re: best explanation of how money works I have seen... Do yourself a favor and watch this now!

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Use A Broker to Sell Your Business

re: thinking about selling your business?
watch this short video first.




File under: business-brokers, business selling, how-to-sell-your small-business, business-finance

Thinking about selling your business? Do these things to make the process easier

 by Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC, CSA
Living Wealthy Financial Group

If you are seriously considering selling your business, there are three things you can do right now that will ensure you have a successful, stress-free, and profitable selling experience.


1.Prepare a comprehensive exit strategy.  

A profitable business sale could potentially be jeopardized by an owner on an emotional roller coaster,  After all, there is definitely an intense connection to this business you've worked hard to build.   Avoid an uncomfortable sleep on the bed of regrets by preparring your exit blueprint long before you begin the process of finding a buyer.  Your emotions are far less likely to tank the sale if you do this with a view to your future life plans.  Be sure to include your family in the planning process, especially if they have been working in the business for a while.  At Delta Business Services, we can help you make an exit plan that will keep you from going crazy when the time comes to leave your business.

2. Start preparing the business to run without you.. far in advance. 
Nothing turns off potential buyers quite as much as a business that looks as if it won't be profitable without the owner.  Start stepping back a little, delegate more responsibility to a family member or employee.  Do everything to create profitable systems that a new owner can continue- without you being involved.

3. Be realistic when valuating your business...  Far too often, business owners are unrealistic about how much money they hope to get from the sale of their business.  Business valuation is based on quantifiable criteria, not what an owner thinks it's worth.  You need to be sure to get an objective third-party valuation early in the process and work hard to do things that will increase the value.

For more tips and actionable ideas to help you exit your business with a lot more money in your pocket, get our free report:

What do you do when you've fallen out of love with your business?

Download it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/r2d4o22puuy37h8/What_to_do_when_you(1).doc

de Gaulle Had it Right in 1965

re: full interview with Charles Hugh Smith

from Teresa... 


On October 6, I had the privilege of having one of the 21st century's most original thinkers and trend analysts on the show.

If you've never heard of Charles Hugh Smith, then you have definitely been missing out.  A prolific author, blogger, and commentator, CH Smith isn't afraid to go against the grain when it comes to making predictions about natural resources. finance, and education.

Smith's latest book "The Nearly Free University" challenges the near-religious fervor of those who believe that a costly university education is the only path to success in the modern world.

Check out the full show here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFXRv5e2wxQ&feature=youtu.be

re: Obamacare update with Rick Liuag


from Teresa...

The opening of the Obamacare "marketplaces" on October 1 has done little to nothing to assuage fears of widespread implementation chaos.

So I asked Rick Liuag to give a short update on what has happened since October 1 and offer you some of his strategies to ensure you can afford affordable healthcare.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmmZzZnxKwE

 

Also, if you missed the first interview I did with Rick- you can watch it now at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5EApBrdHzk

A Fine Estate of Affairs: 7 Common Estate Planning Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Best Laid Plans

By Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC, CSA

Living Wealthy FinancialGroup

The first thing you need to know about estate planning is this:

Everyone has an estate plan, whether they create their own via attorney-directed wills and trusts, or whether they allow the state to enact a default plan on their behalf. 

This default plan, put together through what are known as the laws of intestacy, allows the state to decide who gets what when you die and also lets them take the maximum amount of tax possible from your estate.

In my opinion this is the very worst thing that could happen to the legacy you’ve worked so hard to leave to your loved ones.  Yet, there are thousands of people who die each year without even a simple estate plan; leaving their families to deal with taxes and other consequences.

So, the first mistake in estate planning is simply to not have a plan in place when you die.  What, then, are other common mistakes people make when preparing for the final stage of life?

Estate attorneys have identified some of the most common estate planning mistakes; mistakes that, each year, result in a myriad of problems for the ones left behind.

Here are just 7 of the most common estate-planning errors:

1. Forgetting the IRS is NOT on your side.  The government wants you to die wealthy because it results in more cash for them.  Therefore, they have a vested interest in you not taking advantage of laws and strategies which can result in your estate paying ZERO taxes. 

You may realize that there are only 3 real ways to reduce estate taxes: give money away while you are still alive, spend the money now, or use a specially-designed trust called a bypass trust that lets you give it away while you are alive while retaining use of the money for yourself.

