The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life

The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life

by Jim Stovall, Tim Maurer
Released September 2011
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118073537

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Book description

How to build a financial plan that really blends into your life

The latest volume in the bestselling Ultimate series, Jim Stovall and Tim Maurer's The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life is a one-stop, comprehensive, personal financial planning book exploring the intersection of money and life. The Ultimate Financial Plan examines the connection between actions, thoughts, and feelings when it comes to all things financial. The key to getting the most out of your wealth, the authors argue, is certainly found in the wise utilization of tools, like budgets, bank accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth IRAs, education savings plans, and real estate, as well as home, auto, business, health, disability, and long term care insurance, but even more so in the contentment found in balancing money's influence in our lives with personal values and goals.

An insider's look into the recently humbled "Big 3"—the banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies—and the inner workings that often set their proprietary goals and objectives above all

A critical examination of the role of various financial sales people, advisors, planners, and consultants

A guide to navigating Economic Bias—a conflict of interest involving money—and how it affects every financial decision we make

The Ultimate Financial Plan is the application of the resources at your disposal for the purpose of living your life to the fullest, and this book will show you the quickest route to getting started on the path to ultimate success.

"The ebook version does not provide access to the companion files".

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction
  10. Chapter 1: The Gift of Money
    1. The Value of Money
    2. Money Beliefs
  11. Chapter 2: The Gift of Purpose
    1. Personal Principles
    2. Goals
  12. Chapter 3: The Gift of Discipline
    1. Personal Financial Statements
    2. Financial Crises
  13. Chapter 4: The Gift of Enough
    1. Financial Freedom
    2. The Danger of Discontent
    3. Emergency Reserves
    4. Bad Debt
    5. Better Debt
    6. Economics and Emotions
    7. The Cure for More
  14. Chapter 5: The Gift of Discernment
    1. The Accident
    2. Risk Management Techniques
    3. How Insurance Works
  15. Chapter 6: The Gift of Security
    1. Life Insurance: Why?
    2. Life Insurance Needs
    3. Life Insurance: How?
    4. Life Insurance Wants
    5. Different Types of Life Insurance
    6. Purchasing Life Insurance
  16. Chapter 7: The Gift of Certainty
    1. Auto Insurance
    2. Homeowner’s Insurance
    3. Excess Liability (Umbrella) Insurance
  17. Chapter 8: The Gift of Health
    1. Health Insurance
    2. Types of Plans
    3. HSAs and FSAs
    4. Recent Health Insurance Changes
    5. Disability Income Insurance
    6. DI Moving Pieces
    7. Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare
    8. Long-Term Care Insurance
    9. LTC Moving Pieces
  18. Chapter 9: The Gift of Clarity
    1. Stocks and Bonds
    2. All Things Considered Equal?
    3. Mutual Funds
    4. Economic Analysis
    5. Market Valuation Analysis
    6. Technical Market Analysis
    7. Efficient or Not?
    8. Passive versus Active
    9. Investing with “Style”
    10. Relative Return versus Absolute Return
    11. Index Huggers, Return Chasers, and Risk Managers
    12. Decisions, Decisions
  19. Chapter 10: The Gift of Transparency
    1. Immediate Annuities
    2. Fixed Annuities
    3. Variable Annuities
    4. Equity Indexed Annuities
    5. Annuity Disadvantages
    6. Annuity Advantages
  20. Chapter 11: The Gift of Preparation
    1. Tax Myths
    2. Tax Rules
  21. Chapter 12: The Gift of Learning
    1. Family Education Policy
    2. Having The Talk (no, not that talk)
    3. Education Savings Plan
    4. The 50 Percent Rule
  22. Chapter 13: The Gift of Fulfillment
    1. Retirement Past
    2. Retirement Present
    3. Retirement Future
    4. Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
    5. 401k Rollovers
    6. Traditional IRAs
    7. Roth IRAs
    8. Traditional versus Roth
    9. Roth IRA Conversions
    10. Fulfillment Planning
    11. Retirement Makeover
  23. Chapter 14: The Ultimate Gift
    1. Wills
    2. Durable Powers of Attorney
    3. Advance Directives
    4. Beneficiary Designations
    5. Probate
    6. Estate Tax
  24. Chapter 15: The Gift of Discretion
    1. “The Big Three”
    2. Financial Planner Compensation
    3. Finding a Professional Planner
  25. Chapter 16: The Gift of Action
    1. Fundamental and Practical Change
    2. Reprise
    3. Stay Connected
  26. About the Web Site
  27. About the Authors
  28. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life
  • Author(s): Jim Stovall, Tim Maurer
  • Release date: September 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118073537