Personal Financial Strategy the podcast

Robert Miller - Turning your dream into a Success

“It is the act of trying, that gives you that inner satisfaction and happiness.” Robert Miller
Today, we're going to be talking with Robert Miller, host of the follow your dream podcast, where he interviews lots of dream followers, some who have taken the leap to pursue their passions and dreams.
In this episode, Robert will be sharing with you his own pursuit and passion story and his motivation to venture into what he does today.
Listen in!
I started out with a dream when I was young, which was a music dream and I studied music and played several different instruments.
Like so many people, I got way off track and I attribute it to life getting in the way.
I graduated college, and I was a broadcasting and film major but in between my filming and my music I was very unhappy about the whole thing.
A friend of mine suggested that I join law school which I did and ended up doing well enough in law and started working as a lawyer which commanded 23 hours a day from me.
My goal was to do law during the day and play music at night but I had no way in the world to do that and so I stopped playing music for 15 years.
I always had the dream inside of me and it took me decades to finally get to the point where I did return to music on a full time basis.
When I was in my 40s I started to play music again but more like a hobby and I put a band together and did some recordings.
It took me until I turned 60 to live the life I always wanted to live and that was the big wake up call for me and I jumped into the deep end of the pool.
Dreams come in all different shapes and sizes and there's all different ways that you can approach these things.
You have to be flexible to adjust your plan and take a series of baby steps.
When I decided to do what I'm doing now, which is music full time, plus my podcast, I sat down and I wrote on a napkin the first five or 10 steps that I needed to take.
I encourage anybody that is thinking of the kind of move that I made, or just any move at all, to break it down into baby step.
We all live to some extent with regrets and this was a big regret for me which I didn't want to wake up at any other point in my life wishing I had given it a shot.
It is the act of trying, that gives you that inner satisfaction and happiness.
If I've given the impression that it's all a straight line to success, I don't want to give that to your audience.
You have to be willing to go through obstacles that you face because nothing is a direct line and you just have to keep your eye on the goal at all times.
Probably in your life, you have more doubts and more inhibitions than anybody else does and for me, I kept fighting that.
My message to people is that not every dream is going to succeed and if you simply make success as your load store, that is a pretty steep hill to climb.
People said to me that I had a pretty inspiring and motivating story and that led me to start the podcast and it started to grow and get an audience.
I don't focus on one type of person as my guest but get all people that follow their dream one way or another to success.
I also finished up and released, what I call the follow your dream handbook which is basically a combination of my journey, my memoir, and how I did it and right away, it became a best seller on Amazon.

