Kary, I read your post regarding the 14 Truths To A Life Of Financial Wisdom.
Although I am not familiar with James Rickard of the Stewardship Services Foundation, I found myself once again empty with the wisdom of these truths. This is not to say that they are not appropriate or valuable but often the underlying behavior or root cause has not been addressed.
Imagine a person who goes to the doctor complaining about a headache. So the doctor runs some tests and finds nothing. The recommendation is to take a pill to relieve the symptoms. Although this works, it now requires the patient to manage the symptom and not the root issue, which was drinking coffee caused the headache.So the patient has a decision to make. Stop drinking coffee or take a pill to manage the pain.
As with most financial issues, success comes from control, discipline and knowledge. These are not always popular concepts as so often we are wanting as financial professionals to allow clients to do what they desire without having to truly make changes.
So I took the liberty of taking the 14 truths listed and delving further into the issues, using my financial planning practice as a backdrop into the behaviors of my clients with respect to these issues.
1. What is emotional spending? Whether we buy a home, car or new shirt the process of spending involves both our intellect and emotions. The real issue is impulse spending. Clients who struggle with this issue do not control their habits just because they have limited cash or credit cards in their wallet.
In fact one of my clients found that they spent more money when they moved to cash or debit cards instead of credit cards. Why? Because the credit card provided a monthly statement of accountability where as the cash and debit card did not.
You can’t change the impulse until you understand the impact it has to your ability to achieve your long-term goals. This is not easy and frankly has caused more folks to fall into a financial slavery than any other behavior. This is the crux for most clients.
2. Saving and investing are not the same. Heroes save people from getting hurt, we save money to protect it from spending.
How many of us have “invested” in a texting plan? An investment is an expectation that we put money or time into something that will provide us an increase in value that exceeds our initial contributions. So how does a texting plan become an investment? Perhaps what we really have is a texting plan that saves us money.
Do we invest or save our marriages? At times both. The issue of saving money is too broad of a topic. Why are you saving and how much should you be saving? Let’s first take the issue of why.
Primarily it’s because we want to buy something at a later date, 1-5 years. The other is for an emergency fund to be discussed later. $100 a month is out of context. What if I want to buy something in one year that costs $2,400, I will need to save $200 a month not $100.
The second issue is that savings accounts do not get 7.5% returns; they get very little if any returns because that is not their goal. The real return is the monthly contribution from the saver toward the goal. The funny part is that we as a society have moved toward instant gratification and if I want something I typically can finance it and have it now…no need to save.
So the practice of saving is really about delaying our desires, thus giving us time to reflect so as the day approaches when we can buy the item of our desire we might find that it is not worth it. The power of saving is the clarification of our goals and the real cost of its value.
3. This next point is real solid. I often tell clients that the secret to retirement is real simple. Earn money, live on less, and invest the difference. The hard part is actually doing it.
We have all felt the pain of wanting to have what others have and therefore we shrink the available amount of money for investing in order to keep up with the guy next door. As my wife says, “the grass is greener on the other side, but you don’t know what their water bill looks like” That’s some powerful wisdom.
Each one of my clients is in a different place in life. At times they might have been making great money only to go through a divorce, have children, change jobs, or buy their dream home. Each one of these events changes their ability to “invest the difference.”
So my advice to clients has been that when you are making more money, resist the temptation to “reward” yourself or increase your standard of living. This is especially true for my clients who are in sales. When the commission check arrives make it a habit of going out to a nice dinner or concert for your reward, this limits your spending to a few hundred dollars not a monthly commitment to a new car or boat.
So when do they get to increase their standard of living? When two things happen. First they must increase their contributions to their retirement, which is effectively saying that as their current standard of living increases so shall your future therefore it must be funded.
The second is to make it a habit of living on your income from three years prior. This forces you to not change your expenses based on a single good year, and it offers a buffer should your income decrease significantly. Imagine if all those folks who were involved with the real estate boom implemented this strategy. Would they have had time to adjust their expenses?
4. There are times that financing pleasure items may be appropriate. First let me reiterate the previous points made about control, discipline and knowledge. If a client has true control of their financial life then some of these pleasure things won’t even be a consideration. This is not to say that pleasure items are bad, but often my clients have different priorities and pleasure items are not at the top of the list.
If a client has an investment account that is designed to address the purchase of pleasure items, and it is earning 7% and the financing option is 4% would it be a smart decision to lose the 7% rate of return?
Let me once again reiterate that my clients do not get to be in this position without some tough financial decisions made years earlier. This is a reward not a right.
