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Joanne and Peter have been married for three years and have just started to deal with the reality of blending their money and making joint decisions. Planning to buy their first house has forced them to face the fact that there are con...
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Have you ever wondered why money seems to work so well in some people's lives and so destructively in others? Why some people control money while others allow it to control them? Or why some of us can manage it so effortlessly to fulfill life'...
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June is just around the corner, and it's the season for couples to finalize their wedding plans.
Most engaged couples have planned their weddings with greater care and enthusiasm than they have planned how they will manage their money. And...
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Barbara had been a teacher for more than twenty-five years. She married in her early twenties, divorced six years later and was still single at 52. Her constant companion was monthly payments: furniture, a car, and TEN credit cards. She ...
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Your money personality is one of the most important factors to consider in making a financial plan that will succeed in giving you both satisfaction and security in life. Your personality plays such an important role in determining your goals and ho...
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Brad was in his mid-forties, divorced, and the father of a sixteen-year-old daughter. He was raised to believe that money is indeed the root of all evil and that the pursuit of money would bring unhappiness and pain. His pa...
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I was recently asked to give advice to a reader who was having difficulty tearing up her credit cards. She was caught in the common dilemma of living beyond her means. She wanted to buy her family nice things, yet she knew she shouldn't. They couldn't rea...
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Three years ago, Jim and Laurie were on top of the world, rich in money and spirit. They had done well in the stock market with their 401k plan, especially their tech stocks. They were so confident in their future they ...
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I usually write about clients and people I know, but this time I want to share a personal story with you - my own. For the past twenty years I've dedicated my career to enhancing the way people make financial decisions, so they achieve the goals tha...
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The best way to achieve your financial goals is to set several small goals rather than one big one. Large goals are often overwhelming and therefore too difficult to achieve. Smaller goals, implemented over time, usually have higher success ra...
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Murray was a procrastinator and perfectionist who took three months to decide where to put his IRA. Beth, his wife, explained his dilemma: He wants a ton of money without any risk.
Murray took even longer to decide what house he want...
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When Barbara went into graduate school to study journalism, even her professors warned her that she had chosen a low-paying field. Never mind, she thought. She was fueled by a passion to make a positive contribution to the world ...
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Ronald, age fifty-three, was a successful account executive for an international advertising agency. Divorced, he had no financial obligations, since his children had graduated from college. He owned a beautiful home in a beach community and a...
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Harry and Penny were in their mid-thirties and facing the types of toughdecisions many young couples face. Harry was feeling a lot of financial stress when I met him because he wanted to provide a better style of life for his family. Penny, h...
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For most couples, the question isn't "Have you ever fought about money?" It's "How often do you fight about money?" There's no getting around it, money provides plenty of fodder for marital discord. In fact, money is one of the most contentious issu...
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Like adults, children have distinct money personalities. From an early age, children give clear signals of how they think and feel about--and are therefore likely to behave--with money.
We routinely try to change behavior patterns we think...
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Bob and Susan are in their mid-50s. They live what most people think of as The Good Life. Their income is solid, yet they are house poor. They would like to retire in a couple of years but have locked themselves into having to work to support ...
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How do you know if you could benefit from the services of a qualified financial planner? You may not have the expertise, the time or the desire to actively plan and manage certain financial aspects of your life. You may simply want help getting started. Y...
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What's your comfort level with taking financial risk?
If you're puzzled in how to honestly respond, you're not alone. Most people find out their true comfort level with risk only after the fact--that is, after they've lost money. ...
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Until the Enron debacle, you may have thought you didn't need to pay attention to your 401(k) plan. As long as you were making regular contributions, and someone else was responsible for managing it, you could believe all was well. That approac...
