Catching the Coin

According to a study prepared for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation, 84 percent of Americans have been solicited with a potentially fraudulent investment offer.

How can you know when an offer, recommendation, or deal is a fraud or legit?

In This Episode We Look At:

• Ponzi schemes that destroyed lives and the perpetrators that pulled them off
• Incredibly destructive advice from some well-known financial magazines
• There are no sophisticated investors. We mention some rather famous people who were duped in Ponzi schemes.

Today's Resources and Links:

• Study prepared for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation
• "Madoff with the Money" book from Amazon
• Brokercheck Website

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

• Always know who actually has your money by utilizing a member SIPC third party custodian. These member organizations will have insurance to cover you in the event of their fraud.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts.

You can reach us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us.

The world of investing can be murky. When seeking the help of an Investment professional, how can you know if they are putting your interests before their own?

Today we interview Dan Cuprill from Cincinnati, Ohio. Dan is a Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Consultant who has been assisting investors since 1994 with a less-than-common approach of doing so.

• Pros and cons of Wall St. "What does McDonald's have in common with buying stocks?"
• We'll find out why Dan says, "Everyone I've ever met pays more in taxes than they should." and what taxpayers can do about it.
• What is a Backdoor Roth IRA?

• The Investment Answer
• QuizDan.com

When choosing an investment professional, look for someone who is focused on educating and guiding you instead of focused on selling a product. There should also be a "feel-good" connection between you.

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts.

You can reach us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us.

This is NOT the show where we teach you how to get out of debt. There are great programs and books out there that can help with eliminating debt; that's Dave Ramsey's wheelhouse. I wrote about it in Against The Grain and I like David Bach's book on the subject as well.

If someone is disciplined and has the right perspective of credit cards, can they be used to our advantage?

In This Episode We Look At:

• Addressing the question, "Do you need to have credit today?"
• Building or re-establishing credit
• Financial benefits of using credit cards wisely
• Fraud protection

Today's Resources and Links:

• Credit Karma
• The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey
• Against the Grain, Tim Rosen

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

• If you have the discipline to avoid keeping a debt balance, shop for the one credit card that offers the largest reward (a percentage in cash back or miles - whichever benefits you the most.) Look to avoid annual fees as these are often not necessary in order for you to receive the rewards.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts.

You can reach us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us.

Ah! The American Dream of home ownership.

Wait… what decade are we in?

After WWII, America got back to work and started the Baby Boom. As a result, new home construction and purchases boomed as well.

The American Dream was born.

The question for today is whether home ownership remains part of the American Dream? And more importantly, is YOUR home really an investment?

Get the rest of the show notes here.

There was a period of time when this setting aside money for your children was not only thought to be noble, but also found its way into practically every financial planning textbook.

Unfortunately, every family has their own set of values and traditions.

While there is no empirical yes or no to the question, "Should we set aside money for our children's future?", we will look at some pros and cons for those who choose to do so.

In This Episode We Look At:

• The importance of taking care of YOUR finances as a priority.
• Setting a SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE savings goal.
• Protecting your family assets: a quick glance at estate planning.

Today's Resources and Links:

• A good start to finding the right estate planning attorney for you.
• READ- Beyond the Grave, Revised and Updated Edition: The Right Way and the Wrong way of Leaving Money to Your Children (and Others)

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

• Determine if you plan to pass assets on to your children (or others) someday, and if so, speak with an estate planning attorney for assistance.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts.

You can reach us on Facebook, Twitter, or email us.

Time is an invaluable commodity. As we wrap up our "Where Does Wealth Come From?" series with Part 3, we look closely at 3 different aspects of time and how they relate to the wealth creation experience.

Any worthy endeavor is worthy of the time to learn to do it well. It may involve reading (or listening on Audible for free!) a couple of great books on the subject (recommendations below). It may also mean hiring an investment coach to teach you how the markets work, what to avoid, and what really works.

And hey, continuing to listen to us here at Catching The Coin will be time well invested in the pursuit of investing knowledge. But hey… we may be a little partial ;-).

It's during times of volatility that wealth transfers from the emotional and fearful investors to the disciplined and strong willed investors. This is demonstrated time after time when we take a look at the historical charts. Check out Episode 006 for a closer look at these emotions that can destroy your wealth.

Understand that successful investing is a long term experience that affords the opportunity to consistently capture market rates of return.

Remember that incredible growth of wealth is attainable through a long term commitment to a globally diversified portfolio of equities and fixed income.

In This Episode We Look At:

• Investing a modest amount of time to LEARN about investing.
• Periods of time during the investing experience may TEST your intestinal fortitude.
• The importance of having the LONG-TERM view of investing.

Today's Resources and Links:

• A Random Walk Down Wall St by Burton Malkiel
• Winning The Loser's Game by Charles Ellis
• Check out Audible for a convenient and cost effective means to listen to such books while you drive to work and by following this link you can grab your first audiobook on us for free!

