Fireproof Your Money

How confident are you in your ability to meet your financial goals? If you’re like the majority of Americans, your confidence level is probably not very high. Find out why our financial confidence seems to be going down even though the economy, as a whole, is improving, and what you can do to become more confident and capable of achieving your financial goals. Before there was Mr. Ed or Rocket the Raccoon, there was Dr. Dolittle, a doctor that could talk to a number of different animals. One of which was especially interesting, the pushmi-pullyu, an animal that had a head on each end. The pushmi-pullyu was always confused about which way to go or what to do, which is how many people feel about their finances. There was a study put out by FINRA that shows that financial capability, financial stability and overall confidence is going down, even while the economy has been improving. Financial capability is our ability to reach our financial goals, whatever those may be for your stage of life. Stability is your ability to respond to unexpected changes in your life without getting derailed from your goals. Lack of confidence means we are more reactive than proactive. Pilots train emergency scenarios specifically to build their confidence. Stress testing your financial plan and thinking about the “what if?” scenarios is a way to plan ahead and increase your confidence in your ability to handle those situations. Acting creates capability and stability, and that all circles back to create more confidence. The FINRA study found that 53% of people surveyed and 63% of millennials said that thinking about money gave them anxiety. It also found that 44% of people and 55% of millennials said that discussing finances was stressful. That’s the quandary of the pushmi-pullyu, where we are operating against ourselves. 71% of people said that they had a high level of financial knowledge but only 34% had basic financial literacy skills. This is the major delusion that most Americans have and the trend seems to be accelerating. Write down your goals and then write your confidence level that you will be able to achieve those goals. Once you’ve done that, write down why you feel confident or not. Once you have that, consider talking to somebody to get some perspective about how confident you should be. One thing to keep in mind is if you are anxious about talking about money, that’s a very good sign that putting yourself through the rigors of actually doing it, is your best course of action.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

The Great Wealth Transfer is coming and what you do with your share of the $68.4 trillion that will be passed on to the next generation could determine your financial future. Find out what it  means to your retirement if you learn how to stretch your money while you still can. Stretch when you can or conversely, stretch before you can’t. Stretching applies to more than just exercise, it helps build wealth too. There is something called the Great Wealth Transfer going on, where 45 million households will leave $68.4 trillion to the next generation over the next 25 years. Your share of this money may be the foundation for your own financial future. The generations after the Baby Boomers have had to deal with a number of factors that other generations haven’t had to experience. The average graduate in 2018 came out with $35,000 in student debt and a 10-year $400 monthly payment. Many of those people admitted to wishing they chose a less expensive education. When you inherit a retirement account from someone other than your spouse, you have an opportunity on your hands. The first choice is to take the money out, but your second choice is to make the money stretch a little further. If you take the money out, you are going to pay any income taxes that are due, but since it was someone else’s retirement account, you will not pay any penalty no matter how old you are. Stretching the money out is the option of opportunity. Under the tax code, when you inherit a retirement account, there is a minimum amount you have to take out each year called the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). The RMD is based on your minimum life expectancy. Let’s say you inherit a $50,000 regular IRA, the kind on which you have to pay taxes when you take money out. There are two variables you have to take into account: the age in which you inherit it and the rate of return you could earn if you leave the money in the account. If the rate of return is 6% and you only withdraw the tax-code minimum, you would be able to withdraw over $237,000 over the course of your life expectancy. The choice you face is either $50,000 now or $237,000 over time, but there is some legislation coming down the pipe that may change the math. The SECURE act that is moving through Congress essentially enhances your ability to stretch the money out and would require you to withdraw all the inherited money over a 10-year period. It will ultimately depend on all the things you can do with that money. Every time you look at a financial situation, you have to look at your own personal situation. You may have a health crisis or debts to pay down that would make taking the money up front make more sense. The big opportunity right now is to build your financial plan without assuming you’re going to inherit money because you can’t plan for it. You should also do a beneficiary designation and decide who gets to do the stretch when you die. Imagine your legacy and your parent’s or grandparent’s legacy if it’s not optimized when they die.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

How do you know the correct amount of life insurance coverage you should get? There’s an easy way to answer that question but most people have no idea where to start. There is a simple template to make sure your life insurance is adequate to take care of your family’s needs after you’re gone. Can you have a negative net value for your life? That depends on how and who’s doing the calculation. There is a template that Wayne created that allows you to figure out how valuable you are called “Can You Spare a DIME?” The D is debts. When you pass away, your debts need to be repaid or your loved ones get saddled with them after you’re gone. The I is Income Shortfall. How much income is your family going to need when you’re gone? The M is Missed Goals and Opportunities. Will your spouse be able to afford to save for retirement or will your child have to fund their own education because you’re gone? The E is Extra Expenses. Funeral costs, childcare and counselling will all come into play here. Once you determine these numbers, you can use them as a template to know how much life insurance you should be buying. Nobody likes life insurance but the check your family receives after you die is probably the most welcome check they will ever get. Most people don’t have enough life insurance. 59% of adults report that they have some form of life insurance but a lot of that comes from workplace-provided insurance which can drastically fall short in the amount of coverage your family will need. The best way to view workplace-provided life insurance is that it’s supplemental at best. The people who do have life insurance, around 1 in 5 admit that they probably don’t have enough life insurance. It’s often the stay-at-home spouse that gets neglected in the DIME calculation and ends up under-insured. Most people, when crunching the numbers, only think about debts and income shortfall but that doesn’t take into account the needs of a stay-at-home spouse. The first thing to do is figure out the value of your DIME calculation. Once you’ve got some rough figures, consider getting a fiduciary financial advisor who has your interests first.    To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

