Decreasing your housing budget may mean more money in your pocket.

That’s because housing is the single largest expense for most Americans.¹ Reducing mortgage payments or rent by even a fraction can free up substantial cash flow.

The best part? You don’t have to move into a shack to make it happen. Here are a few strategies to increase cash flow by decreasing your housing costs.

Choose the suburbs over the city. On average, suburbanites save $9,000 per year on housing and child care when compared to city-dwellers.² By and large, the money you may save on the cost of living in the suburbs can outweigh the added transportation expenses. It’s not a shift for everyone, but relocating further from the city might make sense financially, at least for the short-term.

Rent until you’re ready. It’s worth considering leasing a house or apartment until you’re financially positioned to buy a house. Even if a mortgage payment seems cheaper on paper than renting, ownership can come loaded with unforeseen expenses. Flooded basement? That’s on you. Broken furnace? Also on you. Renting isn’t necessarily a permanent long-term strategy, but it beats potentially going into debt covering surprise repairs that are beyond your budget.

Find a reliable roommate. Sharing the cost of housing can free up a significant portion of your cash flow, especially in expensive cities. In New York City, for instance, having a roommate can save you up to $15,500 every year.³ Just be sure you take on a roommate that doesn’t flake out when rent is due.

Rent out a room. If you’re a homeowner with room to spare, consider leasing space to a trusted friend. The extra income can offset the cost of mortgage payments and result in more cash flow going toward saving, investing, or even paying off the house faster.

Contact me if you’re interested in learning more about how budgeting fits into an overarching financial strategy. We can review your income and expenses and make a game plan for how you can stop spending like a sucker and start saving like the wealthy.

• Share:

It’s a fact—consumers prefer long-term care riders to stand-alone long-term care (LTC) insurance.

In 2018, 350,000 Americans bought long-term care insurance.¹

84% chose linked-benefit coverage. In other words, their LTC insurance was a rider on a life insurance policy or another financial vehicle.

Only 16% chose stand-alone LTC insurance.

If you had to guess why riders won out, what would you say?

• Because LTC riders are often far more affordable than stand-alone insurance?²

• Because LTC riders aren’t subject to steadily increasing premiums?³

• Because stand-alone LTC insurance is growing harder and harder to qualify for?⁴

If you guessed any of the above, you’d be right! They’ve all contributed to the rising popularity of LTC riders.

For many, LTC riders are a no-brainer. If something’s more affordable, easier to qualify for, and less subject to change, wouldn’t you prefer it, too? And considering that 70% of people age 65 and older will need LTC, it’s a form of financial protection everyone should explore.⁵

That’s not to say an LTC rider is the perfect solution for your situation. If you don’t need permanent life insurance, then a stand-alone policy may be the way to go. That’s why it’s critical to meet with a licensed and qualified financial professional—they can evaluate your situation and what tools and strategies best meet your needs.

• Share:

It really isn’t a question on whether or not you need an emergency fund.

(You do.) It’s the first line of defense when unexpected expenses show up (and they will—have kids?). Unforeseen emergencies threaten to undo your hard work and careful financial planning.

But what exactly is an emergency fund? What should it look like? And how do you start building one if you don’t have a sack of cash lying around?

What’s an emergency fund… and why do you need one? <br> An emergency fund is a dedicated amount of money to cover unplanned, unavoidable expenses. Establishing one is an important milestone on your journey to achieving financial independence! But why is it such a big deal?

Emergencies are a part of life. Nobody schedules a busted transmission or a broken arm, but you’ll need a way to pay for them when they happen. Who would have guessed that a global pandemic would force most of us to stay at home and cost millions of Americans their jobs? So it’s not a question of if you’ll need to cover something unexpected but how you’ll cover it. Without an emergency fund, you’ll be forced to either dip into your long-term savings (assuming you have them) or go into debt. For most people, either option can seriously throw off long-term financial plans. An emergency fund gives you the power to overcome sudden obstacles without sacrificing your retirement or piling up credit card bills.

Emergency fund ins and outs <br> One critical thing to grasp is that an emergency fund isn’t the same as your savings. Establishing a solid emergency fund is not a long-term goal that’s built over years or decades. Once the emergency fund is full, then you move on to other money milestones like conquering debt and saving for the future.

So how do you know you have enough in your fund? That depends on how much you make. A good rule of thumb is that an emergency fund should cover 3 to 6 months of income. That provides a buffer if you have an unexpected car repair, medical emergency, or if you’re temporarily unemployed due to an unprecedented global pandemic!

But what if you don’t have that much cash just lying around? <br> 3 to 6 months of income might seem like a lot of money to set aside, especially if you’re currently living paycheck to paycheck. Building an emergency fund will take time and budgeting. Start with a goal of saving 2 weeks of pay. Then shoot for 1 month, then 2 months, etc., until you reach your goal.

The 2 Rules of Emergency Funds

Rule 1: An emergency fund is only, ONLY to be used in case of actual emergencies. It’s not for last minute getaways, much needed spa days, or killer video game sales. If those kinds of things come along, you can use a “fun fund”, which of course is part of your regular budget!

Rule 2: The emergency fund needs to be easily accessible. Make sure it’s in an account where you won’t incur fees for withdrawals when your car breaks down or you suddenly need a new AC unit. That’s why it’s there. Just remember to refill it as soon as the emergency has passed.

Once you’ve built your emergency fund and you know the rules, you’re ready to move on to the next stages of building wealth. Congratulations!You’re officially not broke and in the perfect position to chase your financial future!