5. Ok, now we can discuss the emergency fund issue. First ask yourself what is classified as an emergency. Death, major car repair, job loss, medical bills, or something else? There are small, large and catastrophic emergencies. The major emergencies usually involve death, or a sickness such as cancer.
This is not what the fund is used for. If your dryer stops working or you have to replace a transmission, this does not constitute using the fund. The purpose is to provide time. Most often the fund is used when a change in jobs or health might be better served with time to consider options.
We have all heard that homes should have what is referred to as a defensible space. This simply means that a home with a cleared area around it can be defended against a fire. It gives time and protection to make better decisions.
How much should be in this fund? The amount should provide 6 months of basic expenses, which will be different for all people. Most of my clients would find $5k of emergency funds as an inadequate number.
6. Credit card control is under the impulse control issue. I use my credit card for 80-90% of all expenses not including mortgage or car loans. I do not use it for points or miles, but ease of use and accountability.
Once a month I get a total of all expense and it’s itemized with details. Then I pay it off. If all card holders did this the credit card companies would go out of business.
7. Life insurance is critical to that catastrophic emergency also known as death. Some clients like to have a policy that will pay for all their debt issues so their spouse will be debt free. The problem is that we often forget the future debt we are working on such as children’s education and retirement needs.
There are many factors involved with life insurance and just about as many viewpoints. I take a simple approach, take care of the need. Once that is addressed you can get more complex. Simplistically I like to see a client replace their income for life. If a client earns $100k a year then I would suggest a 2 million dollar policy. This is based on us taking 2 million dollars at death and investing it at 5% which generates 100k a year forever for the remaining spouse. So the amount of coverage is based on their actual need.
8. Owning your home and cars outright at retirement is a concept from a different generation. The generation today looks at things differently. How many people do you know in their 50 and 60 who bought a home in the last 10 years with a 30 year mortgage? There are so many variables involved in a good financial plan that owning your home outright is not always reasonable.
9. This is a great statement and should be taken very seriously. Start and commit to creating a financial plan, not just a retirement plan. Sitting down and looking at all aspects of your financial life helps create a plan. People often contribute to their company 401k plan with matching contributions included and are shocked to find that they are not able to retire.
10. Already discussed in Truth number 8.
11. Having and implementing a reasonable budget is foundational. Again refer to the points made earlier about understanding priorities and controlling impulses.
12. Bad debt vs. monthly obligations. Similar to my previous comments in Truth number 4, credit cards and loans are not always bad debt. Let’s reframe the issue. If I had to use a credit card to buy food for my family would that be bad debt? Can I spend money on my utilities that is wasteful? Absolutely.
As we spend money we do so in different ways for different reasons. Keeping it a bit simpler, if my client keeps their need for money at retirement in check with their current standard of living then they will maintain a balance. A client with a need of $100k a year today will still need $100k at retirement. If $20k a year is spent in “bad debt” payments then I simply assume that that will not stop at retirement.
Again spending money on things we do not need without addressing the future need will be bad. Perhaps an example will help. If I take on a $100/mo payment of “bad debt” or “good debt” I will need $24k at retirement earning 5% in order to continue making that $100/mo payment.
All of a sudden the purchase, good or bad has a long-term consequence that I will have to decide if it is worth it.
13. Tax law is complex and few are able to fully take advantage of this complexity. Accountants focus mainly on your current tax liability. A good financial planner should be able to help you make decisions that take advantage of previous issues as well as future ones.
Those that treat tax law with respect and operate a business with this in mind often make better decisions. Your accountant does not know when your miles driven were for personal or business reasons. They simply ask for the number of miles driven. You need to know what the rules are and how to maximize your opportunities. Some business people will buy a new car not because they need a new one but because they want to take advantage of the tax write-off.
If you give money to a charity so you can write it off, please stop. You are not saving any money doing this, it costs you money. Give to a charity because you believe in its mission. The tax write-off is simply a thank you from the government for doing so.
14. Finally the issue of an estate plan. For some this is a tough one. It makes people realize that their future may be limited in years. For many of my clients I want to make sure that the family is taken care of, assets are put in place, and estate taxes are limited. Wills do not avoid probate, trusts do. Those most likely to get a trust in place are those who have personally experienced a family without one.
From: Rich Todd, Kary’s Financial Advisor
If any of you resonated with Rich’s content here, please leave a comment of what you learned and took away… If you’re serious about getting on the correct path for your own financial future, message Kary and he can connect you with Rich for more advice.
Yours in Knowledge & Wisdom,
