Repairing Lost Wealth

By admin
29 Mar

People are frustrated from the last 10-12 years of lost wealth. Talking with a client yesterday it hit me, just how aggravated and disappointed people are relative to their wealth picture. I am not talking just about the stock market, but the total wealth picture relative to job, retirement savings, home values, income, and lifestyle. They are worried about the future and what it holds financially or if they can ever replace what they have lost. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how complete the change has been in the wealth of the average person living in America. We have all in some way experienced the impact of the events taking place. The dot bomb bubble crash in 2000-2002. The financial crisis of 2008. The real estate bubble of 2006-07. Unemployment climbing higher than 10% with the real number better than 15%. The government deficit ballooning to a staggering 13.2 trillion dollars. Higher taxes, and the list goes on.

We don’t have the time or space to get into the nuances of all the repercussions of these and others, but we can take aim at how to repair our wealth and focus on repairing our lives both financially and spiritually. The following is and outline of how to repair you and start you on the road to repairing your lost wealth. It may not be the tradition way, but it has worked in helping clients, friends and acquaintances over the last ten years. Keep an open mind to the future and understand that “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Thomas Edison.

Be honest with yourself. This is where the rubber meets the road. Having talked with and prayed with individuals who are alcoholics, the first step to recovery is honesty with yourself that you are an alcoholic. Be honest about your situation. Living in denial will not make it go away. Sit down compile a list of assets and liabilities (financial and personal). Determine what you can or cannot do. If you need counsel get it! Stop procrastinating and start fixing what is broken. I’ve had many discussions with individuals about bankruptcy, home foreclosure, etc. the last three years. It is not import to place blame, it is important to face the facts and take action versus the reality of the situation. Denail won’t work.

Take responsibility. It’s not the governments role to help you! Look for a hand up, not a hand out. This is your life, accept responsibility for the actions taken to put you in this situation. It will not change things to blame Wall Street, banks, greedy people or anyone else. Only you can change the future. If you have lost your job and can’t find one in the field your are trained, find another one. I understand the challenge and anguish this puts on an individual, but you have to work towards a better future not complain about the present. If you need to re-educate yourself for today’s work environment take the necessary steps and get started today. If you have a mortgage you can’t afford – deal with it. Don’t wait until the bank forecloses on the property. Sell it if you can, but take a proactive approach to dealing with the problem, see be honest above. The sooner you accept responsibility the sooner you will start to repair you lost wealth.

Eliminate debt – All of it. If we as Americans would live a debt free lifestyle, we would be more demanding on government to do the same. Start now eliminating all your debt. Do whatever it takes to be free of this anchor around your neck. Cars, homes, credit cards, etc. restructure the debt. Enough said.

Start saving again, honestly. Pay yourself first is the old adage and it still works. Put money in your 401k, start a saving account and add to it monthly, dollar cost average into mutual funds, save 10-15% of what you earn every month. You will be amazed at how much your mindset will change about life when you are saving money towards your future.

Invest based on your goals not winning the lottery. If you lost 30, 40 or 50% of you wealth in the recent correction, don’t try to make it back over night. Take time to understand what happened and what you could have done differently. Many people lost money simply because they didn’t pay attention to the warning signs. Some lost money because they took too much risk or did things they should have never done. Learn from the mistakes, write them down in a journal. The key now is to sit down and define your goals, develop a strategy to accomplish them based on your risk tolerance, and work towards them one day at a time with diligence. Invest in the haystack and if you find the needle is there all the better.

Count your blessing every day. It is not easy to start over nor is it easy to face the reality of our current situation, but if we don’t start today, when will we start. Stop complaining and start counting your blessings. I am amazed every day by the people I meet, talk with and counsel, by their attitudes when they realize how blessed they are in life. When our focus shifts to what we don’t have or lost, versus what we do have, and the opportunities in front of us, we loose sight of the blessings. Family, friends, jobs, home, health, etc. you truly are blessed! The greatest blessing you have is the ability to change whatever you don’t like about you, your current situation or your lifestyle. Start now.

If we can help or lend a listening ear, or offer some helpful advise, call our office or send us and email. For the last 28 years our focus has been to teach people to help themselves. If you want a hand up we are glad to help, if you want a hand out… rethink your attitude.

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A Note From Jim

Money management is  about passion. As with anything in life, we are successful at the things we  have the most passion. Why? We are willing to invest time, energy, and effort  to achieve the end result. If you have heard me speak publically, or talked  with me individually, you know I am passionate about money management. One of my  primary goals in life has been to make money by removing the obstacles that  keep investors from achieving financial goals. The lack of passion is an  obstacle. Without passion we may know money is important and know we should  learn more about managing it, but we lack the desire to do so. Thus,  we procrastinate, or in our spare time we attempt to learn more  about the process. In the end, we either delegate the responsibility to  someone else or we do nothing at all. I cannot give you the passion to manage  your money, but I can give you the alternatives needed to accomplish the goal  of managing your money.

When asked the  question, "Do you manage money?" the simple answer is “Yes”. Money  Strategies was founded over 25 years ago on the premise of developing  strategies for money management that achieves a predefined goal. Sounds great,  doesn't it? The reality is Money Strategies is a money management firm focused  on making money for its clients. We have built disciplined strategies focused  on that primary objective. Those strategies are outlined on our websites and  you are welcome to review them at your leisure. Our goal is to manage money,  not markets, and by doing so we focus on risk management, which is as a flowery  way of saying we don't like to lose money.

I spent more than  twenty years of my career attempting to teach individuals, business owners, and  corporations how to plan for the long term. We designed elaborate financial  plans and business plans only to watch them accumulate dust. What I came to  realize over time was making money is the only goal that really matters. If you  make enough money over a period of time you can accomplish all of your  goals. When it comes right down to it, that's  all that really matters.

The key to any successful business  relationship is finding a person or company that is passionate about delivering  a service or product that meets your specific needs or desires. At Money  Strategies we are passionate about managing money to make money by avoiding  unnecessary risk. If you are passionate about making money with your money, but  lack the expertise, time, or passion, we may be the firm you want to talk with.

I understand we are  not right for everyone, but I also know that in a sea of minutia we are a  breath of fresh air. Our goals as a company are simple.  Our strategies for delivering money management  is simple, and we have fun doing what we do every day because we are passionate  about money management. If we are a fit for you, we look forward to speaking  and working with you. If we are not a fit for your needs, we hope you have  learned and benefitted from the experience of our workshops or websites.

Dare to Dream

Jim Farrish  Founder -Money  Strategies, Inc.

"The difference between a successful person and others is  not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of  will."   Vince Lombardi.