared it to our budget and tried to determine what we would have had to cut out of the budget to make our car payment fit and the options weren't pretty.

Also find out how our beliefs about debt were reinforced during the process and ultimately why we don't have a car payment.

If you are working towards paying off your car loan and want to pay cash for your next vehicle, let this lesson be an encouragement to you. The price to pay to make this happen is steep, especially for your first cash car. But the pain is worth it. The feeling of not having a car payment and the flexibility to give, invest, and pay extra on our mortgage trumps any need to drive a better car.

Other lesson's mention in today's lesson:

Lesson #81-The Latte Factor
Yes, you can buy a car with cash
Questions to ask yourself when buying a car
Rules for buying cars

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"'The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor.” – Dave Ramsey

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

I'm hosting a webinar on Tuesday March 8th at 9PM EST for the Pre-Launch Party for my new book "A Tale of Two Houses-Our journey of buying a home the right way after buying one the wrong way." I hope to see you there, if not there will be a replay made available.

So is your house an investment or is it a liability? On today's podcast we dive into that question by looking at both sides of the question. Like most things in life it is not a black or white issue. Just shades of gray.

We breakdown each one and attempt to answer the following

How our house is like an investmentHow our house is not like an investmentHow our house is a liabilityHow our house is not a liaiblity

For me whether or not your house is an investment or a liability depends mostly how you buy it. If it is a modest home for your income, you have a manageable payment, and plan to pay off your mortgage, then your house can be an investment. However I'm not treating my house like a typical investment in that I'm counting on it to produce income in the future.

If you are house poor, struggling to make the payment each day, and can't make any traction in paying off your consumer debt, or can't start to save for retirement then your house is probably a liability in the grand scheme of things.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"'Good' or 'bad', debt costs money if you're not paying in full each month, which prevents reaching other financial goals.” – Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Have you checked your 401(K) or IRA balance lately? If so you might have noticed a smaller amount since the last time you checked. The reason is this

The chart above is the performance of the Dow Jones Index the past 6 months. After a nice buildup in the last part of 2015, we’ve definitely hit a dip to start off 2016. So it’s not just you who have experienced a dip. It’s ALL of us, including myself.

Investing in the stock market is like riding a roller coaster. It always has its ups and downs; it’s rarely ever flat. It’s fun while the market is riding an upswing and you can see your balance grow. But it can be pure terror when the market dips and your balance decreases by thousands of dollars a month. It also doesn’t help when the 24 hour news cycle picks up on the dip and post headlines such as the following:

Dow falls triple digits as oil weight; energy, financials lagUS stocks open mostly lower as earnings news disappointsStock Market tumble could keep pension funds behind

With that being said, don’t panic, don’t sell off your investments, and don’t stop contributing to your retirement accounts. Turn off the TV, stop reading Yahoo Finance, and don’t check your balance every day. Below are a few things to remember while riding down the stock market roller coaster.

You are in it for the long run-One of the main things to remember when there is a downturn in the market is that if you aren’t retired, it doesn’t really matter what your balance is; there is time to recover. Even if you are retired or close to retirement today you aren’t going to use all your money today anyways. Yes it might hurt to look at your statement today, but the truth is that it only matters how much money is in your retirement when you go to use it.Buying shares at lower prices-When a computer, TV, car, phone, or other consumer goods go down in price do we get worried and not buy that item? No, instead we usually go out and buy more of that product because it is on sale. Why then don't we do the same thing with the stock market? Looking at it another way, when the stock market dips down, that means we get to buy more shares of a stock or mutual fund then we would normally have with our monthly contribution. Then when the stock market roller coaster goes up we’ll have an even greater gain.Diversification-When we have all of our eggs in one basket a down turn in the market is really scary. If we own single stocks or a large amount of our 401(K) is in our company's stock, downturns are going to hit us a lot harder. That just highlights the importance of diversification. Investing in several different types of funds amongst many different categories might not be the most exciting thing during a stock market increase, but it makes the dips a lot easier to manage.The roller coaster climbs and dips are all relative-Earlier I showed you a picture of the Dow Jones Index over the past six months. Now below is one from the past 10 yearsAs you see, even after our dip, we’re still about where we were at the beginning of 2014 and a lot higher than we were in 2006, and have more than recovered the losses from the Great Recession of 2008-2009. So it’s all relative. Like a roller coaster, the stock market has its ups and downs but over history it has always continued to climb higher despite downturns.

Below are other materials I've written or talked about on the podcast on the topic of investing

The most important thing about investing
Saving is different from investing
The 4-1-1 on investing with Devin Czech
The Cardinal Principles of Retirement Investing
Investing 101

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"If your habits are not in alignment with your dreams you can either lower your dreams or elevate your habits” – Urban Meyer

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

Wikipedia defines the term net worth as is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual. I've talked about net worth before but today I'm focusing on the ways that tracking our family's net worth has improved our finances.

I don't think you need to track your net worth each month, but it is definitely something I would do at least once a year. Tracking my family's net worth for the past 8 years has enabled us to do the following:

Gives us an idea of where we stand financiallyIt's a snapshot of what we did for the monthGreat reminder of where we've beenGreat reminder of where we're goingMotivates me to continue doing what I'm doing

As mentioned on the show, if you want a basic template to keep track of your net worth please download it here.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a followup here is some additional material I've done on finances and luck:

How is your return on luck?
Is building wealth about being lucky?
Do you have the power to control your finances?

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

According to a poll conducted by creditcards.com currently in America there are about 13 million people who are committing financial infidelity. That is, they have a secret bank account or credit card that their spouse doesn't know about. Today I discuss why that is troubling and why having a secret account is not ok even if you aren't breaking the bank financially or doing something sinister.

Financial infidelity is a serious topic and I also explain why sometimes we fall into it. Not making excuses for anyone but in my years as a financial coach often this comes due to one partner in the marriage carrying all the weight of the money. To not disappoint or make the other partner mad they get a credit card on their own or take out a loan and that just starts a downward spiral. It isn't healthy because it adds a layer of deceit to the marriage.

Also we talk about the power of joint accounts and how that can help keep financial infidelity down. It's not a fool proof way but joint accounts unleash a power in your marriage and that power is called the power of forced communication. You see when you are working together by doing a budget and sharing the bank account you are forcing yourselves to communicate together. This allows you to agree on your spending and when you agree on your spending, in essence you are agreeing on your life.

For more information on joint accounts please check out the following resources:

Podcast-Credit report errors, joint accounts, and exercise
JW's Financial Coaching Podcast-Personal Finance A-Z Joint Accounts, Kids, and Liabilities
The Key to handling money in marriage is communication!

Also I'm excited to announce that my new book "A Tale of Two Houses-Our journey of buying a home the right way after buying one the wrong way" is set to release this spring. In anticipation I'm taking applications to join the book launch team. If you are interested in getting an advanced copy and helping to spread the excitement for the release then consider joining my launch team. I'm taking applications until next week on the blog. You don't have to be in the market to buy a new home to be considered for the launch team, you just need to believe that this message can help people from making buying mistakes.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by my new book A Tale of Two Houses

"We tend to live up to our expectations.” – Earl Nightingale

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

The whole home buying process can be stressful. Because of that, I'm releasing a book this spring which details our experience in buying a home. Not only do we share our story but we also give tips and advice on what to expect as well as break down some of the hidden costs of buying a home.

