The 60-Minute Money Workout: An Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Finances into Shape - Softcover

Introduction

   Sixty minutes a week can completely revolutionize your finances.
   One hour a week. That is sixty minutes out of 10,080; 1/168th of your time.
   Whether you make $15,000, $50,000, or $500,000 per year, there’s one thing all of us have in common: each of us has sixty minutes per hour.
   Time.
   It’s the great equalizer. The president’s proportion equals the paparazzi’s.
   The plumber and the philanthropist.
   The mom and the maniac.
   The student and the senior citizen.
   To some, the minutes fly by. To others, they drag.
   For some, time is money. For others, money is time.
   Nonetheless, time is the great equalizer, and all of us have the same amount. How is it that some people can milk the most out of every moment while others inanely waste eons of instants? It’s what you do with time that makes it count.
   The difference in how you use the resource of time lies in how purposeful you are with your hours each week. If money matters are cited as the number-one problem in most families, then it seems that they should get at least an hour of our time each week.
   Give your finances sixty minutes a week and see how all things money-related will change:
   · You’ll get out of debt and be able to save for your kids’ college tuition.
   · You’ll have more meaningful and debt-free vacations.
   · You’ll be able to figure out how to pay cash for your cars.
   · You’ll make a life-and-death difference around the world in the way you give money to others.
   · You’ll find peace with your mate.
   · You’ll discover contentment with your current circumstances.
   · You’ll latch on to hope for your financial future.
   · Your money life will be completely revolutionized.
   Do these promises sound like glib guarantees made from a woman with an overactive imagination and too much caffeine? Don’t be fooled. These are the assurances from a woman who has been able to deliver on every single principle while financially supporting seven children on an average family income of $55,000 a year. This book doesn’t promise empty theories that are written from a glass penthouse with a fine city view. No, this book was birthed among the grit and grime of having too much month at the end of the money.
   My husband and I discovered early in our marriage, when we carried the heavy burden of $40,000 in debt and no hope in sight, that one hour a week could change our financial lives forever. We started these weekly money workouts, and within two and a half years—on a military man’s salary—we were completely out of consumer debt, we began to pay cash for our cars, we took great vacations, we started a retirement fund, we put away money for the kids’ college, and we began to support orphans in third-world countries. Well into our second decade of marriage, we began to make more money—but the one-hour workouts continued because we wanted to keep progressing in a purposeful approach to how we managed money.
   Something to keep in mind during these workouts will be that you must first know your money personality so you can understand how it impacts the way you view, interact, spend, and handle money. Thus the money personality profile in chapter 2 will be a critical aspect of how each workout will function for you throughout the rest of the book. Each chapter begins with a fun preworkout test that will ask specific questions to help you prepare to get the most out of the chapter. The workout plans are straightforward and fairly simple. They get more complicated when you bring baggage to the table. So this book will show you how to check your gear at the door.
   The chapters also have very specific guidelines with notes on how to target each workout and get the most out of your hour every week. What you don’t cover in one workout, you table for the next one, and yet you will experience significant progress with each workout. Preparation is part of the key to success in these workouts, so I have included a list of what you will need before you begin (simple items such as a timer, paper, key resources for each subject, etc.). Each workout is tailored to a specific goal or topic.
   At the end of each chapter you will find a tip sheet to use during the workout hour. This tip sheet serves as an overview to the more detailed concepts addressed in the chapter and is designed to facilitate the workout. It will keep the action moving and alleviate any anxiety you may feel, such as, How do I remember what I’m supposed to cover? 
   Every money workout you do will make you financially stronger, smarter, and sweeter. You’ll become stronger, because knowledge is power and you are practically working out that knowledge into a purposeful plan for your life. You’ll be smarter, because any man or woman of wealth or influence will tell you that it’s smart to follow the money trail—especially your own. Finally, you will be sweeter, because by following the guidelines for these workouts, you are forced to bind the jerk within and release your gentleperson. The result is someone who can talk about money calmly, rationally, and purposefully so that you can have a completely revolutionized money life after only one hour a week.
Chapter 1: 60 Minutes to Financial Freedom

