We will be hosting a live, online budgeting workshop April 20th from 6-7 pm. This one-hour workshop will teach you the skills you need to make your money work for you and ease the pressure of stress surrounding your finances. During the workshop you will learn:
- the eight step process for eliminating debt and building wealth
- budgeting techniques that actually work
- how to communicate with your spouse about money
- how to prioritize spending when you don’t have enough money
- how to keep from overspending each month
- how to have a plan for your money that makes your money work for you.
Does the idea of finally being in control of your money excite you? You’re probably not alone. If you’re remotely interested, you need to act fast. Due to hosting restrictions, we’re only accepting the first 20 people to register. Click here to register today and reserve a spot for only $9.97!
The other day I was hanging out with my kids when I noticed the unmistakable mirror image of my habits in their behavior. As they mimicked my every move, it dawned on me that my children learn from watching me. Children spend a lot of time watching their parents and pick up on the behaviors they see. Not only is this true with your personality traits and behaviors, but it’s also true with your spending habits. read more
Written by Matt Wegner, Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.financialexcellence.net
I am constantly searching the web for good articles and information that I can pass on to the consumer. Here’s a good one on smartmoney.com that exposes tricks of the trade in the auto industry to help you get the best deal on the lot. Now, when I post links to these articles that doesn’t always mean I agree with everything in there. As usual, I have a few thoughts on this particular article. The author works hard to expose all tools a dealership has in an effort to eliminate all profit margin for them. Hey, a dealer is in business to make a profit, and I’m ok with that. But I also think you as the consumer need to be informed when making a major purchase.
Here are two major points I picked out that are near and dear to the debt free way of life. read more
- Exposing the false beliefs of the financial world
Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.financialexcellence.net
Myth: Consolidating debt is a good idea and a great way to lower my monthly payments.
Truth: Consolidating debt works much better for the bank than it does for you.
The truth is, success in personal finance depends on what you do, not what you know. Consolidating debts makes sense on paper, but if you don’t change the behaviors and disciplinary factors that got you into debt, you’ll wind up even deeper in debt. If you don’t stop borrowing money and learn to hate debt, consolidating your debts just frees up more room to go deeper into debt. It happens time and again where families consolidate and get a lower payment, then turn right around and rack up more payments until they’re worse off. read more
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19, the largest amount of money in coins you could have without being able to make change for a dollar.
Ahh, here it is. The sad but predictable reality that big banks stink. This Yahoo article is one of many highlighting a dismal customer approval rating yet again for the big boys of finance. Every year Forrester’s Customer Advocacy rankings are released and this year some shocking numbers were revealed. Not only did the big banks rank poorly, but some had results showing fewer than 16% of their customers felt the bank did what’s best for them, vs. the bank’s bottom line.
The worst seven of banks this year: Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, TD/Commerce, Fifth Third, Citibank, and in last place, HSBC.
How ridiculous is that? The best of these banks, Bank of America, has only 33% of its customers trusting their decisions. How can so many people disapprove of a company’s performance yet still remain customers of that company? How can a company like HSBC have 84% of its customers openly admit they are unhappy and still be in business? This makes no sense to me. Not only am I astonished that these companies are still in business (oh, wait – we bailed them out so they could stay in business), but I am downright depressed that these unhappy customers are still patronizing these businesses.
The power of consumerism is this: If you don’t like the job a company is doing, don’t hire them again. Their lack of performance speaks for itself and will cause them to no longer be in business. If you hired a contractor to remodel your house and he did a lousy job, would you hire him again? Not in a hundred years! So why are these bank customers still hiring the lousy banks to manage their money? Your guess is as good as mine.
It’s up to us as consumers to make smart decisions with our money. Keeping your money with a bank you don’t trust is not a smart decision. If you think your bank is doing a lousy job, let them know by taking your business to someone who cares.
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Matt Wegner is a personal finance, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence). Learn how to break the cycle of depending on big banks through credit and debt. Request a free planning session to see how Matt can teach you to live debt free and get rid of your credit cards for L.I.F.E.!
The average life of a dollar bill is eighteen months. Five dollar bills last about fifteen months, with twenties remaining in circulation for two years. Ten dollar bills have about the same lifespan as singles do, and the larger denomination bills can last up to eight years.
All I’ve heard about in the news lately is how President Obama and Congress want to spend more money to stimulate the economy and create jobs. When will they learn that going deeper in debt is not going to help us grow? They spent $900 billion to create jobs but more jobs have been lost. Their solution: spend more! They spent even more and now they are proposing the largest budget in history. The President said in the State of the Union Address that we need to spend more this year so we can cut back over the next few years. Amid grumbling from the assembly before him, he then retorted, “That’s how budgeting works.”
No, that’s not how budgeting works. You cannot spend more money than you make. Continuing the same behaviors but expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Congress needs to realize that we cannot go deeper into debt with failed programs (from both political parties) and expect to turn around the economy. Here’s an idea to create jobs: Let’s just give $50,000 to 2 million people to do nothing. That’s $100 billion to provide an average income to 2 million families. We could pay people to do nothing and create an income for them while spending only one ninth of the initial stimulus plan. I’m not suggesting we should pay people to do nothing but where’s the logic here that we are creating jobs by spending trillions of dollars? What if we just gave that money to businesses to hire more people for a year? Or give the money back to taxpayers to have more money to spend or eliminate debt so they can buy more of the products and services that keep businesses in business?
The point here isn’t that we should be giving money away. The point is that our leaders in Washington continue to spend more money with the hope that the economy will turn around. Hope is not a plan. There are a lot better ways to spend (or not spend) the taxpayers’ money and get much better results.
Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence). Request a free planning session to see how Matt can teach you to live debt free and get rid of your credit cards!
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