The IRS is banking on you being the kind of thrifty, careful person who has a hard time letting go of the money you so painstakingly accumulate…because they’ll have more money to TAX!

2. Failing to Ensure Benficiaries Are Correctly Designated on Retirement Accounts

Often times, the beneficiaries of retirement accounts will change, particularly if the primary beneficiary dies before the account owner.

In most cases, the account owner is required to complete a new beneficiary designation form, indicating the new beneficiary. Failure to do so might result in the beneficiary being determined under the default terms of the retirement account agreement.

Payout options under most retirement plans often depend on whether the beneficiary is a spouse of the account owner.. There can be unintended and adverse tax repercussions for those who are not careful in this matter. 

3. Inadequate life insurance
Because of the specially designed Bank on Yourself ™ whole life policies used in the financial plans designed by Living Wealthy Financial Group, inadequate life insurance is not a problem for our clients.
However, for most people it is a BIG issue.

According to a recent Metropolitan Life Insurance survey, more than half of the widows and widowers who collected life insurance proceeds in the United States received less than one year’s income.  
If you are concerned about not having enough life insurance, please give our office a call to arrange a personal consultation. We can go over your insurance to ensure that you have the right amounts for your goals.


4, Wrong guardian listed for your children     If you don’t have a will, the state decides who will care for your minor children. However, if you do have a will, be sure to review it regularly . Check to see if your original guardian is still valid and still willing to take on the responsibility.  Things could have radically changed for your guardian such as their job situation or they could have new financial challenges.


5. No medical power of attorney and living will or those documents are not valid
Even if you have a medical power of attorney or living will in place, it is always best to assume that these documents weren’t correctly executed or notarized and are not valid. 
Assuming this will force you to review those medical papers with an attorney to be sure they are valid in your state and that you’ve addressed every important issue.
If you do not have these documents on file, you are creating a potentially devastating situation for your loved ones should you become incapacitated due to a medical problem.
Without a proper durable power of attorney, no one can access funds to pay for your medical care or other bills.  They will also be unable to legally sell your property such as a car or real property.

6. Trying to be “fair” with your children

If you have more than one child, the temptation is great to want to divide your estate evenly with all of them.  After all, you reason, you love all your kids the same so it is only fair that each one of them gets the same share of your estate.

Unfortunately this can be a great mistake, especially in the case of a family owned business.  If you have children who participate actively in the business and others who do not, giving the non-participating child a share equal to the children who actually work the business can cause a lot of resentment and lead to family disputes.

Consider giving shares of the business to your kids who actually work in it and then give non-business-related assets to your other children. 

If you feel that this creates an intolerable imbalance, talk to my office about how to correct such an  imbalance by purchasing additional life insurance or other methods.

7.  Take my debt, please…

Sometimes the law of unintended consequences means that what is supposed to be a loving gift from a parent to their offspring can turn into a stressful financial nightmare.

For example: when an estate comprised of heavy illiquid assets is given to beneficiaries, Uncle Sam wants his cut right away..

As a result, those beneficiaries are often forced to borrow great amounts of money to pay estate taxes because the assets which created the tax situation simply don’t generate enough income to pay it.

It is common for those loans to come from banks or other financial institutions, sometimes at unfavorable interest rates.

Again, life insurance is a great solution, providing liquid assets which can be used to pay off  taxes and other costs associated with settling an estate.

Many of my clients fund Bank on Yourself policies  with the express purpose of providing extra cash to their beneficiaries to help them meet their tax obligations.

 

Conclusion

It never ceases to amaze me that most people spend more time planning their social calendars than they spend on planning their financial futures. 

Yet, few things will have as much impact on your happiness and sense of well-being than knowing you have a current, complete estate plan in place. 

If you haven’t talked with an estate planner lately (or at all) call our office 

today at  (800) 382-0830    

We can arrange a free consultation with one of our hand-picked estate attorneys who have partnered with us to provide competent, ethical, and thorough estate planning services to all our valued clients.

Sorting out the myths and realities of Obamacare

re: Living Wealthy Radio Interview with Rick Liuag

by Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC. CSA
Living Wealthy Financial Group

There's a lot of confusion surrounding the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as
"Obamacare."  There are also many questions.

