Financial Planning for a
       Worry-Free Retirement

At More than Your Money, Inc., we believe in investing, not speculating. We feel that a well balanced approach to investing includes a diversity of types of investments, including some of the less exciting asset classes like bonds and cash equivalents. Diversity, along with good quality criteria in choosing investments, helps to reduce risk and makes achieving goals more feasible. We use no load mutual funds and discount brokerage accounts to implement our investment recommendations. No commissions, referral fees, or wrap fees are paid to us by any outside companies for the recommendations we make to our clients.

An important goal for many clients is retirement. Often people say they want to work until the day they die, which is fine if that's what they enjoy. There is, however, a huge difference in working your entire life because you enjoy work, and working your entire life because you can't afford to stop working. Largely for this reason, we prefer to think of this aspect of planning as identifying when the client is financially independent. We look at what the client plans to spend when they're financially independent and when they'd like to reach independence. We then analyze how to balance their regular savings, debt reduction, and investment risk to work toward achieving that goal. We also compare retirement goals to other major goals, such as education for children and improving their current lifestyle. This analysis is developed individually for each client.

Many individuals feel that taxes are a major issue over which they have no control and of which they have very little understanding. We help them plan for their taxes throughout the year, not just during tax season. This is done through an understanding of the deductions and other tax savings available to them and establishing record keeping systems that help track and maximize legal methods of lowering taxes. We prepare the individual return for most clients. For clients who have a competent tax preparer, we work with that professional to ensure that proper records are kept and all pertinent information makes it to the final return. (We do not prepare taxes for individuals who are not comprehensive service clients.)

Goal setting is an important part of the financial planning process. It involves quantifying near term as well as long term goals - deciding what they are, what they will cost, and how to save for them. Perhaps more importantly, the goal setting process gives shape to the quality of life those goals provide. Seeing this clearly keeps clients motivated to reach their goals and helps keep us focused on what's truly important.

Most people have never received advice on insurance unless it was from someone who wanted to sell them insurance. At More than Your Money, Inc., we review insurance coverage for our clients' home, vehicles, health benefits, life, long term care, and any other risk they may have. Because we don't sell insurance or receive referral fees, our clients can be comfortable that any needs we identify are unrelated to compensation to us. Often we can identify coverage that is unnecessary, allowing our clients to save money.

We also help our clients think through the estate plan. This involves deciding whom assets go to at the client's death. We also work with our clients to reduce estate taxes and probate costs when possible.

We specialize in assisting widows and widowers. We have worked with many clients who have recently lost a spouse and realize there are a lot of demands being placed on you. Our goal is to ease your stress and help you identify what must happen immediately and what can wait to a later date. Our desire is to provide you with the peace of mind that urgent issues are being addressed and you aren’t being rushed into major decisions before you are ready. We understand you need time, maybe several years, to adjust to your new life and make decisions on where and how you want to live. We can assist you in working with your attorney and with the paperwork that may need to be processed to settle your loved one’s estate. When the time is right, we will help you with the financial planning needed to move forward toward new hopes and dreams for the future. We will be there to guide and encourage you through the entire process, we will be there to listen, support and lend a helping hand.

Divorce is overwhelming. Besides the emotional turmoil, the upheaval of your finances can feel devastating. We offer financial planning services to help you to understand your new financial situation and formulate strategies for moving forward. Our goal is to help you identify what needs to be done immediately and what can wait until a later date. This can include:

• Investment analysis to identify what you have and whether or not your investment strategy makes sense for your current reality
• Retirement projections to help evaluate a financially secure retirement for you
• Tax planning to teach you how to properly address your tax situation going forward
• Budgeting to help you have sufficient cash flow to pay your bills
• Other services you may need

These consultations can be scheduled during divorce negotiations or after a divorce is finalized. After a divorce we can assist with processing paperwork with banks and investment companies to separate assets, changing ownership of credit cards, mortgages and personal loans, and changing beneficiaries on insurance and investment accounts.

Coaching is offered as an independent service. The coaching process assists clients in setting and reaching personal and professional goals. This process helps individuals get past self-generated impediments to fulfilling their desires. Fees and scheduling are based on individual circumstances.