Tag: financial planning

Podcast

Can Money Buy Happiness?

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It is a heavily researched question and the consensus is…yes, it can.  One of the key benefits that money provides is safety and security.  Having enough money eliminates anxiety when shopping or making large purchases.  Money also affords you memorable life experiences that bring joy and happiness, allows you to help loved ones, and give back to your community.

But just how much money do you need to be happy?  To answer that question, we narrowed the focus of this conversation down to how much money and what kind of experiences do the happiest people in retirement have in common.

Helping me explore this question is Wes Moss, author of the book You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees.  Wes is also Chief Investment Strategist at Capital Investment Advisors and host of Money Matters, an investment and personal finance radio show.  The research conducted for his book quantifies the financial habits of happy people versus unhappy people.

Whether you call it happiness or peace of mind, money CAN provide a freedom that allows you to truly enjoy your life in retirement and, according to Wes’ research, you might not need as much as everyone is telling you that you need.  Remember, the happiest retirees

  • Have a median of $500,000 in liquid net assets (up to $850,000)
  • Once you get above that amount, you’ll experience “diminishing marginal happiness”
  • The happiest retirees average 3.5 core pursuits and have an average of 2.5 children. (Listen to find out exactly what that means)
  • And the happiest retirees live in the middle when it comes to shopping and dining out.  Not too cheap and not too expensive.

You’ll find the common traits among the happiest retirees to be very enlightening. I hope you’ll listen to discover more.

Podcast

Future Self

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Photo by Lisa Mathews

Do me a favor. Close your eyes and think of your future self. Are your eyes closed? Good. Visualize yourself at 57, 62, 65 or even 70 years of age. What are you doing? Where are you living? Specifically, how do you spend your days? Walks on the beach? Enjoying hobbies? Are you living your best life? Are you retired or still working? Now think about whether or not you have the resources to live life comfortably.

A GoBankingRate.com survey on retirement savings revealed that 42% of survey respondents reported having less than $10,000 saved for retirement, including 13.7% who said they had $0 saved. If you count yourself among them, you have considerable ground to gain if you want to just take care of your basic needs in retirement. The changes that you make today can help you live more comfortably tomorrow.

In this episode of Life in HD podcast, I speak with Vicki R. Brackens, President and Financial Planner at Brackens Financial Solutions Network and registered representative of LPL Financial, member SIPC. Vicki helps us map out some strategies to reduce debt and start saving. We also tackle the common excuses people cite as reasons they can’t save. Take a listen. Your future self with thank you.

Target Audience: people who find themselves behind in saving for retirement.

Focus: establish what you’ll need – understanding the Social Security piece of the pie – reducing debt – eliminating excuses – vehicles that will help you grow your nest egg.

Music – “Pixels” by Drake Stafford under Creative Commons license.

More on Vicki Brackens

Podcast

Women & Personal Finance

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Do Too Many Women Still Rely on a Man for Their Financial Plan?

Do too many women still rely on a man as their financial plan?  Kathy Longo, certified financial planner and author of Flourish Financially says, yes.  According to a CNN Money article, a report from USB found that 56% of married women leave investment and long-term financial planning to their husbands and 85% of women who defer to their husbands feel that their spouses are more educated on financial matters.

As a financial planner, Kathy Longo has seen first hand how major life events like divorce, job loss, or death of a spouse can reveal major surprises for women who were not active in their household financial planning.  Many are shocked by crippling debt, sparse savings accounts, and bad credit.  Situations that can keep them from living their best life.

What can you do to be more informed and active in your financial planning?  We chat about it on this episode of Life in HD.  Give a listen and learn what you and your spouse can do to plan your future together.

To learn more about Kathy Longo, visit: Flourish Financially or Flourish Wealth Management.

Music in this episode:  Love Me Forever by Audiobinger under Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons license.

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