 New book shows how to create the best financial plan for improving your life and benefiting loved ones.
When asked about what's important to them, people don't talk about dollars and cents, Dow Jones Averages, or bond yields. They talk about their loved ones-a spouse, a parent, a child. We can't consider our personal finances without also thinking about those we love most.
Based on his experience and conversations with clients over the past two decades, financial adviser BRUCE HELMER has developed a holistic, heart-based approach to financial planning that focuses on what we want most out of life, rather than what we need, and how to improve the lives of those we care about.
In his new book, Money and the People You Love: A New Approach to Financial Planning Based on What Matters to You Most (Syren Book Company, March 2006), Helmer presents a comprehensive, step-by-step way to understand our money and then use it in the most efficient way. The book is organized to help us learn about critical financial issues we may need to address at different stages in life, keeping those we love in mind.
Helmer says there are only five things we can do with money: (1) Spend it, (2) Save it, (3) Invest it, (4) Pay taxes with it, and (5) Give it away. If we think of our money as a pie with five slices, we can see how the five options interact. A bigger slice for spending reduces the size of all the other slices, except paying taxes. On the other hand, less spending may increase the size of the investing or giving slices, which may also decrease the size of the tax slice. The objective of financial planning is to increase our control of the size of each slice. If we don't plan, we will likely spend more, save less, invest less, and do nothing to reduce our taxes.
Once readers understand money fundamentals, Helmer offers detailed financial planning strategies in the context of the people we love: our spouses, our children, our aging parents, and extended communities and organizations that are important to us.
Readers learn how to:
- Get spending and bad debt under control, and use "good debt" to our advantage
- Develop an investment strategy aligned with our goals, values, and heart
- Use Your Money Matrix, a tool to view investments and their impact on taxes
- Manage money harmoniously with a spouse or life partner
- Fund our kids' college education
- Pick the right insurance: term vs. perm life, disability, long-term care, etc.
- Plan for a retirement without deprivation
- Benefit financially from estate plans and charitable giving
- Select a financial adviser who has our best interests at heart
Helmer is nationally recognized for the fresh way he humanizes the subject of money, without skirting the important details and nitty-gritty aspects of financial planning. Money and the People You Love is the ultimate practical guide for young professionals, parents of all ages, and baby boomers approaching retirement age. This book offers readers every basic tool they will need to succeed at personal money management. |
BRUCE HELMER is a Registered Financial Consultant and President of Minneapolis-based Wealth Enhancement Group, a financial consulting firm. He is best known as the host of Your Money, aired on WCCO radio, on which he offers personal financial advice each week to more than 200,000 listeners in the greater Twin Cities area. Helmer has achieved national prominence for his holistic approach to financial planning based on wants rather than needs, and the idea that sound financial planning can help us and our loved ones live better lives.
MONEY AND THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE
A New Approach to Financial Planning Based on What Matters to You Most
Bruce Helmer
Syren Book Company
ISBN 0-929636-52-X
Paperback, 268 pages
$16.95 |
