Welcome to February! Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. I once had a couple come into my office who wanted to do a financial plan as a Valentine’s Day present to each other. I’ve created hundreds of written financial plans for people; this couple’s plan was novel merely because of the date (pun intended) they selected.
Having a lifelong commitment to a spouse or partner necessitates creating answers to many financial questions. Commitment means taking care towards your shared goals and persistent actions that hopefully make those goals come true.
Happy New Year! We business owners want this year to be better than last year, of course! So let’s create a plan to pursue making this year more profitable, easier, and more fun. As a business owner, business coach, and financial planner, I use the following wrap up / ramp up process to build my own progress and recommend these steps to my business-owner clients as well.
A Health Savings Account (HSA) allows for tax deductible contributions into an account specifically for Health Care expenses. Typical out-of pocket medical expenses include paying for deductibles and copays. If you and your family are relatively healthy, an HSA can help build a substantial reserve for your older years where health care expenses are likely to be much greater.
We’re talking your lifetime financial plan, that is. Having completed over 384 written financial plans and calculated numerous ‘back of the napkin’ plans, each family’s lifetime financial plan for first accumulating and then distributing income (into then out-from) various investment vehicles, is unique. Collectively, however, financial plans for business owners differ fundamentally from our friends with paycheck jobs.
In this month’s article, I’ll be sharing some of the tech tools that I have found that make my life easier and faster, so that I can spend my time making my business more profitable. These tools are easy to use, and often free or inexpensive.
Most parents planning for college are familiar with the mainstream ways of saving and paying for college. These include 529 plans, Savings accounts, life insurance among other common methods. Awesomely, business owners have a few additional tools in their arsenal. Here are a few ways savvy business owners can save and pay more easily for college.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already half-way through the year! How are your business and family finances faring? Are you halfway to your goals? Right now is a great moment to do an assessment of both; while you still have time to adjust, to reach and even to exceed your business and family financial goals for the year. Here are very important areas to look through:
Since age 17, I’ve read every “Money Magazine”, “Wall Street Journal” and every other sensible financial tome I could handle. My parents were so poor they had to sell a cow to pay each car insurance or college bill. By the time I had my first child at age 32, I was no longer struggling. I had saved 10 percent of every paycheck since my first year after college. With intentions of imparting the awesomeness of savings and compound interest to my children, I raised my 2 boys with every bit of wisdom I could muster.
It’s April! By now you’re either done with your taxes or WISH you were done! That makes it a great time to plan what you might do differently so that next year is even easier to get your taxes completed on time with less stress. And you might also be able to pay less in taxes.
Spring is in the air. Warm weather is approaching. Time to clean out any sluggish parts of your business so you can create growth and possibly more profits. Here are some items you should review and improve upon every year if you want to grow your profits and your life. I know you’re busy, but if you want the life you dreamed, set up a system to build on these key areas every year. You may be happier after you cleaned up!
Patrick and I have been married 28 years. In that time, I have started four businesses and my husband started two. Each time we tried to keep one predictable paycheck while allowing the other to grow a business. If you’re an entrepreneur, thank your wage-earning spouse today for providing a steady baseline income.
Last Friday my husband, Patrick, asked where I wanted to go for date night. After 27 dismally gray days through December and January, my answer was Florida! Anywhere warm and sunny that’s not Pennsylvania in Winter! During vacation, we sit down, enjoy the sunshine, spend time with our family, and see sites we want to experience.
Perhaps in our grandparents generation, retirement looked like quitting your job or selling your business, then having a retirement party before proceeding to a new phase. That phase consisted of watching TV, yardwork, travelling to visit friends and generally being helpful to the extended family. In the generation of clients that I’m working with now, there are as many individuals approaching retirement as I have clients. I’ll share a few of their stories to spur your imagination about your own possible vision for retiring.
By now, the kids are back in school, Summer vacations are over, and you have four months to make your business shine to the end of the year. We here at Goodlife just moved our offices, which vastly disrupted business for most of the Summer.
On the other hand, our move provided some great catalysts for building business through the end of the year. Using the new positive energy and progress people perceive through our beautiful remodeled building, we have opportunities to remind and reinforce what great partners we are in helping with your financial life.
Every business has ebbs and flows. Some are seasonal, like landscapers, busy all summer with little income in winter. Other businesses are more tied to the economy, like dentists whose clients think teeth work is optional in a recession. There will be times when income is growing and your company is profitable and times when conditions for growth are not so good. The astute business owner tries to get ready for the next downturn. While some of these ideas may be quite simple in concept, the real trick is developing the discipline to put them into practice.
Recessions are normal, and when they occur your business might incur a downturn along with many others. Thankfully, most pundits are not expecting one anytime soon. Let’s hope they’re right. That makes now a great time to orchestrate your emergency reserve buckets so that you can strive to be prepared when the next recession or potentially other unexpected business downturn occurs.
The new tax law that went into effect December last year has many changes. What an understatement. Some changes are simple to understand while some have tax preparers still scratching their heads working to puzzle through. Now that we’ve had a few months to digest, let’s see how it might be possible to use some changes to your advantage.
In February, we’ve just seen big intraday price swings in the stock market that we have not seen for a number of years. On Groundhog Day, (February 2nd) the Dow dropped 670 points. Then on Monday, February 5th, dropped 1175 points. Then Tuesday, up more than 560 points from the beginning of the market that day. As I write this article, swings continue.
While remarkable, those large swings barely made it to a ‘market correction’. Investopedia defines ‘market correction’ as:
