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?

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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.

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.

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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?

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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The Value of being truly diversified.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Alex's Recommended Reading:

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.

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Wealth isn't always openly displayed.

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

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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.

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