You want your money to work as hard for you as you work to earn it. The way to do that is to understand what Einstein referred to as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Wayne and Lisa talk about the incredible power of compound interest, and how it can make or break your financial plans. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” -Albert Einstein We don’t want the value of our money to be static. When we invest it, we are looking for a return. The change of the value of that money happens at an increasing rate due to compounding, where your money earns money and the return also earns a return. Simple interest is when you have a $1,000 investment that pays 10% per year for the next 20 years. That means that your investment earns $100 per year, so at the end of the 20 years, you would have $3,000. With compound interest, you would have $6,727 instead. Another way to think about it would be, would you rather have a million dollars today or one penny doubled over the next 30 days? Most people will go for the million dollars, but the other option adds up to over $10 million by the end of the 30-day period. A very small increase in the compounding interest rate can add up to a very large amount of money. The effect is magnified by the compounding over time. How you choose your investments also has financial implications. Generally, you’re going to want to choose the highest returning investments. This will also affect how you are going to spend, both now and in retirement. Cost of living is also affected, through inflation and purchasing power. Investing conservatively can be great for minimizing risk, but it comes with a separate risk, namely not earning enough compound interest to compete with inflation. Your debt is also affected by compound interest. Take your credit card statements, for example, where you can see a small amount of debt turn into a gigantic financial obligation because of compounding. Small differences in rates can have a big impact on your ability to achieve your goals within a given timeframe. The earlier you start investing, the more time you have to take advantage of the benefits of compounding interest. A good way to think about it is in terms of how hard you work versus how hard your money works. You can choose to take a lower risk, but you will get a lower return. If you want to get to a certain goal, that means you will need to plan for a longer timeline to get there. There are always trade-offs with the three R’s: Risk, Reward, and Ready Access. The question for you, is it going to be worth it? Look at your debts and your investments. Pick one investment, and think about how you can get a higher return. Then pick one debt, and think about how you can reduce the rate. When planning your future, consider how compounding is going to affect your living, and make sure you run the numbers.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

What do detonating atomic bombs and financial planning have in common? Both require that we test our assumptions and run the numbers before making big decisions. That’s the topic of the show today: find out how Monte Carlo simulations can help you figure out if your current investments will help you reach your financial goals.When it comes to knocking down buildings, we use a lot of complex math called Monte Carlo testing to make the implosion predictable and controlled. The same principles apply to our financial planning. The history of Monte Carlo testing came from the Manhattan Project. You can’t set off a nuke to test every assumption, so they used complex math to simulate different outcomes. You can do the same thing to test inflation, salary rates, longevity, or social security inflation rates. You want to assess the probability of success given the parameters, and move them around to hopefully find the best results. Since we have a lot of computing power available to us these days, we can test thousands of scenarios where the variables can be randomized based on historical performance. This kind of testing can predict whether you will be able to retire at 65 or that your money will last for your lifetime. You can then decide if that is enough of a confidence level for you to proceed or to take actions to increase the probability. Many clients feel a tremendous amount of relief when they are shown the results of this kind of testing. Either they get the relief of knowing they can be confident they will make it work, or they have a plan to improve their odds. You can adjust all those variables to help achieve the retirement and investment goals you’re aiming for. Sometimes it’s about getting the “what ifs?” out of your head and putting everything down on paper, so you can go through the testing process and move forward based on the results. One example is secondary education for your children. You can put variables like tuition increases and completion time into the system and see if you’re on track to be able to pay for your kid’s college education. Sometimes people will say “this time is different,” but chances are the situation you’re looking at has probably happened in some way already. All the issues that we are confronting have happened in some way in the past. You have to accept that there is uncertainty in life. There are things we can’t control and we all make regrettable choices, you have to accept that as part of the process. Just don’t let uncertainty paralyze you from making a choice and moving forward.    To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

The IRS is always going to want its cut and if you don’t keep good records of your investments, you may end up paying Uncle Sam way more than you have to. Find out what your basis is and how it can impact your investments and retirement. Wayne got a call from a client who was panicking due to a particularly scary letter from the IRS. They recalculated their taxes owed and determined that the client owed an additional $9,000. Wayne got a call from a client who was panicking due to a particularly scary letter from the IRS. They recalculated their taxes owed and determined that the client owed an additional $9,000. When you sell investments, you get a copy of your 1099 and so does the IRS. The trouble is all the IRS sees on their copy is what you sold the investment for. That’s only half the story, and this is where the concept of basis comes in. Your basis determines how much tax you owe when you sell something. You only owe tax on the difference between what you sold it for and how much you paid for it. The general rule is: if you pay tax on the money you used to buy an investment, you don’t have to pay tax on those dollars ever again. The converse to that rule is that if you didn’t pay taxes on investment