Here is a quick list of the top 5 most frequently asked questions about the iMoneyCoach program with a brief answer. To find out more, give us a call or visit our home page:
- What is iMoneyCoach? It is a long-term process of goal setting, training, and encouragement to help you take focused action to achieve your goals. It is a system that actually produces lasting results because it is NOT the one-siz-fits-all approach that is so common and ineffective today. We walk with you through an interactive process of figuring out barriers to your financial independence and setting goals to break through those barriers and move towards success.
- Who is it for? People who feel stuck, make decent money but never have anything to show for it, those who have tried everything to make their finances work but have not had success, and those who want to be successful so they can leave a legacy by teaching their children how to manage their finances well.
- How does it work? You will work with a Financial Life Coach who will teach you our system and work with you to create a personalized financial management plan. If you find you do not have the time to do this (we recommend you make time though!), then you can access our online courses and go through them at your own pace. The courses are available at http:/store.imoneycoach.com.
- What is a Financial Life Coach? Think of an athletic coach. A Financial Coach is similar in that he or she takes an outside view, offering insights that are not visible otherwise – because we all have blind spots. A Coach is there to see us through our failures, to encourage us, to help us see where we can improve, and to keep us going. A Financial Life Coach helps us sort through our lives to figure out our finances and what affects them so we can make the necessary changes and be able to live life to its fullest.
- How is iMoneyCoach different? Here we take a different approach to finances because we recognize that every area of our lives affects our finances. We cannot change our financial situation until we understand how those areas affect our finances. The main areas that we believe life is comprised of are: Spiritual, Personal, Relationships, Work, and Finances. These areas need to be in balance in order for a person to be able to achieve success and live a life they love.
Tags: finances, financial life coach
It seems like every week there is a new popular diet, guaranteed to help you lose weight and feel great. One week you boycott every form of carbohydrates out there, and the next week you can eat all the cabbage and lettuce you want but nothing else. Then the next week you have to eat peanuts with every single meal. The week after that you puree all your meals in a blender, not sure that you have ever heard of half the ingredients before. And the list goes on.
It has occurred to me that budgets are like diets with so many of the self-help books and quick remedies. You try this one and that one. And some of them actually work for a little while. It’s like the diet where you ate only grapefruit and boiled eggs and lost 10 pounds in one week. But you can’t live forever on only grapefruit and boiled eggs. After the 3rd or 4th day you needed some other types of food in your system. So you go back to eating your old foods, and you quickly put the weight back on. Sometimes you even end up putting on more weight than you had started with!
Time and time again, what it all boils down to is that you need to make a lifestyle change. You need to eat healthy foods in moderation so that you get enough of the nutrients you need and quit putting your body through the rollercoaster diet ride. The same holds true for your finances. It is a good idea to build a long-term spending plan, a healthy plan for allocating your income so that you are getting out of debt, saving, and investing. Rather than trying one quick fix after another and ending up back in debt after that, a long-term spending plan would keep you on track and healthy financially.
What does a healthy spending plan look like? Well, it consists of multiple accounts so you can divide your income into separate funds. And you are setting aside a good percentage or your income for savings each month (you really can get it up to 10%). You are even able to start investing and growing your funds so that you will be able to retire one day. Imagine how you would feel if you ate healthy and exercised regularly. At first thought, you might shake your head and say it’s too much, but when you really think about it, you know that you would feel great if you were in that condition. After your body got used to the change in food and exercise, you would actually miss it if it weren’t part of your life. Your finances can work in the same way. So throw out your old budget if it is like your diet plan, and get on track with a spending plan that becomes a long-lasting part of your life.
The holidays are upon us again, and more people than ever are turning to gift cards. While these can save you on shopping nightmares and allow you to give exactly the gift your recipient wants, the cheer of gift cards can quickly turn sour. Gift cards have caused headaches and earned a bad reputation because they end up often either not being used or being redeemable for less than you paid for them.
Retail-Issued or Bank-Issued Cards – Know where your card can be used
There are 2 basic types of gift cards. Most common are retail-issued, or store-specific, cards to places such as Home Depot, Kohl’s, or Target. Then there are the bank-issued cards from Visa, MasterCard, and American Express that allow you to shop at multiple places. Perhaps you don’t know the recipient well enough to know where they shop, so with a bank-issued card you are paying for the convenience of being able to shop at a variety of locations. These cards do have limits though, and you may not be able to use them everywhere. For example, you probably will not be able to use your bank-issued card for air travel. And some cards for retailers cannot be used for online purchases. So when you buy the card, be sure to read the fine print. You don’t want to give a card to your aunt who purchases everything online if she can only use it in person at a store 20 miles from her home.
You can find retail-issued cards that are good at a variety of places. For example, you can get a card that is good at 4 different restaurants. This way your recipient has a variety of choices of where to spend the card. These cards will generally have logos on the front of all the places they can be used.