How much to spend on your home - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast; a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money  bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash. 
I am your host,...  Tony King,... and Today I would like to spend a few minutes chatting with listeners who are about to buy their first home or about to “upgrade” their home. 
Let me start by stating “there has never been a better time to leverage a real estate purchase than today”
Cost of Money =Low
No crystal ball,.. But I can not see a time in our typical mortgage horizon (30 years) when interest rates will be significantly lower, but I do think it’s a solid bet that over the next 30 years we will see significantly higher mortgage interest rates.
2020 and 2021 has seen large amounts of cash infused into the economy and even my High School economics book would predict two outcomes: 
Inflation - we are already experiencing this,.. We see it at the grocery store, at the gas pump and it has started to push home prices up. At least in my area of the country
The other historically predicted outcome would be a significant uptick in the cost of money i o w Interest Rates.
To Date November 2021 we have not seen this with 30 year mortgage rates at: 2.9%
And 15 year notes at: 2.25%
From a cost of money standpoint the time to buy a home or upgrade is ……… now!
Of course there are more things to consider than the cost of money and in fact, the primary consideration is “How much home should I buy”? 
Let me rephrase that into a better question: “How much home can I buy while still making a real monthly investment into my financial future?”
Whew ! That is a loaded question,... loaded with assumptions. Did you catch all the assumptions in that question?  Here they are:
#1 - The question assumes you have saved up a minimum of $2000 cash,.. ready to cover any emergency that may suddenly pop up!
#2 - The question also assumes that in addition to the $2k emergency fund you have tucked away 6 months worth of living expenses just in case there is an unanticipated change in your earning ability.
#3- The question assumes you have paid off all existing debt and are now prepared to take on a mortgage.
#4 - The question assumes you are on track with a solid monthly Spending Plan that contributes 15% of your monthly income toward a retirement account.
And finally the question assumes you are “ready to buy” meaning you have saved a few thousand dollars for a downpayment. We recommend 20% down payments to avoid spending anything on PMI,... our next calculation will not only reveal what price range of home you can afford but by doing so it reveals how much money you will need for a downpayment. 
Hey ...there you have it 2 birds one stone!
To calculate the correct price range to shop in,.. you must have a firm grip on the Cash Flow of your household.”  for details on how to form a Cash Flow Map and Cash Flow Plan review episodes 3 and 4 of this podcast,.. It is the best investment of 16 minutes you will ever make.
One of the magical outcomes of a bonafide cash flow plan is: you will know, to the penny, how much money you have on a month-to-month basis for “investment contribution” and investment contribution is everything when it comes to your financial future.
It's pretty obvious,.. The more $ you can invest monthly,... the brighter your financial future will be.
The takeaway here is: It is important to guard your monthly contribution to investment while purchasing a home
guiding principle,.. Keeping the home mortgage payment inside our recommended range of 25% to 35% of your net monthly income, serves to provide you a home and set you up to maximize contributions to investment every month.
I know this all seems like ,.. Kinda obvious,.. And it is,.. But ask any homeowner you know,... “When you were buying your home how did you determine what price range you would shop in?” 
I would lay money you will never hear: “We bought in the price range that would allow us to maximize our monthly contribution to investments, really setting us up well for our financial future” 
And if you did hear that , you probably wouldn’t want to be friends with that person. There are so many things to consider in buying a home, all we are suggesting is that this be on your “Criteria List” and that you measure this before signing on the dotted line. 
Signing will be so much easier if you know exactly what impact this decision has on your future,...,.. 
In keeping with our pledge to bring to our listeners:
“Practical Tools You Can Use” visit our webpage at PFS.com, click on the “resources” button and there you will find a simple , easy to use calculator to determine the price range of the home you should be shopping for based on your net monthly income.