dollars, then someday you will have to pay taxes on those dollars. There is always a triggering event, although the IRS doesn’t refer to it that way. For example, if you have a retirement account, taking money out of the account is a triggering event. For non-retirement accounts, the triggering event is when you sell the investments within the account. With common accounts like IRA’s and 401(k)’s you don’t typically pay any income taxes on the money you invest. The triggering event is when you take money out of that account, and at that point it becomes taxable income. There are also complications when you take the money out early. Let’s say you have an investment account. You get paid, having paid taxes on your income already, and then you put after tax income into your investment account. You buy a stock for $100 and it grows to $1000. In that situation, the $100 is your basis. When you sell that investment, the IRS only sees the $1000 and assumes that’s all income unless you tell them otherwise. You have to keep records and let the IRS know at that point. Real estate is treated the same way, but gifts and inheritance are not. If you are gifted a $100 stock from Grandma that is now worth a $1000, her $100 basis carries over to you. With inheritance, if the investment is not in a retirement account your basis resets to the value of the investment on the day that she died. Another exception is a Roth IRA since you don’t get a tax deduction when the money goes in but when you take it out, you don’t pay any taxes on whatever growth you had. Basis is money you paid taxes on, so outside of a retirement account, your basis is whatever you paid for the initial investment. It also includes any additional deposits you make to that investment that are after tax. The best way to protect yourself is to keep good records. Consider the tax implications of any investment transaction because it can affect your social security or your eligibility for deductions.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Nobody likes paying more than they have to, especially when it comes to accessing your own money. Well, that’s what happens when you take money out your retirement account prematurely. Find out why the IRS ATM fee can take a big bite out your potential retirement funds and what you should be doing instead. The IRS has an ATM fee. There is no physical machine, but when you take money out of your retirement account, that money is taxable. Typically we get some sort of tax deferral on the front end. The IRS has an ATM fee. There is no physical machine, but when you take money out of your retirement account, that money is taxable. Typically we get some sort of tax deferral on the front end. What most people forget is that you pay a 10% premature distribution fee, also known as the IRS ATM fee. If you take money out of a retirement account prior to the age of 59 and a half, it’s considered premature and that causes a penalty. If you take $1000 out of your IRA, you’re going to pay some tax. Something like 20%, but you would also pay a 10% fee on top of that, so you’re looking at a cost of $300 just to access your own money. Not only that, but that money is out of your retirement account so you’re no longer getting the compounding interest on it. It can make it easy to fall into the cycle of looking at your retirement account as something that you can continue to draw on whenever you have a need. There are exceptions, but it depends on your type of retirement plan. There are different types of exceptions for IRA’s and employer sponsored plans. It also depends on the purpose of the money. One example is higher education expenses, which are an exception with an IRA but not a 401(k). When retiring from working at the age of 55, that’s an exception with the 401(k) but not the IRA. Usually when people are taking money out of a retirement account, it’s for a hardship, but there is no exception for a hardship. Some plans allow you to take a hardship withdrawal but you still have to pay the IRS ATM fee. To avoid paying this fee, think twice about whether or not there is a slightly less expensive way to get the money. Also, when you are taking money out of your retirement account, you can have them withhold taxes. Make sure you are withholding enough to pay any taxes as well as the penalty. Email info@fireproofyourmoney.com to get your free copy of the Exemption Chart. Develop a cash reserve of at least three months to help you avoid dipping into your retirement accounts when emergencies come up. Always be planning to build your retirement, not withdrawing from it. You don’t want to waste money when there is no do-over.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Easy money, sleazy money. When a crisis happens, it can be very tempting to just borrow some money from your 401(k) to cover the unexpected expense. But before you dip into your retirement savings, find out why you may want to reconsider that 401(k) loan and what you should know about what you’re getting into. Sometimes life feels like it isn’t giving you any options. When that happens, it can be very tempting to take money out of your 401(k), but that’s a pretty bad idea. Just because you have a 401(k), that doesn’t mean your particular 401(k) offers loans. Even when they do, you probably shouldn’t. The trouble is taking money out of your 401(k) doesn’t seem that bad. You’re borrowing from yourself after all, there is no credit check, it’s guaranteed, and you’re going to get a pretty good interest rate. One of the problems with a 401(k) is you have to pay tax on the money twice, and you should always avoid paying unnecessary taxes. The money that you put back in the 401(k) gets taxed, and then when you take it out in the future during retirement you pay taxes again. You’re paying yourself interest on that loan, but it’s not going to be as much as you could earn with other investments. Over the loan period of five years, you’re going to lose the growth on your money that you are going to need to support you during your retirement years. If you ever lose your job for whatever reason, you have to pay back the loan immediately. If you don’t repay it, it’s taxable, and if you’re not 59 and a half, you get hit with a premature distribution penalty. There is also the danger of starting to view your 401(k) as a source of “now” money instead of retirement money, also known as robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you are going to take out a 401(k) loan, make sure you can repay the loan before you take it. Are you going to be at that company for the next 5 years? Also make sure you have the cash flow and understand what the payments are going to be. Your paycheck will go down for the loan repayment period. To get your own 401(k) Loans Fact Chart with the pros and cons of 401(k) loans, email info@fireproofyourmoney.com. Develop a cash reserve of at least three months worth of living expenses so you can avoid taking loans in the future. Put expected but irregular items into your budget. For anything that can reasonably happen to you but would be unexpected, get the right insurance.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