For example: Who qualifies for subsidies under Obamacare?

Who gets their healthcare for "free?"

What happens if you're a low-paid employee but your employer provides insurance?  Are you better off keeping your employer's insurance...or getting subsidized health insurance from an Obamacare marketplace? (exchange)

How does Obamacare affect seniors on Medicare?  How are families making over the threshold for subsidies affected?

For the answers to these are other important questions regarding the impact of the Affordable Health Care Act on the finances and health of Americans, I turned to insurance specialist and Obamacare expert Rick Liuag.

Check out the one hour interview below and be prepared to be surprised by what you learn about the most controversial, all-encompassing piece of legislature to come through the pipeline in a long time.


File under: Obamacare-facts-video, All About the Affordable Care Act, Understanding Obamacare, Free-Obamacare-Report

PS: You can get your copy of the free Obamacare report by going to:

http://www.livewealthier.assistanceobamacare.com/

Living Wealthy Interview- Dr. Mark Millar- "The Lithium Doctor"

re: Living Wealthy Interview- Dr. Mark Millar- "The Lithium Doctor"

Dr. Mark Millar's recent guest spot on Living Wealthy Radio  yielded a ton of valuable insights into lithium orotate, a mineral supplement that is improving the mental and physical health of thousands of people across the nation.

Given America's chronic mental health problems, there has never been a greater need for alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs, many of  wind up exacerbating conditions such as bi-polar disorder and depression.  Dr. Millar's success in treating his own bi-polar disorder using lithium orotate, led him to do extensive research on this mineral supplement, concluding that many people with chronic mental conditions, as well as physical ailments such as high blood sugar, could benefit from supplementing with lithium orotate.

Safe-Fails and Fail-Safes: How to Find Success by Embracing Failure

re: how entrepreneurs can embrace failure and avoid burnout


by Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC, CSA
President, Living Wealthy Financial Group
Host of  Living Wealthy Radio

Dreaming of finding a huge fortune, an entrepreneur bought an old safe at an auction. The business from which the safe had come had been closed for many years and no one had the combination.
Undaunted, he called a locksmith to try to get the safe open.

The first locksmith told the businessman that it would cost forty dollars to open the safe intact. However, after trying several different methods, he was unable to open it,. “You’ve wasted your money,” he told the entrepreneur..

Still, the entrepreneur refused to believe that the safe could not be opened.

He decided to call another locksmith who turned out to be a curmudgeonly, grizzled old man.   The old locksmith examined the safe carefully, wrote down the name of the manufacturer and went back to his truck. Shortly, he returned with a drill, a special bit,  a ruler, and a small, bent piece of metal.

Measuring a few inches from the dial the locksmith drew an “x” on the dial at the 2 'clock mark and began to drill.

After more than an hour, he was able to drill through the safe. . He then took the bent metal piece, put it through the hole and moved it around until a loud “CLICK” was heard.

Turning the handle the door swung open slowly.

The safe was empty.

Disappointed, the entrepreneur turned to the locksmith and asked the charge for opening the safe.

“A hundred and fifty dollars,” replied the locksmith.

“A hundred and fifty dollars?!” shouted the businessman, “Are you kidding me! The other locksmith only wanted forty!  I want to see an itemized bill for your work.”

“Okay.” The locksmith went out to his truck and returned a few minutes later,.  He handed the entrepreneur a dirty piece of crumpled paper upon which was written

 Charge for drilling hole: $40
Charge for knowing WHERE to drill hole: $110.

You might have heard that joke before.  But I like it because it reminds me of two important characteristics that ever entrepreneur needs: willingness to take a risk, and the ability to embrace failure.

Media celebrity Geraldo Rivera endured a similar "safe-fail" in 1986; one that threatened to end his career but wound up furthering it instead.


The 2 hour special : The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults was broadcast live on April 21, 1986, having been preceded by some of the most intense hype in television history. 

The program included IRS agents, ready to pounce on any Capone cash they found, as well as a medical examiner just in case there was a body or two uncovered.  Millions were spent on producing and promoting the special and it drew the largest audience in history for a television special.


After a lot of emotional build-up, the vault was at last opened, revealing only dirt and several empty bottles including one Rivera claimed was moonshine.  It was an embarrassing let-down which theoretically should have ended Rivera’s career.

