.Is Hiring A Coach Worth The Money?

Is Hiring A Coach Worth The Money?

(And Do I Need One?)

You’re ready to make a significant change or to improve some part of your life. But you’re struggling to do it on your own. You’re finding it challenging to stay on top of “all the things” to know or with motivation or mindset to reach your goal.

Whether the changes we want to make or the goals we want to achieve are related to our health, career, finances, business, relationships, or some other aspects of our lives – we know it takes effort to make progress.

Striving for achievement, we read articles, download apps, buy books, courses, and products. Following blogs, chatting in forums, joining clubs and organizations, and attending conferences are other ways we might try to move closer to our goals.

large post it notes with coaching words being painted on them

Sometimes you find all the information you need and take action without help from others. But you can probably name at least one important goal you haven’t met – even after trying different ways to accomplish it.

If you suffer from impostor syndrome, are uninspired, would like more guidance, and are ready to move to the next level or make a transformative change, but don’t know where to start -you might consider hiring a coach.

Let’s arm you with some info to help you decide if a coach is right for you. After looking at what a coach does for their client, we’ll dive into:

Why hiring a coach can be a smart decision

When a coach is not the answer

Things to look for in a coach

How to make the most of a coaching experience

What is the Role of a Coach?

Even if you have never played a sport, you know coaches help prepare athletes to meet a goal successfully. The job of a coach is to teach, demonstrate, analyze, encourage, motivate, and more.

Coaches who help you meet life or business goals have a similar role. They ask questions, help you identify goals, work with you to create a plan, and structure a process to assist you in being successful.

But don’t think a coach will tell you what to do and how to do it. You’ll work with your coach rather than being their student. While you’ll learn from them, you’ll be an active participant in the process.

Coaches and clients usually create a short-term arrangement to work together. But the amount of time can vary depending on your goals and the progress you make toward meeting them.

Is Hiring a Coach Worth the Money?

When you can find almost any information you’re looking for on the internet, and with people being able to DIY more things than ever, you might be questioning the value a coach can provide.

If you can save money and try to figure out how to meet your goals yourself, shouldn’t you try that?

While you can certainly work toward your goals on your own, there are several reasons why paying for a coach is worth the money.

Working with a coach can:

Help you discover what’s holding you back and find the motivation to move forward.

Challenge your assumptions; help you find truth and meaning.

Identify ways to capitalize on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.

Increase your awareness and clarity to help you make better decisions.

Clarify your priorities.

Aid you in creating processes and structure.

Keep you focused.

Answer your questions quickly.

Provide you with honest and personalized feedback.

Challenge you to think differently and explore new options.

Help you move out of your comfort zone to make changes and grow.

Make you more accountable.

Support you and boost your confidence.

Improve your work-life balance and relationships.

Help you achieve your goals sooner and set new goals.

Save you time and money!

While we may think we know ourselves well enough to put together our own plan, don’t overlook the knowledge, skills, and experience a good coach brings to the table.

Because a coach can assess your abilities and limitations – real or perceived – from the outside, they can provide suggestions for how to increase, address, or remove them.

Skilled coaches help you laser focus on your specific issues and goals to significantly improve your time to successful change or completion.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://womenwhomoney.com/hiring-coach-worth-money/

.Currency Exchange Checklist and Tips for Banking Appointment

From Recaps Archives

Note: All items on the checklist may or may not apply to your own individual circumstances…some of the items listed may or may not still be applicable at your exchange apt....ask your banker at the time of your appointment.

Bank appointment for Currency EXCHANGE Instructions/Checklist

Bank Name_________________________________________

Bank 800#__________________________________________

“I am calling to schedule a foreign currency exchange”

My name is___________________________________________

My zip code is__________________

My e-mail address is  (If they ask for it)________________________________

I have________________________ IQN/IQD (Iraqi)currency

I have________________________VNN/VND (Vietnamese)currency

I have________________________1000 notes from2000 of IDN (Indonesian)currency

I have_________100Trillion,________50Trillion,_______20Trillionand_______10Trillion
2008 AA notes of ZWN(Zimbabwe)currency

FILL IN THE BLANKS for EXCHANGE appointment information that you get from the call
center representative:

Your appointment Information:

Date_________________________

TIME_________________________

The Location____________________

------------

The Day of Your Appointment- Things To Do

1. Make sure you know where you are going. Arrive early so you can “get yourself together, take a deep breath”.

Do not loiter. If you are too early, stay SECURELY in the general area but not in the bank
parking lot! 

2. Remember to get in and get the EXCHANGE done, there a lot of other people behind you in line so be thoughtful of their time as well.

You will have time for questions at your second appointment with your new Private Banker/Wealth Manager.

3. Be discrete, be professional, and be alert and aware of your surroundings.  BREATHE!   Seriously consider hiring security to accompany you to your appointment or bring  a trusted friend.

4. Collect business cards from everyone or take their name and phone numbers as well as the location of their regular branch office.

5. Read and Sign the NDA. If it is simple and states you cannot tell anyone except your spouse, lawyer, or CPA (These are the people that need to know how you came about your money for tax purposes) how you came about all of your new found wealth, sign it and move forward with your exchange.

Be prepared to uphold it!

If you break the terms, you could lose your newfound wealth.

If the NDA is more complex and you  are not comfortable with it, simply let them know you would like to explore your options with another banking institution. They may or may not waive the NDA.  

REMEMBER TO GET A COPY OF THE NDA IF YOU SIGNED IT.

The Day of Your Appointment Things NOT To Do

Do not demand anything while at the bank or act like a lunatic, you will be escorted out.

Remember the Golden Rule “Treat others the way you wish to be Treated”!!!

------------

Items to Bring to the EXCHANGE Appointment

(Check off the list as you put all items needed together to make sure you remember everything)

“Driver’s License

“Second form of ID (accredit card or passport)

“Your most recent utility bill (Water, power, etc.) to confirm residency in case you have never held an account with the bank you will be exchanging with or for another form of ID

“Power of Attorney Paperwork (If you are exchanging for someone else)

“A pad, pen to take notes, calculator

“Receipts for all currency purchased or gifting letter if  they were a gift in case they are needed (Do not offer them, only do so if they are requested)

“IQN / VNN / IDN / ZWN currency

“Have your TOD designees (Transferable on Death) full legal names, phone numbers, addresses and Social Security Numbers written down that you want listed on your accounts.

You can have multiple TOD designations per account (Wife/Husband, Children, Grandchildren, Nieces/Nephews, etc.)

“Have a list of Cashier’s Checks you will need, if any, along with the exact amounts and who they need to be Payable to

“Decide in advance if you will be requesting cash for “Pocket Money” beforehand and how much.

DO NOT get more than $9,500 unless you would like Uncle Sam to visit you. Also remember the more you take with you, the bigger the target you are for thieves!  BE SMART!!!  Do you have a safe to store Cash In ??

“Know the ceiling rate!!! Make sure you do not get hit with a Spread Fee!  If you do not like the spread fee they are charging simply let them know  (In a Professional manner) you will go to another bank.

-----------

New Account Numbers for each Currency EXCHANGED

( DO NOT EXCHANGE ALL CURRENCIES IN TO ONE ACCOUNT, OPEN SEPARATE ACCOUNTS FOR EACH CURRENCY!!!!)  Note- this may be outdated information…….

Name of Bank Exchanger____________________________________________

Bank____________________________________________

Branch___________________________________________

IQN/IQD Checking Account Number__________________________________________

IQN/IQD Checking Routing Number__________________________________________

IQN/IQD Savings Account Number (Deposit 50% of your Exchange for Taxes just in case and do not touch until Tax Time)_________________________________________

Add TOD (Transferable on Death) Names to Accounts (Checking and Savings)

“Make sure you receive copies of the deposit slips and all account information

“Get Clean and Clear Certificates – at least 10 or more (Documentation that your money is not tied to anything illegal)

“Get starter checks if needed until your checks arrive

“Get ATM card if you want one

“Set up Online Banking if wanted

“Inquire about Extra Insurance for your funds __________

------------

VNN/VND Checking Account Number__________________________________________

VNN/VND Checking Routing Number__________________________________________

VNN/VND Savings Account Number (Deposit 50% of your Exchange for Taxes just in case and do not touch until Tax Time)_________________________________________

“Add TOD (Transferable on Death) Names to Accounts ( Checking and Savings)

“Make sure you receive copies of the deposit slips and all account information

“Get Clean and Clear Certificates – at least 10 or more (Documentation that your money is not tied to anything illegal)

“Get starter checks if needed until your checks arrive

“Get ATM card if you want one 

“Set up Online Banking if wanted

“Inquire about Extra Insurance for your funds____________

-------------

Zim Checking Account Number__________________________________________

ZIm Checking Routing Number__________________________________________

Zim Savings Account Number (Deposit 50% of your Exchange for Taxes just in case and do not touch until Tax Time)_________________________________________

“Add TOD (Transferable on Death) Names to Accounts ( Checking and Savings)

“Make sure you receive copies of the deposit slips and all account information

“Get Clean and Clear Certificates – at least 10 or more (Documentation that your money is not tied to anything illegal)

“Get starter checks if needed until your checks arrive

“Get ATM card if you want one 

“Set up Online Banking if wanted

“Inquire about Extra Insurance for your funds

(Use the same format for Rupiah and Rial or other currencies if they are also exchangeable at this time)

DID YOU GET A COPY OF YOUR SIGNED NDA?