You wouldn’t confuse gum with the wrapper that it comes in, but many people do pretty much the exact same thing when it comes to their investments. Wayne and Lisa talk about the metaphor of gums and wrappers for investing, and why you need to understand how they work together to create something that serves your financial goals. Don’t confuse the gum with the wrapper. Investing is a lot like the gum in its wrapper. People often ask Wayne if they should invest in an IRA or a Roth IRA and he always tells them no because those aren’t investments. Investments are the things with three R’s: Risk, Reward, and Ready Access. To continue the metaphor, you have to pick the right flavor of gum for your personal situation. It will take a different flavor of gum to put your kid through college in two years than it will to make sure you can retire in twenty years. The wrapper is the account the investment gum is packaged in. The wrapper conveys a particular type of tax treatment and how the investments are taxed while they are in the account. There are also ownership concerns as well, you can’t for example have two owners on an individual retirement account. The wrapper also sets how much you can put into the investment. It also determines what happens to the account when you die. Much like the opera, everyone dies in the end so you need to plan for that. A good example is Apple stock. Apple stock is a security that has the attributes of the three R’s: Risk, Reward, and Ready Access. You can take that investment and put it into a variety of different wrappers, or investment accounts. Just like the investment, the wrapper you choose should match your needs and what you’re trying to achieve. Make a list of the accounts/wrappers you currently have, the wrapper type will probably be in the title itself. You can find that info on your paper statement or your online statement. For the future, the best step is to take what makes each wrapper unique and then start exploring. When you’re putting together your financial plan with your financial advisor, figure out what types of wrappers you should add. Some investments are best suited for certain types of wrappers so that’s a conversation you should be having with your advisor as well.    To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Diversifying your portfolio may sound like some sort of math wizardry, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Wayne and Lisa demystify the concept of diversification and show you how a diversified portfolio can not only generate higher returns over the long term, it can simultaneously reduce your risk. Making it big with investments has an irresistible allure for many people but due to the way the big investment banks take companies public it’s very hard for individual investors to win big. Even if you could get in on the deal, how would you know which company to pick. According to Fast Company, 75% of venture backed tech companies fail. Another study by Statistic Brain shows that 50% of companies fail within 5 years and 70% fail within 10 years. Our behavior makes it hard to hold on to an investment long enough to weather the uncertain rough periods. In many ways we are our own worst enemy. It took Amazon 6 years to become profitable after going public, and Twitter 5 years. Would you have been patient enough to make it through those lean years at the beginning? Hope is not an investment strategy and every investment has to compromise between the three R’s: risk, reward, and ready access. This leads to the natural conclusion of diversification. Diversification is a risk management strategy that works by mixing different types of investments in the same portfolio. With diversification it’s historically possible to get higher long term returns and lower volatility but it comes with a couple disadvantages. To get diversified it takes some time and comes with costs and the second thing is the “free lunch” is in no way guaranteed. US large company stocks were up 8.5% per year from 2008 to 2017, which is a pretty good return. But if you had a diversified portfolio of large US companies and small US companies, you would have only been up about 7.1% so you would have given up a little over 1%. Over the long term, diversification does tend to lower volatility and it can increase returns. One of the biggest advantages of diversifying is that reduces our own dumb tendencies to get out of the market without a plan. It keeps you from getting in your own way. Investments move differently in different economic climates relative to each other. We can use historical correlation to build our portfolio. We should all desire to avoid investment risk that we don’t get paid to take and diversification reduces our level of unpaid risk. Fear and greed will destroy a diversified portfolio.    To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Thinking about risk is important when you’re figuring out what your investment portfolio is going to look like, but that’s where most people stop. If you want to reach your financial goals (and you should!) then you must let your timeframes dictate your strategy and not your risk tolerance. Find out why what you need and what you want will sometimes lead you in opposite directions when it comes to your finances. We need to let the timeframe dictate the compromise between the three R’s for the money we are going to set aside. It sounds simple but that’s not the way the industry works. The risk tolerance assessment that brokerage houses use is designed to figure out how the maximum amount of volatility you can tolerate but it’s misguided. It’s based on what you want instead of what you need. What you need are goals that have certain timeframes, and then use those time frames need to rule how you put together your investment portfolio. Wayne and Lisa have a 14-year old child who loves to eat sugary foods. If given the choice that’s probably all they would eat. If he were completing a questionnaire from his nutritionist, he would profess that he has a very high sugar tolerance because that’s what he wants, but that isn’t what’s best for him. A risk tolerance assessment is basically the same thing. Everyone wants zero risk to their investments but because of the required tradeoffs between risk, reward, and readiness that’s impossible. If you invested so that you were exposed to no risk at all you would never be able to achieve your financial goals. Just because you may have a short term goal, that doesn’t mean that you should put your money into a high-risk high reward investment. Risk tolerance can help you feel comfortable but it doesn’t necessarily help you achieve your investment goals. Your comfort level and preferences should not determine your investment strategy. Make the choice to push aside your instincts to do what you want and instead make the choice to do what you need. Risk capacity is a better way to think about the idea of risk tolerance. Your timeframe rules, regardless of what your risk tolerance is. If you’re saving for retirement and you choose your portfolio based on your risk tolerance instead of your timeframe, it can mean the difference of many years until you reach your goals. You have to be aware of the consequences of your financial choices and weigh the outcomes against your values and goals. Let the timeframe of your goals dictate your investment strategy.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.  

