(By “culture,” I mean the collection of common beliefs, values, assumptions, customs, and behaviors that mark a group of people.) 

Every group of people displays a certain culture. Cities do. So do schools and churches, civic organizations and sports teams. 

Businesses also have distinct cultures. (I’m thinking now of one fast-food restaurant marked by unfriendly workers and painfully slow service…and another establishment up the road where I’m always served quickly and with a genuine smile.)

The fact is, cultures develop wherever people live, work, worship, serve, and play together. 

So, your family has a culture. And that culture encompasses a host of facets—including money. For that reason, we can call the way your family sees, understands, and uses money your “wealth culture.”

In my three plus decades as a financial planner, I’ve met people from all sorts of family “wealth cultures.” 

Here are the six most common (and the sort of self-talk that accompanies each one):

• Scarcity. This says there’s only so much wealth in the world. “The more someone else has, the less that is available to me.” Also, “If I spend this money, it’ll be gone; I’ll never be able to replace it.” Generosity is difficult for people here; envy is a problem.

• Guilt. Similar to scarcity, this culture views wealth as a zero-sum game. “I’m not rich, but because I have more than some, I can’t enjoy what I do have, no matter how hard I worked to acquire it. How can I celebrate while others suffer?”

• Inferiority. This culture sees wealth as a birthright for others. “Wealth? That’s for others, not me. I’m from the wrong family. I went to the wrong school. I live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong friends, go to the wrong church. People in my group don’t get wealthy.”

• Entitlement. This culture sees wealth as something owed to me. “Because of ___, I deserve my share. My people founded this city! Do you know who my father/mother is! Do you know where I got my MBA? How dare anyone deny me things I want!”

• Consequence. This culture sees wealth as created—and individuals having freedom and agency to create it. “I can work to generate and preserve wealth. If I wisely and diligently provide a service or a product that people find useful, interesting, or valuable, they will pay me for it.”

• Opportunity. This is the opposite of a negative, scarcity mindset. People from this culture say, “There’s never been a better time to be alive. In terms of knowledge, technology, and the ability to connect, the world has never offered more possibilities. If I will just think smart, work hard, be resilient, and work well with others, I can do more than I imagine.”

These are the six “wealth cultures” I see most commonly. I bet one, or maybe two, of them feels familiar. It reminds you of how your family of origin viewed wealth—and shaped your views of money, your habits of saving, spending, and investing.

Here’s the good news: If that culture is not what you want, you can change your wealth culture! And by changing it, you’ll affect all who come after you—your family, friends and community.

Just remember this about a culture: It will try to define you and dictate to you. Like an internal GPS, your “wealth culture” will constantly “re-route” you so that stay with the group.

All the more reason to ask yourself, “What do I want my wealth culture to be?”

To help you think through issues like this, I’ve created a comprehensive checklist of pre-retirement questions for people who are 60-something. It’s free if you’d like a copy. Email me at bmoore@argentadvisors.com, and I’ll send it to you right away.

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

My simple definition of affluence is “your income relative to everyone else’s.” If you make $36,000, you qualify as an average Joe – you’re right in the middle of the income numbers for the rest of the country. 

However, someone making $36,000 back in 1960 was earning about 7x the average (or median) income! That would be like making $250,000 today. Most would consider that doing pretty well…probably even being affluent. 

Affluence is relative. It asks, “How do you stack up against others?” 

Wealth is different. To be sure, many measure wealth the same way (via comparison). But that’s not a very useful standard. By that measure only the super-rich—e.g., Internet billionaires and crypto-currency pioneers—can be considered truly wealthy. 

A better understanding of wealth is “the amount of assets one has relative to one’s lifestyle.” 

By this measure, a person with assets worth millions might be wealthy, while another (with the same assets) might not be (due to an extravagant lifestyle). 

The difference between the two isn’t the income, but the outgo.

This “assets to lifestyle” ratio is more useful to more people. That’s because many people are limited in their ability to amass assets; however, they have a great deal of control over the size of their lifestyle. By this measure, you can become “wealthier” as you grow your assets and/or moderate your lifestyle. For most, pursuing wealth involves both actions.