On today's lesson we are going to discuss the three things to consider before purchasing a home. They are the following:

Become debt free-Being debt free has a lot of benefits in other areas than purchasing a home but in purchasing a home, being debt free has a lot of benefits. It reduces risk, makes it easier to qualify for a mortgage, and frees up cash. These all help when becoming a home owner and allows your home to be a financial gain instead of a financial strain.Have an Emergency Fund-Having an emergency fund goes hand in hand with being debt free. Owning a home is a great thing, but anyone who has owned a home for more than 30 days can tell you that there are a lot of sudden expenses with buying a home. Some are small expenses but others such as a broken heater, leaky roof, or an air conditioner unit that isn't working are huge expenses. If we don't have an emergency fund then we usually turn back to debt to replace those large home expenses and that restarts the debt cycle. However with an emergency fund that buys us some time and space to make those repairs and it won't put us in as much risk.Knowing how much you can afford-We all have an idea of what we can afford when buying a home. But it is important to establish the boundary before you start to look at houses! Buying a house can be an emotional and impulse purchase so it's important to establish what your mortgage will be. Once we look at homes that are out of our price range we are probably going to end up purchasing a home that is out of our price range.

Now granted, doing all three of these things might slow down our ability to purchase a home. In fact it could slow down the process significantly. But you know what? I'm still doing it. If you do all of the above three things you will probably be better prepared than 99% of other home buyers and it will allow you not to rush into the home buying process.

Speaking of the home buying process, I've finally completed my book on our family's story of buying a home in 2013. It is scheduled to be released later this spring and on today's lesson I'm excited to announce that the name of the book is, "A Tale of Two Houses: Our journey of buying a home the right way after buying one the wrong way." Thanks to all of you who gave your thoughts on the book title. Also stayed tuned in the next few weeks as I get prepared to accept applications to become a member of my book launch team for those of you who are interested.

Also on today's lesson I give a quick review of Pat Flynn's new book Will it Fly. I've had a chance to read an advanced copy and love the book. If you are looking to or are even remotely thinking of starting a business of any size, please check this book out first. Pat's book will challenge you but also force you to look at some things before you put all the time, effort, and money in that you need to launch a successful business. You can order his book on Amazon.com

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com.

"It's easy to underestimate the real cost of home ownership” – Suze Orman

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

Last week I did a written review of Sling TV and on today's lesson of the podcast I'm doing an oral review of Sling TV. Is Sling TV a viable alternative to cable TV? What are the advantages of Sling TV? The disadvantages? I try to answer all of those questions on today's podcast.

Overall I think it is a good alternative to cable, as long as you are just looking to watch basic cable channels (ESPN, TNT, TBS, CNN, etc). The app is easy to use, the picture quality is clear, and at $20 a month, it won't break your budget.

It's also the future of TV in my opinion. With services such as Sling as well as Hulu and Netflix, the traditional business model of cable and satellite TV is coming to an end. Streaming video and TV services are the future so it will be interesting to see how Sling TV evolves in the coming years.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com.

"Never spend your money before you have it ” – Thomas Jefferson

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

In this final lesson of 2015 we are going to discuss Christmas. Specifically I'm sharing some thoughts I have had in my mind this year. It is a little bit different of a show but we are going to discuss primarily the following three topics:

Gift giving is about the children-Maybe I've changed a lot on this subject because I've had children or maybe it is because I'm older now but to me giving gifts is about the children. Remember when you were a young child and woke up on Christmas Day? It was such a magical time. But you don't have to give gifts to just our children to experience that. Giving gifts to children in need is such a special thing to do and is so much more enjoyable than adding another DVD or sweater to your collection.Spirit of giving-While December is the unofficial "giving" month of the year, the best giving we can do is throughout the year, not just in December. Giving is a major component of a healthy financial plan and when done correctly it is such a great experience that we hardly miss the money from our bank account. So instead of waiting until December to start giving why not make giving a strategic part of our monthly spending plan today? If we're only in the spirit of giving in December, we are really missing out.Saving for Christmas in January-As we move past the Christmas season and get settled back to our normal lives lets' talk about saving for next Christmas. For some of us that might seem a little too early, but if you want to have a great Christmas next year now is the time to start to think about it. By starting today and saving a little each month it gives us more time to save overall. Planning ahead that far in advance might seem a little bit strange, but that is because no one else does it. By starting to save now there is a real good chance that you could even have more money to spend at Christmas then you normally would be by saving ahead of time.

Finally as this is the last lesson of 2015 I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My hope is that 2015 was a great year for your finances and that 2016 will be even better. Hard to believe that this is now my fifth year doing the JW’s Financial Coaching podcast but I’m planning on doing some incredible things for 2016 that I’ll be sharing with you in the upcoming months. I wouldn’t be able to do any of these things without you guys and I appreciate you listening to the show as we continue to gain new subscribers each month.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

After last lesson on how to start to take control of your finances, we finish that up by giving five more tips that you can do to take your finances to the next level. These are actually a little more details and advanced then the basic we had last time. They are as follows:

Day 6-Increasing your monthly cash flow by reducing your tax refund

Why you don't want to get a tax refund
How to change your W-4

Day 7-The Envelope System

Using the envelope system to help your spending

Day 8-Automate your investing

Should we put our finances on autopilot?
Investing 101
Why I continue to invest when no one else does

Day 9-The power of giving

Giving: one of the three things we do with money
Giving today not just tomorrow
Why to we have to get to give?

Day 10-Investing in yourself

The best investment you can make is in yourself
How I invested in myself

This podcast is inspired by a 10 part video series I did at the beginning of the year titled, Countdown to take control of 2015.

Also on the podcast I announce the kickoff to a promotion I'm doing in the month December. I'll be giving away a copy of the New York Times and Amazon Best Seller “The School of Greatness” by Lewis Howes.

As someone who has read “The School of Greatness” (Currently reading it for the second time) and have worked through the exercises in the book, I can tell you the words are inspiring and the material works. It’s not a magic book though, you just can't read it and everything change in your life. You have to be motivated and dedicated to achieve your dreams and goals. But hearing Lewis and other people’s stories of overcoming adversity to achieve great things in their field is rather motivating and inspiring.

There are two ways to get your name entered into the drawing

Take a five question survey about your financial goals

As a better way to serve you, I’m conducting a five question survey regarding your financial goals and how we at JWFinancialCoaching.com can help you achieve those goals. The survey shouldn’t take more than five minutes. But the results are really important in helping identify what your financial goals and needs are and helps us to create material that will give you a new perspective on your money which will help improve your economy.

The survey is anonymous,  but to get entered into the drawing you will need to input your email at the end of the survey. You can view the survey at JWFinancialCoaching.com/Survey

Subscribe to the JW’s Financial Coaching Newsletter

If you haven’t subscribed to the Newsletter yet, simply enter your name and email and you will be signed up. By doing so you’ll get an email in your inbox once a month or so encouraging you to focus on improving your economy.

As an added bonus, you’ll also receive a link to listen to JW’s Manifesto on Money audio book. This is a 20 minute audio book sharing my views on money and how it impacts every part of our lives.

To signup please visit JWFinancialCoaching.com/Newsletter or you can signup at the end of the survey

The deadline to enter is Monday December 21st at 11:59 PM EST

If you are interested in purchasing “The School of Greatness” on your own please visit Greatnessbook.com.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com.

"Instead of asking ‘How will this purchase impact me today?’ ask ‘How will this purchase impact me 10 years from now?’ ” – Jon White

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

Hard to believe it but 2015 is almost over. That means it's time to focus on what we want to do in 2016. You might be thinking, "Wow, can't I enjoy Christmas first before I focus on 2016?" While that is true, the thing I've noticed with setting and achieving goals is that the sooner you know what they are, the easier it is to work your goals and ultimately achieve your goals.

Because of that fact today we're starting a two part series on the podcast on short little daily exercises we can start to take control of your finances. We'll do five today and then five on the next lesson. My recommendation is that over the course of a week you one of these exercises a day and after doing each one you will have a better idea of where you stand financially and know what the next steps are in your financial journey.

