Holiday Financial Fever: Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is… 3 WISE INVESTMENTS FOR YOU TO HAVE NOW How will YOU Spend it, Lend it, Give it, or Invest it? By Marc A. Click
The time has come that you have either made your money work for you or you have let your money be gone with the wind while living in a ‘rat race’ of life as a survival steward. We are now in the forth quarter of 2011 and now we have to make a decision on how to end the year on a good, better, or great note that will set the tone for 2012 financially for ourselves and family. By now, you probably have already planned how to get money out of your employer holiday savings plan or even your retirement plan as a loan to yourself to start shopping for guess who…your loved ones for gifts. This is a very serious and sensitive time of the year. Most people want to make sure they make up for bad times or make good times better to show your love towards them so that the New Year will start out on a solid note to “hopefully” bring good tidings to you and yours truly. Well everyone I am here to tell you that as a creature of habit and of just plain ole good love by nature, that we have to change the way we think about this time of year. Money is not evil nor is it the reason for the season, so let’s just plan to make a difference with what we have in terms of giving in ways that we probably have never thought of or even heard of this year and for years to come as good and faithful stewards. The first thing I want to tell you is to think on what you wanted to accomplish this year financially and want financially for 2011. Let’s go back to paying ourselves first as for saving for emergencies and investing for our retirement and our kids college education. I hope from the last article you thought about your retirement options, and by now you have talked to your wealth coach about ways for gifting money for the holidays towards your future scholars education plan by way of a 529 savings plan or by way of a Coverdale IRA plan. These are great plans for college for tax deductible planning for starters. There are several ways to do this type of gifting for an education plan such as by way of cash from other family members, upromise.com, savings bond notes, stock certificates with your advisor, or maybe even try your local church. The one very thing I think most parents need to start doing is not giving their children whatever they want at this time of the year, such as $100.00 plus sneakers in sporting goods stores. A word of wisdom to all parents that wants ‘Jr.’ to go to the NBA and NFL is; if you can’t dunk a basketball you don’t need those expensive shoes, this is what I call the dunk rule!! Don’t waist time and money on these things because the first time the shoes get dirty, ripped, lost, or stolen you’re going to regret spending your hard earned money on just looking good and not having any type of plan on saving and investing for your education. Go buy some Nike, Reebok, Addidas, or Converse shoe stocks instead. Don’t say I told you so and you’re still in bad shape with your money come spring break of 2012. Sense most of us will be in shopping malls around the country more this year than last year for this countries’ biggest spending time of the year over the next few weeks; think of your favorite mall as a
mutual fund. That Mall has hundreds of stores and in most cases are publicly traded companies so go find what you know and like, but make that company work for you while you own apart of it.
The increase accessibility of credit, more African Americans are increasing their debt because of it. Credit cards for most African Americans are a do-it-now and pay-for-it-later way of thinking that is killing our dreams. If you want to buy a home or upgrade your home; we have to protect our credit more than paying for everything on credit whenever you feel like it. Impulse spending is one of the main reasons we are so far in debt. Consumer Credit Counselors report that more than 40 percent of most budgets are spent on eating at restaurants and nearly 70 percent of our money goes towards paying all types of debt as well. Here are some interesting, but very true statistics: 23 percent of African Americans live in poverty and 30 percent of married black families have income of $25,000 or less, and 11 percent of national unemployment 6 percent are black unemployment which is the highest in America. We need to stop being left behind and move ahead of the class. Jesus died for us to have life and have it more abundantly according to John10:10. To summarize the three wise investments to have now is: 3. Invest in a home if you have not because it gives you wealth appreciation and tax credits. 2. Invest in a plan from a wealth coach to show you how to execute your way to financial freedom. And the first and best investment for use is in The Word of God! Jesus Christ became poor so that we could become rich according to 2 Corinthians 8:9 Jesus was beyond wealth. When Jesus and his ministry feed five thousand plus people the fish was multiplied by fifty thousand percent and the loaves were multiplied by two hundred and fifty thousand percent. There was a study that was done a few years ago by a research company from the country of Persia on behalf of Dr. Peter Daniels regarding the wealth of Jesus and King Solomon. When the numbers can back it was said that based on today’s dollars it was over 400 billion in wealth accumulated between the two. So what should we not think like Kings-Kids and walk in great favor and financial success? Unless you have the Wisdom of God and a revelation to apply the truths and principles you will not know how to think like Jesus did regarding changing lives and leaving a strong financial legacy. One of the other things that most people are over looking and are not educated in the area of wealth and assets are owning Gold and Silver Precious metals. There will always be a real currency and hard asset that will not go away like stock markets around the world and that's precious metals. Precious metals are part of the Currency of God that we need to have in our portfolio. I will talk about precious metals in detail as we kick off next year. As we conclude this year let us reflect on the positive things that we have right now such as peace, love, and a sound mind In Christ. Let us not think of lack but get to a wealthy place with wise counsel for next year to be a more successful year than 2011. See you next year! Marc A. Click, wealth advisor marc@lws-llc.com