If someone is offering an investment that will get you a great return, comes with zero risk, and gives you the ability to access your money anytime, they’re making an impossible promise. Every investment comes with compromise. Find out how the three R’s can help you decide which investments fit into your financial plan and which ones you should avoid. Every investment has the explicit promise that you will get more cash in the future in exchange for your cash flow in the present. Every investment also requires a compromise among the three R’s: Risk, Reward, and Readiness. Risk is the potential for loss. Reward is the potential for gain. Readiness is also known as ready access or liquidity; it’s how readily you can access the amount of money you have invested. Sometimes you can pick one, sometimes two, but there is no way an investment can have all three. If someone is promising you all three, the quality of their promise is definitely questionable. Consider stocks and bonds. Stocks have a high potential return and can be sold at any time the market is open, but with those things come a high level of risk. With bonds, your risk is almost zero but with that comes the fact that the reward is low and you have almost no access to your money until the bond matures. For each investment you make, you have to figure out what you’re willing to compromise on. Retirement is another good example. When investing for retirement, you don’t really care about ready access because you won’t need the money until you retire, but you really want to get a high return so that you have enough money to live on when you do retire. You have to look at risk in more than just percentage terms; you also have to look at it over time periods. Risk changes over time. The stock market generally gets less risky over time, but that can be difficult to remember in the moment. Even safe investments come with risk - not so much the loss of your principle but the loss of purchasing power. If your budget today is $5000 a month, at 3% inflation over the next ten years, it will take $10,000 to buy the same amount. For investments made over long periods of time, you have to factor in inflation. Risk, Reward, and Ready Access are part of the five keys to a winning portfolio. Every investment comes with a compromise and every financial planning situation has a different compromise that depends on what your goal is.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Most people think of investing the wrong way. They think it means ROI, diversification, guarantees, or visionary companies that are set to disrupt the market. The real question you have to ask yourself is “what are you really buying when you buy an investment?” and the answer isn’t on that list. There are a few key things that indicate that you are on the right track financially. You are working your cash reserve or have it already. You have a written financial plan or have an appointment with your financial advisor set up to put one together. You also have the big risks in your life insured. With those in place, now it’s time to look into investing. The question you really have to ask yourself before you jump into anything is “what are you really buying when you buy an investment?” People think they are buying into a visionary product, or diversification, or safety and guaranteed interest payments. The trouble is that’s not quite correct. “It’s not the return on my investment that I’m concerned about, it’s the return of my investment.” -Will Rogers The key for every single investment is an exchange of cash flow. Every investment is a promise of cash flow in the future. When you buy a stock, you are expecting the company to share the profits in the form of dividends and to eventually be able to sell the stock for more than you paid for it. With a bond, you’re getting the interest over time and eventually they will repay the bond. You’re buying a promise. Every investment comes with the explicit promise of more cash in the future. With a Certificate of Deposit, you’re giving a bank your money and they’re promising to pay you back the money after a certain amount of time plus interest. It’s a pretty high-quality promise. Compare that to a stock. You buy the stock and the company is making a promise that you will get a share of the profits in the form of dividends. But what happens if they lose money, or worse, go out of business? The first thing to consider is the amount of cash flow possible in the exchange. With stocks, that would be the potential dividends and increased sale price. With bonds, you would be looking at the interest rate and principle involved. The second consideration is the risk to your cash flow involved. A bear market is when the stock market as a whole goes down by at least 20% and they happen about every 5 or 6 years. The third consideration is timing. With bonds, there is a set maturity, but with stocks, there is no definite timeline involved. Your plan defines the purpose of your investments. Then you have to gauge the quality of the promise of any investment you are considering buying.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

The problem is two-fold. In a previous show, we noted you need a written financial plan but probably don’t have one because 1) only 1 in 4 do with the absence having drastic effect on, 2) lack of emergency reserves, 3) but plenty of student loan debt, 4) increasing time to save for life’s big goals like buying a house, and 5) then once work years winding to a conclusion too little in retirement Solution to the absence of a plan is often a financial advisor. But most people don’t consult an advisor or if they do it’s too late to change the trajectory of their lives. Even though people with plans have better financial outcomes with more confidence regardless of how much money they make. We’ve debated the reasons why people lack plans or advisors so we won’t repeat that today. We also debunked the myth that a financial plan is only about your investments. So, we’ll assume you want financial success at every income level. We’ll assume you want financial confidence. We’ll assume you want to live a rich life regardless of how much money you currently have. So, we’ll assume you want a plan or an advisor that is on track or ahead in saving for retirement, to help you create your financial plan. Ok – you agree you need an advisor to get and keep this whole financial plan thing off the ground. But how do you pick an advisor and get them to do exactly what you need? Important to remember – there is NO legal definition for “financial advisor” or “financial planner” – this makes the process more difficult. Think about where you are? We used financial GPS – Net Worth & Cash Flow Start thinking about goals – SMART – your contribution will be Specific, Relevant, & Time. Your advisor will help you determine the Measurable and Attainable. They’ll also make them SMARTer with a plan to Evaluate progress and build Rewards. Research Advisors No salesmen please – Pay for advice, not products. Different ways to pay (project fees, hourly fees, asset management fees, a monthly retainer, hybrid) Fiduciary – Suitable versus Fiduciary or Good Enough versus Best Interest. Your interests first! Disclosure. Transparency. MOST advisors are NOT fiduciaries. Experience & education Designations – ignore most but the CFP is mainline with education, ethics, and disciplinary structure. Others are CPA/PFS and the CFA. Regulatory – lookup the firm and any disciplinary history Interview Fit & feel Fees & scope in writing They’re interviewing you too!   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

