Headlines Yesterday On A Popular Financial Website

Copper Warning: Metal's Slide Is 'Pricing In Global Recession'

Why 'Operation Twist' Likely Won't Do Much for Jobs

Global Meltdown: Investors Dumping Nearly Everything

Could France's Banking Problem Come to US Shores?

Special Report, "Markets In Turmoil."

US Is Already in Double-Dip Recession: George Soros

Or Is It So Bad, It’s a Depression?

What Do You Do When All Else Fails?

I do not believe that ignorance is bliss but I do believe in overstimulation, especially when I think there can be some confusion between information and media salesmanship.  It isn’t that I don’t believe or respect an author’s opinion or research, but I do believe that there’s a definite bias toward selling bad news.

For example, in the article Could France's Banking Problem Come to US Shores? , the author’s main point is actually “America's banks are much healthier than Europe's, so no.”  But on a day when the Dow dropped 391 points I think they thought the title they wound up choosing would be more titillating, get more hits, and thus help them sell more advertising.  Just my suspicion. 

There are enough fundamental and rational reasons why the nation’s and the world’s economies and governments have a lot of work to do that I don’t think the media needs to sell us much more than just the facts. 

All I’m saying is be careful not to judge things and reach conclusions based on updated-every-5-minutes headlines.  Instead, dig deep, take your time, ask questions, and consider the source of all your information and advice (including that which comes from here)

Your Happiness Matters To Others

Perhaps in times of stress or in great unhappiness you’ve sat by yourself and asked, “What am I supposed to do?”  Or maybe in a broader sense you’ve thought about how you spend your time and money and wondered if you’re living the kind of life that you should be.  If your career is in a rut, or your time feels out of your control, or your relationships are not as meaningful, or your finances aren’t in line with how you’d like them have you ever questioned, “Is this it?”

Whether you have struggles with your career, your relationships, or your finances, I think they might all be related to not intentionally doing what you know you can do.  Lack of intentionality is more often than not the root cause for the biggest disappointments.  But this is fixable!  Who are you not to be happy?  Who is your family not to feel that they get the best of you?  Who is the giver of your gifts and talents not to expect that you steward them to good use? 

So plan for greater happiness for yourself and for others by  going after what you know you should.  What are you really good at?  What do you do that brings other people happiness?  What are the ways in which you act that deserve cloning and copying by the rest of us?  Who could use more of you?  What do you do that pleases you most? 

I suspect that there are coworkers, friends, and family members who will benefit from you being happier.  You doing more of what you know you should and what you know you can is eagerly awaited by people who rely on you.  Your financial plan, too, is also waiting for you to build it based on how it can support your life and happiness.  Money works best when it provides the worldly means of supporting your happiness, not the other way around. 

Your new direction toward less worry and greater happiness can start by matching up more forcefully what makes you happy  and what others need from you.

 

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”
(Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993, page 119)..

Choosing Success

Your financial success and independence is not up to fate or chance.  Chances are virtually nil that you’ll wake up one day and find that all of your financial dreams have come true.  That is truly a fantasy.

You don’t lose weight while you sleep.  Your credit cards don’t pay themselves off.  You don’t show up for work one day to find that your crummy job has been replaced by a good one.  But if you choose to exercise 4 times a week, and if you choose to have your credit cards paid off in six months, and if you choose to find new job which you’ll love, I bet you’ll get every one of those things that you want. 

So chances are very good that your financial goals will be realized if you recognize that success first stems from making a choice to move from “here” to “there”.  Once you choose what you want, you’ll be able to choose to make the sacrifices necessary, and choose to follow the habits that carry you to success.

If you have elements of your financial life that you want more success with, start first by making a list of what you choose to pursue:

               I want a job that pays 20% more

               I want my credit cards paid off in one year

               I want to feel happier about my finances

               I want to take a trip to Hawaii

Now you’re ready to build the plan of how to get there.

Small Bites, Not Big Gulps

One of my tendencies is to try and solve problems and struggles with an all-inclusive plan to fix everything.  This often inhibits me from being as effective or as efficient as I could be because big solutions are hard to start, hard to monitor, hard to identify progress, but easy to abandon and lose focus.

Instead, I’m trying to do a better job of choosing small, sometimes even daily, steps toward a larger goal so that I’m incrementally moving in the direction that I want to go.  I think the motivation of constant motion is more rewarding and adds up to greater accomplishment than the delay that’s inherent with successful long-term plans.

So perhaps you have a financial goal or a financial stress you’re  wanting to overcome.  Having the end-result goal is great, but I’m learning more and more how important it is to build into it very small and attainable goals that add up to the result that you want.

For example, let’s say you want to save $12,000 for XYZ.  You could plan to save $500 per month for two years, but if that’s your focus how specifically are you going to find the $500? .  Instead, try a plan that focuses on specific behaviors like this:

·        Cut out one latte per day

·        Reduce cable plan to only channels I actually watch

·        Ride the bus two days per week to save on gas and parking

·        Bring my own lunch twice per week

·        Sell online at least one item I never use that’s just cluttering up my house

·        Choose a restaurant from the coupon book or coupon websites

·        Buy one fewer clothing item per month

·        Skip the beer and the hot dog at the game and park just a tad farther away and walk

By my calculations, that’s close enough for most people to get to the $500/mo goal.  And since the bites are small and arguably not overly sacrificial because they are spread out among different aspects of daily living, the feeling and impact of those specific behaviors probably won’t leave you feeling discouraged or totally void of enjoyment.  Also, being able to see immediate results of progressing toward your goal will reinforce your enthusiasm for your choices and actions.

The point is, if you know where you want to go begin by developing a series of very small and incremental steps that will support your greater objective.

What Makes A Good Financial Goal?

When discussing someone’s financial goals I’m often asked, “is that a good goal”?  I really think what they’re asking me is whether I think their goal is realistic.  Not just whether their on track but whether or not their goal is attainable and worthy of effort and sacrifice. 

A big believer in specific goal setting, I think it is important to have financial goals that present certain characteristics:

1.      You have to really want it.  Not just think you want it, but be passionate and competitive about it.

2.      You have to believe that you can do it.  You may want to start your own consulting business, but if you don’t think you can do it, then don’t include it as a goal.  Maybe instead, set a goal of getting a job at a prestigious consulting firm.

3.      You have to be able to picture the result of achieving your goal as having a lasting positive impact in your life.  If buying a second home means you’d feel more misery taking care of it and worrying about it, then don’t set this as a goal.

4.      You have to be able to build steps and achieve benchmarks along the way.  You are less likely to achieve the goal of buying a house if your goal is to buy a house.  Instead, set a series of goals related to buying a house like:

a.      Place $500 per month in a money market account until we have $20,000 saved toward a down payment.

b.      Have cars paid off in 30 months by adding $50 per month to our principal payment. 

c.      Accept the cash bonus from work instead of the sales-incentive trip to Aruba and save the cash in the money market account for a down payment.

If you have a financial goal that has these characteristics, now you can focus on building the “how-to” steps necessary to get there.