We have some exiting news!

We’re pleased to announce the release of our new website at www.financialexcellence.net!  The new site provides more functionality and a host of new features and resources designed to provide a higher level of Living In Financial Excellence!  Here’s a list of new features and benefits:

• Our blog is now integrated as part of the site so you no longer have to surf two separate sites.
• We’ve added an online bookstore for you to quickly purchase books and products without leaving the site.
• We’ve increased the free resources available for your benefit.
• We’ve improved the ease of navigating the site with improved content throughout.
• We’ve made it easier to keep you informed and updated with news and upcoming events.

Take a moment to check out the new site and let us know what you think!

Where Your Treasure Is…

- Time to examine your priorities.

Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6:21)   It’s been said that you can learn a lot about someone by looking through their trash.  I don’t think you have to go to such extent. It’s pretty easy to see where someone’s heart is by simply looking at their belongings.  Do you have that neighbor that spends all his time waxing his three sports cars every weekend?  Do you know someone that’s spent more on his bass boat than his retirement plan?  How about the hunting enthusiast who has every weapon, tool or gadget known to man but can’t keep his lights on because he is late on his payments?  Or the sister-in-law who has enough shoes and clothes to outfit a small army but doesn’t have enough spare change to drop a few coins in the red kettle at Christmas time?  Where do you think their heart is?  It’s pretty obvious their heart is in their earthly treasures.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with following your passions and dreams to have a good balance in life.  I want you to have the things that make you happy.  But the keys here are balance and defining happiness.    Let’s define happiness for a moment.  You can’t buy happiness.  You can buy a lot of fun, but there’s always that burning desire for more, for something bigger and better.  More money or more “stuff” won’t get you the long-lasting happiness that everyone seeks. The happiest people don’t have everything they want.  They want everything they have.
Now bring in the balance.  We are constantly making excuses for lack of action in different areas of our lives.  I often hear that we just don’t have time to sit down and do a budget together, or to track our spending, or to work out, or, or, or.  But more often than not the truth is that we have plenty of time.  We just don’t use that time wisely.  Think about how much time you spend watching television or talking on the phone?  What if you spent that much time and energy on your finances or your family?  Now there’s an idea.  Think of all the things you could accomplish if you turn off the t.v. one or two hours a week.  Finding a good balance in your life comes from examining your priorities and deciding what is truly important, then living according to those priorities.

If you’re not sure where your priorities are, look at your check register and see where your money is going.  Your treasures will be stick out like a sore thumb if you take a step back and look at it objectively. This Christmas, take some time to examine where your treasures are and ask yourself if your heart is in the right place. When your heart changes to the right place, the right treasures are not far behind.

- Matt Wegner

Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence).  Learn more about Matt at www.mattwegnercoaching.com

Saving Money this Holiday Season.

How to have Christmas on a limited budget.

Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

‘Tis the season, and for most people ’tis the season to spend out of control and get over our heads in debt.  This holiday season, I want you to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what your last name is.  If your name isn’t Jones, maybe you should consider not trying to keep up with them!  The Jones family sure looks like they are living the good life, but the truth is they are broke and in debt up to their eyeballs.  The average family today makes $48,810 and has over $38,000 in debt.  Normal is broke, overspent, and stressed out for the holidays.  I challenge you to be weird this holiday season.  Here are a few money saving tips for the holidays.

• Spend within your means. This sounds like a no-brainer, but too many people have a hard time understanding this one. You need to have a plan for your money every month.  If you don’t plan out the month, you will wind up not knowing how much to spend on different categories.  Pretty soon you use the credit card because you’re not sure if you have enough for gifts, groceries, etc.  Once you start using the credit card, it’s too easy to keep spending.

• Pay cash. Visa wants you to believe you can’t live without them, but I’d like to suggest that you really can’t live with them.  On average, people who shop with their credit card spend 12% to 18% more than if they pay with cash.  When you have cash in your hands it is much harder to overspend than with the plastic.  Plus, 78% of Americans do not pay their credit card balances off each month.  That means if you’re normal, you’re paying 18% interest on top of the 18% extra spending you’ve already done, just because you had to have it now.  This assumes you pay your bills on time and don’t have any late fees.  The bottom line:  If you can’t afford to buy it with cash, you really can’t afford to buy it on credit.

• Decide on an amount for each gift recipient at the beginning of the year. Then help yourself stick to that amount by setting aside gift money each month in a cash envelope.  This ensures your gift money is available all year long and allows you to take advantage of seasonal sales when they happen.  If you haven’t been doing this all year, set a planned amount for each person and stay within that budget.  It’s tempting to get that one item that will put you over budget, but sticking with the plan keeps your spending down, and that’s more important than feeling good for the moment.

• Negotiate prices. You would be amazed at how many retail items you can purchase for less than the marked price, if you just ask.  If the salesperson doesn’t have the authority to lower the price, consider asking to speak with the manager.  They may decline to negotiate, but you never know unless you ask.   Is there a display model the salesperson is willing to part with for a lower price?  Look for creative options.