And if you are interested in how to formulate your own CFM and CFP ,.. Attend one of our Financial Wellness Webinars,.. They are live webinars and free of charge,.. Just click on the “Join the Webinar” button on the web page and choose a date and time that works for you.
Hey … thanks for listening and until next time,... kkeeeepp Strategizing!
______________________________________________________________________________
Mack,.. Invests $250 dollars a month in front line investments. ETFs IFs etc. yield ,... let's say 7%, probably more but we scale it back to account for inflation,.. We are doing rough numbers 
 
In 25 years Mack has a pile of money in the neighborhood of @ $197,000
Vs.
Michelle,.. Invests $1000 per month in front line investments ,. yielding the same 7%,.. In 25 years Michelle has a pile of money in the neighborhood of @ $788,000 roughly Half a million dollars more!
 

Krisstina Wise on Financial ”Wellness”

“When one’s life is value based, it's just setting intentions and being guided by your sense of values.” Krisstina Wise
Krisstina Wise is a real estate investor extraordinaire. She has created three businesses during her career including Good Life Luxury, The Paperless Agent, and currently the most active is a new concept called WealthyWellthy.
In today’s episode, Krisstina talks about her journey into financial wellness and why building a healthy relationship with money is key to understanding the concept of wealth and financial wellness. She is coming to us out of Park City, Utah today.
Listen in!
Wealth really comes from the kind of the etymology of wellness.
The derivative of wealth, and when we think of in terms of money, came from the root words of a life well lived.
When we are just in the hunt and chase of money, it becomes all about money and we get off track of really understanding money and its purpose.
When it's really about wellness, then there's all these different elements of wellness to live a whole and full life that's fulfilled.
What I learned through my own journey was because it was all about the money, it wasn't until I lost my physical health that I really recognized the importance of money.
The purpose of money is not to attain it.
When our whole money's about the chase, no matter how much money you make, it will never be enough because we're really missing the wellness piece.
Financial wellness takes knowledge, it takes work, passion, desire, but it's all around being healthy.
The biggest form of wealth is health.
The first two places to start is inquiring whether you have a healthy relationship with your money and knowing how much money is enough.
The language of money is really important and we use language that's been given to us as opposed to really understanding what the words mean.
For me, it's all about how much money I can manifest through creation.
I intentionally use the word create, because I'm always looking on how I can create something out of nothing, which is really what entrepreneurship is.
Our language that we use describes the mindset that we have and we can break those and start to create a whole different potentiality.
How much money is enough is organized around a philosophical question of what your good life is.
The practical piece after the philosophical piece is figuring how much it costs to live it and since your good life is different than my good life, your life will have a different number than mine.
Everybody is spending kind of 100% of what they make and the problem is people spend it in the wrong places.
Money can be a really powerful energy that can fuel us and propel us to be able to live a really good life.
Once you know the numbers and you know you're on track by putting your money away, your anxiety reduces because you have your plan.
The universe works with clarity with these fundamental laws which are always at work that once we learn them and can discover them and see them, we can work in tandem in alignment with them.
The most valuable resource is not money but time, and our money allows us to buy time.
We keep thinking that if we just work harder, then everything will become easier but the reality is this will be the pattern forever unless we're changing the way we think and behave.
My whole life was based on goals and achievements and now it is more about setting intentions and then manifesting it without being attached to the outcomes.
When we're chasing these targets and they become the goal, people end up bending their values, and justify the bending of values on hitting those targets.
When one’s life is value based, it's just setting intentions and being guided by your sense of values.

