Taking the Mystery Out of Financial Planning

The point: You can get your finances in order and understand the whole thing

There are just 4 steps

When I got started in this industry I was overwhelmed with the barrage of terms, concepts, laws and products…and I was supposed to be the one who would advise others! My confusion disappeared in one short conversation with my training manager Bob Turley. Bob told me that if someone would gather 25 of the top financial planners in the country and ask them to give their opinion as to the steps needed to get your financial house in order that they would basically agree on the following 4 steps;

1. Necessities 2. Protection for Necessities 3. Money for the Future 4. Tax Strategy

1. Necessities - Here’s where you start.

You take your first dollars and buy food, shelter and clothing for your and your family - the necessities.

You don’t spend one dollar on anything else until these are covered.

2. Protection for Necessities 

Next step is to get Term Insurance on the breadwinners for the family. If both parents work, then get coverage on both. You don’t want the necessities to disappear for the family just because an accident occurs. They MUST be protected and provided for. But only buy Term, not whole life endowment or universal life or any other version of the high price spread that the whole life insurance industry loves to sell. Buy it for a dime instead of a dollar. 

It’s important but you don’t want to spend too much on it because you only have a 33% chance of dying before age 65. 

Only after the protection is in place should you think about other steps because the reality is that you could die tomorrow but you certainly won’t retire tomorrow.

3. Money for the Future

First you save, then you invest. 

Savings are “put and take funds.” Investments are “put and leave funds”.

Savings are for those emergencies that happen—a new roof, braces for your child, new tires for the car, etc. Six months of monthly income is a good target to go for. Once you have your emergency fund in place it’s time to invest. This is money you are going to put away for your retirement or even a college fund for the kids. You put this away and never think about touching it. You don’t want to jeopardize your future! A good stock mutual fund is a good choice for investing.

4. Tax Strategy

A good, intelligent tax strategy needs to be put in place at this point and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

For middle income people options are limited but they are powerful. 

Options like making the beneficiary of the term policies the owner as well so that the funds would escape the inheritance tax. Another is the IRA, the Individual Retirement Act that allows you to defer up to $5,000 annually ($6,000 if 50 or older) annually from your annual taxable income. If you want to use after-tax dollars you can put it in an Roth IRA and have your funds grow tax-free. These are just a few of the options available.

It’s no more complicated than that.

As simple as they are most people feel that they would prefer to have a professional walk them through the process of getting and implementing a plan. That’s been the reason behind the staggering growth of Primerica into the number one independent financial services marketing organization in the world. They charge no fee and recommend only products that they use themselves. You won’t go wrong getting their advice and they are easy to find anywhere in the USA, Canada or Puerto Rico.

Hurry! Don’t wait to get your finances in order. Its not confusing and you’ll have a great peace of mind about your future.

---

Feedback: Have you avoided financial planning because you thought it was just too confusing? 

For Adults Only

The sooner you learn this lesson, the better your life will be.Purpose: To point out that the childish approach to life just creates stress and problems for adults

---

Children don’t think this way.
When you’re a child you grow up helpless, with things done for you and since most of us start off with an absolutely amazing set of lungs to express displeasure over any slight little discomfort.

Adults quickly learn after bringing home this little package from the hospital that when baby is not happy, nobody’s happy. So we start out in life with everything revolving around us, because we are totally selfish and impatient dictators. We want what we want and we want it now!

You only get away with this when you are young
The process of growing up and becoming an adult is realizing you have to fit in in the world and you have to get certain things done, whether you are in the mood to do them or not. The reason for this is that as an adult you are expected to do things for yourself. All your childhood helpers are gone and you are expected to function as a responsible, independent, person. The sooner you realize the following statement is true the better…

“There’s never a good time to do things you don’t want to do.”

Just do it!
Life is divided into things that need to be done, have to be done, and the things that you’d rather be doing.  Eventually you realize that whether you want to do them or not doesn’t matter because they’ve got to get done. You realize that you can’t wait for inspiration to strike.

Your life becomes so much more free of stress if you just learn to bite the bullet and do the things that need to be done as quickly as possible. Then you can get them behind you and move on without the stress of those hanging over your head.  