Watch out for cards that expire or draw monthly fees
Many cards now expire within 6 months to a year, or begin drawing fees if they are not used within a certain timeframe. That $50 gift card you have been saving to buy your new briefcase may be worth $0 if you don’t use it in time. Or you may find that your $100 gift card is now only worth $30 because the store has been taking a monthly “maintenance fee” or “dormancy fee” because there is still a balance after a year. Those balance fees can add up fast, and you don’t want to end up at the check-out register wondering where all your money has gone. Some cards, like the Visa iCARD have in recent years charged a $25 fee for maintenance after 6 months is up. Some cards, like the Mastercard Good2Go, cost an extra $9.95 to purchase and charge a $4.95 per month fee. This year American Express has decided to drop their $2 per month maintenance fee, but it can still cost between $3-$7 to buy the card. So when you are purchasing gift cards, make sure you know the guidelines up front and choose the best option. You want your gift to go to your recipient, not to banks and fee collectors.
Which card should I buy?
Forbes has a list of 10 Gift Cards to Buy and Avoid. They share some of the common cards that have no fees or expiration and compare them to cards you should watch out for with extensive fees.
The most important thing is to know what you are buying when you buy the gift card. Ask the company about their gift card policies and read the fine print. Would it be better to give your recipient cash this year? Above all, remember the reasons you are giving and the purpose behind the gift. That’s what matters. So beware the tricks and fees of gift cards, and be sure to enjoy this holiday season!
Tags: gift cards, save money
I have talked to many people about the importance of having a Periodic Savings account. This is an account you have set up to put money into each month in preparation for expenses that come up throughout the year that are not part of your normal budget. Some examples of periodic expenses are property taxes, insurance premiums, vacations, and such things as car repairs, home improvement projects, and medical problems that may arise. You see, these are things that you can predict you will need to pay, so you can set aside funds and be ready when the time comes so that you are not scrambling to pull the money together. It can be a part of your regular monthly budget. When you have saved enough extra, you could even put some of the funds into investments to make more money. But we will not get ahead of ourselves here. I want to talk about why it is so important to have these funds saved.
The example I use most often to illustrate my point is having your car break down. Now it is in the shop and you find yourself with a bill for $1200 for repairs. For most people, this feels like an emergency. They panic and wonder where the money will come from and how they can get it fast enough to pay the bill. Or they put it on a credit card and end up trying to pay that amount plus all the added interest for a long time. The thing is, a car breakdown is NOT an emergency. Cars are not made to run forever. They break down. It’s a certainty that if you buy something like a car, it will eventually need care and repair. The same is true of air conditioning. It may have worked all last summer, and then next summer comes, and it is HOT outside and the air doesn’t come on. So you have the repair guy out to the house, and he hands you a huge bill for repairs. Again, this is NOT an emergency. You know that there is a chance that in owning a home you will have to have repairs done. It could be the clogged pipes next time or the broken washing machine.
I recently spoke with a couple who wished they had a periodic savings account set up. There was a terrible storm in their neighborhood, and the neighbor’s tree was knocked over by the wind onto the power lines in the backyard. It took over 33 hours to get the power back on, and they were not able to save all the food in the freezer and refrigerator as they tried to get the baby, the dog, and the expensive food (they saved all the meat) to the in-laws’ house. When the power came back on, it was too late. The rest of the food had thawed out and had to be thrown away. So they had to take a shopping trip to replace all those groceries. This of course was not as big a bill as a new transmission, but it would have helped if they had the money saved up so it would not impact their budget so much today. Now instead of going on a dinner date at the end of the week, they will be staying in to save money. Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there. A few days after they bought all new groceries, the laptop’s motherboard went out. The computer was just a few months out of the warranty and could not be repaired for a reasonable price, so the couple was faced with the dilemma of having to pay for a new computer or trying to do without. Again, they would have been very happy to have a periodic savings account so they would not have to scramble to figure out where to get the money.
So begin now by taking a look at the expenses like this that may come up in your life. You don’t have to be prepared for each and every separate instance that may happen, but build up a fund besides the known expenses like taxes and insurance, so that you are prepared when the time comes that you need that money. Then you can rest assured you will be OK, and you will save yourself a lot of stress, and your budget will remain intact.
Tags: financial emergencies, periodic savings account, savings
Kelly Richards stood at the grocery checkout, frantically digging through her purse. Her one-year-old son, Steven, sat in the cart leaning his head against her arm. He’d been running a fever all day and was beginning to fuss. Steven’s three-year-old brother, Brandon, was whining for the neon package of gum just out of his reach on the checkout shelves. Kelly knew that she had used her last check that day at work, but she wasn’t concerned because she could just put the groceries on her credit card. However, the clerk was now handing back her card with an apologetic look on his face.
“Sorry. Declined.”
She handed him another with the same result – and then a third. After a long day of teaching high school and then picking up her two boys from daycare, she just wanted to go home and sink into a chair. This was the last thing she needed.
Kelly and her husband Luke are not in a financial crisis. They both make good salaries, and they don’t live extravagantly. They’re keenly aware that paying off interest is not a wise use of their money, and they’ve been making efforts to get out of debt. To do that, they’ve been shifting credit card balances from one account to another in order to consolidate payments and lower interest and finance fees.
But this day the timing was off. The necessary transactions had apparently not gone through and therefore the money from one account had not yet arrived in the other.
Does this situation sound familiar? Where the credit card shuffle suddenly becomes a fumble? Or do you have similar situations that arise? This story comes from the first chapter in our book Money is the Smallest Part of Your Finances. This book takes a look at the big puzzle that finances fit into and how you can both get your nickels and dimes in order as well as get on track towards living a life you love. Order the book now or check out our home page to see what we are all about.
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