The Trusted Advisor - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast, a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash. 
I am your host,...  Tony King,... and Today I would like to spend a few minutes discussing why it is important to have a “trusted advisor” (or two or three) and pull together your own financial strategy team. 
In conversation, when appropriate, I like to ask people the question: How did you learn personal financial management?
#1 answer,...I DIDN’T ! … I’m winging it !
#2 answer,... my parents got me started and I took it from there.
Here’s the thing,.. I believe the majority of us are really just winging it. 
This is not an accusatory statement, it is a statement based on observations, my most intimate observations are my personal experience with managing our own finances.
Confession: for a large part of my adult life, I have been winging it! not blindly winging it, I mean I had some sound but vague advice given to me as a young man, things like:
Spend less than you earn
Save/Invest 10% of what you earn
Avoid debt (unless you have to)
Give away 10% of what you earn
These are all good tenants of a sound financial strategy, however,.. They lack a couple of qualities that would be really helpful,.. Like “HOW” and “WHY” and TACTICALLY how do I go about this?
Why all the vagueness and mystery? Here is a strange thing about personal finance,.... NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IT!
For reasons never openly discussed, the topic of personal finance has this cultural fence around it,.. for many people its on the same level as talking about your sex life.
Though I no longer hold this view,.. I did in the past.  And, there has been a price to pay. 
I have been deprived of the valuable input of others, friends, even family.  People that in this life “are on my side”. 
I know that had I been more willing to talk personal finance with others, even partner with others along the way, I would be miles ahead of where I am today.
When I say miles ahead, I am not saying I would have more money…. I mean I would have helped more people, experienced more joy and avoided some financial mis-steps along the way. 
Seems like a BIG ...NO DUH,.. doesn’t it? But just look:
Remember when you graduated from High School,.. Before you launched out into Career or College,.. That very helpful personal financial management course that was mandatory or no diploma for you?
You know the seminar/right of passage thing where you were taught the tactics of setting up your financial independence so that you not only ended your dependence upon your parents but were taught how to financially thrive in this world! Even to the point of not just covering yourself but helping others.
No, of course you don’t remember this EVENT/COURSE because it never happened, it doesn’t exist! ISN’T THAT AMAZING!
Think about it,.. An indispensable right of passage in life, (instruction on personal finance) ….
WE DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT. 
The question is ,... why? Why do we not talk about our personal finances with friends and why do we not teach personal finance, in detail, to our kids?
I think I know why personal finance is a no fly zone in our culture,.... Fear
More specifically …. fear of being judged by others.
More specific still,.. The judgement of choices I have made 
And you know what,... I get that. I feel that. It's one of the worst feelings I can think of and I don't think it is an irrational fear. It is a legit fear. 
The culture we live in is rife with people who are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to judge others, take people down a notch or two. I don’t pretend to know why,.. I just file this under the “Sad but True” category.
Something to think about:
I believe we all need a “team” behind us, people who want nothing but the best for us in this life. People who will help protect us from our weaknesses and encourage us in our strengths. 
It has taken a lifetime for me to gather my team and everyone on my team has a role or position. 
Can I be so bold as to encourage you to have a Team or at least a couple Trusted Advisors that you allow into your personal financial life? 
You discuss with them: financial decisions, goals, plans and dreams. Not once, but create a conversation that has regular check-ins and lasts all of your days!
Remember the criteria for Team members,.. 
They want nothing but the best for you in this life
They help protect you from your weaknesses
They encourage you in your strengths,...............................always
Doesn’t that sound splendid?  Fair warning,.. #2 the whole  “protect you from your weaknesses” thing, well,.. that can get pretty uncomfortable. Being informed of a personal weakness is never a good time. 
When someone on your team informs you of an opportunity to improve,... remember #1 -  they want nothing but the best for you in this life. This is the guiding principle for team members.
My final call to action:
Start talking about your finances to someone,... not anyone,.. But seek out a team members who can play the position of:
Wanting only the best for you in life
Who Will protect you from your weaknesses
Who Will encourage your strengths
And is willing and worthy to wear the “Trusted Advisor” hat.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THE PERSONAL FINANCE THING ALONE!
What's that? Say it stronger you say?    OK
YOU SHOULD NOT DO PERSONAL FINANCE ALONE!
Find that trusted advisor (or advisors), who will assist you to help more people, experience more joy in life and avoid financial mis-steps,...open that conversation and get to strategizing ,.... Today!
Shameless plug: This is all we do at PERSONAL FINANCIAL STRATEGY,.. The fastest way to connect with us is @ our webpage: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com , Sit in on one of our Thursday evening webinars or set up a free 15 minute consultation. We would love the opportunity to help you in any way we can.
Thanks for listening