Here are six essentials for a life of wealth: 

• Strategy. This one is obvious. You’re going to need a plan that combines saving, protection and growth of your assets. And you’ll eventually need a plan to convert those assets into retirement income.

• Wisdom. Wisdom is the intersection of intelligence, experience, and responsibility. It’s not a virtue acquired quickly but one grown slowly over time. Wisdom perceives the value of balancing risk and certainty. Wisdom combines the power of thrift and the discernment necessary to see good opportunities. 

• Energy. You can’t be passive—the journey to true wealth takes effort. That’s especially true in the early days of a plan. Plans don’t magically happen…you have to make them happen.

• Discipline. You’ve got to spend less than you make so you’ll have something to save. That’s short-term pain for long-term gain. You also have to resist the constant temptation to use debt to “keep up with the Joneses.” That would be short-term gain for long-term pain.

• Resilience. When you begin your journey to wealth, you’ll sail into some serious headwinds. Nearly 100% of the 3,000+ marketing messages you see and hear daily will work against your disciplined strategy. You will have to learn to say “no” a lot.

• Time. This won’t be a fast journey. And despite all the folks that will invite you to their “get rich quick” fairyland, shortcuts are a one-way street to disappointment. Ask yourself, “Do I know one wealthy person who got wealthy this way? Even one?”

Last week I wrote that affluence tends to be temporary and wealth tends to be permanent. 

For most there will be a natural tension between the desire to live affluently (however short term that is) and the will to create long-term wealth. It’s good to understand and anticipate that struggle. It’s real. 

The question each of us must answer is, “Which do I want…the temporary or the permanent?”

Your answer will determine your path.

If you want to take the path to seeking long-term wealth creation, one place to start is by reading my free e-book “How to Put Financial Worries in Your Rear View Mirror.” You can write to me at bmoore@argentadvisors.com and request your free copy. There’s no cost or obligation. 

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

The freak athlete. The shrewd mogul. The talented entertainer. The mesmerizing author. The successful investor. The flamboyant reality star.

Through some combination of genetic gifting, hard work, and dumb luck, these few lucky souls have managed to hit it big. As in “BIG BIG.”

An obsessed public idolizes and envies them. Many think, “I should do what they did and try to become my own brand.”

Never mind that 96% of the people trying to strike it rich as “social media influencers” on YouTube don’t make enough money to reach the U.S. federal poverty line (in 2019 it was $12,140). 

Never mind that only about 2% of high school athletes get to play at the college level. That only about 2% of those ever become professionals. Or that only a tiny fraction of those get nine-figure contracts and the chance to date J-Lo.  

The myth—“it’s easy to get to Easy Street”—is more popular than ever. And so “get rich quick” schemes flourish.

People of character are wise. They understand the truth that if some financial scheme sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

I hear this kind of wishful thinking in regular folks as they talk to me about money. 

• “What do you know about Bitcoin?”

• “Why is AMC stock skyrocketing? Should I get in?”

• “Put me in some really aggressive fund…I’d like to retire by 55…”

• “I want to find something I can do from home and earn passive income…”

All these statements are made with the belief that maybe there is a formula to fast success—reading some financial guru’s book, buying the right stock, doing what that billionaire did, etc.

Can I suggest a better way to success? Granted, it’s not very “sexy” or flashy. But it also doesn’t require movie star good looks, out-of-this-world talent, or catching some of that elusive “lightning in a bottle.”

It’s character. Developing character.

You ask, “What does character have to do with financial success?” Answer: Plenty!

People of character are wise. They understand the truth that if some financial scheme sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. They grasp (and take advantage of!) powerful financial truths. Amazing realities like “compound interest,” which Einstein called the eighth wonder of the world!

People of character are patient. They know that undesirable things like weeds and mold and debt can grow quickly. But valuable things like being debt-free, building a healthy business, and growing a 401(k) take time.

People of character have self control. They don’t squander their wealth. They are able to say “no” to the lure of instant gratification, and “yes” to the unglamorous discipline of saving and investing. 

Finally, people of character are generous and compassionate. They know the truth of the old saying that giving actually brings more joy than receiving.