But… we all know that it didn’t.  In fact, Geraldo, in the spirit of a true entrepreneur went on to make millions in broadcasting, hosting his own shows, producing, and doing special reports for various networks.

In his 1991 autobiography, “Exposing Myself, Rivera wrote “My career was not over, I knew, but had just begun.  And all because of a silly, high-concept stunt that failed to deliver on its’ titillating promise.”

If anything differentiates entrepreneurs from those chained forever to an employee mentality it is this: entrepreneurs are not afraid to fail, not afraid to fall on their faces in front of others or to entertain risk.    In fact, the most successful entrepreneurs embrace failure and rejection as tools with which they will eventually build something that works.

Thomas Edison said “I have not failed… I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Still, it’s never easy being rejected, having your ideas mocked, or falling on your face in front of others.

Author and entrepreneur James Altucher claims that 15 out of 17 businesses he started wound up failing, leaving him in a state of depression, despair, and self loathing.

His solution, brilliantly outlined in his latest book, “Choose Yourself, was to develop what he calls  the “Simple Daily Practices”   

“All you really need to do to get off the floor is acknowledge that it’s not your external life that needs to change (you have little control over that) but the external changes flow from the inside.” He says.
The Simple Daily Practice, means doing any one of the following things EACH DAY.

James suggests, among other things:

1. Sleeping a full 8 hours
2. Eating two meals a day instead of three
3. Going without television
4. Avoiding all junk food
5. Not complaining for an entire day
6. Not gossiping about another person
7. Returning an email from five years ago
8.Expressing thanks to a friend
9.Watching a funny movie or standup routine
10.Writing down a list of ideas…about anything
11.Saying to yourself, “I’m going to save a life today.”  Then, watching out for that person whose life you are going to save.
12. Thinking of ten people for whom you are grateful
13. Surprising someone
14. Telling someone every day that you love them
15. Taking up a hobby.  Don’t say you don’t have time.  Learn the piano, take chess lessons, do stand up comedy.  Do something that takes you out of your rhythm.

Above all, learn to stop time traveling, stop living in the past and trying to catapult yourself into the future.  Learn to live in the present, to accept failures as the most important ingredient for success.

And… have a sense of humor..

re: Hospitality from the heart...my interview with author and businessman Brandon W. Johnson

A better financial foundation...

Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy. ~Groucho Marx

By Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC, CSA

Bank on Yourself® Authorized Advisor

Host of “LivingWealthy Radio”

Tapped out and discouraged?

A study published in 2013 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows a record 28% of the respondents indicating that they have little to no confidence in ever being able to retire.

Job insecurity, inflation, tax increases, and continued high levels of debt are just a few of the legitimate concerns that keep Americans from saving for the second half of their lives.

Another contributing factor is that the same money strategies that might have worked, albeit often in a hit-and-miss fashion, in the past, simply aren’t viable in this new age of economic flux.  The evidence of this failure is hard to ignore- it’s literally all around us.

I’d like to suggest that it’s time to move on from conventional financial advice that has not served you well in the last few years and acquire a more contrarian approach to protecting and growing your wealth.

If you’re like most people, you’ve been content to let your CPA, financial advisor, banker, or broker handle the details of your financial future, relying on your monthly statements or an occasional phone call from the agent.  

Maybe you’ve augmented that with some iffy advice from one of the financial entertainment television shows or a newspaper column or two.

I am going to be so bold as to suggest that you need to change your money habits now, or risk being unprepared for what lies ahead.

In the future, I believe that you’ll find that more and more of life’s big decisions; decisions about everything from how to protect your cash to how to handle your health care will land squarely in your lap.  You need to be prepared to take a more informed and proactive role in those decisions.

Is what you’ve “always done” working out as you expected?  Are you where you want to be in life right now?  Are you satisfied that you have done all you can do to ensure that you and your family have the best possible futures?

If the answer is “no” to any of those questions, then you must consider what I am about to tell you very carefully.  It might run contrary to everything you think you know about money, but it might also be just what you need to hear in order to avoid making mistakes with your money from which you can never recover.

Myth Connections: How What You Thought You Knew About Money Is All Wrong

In an attempt to wring one last breath of truth out of a very tired cliché, I would like to propose that you think about building your house on a solid foundation.