Below are the five exercises we talk about on today's lesson:

Day 1-Figuring out your Net Worth

Calculating your Net Worth
Net worth spreadsheet

Day 2-Listing out your Debt

Best way to payoff your debt
The three steps you need to do before you get out of debt
Is it important to spend less or make more when getting out of debt
Try getting out of debt . . . if you hate it you can always go back
The "Good Debt" vs. "Bad Debt" myth

Day 3-Creating a simple Budget

What are the four walls in budgeting?
Budgeting on an irregular income
Budgeting when you get paid every other week
If Budgeting is not fun than why do it?

Day 4-Emergency Savings

Life is going to happen; so let it happen with an emergency fund
The Emergency Fund-Turning a crisis into an inconvenience
What's an emergency?

Day 5-Sell some of your stuff

How to avoid lifestyle inflation
Ways to get extra income-Have a garage sale

This podcast is inspired by a 10 part video series I did at the beginning of the year titled, Countdown to take control of 2015.

Also on the podcast I announce the kickoff to a promotion I'm doing in the month December. I'll be giving away a copy of the New York Times and Amazon Best Seller “The School of Greatness” by Lewis Howes.

As someone who has read “The School of Greatness” (Currently reading it for the second time) and have worked through the exercises in the book, I can tell you the words are inspiring and the material works. It’s not a magic book though, you just can't read it and everything change in your life. You have to be motivated and dedicated to achieve your dreams and goals. But hearing Lewis and other people’s stories of overcoming adversity to achieve great things in their field is rather motivating and inspiring.

There are two ways to get your name entered into the drawing

Take a five question survey about your financial goals

As a better way to serve you, I’m conducting a five question survey regarding your financial goals and how we at JWFinancialCoaching.com can help you achieve those goals. The survey shouldn’t take more than five minutes. But the results are really important in helping identify what your financial goals and needs are and helps us to create material that will give you a new perspective on your money which will help improve your economy.

The survey is anonymous,  but to get entered into the drawing you will need to input your email at the end of the survey. You can view the survey at JWFinancialCoaching.com/Survey

Subscribe to the JW’s Financial Coaching Newsletter

If you haven’t subscribed to the Newsletter yet, simply enter your name and email and you will be signed up. By doing so you’ll get an email in your inbox once a month or so encouraging you to focus on improving your economy.

As an added bonus, you’ll also receive a link to listen to JW’s Manifesto on Money audio book. This is a 20 minute audio book sharing my views on money and how it impacts every part of our lives.

To signup please visit JWFinancialCoaching.com/Newsletter or you can signup at the end of the survey

The deadline to enter is Monday December 20th at 11:59 PM EST

If you are interested in purchasing “The School of Greatness” on your own please visit Greatnessbook.com.

Today's quote of the lesson is brought to you by Audible.com.

"Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing ” – Vince Lombardi

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

One of the things that I have really been trying to be conscious of this year is my health. It's been a process and I am by no means perfect, but I've come to grips with the fact that how I treat my body impacts how I feel at that moment. I used to eat whatever I felt like, sleep whenever, and exercise when I had the time, but now that doesn't work well with me.

Becoming more health conscious has many benefits, including helping our finances. On today's lesson I cover four benefits that living a healthy lifestyle has on our finances. They are below:

Save money on food. This applies to both the grocery store and eating out. We hear about how much more expensive it is to eat more healthily and there is some truth to that. But when you start to eat healthy you realize how much it costs to eat fast food, ice cream, and Oreos.Save money on insurance. This sounds pretty obvious but when we are healthier we tend to get sick less. This then costs us less to insure and saves us tons in deductibles and co-payments. It also lessens our chances of certain long term diseases which then in turn costs us less in life insurance.Eliminates idle spending. Eating well, sleeping more, and exercising takes a lot of time and effort, time and effort that perhaps we would have spent instead on idle spending at stores or online retailers. Idle spending is the worst because after one month we have hardly used the item we bought and can't tell anyone why we bought it in the first place but if you have less idle time you have less time to spend.Help our performance at work. How many of us are dragging at work? It might be because we don't like where we work, which is another lesson in and of itself. But being healthier gives us more energy to perform at our job or in our business. Often the work environment isn't always healthy as we might be sitting at our desk all day staring at a computer screen and eating sweets. That makes it hard to perform when you aren't feeling your best. But what if you are performing at your best? Wouldn't that tend to making more money in the long run?

This lesson isn't a direct one on finances but an indirect lesson on how living healthy helps our finances. Again I still have a long way to go, but one of the big steps for me was realizing that what I was doing was impacting my life. Therefore I needed to do something about it.

Remember, money is an important part of life, but not the most important thing. It's important to be well rounded in our faith, family, career, and health in addition to our money.

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com.

"It is one thing to record what you spend, it is another to plan how you are going to spend things before it happens ” – Russ Carroll

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

The movie, Back to the Future II, premiered on November 22 1989, which also happened to be my eight birthday. If you’ve seen the movie you know that part of the plot is the main characters going into the future, October 21st 2015. Now since the premier was almost 26 years ago, most of you probably weren’t old enough to think about or even care about money. Heck, some of us listening today weren’t even born yet in 1989. So today we are discussing thing that you do today with you money that your future self will back on and appreciate.

Below are a few of the things that we talk about in today's lesson. While none of these are really new or ground breaking, they just put a different spin to having a healthy financial plan.

Paying off debt
Not just talking about consumer debtBut paying off the mortgage as wellSomething that won't happen overnight so instead just . . . start
Investing
Power of compound interest is an amazing thingReally amazing after 26 yearsInvesting calculator
The best friend of investing is time
Developing a career you love
Traditional Job or your own businessMost careers and business start from nothingIf you have a desire-take some time and money and invest in that
Giving
What would happen in our congregation or communities
Developed a plan to continuous give for 25 to 30 years?Think of what could happen

Working together with your spouse on money
Handling money well impacts other areas of your lifeNot only improve your bottom line

Now with this being said, we don’t know the future and I am certainly not guaranteeing you will find success if you do one of these things. However I do know by looking back in the past that these steps DO have a history of working out, in a big way. The thing is that the next 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years are going to go by in a blink and will happen regardless of what we do. So why not let us have something to show for it by making wise financial decisions today that we can point to later on in the future as a tipping point.

I also share ways you can connect with other things that are happening around JW’s Financial Coaching via Social Media, the Newsletter, and the podcast.

In addition I was able to read a rough copy of Lewis Howe’s new book “The School of Greatness”. I highly recommend the book. While it doesn’t directly speak to your personal finances, the book is eight chapters full of stories, wisdom, and practical action steps to take to achieve your goals, whatever they might be.

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

I learned a lot of lessons in my teens and early twenties. Some of them were good and some not so good. But one of the best lessons I learned was the value of work. Not only did I learn the value of hard work, I also learned the value of relationships, became motivated to finish school and get my degree, as well as learning about money. That is why I was thrilled to receive a question from a listener about their teenage daughter working. The parent wanted to know if and how much their teen could contribute to an IRA. The answer is yes, as long as they had an earned income.

But that got me thinking about if I had to do it all over again, what I would do? Would I invest my money I earned as a teen in a ROTH IRA or save it for college? Considering I have two young boys, they will be facing this in about a decade so I decided to run some numbers and on today’s lesson I share the results and my conclusion on what I would recommend.

For my calculations I made the following assumptions:

Worked for all four years of High SchoolSaved $2,000 a year in a ROTH IRA or College Plan8% annual returnNot advocating going into student loan debt

Based on that assumption, our teen would have about $9,400 saved after they graduated high school. The advantages of having it in an IRA are that you it could keep growing. If that 18 year old doesn’t add another penny to the balance or touch any gains for 42 years, when they turn 60, they’ll have approximately $260,000 saved at 8%. If that investment earned 10% annual return you would have over $600,000. If you just put $9,400 into a ROTH IRA at age 22 and let it grow until 60, that amount would be $410,000 or about a $200,000 difference.