Set second appointment with a Private Banker or Wealth  Manager  (The bank will guide as to who you need to speak with based on your EXCHANGE/deposit amount

This appointment will be the one in which you discuss all of your options for investment and
your “perks”

Private Banker Name__________________________
 
Telephone Number____________________________

Appointment time______________

Location___________________________

(Dinar Recaps Note: You may also want to have a list of "perks" with you so you know which ones are important to you)

.18 Income Producing Assets

18 Income Producing Assets

18 Income Producing Assets to Generate Serious Passive Income

May 14, 2018 By The Money Wizard

What’s the key to building wealth?   Multiple income streams.

At least that’s what millionaires will tell you. 65% of them have at least three income streams, and nearly 1/3 have 5 or more income streams.

So if you’re still tied to your day job, and you’re serious about reaching financial freedom, then ditch the cars, jewelry, and luxuries. Instead, let’s look into spending our money on the ultimate status symbols: income producing assets.

There is no lower, middle, or upper class. There is the investor class and the people who have to work for a living.”

I’ve always had a special fascination with idea of money flooding in from all directions. I don’t know why, but any time I hear of somebody making money in some oddball way, my eyes light up, and I file it under “Great idea! Life Goals…”

Sure, working your way towards a really high paying salary is cool, I guess. But transforming yourself into a business mogul, with money flowing in from all your different successful ventures? Now that’s winning the money game…

Over the years, this little fascination has left me with more ideas than I know what to do with. Unfortunately, I don’t have unlimited cash to invest in all these possibilities. (yet!? maybe!?) So, in case you’ve got more money laying around than you know what to do with, allow me to introduce…

The Official Money Wizard List of Income Producing Assets

Oh, and before we get too deep into this, no matter which asset you’re invested in, I continue to recommend Personal Capital. Their free software automatically tracks the performance of your income producing assets, including monthly cash flow, annual return, and even free fee analysis. All in one, easy to use dashboard.

The result? Your investment tracking becomes almost as easy the money you’re getting from all your income producing assets.

1. Savings Accounts or Money Market Savings Accounts

Using a bank account to generate passive income

Probably the most basic income producing asset in the world, and also one of the least profitable.

While these two both pay slightly higher interest rates than a regular ‘ole checking account, you’re still gonna be hard pressed to make any meaningful income from these ultra-safe choices.

Unfortunately, most people never get past this stage in their investment journey. Of course, we’re just getting started…

2. Certificate of Deposits (CDs)

No, not those antique silver disks. (Yes, you’re getting old!)

Certificate of Deposits are like savings accounts, except your bank won’t allow you to access your money for a certain amount of time without incurring a penalty.

Banks like CDs because they get to keep and use your money for a longer amount of time, without having to hold your cash on hand in case you get a wild hare to buy the latest infomercial special. You like CDs because they pay higher interest rates than cash in a savings account.

A 6-month, $500 CD paying 5% interest was actually my first investment ever. Man, did I feel like the coolest 16 year old around with my “retirement account.” I’ll never forget that intoxicating feeling of getting paid money just because I had money. What a rush!

Welcome to the world of investing, little Money Wiz.

In today’s low interest rate environment, you’re lucky to find a CD paying any more than about 2%. And while you might not even beat inflation at those rates, CDs are FDIC insured up to $250,000, so they’re risk free.

3. Interest Paying Bonds

Bonds are basically IOUs from businesses to investors. You invest a fixed amount into a bond, and the company agrees to pay you a certain percentage back.

Of course, this is a simplification. You can purchase bonds from all sorts of entities, including:

Companies (aka Corporate Bonds)

Large, stable companies (Investment Grade Corporate Bonds)

Small, ultra-risky companies (Junk Bonds)

The federal government (Treasury Bills)

Sections of the federal government (Agency Bonds)

State and local governments (Municipal Bonds)

Foreign companies or governments (Foreign Bonds)

Interest rates obviously vary significantly, depending on your type of bond and the current interest rate environment. But in general, you can expect bonds to yield anywhere from 1-4%.

Investors typically enjoy bonds for the stability of their fixed payments and the stability of the underlying price of the bond itself. While stocks tend to fluctuate wildly in price, the price of bonds is much more stable by comparison. Here’s a chart showing the worst decline in the past 25 years for the overall stock market vs. the overall bond market:

Bonds as income producing assets

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://mymoneywizard.com/income-producing-assets/

.‘Is It a Bad Idea to Borrow $1K From My Friend?’