I know, I know.  You’ve heard it before: at church, from a relative, maybe even in school or at work.

However, truth is truth and there is no way to deny the power of a solid foundation for your financial future.

I work with a diverse client base with people in many different phases of building their own personal economies.  Yet, even if I am dealing with my richest, most money-savvy clients, I always have them begin with a stable, secure mechanism for managing cash flow.  

For me, using specially-designed, “turbo-charged” life insurance policies is the ultimate way to achieve steady growth while staving off the erosive forces that destroy wealth.

Having such a means of securing cash in place ensures that, should a client decide they want to take advantage of real investment opportunities, they can do so with greater peace of mind.

I’m often asked why, if my methodology is so effective and so much safer than exposing one’s nest egg to banks and Wall Street, more people aren’t taking advantage of it.

The biggest barrier, I think, is the lack of financial education in our country.  Most Americans aren’t told the truth about money, especially when they are young.  

We aren’t made aware that money is organic, that it is susceptible to erosion from forces over which we exercise little to no control.  

They don’t call it a “nest rock,” but rather a “nest egg.”  

Imagine you had a big box of rocks.  You take those rocks to a secret location, bury them, and then return years later to collect them.  

What would you find when you opened that box?  Rocks- still in the same condition as when you left them.

If, on the other hand, you buried a box of eggs and then, ten years later, you went to retrieve them, what would you have?

Reeking globs of organic matter that barely resemble the original eggs!  

The reason for that transformation, of course, is that outside forces, such as heat, rain, and the chemical makeup of the eggs themselves, have combined to transform them into something else; something that we’ll never be able to use.

There’s a reason eggs have expiration dates stamped on the carton.

Money, too, has its version of an expiration date.  While you don’t actually see it printed on currency or advertised on the news, the idea that money expires becomes apparent when we don’t make good money choices; when opportunities are lost or the high price of financial ignorance, what I call the “dumb tax” must be paid.  

Money only stays fresh so long.  You have a limited window of opportunity after it is earned to put into place sound strategies that will help it grow safely, without exposure to risk, unnecessary taxes, and other erosive elements. 

That’s why getting a good financial education is one of the best things you can do to protect your future.

In the United States (and probably elsewhere as well) people certainly aren’t given much direction as to what to do with money- how to grow in a safe, steady, and sane manner.  

The results of this lack of education become apparent later in life when we are earning our own money and making our own financial decisions.  This is the time when we fall prey to what I call “whizzdumb”- information doled out by our friends, family, and the financial entertainment industry that isn’t very wise at all.  

We also watch television programs and read books that tell us things like “no pain - no gains.”  “You have to put all your money on Wall Street to get ahead.”  We learn that permanent life insurance is bad and that we should always “buy term and invest the difference.” 

Slick marketing campaigns have many convinced that they must always court risk to make gains, and turn to our friends the bankers when we need a loan or a safe place to put our cash.

There are dozens and dozens of money myths which I could debunk.  Due to space limitations, however, I want to focus on just a couple of the most persistent and pernicious of those myths.

1. All you need to retire is to fully-fund your 401 K

When the current economic crisis hit, millions of ordinary Americans saw their "safe and secure" 401 K accounts losing hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. 

Unfortunately, a lot of those people were at or near retirement and had little time to recoup that lost money.

Those same people also discovered another dirty secret:

Many 401 K plans contain hidden, but very costly fees that some financial advisors fail to take into account when designing plans for their clients.

If you are one of the rare people who actually read your monthly statement, the fees may not seem significant enough to cause worry.

However, just 1% in excessive fees can hurt you... big time! 

To further compound the problem, there are many plans where the fee is charged based on a percentage of your balance.  This means that becoming a diligent saver actually HURTS you.

What if there was something you could do to help you avoid paying unnecessary fees and help you get back some of the thousands of dollars you've been giving away simply because you don't know the alternatives?

Would knowing this information help you reach your goal of having a safe, prosperous retirement?

I believe it WOULD... 

That's why I sponsor webinars and workshops to educate ordinary people on how they can become their own sources of financing for major purchases, business expansion, college tuition, etc.

Using a simple, but effective system, you can accumulate wealth more quickly and safely than you ever thought possible, and accelerate the process of getting out of debt.

