Getting your financial life organized

Over the last several months, I've been spending a little time each week trying to get my family's financial life organized.

Now that we're completely debt free and now focused on trying to "win" with our money, I want to double back and be sure that my family is now on a solid, financial foundation as we move forward.

Here's some of the activities I've been involved in over the last several months to shore up our foundation:

1. purchased a medium-size fireproof safe to have a safe, secure place to put all the important legal documents I would be putting together for a strong financial foundation.
2. purchased will and other legal documents online; my wife and I filled these out and had them officially signed and notarized.
3. purchased more disability and life insurance to protect my family if I should become injured or pass away unexpectedly.
4. secured copies of my wife's and my birth certificates.
5. secured copies of our marriage license.
6. secured miscellaneous additional legal documents important to the family.

What I have remaining to complete in this area:

1. secure my daughter's gift certificates
2. purchase a portable hard drive to store important documents, files, photos, and store this in our safe.
3. be sure all my paper legal documents (will, listing of assets, etc.) is completely clear and complete
4. write down instructions to my wife or family members so they know exactly where to go and what to do in case of my death or both of our deaths.
5. put together my personal notes, journals, and instructions to access my 2 personal blogs for "posterity" purposes to my family.
6. put together any and all recordings I have ever created with my playing trumpet, conducting, and music arranging for "posterity' purposes for my family
7. put together any original music and arrangements I have ever written for "posterity" purposes.

As you can see, this will probably be a continual, ongoing projects for my family!

Larry

A Rainy Day Fund is always a great idea!

On the way in to work each morning, I usually listen to one of our local talk radio stations. Over the last couple of days, I keep hearing a news story about how the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, the Honorable Mark Funkhouser (affectionately known as "The Funk"), is in the process of building up the city's "Rainy Day Fund."

I don't agree with all of the Funk's policies, but on this one, I have to give the mayor a big "thumbs up!" Way to go, Mr. Mayor!

Hmmm, I wonder if the Funk is a Dave Ramsey listener?

Larry

What I'm reading right now - Automatic Millionaire (part 1)

The first time I read this book was about 3-4 years ago, and I was blown away by the simplicity of the Automatic Millionaire system. I totally believe in almost everything David talks about, but before you implement these automatic strategies, you really need to (at the very least) be completely debt free.

Over the next several blog posts, I'll highlight some specific strategies from the book that are definite "must-dos" for a strong financial future.

On page 32-33, I really liked what David says in the following excerpts:

"...The trick to getting ahead financially, he said, is watching the small stuff - little spending habits you have that you'd probably be better without.

Most people have a hard time believing this. Why? Because they are taught the opposite. We live in a society where it's become almost patriotic to spend every penny of our paychecks. In fact, we often spend our pay increases even before we get them. Merchandisers know this; they run ads every November and December specifically designed to get people to spend their year-end bonuses. Even the government promotes this idea..."
{Larry's comment: hmmm, sounds familiar - ever heard of a stimulus package!}

"Unfortunately, there's a problem with this. If you are living paycheck to paycheck, spending everything you make, what you're really doing is running an unwinnable race.

Here's what the race looks like:

GO TO WORK...MAKE MONEY...SPEND MONEY...
GO TO WORK...MAKE MONEY...SPEND MONEY...
GO TO WORK...

Notice how it always comes back to GO TO WORK. This is the endless treadmill that most people are on. Some people call it the 'rat race.' It's a race in which hardworking people bust their butts, working forty to fifty hours a week or more - and wind up with almost nothing to show for it because at the end of the month their paycheck is already spent.

It's an unfair, vicious cycle, and you don't want to fall into it. If you are already there, you want to get out...fast. When you spend everything you make (or, even worse, spend more than you make), you subject yourself to a life of stress, fear, uncertainty, debt, and even worse - bankruptcy and the threat of future poverty."