When we use that money for college an interesting thing happens. I did some research and the average tuition for a public state school for the 2014-2015 school year was $9,200 and that drops to $3,400 per year for a 2 year institution. Now that doesn’t include room and board but that prevents the student from borrowing for school for one year. Now it won’t pay for all of school, but by avoiding student loans we are able to start to invest in a ROTH IRA or company 401(K) plan a lot sooner and allow the power of compound interest to work in our favor.

What would I do? I would save the money for college first before I do any investing. It’s really tempting to look at the returns on those investments. But ultimately paying for school out of pocket and getting through without any student loans is the best investment one can make in themselves.

Here are some additional resources I’ve posted in the past about paying for school and investing.

Podcast-My Experience in paying for college
Answering your questions on college funding
Major Components of a Healthy Financial Plan: College Investing
The power of compound Interest
Tax me now, not later

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com.

“If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” ~ Warren Buffet

Also I give a short review and recommendation on Andy Stanley’s book “How to be Rich”. I read this recently at the beach while on vacation with my family and it really spoke to me on how to handle my money as Christian living in the wealthiest nation ever. You can pick it up on Amazon and if you use the link on the show notes page I will get a percentage of the sale which helps pay for today’s lesson.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

I'll be honest with you. There are some weeks it is difficult to come up with material for the show. After doing a podcast for almost five years, you run out of stuff to cover. But then you read an article like The remarkably high odds you'll be poor at some point in your life
in the Washington Post and you just know you are going to do a lesson on it.

I highly recommend reading the whole article yourself, but the results are based on almost 50 years of data and are truly fascinating and backup something I've known in my heart for a long time. That our financial situation is never permanent. we discuss the results in-depth but overall there is a really good chance you are going to experience year(s) of economic hardship. But on the flip side there is also a really good chance that your household is going to experience a year or years at the top of the income scale as well.

What does that tell us? Well it tells us that hard times won't likely be here forever; as well as the good times might not always last as well. But in today's lesson we discuss the five ways we can apply this research to our own economy:

This life stage financially is only temporaryTrouble WILL happen; not a matter of if, but whenPlant for trouble so the lows aren't that badPlan for prosperity so we can handle it, instead of blowing itCan't change the past-but can change how we react to our future.

Bottom line is this; are we going to allow our current situation to define us? Or will ee fight through and realize this is just one tiny sliver of our overall financial life?

I also recently decided to join Periscope and actually did a live 'Scope during the recording of this podcast. If you are on Periscope please feel free to follow me @JWFinCoaching. So far I've been doing weekly Scope sessions but hope to do more in the future, not just on money, but in other areas of my life including sports and books.

Finally I also give an update of some of the books I've been reading this summer. I've read a few but the best so far has been The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. I share why I enjoyed this book and how it can boost your economic value no matter whether you are a CEO, small business owner, or everyday employee.

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com and comes to us from the Bible.

“A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
    a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.” ~ Proverbs 27:12

This passage from scripture ties in nicely with today's topic.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

For a lot of us, money can be a difficult and confusing thing to grasp. There are a lot of reasons for this including lack of financial awareness, family history, no desire to learn how to handle money. But the more and more I hear people talk about their money struggles the more I realize that some of the confusion results from us using financial product for other uses other than their original intent.

Today we are going to talk through four different financial products/assets that we are using for a different use than their original intent. Some of these we use differently because we are marketed to that way via the banks or some salesman. Others non-original uses result from just not being prepared or paying attention to our finances. Below are the four that we will talk about today

Now we aren’t picking on anyone if you have or are doing any of these. But after going through the list it’s no wonder why money can be so confusing. But when we use these products for their original use our lives are less cluttered and our finances become clearer.

Below are other blogs or lessons of the show where I talk about these products more in depth.

Retirement
The Cardinal Principles of Retirement Investing
The most important thing to remember about investing
Investing 101

Insurance
Reviewing your term life insurance coverage
Answering a listeners question on life insurance

Emergency Savings
Life is going to happen; so let it happen with an emergency fund
What's an emergency?

House
My Experience in buying a house
Do I need to be debt free before purchasing a home

In addition I also comment about an article I found on bankrate.com titled “How Americans will spend their tax refund”. 30% of Americans will use their refund to pay down their debt. While that is very admirable I can’t help but wonder how many of them have debt because they got a refund? The reason for the refund is because you have too much withheld from your paycheck. Instead of scrapping by, wouldn’t it be better to get your money each month and use that to avoid debt in the first place?

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com

“Someone else is happy with less than what you have” ~ Unknown

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Stitcher SmartRadio or iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Today’s show is in memory of Dr. Thomas Stanley, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident last weekend. Dr. Stanley authored many books but his most famous was the classic Millionaire Next Door. That book is on my short list whenever someone asks me about must read personal finance books. It also was one of the big influences that got me interested in learning about personal finance and ultimately into coaching and blogging.

Rather than focus today’s lesson on one major topic I am doing something different today and going to be talking briefly about on a few different topics. I would love to hear whether or not you enjoy this format better.

The first topic we discuss is how we view and treat money differently depending on the source it came from. What I mean by this is it just or me or do we view money differently when it is from our regular income compared to a bonus check? Or do we treat money from a garage sale differently than an inheritance or tax refund? I know I do and most of my peers do as well. I noticed this recently on Facebook when a lot of people were sharing what they had bought with their tax refund. But why is this? The way I look at it your normal income is what you pay your bills with, investing in your 401(K), and give. Tax refund is money to be spent, while bonus money is money to save for a larger purchase like a vacation or car. However I never think about investing or giving any of that money.

Ultimately though if we have a certain goal such as getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, or saving for a down payment on a home, shouldn't all of our money, no matter what the source, go towards that goal? I believe so but am intrigued as to why we don’t do that.

Identity theft and data breach seems to be more and more common. Recently Anthem announced that over 80 million people had had their personal data compromised including their name, address, date of birth, income, and social security number. While that is scary, it is also a good reminder that you really can’t protect your identity. So how do we guard against it? Well really the best thing we can do is to monitor our credit report.

I’ve done whole shows on the credit report before, but this is just a reminder to check your credit reports at least once a year. You can do so for free at annualcreditreport.com. If you go through that site you can get a free annual credit report from all three of the credit reporting agencies. Checking your credit report can’t stop identity theft, but it can stop it from growing quickly.

Finally I am proud to share with you a couple of guest post appearances I’ve made recently. The first was a guest interview on Mint.com. They asked me several questions pertaining to how I started getting into financial coaching, what financial coaching looks like, and how money is more than just the numbers.

The second guest appearance was on the website Scratch Wireless and had thoughts from me and 24 other personal finance experts on how to save money each month. I discuss my answer and why I think that it is true as well as discuss other people’s advice. We also dive into the thinking that the best way to save money is to spend.

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by Audible.com and comes to us from a French Proverb:

"Money is a good servant, but a bad master”

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Today's lesson is inspired by a thought I had a few weeks ago at the grocery store. No it wasn't about how much groceries cost or how in the world we're going to afford groceries when our two boys go through adolescence.  But more along the lines of what would happen at the checkout registers if they had quality material instead of the gossip magazines they sold currently.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I wonder what would happen if the grocery store checkout lanes contained positive material instead of the garbage they have right now?</p>&mdash; Jonathan White (@JWFinCoaching) <a href="https://twitter.com/JWFinCoaching/status/557554418846277632">January 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That got me to thinking about what else are spending time on or putting into our minds that is negative or trivial. Turns out it is a lot of different things. TV, Facebook, Video games, sports, and on and one. Now granted none of these things in itself are necessarily bad. But how much time are spending on these activities? Are they defining who we are and what we do? If we are filling our mind and time thinking about trivial stuff, when do we have time to focus on the important stuff? Are these activities stopping us from starting a business, writing a book or blog, making a career change, or volunteering more?