• Offer personal gift certificates. Do you have a unique talent that you can use as a service to the gift recipient?  If you have a lawn mower you can write a gift certificate good for mowing their lawn three times.  If you are good with cars, offer to change their oil or rotate their tires for free.  If you have young nieces or nephews, give them a ticket redeemable for one day to spend with you.  With a little creativity there is no end to the possibilities here, and they are low cost options.

• Consider shopping at thrift stores, online auctions or in the classified ads. If you shop regularly you can find brand new items for pennies on the dollar.

• Take advantage of off-season closeouts and clearance sales to save up to 70% or more. Summer items are on sale right now at steep discounts.  You can save a lot of money or buy a lot more with the same budget by shopping the clearance aisles.

Keep in mind the real reason for the Holidays.  Contentment goes a long way with everything in life.  I’ve heard it said that the happiest people don’t have everything they want.  They want everything they have.  When you combine contentment with the true reason for the season, your perspective changes and it’s suddenly not so important to keep up with the Jones family or out-do yourself this year.  The simple things in life bring the greatest pleasure.  Keep your holiday shopping simple this year, and you too will experience the greatest pleasure.

Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence).  Learn more about Matt at www.mattwegnercoaching.com

The Crockpot Investor

Building wealth over time.

Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

I’ve heard a lot of complaints lately about retirement accounts performing poorly this year.  There seems to be a lot of attention focused on the last 12 to 18 months of market returns.  I find myself constantly reminding people not to look at just one year and make snap decisions with their investments.  Investing is a long term deal.  There is no investing microwave to instantly propel you into retirement.  In fact, investing is much more like cooking with a crockpot than with a microwave.

Why is investing a crockpot approach?  First, just like any cooking you can’t use just one ingredient.  There’s a main ingredient (usually the meat in our house) but there are also several other ingredients that add flavor to the total meal over time.  For instance, many people add onions, carrots, potatoes, water and other ingredients to a pot roast when cooking it in a crockpot.  Any one ingredient by itself may be ok, but it’s the combination of all the ingredients over time that add to each other to make the meal what it is. 

Secondly, when we cook with a crockpot we leave the food in the pot for a long period of time and intentionally don’t touch it.  Not only is it important to start early in the day to maximize the time spent in the crockpot, but it’s equally important not to mess with the lid too much. We might “re-balance” the ingredients by stirring them occasionally but for the most part we leave it alone all day.  That’s how good crockpot meals are made, and how good investment strategies work.  If you lift the lid after just 20 minutes, the ingredients will be still be raw and certainly won’t taste good.  The impatient cook may be tempted to quit at this point and start over with a different recipe, but the good cook knows that the best things come to those who wait.

How does the crockpot analogy apply in today’s market?  The best investment portfolio consists of many ingredients (good diversification).  Long term investments are meant for longer than 5 years, and they should be left alone except for the occasional stirring (re-balancing your asset mix).  It’s important to start as early as possible to let the investments simmer and grow slowly over time (you can’t rush compounding interest and the time value of money).    Those who stuck to their long term strategies of buying and holding well-diversified mutual funds during last year’s stock market crash have seen great returns this year and many have regained most (if not all) of their losses from last year.  They have enjoyed great gains this year and set themselves up for continued portfolio growth in the future.

Those who panicked and sold while the market was dropping like a rock locked in their losses, and many of them are still waiting for the “right time” to get back in the market.  Unfortunately for them, they missed out on the best opportunities to rebound.  Their meal is only half cooked.  For many investors, the roast was just starting to fill the room with that delicious aroma, but the ingredients were still raw.  They pulled all the food out and turned off the crockpot because they were afraid the food was overcooked.  The trouble is, the food was undercooked.  Now, the markets certainly aren’t where they were two years ago but they are climbing, and sitting it out is not a good plan.  If you want to build wealth, the best way to do it is slow and steady.

Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence).  Learn more about Matt at www.mattwegnercoaching.com.

Credit Cards May Cost You (Even if you pay it off each month)

Here’s an interesting article I found regarding hidden fees your credit card company may charge you, even if you pay off your balance every month.  Click Here to read the article.

Money Smart Week Comes to a Close

Matt Wegner presenting during Money Smart Week

What a great week teaching classes for Money Smart Week!  I’ve had a blast making a difference in the lives of all who attended the classes this week.  A special thanks to all who helped organize, plan and promote the events.  Without them this week wouldn’t be possible.  If you missed the classes this week, keep watching for updates on future offerings.

Crackdown on Abusive Debt Collectors

Getting harrassed by debt collectors?  You’re not alone. Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

If you have been receiving harrassing or threatening phone calls from debt collectors, you are not alone.  Here’s an interesting recent article I found about debt collection practices.  Click here to read the article.

The Power of Giving.

Why generous giving leads to generous living.

Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

Is it possible to give your way to prosperity? Are rich people able to give away lots of money because they have lots of money, or did they get lots of money by giving away lots of money? Are poor people poor because they are generous and give too much away or do they give very little because they have little to give? The correct answer may be a combination of several of these. I’d like to suggest that holding on too tightly may cause us to lose more in the long run and that being generous with your money paves the way for you to grow wealthier in many respects. Here’s why:

When we are worried about losing our money we start watching it closer and closer. We hang on to it tighter and tighter. We become more and more obsessed with not letting our money slip away. The harder we try to keep our money, the more obsessed we become. The more obsessed we become, the more it consumes our time, our resources, our energy, in essence our lives.

Imagine you have a stack of $100 bills in your hand. If you’re not careful some of these $100 bills might slip out of your hand. What’s your natural reaction? To close your hand around the money and hold on tighter. Now that’s a lot of money in your hand so you start thinking you need to be a little more careful. What do you do? Hold on a little tighter. The tighter you hold on to your money, the tighter your fist clenches around your money. The tighter the fist you make, the more energy you spend holding on to those dollars. Here’s the irony of this situation: By holding on to your money so tightly, you may keep some or all of it from falling out of your hand. But you also prevent any more money from coming in. You can’t receive money with a closed hand. So when you learn to live with an open hand, you may have a few dollars slip out of your grasp from time to time but you have much more room for more money to come in.

Just as you can’t receive money with a closed fist, you can’t receive love with a closed heart. When you learn to give more of your time and money, a piece of you changes. You release some of the selfish nature we were all born with. Each time you release some of that selfishness, your heart opens up to receive a little more in.

By making giving a priority in your life you not only reduce the selfishness in your own heart, but your opinions change with respect to what is truly important in life. By feeling the benefits of giving for the right reasons, the petty and material things in life feel much less important.

Monetary giving is an important part of your financial plan because it forces you to not get too attached to the money that flows in and out of your life. But you can’t give generously if your income is strapped by debt payments. That’s why we teach the Ladder of L.I.F.E. If you’re still working to eliminate your debt, keep in mind that financial giving is not the only way you can give. Donate your time once in a while for a good cause. Help out at a soup kitchen. Raise money for a charity. Donate some clothes to the local thrift shop. Prepare a dinner for some friends who have a family member in the hospital. Little things make a big difference in the lives of others. The little things also add up to a big change in your life. Start giving, but only for the right reasons and only if you’re prepared to change your life!

- Matt Wegner

Matt Wegner is a personal finance, career, small business and leadership coach focused on teaching his clients the tools for L.I.F.E. (Living In Financial Excellence).  Learn more about Matt at www.mattwegnercoaching.com.

Money Smart Sheboygan’s Financial Makeover Challenge

Over the past few months, Money Smart Sheboygan County has been sponsoring a Financial Makeover Challenge.  Six families were chosen to work closely with a financial counselor to help them change their lives financially.   The family with the biggest overall improvement in their financial situation will be awarded $1,000!  As a financial coach, I have volunteered my time to help three of these deserving families establish good financial habits in their lives.  Now it’s your turn to help.  The Sheboygan Press published an article on each of these families and you have the opportunity to vote for your favorite family online.  Click here to vote!

What Type of Car Are You?

Knowing yourself could be the key to your success. Written by Matt Wegner Founder and Lead Counselor, Matt Wegner Financial Coaching, www.mattwegnercoaching.com

Have you ever seen someone get promoted because they are good at their job, only to fail at the next level because they weren’t good at it?  Take, for example, a leading salesman who is promoted to sales manager and suddenly can’t perform.  What happened to that salesman?  Chances are, he’s meant to be a salesman, not a manager.  What makes you good at one task or career path may make you bad at the next.  You see, we are all “wired” a little differently than the next person.  Because of our unique talents, skills, abilities, interests and passions, each of us has a different combination of strengths.  Our own combination is best used to our advantage.  If you know your own combination, you can unlock the secret to performing. You see, we often make the mistake of focusing on our weaknesses thinking that these are the easiest areas to see improvements.  The reality is that we will spend 90% of our time and energy trying to improve 10% of our skills that we don’t do well.  Why not spend 90% of your time enhancing and developing your natural skills that make up 90% of your skill set.  The results are much more productive.  By focusing on the things you do well and making them better, you are working with the way you were made. For example, if you need to pull a trailer across the country, would you go buy a Ferrari to pull the trailer?  Why not?  Even though it has plenty of power, it’s not designed to pull a trailer.  A Ferrari only has 10% of the total skills needed to pull the trailer (lots of horsepower).  You could spend a lot of time and money trying to modify the Ferrari so it could pull the trailer but the end result will be a failure.  Why not go out and hitch the trailer to a pickup and get the performance that truck was designed for?  You can then set the Ferrari free to run at top speed on the smooth roads. What type of car are you?  Are you a Ferrari or a truck?  Maybe you’re a sedan or a minivan.  In the career world and at home, it’s important to know what type of vehicle you are so you can drive the right roads the right way. - Matt Wegner