It’s summer time and people are going places. The kids are out of school and many vacation plans are laid out. It’s also a time when people reflect on their personal development. There are lots of programs to inspire and motivate you to build wealth – there is the book called the Secret, and there is Oprah’s the Power of Now program, and there are many others. But to truly make a change in your life that is sustainable -you must take action. As the famous Zen Master, Suzuki Roshi once said, “You can keep reading the menu, but sooner or later you must eat.“. A lot of wealth coaches work with your money personality or the fears, guilt or shame that surround financial issues and that’s fine, however I am quite different. I acknowledge what has happened in the past but I work with how you are now and where you want to go. In that respect I am very much like a travel agent.

“Hello, my name is Fern. Where would you like to go in the next year, ten years, or even 20?”  We will talk about the barriers to build wealth and the support you have and what you will need to make that happen (skills, contacts, etc.).  Above all, what action are you willing to take today to progress to where you want to be? I have  my bags packed  to go along with you and it is filled with tools and resources (from my 27 years in the financial industry) to help make your journey easier. As a Wealth Coach, I am prepared to support you in any way so when we hit turbulence you will not panic and go off course. I will hold you accountable and I will sometimes challenge you within your boundaries. Along the way, we will make lots of friends and these friends will elevate your financial self-esteem even more and serve as your R&D team long after I am gone.

If you think you can do this yourself, then think about why it hasn’t happened so far. There are lots of excuses why you haven’t started and lots of reasons why you may want to put it off. As we get older, we have a finite number of years left to build wealth and make our dreams a reality. Don’t wait! Would you choose to…

• Launch a new business or product

• Double your income

• Retire early

• Buy a home or rental property

• Transition to a new career

• Work part-time

What’s the cost? Click here for my fee schedule to build wealth. My average engagement is 6 months and I promise to inspire, challenge, enlighten and empower the best out of you, to help you to realize your goals in 2010 and beyond. To see results quickly, e-mail me at fern@wholeheartedway.com to set up a date and time for a complimentary first session to see if we are good travel mates. I’ll’ take you there!

The post A Wealth Coach Will Take You There first appeared on Whole Hearted Way.

• Candy and magazines near the grocery checkout – These little items like mints, candy bars, and the latest celeb news all beg for you to just take some and put in your cart. When you consider that one magazine now is close to $10 and a year’s subscription is only a little more than that, it smells rip off —but we do it anyway.
• Water bottles and chocolates near the Macys clothing checkout- How observant of them! Of course a couple of hours of trying on clothes can make you thirsty and tired.  Nowadays, we all don’t travel with water bottles in our purses so at $2 a bottle, that’s over 50% of what you can buy it for in the grocery store, we add it to our clothing purchase.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. It is easy to say, “Oh, it is only a dollar extra”. But those dollars add up to maybe $50 or more a year.  Over 5 years, you could have accumulated $310 even if you put it in the bank at 1%- not bad.  That’s called compound interest and it is one of the secrets of building wealth. So don’t be tempted by all those overpriced extras that are so easy to buy. Pay yourself first and bank that for your future. Your secure financial future starts with paying yourself first right now.  

The post You Deserve to Be Paid first appeared on Whole Hearted Way.

I have met lots of folks who believe that to build wealth they need to make a big salary- then it’s all good. Well, wake up, because it ain’t . Inflation and taxes are lurking and munching down on that salary each year so your whole net worth (meaning what you own) has to be going up to keep up. Some reasons it won’t:

You continue to spend more than you take in

You continue to pay interest only on your mortgage

You continue to not participate in deferred compensation plans

You continue to “play” the stock market and never make any real after tax after expenses profit.

You continue to plan vacations instead of planning to stop work or work part-time

You continue to support family members to the demise of your retirement plan or your children’s education.

You continue to borrow for cars, boats, etc.  that depreciate in value.

Your net worth which is everything you own minus your debt is what matters.  If you have no clue as to where the money is going –do this little exercise to find out. It isn’t super accurate but it will give you an idea of where the money is going.

Look at your form 1040 Line 7 –that is the amount of income that you earned for the year. Now subtract the number from line 61 which is the amount of tax withheld. That is the net amount that you lived on and then divide by 12 for the monthly amount that came into your household.

Now take the amount that you saved during the year and divide that by the net amount that you lived on for a percentage of the amount saved. That percentage should be 10-25%. If it is a negative then you are spending more than you are taking in and your net worth will go down.

Okay now for the positive. Keeping track of spending actually helps you build wealth but also grows how happy you are. When we track our spending and then spend it, we can develop a habit of gratitude (thankful for be able to take the family on a cruise) for what we have and also for what we accomplished (saving for a vacation or a child’s education). New studies are coming out that show being grateful forces people to overcome what psychologists call the negativity bias – the innate tendency to dwell on problems, annoyances, and injustices rather than upbeat events. Focusing on our blessings can help ward off depression and build resilience in times of stress, grief or disasters.

So as you take this journey to build wealth, take action to increase your net worth and consider what you have and be grateful for it.

The post Build Wealth By Increasing Your Happiness and Your Net Worth first appeared on Whole Hearted Way.

It’s not an easy calculation, but here is a tool you can use from the IRS to decide how many withholding exemptions you need to get more or less tax taken out of your check.

For a high tax state such as California where I live, we may be getting no state tax refund at all due to the budget problems. See this:

“the CA State Controller announced on Friday, January 16, 2009, that because of the state’s cash shortfall he will have to delay refunds for 30 days starting February 1, 2009 for Personal Income Tax and Business Entity taxpayers. Refund payments will resume when the State Controller indicates there is enough cash available to make refund payments.“

Whether you are an individual or business, you need to keep track of the taxes you pay and the taxes you owe. One of the 7 Steps to Creating your own Financial Plan is tax planning, and you can review that portion in step #7 tax planning. You will find tips on tax deferral, tax, credits, and tax deductions. 

The post Getting a Tax Refund or Not? first appeared on Whole Hearted Way.

1. you have a system in place to keep important records and you know how to use it
2. you use the system often and keep it up to date and backed up
3. you can get information from your system to make important financial decisions

I have worked with very wealthy people and very poor people and one of the dividing lines that makes the difference is that wealthy people take the time to save a dime. The most precious resource that we have is time. And everyday we make decisions about how we want to spend our hours and days. We live and die by those decisions and their consequences. When we don’t take the time to find all of our receipts for our tax preparer, we leave money on the table (no deductions equals no tax savings). When we don’t take the time to shop for the proper mortgage, we leave money on the table (saving a quarter percent could possibly save you $6,000 on a $400,000 loan). When we don’t understand our 401K and fail to make tax deferred contributions, we leave money on the table (less earnings get taxed so we get more back). When we don’t take the time to read that insurance policy and disaster strikes, we leave money on the table (no coverage means more out of pocket costs). When we get the wrong kind of credit card because we didn’t take the time to read the fine print, we leave money on the table (higher interest means more cash out of your pocket). Got it?

Okay, so it is boring and you can think of a lot more fun things to do with your time — but these actions pay you money and we all don’t mind getting a little more of that.

The post Leaving Money on the Table first appeared on Whole Hearted Way.