As you think about your own attempts to earn, grow, and enjoy wealth, you may be tempted to play the “if only” game in your head. If only I had more talent . . . better looks . . .a more engaging personality . . . a better education or better connections. To be sure, such things can give a person a leg up.

But character beats them all. And it’s available to all. 

Character isn’t likely to make you a household name, but it will help you develop qualities that lead to financial health and peace. 

Looking to build the kind of wealth that lasts? 

Start with character. 

And if you’d like some practical help in getting on the road to a better financial future, email me at bmoore@argentadvisors.com. Ask for my new, free e-book called “How to Put Money Worries in Your Rear View Mirror.” I’d love to send it to you, then hear what you think about it.

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

• How much should I be setting aside each month?
• How big of a ‘nest egg’ do you think I’ll need in order to retire comfortably?
• Will Social Security run out of money before I’m 65? Should I even count on that?
• What mutual funds or investments will grow my assets most over this next decade?

Those are all good, interesting questions. But they’re not the questions I recommend you ask first.

Let me give you six better ones to ask when saving for retirement.

1. Why am I saving? The #1 question to ask about retirement saving is “Why?” Why would I voluntarily give up enjoying my money now?” (a practice referred to as “saving”).

Most would answer, “Well, that’s just what you do, right? You set aside as much money as you possibly can so that one day, hopefully, you’ll have the resources you need to stop working.” 

Few, however, think to create an actual plan for those assets. How will they use them wisely? How will they turn shares of stock into groceries? How will they make sure those limited resources last? 

A better answer to this important question? “I’m saving to get the assets I’ll need to produce the income I want—in retirement, when I’m no longer getting a paycheck.”

Can you see the difference? 

Building up a big account value in your 401(k) or Roth IRA is certainly a part of the equation, an important first step. But it isn’t the final answer. Retirees don’t live off large retirement account balances. 

They live off income streams. 

(Don’t believe it? On your next trip, just for fun, try checking into a hotel by flashing your latest annuity statement or announcing your net worth. See how that works for you.)

2. How much retirement income should I aim for? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to retire with no decrease in income (if that’s possible). What’s your current monthly budget? Shoot for that.

3. How long should my money last? Well, at least as long as you do. And if you’re married, as long as your spouse lives. In other words, you want your income to last at least as long, if not longer, than you do. 

4. How secure should my retirement income be? Consider: If the financial markets, or business markets or real estate markets get shaky or go in the wrong direction, do you want your regular income to be subject to that? Just how shielded do you want your income to be from external economic forces?

5. Will I need money in addition to my income? Probably so. Do you think your roof will ever need to be replaced? How about your car? We all face unexpected expenses during our working years. What makes you think that your need for liquid (i.e., available) funds will go away in retirement?

6. Do I want to leave anything after I’m gone? Unless you go broke, it’s hard not to. But many people have a desire to leave a financial legacy after they die. If so, make sure that is part of your retirement income plan. 

I hope the above questions make you realize that while saving for retirement is necessary it’s not enough. It’s not even enough to invest…even very successfully. 

What you need is a plan – for retirement income, liquidity and legacy.

Do you have one?

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

That’s how much the Los Angeles Lakers paid LeBron James to lead them to their 17^th NBA championship. Along the way he earned the championship MVP title as the Lakers celebrated their title in front of…well, nobody. Weird year.

Was it worth it for the Lakers?

Having not won an NBA championship since 2010, they would probably say yes. Forbes magazine estimates the value of the franchise in excess of $4 billion, so one would say they could afford it.

But should they have spent that much?

After all, perhaps the Lakers could have picked up Dort Luguentz for a lot less…ESPN reports Mr. Luguentz earned $155,647 as a shooting guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2019-2020 season. 

But LeBron averaged about 27 points per game, compared to Dort’s 6. Four times the average points…238 times the money.

Value can be a funny thing—and it’s not always obvious.

These days you see a lot of ads promoting how inexpensive various financial products or services are. Free trading, zero cost trading, no load mutual funds, low expense ratios, 15 minutes will save you 15%…the slogans are endless.