The Problem is we are in the DIY generation – my own home repairs, car repairs, computer coding, my self diagnosis of medical conditions. To our topic – my own investing, which somehow morphs into my own financial planning. According to the CFP Board, the use of financial advisors has increased significantly – from 28% in 2010 to 40% in 2015. Still, according to Society of Actuaries, only 48% of pre-retirees and 55% of retirees consult with a financial advisor or planner to help with financial planning or retirement planning.   WHY? We’ve heard all of the reasons: I “should” be able to do it I should be able to do it, so I shouldn’t pay for it I certainly don’t want to pay too much I don’t know how to pick or work with a financial planner   However, people who have advisors are more likely to achieve their goals: 70% of people who work with a financial advisor or financial planner (and presumably have a financial plan) are on track or ahead in saving for retirement. That compares with 33% of those who do not go with an advisor.   5 things an advisor does for you: Can you keep your emotions out of it? This is your money, your future, your legacy. People make the biggest financial mistakes when they panic and sell low in a bad market or get greedy and buy high in a good market. And who’s going to stop you if you decide to take $10,000 out of your 401(k) to go to Europe on a whim? (And if it’s not about who’s going to stop you, who’s at least going to make a face and ask you if that’s really such a good idea and discuss the pros and cons of your decision?) If you’re on your own, you won’t have someone to talk you through those impulsive decisions.   Do you have the time? This isn’t just about talking to your brother-in-law and making some stock picks. To make good choices, you’ll need to do lots of research and read those prospectuses. Every. Single. Time. Is your spouse going to nag you when you get home from work, or give you a quick kiss on the cheek and disappear into the world of finance on your laptop? And what will your spouse do if something happens to you? Here’s a suggestion: If you really enjoy doing your own financial legwork, why not consider keeping control of 10% of your investments and letting an advisor take care of the rest? You’ll still get the mental stimulation, you can brag about your successes, but any mistakes you make won’t have as large of an impact on your overall retirement. (Another plus: Most professionals probably won’t mind discussing your do-it-yourself piece and bouncing around ideas if they’re managing the rest of your portfolio.)   You might not be as smart as you think you are. If you’ve been investing successfully on your own for the past few years, that’s great, but just about anybody can do well in a bull market. The tough part comes when there’s a correction. (Note: That’s when, not if.) How are you protecting yourself for the downside? Do you even know about the products that are out there to help safeguard your income stream? A good financial advisor attends classes and stays up to date on financial strategies, tax law changes and more. He also has years of experience. He’s seen hundreds of people come through his office door, and he’s probably helped several clients with problems similar to yours.   Every quarterback needs a coach. Tom Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory  but he had a whole lot of people on the sidelines helping him make those plays. When it comes to your financial future, don’t you want to have a team of coaches behind you? Your financial advisor can work with others — tax experts, estate attorneys, insurance professionals — to build a plan that helps you meet your goals. You’ll still be the MVP — but they’ll be there to support you on offense and defense to get you across the goal line.   It’s only going to get more complicated. Saving money was pretty easy when you were a kid. You just dropped your quarters into a piggy bank. Then came student loans and credit, and even a mortgage as well as the costs that came with having kids- and yet, all that doesn’t compare to planning for retirement. You might have been fantastic at the accumulation phase of your financial life, but the distribution and preservation phase can be a scary place to negotiate on your own. Sometimes, it’s just knowing what order to tap into your income streams that makes all the difference. It’s about understanding your risk tolerance as you get older vs. when you were young and fearless with your money. Even if you managed to build a pretty nice egg nest all by yourself, you may need assistance when it comes to making it last for 20 or 30 years in retirement. To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Most Americans don’t have a financial plan. One study shows only 1 in 4. A CFP Board study showed only 35% of people have a plan to save for emergencies. Only two-thirds have a plan to meet any of six savings goal, such as for emergencies, retirement, a child’s education or a down payment on a house. People spend more time watching reality TV than they do planning finances.   WHY? We’ve heard all of the reasons. Don’t want to pay for financial advice because I am not positive I need it Don’t want to get ripped off Can get investments at low cost – isn’t that what financial advice is really about – so why hire an advisor who just gonna try to sell me expensive investments or insurance I’m a DIYer – why not financial planning? Should be able to do it myself Financial plans are only for people with so much money, they don't know what to do with it, right? It never occurred to me that I might need a plan – 20% gave that answer in a Charles Schwab survey Another 20% in the same survey said they wouldn’t know how to get a plan   WHY the big deal? Less than 40% could access $1,000 in an emergency even though half of us have just such an emergency every year. The average 2018 college graduate has student loan debt of about $30k and a monthly payment of almost $400. This does not count the more than $10k of debt their parents borrowed. Zillow says it now take almost 7.2 years to save the 20% downpayment for an average house IF you’re saving 10% of your pay. NY Federal Reserve Bank says a RECORD 7 million people are behind on their car payments by at least 90 days. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average retirement savings for the families of people in their 50s is $124,831 in 2018.   So, across all ages, we have a financial crisis. Recent college grads and folks nearing retirement and everyone in the middle.   It cannot be coincidence that we GENERALLY do not have a written financial plan AND that we are financially unprepared for daily life much less big long-term goals like retirement.   It would be bad enough if it were just about the money but it’s not … 70% of people who work with a financial advisor or financial planner (and presumably have a financial plan) are on track or ahead in saving for retirement. That compares with 33% of those who do not with an advisor. Those with a plan making between $50,000 and $99,999 are more likely to live comfortably than even those making $100,000+ without a plan: 50% to 46%. There is a misconception about what a plan is – it’s NOT just investing. Investing is only ONE part of many. A plan has at least 7 things: Cash management College planning Estate planning Debt management Risk management Retirement planning Tax management Investment planning A Vanguard study about the value of a proper advisor relationship could add “about 3%” to your returns. That’s NET of fees and that’s important because Vanguard provides option for low cost investing. Value is in 3 areas: Portfolio Construction (what investments and in what proportions) Wealth Management (spending strategy and maintaining portfolio targets for risk) Behavioral Coaching (this is a big one – guarding against the biases and attitudes that cause all of us to make bad money choices)   If value of advisor is 3%, wouldn’t you be willing to pay anything less than 3%?   