That’s the way you stay in control of your life
That’s the way you keep the stress to a minimum. When we’re young we don’t want to go to school, we don’t want to do our homework, and we don’t want to brush our teeth. As we get older we don’t want to have to go to work and earn a living. Parents don’t want to get up in the middle of the night and comfort a screaming infant but guess what? They do. By doing the things that need to be done as fast as possible you create more space in your life for the things for the things you want to do. 

That’s life, that’s what adults do and the sooner you get clear on that the better. 

---

Feedback: You know of any people who have never gotten clear on this issue?

YOU MANIAC!

It’s actually a compliment

Sure, I get accused of being a maniac about growth, about improving, about wanting to make things better! That's a good thing and here’s why: Improvement won't happen until you go into maniac mode.

The status quo has a powerful pull. Change requires massive effort. So when accused of going overboard, of working too hard, winners sometimes feel like they need to dial it back. Wrong! You are on the right track but when the lazy see your pace it scares them. Compared to them, you ARE a maniac. 

That’s why so many people are stuck in life.
They want better things, but they don’t want to be bothered about all that it takes to get them. They don’t want to upset their lives. They don’t want to be bothered. They are dissatisfied but not enough to give up their small comforts. They don’t want to go to the trouble of working up a sweat or making any changes in their lives.

But they live in denial.
They won’t admit it to themselves. They profess to anyone who’ll listen how miserable they are and how desperately they want a better life. They’ll tell you what hard workers they are. They’ll tell you they don’t want something for nothing. But when it comes down to actually doing what it takes to make a change in their life, they fade away, full of excuses. When they see someone working hard they are offended.

The pretenders are ALWAYS annoyed by the maniacs—because they want an easier way. 

It’s crazy for you to slow yourself down to their pace.
Can you show me ANYONE who did anything spectacular in sports, business or anything else who WASN'T a maniac for a period of time? Even some parents are accused about being maniacs about their kids doing homework, jobs around the house, having curfews for teenagers because they want their kids to grow up right. I guess they are just a bunch of unreasonable maniacs too! Losers hover just below the spectacular and manic level... and never make their breakthrough. You can’t be casual about things you care about and expect great results.

If you can't inspire and drive yourself and your team to spectacular activity you'll NEVER have spectacular results!

---

Feedback: Can you see why being a “maniac” for a period of time is necessary for success?

God Wants You To Grow

"God wants us to grow up…like Christ in everything." Ephesians 4:15

It’s great when your new baby’s born but panic would set in if they did not grow. That would mean something had gone terribly wrong. The whole life force is focused on growing and developing and reaching maturing.  Anytime that stops it’s a very bad thing.  If stagnation arrives death won’t be far behind it. We have got to keep growing if we want to live.  

"We are not to remain as children." Ephesians 4:14
A baby doesn’t try to grow it just grows. Of course it needs the nurturing and support of the parents but just like a seed when it’s put in the ground it will grow.  It’s important for us to know in our spiritual lives that just being “born in Christ,” and getting a new life is not the whole story, it’s just the beginning!  The goal God has for us is to develop in the direction is to have the life of his Son be fully developed in us.  We grow away from what we were.

Look at it this way
When you’re born physically it is a one time event. You are born.  Then you begin the process of growth which you stay in as long as you live. Your spiritual life works the same as your physical life. You are born spiritually at one time and then you begin your new life, which is a life of growth. It’s a growth into the fullness of Christ in us because that’s what happens when you are born spiritually.  For the first time you have a spiritual life that makes you a new being and this new life is the spirit of Christ in us. Unlimited unimaginable possibilities and potentials are created by this act. What a tragedy to not develop and realize them in your life.

God knew what he was doing from the beginning.  
He decided form the outset to shape the lives as those who love him along the same lines as those of his son.  
"We see the original and intended shape of our lives in him." Romans 8:2
It’s our job to trust God and to have faith in him.  
It’s his life, he’ll produce that growth as long as we follow by faith.

"…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13
He will work in us to create the desire and the power to do the things that will drive us forward towards our purpose.

He’s not looking for our help.  

Not even one little tiny bit of extra from us. Why? Because he knows we are useless and incapable of living the Christian life. He wants us to stand down from our own efforts and put our faith in Him. That’s what grace is all about. He does it all. We trust Him and we say thanks. It’s deciding to let Him stay in charge every minute of every day in every situation. All through life we need to ask ourselves… Are we trusting Him right now?