Low price is only relevant when purchasing a commodity. By definition, a commodity is a basic good that is interchangeable with another good of the same type. No difference in quality is assumed. Grade A eggs. Gold. Timber. West Texas intermediate crude oil. 

But not all common things are commodities. You can buy your hamburger at “the Golden Arches” if you wish. I’ll pay a little more at the Flying Burger and get something that makes my taste buds happy. Yes, put cheese on mine please, with the fries. I’ll pay more because I think there’s a big difference…in taste. And value.

Are financial products and services commodities? Some are. Those would include index mutual funds and index exchange traded funds (ETFs). And low cost trading platforms can be somewhat commodified. Just be careful you understand how quickly and efficiently (or not) your trade will be executed.

But is a financial plan a commodity? 

I cannot see how it would ever be so. 

Financial planning involves numbers, but any financial plan that relies too heavily on numerical calculations, with little or no room for the hard to calculate reality of human nature is naïve (at best). People and money are not math and they rarely follow a linear or completely logical path. 

We get scared. We get bored. We age. We lose focus. 

Wise financial planning needs to tilt just a bit towards the pessimistic – we should assume a few bad things are going to happen along the way and make allowances for that.

However, investment plans (operating within the confines of an overall financial plan) should tilt a bit towards optimism. Investors can more easily see the headwinds and problems in the future – elections, recessions, taxes and deficits all loom large. The optimistic outcome (which is the historic norm for the past 100 years) is harder to see. That requires a bit of faith, a faith which expresses itself as a tilt towards optimism in one’s investments. 

A good financial plan comes with a good financial planner attached. And a good planner is perhaps the least commodifiable financial service of all. 

NBA players are not all created equal and neither are financial planners and the plans they craft.

For your championship season, look for the high value, not the low price.

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

So, like most young men, he considered his options and did the only sensible thing. He ate more. 

Well, that didn’t help, so he bought the jumbo bottle of Pepto-Bismol. By the time the weekend was over, he was doubled over in pain and begging his wife to drive him to the emergency room. 

Fast forward through lots of exams, treatments and finally exploratory surgery and the doctors discovered the true culprit. Chris had cancer. 

Impossible. How can a man this young and healthy have cancer? 

Chris’s introduction to cancer showed him that neither his sincerity nor effort were of any use to him in this situation. He sincerely thought he had a stomachache, which could be addressed by an over the counter treatment and maybe taking a day off from spicy tacos. And once the pain continued, he became 100% dedicated in his efforts to find a remedy.

But as Chris told me later, “You can’t get well until you are right about what is wrong.” 

Chris’s health situation isn’t that different from many financial situations I see.  And like Chris, if your financial situation is unhealthy, you’re never going to get financially well until you’re right about what’s wrong.

Chris went through a four-step healing process:

Examination. Sometimes surface examinations don’t reveal the deeper problems behind the presenting symptoms. In Chris’s situation, exploratory surgery was necessary to find his underlying problem. Financially, a comprehensive financial examination is the first step to understanding the depth and breadth of what ails you economically. 

Evaluation. Once they had him open on the operating table, it didn’t take long for the doctors to see what was going on…it was cancer. 

Financial evaluations are not always that obvious.  Sometimes personal economic problems are limited to the numbers, but often we find a lot of emotional and relational issues as well.

Treatment. For Chris, the treatment option was obvious. Immediately he started a round of chemotherapy to kill the cancer tissues troubling his body. 

Sometimes treatment plans for financial ailments can be instant, such as the writing of a will or the installation of an insurance policy. Other times, the treatment plan involves the initiation of a set of habits to be practiced regularly for a long time – things like saving money, investing discipline and debt reduction. The benefits of these actions are like exercise – they only become evident after practiced over a long timeframe. 

Recovery. The very good news for Chris is that he began to get better almost immediately. Soon evidence of the cancerous tissue was undetectable. It was a long road, but today Chris is a healthy man. That’s really good news!

Financial unhealthiness can be treated in such a way that the transition into financial health can be made (if not instantly) more quickly than one might have imagined. Walls of protection can be erected. Money can be saved. Debts can be reduced and eliminated. Investment programs can begin. Retirement plans can be imagined. 