One of my favorite examples is about Peter Lynch – legendary manager of Fidelity’s Magellan fund from 1977-1990. During his tenure Lynch trounced the market overall and beat it in most years, racking up a 29 percent annualized return. But Lynch himself pointed out a fly in the ointment. He calculated that the average investor in his fund made only around 7 percent during the same period. When he would have a setback, for example, the money would flow out of the fund through redemptions. Then when he got back on track it would flow back in, having missed the recovery.   Another study showing similar results is published each year by the research firm Dalbar. The 2017 Dalbar study reported results through 2016 (still waiting for 2018 but wouldn’t expect any improvement in our behavior)   The key findings of the study show that: In 2016, the average equity mutual fund investor underperformed the S&P 500 by a margin of -4.70%. While the broader market made gains of 11.96%, the average equity investor earned only 7.26%. In 2016, the average fixed income mutual fund investor underperformed the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index by a margin of -1.42%. The broader bond market realized a return of 2.65% while the average fixed income fund investor earned 1.23%. Equity fund retention rates decreased materially in 2016 from 4.10 years to 3.80 years. (This is directly related to psychology and behavior.) In 2016, the 20-year annualized S&P return was 7.68% while the 20-year annualized return for the Average Equity Fund Investor was only 4.79%, a gap of -2.89% annualized   Now these are just the things an advisor and The Plan can do for you in the Investment Area BUT Investments are just one area.   The whole idea is the value of the advisor AND the PLAN you develop together is to help align YOUR behavior - decision-making behavior AND investment behavior - with YOUR goals, YOUR sense of purpose, and YOUR values. To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Do you want to set dumb goals or Smart goals? If you want to reach your financial goals of retirement, paying off student loans, or buying a house, you must set Smart goals to get there. So the choice is clear. Find out why Smart goals are crucial and why Americans need a written financial plan now more than ever. GPS recap, your financial GPS requires your current financial location which is a combination of your net worth and your cash flow. Your definition of wealth is up to you. Money can’t buy happiness; it’s a measure of your progress but not your worth. You should be setting Smart (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time) financial goals and you should never give up on your financial goals. When you create a financial plan, you are making a conscious choice to reduce your current lifestyle so that you can enjoy an even greater lifestyle later on. Where in life are you willing to make some tradeoffs between your current self and your future self? We all have things we know nothing about. For many people that’s finance. But that’s okay. You have to start somewhere when creating your financial plan. Everybody knows we need financial goals and to save for retirement, but knowing and doing are very different things. The average retirement portfolio for people over 65 or older is only $200,000 which is not much money when you think about it having to last for the next 20 or 30 years. The stats are even worse for people 55 to 64. Only 17% of us have a written financial plan that is updated regularly. If your plan isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist. How you set your financial goals will either compel you or not to take action. If you fail to plan you plan to fail. Most of us don’t figure out where we want to go, which will make it very hard to get there. Not having money is not a reason to not have a financial plan. Having a financial plan is not just about having enough money to reach your goals, it’s also about gaining the confidence to achieve them. Creating the plan also helps you learn if your goals are even achievable. The biggest landmine for Wayne’s financial plan is himself. People get caught in the daily demands of life and will struggle with coming up with goals in the first place. Smart goals can be made smarter by adding and evaluating your progress along the way and rewarding yourself. Set big goals and support them with micro actions, behavior change, eliminating options, process planning, and minimizing the chances to slip up. Don’t worry too much about elements you can’t control. Just focus on the things that are in your control like keeping the specific actions going. According to the Federal Reserve, there are $1.56 trillion in student loans spread over 45 million Americans. The average student loan payment is $393. The Smart goal of eliminating student debt is to reach a $0 balance, which makes it specific and measurable, choosing an amount your cash flow can support without having a shortfall somewhere else, determining it’s relevant, and figuring out your timeline. The point of a financial plan is to determine what is possible, what is controllable, and what goals should be prioritized. When evaluating your progress paying off your student loan, you’re not going to see much difference month to month. It’s more important to evaluate your behavior frequently and your progress periodically. Don’t forget to reward yourself. When you stick to the plan, feel free to give yourself a treat every once in a while. Small rewards are about behavior, not progress. According to Zillow, on average if you save 10% of each of your paychecks, it would take you 7.2 years to accumulate the 20% down payment you need. Whether or not buying a house is an attainable goal depends on the neighbourhood you’re looking at and your other financial goals. No financial goal exists in isolation. Owning a home is not the best goal for everyone. It may make more sense for you to focus on something else. You may have to adjust your Smart goal as you go along. Life events have a tendency to sneak up on us. We have to create Smart goals in every area of our lives. Visualize where you want to be. Men and women also structure and pursue their goals differently. This is why it can be critical to have all parties involved in creating the financial plan. Being held accountable by someone you trust can be crucial to not falling off the path you’ve set. Set your own Smart goals. Don’t be constrained by what society or your parents expect. To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