Grow by looking to God to produce growth in you and trusting Him to do it. 

---

Other Recent Spiritual Posts You Might Enjoy:

• The Unity of the 7 "Ones"
• God Knows You
• Does Worrying Help?

Do You Ever Get...Confused?

"Frustration, although quite painful at times, is a very positive and essential part of success." —Bo BennettAre you ever totally confused about what to do next?

FRUSTRATED? Ever get so totally frustrated that your head almost explodes?

HERE’S HOW TO USE THOSE UPSETTING EMOTIONS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

When you are confused, realize it's a a good sign. The reason is that if you have something you care about, something you are trying to make happen. You are simply at a point where the course of action you chose didn’t work, so realize this….

Confusion is the beginning of clarity. When you have made your best efforts to make something positive happen and instead of turning out great it bombs, you say to yourself obviously I had the wrong idea on this so now what? I’m confused about why it didn’t work.

Exactly at this moment when you have your full attention on the problem you perfectly prepared to learn something surprising and magical. You are prepared to see what actually needs to be done to solve the problem: YOU ARE READY TO LEARN!

The information you get will be insights you can use the rest of your life. How do you get it?

ASK! GET SOME FRESH IDEAS

Ask someone who you know or can find who has gone through the same or at least similar situation successfully and see how they handled it. Or get a book on the subject and get fresh insight on how to approach it.

Where will you get the energy? FROM YOUR FRUSTRATION! Properly understood, frustration can be a great advantage to you because…

Frustration is the fuel of growth. I feel sorry for those who never get upset about things, never explode, never get excited or never get angry because it seems as if they just don’t really care about anything. They are so blasé, nothing bothers them. As a result they never really account for much. They never stand up and fight injustice. They never find anything they are willing to fight for. They never care enough to make a positive impact and change things for the better. They just can’t be bothered.

But that’s not you. You get confused, you get frustrated because you care. You care deeply. As a result, you will be one who makes a difference.

So remember when you get involved in the fight to make good things happen…

CONFUSION IS THE BEGINNING OF CLARITY and FRUSTRATION IS THE FUEL OF GROWTH!

How Your Faith Grows Strong

There is a plan for spiritual growth.

The Lord is in charge. He will establish you. 

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil." (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

Though we receive our faith from Him, it must be developed in us by Him. Undeveloped faith never progresses beyond the babe-in-Christ, milk-of-the-Word stage. 

"But solid food is for adults that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil. Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ, let us advance to mature manhood" (Hebrews 5:14-6:1, Weymouth).

You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings.

God gives us promises in a quiet hour; He seals our covenants with great and gracious words. Then He steps back and waits while we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. Then is the time to look into His face and say, 'I believe, Lord, that it shall be done as it was told me.'"

"Without trials of faith we should all be ruined. These trials give us opportunities of linking on to the mighty promises of God and finding through the trials come blessing that wonderfully glorifies Him, or else, missing God, turns the blessing into a burden that fills the heart with weariness and pain." -G.W.

Trust Him. His Love for you will pull you closer to Him and mature your faith. Just like physical growth, it happens over time. 

Adapted from Miles Stanford

Do Hard Things. Don't Run From Them.

If you stand up to the thing that’s hard for you to face today, you’ll find they will be not quite so hard tomorrow.

In a week they won’t be hard at all, and shortly thereafter will become fairly easy.  That’s how you grow.  

You don’t build big muscles by lifting small weights

You can’t experience growth and the joy of growth and improvement without facing up to “hard things.” Remember just because it’s hard today doesn’t mean it’s going to be hard tomorrow. Like lifting weights in the gym, if you never lift a heavier weight you’ll never get stronger. In fact, just like building muscle, facing up to challenges is the only way to develop mental toughness in sports.

So do the hard things.  

Pretty soon they’ll be easy and people will say, “Look how strong you are. Boy, you must just be naturally strong.” They will be amazed how tough and determined you are. They won’t ever realize the process you had to put yourself through to get there. 

But you will, you’ll have the confidence that comes the achievement, from facing your fears and winning.