How confident are you in your ability to meet your financial goals? If you’re like the majority of Americans, your confidence level is probably not very high. Find out why our financial confidence seems to be going down even though the economy, as a whole, is improving, and what you can do to become more confident and capable of achieving your financial goals.

• Before there was Mr. Ed or Rocket the Raccoon, there was Dr. Dolittle, a doctor that could talk to a number of different animals. One of which was especially interesting, the pushmi-pullyu, an animal that had a head on each end. The pushmi-pullyu was always confused about which way to go or what to do, which is how many people feel about their finances.
• There was a study put out by FINRA that shows that financial capability, financial stability and overall confidence is going down, even while the economy has been improving.
• Financial capability is our ability to reach our financial goals, whatever those may be for your stage of life. Stability is your ability to respond to unexpected changes in your life without getting derailed from your goals.
• Lack of confidence means we are more reactive than proactive. Pilots train emergency scenarios specifically to build their confidence. Stress testing your financial plan and thinking about the “what if?” scenarios is a way to plan ahead and increase your confidence in your ability to handle those situations.
• Acting creates capability and stability, and that all circles back to create more confidence.
• The FINRA study found that 53% of people surveyed and 63% of millennials said that thinking about money gave them anxiety. It also found that 44% of people and 55% of millennials said that discussing finances was stressful. That’s the quandary of the pushmi-pullyu, where we are operating against ourselves.
• 71% of people said that they had a high level of financial knowledge but only 34% had basic financial literacy skills. This is the major delusion that most Americans have and the trend seems to be accelerating.
• Write down your goals and then write your confidence level that you will be able to achieve those goals. Once you’ve done that, write down why you feel confident or not. Once you have that, consider talking to somebody to get some perspective about how confident you should be.
• One thing to keep in mind is if you are anxious about talking about money, that’s a very good sign that putting yourself through the rigors of actually doing it, is your best course of action.

To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

The Great Wealth Transfer is coming and what you do with your share of the $68.4 trillion that will be passed on to the next generation could determine your financial future. Find out what it  means to your retirement if you learn how to stretch your money while you still can.

• Stretch when you can or conversely, stretch before you can’t. Stretching applies to more than just exercise, it helps build wealth too.
• There is something called the Great Wealth Transfer going on, where 45 million households will leave $68.4 trillion to the next generation over the next 25 years. Your share of this money may be the foundation for your own financial future.
• The generations after the Baby Boomers have had to deal with a number of factors that other generations haven’t had to experience. The average graduate in 2018 came out with $35,000 in student debt and a 10-year $400 monthly payment.
• Many of those people admitted to wishing they chose a less expensive education.
• When you inherit a retirement account from someone other than your spouse, you have an opportunity on your hands. The first choice is to take the money out, but your second choice is to make the money stretch a little further.
• If you take the money out, you are going to pay any income taxes that are due, but since it was someone else’s retirement account, you will not pay any penalty no matter how old you are.
• Stretching the money out is the option of opportunity. Under the tax code, when you inherit a retirement account, there is a minimum amount you have to take out each year called the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). The RMD is based on your minimum life expectancy.
• Let’s say you inherit a $50,000 regular IRA, the kind on which you have to pay taxes when you take money out. There are two variables you have to take into account: the age in which you inherit it and the rate of return you could earn if you leave the money in the account. If the rate of return is 6% and you only withdraw the tax-code minimum, you would be able to withdraw over $237,000 over the course of your life expectancy.
• The choice you face is either $50,000 now or $237,000 over time, but there is some legislation coming down the pipe that may change the math.
• The SECURE act that is moving through Congress essentially enhances your ability to stretch the money out and would require you to withdraw all the inherited money over a 10-year period.
• It will ultimately depend on all the things you can do with that money. Every time you look at a financial situation, you have to look at your own personal situation. You may have a health crisis or debts to pay down that would make taking the money up front make more sense.
• The big opportunity right now is to build your financial plan without assuming you’re going to inherit money because you can’t plan for it. You should also do a beneficiary designation and decide who gets to do the stretch when you die.
• Imagine your legacy and your parent’s or grandparent’s legacy if it’s not optimized when they die.

To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.

How do you know the correct amount of life insurance coverage you should get? There’s an easy way to answer that question but most people have no idea where to start. There is a simple template to make sure your life insurance is adequate to take care of your family’s needs after you’re gone.

• Can you have a negative net value for your life? That depends on how and who’s doing the calculation.
• There is a template that Wayne created that allows you to figure out how valuable you are called “Can You Spare a DIME?”
• The D is debts. When you pass away, your debts need to be repaid or your loved ones get saddled with them after you’re gone.
• The I is Income Shortfall. How much income is your family going to need when you’re gone?
• The M is Missed Goals and Opportunities. Will your spouse be able to afford to save for retirement or will your child have to fund their own education because you’re gone?
• The E is Extra Expenses. Funeral costs, childcare and counselling will all come into play here.
• Once you determine these numbers, you can use them as a template to know how much life insurance you should be buying. Nobody likes life insurance but the check your family receives after you die is probably the most welcome check they will ever get.
• Most people don’t have enough life insurance. 59% of adults report that they have some form of life insurance but a lot of that comes from workplace-provided insurance which can drastically fall short in the amount of coverage your family will need.
• The best way to view workplace-provided life insurance is that it’s supplemental at best.
• The people who do have life insurance, around 1 in 5 admit that they probably don’t have enough life insurance.
• It’s often the stay-at-home spouse that gets neglected in the DIME calculation and ends up under-insured. Most people, when crunching the numbers, only think about debts and income shortfall but that doesn’t take into account the needs of a stay-at-home spouse.
• The first thing to do is figure out the value of your DIME calculation. Once you’ve got some rough figures, consider getting a fiduciary financial advisor who has your interests first.

To explore working with Wayne Firebaugh to fireproof your money, please call 855-WAYNE KNOWS or check out at fireproofyourmoney.com.