BANKING STRUCTURE - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy,..... the podcast
a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest, and spend your hard-earned cash.
A brief review for strategists just joining us, ….
In episode one we defined a personal financial strategy in episode 2 we discuss an essential tool called the cash flow map.
In episode three we talked about how the cash flow map is used to determine a cash flow plan. 
The tools we are handing out here, build one upon the other if you missed episodes 1, 2 or 3 we recommend listening to those before proceeding to this episode.
Today,..I would like to introduce you to a concept that will add a ton of value to your PFS.
The employment of a proper banking structure.
Most people employ a banking structure that consists of a checking account and a savings account.
I think we fell into this natural ... when we first started working,  we were told we needed a checking account to send our paycheck to,..and to use this account to pay our bills,...fair enough. 
So we ran down to the local bank and we opened a checking account .. the nice banker there offered to open a savings account as well and we have been operating on this two account system ever since transferring money back and forth as we try and pay all of our bills on time and save some money.
I probably don't need to go into how inefficient this is from a cash flow standpoint. Essentially it is cash without the “flow” piece added !
I propose a banking structure that I think puts the flow to cash here we go.
This is going to be a little bit difficult to do without visual representation but I will do my best to describe it so you can picture it in your mind.
1st - a proper banking structure answers a few questions:
How many bank accounts do I need?
What type of bank accounts do I need?
and how can I make these accounts work together to optimize my cash flow?
What I will describe next is what we consider a minimal banking structure.
At bare minimum everyone needs:
1 brokerage account
2 checking accounts
1 Savings account
Using these four accounts let's give them each their proper assignments:
First the Brokerage account 
Everyone should have a flexible brokerage account at one of the large brokerage houses; Schwab, Fidelity Vanguard, etc. 
This account should have the ability to pay for what I will call “Frontline Investments",... Purchase of stocks, bonds, index, and mutual funds as well as the ability to transfer money to our checking and savings accounts which in all likelihood will be outside of the brokerage house.
For example, I use Charles Schwab, the account I have at Schwab can fund Stock purchases as well as transfer money to an outside bank … I use Midfirst Bank for checking and savings accounts and transferring cash between my primary brokerage account and my outside bank accounts are seamless.
The first assignment given to the brokerage account is to accept our monthly income from all sources. whether it be salary $ wages/ earned interest / or paid dividends  …. all income should be ported to your brokerage account.
Why? 3 reasons
Small Interest 
Frontline Investment contributions can be easily made and scheduled from a Brokerage Account
Simple / Scheduled funds transfer to my neighborhood bank
Moving on,.. 
Billing Checking Account or account #2 - the assignment for this account is:
Paying our monthly bills! Using the bill pay feature, take the monthly bills identified in column two of our cash flow plan (refer to episode3,.... apologies but episodes 2 and 3 are building blocks and this, optimized banking structure is very dependent on having a cash flow map & plan,.. If you haven’t listened to episodes 2 and 3 ,.stop now and listen,.. They are brief and essential,..OK let’s move to the next acct).
OOP Spending Checking account or account #3 - the assignment for this account is:
This account's main feature is debit cards … everybody in the family who is spending out-of-pocket cash should have a debit card attached to this account.  
This account pays for all of the spending's we identified in column three of our cash flow plan. All Monthly out-of-pocket spending is conducted using these debit cards, the reasons are pretty obvious …  Each transaction will have an electronic record which is easily tracked and categorized.
Savings Account or Account #4 - the assignment for this account is:
The primary purpose of this account is to house accrued cash toward your specific funds. 
Example: In making your cash flow plan you determined that you would take a vacation 12 months from today that would cost $3600. In your brokerage account, you would schedule a $300 cash transfer on the 15th of each month to this savings account. When vacation time rolls around next year, you know exactly where to go for the money to pay for it in full,.. no credit needed. 
This savings account is a short-term savings account, a place to park money, short-term for future purchases, a new car, a big-screen TV, vacation, new furniture,   …  things like that.
This account is optional,.. If you have more discipline than I do,.. You can let this cash accrue in your Brokerage account until you make a purchase. Personally .. I like to watch the savings account total build overtime,...this adds to my anticipation of making purchases, it also contributes to my peace of mind as I watch the number grow ,...It feels like I am stepping toward the goals I made in the cash flow plan.
Remember Your banking structure works in tandem with your cash flow plan, funding your lifestyle at the pace of your choosing.
Let's talk for just a second about how these two concepts work together.
Done Properly, your cash flow plan is a detailed guide to how you will reach all of your financial goals so let's refer back to the plan and reference our assignments for our banking structure.
This is the fun part,.. TELL YOUR MONEY WHERE TO GO ...AND WHEN TO GO!
Once you have prescribed all of your income to flow into your brokerage account you can then go into the brokerage account and give assignments for each of the following three accounts.
for account number 2 the billing account
Reference your cash flow plan which gives you the monthly total needed to pay all of your monthly bills, Take that total and multiply it by .51, then schedule your brokerage account to cash transfer on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This amount. 
Example simplified for podcast purposes”
Cash Flow Plan says we have monthly bills that total $1000, .51 of $1000 = $510, In the Brokerage account I set up scheduled transfers on the 1st and the 15th of each month of $510, total transferred = $1020 more than enough to cover the monthly bills.
You may discover that you pay more monthly bills in the first half of the month. If that is the case you would change how much is transferred on the 1st transferring more on the 1st and less on the 15th I hope that makes sense?
It might take 2 - 3 months to figure out the monthly “demand” of your Bill Pay account but that is ok,.. As long as you stick to the “Plan” … in our example,..no more than $1020 goes into the account each month.
Once you get this set,.. It is just like the infomercial says “Set it and forget it” unless one of your monthly bills changes you never think about these bills again.
For account number 3 the out of pocket expense account
Again going back to the cash flow plan you will have a monthly total but a small change is recommended here. We recommend transfers on the 1st and 15th of the month -  53% of the monthly total.
It is easier to program this account to meet your plan because out of pocket spending happens throughout the month and typically is not loaded on one end of the month or the other however we recommend monitoring this for the first three months you may be able to reduce the twice monthly deposits If you find that @ the end of the month you have significant cash building in this account.
For account number 4  - the savings account
As discussed earlier this account is actually optional but if you put it to use ... just make sure that all of your monthly “funding of funds” hits this account on prescribed dates. 
Personally I like the visual this account represents. It's always there saying keep going you're on the right track!
OK I have to be honest … describing the banking structure with words difficult if this was as clear as mud to you please go to our website at www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and click on the resources Tab,  there you will find a graphic depiction of a proper banking structure
Key Takeaways:
Invest time in forming your cash flow plan,..its critical
Combining a CFP with proper banking structure allows you to automate your financial life
Using a brokerage account to house your cash,  leverages modern banking technology to add structure to your:
frontline investing 
bill paying 
out of pocket spending 
& saving for future purchases 
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,.. Visit the website www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and get your Cash Flow Mapping Tool and take a look at our recommended banking structures.
 