Bad advice and myths share something in common: when either of them is repeated often enough and by the right people, they become so ingrained in a culture that anyone challenging them is seen as a virtual heretic.

                                        

In the world of personal finance, as in other areas of life, myths can do a lot of damage, causing people to make decisions that, given the right information, they would never ordinarily choose to make.

Another one of the most common, and in my opinion, worse pieces of financial advice I have heard over the years is the venerable and oft-repeated mantra:

2. "Buy term life insurance and invest the difference"

You've heard it on TV from those talking head financial gurus.

Or maybe it was your mom or dad, looking stern and waggling a finger in your direction as they repeated it to you.

Your significant other swears that “Warren Buffett does it this way.”

Your hair stylist, auto mechanic,  the guy down at the grocery store, are all true believers in the idea that buying term and investing on Wall Street is the way to  achieve financial security.

"Buy term life insurance and invest the difference” sounds logical, doesn’t it?

However, when you dig a little deeper, there are issues which "buy term and invest the difference" doesn’t address.

For example:

1.   Most of the term policies advocated by financial "experts" do not increase the death benefit level during the policy term. This means there is no remedy for inflation. (And I believe that inflation is bound to be much higher in the future!)

Bestselling author (Bank on Yourself) Pamela Yellen did the math and she figured it out:

A $250,000 20 year term policy, adjusted for 4% inflation, will have lost 56% of its value! 

Even policies which include an "increasing benefits rider" may not increase   at a rate that will overcome the erosive effects of inflation. 

2.   What if you lose your health during your insurance term?

 

Some term policies are written so that if your health deteriorates during the policy term, your renewal rates increase. If you don't renew and try to seek coverage elsewhere, you might discover that you are uninsurable - at ANY price.

3.   You can invest the difference easily enough, but you can't "time the market" or accurately predict how much money will be in your account when it comes time to retire. 

No one can possibly know the future, which, according to best-selling author  Barry Dyke (Pirates of Manhattan) is one reason that Wall Street investing is so risky and usually ends up losing you money. 

With the types of accounts I design for my clients, they always know exactly how much they have at any given time, which is absolutely crucial to planning one’s financial future accurately.

My clients don't have to worry about timing the ups and downs of the stock market and they have access to their money, when they need it.

4.   "Buy term and invest the difference" advocates usually know nothing about    the specially-designed whole life policies I use to structure my financial plans. 

The reason for this is that these policies are only written by a few select companies and have special provisions which are unlike those of traditional whole life insurance policies.

Any advisor who assists his or her clients with this type of specialized policy must have thorough training and must also be willing to forego the usual high commissions on whole life in order to make the plan work for their clients.

Thus, policies used for becoming your own personal financing source are far beyond regular whole life policies in both complexity and purpose.

5.   Most financial gurus fail to factor in the tremendous amount of money saved on interest and fees that result from implementing this type of plan.  

By financing your large purchases (ex: your car) yourself, the interest you pay ultimately benefits you, as a policy owner.  And there are no added-on fees – all fees are already taken into account in the premium you pay.  (My clients LOVE this!)  

Now, just for the record...

I believe that everyone who can afford to do so should have as much life insurance as possible. 

Term IS a great way to get more coverage for less money and if you can get term, you should have it.

However, the primary reason for getting one of the specially-designed whole life policies has little to do with the death benefit.
 

Instead, the idea behind these policies is to provide you with a savings and cash management vehicle that gives you growth, stability, and safety in sharp contrast to the ups and downs of the stock market. 

Also, when you use the money in your policy to make major purchases, it can continue to grow as though you hadn't touched a dime of it.  Only certain companies offer this feature, and I put my clients’ policies with those companies.

The permanent insurance you also get is just icing on the cake...

You can find out more about how to avoid paying too much money to banks and finance companies.

There are lots more financial myths that threaten your savings.  Do your own research and take action.  You can start by getting my free report and other valuable financial planning information now.  Just go www.livingwealthyfinancial.com and fill in the form to request your financial education materials.

Happy Mom's Day- Here's Something Hopeful and Inspiring for moms and those who love them

re: Reon Schutte interview

from Teresa Kuhn...



