If this statement is true for you and your partner, we have a unique opportunity for you.  Dave Jetson and I have partnered together to offer a most unique experience for couples to deal with money issues. The”Love, Couples and Money” workshop will help couples better understand their relationship as individuals and as a couple around money.

This workshop starts at 5:00 pm on Thursday, September 9th and ends at noon on Sunday, September 12th.  The cost is a very reasonable $2,950 per couple that includes meals and lodging!  The workshop will be held in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota at a lodge overlooking Angostura Lake.

Make an investment in your coupleship that will pay big dividends for years to come.  Join us for an experience that may change for the better how your coupleship works around money.  Click here to register.

However, financial wellness is not our ultimate goal as human beings. There is a greater level to which we aspire, that of well-being.

While it is possible to have financial wellness without having well-being, one can’t have well-being without health, happiness, and prosperity. Consider the last component of financial wellness I listed above—having enough money to support one’s health and happiness. Just having enough money to support health and happiness doesn’t automatically mean you have either. Financial wellness, then, is a subset of the greater concept of well-being.

John Nelson, co-author with Richard Bolles of What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement, discusses the concept of well-being in the June 2010 edition of The Integrative Adviser. Nelson writes that well-being is the single word that encompasses three fundamental human goals: prosperity, health, and happiness. Prosperity is financial well-being, health is physical well-being, and happiness is emotional well-being.

Nelson further describes three dimensions of “being:” a physical world, a physical self, and a non-physical self. These dimensions match up perfectly with his model of well-being. “In our physical world we want prosperity, in our physical self we want health, and in our non-physical self we want happiness. That’s how one word is able to encompass the whole set of universal human goals.”

Is it possible to have well-being with only one or two of the three components? Not according to Nelson. As he puts it: “Deep down, we know we don’t want just one part of well-being, we want the whole thing!”

Nelson writes that the three dimensions of well-being are represented by three fields of knowledge: happiness is Psycho-Social, health is Bio-Medical, and prosperity is Geo-Financial.

In the Psycho-Social dimension, we have the fields of psychology and sociology. While much of psychology has studied what makes us miserable, the latest research in the field is focusing on what makes us happy. Social psychology focuses on our relationships and connections in society.

The Bio-Medical dimension includes the fields of biology and medicine. Medicine deals with the prevention and treatment of disease, while biology focuses on building up our personal biological vitality.

Of course, the field of knowledge I found most interesting was the Geo-Financial, which encompasses geography and finances. The financial side of this is obvious, but it isn’t immediately clear why Nelson includes geography in this component.

“Because the relative value of our finances are affected by location,” he explains. Where we live affects our cost of living, lifestyle expectations, and ability to earn an income. For example, people living in Rapid City, South Dakota, can experience a much higher lifestyle on the same income than they would living in New York City.

What profession comes closest to helping people obtain all three components—prosperity, health, and happiness—that constitute well-being? According to Nelson, it is comprehensive financial life planning. This approach is based on the belief that financial planning should support clients in more than just building financial independence. It also helps them clarify and achieve the dreams that represent happiness for them. It helps them invest in their physical and emotional health as well as their financial health.

The next time someone asks me what a financial life planner does, I’ll have a new answer. I don’t just help people achieve financial wellness; I help them achieve well-being.

An email from a client today wondered if he should follow Beck’s advise.  I would not recommend it.  Remember the last time the pundits said financial instruments were dead?  It was in the late ’70′s when the rage was to buy gold, silver and real estate and load up on dried food.  Stocks had produced poor returns for a decade or more and were dead, just as useless as a dollar bill.

While that was true in the moment, it wasn’t true for the long run.  It was just a few years later that stocks began their bull run that lasted 17 years.  What happened to gold?  After peaking at over $800 an ounce in the early 80′s it hit the skids for the next 17 years, declining by almost 75%.