Make progress towards your goals. Wayne and Lisa Firebaugh help you as they break down the other parts of the financial GPS. Learn about the danger of lifestyle creep, why cash flow is the second most important number in your financial plan, and how to think about building risks into your plan so you can avoid uncharted territory. Your financial GPS has to know your starting point and your destination to know what financial strategies should make up your route. Your position is a snapshot of your current financial condition. Accountants would refer to it as your balance sheet, everyone else would simply refer to it as your net worth. Your net worth is made up of your money and your assets that are both working for you and is one of the two most important numbers in your financial plan. We can’t afford to be stuck, which is why Gain is the first most important number. Gain is cash flow and momentum. Cash in less cash out equals the amount of Gain in the financial GPS. Your expenses include discretionary spending and taxes. Your income is less within your immediate control than your expenses. As our incomes increase, our lifestyles tend to increase as well, also known as Lifestyle Creep. Inflation is another major force eating away at the value of your money. It takes $1529 to buy the same stuff that $1000 would have purchased twenty years ago. Cash flow is what you add to your financial position each year. If Position is your current financial location, then Gain/cash flow is your progress towards your financial destination. Most advisors get paid based on your assets, not on your cash flow. Your financial GPS has to be even more reliable than your car’s GPS, which is why Security is the next component. The unplanned should be in the plan. You have to plan for unwelcome events and risks to your assets, reputation, and person. Ask yourself two things when it comes to risk: “What risks do I have in this stage of my life?” and “How would it affect my long term gain towards my goals were this risk to actually occur?” Identify the things that may take you into unverified financial territory in your financial life and get in touch with a fiduciary advisor to help you determine your plan. To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

If you want to get somewhere, you need to know where you are. Listen to Wayne and Lisa as they explain the first aspect of the financial GPS system and learn what numbers matter the most when it comes to reaching your financial goals. Money enables motion. Financial planning is all about where you are going. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there. Back in the day, we used paper maps to figure out where we wanted to go. Similar to a map, you set a financial goal and then figure out the path to get there. To use a GPS you need to have two pieces of information. You need the destination and your starting point. It’s the same with your financial goals. Wayne and Lisa go over an example situation where they need to plan for a 16 year junior to pay for college in the next couple of years. The situation changes quite a bit if your starting point is a 5 year old instead of a 16 year old. You use a different kind of GPS to understand your financial location, in this example, you use the Gain Position Security system. We are often starting in the middle of our financial journey. Your Position is essentially a tally of your assets compared to your liabilities. Your net worth is any amount over and above your liabilities. An asset is defined as an economic resource that can be owned or controlled to produce value. The key part of the definition is the ability to convert the asset to cash. Examples include your 401(k), retirement account, or property. Liabilities are defined as the future sacrifices of economic benefits that we are obliged to make due to past transactions or events. The key point of a liability is the future sacrifice. Most people take out a mortgage to buy their house, which ends up being a liability. When you sell the house, the lender gets paid first before you. All your assets and liabilities have to be added up and compared to fully understand your financial position. When the value of your assets minus your liabilities add up to over a million dollars, you are officially a millionaire.   To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

There are four final beliefs about money that shape the way you invest and achieve your goals. Find out why the perfect investment doesn’t exist, why you need to plan for the unexpected, why you’re worth more than just the dollars in your bank account and portfolio, and what most financial advisors don’t want you to know about the word ‘fiduciary’. What we believe affects how we act in every area of life. It’s important to make decisions that aren’t driven by panic or euphoria, because they are usually wrong. Your beliefs about money provide a framework for the way you react to emergencies and events in the market. Your relationship with money and whether you feel like you deserve money also affects how you interact with it. The first four money beliefs were: Money is your method, not your message; No else will take care of you; Friend the FOMO; and Planning manages the transitions, timetables, and tradeoffs. Belief #5 - Perfect investments just don’t exist. With diet macros you are trying to balance health and fitness given your starting point, the three money macros work the same way. The three R’s of money are risk, reward, and ready access. To get a reward, you usually have to take some sort of risk, but risk and reward aren’t always the same and don’t always have the same readiness of access. The stock market comes with a high potential return and a high potential of risk, but can also be liquidated immediately. A bank account has virtually no risk associated with it and immediate ready access, but that means there is also no return. There are always trade offs with the three R’s. You match up your goals and the timeframes of your goals to the three R’s so you can achieve your goals. No perfect investment exists because you always have to trade off one of the three R’s. Belief #6 - The unplanned should be in the plan. There are a number of life events that can have a major impact on your life, each with their own odds of occurrence. You can either retain the risk if it’s small enough, reduce the risk if it’s catastrophic, or you can relegate the risk with insurance. Estimate the size of the risk and the odds of it happening and decide if it needs to be relegated or reduced. Not everything needs to be insured, but insurance does have a place in your risk management strategy. Belief #7 - Money is only a measurement. Money measures progress, but not your worth or value. “Build on what you really want, not on what you think you should aspire to.” -Mitch Anthony Use money to measure your progress against your plan and what you desire, not what you think you should desire. Belief #8 - Advisor not optional. A lawyer will hire another lawyer to defend their case. A financial advisor gives you perspective and clarity. There are lots of things you don’t know and that’s ok, that’s why we work with people that are experts in those areas. Advisors help you identify and manage the issues you may overlook. They also help you prioritize and quantify the issues you do know exist. A fiduciary financial advisor will put your financial goals above their own. The dirty secret in the financial world is that the vast majority of financial advisors are not fiduciary advisors. The only answer to the question “are you a fiduciary advisor?” should be “yes!”. An investment can be suitable but it may not be the best option. You only get to live your life once, you have to have beliefs and an advisor that helps you with those beliefs. To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.