Until next time. 
Keep strategizing

THE CASH FLOW PLAN - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy…..  the podcast
a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money 
bringing expertise to bear on how you:
earn
invest 
spend your hard earned cash 
Hopefully you have visited our webpage at www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and you have picked up your free cash flow mapping tool…if so,.. You will find today's episode especially gratifying!
To review, in our last episode,. I laid out the five categories needed for a comprehensive cash flow plan they are:
Again visualizing spreadsheet with five columns from left to right the first column is:
income from all sources
monthly bills
monthly out of pocket spending
savings funds
And investment contributions
Now let's go to each column and talk about where we get the data to populate each of them.
Column 1 should contain our monthly income from salaries and wages to interest income you might be earning, passive income you might realize from investments, everything that comes in on a monthly basis should be listed in column one. Sources for this data will be statements that you receive on a monthly basis like your paycheck stub the, a monthly statement from your brokerage account etc.
Column 2 is populated by all of our repeating monthly bills.  For example our utility bills, our car loan payments or rent/mortgages payments. In sourcing this data we recommend using the online technology from your bank. The simplest way to do this is; Sign into your banking software, go to your checking account and download all historical transactions from the first of one month to the 31st or last day of that month. typically your online banking software will download these transactions in a spreadsheet format, from there you can pick out your monthly/repeating bills to populate column number 2
Column 3 is monthly out of pocket spending, ideally this spending should be categorized. This data will be in the spreadsheet that you downloaded to grab your repeating monthly bills, column number 2,  however there will be many transactions to all kinds of vendors we recommend for the first pass on a cash flow map that you not categorize every expenditure but concentrate on the “Big 5” categories, getting total monthly spend for:
Restaurants 
Groceries 
Gasoline 
Clothing 
and a catch all category... Merchandise (lately the easy way to track this is to total your spending on Amazon 
Column number 4 is titled funds FUNDS
funds are a little set aside or accrual for a financial goal that you have placed in your future for the exercise of cash flow mapping we recommend a few like an Emergency Fund .. holiday fund,..or a fund to make a large purchase like a new car.
What we are doing here is setting aside money each month for large purchases to avoid carrying balances on credit cards. You can still use credit cards for major purposes gaining all those sexy air miles but you pay them off in full at the end of the month using the funds accrued in your “Fund”.
For sure this is the practice of delayed gratification (not popular in today's online get it now world) but it's one we highly recommend and in practice  we think you will find that you have more cash available than you realized.  That's a great feeling.
Lastly in Column 5 goes your desired amount of monthly contribution to Investments
There .. now you have it laid out in five neat columns totaled at the top…. I cannot emphasize enough how important this one tool is... as it is the starting point to attain financial clarity. 
this one sheet will inform you,.. will give you insight,... and is the single best tool to get control over your finances.
If you have a populated CF Map,.. it's time to Harvest Information Insight and control over your personal finances by employing a cash flow plan 
This plan is based on real numbers, your income from pay stubs and investment reports and downloaded spending from your checking account(s) and pulled from your Card statement  … now looking at your map.
What do you notice? What pops off the page for you?
The first time I did this … there was a number that leaped off the page and hit me square between the eyes.
my wife and I were spending,...I'm embarrassed to say this but  Our restaurant spending for the month was about 75% of our mortgage payment at the time.! You see,  I am so embarrassed that I can't even tell you the exact number!
OK so this is a good starting point for turning the dials on your cash flow map...to make a cash flow plan.
My wife and I agreed that the restaurant spending was completely out of hand while we enjoyed going out to restaurants with our friends, this is definitely a valued part of our lifestyle but,.... The amount we were spending bordered on the irresponsible.
That's the bad news,.. the good news is we agreed on a number about half of our monthly average spending in restaurants not only leaves us opportunity to dine out with friends on a fairly regular basis but also freed up a few $100 that we could then add to our monthly investment column. After a few months of this one changed behavior,.. eyeing the new rate of growth in our investment column,..we felt great! 
It gets better,.. Restaurant spending was just the 1st item we adjusted to create what we like to call a “Spending Plan”. We began a process of twisting the dials in every column to maximize our cash flow. It is an eye opening experience. We had money leaking out of the bucket everywhere,.. And this was the big contributor to the “out of control” feeling attached to our personal finances. 
I know what you are thinking “ oh so you started living on a budget” no it's much more than that,.. we started to live by a spending plan. We like the term SPENDING PLAN better than BUDGET for a few reasons.
A budget may be necessary in the beginning of getting your finances under control, depends on the situation but budgets typically are one dimensional they are focused on spending exclusively whereas our cash flow plan gives us the opportunity to address each of the five categories on our map making it more comprehensive, more dialed in and allowing us to optimize our cash flow month in and month out.
Every plan has an author and that author is responsible for the plan he or she writes it and it is up to the author to execute the plan.
Budgets On the other hand once constructed feel like the budget is acting on me. The BUDGET is not really a part of me,.. It can take on a life of its own, an outside force trying to get me to change my behavior and , at least for us,.. It contributed to a scarcity mentality many of us battle when thinking of money as the author of the spending plan  … I am in control!
If the plan goes wrong…. I have no one to blame but myself … I made the plan. 
With a SPENDING PLAN you are literally telling your money where to go.
This is the very definition of Gaining Control over your personal finances.
I hope you are following along, using the tools we have provided.
This is a place to spend an ample amount of time reviewing all of your income, all of your spending and all of your investment, setting priorities, agreeing on priorities and adjusting the cash flow plan to live up to what you truly value in life.
Hammering out a Cash Flow Plan is a very gratifying experience, watching the plan work toward your goals month to month is even better.
If you have not picked up your free CASH FLOW Mapping tool at our webpage: personalfinancialstrategy.com 
Please do so,.. It is absolutely free and it is the single best tool available to get control of your personal finances … next stop I will impart to you what we believe is the best banking structure to use for personal finances   this is important because it adds a whole layer of automation and efficiency to your personal financial plan
You will not want to miss this very practical, very valuable Personal financial hack until next time keep strategizing.
 