This impacts our finances because we are what we think about. Or lives are not a grapefruit; we don't have sections of our lives, like money, family, faith, career, hobbies, physical health, that never interact with each other. Rather it is like a pie that has different sized slices for the things we do and care about, but they touch one another and interactive with each slice.

So what do you remember about what you did last week or last month? Was it something positive? Negative? Trivial? Why is it that we remember what we remember? We probably remember what we did the most.

To get positive material in my mind. I've been doing several things lately:

Learning about new ideas for sleeping, dieting, and productivity by listening to great podcasts such as Lewis Howes "The School of Greatness"
Listening to great Christian sermons on how we spending our time
Filling my mind with knowledge from books such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin's Business Secrets from the Bible

However I still have a long way to go. I need to remember and put myself out there to create more relationships that I can network with. In addition to creating more long term goals for this blog and podcast.

The financial lesson from today's show is about improving your finances by believing that you can first win with money as well as eliminate the distractions that keeps us from getting to where we want to go. It's like nurturing ourselves with junk food; it will number our hunger for a little while, but why settle for that when we can eat a nice five course dinner instead?

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter and comes to us from Benjamin Franklin:

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

This lesson is light on show notes. The reason is because this show is unscripted. Usually around New Year's I discuss the importance of setting goals. While I still think goal setting is important, today we focus on what's holding you back from accomplishing those dreams and goals.

Instead of simply setting our goals for the year and mapping out a plan, let's take time to reflect on those goals and why we aren't able to accomplish them. The answers might not be exactly what we want to hear, but the self reflective time might be critical to motivating us to make the changes necessary to reach our goals.

Below is a few resources I've done in the past on goal setting:

Personal Story: Setting Goals
The Importance of writing down your dreams and goals
The importance of having a financial goal

We also talk in today's lesson about the Countdown to take Control of 2015.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

I love to read. I especially love to read books on personal finance. It doesn't matter who is the author. Lately I've read a few books from Ramit Sethi (I Will Teach You to Be Rich) and Zac Bissonnette (How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better Looking Than Your Parents) that mentioned the Latte Factor. In reading other books over the years I've heard a lot about the Latte Factor, both good and bad but never fully checked it out for myself until recently.

For those of you who don't know, The Latte Factor is a metaphor created by personal finance author David Bach and is predominately featured in his book The Automatic Millionaire (You can download a free audio copy at Audible.com). The Latte Factor is a metaphor on investing which shows how the everyday small expenses can cost you thousands or even millions over time.

The concept is simple; take that "small" daily habit that you spend money on whether it is your daily latte, fast food trip, pack of cigarettes, etc. If you took that amount and instead invested it it would grow.  Below is an example from the book on how much money you would invest if you cut out the $3.50 out of your daily spending or $5.00:

As you can see after a decade you would have a good chunk of money, but not life changing money. But looks at what happens if you invested that amount each month earning an average of 10% a year

With that being said on today's lesson of the show I share the pro's and con's of the Latte Factor metaphor. Overall I think it is a great metaphor and anything that motivates people to start to get into investing I'm all for. But I also like focusing on the bigger stuff instead of having to scrimp and cut out a lot of smaller things in your budget. So what instead if we did, not the Latte Factor, but the Car Payment Factor?

The average car payment today is $470. Below is what would happen if you invested the average car payment, or half of the average payment:

That is an expensive car payment! We cover all of these topics and more on today's lesson. But what are your thoughts on the Latte Factor? Have you given up small daily pleasures for bigger gains? What have the results been?

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter and comes to us from Albert Einstein:

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

I've spoke and written before about my feelings about the FICO score before but today I want to share a revelation I had recently reading an article talking about FICO's new credit scoring system FICO 9.

There is a lot of great quotes in there but the light that went on in my head while reading the article was the FICO isn't a score . . . it's a product. I've always known FICO is a product but it really dawned on me the absurdity of measuring how well we are doing financially based on a product. What makes it worse is that in another article I found most people believe the mortgage companies aren't going to switch over to FICO 9 anytime soon.

With that being said today's lesson we are going to discuss why measuring yourself against a product design to help lenders, not consumers is dangerous. Also we'll discuss what to measure yourself against instead.

For other lessons I have done on the credit reports and credit scores:

Does your credit score matter?
Freezing your credit report
The how, what, and why of your credit report
Don't be fooled by the credit lie

This lesson’s quote is brought to you by the JW's Financial Coaching Newsletter and comes to us from Calvin Coolidge:

"There is no dignity quite so impressive and no independence quite so important as living within your means.”.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

On today's lesson of the show we discuss an article I found titled "Expensive Rings Linked to Higher Divorce Rate". The article points to a recent study which found that their is a correlation money spent on an engagement ring and a wedding and the chances of your marriage succeeding.

Now this isn't a lesson about how much one should be or not be spending on an engagement ring or on their wedding. Rather it is a lesson discussing what we can take away from the research and how that applies not only to our marriage but to our finances as a whole.

We live in a culture today of consumerism and we are judged by our character or what we do for others. But rather how nice of a ring, wedding, car, vacation, house we have. How dangerous of a mindset is that for us? Bigger isn't always better and the desire to impress those on an artificial level leads to stress not only with our finances and quality of life, but in our marriages as well.

Check out the following past shows that go well with today's lesson:

“My Experience in . . .” series, Paying for a wedding
Lesson #40-How to get you and your spouse on the same page financially
Stop caring what others think

This lesson’s quote comes to us from anonymous:

"You can always tell a rich man because he’s not afraid to ask for something cheaper”.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

To automate or not to automate? Automation is all the rage in personal finance. Today we discuss the what, why, and how of automating your finances as well as discuss the pros and cons of automation.

Automation can be a great tool to use in getting your financial order, but is it the be all and end all? In addition we also share feedback I've received on the topic from social media.

This lesson’s quote comes to us from Peter Lynch:

“"Know what you own, and know why you own it."

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

On the last lesson of the podcast we shared how it was possible for a spender to learn to save. Well on this week’s lesson we flip the script and share how a saver can loosen up their spending. Saving money in of itself is not a bad thing; however it is possible to take saving money too far. Spending money is a healthy exercise, if done properly, but it is not natural for a saver. Today we discuss three ways to help savers loosen up their spending. In addition we discuss the different between being cheap and being frugal and why it is important to spend money.

For more resources on related to today's lesson check out the following:

When saving money can go too far
How to decide when to save and when to spend
How to loosen up your spending

This lesson’s quote comes to us from the legendary Bob Hope

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.”

Enjoyed this lesson? If so, please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Have you ever noticed how you can have people in the identical situation, yet the results vary drastically? Why does this happen? Is there a particular reason why some prosper in certain situation while others struggle to stay afloat? Today we examine this situation further and try to come up with an explanation.

With last week being Father's Day, today's lessons is achallenge/encouragement/motivation on Father's taking the lead on our families finances. Yes, schools need to teach our children about how money works in our schools. But the best teach on finances isn't in your child's school. It is the people who live in their homes.

Today's lesson is full of ways to take the lead in your families finances either with your spouse or teaching your child about money. Don't worry if you don't have to be perfect to take the lead. We've all made mistakes with finances.

Even if you aren't a father the principal of taking the lead in your families finances still applies.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

It's good to be back back doing a lesson this week. I took a partial planned, partial unplanned three month break. But today I'm back and share what I've learned about money the past few months. Also I share how you can catch my appearance on episode one of my friend Deacon Bradley's new podcast. Deacon had me on to share how I've overcome fear in my life. We didn't really talk about money but I still had a blast sharing my story.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

"Success is often the first step toward disaster."

Hall of Fame NBA coach Pat Riley wrote that in his book Showtime. He coined it the “Disease of More.” It came from what he observed from his teams after they won the NBA championship. The year after winning the title it was a natural tendency for the players to stop focusing on what it took to win the championship. Instead they focused on individual fame, scoring more points individually, and making more money.

