1.    Believe in Yourself: If you don’t believe you’ll be wealthy, I can pretty well guarantee you won’t be! (Hint: it’s not just a matter of how much money you make…). Master your psychology before you do anything else.

2.    The Jones’ are Broke: Don’t be one of them! Most millionaires live simply and avoid debt because they’d rather have financial independence than fancy cars, huge houses and lavish vacations.

3.    Know your stats: Know your net worth, balance your checkbook, plan your spending (and saving), pay off your debt, have reserve funds for the unexpected. Spending less than 2 hours a week on “the books” can pay off a million times over.

4.    Save Early and Often: Saving just $2.74 per day will guarantee you $1,000 in a year! Take advantage of all savings opportunities through your employer and save money out of each paycheck, too. Tuck away any money that comes to you outside of your job to build your wealth.

5.    More Than One Way to Make Money: We’re taught in school how to work and get jobs but that’s not enough. Learn to invest, learn a new marketable skill to make money on the side, be on the lookout for new and different ways to make money than just a job.

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FREE Download: My friend, Kelly McCausey of Mom’s Talk Network has generously agreed to offer my readers her Family Budget Checklist. If your family finances are getting a little unruly and you want to do more with you money and for your family, here’s a quick checklist guide to help you out.

Find out what you should include in your budget (some things you may not have thought of before) and what to do with that information. Click here to get yours (PDF)* This is a PDF document and you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view it. If you don’t have this software, you can get it here.

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5 Steps to Building Your Wealth

With so many banks changing hands and merging, you wouldn’t want your paperwork to be destroyed or lost. 

Make sure ex-spouses are no longer your beneficiaries and that children who have come of age are properly designated as beneficiaries if that is your wish.

If you inherited an IRA, you’ll need to set up your own beneficiary.

If benefits are payable to the owner’s estate or to a charity, there is no “beneficiary“-anyone receiving these benefits must take them in full no later than the end of the fifth year following the year of death if the owner died before the required beginning date or over the owner’s remaining life expectancy-which ignores the fact that he’s dead-if he died after the required beginning date. 

Please check with your tax preparer or estate attorney as your situation may be different than described.

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Update Your Beneficiaries

Question: Our children are starting high school and we want to be able to help with their college expenses. We also need to save more for our retirement. With time passing so quickly what should we do?

Answer: You are in a fairly common situation. We all want to do whatever we can for our children and we worry about retirement savings. In this case there are several things you can do:

• The first thing to do is make sure you’re living below your means and reducing any credit card debts you might have

• Start now to save, no “if, ands or buts”. Remember $2.74 per day will equal $1,000 at the end of the year.

• My opinion is that your retirement savings should come first because you can’t borrow for your retirement, you have much less time to do both, and you don’t want to be a financial burden on your kids in your retirement years

Now for the kids:

• They should be working their hardest to earn top grades and apply for scholarships. Have them check with their guidance counselor for local scholarships. In our little town of Hood River, Oregon, there’s over $100,000 available in local scholarships!
• The kids should be putting aside at least 10% of any earnings they have or gifts they receive in their college savings.

Check out the college savings plans called “529″ . They are administered by your state and there may be some tax advantages. The earnings are tax-free if they are used for approved college expenses and they don’t count as your children’s assets (or in financial aid calculations). They also belong to you so they can’t go out and buy that cute little red car when they turn 18!

Warmly, Cindy

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Save for Retirement or College?