‘Is It a Bad Idea to Borrow $1K From My Friend?’

By Charlotte Cowles

I got laid off a few months ago and I’m still looking for a new job. I’ve been getting by with random work (babysitting mostly), but I’ve finally hit a point where I don’t think I’ll make rent this month.

I can’t ask my parents for help (they’re not in great financial shape either), and at this point, I think my best bet is to borrow money from a friend.

Her family seems well off, so I don’t think I’d be putting her in a tough spot. I also know she lent another friend money a little while ago. I just have no idea how to ask her, and I don’t want it to hurt our friendship.

 If she gave me a loan, ideally around $1,000, I could have some breathing room to search for a good job. How do I go about this? Or is there another, better option that I don’t know about?

If you borrow rent money from a friend — or anyone, really — it will be awkward. Just because your friend can afford to spare some cash doesn’t mean she’s comfortable being in that position. And what if she turns you down? She’ll feel guilty for saying no, you’ll regret asking, and you’ll still be broke.

When I polled some financial experts, they all agreed: It’s generally not a great idea to get into a borrower-lender relationship with friends or even family members. “I’ve seen it ruin friendships, or at least seriously damage them,” says Kristin O’Keeffe Merrick, a financial adviser.

“If one of my clients wants to lend money to a loved one, I always tell them to go into it with no expectation of being paid back.

If they’re comfortable with never seeing that money again, then it’s okay to extend the loan.” Think of this from your friend’s perspective. If, for whatever reason, you never repaid her, would it cause her serious hardship? If the answer is yes, you shouldn’t risk it.

Alternatively, what happens if you take years to repay her? It’s possible that she’ll hold the favor over your head or judge the way you spend money. I know a woman who loaned money to her brother to buy a house, and she says it was hard to watch him make “frivolous” purchases (new sheets, drinks with friends) while she waited two years for him to pay her back.

“I wish we’d been more formal about defining the terms,” she says. “Then I probably wouldn’t have been so anxious about being taken advantage of.” She never told him how she was feeling — just quietly stewed — and money remains a sore spot between them.

No one wants to feel like their personal relationships are transactional. Friendship math — the soft, intimate back-and-forth of giving and taking that happens between people who care about each other — is not numerical, and paying your friend back may not be as simple as cutting her a check.

 You might need to massage the friendship in other, more nuanced ways to make her feel appreciated and affirm that she’s more than a piggy bank to you.

For all of these reasons, your friend should be a last resort, not just a more convenient source of cash than another part-time gig. I’m not making light of your situation — it sounds like you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/is-it-a-bad-idea-to-borrow-usd1k-from-my-friend.html

."I’m Finally Making Money, But It Doesn’t Feel Great"

I’m Finally Making Money, But It Doesn’t Feel Great’

By Charlotte Cowles

The Cut’s financial advice columnist Charlotte Cowles answers readers’ personal questions about personal finance. Email your money conundrums to mytwocents@nymag.com

 Dear Charlotte,

For the first time in my life, I’m making a really good salary, and so is my husband. We’ve always been very careful with money. We both maxed out our 401(k)s and IRAs even when we made tiny starting salaries.

We have a healthy emergency fund and an investment account that we filled in our 20s. We have no children, a mortgage with a cheap monthly payment, and healthy parents who support themselves.

Now that we have all these extra funds, we could be saving a lot more, but instead we spend it on fun vacations and nice clothing. I went from a ten-year-old reliable Japanese car to a Tesla, and a random thrift-store purse to a super-nice one from France.

I’m a painter (not my day job) and have bought so much paint on sale that I could probably never buy paint again. Before I even got out of bed yesterday, I spent $450 on a warehouse sale from this brand I’ve become obsessed with. I buy clothes on Instagram constantly.

It’s like now that I have all this extra money, I feel like I’ve become this whole new person I don’t recognize. How can I go back to being someone who’s fine with mismatched plates and thrift-store items, instead of this trend follower with a perfect house filled with nice shit that doesn’t matter?

I understand why you miss your old life. It feels good to live simply and to work toward larger financial goals. The problem, it seems, is that you never really envisioned the life you’d lead once you actually accomplished those goals and had money to spare. Now that your discipline has paid off — you’ve not only attained financial stability, but actual wealth — you don’t know what to do with it.

Your spending feels wild and out of control because you identify as someone who usually shows more restraint. It sounds like you’re struggling to reconcile that responsible part of yourself with the one who wants to live a little — and now has the means to do so.