The concept of the "Disease of More" applies to our finances as well. It can happen whenever we make a purchase, no matter how big or small. We are content with it for a while, but eventually we want something newer, nicer, or bigger and we tell ourselves that once we get whatever it is we desire we'll be happy. But it doesn't work like that because someone will always have a nicer home, car, kitchen, newest gadget, etc., than the one we have.

When we fall victim to the "Disease of More" we become obsessed with whatever we desire and it is all we can think about. That object then becomes our idol, an idol that we can never satisfy.

Does this make it wrong to want more? Not necessarily. Working hard and saving up to buy something isn't necessarily bad in and of itself. Having a want can be a good thing. But your self-worth should not be wrapped up in whether or not you get it. If it is then ultimately you will never be fulfilled because you will always want more and more.

The "Disease of More" is similar to the lifestyle inflation trap in some ways, but in other ways it is completely different. The "Disease of More" is an all out, endless effort to accumulate and achieve more and more. It is very dangerous for not only your finances but your spiritual state as well. Ultimately you will never find peace and contentment until you are first appreciative of what you have.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Talking about Bankruptcy is not something I enjoy doing. It is also something I hope you are not going through. However I field calls and emails all the time from people who feel like they are stuck and their only way out is to file. To me Bankruptcy is like divorce, there are good people who go through divorce but is isn't something I suggest people go through.

But with that being said, I'm not angry or disappointed in you do end us filing for Bankruptcy protection. However I recommend filing only as a last result, after you have tried everything else first. On today's lesson we cover three things to do before filing for bankruptcy.

Assess your finances-When you are getting hounded by creditors and you don't know how you are going to come up with this months rent payment it can be hard to sit down and spend some time with your finances. You might feel like what's the point and the stress will want to make you not check your mailbox for fear of getting more bills. It is an emotional situation and you can feel like you just want to give up. But put the emotional energy into know your financial situation better. It will help determine if you are truly bankrupt. I have found a lot of times that bad financial situations are a result of just being disorganized. But finding out what your income and expenses are each month might allow you to see that there are other alternatives to bankruptcy.Don't pay your creditors-Hear me out on this one. I'm not saying stiff your creditors when you have the money to pay them. But what I am saying is to sit down and make sure that you take care of your four walls. After that if you have money left over you can then pay your other bills. But if you don't have anymore left over then you can't and don't pay anyone else. If you have a difficult time not paying your bills on purpose well what do you think will happen when you file bankruptcy? But by focusing on your needs first, you gain back some control of your financial life. Once you regain control then you can go back and save some money and settle later with your creditors. That way you can hold you head high that you tried your best, your creditors got some money, and you are able to have your life back.Ponder the ramifications of filing-Filing for Bankruptcy might seem like the easy thing to do in the short run. But there are long term financial consequences to declaring bankruptcy. Other thing you need to think about include what will I do for a car if I am giving up the car in bankruptcy? What happens to my house? What assets will they seize. If you can't pay your bills due to no income, bankruptcy does not create an income. How are you going to pay for your basic necessities? Also student loans, which are a major cause of financial strain, are not allowed to be bankrupt. How will you pay them? Don't file for bankruptcy out of emotion. Consider all your options and be at peace with your decision.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Advertisers know what to do with your tax refundThe three basic things to know about the tax systemsWays to lower your taxable incomeTax credits you might qualify forWhy I think the tax system is too complex

After talking about four major tax myths in last weeks lesson, today we share tips on how to reduce your taxes for this upcoming filing season and beyond. Before we learn how to lower our taxes we first need to know the following three basic things:

Our Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)-Our AGI is the amount that we pay taxes on before deductions and credits are removed.Tax Brackets-It is important to know what tax bracket you are in because it will help determine the tax impacts of having certain deductions or added income. To view what tax bracket you are in for 2013 check out this link.Do you take the standard deduction or do you itemize? The government allows us to deduct certain expenses on our taxes; mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes paid, state and local taxes paid are the most common. But we can deduct those only if they exceed the standard deduction which is the amount that everyone may deduct from their AGI. In 2013 the Standard Deduction is $12,200 for married couples and $6,100 for individuals.

After knowing these three basic things we can now discuss ways to lower our AGI. There are two major ways to do that:

Contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA)-I love my HSA and for good reason. A HSA is a savings account attached to high deductible health insurance plan that you and your employer contribute to. As long as you use your account to pay for qualified health expenses the contributions are tax free! Your contributions reduce your AGI which ultimately lowers your tax bill.Contribute to a 401(K) or IRA-Who says savings doesn't pay off? Not only are your saving for your future when you contribute to a retirement account but it can help save us come tax time.

Now that we have lowered our taxable income, we can now focus on tax credits. There are a lot of tax credits available to us, check out IRS.gov for a full list of 2013 tax credits but below are some common ones you may quality for:

Child credit-You get a credit of $1,000 per child under the age of 17 on your taxes. This is to help offset the cost of raising your child. If you are parents you know that a child cost more than $1,000 a year to raise, but I'm not complaining.Education Credits-Go back to school this year to work on your bachelors or masters? You may qualify for educational credits.Adoption Credit-If you adopted a child in 2013 you may qualify for a reimbursement of up to $12,970.

Worn out yet? If so I don't blame you. After doing two lessons worth of shows on taxes I'm really frustrated with the tax system. At the end of the show I give my opinion (rant?) on the state of the current tax system and share why I think major reform needs to be made.

Finally we also discuss how the marketers on TV and radio definitely have a plan for your bonus and tax refund. They want you to buy a new car, take a vacation, or remodel your home. Not that those things are nice but do we you have a plan for your tax refund? Like our monthly income, a large financial windfall needs to have a plan to best be used effectively. For advice on how to handle your refund this year check out the podcast I did on receiving a financial windfall.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Why taxes are so frustrating and confusingIs it wise to get a big tax refund?Explaining the tax systemThe difference between a deduction and a creditTax software vs. Accountants. Who should you go with?

The only thing certain in life is death and taxes. We chuckle every time we hear this because it is true. Taxes aren't something that you or I like to discuss. Mostly because taxes are money going out instead of coming in. But with that being said, taxes are a major component of our finances and we often make decisions based on the tax implications.

With that being said there are a lot of myths that we believe when it comes to our taxes. Today we break down four of them.

Tax Myth #1-It's good to get a tax refund

This might be a little overstated. I'd rather you get $2,000 back in a refund than owe $2,000. But a tax refund is simply the IRS giving you back your money, it's not a reward in the tax code of anything like that. Instead of getting a refund adjust your W-4 and have less money taken out each paycheck. You won't get a nice refund each April, instead you'll get that money sooner each and every month.

Tax Myth #2-All your income is taxed at the same rate

We can get the whole tax bracket thing mixed up. The tax brackets are marginal tax rates, meaning that each dollar is taxed differently. For example for those of us who are married, the first $17,850 of taxable income you earned in 2013 is taxed at 10%, no matter if your total income is $20,000, $200,000, or $2 million. As you make more, your higher earnings are taxed higher, but just that income in the bracket, not all of it. If you make more money and get into a higher tax bracket don't worry about it. That tax rate just applies to that specific dollars. You can find out what tax bracket you are  in for 2013 by visiting Forbes.com.

Tax Myth #3 As tax deduction is the same as a tax credit

Often a deduction and a credit gets used interchangeably but they are vastly different. A tax credit is a reduction in your taxes due. So for example if your taxes due at the end of the year is $2,000 but you have a $500 credit of some kind, the credit takes your total taxes owed down to $1,5000

A tax deduction is a reduction in taxable income. If you have a $500 tax deduction and your total income was $50,000 for the year, your total taxable income is $49,500 ($50,000 less the $500 tax deduction.) If you are in a 15% tax bracket then, your deduction saves you $75 in taxes ($500 times 15%).

