that there is a movie called 'Night Shift', that I and everyone else failed to mention in the thread a few days ago about 'whoring in the arts'. It starred Henry 'the Fonz' Winkler Michael Keaton and Shelly Long. Winkler played a nightwatchman in a morgue, Keaton played his sidekick, and Shelly played a prostitute. To make a long story short, Winkler ended up being the brains who created a consortium for Shelly and several of her friends, with 401(k), health & other benefits, etc. and taught them how to treat their business like a business. I thought it was a cute movie, albeit farfetched, but I wondered if anything remotely like this situation has ever happened in real life. Even one-on-one with a client and provider?

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.


Cheers!

Having helped a number of ladies plan for the future, I will tell you it is very rewarding. Homeownership and a balanced portfolio go a long way in providing for a future. Money is earned, wealth is learned. Financial structure and strategy will get you to financial security.

There are two facets to money management:

1. Leveraging the appropriate investment vehicles for your needs
2. Maintaining proper personal discipline to invest regularly

I won't comment on #1. There are many articles on the web that discuss investments for beginners. Stocks vs. bonds vs mutual funds, market conditions, etc.. is a discussion in itself. But there are tons of low risk options too (not as high reward potential either of course)

But without a strong committment to #2, #1 isn't worth much of anything.  My advice is to set up automatic and periodic withdrawals from a checking account into an investment account. Frankly it's often very hard for people to write a check or turn over a lump sump of cash for investing. When the money is in your hands it way too tempting to just say "screw it" and go buy stuff or leave it in a checking account where you eventually piss it away.

When you do automatic withdrawals you just set it up once and never look back. You eventually get to the point that you never even realize there's a monthly deduction. You'll wake one day and notice a nice little nest egg building for yourself and you sort of just leave it there for a rainy day.


Sounds simple and not really like "advice" perhaps, but they say showing up is 90% of the battle and it's the same with investing.

If this isn't your bag, find a financial planner that you trust. Make sure that they aren't selling any kind of investment vehicle. You want someone that you are paying for thier services, not someone who is being paid a commision by someone else for selling you their crap. Make sure that your planner works for you. Go through everything you normaly in a month, everything you can think of no matter how innocuous, and put it on a list. Now take the total amount that you take home per month on average. (This will be net of all taxes and business expenses.) Hopefully you bring in more than you can account for spending. This is where things can get interesting. Most people are shocked when they see that they don't apparantly spend as much as they do. Human nature says that most people without discipline will spend every penny they make. Now most of us are good at paying thier bills. Your financial planner will go through all this data, and narrow down your investment window. This is the money you spend, that you have zero recollection of spending. This is the cash you use for investing. Anyone who tells you to cut back on any of the expenditures that you do remember, and to invest more than this window money is being naive. You can get people to invest as long as it doesn't crimp thier style. Now you can get them to give up thier starbucks for a couple of months, but in the end the vast majority of people will go back to thier regular habits if it is money that they can identify spending. Okay you your invest ment window of x dollars per month. Make that the first bill you pay each month. I don't care if it is something as simple as buying a CD from your local bank, your financial planner will help you balance your prtfolio and determine how much risk you want to maintain. Hope that helps some.

"The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach.

It presents sound and easy to follow ideas for investing by making it all automatic.

-- Modified on 5/20/2004 10:12:24 AM

many need to reconcile the PRESENT!

It is very important to note that many providers(applies to everyone) need to first come to grips with their debt management and realize the importance of paying down expensive debt and establishing or reestablishing,and maintaining a good credit history. Their credit rating will affect future insurance, car,and mortgage costs as well as many other areas of entry ... as having no credit or poor credit means higher risks for both lenders and insurers...the higher the risk,the higher the rates and fees on these items.Its FINANCE 101 but points out the key fact... They need to walk before they run;conversely, they need to manage debt burden before they can invest.


Cheers!

EOM but you read this message anyway one time. BANKRUPT!


Cheers!

-- Modified on 5/20/2004 11:09:25 AM

wet. Wink!

Hugs,
Ciara

The safest and possibly most profitable investment in today's world might be real estate, in the right neighborhood of course.  A diversified portfolio with some liguid assets (can get the cash when you need it) is also highly desirable.  However, it makes little sense to save and invest when you are only paying interest on hugh cc bills.  Got to cut the debt first.  Just my .02.

those 2 words together are an absolute oxymoron, especially for providers (most)


My managing money consists of getting rid it as fast as possible-money is the root of all evil! lol