I suspect you may also be feeling a little bit lonely. Studies have found that upward mobility, particularly when it involves transitioning to a higher socioeconomic class, can be isolating because it moves people away from familiar social circles and into unfamiliar ones.

The research shows that this is especially pernicious among women and minorities because they have fewer mentors and models to look toward as they make their way up the income ladder. It’s also tough to talk about — having a surplus of money isn’t exactly a “problem,” nor a situation that most people can relate to.

Right now, it seems like you’ve been following a sort of rich-person life template that’s readily available on Instagram and social media. It’s a seductive world of handwoven throw pillows and tasteful ceramics, and it’s also a bottomless money pit. Still, it doesn’t seem like you’ve gone off the rails.

I get the feeling that you see yourself as someone spraying hundred-dollar bills out of a grenade launcher, but let’s look at reality. You bought a purse, some clothes, paint on sale, and an environmentally-friendly car that will save you gas money over the years? Cut yourself some slack, and chalk it up to a learning experience.

You don’t necessarily need to save more — it seems like you’re doing fine in that department. Instead, you need to find a new source of the virtuous feeling that you used to get from socking money away, and that involves exploring new things to do with it. In other words, you should spend some time rethinking your priorities now that you have more money to spend on them.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://www.thecut.com/2019/08/im-finally-making-money-but-it-doesnt-feel-great.html

.The Important Thing About Money That Has Nothing To Do With Money

The Important Thing About Money That Has Nothing To Do With Money

June 25, 2019  Values: The Overlooked Part About Money You Need to Get Right

Recently on Instagram I saw a group of friends clinking drinks on a trip and felt a pang–I wish I could do that. Not the traveling part. It’s the traveling with the multiple people part that I suck at.

You see, I’m a Vacation Ruiner. The larger the group, the greater the damage.

If you invite me on your trip I can guarantee that there will be a tempo mismatch–what everyone wants to do at a relaxed pace I’ll want to fly through. And when people want to go to a museum I’ll undoubtedly show up in waders ready to go fishing. My presence will create an unmistakable tension that will ensure you have a terrible time on a trip you’ve spent thousands of dollars on and hours planning.

On my first group trip, one of my friends quietly cancelled the rest of the trips we had planned.

And on the second trip, nobody said a word the entire three-hour car ride home.

It didn’t take long before I realized I was the common denominator.

In case you think I’m a jerk for no reason, let me explain: Everyone’s got something that drives their behavior. Later I realized what it was about the trips that turned me into an awful travel companion.

Group trips stifled things that I value very very much: independence, exploration and the opportunity to problem solve on my own. Being able to do things how I want and when I want. When you think about it that way, six people on a trip with only one car was a disaster in the making. And when I look back even to my childhood, it’s crazy how my values have driven so many of my decisions:

From getting mad at a teacher for trying to help me pick out a holiday card. To being banned from field trips in high school, because I ran off from the rest of the group. Then after college avoiding a full-time job for three years. (Like really, who does that?)

Have you noticed something like that in yourself? A value that you hold so strongly to the core, that it steers everything you do?

The Hard Part About Money

If you have a hard time thinking of an example, you’re probably in good company.

In personal finance we all focus way too much on tactics. While spending less than you earn, learning how to invest, and opening up a 2% interest savings account are important, the results will mostly vary depending on who you are.

But one thing I can guarantee is that money will always be hard unless you’ve got the touchy-feely stuff down.

That means understanding what drives you to do things. Your core values.

Everyone praises spending money on what they value. If I had a dollar for every time I read the word ‘value’ in a post then I’d be financially independent already.

But no one stops to ask: how do you really know what you value? And what if your entire life has been built around values that aren’t your own?

In a culture that doesn’t encourage much self-reflection, it’s not hard to see how some of us have no idea what we care about. Values just sort of get attached to you growing up. As a kid you’ve got your parents in your face telling you to do well in school. Don’t cross the street without looking.

Value safety, hard work and achievement, they say. Stability over passion. In middle school maybe you ditch an old friend for the cool crowd (guilty, as charged). You learned to value conformity over loyalty. Then society tells you to prize outward success, like big houses and lots of money.

There’s a lot of shoulds.

It’s not uncommon to realize one day that you’ve done all the “right” things and you’re still not happy. That your values came from everybody else, but not the most important person: you.

Why Values Are Critical to Happiness

Understanding your own values, not the ones that society tells you to have, is so important to feeling productive and satisfied in many aspects in life.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

http://www.theluxestrategist.com/the-important-thing-about-money-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-money/

.How to Use the Compounding Technique to Reach Success

How to Use the Compounding Technique to Reach Success 

By Sim Campbell

Imagine this: a wealthy man gives you two choices. He will gift you a million dollars in liquid cash right now…or a penny doubled every day for 30 days. Which one would you choose?