Therefore a credit is not the same as a deduction. In almost every case a credit is worth more than a deduction. Truthfully I want both on my taxes, but if I can have only one I'd rather have a credit.

Tax myth #4 I don't need to hire someone to do my taxes for me, I'll instead use software

This isn't really a myth as much as a service announcement. I don't care what you use to file your income taxes. But tax software can only get you every deduction and credit only if it knows that you earned it. If you don't tell the software you earned the credit or deduction it won't give it to you. However a trained professional will know the tax code and will know to ask whether you qualify or not. I personally use the software but I also know a lot about the tax code. If your taxes are pretty basic tax than you are probably using the software. But if yours are complicated and you are claiming a lot of deduction or you own a business, hiring someone might be the right way to go.

Enjoyed this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page

Is freezing your credit report right for you?How freezing your credit can help protect against identity theftThe downsides of freezing your creditShould I take the stability of a company into account when choosing a term life policy?What happens when your life insurance company goes into receivership

Identity theft is one of the worst financial events one can go through. When your identity is stolen you aren't responsible for any of the charges made in your name. However you are going to spend hours upon hours fighting to clear your name of any wrong doing.

Fortunately there is a way to help lower your odds against identity theft and that is by freezing your credit. Freezing your credit is a process that disables most creditors from pulling a copy of your credit report or your credit score.

On today's show we break down the pros and cons of freezing your credit and discuss whether it is the right thing for you to do. It isn't for everyone but if you are committed to stop borrowing then freezing your credit report might be the way to go. The fees to freeze your credit vary by state and you have to freeze your credit report at each of the following credit bureaus:

EquifaxTransunionExperian

In addition we also answer the following question sent in by a listener:

"I have two term policies and I feel as if I'm paying too much. I've seen better quotes elsewhere and I'm wondering how concerned I should be with the company issuing the policy.  Should I take the stability of a company into account when choosing a term policy?"

This is a great question. To answer it we first need to discuss what happens if your life insurance company goes belly up. If your life insurance company is under financial distress each state has their own agency with its own rules as to what happens with your policy. The state agency will first try to rehabilitate the company back to financial health. If that doesn't work, good policies are shopped around to other companies. If that doesn't work, each state guarantees a maximum amount to life insurance claims. To check our your state's maximum coverage payout visit The National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOHLGA.com) website and select your state.

For most states the maximum payout is $300,000. So while you are guaranteed to get at least something if your life insurance company face financial trouble, you are never fully guaranteed. To measure the health of a life insurance company consider looking at Standard and Poor and Moody's Life insurance ratings.

With that being said, if you find a company with a solid rating that has been around for a while and it offers a lower rate than your current term insurance, I say go ahead and switch as long as you wait until the new policy is in place before you cancel your old one. Life insurance companies rarely fail and even if it does happen it is not like you will lose your coverage as your state guarantees at least a $300,000 payout per policy.

To send in your question to be answered on the show please visit our contact page and fill out the contact form.

Enjoy this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes to leave a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or by downloading the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Five good financial habits to start doing todayThe power of good habits on your lifeThe need to invest in yourselfHow giving with purpose will improve your financesImportance of continuing to learn

As a follow up to last weeks lesson on the five bad financial habits that are the toughest to break we talk about five good financial habits to start doing today. Good financial habits allow you to do incredible things, not just with your money but with your life. Today we talk about the following habits.

Continually LearningInvesting in yourselfAutomationLooking at how your current actions impact your future opportunitiesGiving with a purpose

Is there a good habit that you started doing that has paid off? Feel free to share it with us below.

Enjoy this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes and leaving a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or download the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

The five toughest financial habits to breakMy observations from working with clients over the yearsHow to break those bad habitsYour list of bad financial habitsHow you can contribute to the completion of my new book

Websters defines a habit as a usual way of behaving or something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way. As a financial coach I've seen how good financial habits can help you reach your goals and I've also seen how bad financial habits can prevent you from reaching those same goals. Today I'm going to discuss the five bad financial habits that are the toughest to break.

These five habits are the toughest to break based on my experience in coaching with clients over the years. They are as follows:

5. Getting organized

4. Not having an Emergency Fund

3. Spend Now; Pay Later

2. Not working together with your spouse

Pay Day Loans

We discuss each bad habit and cover a little bit how you can get away from each one. Unfortunately bad habits aren't easy to break, but you can break them over time.

Also I have created a survey to help with the creation of my new book on buying and selling a home. As many of you know my wife and I went through the process this past summer and it definitely is a life event. But the experience was a lot better then my first experience in real estate. Because I want your home buying experience to be a memorable one I'm writing a book detailing the real cost of buying a home by sharing our experience in addition to tips I've learned when coaching clients.

The survey is 9 questions long, totally anonymous, and is not a commitment on your part to buy the book when it is released. Even if you aren't planning on buying a home any time soon, please take the time to fill out the survey as your input is still valuable to us.

Enjoy this lesson? If so please consider taking five minutes and leaving a review of the show either in Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, iTunes, or download the iPhone app. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page. In addition, if you have enjoyed the show for a while now, please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Greg Pare joins me on the showShares how to B.A.N.K more in One FourWhat happens when you budget your money before the month beginsThe importance of knowing your whyDo something to make your 2014 a better year financially

Greg Pare from Gregpare.com joins me on today's show to discuss how you can B.A.N.K More in One Four. Most people set resolutions and goals in the new year but fail to reach them. According to a ComPsych Magazine survey, 92% of people lose sleep over finances. Greg came up with this concept as a way to show people how they can actually plan to save more and achieve their desired result.

Before you can B.A.N.K More in One Four however, you must first know your Why, according to Greg. This is important because knowing your Why will allow you to reach your goal.

"If your Why is strong enough, you'll figure out How." ~ Greg Pare

Greg and I discuss the B.A.N.K concept and what each letter stands for.

B-Is for budget. The word "Budget" can be a scary word for a lot of people. If the thought of budgeting your whole income scares you, just budget for one thing. It can be as little as setting aside $50 a month to have $600 at the end of the year for Christmas. But the point is that you have to plan where your money is going before you can actually save the money.

A-Is for action. It is one thing to say what you are going to do; it is another thing to actually accomplish it. Greg and I share how to take action and Greg breaks down the five things you need to do to set goals.

N-Is for saying no. This is in saying no to yourself. This is the shortest answer but also the most difficult to do. It is hard to say No to yourself initially but once you get some positive momentum going and you see the long term results of saying no, your ability to continue to say no will grow stronger.

K-is for killing debt. Greg and I share the benefits of getting out of debt. You might not be able to pay off all your debt this year and that's OK. But make it a priority to pay off at least one debt this year. That way instead of paying interest you get to keep that money for yourself.

You can learn more about Greg by visiting his blog, checking him out on Facebook, and following him on Twitter.

If you would like to hear more about my views on money, please sign up for our monthly newsletter. Once your subscription is confirmed you will receive a download to my audio recording of the "JW's Manifesto on Money" that goes in depth on my views about money.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page. In addition, if you have enjoyed the show for a while now, please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Good to be back on the showMy views and beliefs on moneyWhat I believe about money is different than traditional financial adviceThis was reinforced this past weekWhat you can do to jump start your finances this January

It's good to be back. I've been off doing the weekly show for three months after the birth of our second son. Things have finally calmed down and I'm excited to be doing the shows once again.

Since this is the relaunch of the show so to speak, I would like to talk today about what the JW's Finanical Coaching Podcast is all about. Today I discuss my five core beliefs on money and how they apply to your life.

In addition I share an article I found that totally goes against my core beliefs. I wrote my full response on the blog but I share on the show why these different beliefs on money are harmful, dishonest, and potentially dangerous to your life.