THE CASH FLOW MAP - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy…..  the podcast. A podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you:
earn
invest 
spend your hard-earned cash 
Let's start with the definition of the cash flow map - It is a Monthly view of all Income and all Expenses
Sounds simple,.. And it is,.. But obtaining accurate data to post in the CF Map can be a bit tricky and it requires time and effort to produce a CF Map with long term value.
The cash flow map is the cornerstone report from which all your financial strategies should flow !
I will even go so far as to say that if you are making financial decisions in the absence of a well founded cash flow map you are driving blindfolded.
Many financial coaches encourage starting with a cash flow map  … however where they fall short is in developing the map to its full potential.
Most advisors do the quick math to find out if an individual is living on less than they earn. THIS IS IMPORTANT even fundamental in setting winning strategies…. But …
A competent cash flow map uses real income data, real spending data and real investment data , to achieve an accurate snapshot of the individual's financial reality,... today.
The cash flow map is where we get all the data needed to actually make a cash flow plan kinda makes sense right? You pull out the map,.. Then you plan your route
As much as I detest old cliches,.. I am going to use one here: GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT. And This is why it is important to put ample time into constructing your cash flow map if we do not spend an appropriate amount of time making sure that our cash flow maps are up to date and accurate there is really no way to make sound financial plans going forward.
It is astonishing to me that cash flow mapping is not taught in school,.. It is so foundational … it should be taught in High School.!
OK well … Let's get to it
The cash flow map has five basic components... All of which should be viewed…. on a monthly basis …..sorry to say this ... but the best way to make a cash flow report is to use a spreadsheet,   
If the S word just made you cringe a bit,.. Hang in there we have something for you at the end of this episode.
For now just picture in your mind a blank sheet of paper, turned horizontally with 5 columns, at the top of each column is a label which describes the contents of that column,.. We will come back with tactics on how to get this data,... buckle your seatbelt,.....here we go …. Column labels from left to right:
income from all sources
monthly bills
monthly out of pocket spending
savings funds
And investment contributions
Now that we have the columns laid out ... lets talk definitions for each:
Income from all sources is pretty self explanatory
This column should include any source of monthly income like 
Salary & earnings
Dividends 
Interest Income
Monthly income payments from other sources for example rental property you own
Monthly Bills - Are bills that repeat month to month such as loan payments, utilities, mortgage payments, insurance payments …  all of these bills are easily automated using your bank's online bill pay tool.
Monthly out of pocket spending typically this is spending not included in monthly bills 
And This spending varies month to month ...the biggies for this column are usually gasoline, groceries, restaurants, medical expenses .. clothes etc.
Savings funds this is money set aside each month to pay for future spending or unplanned spending examples of funds would be:  
An emergency fund
A auto maintenance fund
A Christmas fund
A Vacation fund
Having “Funds” is a great way to inject planning into spending
Investment contributions:
We view Monthly contributions to retirement plans as investments,.. but we also want to consider things such as monthly contributions to traditional investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds and other easily purchased investments through a brokerage account.
Now in your mind's eye ….  picture column totals for each column
And from there sum the totals of columns 2 through 5
subtract that number from the total of column one this will answer the fundamental question of whether or not you live on less than you earn.
However, a well constructed cash flow map can tell you so much more it is the basis from which you can begin a process I like to call “turning the dials” to create the best cash flow plan imaginable
Have you ears glossed over yet,.. I hope not because this is good stuff and an essential element to Financial Wellness
Hopefully I have piqued your interest to the point where you are at least curious about what your own cash flow map might look like
I have good news    go to the personalfinancialstrategy.com web page and there you will find under the tools section an actual spreadsheet tool prepared just for you. 
It's in an easy-to-use format ... all you need to do is fill in the blanks!
You can do this using income and spending numbers off the top of your head to get a sense of your map, but to get an accurate map capable of informing your financial future I recommend you attend one of our Financial Insights Webinars. 
 
 A word about ..OUR WEBINARS ..  we do not run canned/recorded webinars, our webinars are actually mini-courses in Personal Finance and all of our classes are live via Zoom, and have a capacity of 15,.. use the “join a webinar “ button at personalfinancialstrategy.com  to save your seat.
 
Next Episode we will put the last two bricks in our personal financial strategy foundation and then we are off to interview guests specializing in:
Earning more
Investing more
And yes,.. Spending more ,..stretching those hard earned bucks until they scream!
We have a dandy guest line-up headed your way,..
 