“I’d take the million…gimme, gimme, gimme!”

I can see you salivating right now. But…not so fast.

Wouldn’t you rather consider the penny?

“C’mon. It’s just a penny.”

Ah… that’s where you’re wrong.

It’s just a penny – but that’s all you usually start out with. If you took the choice of the penny doubled every 30 days, you’d be a multi-millionaire at day 30. To the tune of 10 million dollars to be exact. Do the math if you doubt it.

“But that’s not possible!”

But it is possible. It’s the only thing that’s possible. It’s the slight edge.

 The Subtle Power of the Slight Edge

The book The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson describes how small, seemingly insignificant choices have a massive impact on us down the line. He uses the example of the penny to get his point across sharply.

Continuous actions over time lead to vast advantages…or disadvantages. This “edge” is the differentiating factor between those who blow life wide open and those who find themselves getting tossed about like a leaf in the wind.

You see, our actions don’t occur in a vacuum. They build upon past actions of a similar nature.

You start with one. One becomes two. Two becomes four. So on and so forth. It gets easier to build off of a foundation.

This is how habits such as discipline are created.

Because of this…the slight edge is great! But – it works in the opposite direction as well. If you indulge in bad habits and self-destructive behavior, you will find it easier to do those things over time.

Your successes and failures compound on each other.

But here’s the thing: this is so subtle. By the time you realize what has happened – your results are already evident.

This is why success is not an accident. Sadly, failure is not an accident either. In fact, they’re separated by a fine line. The line is what you do or fail to do consistently over a given period of time.

 The Importance of the Slight Edge

The Slight Edge Technique

You may think this is all theory with no real life application. If you do, I urge you to look around. The car you drive, the computer you use, the body you have, the job you have – all of it is a result of slight edge application.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It was built brick by brick.

Microsoft didn’t dominate the computer industry in a day. It started with an idea by a Harvard dropout.

You don’t have an awesome relationship in a day. It takes time.

Your health isn’t destroyed in a day. It’s from eating bad foods and indulging in bad habits over time.

You don’t develop a great skill set and reach the top of your field in a day. It takes deliberate practice constructed on a strong base of fundamentals.

There’s no such thing as “big breaks” or “quantum leaps”. Every success or failure doesn’t come in an instant. 

How to Use the Compounding Technique

“Every day, in every moment, you get to exercise choices that will determine whether or not you will become a great person, living a great life.” – Jeff Olson

Living a slight edge life is very easy to do. But it’s easy not to do.

That’s why so many people fall into mediocrity, failure, and living a life that they don’t want to live.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://wealthygorilla.com/compounding-technique-reach-success/

."Financial Advisors and What They Do" Posted by MRiles at TNT

TNT:

MRiles:  Essential Questions for a Financial Advisor

By Wendy Connett  Updated Jun 25, 2019

Choosing the right financial advisor is, in essence, taking the time to invest in what should be a long-term professional relationship that keeps your financial health and future on the right track. The search should go well beyond referrals from colleagues, friends and family and an emphasis on investment performance.

In fact, investors should dedicate as much effort as they would to finding a medical professional with whom they trust their physical well-being. The right financial advisor will provide the professional help needed to reach long and short-term financial goals.

The following are questions that should be asked when choosing a qualified financial advisor. If they can’t or avoid answering them keep looking.

For advisors, being able to answer these questions may be the difference between whether or not a potential client decides to choose you over a competitor.

What are Your Professional Qualifications?

Anyone can hand out business cards maintaining they are a financial advisor so it is important to ask about qualifications and credentials.  

While there are myriad professional designations, top advisors typically have credentials such as certified financial planner (CFP), chartered financial analyst (CFA) and chartered financial consultant (ChFC).

Advisors with CFP designations, for example, are regulated, licensed and take mandatory courses related to financial planning, such as estate planning and retirement planning among others.

Some advisors are also certified public accountants (CPAs). For those who also need tax advice and preparation choosing a financial planner who also has a CPA designation may make sense.

Financial advisors who sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds or insurance have licenses including the Series 6, Series 7, or Series 63. To obtain these licenses they must take exams administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Are You an RIA?

Some financial advisors are registered investment advisors (RIAs), which means they are held to high fiduciary standards put in place to protect investors. The fiduciary standard requires that advisors unconditionally put their clients' best interest first at all times no matter what. 

Advisors who aren’t fiduciaries adhere to a less stringent standard called the suitability standard. This means that any investments they offer must be suitable for a client although it may not be in their best interest.