If you would like to hear more about my views on money, please sign up for our monthly newsletter. Once your subscription is confirmed you will receive a download to my audio recording of the "JW's Manifesto on Money" that goes in depth on my views about money.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page. In addition, if you have enjoyed the show for a while now, please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Your 2013 year in reviewWhat was the best thing you did with your finances in 2013?What one thing are you looking forward to doing in 2014 with your finances?Do you have a plan for 2014?The What, Why, and How of goal setting

Today is one of my favorite shows to do each year. Not because I have a great guest on or it is me talking about some profound topic, it is because this show is all about YOU. I asked you to answer the following two questions:

What's the best thing you've done with your finances this year?

What one thing are you looking forward to doing in 2014 with your finances?

We got a variety of answers from different people. Thank you so much to all those who participated, including Meg of Sparing Change and Josh Brown of Mr. Joshua Brown.

The goal of this show is to inspire you to make 2014 your year. Do you have a plan for 2014? If not, it is never to late to make one. Below are other shows and blogs on goal setting:

Setting Financial Goals
The Importance of writing down your financial goals
Three ways to help achieve your financial goals
Time to make this year your year to shine
Every new year is a fresh start

It is important to be intentional and spend time developing your goals because that is the only way I have found goals to come to fruition. Remember with goals to include the what, why, and how and make sure to remember that your goals are a long term thing. You have 365 days to accomplish them. They won't happen overnight.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page. In addition, if you have enjoyed the show for a while now, please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

Special Thanksgiving edition of the podcastThe importance of being thankfulWhat I am financially thankful for in 2013Until you appreciate what you have you will never be content with what you getHow you can help with the 2013 Year End Podcast

Welcome to a special edition of the JW's Financial Coaching Podcast.  As many of you know the show has been on hiatus while my wife and I were having our second child. Well I am happy to report that mom and baby son are doing well and we are adjusting to home life with two young boys.

Today's show is based on a blog post I wrote last week titled "What I am thankful for". It has been a very busy 2013 for my family and it is hard to believe that 2014 is right around the corner. With that being said I'm very thankful this year and I go into detail about the three areas I am most thankful for this year.

You can also participate in the next special podcast. Like last year, I am planning on doing a year end podcast starring YOU. That's right, you, the listener. All I am asking for people to do is take five minutes to fill out the following survey and answer the following two questions:

What one thing have you done to improve your finances in 2013?What one thing are you looking forward to doing in 2014 with your finances?

Thanks in advance for your cooperation and willingness to share. I had a blast doing this last year and I know a lot of people were encouraged by everyone sharing their accomplishments and goals. I look forward to an even bigger and better show in 2013.

You can subscribe to future podcasts through Feedburner, Stitcher SmartRadio, or iTunes. Or you may listen to the podcast on the JW's Financial Coaching Facebook Fan page. In addition, if you have enjoyed the show for a while now, please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes. For a step by step video of how that works, please watch this video on how to leave a review in iTunes.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future shows you can send them to me and I will integrate them into a future show. There are two ways to get in touch with me: 1.) Email me at JWFinancialcoaching@gmail.com - Please put “podcast” in the subject line and keep your questions brief so they are readable on air. 2.) Simply fill out the form on the contact page. Please fill out your name, email, and your question/comment/suggestion and we will read it on air.

You can find prior editions of the podcast at the podcast archive page.

    How to stay focused on your long term goal
    We are so often distracted by the little things in life
    Break your long term goal into smaller, traceable pieces
    Not getting burnt out on your long term goal
    Announcement on the future of the show

    Not having a big prize
    Being unprepared for emergencies
    Spontaneous decisions
    Chasing after smaller financial goals

    How to handle the finances when you get your first big jobWhy it's important to clear your debt earlyWhat do you do when you get a promotion?How to avoid lifestyle inflationOur next Google Hangout

    Finding out where you stand financially-This is includes knowing how much assets you have, how much debt you have, as well as how much you will be making each month.
    Make a commitment to get out of debt-There's a good chance that if you went to college you have credit card, auto loan, or student loan debt. After determining how much you owe it can be overwhelming and you might feel like you will never be able to get out. But you have to start somewhere and remember your financial situation is not always statis. It can change but it all starts with you.
    Live within your means-This might mean you might not to get to live your ideal lifestyle such as living in the particular area of town, not being able to go out with your friends as much, or still driving your old car for a bit longer. But it does mean not stretching yourself too thin and allowing you options to do what you want to do later.
    Build wealth; not debt-Ultimately saving, but not overspending, will allow you to build wealth.

    Staying with your plan
    Re-evaluate your budget
    Avoid the lifestyle inflation trap
    Realizing your long term goals might change
    Don't rush a decision
    Continue to work hard

    Giving is one of the three things we do with money
    What giving allows you to do
    When did we start having to get to give?
    What sacrificial giving is
    When is the last time you gave sacrificially?

    Life and Money seriesHow do your finances change when you become an empty nester?How to re-evaluate your goalsIs downsizing right for you?How to make sure that you stay an empty nester

    What are your goals for the next 5-10 years
    When/if you should downsize
    How much you are going to help your child when they are out of the house

    Life and Money series
    How do your finances change when you go from having no kids to having children?
    Children do cost money but they don't have to break the bank
    Where children can help you save money
    The life event that quietly puts you behind financially

    Financial Tips for raising a baby
    The cost of raising children
    Delaying marriage and having children to pay off debt?

    Continuing our series on finances and life events
    How do your finances change when you are retired?
    Practice living on your retirement income while you are still working
    There is nothing wrong with still earning an income in retirement
    How to avoid having to cut back on lifestyle in retirement

    Track your spending-A common fear for most potential retirees is that for the first time in a while, or ever, they will have to be careful how they are spending their money. That is because they are often empty-nesters who are making more money than they ever have right before they retire. Therefore they don't budget or if they do it is a loose budget. To help get back into doing a budget, I recommend looking back at your spending over at least the past three months and determine where and how much you will have to cut back.
    Practice living your retirement lifestyle-Now that you have a spending plan in place, it's time to test it! It's one thing to say that you are going to spend your money a certain way, it's another thing to actually do it. But testing your retirement budget before you actually retire gives you time to make adjustments to your lifestyle before you are forced to. It might also make you decide that you aren't ready to retire quite yet!
    Develop ways to stay active and earn an income-This might sound crazy but just because you are retired doesn't mean you can't still earn an income. Now you might not work as hard or as much or earn as much, but it is still good for your brain and soul to remain active in retirement. So think of something that you enjoy or have had an interest in doing and develop ways to earn a side income. That way you will be able to work for the joy, and not just for the money.

    Are you on pace for retirement?
    Should you retire?
    Do not plan on the government for your retirement
    Investing 101
    Do the wealthy really need to budget? With guest Brent Pittman

    New series starting today focusing on finances and life events
    When to start talking about money when you are dating
    What to do financially when you are engaged
    Why you don't want to just ignore disagreements over money
    Why getting on the same page financially is so important

     The Financial DOs and DONTs for engaged couples
    How to combine "His" and "Hers" into "Ours"
    When you and your spouse agree on money, you agree on your life
    The "love and Money" Podcast Series

    My wife, Lisa, joins me on today's showWe're getting ready to move!The process of purchasing our new homeThe one thing you don't want to forget when buying a homeThe importance of buying a home you can afford

    The Daily Habits of Wealthy PeopleDiscuss research found in CFP Tom Corley's book Rich HabitsBeing wealthy is about making daily habitsThose habits aren't anything special or secretWhat habits do you need to develop?

    What is the difference between a credit report and a credit score
    Why you need to monitor your credit report
    How to get your credit report for free
    How to fix errors on your credit report
    Monitor your report even if you aren't planning on borrowing money

    Does your credit score matter?
    What your FICO score is and isn't
    Don't be defined by your credit score
    Do you need a FICO score if you are not borrowing money
    Don't be fooled by the build your credit score lie