But none of that can happen if you keep treating your financial cancer with extra-large bottles of financial Pepto-Bismol. You’ve got to go deeper than the symptoms. You’ve got to discover the real problem(s).

Because like Chris said, “You can’t get well until you are right about what is wrong.”

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

Work, right? 

Or maybe something about work – a bad boss, poor working conditions, toxic co-workers or maybe just Facebook being blocked on their work computer (“dang IT guys!”).

Each year international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) sponsors an Employee Financial Wellness Survey. Their 2020 survey asked employees, “Which of the following causes you the most stress?” The answers were interesting.

“My job” said 18% of respondents.

“Health concerns” said 11%.

“Relationships” said 12%

“Other” said 5%.

But guess what the number one cause of stress was?

“Financial or money matters / challenges.” Well, that’s probably because of the economic disaster caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, right?

Yet in their 2019 survey, done over a year before the pandemic, PcW wrote, “With reports indicating a solid economy and a jobless rate at a 49-year low, one would presume we’d see less stress among U.S. employees. However, this year’s survey shows quite the opposite, with more employees than ever admitting to being stressed about their finances. When asked what they feel causes them the most stress, more employees cite financial matters than any other life stressor combined.”

Digging a little deeper, PwC asked employees, “What does financial wellness mean to you?” 

Fully one third of employees simply said, “not being stressed about finances.” The rest of the answers were split rather evenly between “being debt free,” “having enough savings,” “free to make choices,” and “being able to meet monthly expenses.”

What about “being able to retire when I want to?” That only got 4% of the votes. 

So, we see that employees (pre and post COVID-19) are stressed about money more than any other issue at work. And their money worries are all very short term in nature – debt, savings, spending and emergencies.

Curiously, what do most employers offer as one of their main perks to entice good employees to come with and stay with them? 

A retirement plan. The thing only 4% of employees said was their top priority.

Employees in the PwC survey said the employee benefit they would most like to see added in the future is “financial wellness benefit.”

Most employers’ largest expense is their employees – by a long shot. And rightly so. The right employees can add tremendous value to the enterprise they serve. 

Yet these same value-creating employees are telling their employer that their largest corporate expense is (a) being mismanaged and (b) causing stress and distraction among your key value creators. 

According to the PwC survey, “the differences in financial well-being are striking in employees who say they’re stressed about their finances versus those who say they aren’t feeling stress. Stressed employees are more likely to carry credit card balances and nearly four times as likely to have difficulty making minimum payments. They are nearly five times as likely to say their finances have been a distraction at work.”

If you’re an employer, do you want to be a hero to your best employees? Provide them with a meaningful financial wellness benefit that will help them solve their pressing financial problems, reduce their stress levels and enable them to pour more of their energies into the jobs you hired them to do.

If you’re an employee who wishes her employer-provided a financial wellness benefit, give your boss a copy of this column, or the PwC survey itself. 

Money doesn’t have to be the most stressful part of your work.

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

If you’re thinking “being wealthy” or “becoming financially independent,” I disagree with you. I know many wealthy, financially independent people who are anything but financially free. For them, money and wealth are a ball and chain, a never-sleeping slave master that makes them do its bidding.

Financial freedom is not a destination. It’s not a “one day” kind of thing. Financial freedom is something you can (and I say should) experience now.

And financial freedom is not freedom from work. That would imply work is a bad thing, which I don’t believe it is. To be sure, there are some jobs that aren’t exactly a trip to Disney World and a few that can be downright toxic. But moving from a negative work situation to a non-existent work experience is rarely productive. It can relieve tension temporarily, but it often has a longer-term downside.

So, if financial freedom isn’t being rich, or being retired, what is it?

Freedom from want. It’s hard to feel financially free if you’re homeless and hungry. So, we’ve got to have our basic needs met. And for most of us, that means having a job. But it also implies that you find a certain level of fulfillment in your work. You can see its value to yourself and to others. You feel good about what you do and the value you are creating for others. You’re not wasting your life and your time for a trivial pursuit. 

