“How To Not F$$k Up Your Financial Future and the Rest of Your Life” 2018

You need to think of your life as a business.

Because it is a business—“The (insert your name here) Company”

It is this business that is going to determine how well you live while you are working, and how well you are going to live after you stop working.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett once said, “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”

You need to understand how your finances work, and how you can effectively manage them and take control. You need to understand what you need to do to be extremely successful. And you need to understand who and what is getting in your way.

In this book, you are going to learn:

• How to be your own primary financial advisor
• How to make the best financial decisions, independent of advertising
• How to make plans to reach your goals
• How to evaluate financial choices
• How to understand your options, and the products are offered to you
• How to seek out the best solutions for yourself

You are also going to learn something no other finance book will teach you:

• How to evaluate people who are trying to sell you something
• How to be the most successful person you can be

The goal is for you to become more successful than your parents and peers, and live a better life.

I wrote this book so I can share my learning, so that my children will learn, and so that my clients will have the basic information they need to make intelligent financial decisions.

I became part of this industry because I was disappointed with the financial and insurance advice that I received, and because I am ethical, knowledgeable, and caring. I do not work for an insurance company. I am independent and work with my clients’ best interests at heart.

I have been involved in over 30 businesses in more than 45 years, often as owner and entrepreneur. I’ve learned how important realistic planning is.

I mentor people and businesses professionally through my Synergix organization because I realize how much people can benefit from my experiences—business and personal. I write to teach. I make money by selling insurance and mentoring. I want to be able to help people develop their personal and business skills. I want them to draw out the best in themselves, so they can succeed and make good choices. I want them to have access to the insurance and financial products that are most appropriate for them—not what the industry and its agents are pushing.

“Financial Fitne$$ For Everyone: Important Knowledge for Acquiring Peace of Mind and Crucial Advice About Your Financial Future” (2016)

This book is an unbiased explanation of what every adult of every age needs to know in order to make decision to be financially fit. It is an industry insider’s look into the insurance and financial industries, and information on how to navigate your way. It includes advice on how to select advisors and products that benefit you the most, pitfalls to avoid, and how to make informed decisions. This book is a “must” reading for every adult.

From the introduction to “Financial Fitne$$ For Everyone”:

You have two choices, and only two choices, when it comes to your financial future.

You can either let your finances control you, or you can take control and plan, manage, adjust and direct how much money you have, how much money you earn, and how much money you have to spend.

Most people opt for the first choice.

Here are the reasons they give:

• “I don’t make enough money to save anything.”
• “I have a retirement plan at work—I’m sure I’ll be okay.”
• “Social Security will take care of me.”
• “I’ll probably just keep working until I die.”
• “My accountant is looking after all of that.” (or brother-in-law, financial planner, or husband, etc.)
• “I’ve put some money in some mutual funds, and that should be okay.”
• “Worst comes to worst, I’ll go live with my kids.”
• “I expect to be getting a nice piece of change when (name a relative) dies.”

That’s why I wrote this book.

Mapping out your financial future is a huge and complex task, if you look at the whole thing at once. But you can break it out into small, discreet, and understandable pieces.

A lot of what you read is designed to confuse you. People use strange terms, and wave numbers around without explaining how they got there, what they mean, and how you can check to see if they are accurate.

There are a lot of choices. This is a good thing—there are some real gems among them, and it is not that hard to find them, and figure out if they are appropriate for you.

You do know who to trust. That person is you. You’ve been able to manage your life this far, become successful at what you do, and have gotten yourself to the point where you realize that you need to take control of your financial future, and not the other way around. You know that you are not willing to let circumstances, the economy, your job, the market, or things that happen determine how comfortable you will be financially for the rest of your life. You are bright. The problem is, you are unfamiliar with, or uneducated about, a lot of the possibilities you have, and the merits, and risks, of each course of action.

Philosophers and preachers write volumes about the unknown and the unpredictable.

You and I are going to deal with what is knowable, predictable, provable, and true.

This book is a partnership between me and you. I am going to give you the tools to make sure that you understand your finances—what you own, what you want to own, and how it is going to provide the income you need to live the life you want.

I am going to tell you what to read up on, and how to look at everything that comes your way, so you can find the gems that are right for you.

You are going to make yourself financially fit.

That is the goal of this book.

Finances are predictable. The steps you take now have a high degree of certainty in shaping what will happen later. Yes, some people will win the lottery, or inherit a windfall. But most of us won’t. With finances, very little happens by chance. Take any financial situation, go back 50 years, and I can show you, at each point in time, how what you did caused the result that occurred. Similarly, give me any financial situation now, and I can reasonably project out 50 years what your money situation will be like.

It’s not because I’m clairvoyant. It’s just that I know what the rules are. I learned some by studying, (and some by not following the rules, and I paid the price). Your opportunity is to see if the points I make lead you to agree with my conclusions. If you do, you can apply my learning to your situation, without making the same mistakes. If not, you are welcome to make your own mistakes, or achieve your own successes, and I will take no responsibility in either case.

The financial world is logical, predictable, and foreseeable. Which means you can make plans, and cause desirable outcomes.

You just have to know the rules, and follow them.