While I am no fan of the current U.S. economy or eco-political direction, I am not about to abandon U.S. stocks.  I told someone recently that since almost no one is suggesting a person load up on U.S. stocks, now is probably a great time to buy.  Since U.S. stocks are about the worst performing asset class of the last 10 years, they are probably set to be the number one asset class over the next 10 years.  It may be gold and commodities that take U.S. stocks’ place as the worst performing asset class of the next 10 years.

If you have a diversified portfolio with five or more asset classes (I use 10), stick with it.  If history is any indicator, it will do well in the coming years.

The next time I saw Carl, I asked how he was enjoying retirement. “What retirement?” he said. “I was so bored, I called my old boss and got my job back.”

In my years as I financial planner, I’ve seen both good and bad reasons to retire. Here are some of the more common bad reasons:

• “I’m at retirement age.” In the US, you’re generally not required by law to retire at 65. I have clients who are over 80, still in good health, and still working because they enjoy it.

• “I’m bored with (or sick of) my work.” If work is boring, retirement could potentially be even more so. Like Carl, you may quickly grow sick of retirement. If you hate your work, consider engaging a career counselor and find a job or career that will excite you. Remember, Colonel Sanders was in his 60’s when he founded Kentucky Fried Chicken.

• “My parents retired when they were my age.” You are not your parents. Your life, circumstances, and reasons for retiring—or not—are different from theirs.

• “I don’t like my boss.” If this is the umpteenth boss you haven’t liked, now would be a great time to get some counseling and find out how you’ve managed to pick such poor bosses. Once you figure that out, go find a boss that’s a joy to work for. They do exist.

• “I got laid off.” It’s always hard to be laid off, especially at an advanced age when finding a new job can be more of a challenge. Again, this is not a good reason to retire. With an aging workforce, an increasing number of employers are willing, even eager, to hire older employees.

• “Between Social Security and my savings, I think I have enough money to retire.” “Thinking” you have enough isn’t good enough. You’d better “know” you have enough. A good rule of thumb is to only withdraw 3% to 4% of your retirement nest egg each year. Add that to your annual Social Security income to get the total amount you can spend every year for everything, including taxes, travel, new cars, and one-time expenses.

• “My spouse wants me to retire.” Cajoling a reluctant partner into retirement can backfire. Find out the reasons your partner wants you to retire and negotiate a win/win solution. For example, if your spouse wants to spend more time with you or travel, consider reducing your work hours or taking more vacation time.

So am I saying you should keep your job until you’re 90? Of course not. There are some excellent reasons to retire. The best one is having a good idea what you want to do instead of working for an income. I encourage my retiring clients to do a set of exercises that help them explore what the perfect day, week, and month look like in retirement. Make a list of the activities you want to do and establish a time line for accomplishing them.

Another good reason is being financially independent. You have a financial plan, a clear idea of how you and your spouse want to live in retirement, and ample income to support your chosen lifestyle.

The best reason to stop working for an income is that you have something else you actively want to do instead. Ideally, instead of merely retiring from something, you will retire to something you will enjoy.

Tom explains that in the administration of a living trust after the grantor’s death, attorney’s often open a probate proceeding purely for the purpose of running the notice to creditors in the newspaper in order to shorten the statue of limitations for claims against an estate from several years to just 4 months. 

Simmons thought if the law was changed, this objective could be accomplished without having to open a probate.  So, Tom being the proactive innovator that he is, drafted a proposed statute to authorize published notice to creditors without probate. 

Last year, the SD Legislature unanimously passed Tom’s measure and it is now law.  Estate attorneys can now publish a notice to creditors and shorten the claims period in living trust administrations without having to first file a probate. 

Notes Tom, “We may be the only state that does this.”  Since South Dakota is the land of firsts, I wouldn’t doubt we are.

A SIMPLE IRA is a great option for employers looking for an inexpensive retirement plan that allows employee contributions of up to $14,000 each.  The employers only cost is to make matching contributions of up to 3%.