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

• Fight the temptation to change your mix of investments simply because the markets move down and the media touts doom and gloom. #HoldFast

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Welcome to Part 2 in our series, "Where Does Wealth Come From?"

Today we will look at the stock markets (equities). The equities markets is one of the greatest wealth creation tools known to man.

But… the market isn't only the S&P 500.

While we hear the most about the S&P500, it is one of many academically identified Investment categories. If your portfolio consists of mainly the S&P500 and it tanks like it did in 2008-2009, then your whole portfolio is likely to tank as well.

An asset category like the S&P 500 has a long term average of 9% and U.S. Small Value has a long term average return of over 12%. It is possible, through proper diversification and discipline, to experience an average annual return somewhere between those rates. (Gross returns, before investing related fees)

Owning asset categories with dissimilar price movements (one goes moves down in value while the other is likely to go up), brings a balance to your portfolio and helps you optimize growth.

In This Episode We Look At:

• Growth comes from the market itself. (It DOESN'T come from gurus, timing, or trying to beat the market.)

• It is possible to get market rates of returns.

• What is DIVERSIFICATION and why is it so important?

Today's Resources and Links:

The Value of being truly diversified.

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

• Be sure that you have a TRULY balanced portfolio.
• Own a cross-section of market categories for diversification and add a portion of fixed income (if needed) for a "cushion" against the full force of the equities markets.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.

We are surrounded by wealth! An expanded understanding of how wealth is created just might assist us in increasing our own wealth.

Welcome to Part One of a three part series, "Where Does Wealth Come From?"

Free Markets exist when there is: Rule of Law, property rights, and patent protection. Isn't it awesome that we have the freedom to go out and buy the newest MacBook or a flat screen TV whenever we want?

Capitalism is designed to be win-win. One party is willing to part with their money in exchange for a desired product or service. This is win-win, not win-lose.

For the most part, prices are determined by supply and demand. The greater the demand, the greater the seller can increase price. When there exists an abundance of a product, it becomes easily accessible and prices can move down.

You may have noticed that companies are not done creating cool stuff. On the contrary, there are so many exciting breakthroughs and innovations in technology that it's enough to blow your mind. Innovation leads to sales (hopefully!) and sales translate (generally) to profits!

E-Bay is a great economic experiment. Why would someone pay $90 for a can of baked beans? Or $1,200 for a wedding dress modeled by an ex-husband? If enough people want the same thing, then that will drive up the price.

In This Episode We'll Look At:

• Free Markets and our LOVE for shopping.
• The beauty of Innovation.
• What DEFINES value?
• The magic that happens between willing parties.

Today's Resources and Links:

• Fiverr

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

Take a few minutes to watch this video and commit to develop a healthy perspective on wealth.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.

These are exciting times here at Catching the Coin! Today we share our first guest interview, Alex Branning of Branning Group.

Alex is transparent as he leads us through his journey of growing multiple small businesses, accumulating debt, and his climb back up to building wealth.

In This Episode We'll Look At:

• Alex's journey from debt-free, to sizable debt, and then on the building wealth.
• Alex's tips that helped him accomplish his financial goals.
• Ask for help from a PROFESSIONAL.
• ALLOW yourself to be coached.
• Change your view of money to viewing it as a TOOL.
• FOLLOW the plan!
• How giving actually helped Alex to climb out of debt.

Today's Resources and Links:

• Branning Group
• Branning Group on Facebook
• Branning Group on Twitter

Alex's Recommended Reading:

• Total Money Makeover
• Against the Grain
• The Giver
• E-Myth Revisited
• Getting Things Done

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

Fast-forward to your desired retirement age.

What amount of income do you need? Spent some real time thinking about it. If a conservative withdrawal amount is 4% a year from your investments, how much do you need to accumulate?

For Example: 4% of $1,000,000 is $40,000. Many of us are going to want/need more than $40,000/year.

Begin planning today for THAT amount.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Wealth isn't always openly displayed.

You'd likely be surprised to learn who the millionaires around you are.

In This Episode We'll Look At:

• Why you should ignore the get-rich-quick appeal
• Workers earning $50,000- $70,000 that have been able to accumulate well over $1,000,000 during their careers!
• If you earn $150,000 and invested 10% of your gross income, you have the potential to accumulate approximately $1.4 million over 25 years. Think, "25 years from now, I could be a millionaire!"
• How working just 5 more years and continuing to invest 10% creates the potential for up to $2.2 million.

Today's Resources and Links:

Mr Earl, the parking attendant

One Thing You Can Do Today to Improve Your Financial World:

Purpose to live within your means and pay your future self. Do this by investing 10% of your gross income and give yourself the potential to accumulate over $1,000,000 for your retirement.

What Are Your Thoughts?

If you have a question or comment about today's topic, we invite you to share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

You can also find us on Facebook or Twitter.