Recently, I interviewed Reon Schutte, a former South African elite special forces soldier who spent over 13 years in one of the worst prisons in the world, after having been captured in battle.

Reon's incredible story of survival against all odds will challenge and inspire you.  This is a short excerpt from our interview.  For more- check out Living Wealthy Radio.com.

Tired of Seeing YOUR Life Savings MURDERED by banks?

By Teresa Kuhn, JD, RFC, CSA

Bank on Yourself ® Authorized Advisor

With interest rates at historic lows, it’s no wonder many people, perhaps even you, have decided that the mattress/coffee can method of cash management is looking better every day.

The virtual freezing of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which has been a boon to mortgage applicants but a punch in the gut for savers, does not look headed for a thaw anytime soon.  The Fed has repeatedly indicated its’ aims to keep the rate between 0% and 0.25 %  until at least 2015.

Couple that with the steady, erosive force of inflation, which some experts believe is actually around 8% (versus the 2-3% of “official” statistics) and you get some insight into just why it seems the average American can’t get ahead.

Obviously, traditional safe cash management tools are coming under scrutiny from savers who are looking for any relief they can get from artificially low interest rates.

One popular way to achieve a measure of liquidity, safety, and higher rates of return in the past was to “ladder” certificates of deposit. 

Laddering involves buying a series of CD’s with incremental maturity dates and was a method employed by people looking for higher returns than a money market account, but still in need of some liquidity.

 Bankrate.com’s Craig Guillot gives an example of how the laddering strategy is supposed to work:

“For instance, a person might invest $50,000 by buying 10 CDs with maturity dates every six months. Each CD acts as a rung on the ladder and as each CD matures, the money is reinvested in a long-term CD, typically five years. The proceeds are then reinvested into more long-term CDs, but as each maturity date arrives, the holder of the CD ladder has the opportunity to put those funds into higher yielding CDs or access the cash penalty-free if need be.”

Success using laddering, however, is dependent upon excess yields stretching out for many months and years, and most financial experts just don’t see that happening anytime in the near future.

Add to that the fact that laddering ties up your money for five years or longer and you can easily see why it’s not a very appealing idea for most people.

So, if you can’t rely on banks and their products, such as CD’s, where CAN you park your cash so that you can keep pace with inflation, access your funds when YOU need them, and have a measure of proven safety?

Of course, I recommend Bank on Yourself ® as the ultimate cash management tool.

Now, I know what many of you are thinking:  

How can becoming one’s own personal bank possibly address the issue of inflation if true inflation is over 8%?

Well, for one thing, the type of insurance companies approved for use by authorized Bank on Yourself advisors have most of their investable assets places in long-term, high-yield bonds.  

These bonds are exceptionally high quality instruments whose interest rates generally increase as inflation increases.  After all, the Fed can only keep the lid on the boiling cauldron so long before they are forced to start raising interest rates.  The kinds of bonds backing a BOY plan are poised to take advantage of this when it happens.  

I have found that BOY plans do as well, or even much better, than other vehicles when it comes to keeping pace with inflation.  An additional advantage of BOY is the fact that with investments such as stocks and mutual funds, you could wind up losing not only the purchasing power of your money, but your ENTIRE investment.  Many of us have seen large chunks of our money disappear just that way.

Also, if you build up equity in your Bank on Yourself policy, you have the flexibility to use that money to take advantage of investment opportunities that come your way, knowing that the balance of your BOY money is still growing, no matter what happens to your other investments.     This is priceless peace of mind that most other financial strategies just can’t provide.

Another great feature of a correctly-designed BOY policy is that its’ efficiency will actually increase every year, giving you a cash value and death benefit which are guaranteed and which grow exponentially.  This is due to the special way in which Bank on Yourself policies are structured.

The dividend-paying whole life policies backing BOY ensure that it is a much more solid, stable, and secure cash management tool than anything offered by banks these days.  Add to this the attractiveness of being able to call your own shots when it comes to accessing and using your money, and you can see why I recommend BOY as the cornerstone of all my clients’ financial plans

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But, don’t just believe me.  Do your own research. 

Call my office at (800) 382-0830 or go to  www.livingwealthyfinancial.com  and I will be glad to send you a free information packet loaded with resources to help you determine whether or not Bank on Yourself is right for you and your family.

Beware the Money-Printing Cults!

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