• Share:

When a loved one needs extra help to take care of herself at home or needs to go into a nursing home,

the costs—averaging a total of more than $200,000¹—can be devastating. But the impact on families can be felt far beyond the pocketbook: An estimated 34.2 million Americans provide unpaid care to adult family members,² leading to greater incidence of depression and heart disease among caregivers, the majority of whom are women.² Anyone who has seen first-hand the destructive impact of these situations has at least thought about the need to protect their family from the threat of long-term care. But the vast majority haven’t taken action.³ That needs to change. Since change starts with financial literacy and education, let’s review the five most common myths about long-term care.

Myth #1: Medicare and health insurance plans cover long-term care. Private health insurance does not cover long-term care. Medicare only provides extremely limited benefits in a few very specific circumstances. The Medicare.gov website clearly states that Medicare does not cover most long-term care situations. There is one government insurance program that does cover long-term care: Medicaid. But to qualify for Medicaid, one must have income at or below the poverty level⁴ and in most states have less than $2,000 in financial assets.⁵ So unless one plans on being absolutely broke in retirement, they need to have a long-term care solution in place.

Myth #2: Long-term care means that you go into a nursing home. When we think of long-term care, we often think of an old lady wasting away in a nursing home. While a nursing home is certainly an example of a long-term care setting, only about 1/3 of care takes place in nursing homes.⁶ The majority of care takes place in a private residence. So if your stubborn father says, “I’d rather die than go into a nursing home,” your response should be, “fair enough, but how are we going to care for you at home?” When planning for long-term care, you should focus on solutions designed to help keep you in your home for as long as possible. Because no one wants to go into a nursing home.

Myth #3: Long-term care is only for the elderly. Many people are shocked to learn that 37% of Americans receiving long-term care are under the age of 65.⁷ One of the major reasons for this is that long-term care doesn’t only arise from getting old or getting sick. Sometimes long-term care claims stem from accidents or injuries—not illness. So something like a car accident or a traumatic brain injury can suddenly put you into a long-term care situation—even in the prime of your life.

Myth #4: It won’t happen to me. None of us wants to picture ourselves in a long-term care situation. We recoil at the thought of being a burden to our family—whether that burden be financial, physical, or emotional. But the fact is that 70% of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives.⁸ So if you don’t want to be a burden, you need to start planning now.

Myth #5: If it doesn’t happen to me, I will have wasted money on long-term care insurance premiums. If there’s a 70% chance you’ll need long-term care, there’s a 30% chance you won’t. Since there’s a 100% chance you want to retire comfortably, a 100% chance you want your kids to be able to go to college if they want to, and a 100% chance you want to protect your family in the event you die early, you need to prioritize the sure things in life. By the time you allocate money to cover all of the absolute necessities, there may not be any money left over to protect against things that are likely, but not guaranteed, to happen. In response to this conundrum, the financial services industry has evolved to create new products that can allow you to focus on the sure things while also protecting against long-term care. If you need it, these new solutions will cover your long-term care costs. And if you’re one of the lucky 30% of people who won’t need long-term care, all of the benefit for which you paid can go to your family in the form of a large, tax-free, lump-sum payment. Often, you can kill two, three, or four birds with one stone. That’s how money works!

Don’t be a sucker. Refer to page 87 of “HowMoneyWorks, Stop Being a Sucker” to begin increasing your literacy on this important financial concept. Then contact your financial professional to get started.

– Matt Luckey

• Share:

Saving money is a good habit, but a bad strategy.

That’s why the rich focus on investing. While the masses are getting .09% interest on their passbook savings account,(1) the rich are pursuing returns of 5% or more on the same money. That means with a $10,000 investment paying .09% interest, the saver pockets a whopping $9 per year. That same $10,000 investment paying 5% interest yields a $500 return.

Wealthy people know that a little strategy goes a long way, and when it comes to money, that could make the difference between a comfortable and miserable retirement. The good news is that you don’t have to have a PhD in finance to become a competent investor; you simply have to know how money works. While the masses may be buying used luxury cars, second homes, and living beyond their means, the rich are more inclined to create assets that leverage the power of compound interest and other people’s time—such as retirement accounts that yield interest, part-time businesses, and property. The rich put their money to work, while the masses simply go to work.

The secret to better investing is maximizing returns while managing risk. The rich rarely get greedy, and usually settle for reasonable returns with minimal risk. They generally don’t expose their financial future to the wild swings of the market. They know that the enemy of the investor is losing money, so they lean more towards calculated risks where returns are respectable and losses are not likely. It’s the old professional baseball strategy: Forget about hitting home runs and just get on base. Sure, it’s not as sexy as knocking the ball out of the park or being able to brag to your friends that you made a 50% return, but it reduces your exposure while simultaneously providing you with the potential to become incrementally wealthier every day.

Start by learning the Rule of 72, the Time Value of Money, and the concept of Wealth Equivalency. Next, learn how to protect your family from the fallout of premature death while building cash value you can eventually withdraw tax-advantaged. Lastly, learn how to leverage long-term care insurance for pennies on the dollar by adding it as a low cost rider on a life insurance contract. More people go broke from medical issues than any other reason.(2) These basic strategies will start you on your way to financial success.

Our book, How Money Works: Stop Being a Sucker, will take you through the 7 Money Milestones. Study these milestones and contact your financial professional to put the proper strategies in place. If you take action, you can alleviate any worries about your financial future. It’s that powerful of a process. Once you’ve implemented these strategies, you can focus on the other things that really matter in your life. Give yourself the gift of financial security. You deserve it.

— Steve Siebold

• Share: