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This past Saturday we lay to rest my neighbor’s father. He was a famer, rancher, cowboy, gentleman, and a friend to all. He died doing what he loved doing best, checking on his cows and spraying fences. He was teaching this 50 something city boy professor how to become a farmer and I kind of think he enjoyed seeing an old dog try to learn some new tricks; a desk jockey work a field and get cow sh*t on him. His untimely death got me thinking about balance and how we live our lives each day. Personal finance is about planning and saving for the future, but it is also about living for today. How do you find balance in your personal finance life? Do you save every penny so you can retire like my roommate from college who just retired after 30 years of teaching? Do you plan on working until you are 70+ and therefore not need so much in retirement to still afford your lifestyle? What do you plan to leave to your heirs? Someone said you lived your life right when the check to the und...

Today is the 4th of July and time that we celebrate our freedom as Americans and those who have given so much to keep us free. Thank you to all who have served. The celebration gives us pause to consider our financial freedom. What is your definition of financial freedom? One definition of financial freedom (financial independence ) is when your passive income exceeds your expenses. You no longer have to work another day in your life for money as all of your financial needs are met from the income of your investments. For many of us, we work the greater share of our life to save for retirement – hopefully the point of our financial freedom. Our retirement savings, along with social security hopefully provides enough income that we don’t need to supplement our income with another job. When you think about retirement and financial freedom, how much money do you need to live the life you want? Are there avenues to reach your financial freedom sooner? Increase your level of investment? Do ...

‘Kobe Bryant's Wife to Get All Three Houses, Worth $18.8 Million’ , ‘Mel Gibson Loses Half of His $850 Million Fortune to Ex-Wife in Divorce’ . As these headlines spam the news, it gives us pause to consider, should prenuptial agreements be made a requirement prior to granting a marriage license? No one goes into a marriage thinking this has a 50-50 shot. Hurt is the last thing you want bring onto this special someone—but unfortunately, 50% of the marriages end is divorce – so many suffer significant financial distress in dissolution. It is especially difficult to stay civil during this time which is unfortunate to each other as well as impacted children, family members and friends. Sweetheart day is just around the corner. Looking for the perfect Valentine’s gift? Just as every business partnership goes into a contract agreement with a dissolution (sell out, buy-out) clause, should every marriage engage in a prenuptial agreement? Do you state up front in an agreement the steps yo...

How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions?  Did you decide to make a budget?  Having a hard time sticking to it?  Here is a short video that we hope will help.

80-10-10: That is the budget we strive to achieve in our household. Live on 80%, save 10%, give 10% of our time, talents and treasure. We are not there yet but every year we get closer. Coming to the end of this year and heading into the next, we find that we have had, and will continue to have, more priority family fun than we originally budgeted for. How do we balance our priorities and our income? Want to pay for it in cash and continue to keep our credit card balance at zero each month? -Yes Want to take out of our savings or reduce our savings rate? -No Consider backing down on our giving? -No. Ideally, we should bring our life style within the limits of that 80%. Selling off an asset, such as an extra automobile, is one option we discussed. We have three vehicles (car, truck, van) between two drivers. For the most part, the truck and the van sit in the garage as we typically car pool. Why is it hard to part with assets we seldom use even though they cost us money? Even if a v...

It’s the end of the month and time to assess how we are tracking fiscally into the new year. As we continue to reassess our spending habits and values, we still crave for a more simplified lifestyle. Not so much about spending less time at work, we both love our careers. But we both feel the need to spend more time with our family, our extended family and our friends. We love meals at home, movie night with homemade pizza and popcorn, playing dominos, cards or watching the boys take on marathon nights in the game of Risk, soccer games and story-time with our grandchild. Those times are starting to seem more few and far between. It is difficult to keep a healthy balance between work and time for family and friends. There is always one more report to write, another meeting to prepare for and another e-mail to answer. We have to consciously make family and friends a priority. We know that balance is important in reducing stress and maintaining our health. How convenient that doing the sim...

New Year, New Resolutions, New Expectations. New Years is time to de-clutter. Clutter is physically and mentally exhausting. Following all the commotion that comes from the end of the year frenzy, I long for quiet, peaceful, at rest January. It is a time to de-junk my house, my office, my closets and my life. Doing so brings about clarity and energy. Steps of this process: 1. Assess priorities and establish a plan on how you will give focus to your priorities. 2. Choose the objects, obligations and activities that align with your priorities. Say no to the things that don’t matter. Saying yes to things that are not a priority will drain you. 3. Eliminate the non-essential. This frees you from having to tend to things that aren’t important to you and reduces clutter both physically and mentally. 4. Make sure every physical item has a place. Being disorganized is a waste of your time as you look for lost items as well as an irritant. By being organized, you gain control over your space an...