True to their name, RIAs are also required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the states in which they conduct business. (For more, see: Becoming a Registered Investment Advisor.)

How Do You Charge for Your Services?

Most RIAs charge clients a percentage of assets under management or a flat fee or hourly rate. Advisors who are fee-only do not earn commissions on investment products they sell to clients. On average they charge no more than 2% of assets under management. That percentage often declines the more assets you have for them to manage.

Advisors who work for full-service firms, such as big broker-dealers like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, typically charge commissions on investment products such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and annuities that are bought and sold. In theory, advisors who charge commissions could be less objective when recommending investments. 

Who Are Your Typical Clients?

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050815/what-do-financial-advisers-do.asp

.10 Steps To Become A Millionaire

10 Steps To Become A Millionaire

In 5 Years  (Or Less)

By Benjamin Hardy PhD

"A lot of people think we are creatures of habit but we're not. We are creatures of environment." — Roger Hamilton

“Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.” — Jim Rohn

Hey!

Money is a means to far more important ends.

However, if you don't have clear financial goals—which you track, measure, and report consistently—then you certainly won't hit them.

If you don't have specific and stretching financial goals, it's likely due to limiting beliefs and a fixed mindset.

In this article, I detail a simple (and realistic) 10 Steps To Become A Millionaire In 5 Years (Or Less)

You can do this.  Have an epic week!

It doesn’t matter where you currently are in your financial situation — whether just starting out or already making lots of money.

 Most people, no matter what their income, are treading water. As a person’s income rises, so does their spending.

 Few people understand how to continually increase their income, lifestyle, and joy at the same time.

 In this article, you will learn:

 How to become wealthy

 How to build a life that continually increases your level of confidence and joy

 How to continually expand, learn, grow, and succeed as a person

 How to develop mentorships, friendships, and strategic partnerships with nearly anyone you want

 If these things are not interesting to you, then this article was not written for you.

 Here’s how it works:

 1.  Create A Wealth Vision

 “When riches begin to come they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.” — Napoleon Hill

 Step one of becoming financially successful is to actually create a vision for yourself financially. Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Arden said creativity is more important than experience.

 How much imagination do you have for your future?

 Do you see huge potential and possibility for your life?

 Or, do you see a pretty average life?

 Creating a vision is an iterative process. You don’t just create a vision once and then never look at it again.

 You continually create and write your vision — every single day.

 Lok at any area of your life in which you’re doing well, and you’ll find it’s because you see something beyond what you currently have. By that same token, look at any area of your life that isn’t exceptional, and you’ll find that you don’t see something beyond what you currently have.

 Most people are living in and repeating the past.

 Having a vision is focused on the future.

Your life and behavior immediately shift when you begin imagining a different future and stridently strive for it.

 In order to do this, you must obliterate your need for consistency. From a psychological perspective, people generally feel the need to be viewed by others as consistent. This need causes people to retain behavioral patterns, environments, and relationships that are ultimately destructive and unsatisfying for far too long.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://benjaminhardy.com/10-steps-to-become-a-millionaire-in-5-years-or-less-4/

.“I Inherited Money And Now I Can’t Blog About Financial Independence Anymore”

“I Inherited Money And Now I Can’t Blog About Financial Independence Anymore”

Doug Nordman  August 1, 2019

If we’re going to talk about awesome Financial Independence lifestyles then we also have to address the hard topics.

I’m finally ready to write about distributing my father’s estate. As many of you may remember, Dad passed away in November 2017 after more than nine years with Alzheimer’s Disease. For over six of those years, Dad was in a full-care facility while I handled his finances.

It only took six months to handle his estate and finish his income-tax returns, but it’s taken me another 13 months (and a lot of keyboard therapy) to internalize everything.

Image of Cameron Huddleston's book cover "Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances" | The-Military-Guide.com

Wish I’d had this a decade ago.

I’ll discuss the mechanics of distributing an estate, as well as the lessons learned. In a future post, I’ll talk about how Dad’s death improved our own Ohana Nords estate planning.

We don’t talk enough about financial literacy in polite society gatherings– let alone aging and estate planning– yet almost everyone in the room is dealing with the caregiver burdens and the concerns of losing a loved one.

This was a painfully tough post to write, but I feel that it’s an important challenge. Financial independence gives you a lot more control over your time (and energy), but the unicorns & rainbows are always interrupted by real life. If we’re going to talk about awesome FI lifestyles then we also have to address the hard topics.

I’d particularly like to thank Dew-Anne Langcaon and Bonnie Castonguay at Ho’okele Health Innovations for helping me navigate Dad’s dementia symptoms all the way back in 2009. They were always standing by over the years. I’d also like to thank Cameron Huddleston (again!) for just letting me talk. I’m no expert but I can pass on a lot of good advice.

