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Hello,

 I’m moving.  Please join me at www.getfinanciallyfit.org.  I’ve added email list subscriptions and RSS.   Please link through to my new blog.

 Follow your dreams, Achieve your goals!

2008 Get Financially Fit! Published

I have just published the 2008 edition of Get Financially Fit!  This year I added two chapters – one chapter to eliminate debt and another one on retirement plans such as 401Ks / 403bs and IRAs.  The book has practical steps for assessing financial fitness, living within your means, short term investing, retirement planning, retirement investing, essentials of purchasing a home, and estate planning.   

Order the book

Set Goals That Matter

I once heard the following quote (I’m not sure of the source)

 It’s better to fail at something important, than succeed at something unimportant.

When I first heard this quote it stopped me in my tracks.  Imagine spending your life pursuing a goal only to realize that in the end it was not important.

I walk our dogs up the hill from where I live through a neighborhood of McMansions – you know the 6000 square foot homes with 2 or 3 residents.  I enjoy walking through the homes just before they put the doors on to see the layout.  I recall walking through one large 3 story home that clung tightly onto a steep hill side.  Just as I was leaving the house the couple who owned the custom house showed up and entered.  The wife was quite gracious to me, but the the husband was a little cranky at my presence.  The couple was in their mid sixties.  The thing that struck me was that the man had trouble walking on through the flat construction site; I began to wonder, Why are they moving into a multistory house?  It won’t be long and he will need an elevator.  A friend of mine who lives nearby learned that in order to afford the house the man has a job that requires him to be traveling half of the time.  It’s not my place to say, but I see this (the pursuit of multistory McMansion) as an example of  succeeding at something that is unimportant. 

This does open up the question, when do you know if a goal is important or unimportant?  What are your thoughts?

Maximize your retirement accounts

I recently wrote some articles detailing the maximum allowable contributions for both the 401k/403b and IRAs for 2008.  My motivation for writing these articles is based on reading a recent government report, GAO Reports Low DC Plan Savings Challenge Retirement Security, on the poor savings rate of americans.  This report is sobering in that only 36% of employees eligible for a retirement saving program (i.e. 401k) contribute.  More sobering is that the median retirement plan balance for people ageds 60 to 64 is $60,000.  The median is the point at which half the people have more and half the people have less.  A portfolio of $60,000 will only safely generate $2400 per year based on a 4% withdrawal rate.  

Here are the links to my recent articles:

Retirement

   Start saving as early as possible for your retirement

   How much can I safely withdraw from my nest egg?

   Maximize your 401K/403 Plan  NEW!

   How to start a Roth IRA  New!

   Maximize your IRA contribution New!

Follow your dreams, achieve your goals!

Setting your new years resolutions

I think that the new year is a great time to turn over a new leaf and set new goals.  What are your goals?  One of my goals for the new year is to write a blog.  I’m interested to see if I can help people on their journey to achieve their goals and win with their finances.

Here are my recommendations for writing down your new years resolutions and goals.

 

If you don’t know where you are going,

you’ll end up somewhere else.

- Yogi Berra

I challenge you to write down your dreams, your short term goals, your medium term goals, and your long term goals.  It’s well known that writing down your goals will dramatically improve your success in achieving results.  We live our life 3 times.  Once we imagine an experience, next we live the experience, and then we remember the experience.  The benefit of writing down goals is to visualize the end result and to essentially program yourself for the desired end state.

To make a great dream come true,

you must first have a great dream.

- Dr Hans Selye

 Write down your dreams and goals in the manner that you find most effective.  Write them on paper, in your journal, or put them in your computer.  Here are dream and goal setting templates that you can use to write down your goals. 

Dream and Goal Setting Worksheets  (downloadable PDF template)

Post your goals in a visible location

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Now that you have written down your goals, hang them in a visible location where you will see them everyday.  This may be on your closet door, on a mirror, or on the refridgerator.  To increase your effectiveness in achieving your goals, add pictures to your goal sheet.  For example, if one of your goals is to travel on vacation to Europe, hang a photo of the Eifel tower.

Follow your dreams, achieve your goals!