If you are a KFG client and are thinking of estabilshing or improving your retirement plan for 2010, give us a call today at 605-343-1400.

We just found out today that our latest exchange server migration resulted in our voice mails being sent to cyberspace.   We are told there is no way to recover them.

So, if you called and left us a voice message between August 4th and August 17th, please call us back.  We are so sorry for this inconvenience.

Outside of having the second strongest economy in the US, no income tax, no corporate tax, no inheritance tax, and continuously rated as one of the top “business friendly” states in the nation, we are also the best state in which to establish a trust.

You can find out why trust companies are abandoning other states to set up shop in South Dakota by clicking here.

It was a perfect phrase for the process of achieving financial independence.

People who become financially independent successfully internalize the future financial benefits of living frugally now. They understand that building financial security means never living the maximum lifestyle you can afford. Most successful financial frugalists have learned to live on less than 75% of their take-home pay.

Unfortunately, according to a survey published by Jean Chatzky, only 30% of Americans put anything toward building financial independence. In their senior years, the 70% who aren’t saving will find themselves completely reliant on government welfare, families, or the charity of strangers for their survival.

This fact quickly puts into perspective why so many Americans are embracing larger government and expanding government entitlements. Unfortunately, the retirement that government welfare will provide isn’t exactly going to be golden.

Spending less today and investing that savings to provide for your future makes perfect sense. Why, then, do only three out of every ten Americans do it?

Psychologists tell us it’s because our brains are wired for instant gratification. There’s an immediate emotional reward in planning a shopping excursion, finding the perfect pair of shoes on sale, walking out of the store with them, and rushing home to try them on in front of your own mirror.

Making an online deposit to your IRA just doesn’t get the dopamine flowing in the same way.

One way to help you save is to trick your brain by learning to visualize today the reward you will receive tomorrow. What does financial independence mean to you? A paid-off house, travel, time to spend in your garden or with kids and grandkids? Take time to visualize clearly what your version of financial independence would be like. I have very successful clients who have actually clipped pictures representing their financial independence and taped them to their bathroom mirrors. Sound hokey? Not to one client who did this and went from having nothing to accumulating a net worth of $20 million.

Beginning to invest in your future will almost certainly mean downgrading your current lifestyle, significantly increasing your income, or both. The goal is to invest enough money to build a nest egg that, at retirement, will provide you a desirable lifestyle for the rest of your life.

To get started, you will first want to pay off all consumer debt and then never borrow again for consumer purchases. Set up savings accounts for future cars, vacations, repairs, medical expenses, and gifts. In addition, begin investing 10% to 50% of your take-home pay. The older you are, the higher percentage you will need. The best place to begin is a retirement account like an IRA, 401k, or 403b.

This will mean reducing your current expenditures on housing, car payments, vacations, eating out, and similar expenses. When possible, reduce rather than eliminate. Pay attention to which parts of your current lifestyle really matter to you, and be creative in finding ways to keep them.

Will this be challenging? Of course. Will it pay off? Done properly and consciously, absolutely.

The more clearly you can imagine a financially independent future, the easier it will be to make conscious, frugal choices in the present. You won’t be depriving yourself, you will be investing in yourself. Downgrading your present lifestyle to upgrade your future is the surest way to make your dreams come true.

If this statement is true for your coupleship, help is on the way.  Money is the second leading cause of divorce.  An investment into understanding and working through the underlying issues around money can circumvent a very expensive divorce, along with the added benefit of enhancing the relationship.

Dave Jetson and I have partnered together to offer a most unique experience for couples to deal with money issues. The”Love, Couples and Money” workshop will help couples better understand their relationship as individuals and as a couple around money.

This workshop starts: 5:00 pm on Thursday, September 9th and ends at noon on Sunday, September 12th.  The cost is a very reasonable $2,950 per couple that includes meals and lodging!  The workshop will be held in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota at a lodge overlooking Angostura Lake.

Join us for an experience that may change for the better how your coupleship works around money.  Click here to register.