Personal Financial Strategy - Tony King

Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash.
Today we will be covering the baseline:
what is a personal financial strategy? and why do I need one? let's get to defining a personal financial strategy.
First of all,..it’s a mouthful,...isn’t it,... PERSONAL FINANCIAL STRATEGY  is a system. 
One that is organizes everything you own everything you owe and all of your transactions/spending.
Then tracks these things overtime, giving the strategist the ability to measure progress and velocity toward a desired financial lifestyle.
A strategy is different than a “plan” in that a strategy can contain many “plans” all of them designed to achieve an overall aim or outcome.
Why does anyone need a PFS?
Check this out:
A Federal Reserve survey reported in 2019 (remember 2019 the year of abundance) almost 40% of American adults wouldn't be able to cover a $400 emergency with cash, savings or credit card charge they could quickly pay off.
Could this possibly be true?
Honestly I doubt the accuracy of this report but let's just say it's directionally accurate.
So let's double the figure from $400 to $800 and say that 40% of Americans could not cover a $800 emergency with their saved cash or even a credit card that they could pay off quickly.
If this is true friends … There are a lot of people in this country with a weak personal financial strategy.
Quick Story: During the last 30 days , at the king household;   our pool pump went out and we sprung a leak in the roof  …  together those two very unexpected expenses totaled about $2300.
Fortunately we have a personal financial strategy that includes an emergency fund and we were able to easily cover that sudden expense. 
However the statistic from the Federal Reserve Indicates that a fair amount of people have less than $400 in cash available to address even the slightest curveball life will throw at you.
And it's no wonder really
personal finances have never been so complicated so average Joe here likely has
some assets 
some investments
A few some credit cards
multiple bank accounts
a truckload of bills
A couple of loans 
a big fat mortgage
How the heck are you supposed to keep track of it all?
It might surprise you to know that in today's modern banking world it's quite possible to do it yourself.
All you need to do is keep listening to this podcast we will give you brick by brick the material needed to build your own personal financial strategy.
So let’s take a look at what we would call a sound PFS.
There are two foundational components to a great FS:
Cash Flow Map & Plan
Investment Plan
The cash flow Map has a few components , which we will go into in detail in the next episode. 
However, for now let's agree that a cash flow plan is what is happening with your cash now, today, 
but because cash is not static ...it is always on the move,.. Let’s look at how it flows on a monthly basis in five categories:
Your combined monthly income from all sources
Your monthly total of recurring bills.
Monthly,.. What is the average of your out of pocket spending.
What cash set asides do you contribute to every month (smallish funds for events like auto maintenance, emergencies etc.)
what investments do you fund on a monthly basis.
While the cash flow mapping plan is all about today,... the investment plan is all about tomorrow or the future.
A solid Investment Plan has one aim,..and that is:
To fund your lifestyle 100% at some point in the future    ….  we call it “Choice Age”
Choice Age should not be confused with retirement age.
In fact,..  it is a concept altogether different and one we suggest in place of the traditional idea of retirement age.
Choice age is a date in the future when money will no longer limit your ability to live the lifestyle of your choice. It quite literally means the day you start “Livin the Dream”.
How much money “Livin the Dream” requires depends on the definition of your dream life. Which of course is an individual thing.
That number should account for traditional events,.. The most common consideration is: “You stop working,.. What effect does this have on your lifestyle?” 
Of course making a “Livin the Dream” investment plan requires some amount of forecasting and few people have the resources to to get an accurate gaze into the financial crystal ball.
This is what we do for people at PFS we will help you set up a complete Personal Financial Strategy. One that at a minimum delivers.
 
A Cash Flow Map & Plan
An Investment Strategy - 
Keep in mind,.. We are all about building your financial engine, i.e. calculating real life numbers that you can invest on a month to month basis. 
We do not give investment advice; or sell investments ..  We believe you should be in the driver seat for any investment you make.
Once you make an investment then we can handle the forecasting (always based on historical assumptions).
We are all about getting you the information & knowledge you need so that you can get your finances under control.
I know there are some of you listening who are saying to themselves “I would rather brush my hair with a trout” than spend my time organizing and forecasting my financial future.
It's a valid point …. But this is really important now and I have a sense,.. the importance of this,.. Is growing. 
Remember my fellow Strategists,... if you are serious about getting your personal finances under control then investing and spending money wisely this is the podcast for you, listen to our next episode where we will teach everyone how to make a CF Map and a CF Plan.
Thanks for listening and if you want to skip ahead please visit PFS.com and schedule a phone call with us or jump into one of our live webinars.
Until next time,...

Trailer - Tony King