   Thirty years.
   That’s how long it took to achieve the dream.
   When I was at the ripe old age of ten, my parents won a trip to Germany because my dad bought a certain number of air conditioners for his part-time building business. They promised to bring me back “something special.” I imagined a Bavarian costume, a crown that belonged to a real princess, or maybe even a china teacup. Instead, they brought me a book and a rock. The rock came from the lake where King Ludwig allegedly killed himself, and the book was a compilation of his castles and treasures. They were a little odd, but those gifts ended up serving me well.
   At school, I used the book to write a report on King Ludwig that earned an A+. And the rock inspired a dream to one day see Neuschwanstein, also known as “the Disneyland Castle.”
   Three decades later I was able to fulfill those travel dreams, thanks to my international work with military families. As I walked through the castle’s gilded hall, my imagination wandered to what life must have been like for people such as King Ludwig, who had only known a life of wealth and privilege, then to have that life cut short through suicide or murder. I decided that my life as a mother of seven wasn’t that bad after all. I may not have been at the pinnacle of wealth and privilege, but I was fulfilling my dream, which also happened to be squarely in the path of another of my dreams: helping military families achieve their financial dreams.
   Along the road to a dream fulfilled, there was hope deferred, justice denied, and paradise lost. But one thing remained true: there was a plan and purpose for the ten-year-old version of me, and my dreams—some material, some personal, and some spiritual—were worth keeping.
   What were some of your childhood dreams?
   Do you still dream, or did you stop dreaming a long time ago?
   Would I trade my dream trip to see Neuschwanstein for anything else? Of course I would! There are boatloads of things in life that carry far greater value than a trip: my husband, kids, friends, health, and an entire host of far more meaningful things than the material ones. But the point is that if we are purposeful, principled, and proactive about money matters, then we can still hang on to those longtime dreams and watch them come to pass.
   Maybe your dream is to stop fighting about money with your mate.
   Maybe you want to buy a home or go to Paris.
   You might dream of putting your babies through college without a mountain of student-loan debt.
   Or you might want to be able to sponsor a third-world child and give her a life she couldn’t have without your help.
   While many people know they need to be proactive about money matters, few know the secret to putting feet to fiscal concepts. Knowledge alone is not enough to make a difference in a person’s financial picture. This knowledge has to be put into action regularly in order to reach your goals.
   So move over money “makeovers,” it’s time for the money workout.
   Makeovers fall short of truly revitalizing your financial picture. While they address the problem and suggest solutions, implementing those concepts on a day-to-day basis can feel like driving a Honda when you were dreaming of a roadster. Another challenge of a makeover is that you don’t know how to do it on your own after the experts leave.
   But my money workout method will teach you how to have self-sufficiency once this book is closed.
   Maybe you’ve tried to work on money issues but instead ended up fighting with your spouse. It might be that the thought of sitting down with all your bills is so overwhelming that it falls into the realm of impossible. Maybe you’re convinced that you will never get out of debt, live in financial harmony, or own a home. It’s not about how much time you spend working on money issues; it’s about the quality of that time. So let’s get started with your own money workout.
   It’s time to do our first preworkout quiz. It will only take ten minutes. The quizzes throughout this book serve to prepare you for the main workout, and you’ll get a lot more out of your sixty-minute money workout if you take the time to prepare. While our dream quiz seems to be a lifestyle quiz rather than a money quiz, it’s important to understand that almost every area of our lives is impacted by some financially related area. For example, an educational goal or dream coming true is often related to a work ethic, which is a financial skill. Personal goals that deal with family, marriage, and kids are definitely related to finances because of the impact that money matters have on families. Spiritual goals highly influence us in the way we use or view money. So try to fill out these dreams with that financial element in mind, and you’ll get more out of the quiz. Once you’ve finished this exercise, it will help you focus on past dreams or expectations, current realities, and future possibilities.

Preworkout Quiz

1. What are some dreams you had as a much younger version of yourself? List a dream for each category:
      Personal
      Professional
      Spiritual
      Material
      Educational
2. If you were to rank these “dreams come true” from 1 to 10, with 1 meaning that it did not get fulfilled in any way and 10 meaning it came to pass as you dreamed it or better, then how would you rank the dreams in question 1?
   For example, maybe you always wanted a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California; instead you earned a master’s from the University of Texas. If you are satisfied with the fact that you received a better degree from a different college, you could indicate a 10 for that dream. Or maybe you always wanted to be a pilot in the air force but didn’t have the requisite eyesight. So you got rated in a Cessna and went on to have a fulfilling career in real estate. You might give that dream a 5. This is your test. Although it’s subjective, it represents your life and your level of contentment with your dreams.
3. Go back and add up your dream scores from questions 1 and 2.
4. Repeat the exercise, but instead of listing childhood dreams, list your current financial dreams for your future and/or your family’s. For example, buying a house, helping third-world children, putting your kids through college with minimal debt, building an adequate retirement fund, going to Paris, having a zero balance on all your credit cards, being in a position to help others in need. You get the idea.
5. If you can, put a “dreams come true” ranking next to your current dreams using the same scale as in question 2, but base it on how likely you think it is that your current dreams will come true.

Quiz Results
   In step 3, you added your scores for the dreams of your youth. See below to determine where you are with those.
   25 points or less: You’ve had a severely average life as opposed to the life you dreamed of having as a child. Or maybe you just had a very creative imagination and dreamed of becoming a dinosaur—talk about an impossible dream (unless you’re an archaeologist and you dig up dinosaurs, thus finding fulfillment by working in the same category of that childhood dream).
   Another interpretation of this score can indicate an absence of exposure to key elements in your life. For example, maybe your family didn’t value education, so you didn’t have educational dreams. Consequently, you’ve either had to made adjustments and become a better person in the process of some dream-shattering realities, or you may have given up on the whole idea of dreaming and emptied your pockets of hope.
   26–35 points: Either you weren’t very imaginative as a child and didn’t daydream about life in the future, or you had an above average culmination of your dreams coming true. This score could also indicate that you were purposeful and realistic in ways to make your dreams come true, even though you fell short of the youthful version of yourself. It might be that you’ve had some challenging life-changing events, but you’ve recovered from them enough to be able to take the second chance this world has given you.
   36–45 points: You might be a lot like my husband, Bob, whose dad took him to a Blue Angels airshow when he was a child. After the show Bob told his dad, “When I grow up I want to fly those jets with the funny noses.” He grew up to fly the F-4 Phantom, the same jet he saw at the airshow. You have had most of your dreams come true and/or you’ve been very satisfied with a different interpretation of your childhood dream. Even if your real dream came true almost exactly the way you imagined it, you still may not be content, because contentment is often a choice. But it appears you have had every opportunity to be satisfied with the results of your childhood dreams.
   45–50 points: You might be one of those people we know as someone who is “living the dream.” You were prescient or intuitive as a child, and it seems you followed your passions to see these dreams to fulfillment....