 My blinding epiphany of the blatantly obvious

You’re never ready for the death of a loved one. Even though I had years to prepare Dad’s finances for his death, my brother and I still weren’t emotionally ready. Dad and my brother were in Denver and I was in Hawaii, but thousands of miles of separation made no difference in the pain and the other feelings.

We also weren’t ready because Dad had survived so many medical scares. The month before he died he had just begun showing some of the symptoms of end-stage Alzheimer’s, yet it’s quite common for late-stage Alzheimer’s to continue for several years of progressively worse issues.

When Dad first started having trouble with very low blood pressure and a sudden loss of physical coordination, we expected that he’d pull through this “health crisis” just like several times before.

Two days later, on the doctor’s advice, Dad was in hospice care and (at additional expense) a 24/7 care nurse.

While my brother and I were girding ourselves for weeks of medical assistance, on Friday evening Dad was given a small dose of morphine to calm his restlessness. He slept soundly through the night, and on Saturday he never woke up.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

https://the-military-guide.com/lessons-learned-settling-my-fathers-estate/

.What I Learned From Losing $200 Million

What I Learned From Losing $200 Million

The 2008 financial crisis taught me about the illusion of control, and how to give it up.

By Bob Henderson   December 24, 2015

I’d lost almost $200 million in October.  November wasn’t looking any better.

It was 2008, after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Markets were in turmoil. Banks were failing left and right. I worked at a major investment bank, and while I didn’t think the disastrous deal I’d done would cause its collapse, my losses were quickly decimating its commodities profits for the year, along with the potential pay of my more profitable colleagues. I thought my career could be over. I’d already started to feel those other traders and salespeople keeping their distance, as if I’d contracted a disease.

My eyes started to fill from a sudden wash of gratitude and relief that came, I think, from no longer being alone.

I landed in London on the morning of November 4, having flown overnight from New York. I was a derivatives trader, but also the supervisor of the bank’s oil options trading team, about a dozen guys split between Singapore, London, and New York. Until this point I’d managed the deal almost entirely on my own, making the decisions that led to where I ... we ... were now.

But after a black cab ride from Heathrow to our Canary Wharf office, I got the guys off the trading floor and into a windowless conference room and confessed: I’d tried everything, but the deal was still hemorrhaging cash. Even worse, it was sprouting new and thorny risks outside my area of expertise.

In any case, the world was changing so quickly that my area of expertise was fast becoming obsolete. I pleaded for everyone to pitch in. I said I was open to any ideas.

As I spoke, I noticed that one of the guys had tears welling up in his eyes. I paused for a second, stunned. Then my own eyes started to fill from a sudden wash of gratitude and relief that came, I think, from no longer being alone.

Stress testing is a standard technique derivatives traders use to test how their portfolio will perform in an imagined “worst-case” scenario. The problem is that “worst-case” is subjective, making stress testing as much of an art as a science, and exposing the trader doing the testing to something called the “illusion of control.”

The psychologist Ellen Langer coined the phrase in 1975 to describe “an expectancy of personal success probability inappropriately higher than the objective probability would warrant.”

Experimental evidence for the illusion goes back at least to 1965, when one research team found that college-educated employees of AT&T asked to press buttons to illuminate lights had the tendency to believe they had more control than they actually did, even when the lights lit randomly, and even when they used pen and paper to track their results.

In another study, done in 1992, a group of Israeli college students was found to be more willing to bet on dice, and to bet bigger, before they rolled than after, reflecting the belief that they had control over their rolls. Such a preference for prediction over postdiction had been observed before, but this study also found that the preference grew stronger when the students were threatened with an electric shock if they guessed wrong—evidence that stress amplifies the illusion of control.

Langer’s work showed that the illusion is also intensified by “skill cues”: circumstances that make people feel like they’re engaged in acts of skill rather than luck. Such cues include competition, choice, and familiarity with the task at hand.

Therefore people will tend to overestimate their prospects in a game of pure chance even more than usual if they face a nervous-looking opponent, or if they pick rather than get assigned a lottery ticket, or if they’re given the chance to familiarize themselves with an apparatus that’s simply spitting out random numbers.

Or, I might add, if they’ve toiled over complicated mathematical equations to back up their decisions.

I thought I knew what I was getting into. I’d helped my bank win the fateful deal by developing a complex option on crude oil, together with a risk management strategy. My equations told me how I could buy and sell simpler financial products over time to approximately offset my daily gains and losses on the option I’d sold.

To continue reading, please go to the original article at

http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/what-i-learned-from-losing-200-million