Freedom from worry. What if you were able to remove those aspects of your financial life that keep you up at night? Things like debt, overspending, lack of savings, volatile investments, financial vulnerability to adverse life events and the lack of any real prospects for retirement one day. 

Remove all that and you’ll be able to worry less.

Freedom from wondering. I was talking to a landscaper recently and I confessed to him how little horticultural knowledge I have. I used a phrase clients have often used with me when it comes to money. “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

A comprehensive financial plan that addresses all aspects of your life and money can help you remove that feeling of not knowing. You know the broad outlines of where you are now and the direction you’re headed. And you’re confident that if you stick to the plan, you’ll get there on time. 

Freedom from wandering. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” so says the Cheshire Cat to Alice in Wonderland. 

Without a plan, most people tend to wander…to meander…financially. One day they love the stock market, until they hate it when it goes down. The next day they love real estate (“because I can touch it!), until they hate it because renters are so unreliable. Then they are born-again debt eliminators…until they decide Bitcoin is the next elevator to wealth heaven and they buy a bunch of that.

The person addicted to checking out every new financial fad that comes along is not free. A plan frees you from that necessity to keep pulling up the roses every few weeks to see how they are growing.

Freedom to win…at life.

Worrying less leaves more room in your life to live more. But just because you have room to live more doesn’t mean you will. You’ve got to be intentional with your life. 

Your money and your life both require a plan. And the freedom the results from the plan doesn’t come at the end of the journey – it comes at the beginning!

It is a state of mind and heart you experience when you begin the journey.

The key to being financially free is to begin.

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information here.

It’s a question that seems to have an obvious answer, especially if you’re sick.

“Of course, I want to get well! What kind of question is that?”

Next comes the follow-up question, and here’s where you separate the curious from the serious.

“Are you willing to do what it takes to get well?”

Silence. Then a tentative, “Well…that depends on what it is…”

If this was a medical conversation with a real doctor, the conversation might turn to an amended diet, a changed lifestyle, stopping bad habits, going to physical or occupational therapy, agreeing to take certain medications or treatments or perhaps even having a risky surgery. 

When it comes to financial wellness, I find at least four levels of both willingness-to and likelihood-of getting well…

Avoid. It’s a bad time. You’re too busy. It’s spring and all the kids have spring sports expenses. It’s the summer and we’ve got vacation expenses. It’s the fall and we’ve got back to school expenses. It’s wintertime, and I’m too cold to think about it. 

There are innumerable reasons why you can’t get better. Take your pick. They’ll all work, and they’ll all get you the same result…you’ll be no better and likely worse.

A void. Here there is a semblance of willingness, but no plan. Where do I start? The first danger here is getting overwhelmed, then getting discouraged and finally quitting. 

The second danger is focusing on an action that makes you feel better but gets no significant results. I call this the “doing something” phenomenon. You just feel better for “doing something,” but you make no real progress. You’ve just dulled the pain and cost you a few more valuable years. 

A system. Years ago, I had a friend who struggled with yo-yo weight. He’d lose a few, then gain them back. It was a constant struggle for him until he tried “the boxes.” It was some dietary service he found that sent him every bit of food he was to eat a day, in a box, with instructions on when to eat it. It wasn’t cheap, but it required little thought and less willpower than he’d imagined. 

It was a system and it worked. Once he got a week or two under his belt, he said it was so easy he never really thought about it. He lost the weight he wanted to and expended very little effort in doing so.

Think about your 401(k) plan. If you have one, it is likely the place where you have the most money saved. Why? Because you signed up to have a portion of each paycheck automatically transferred into the plan, then you forgot about it. It was a system that worked when you weren’t thinking about it. 

Accountability. Young men who enter the armed services typically experience a twelve-week transformation from “Joe Normal” to “GI Joe.” Years later they will usually identify themselves post-boot camp as being in the best physical shape of their lives. 

The reason is that not-so-secret weapon used by the military called “the drill instructor.” The DI provides not only the system, but also the accountability to follow through with that system.  The DI tells new recruits what to eat, when to sleep, how to march, how to shoot and even what to think!. 

You can wish to get better by avoiding the subject or simply by having a void where you ought to have a plan.

Or you can invest in a system and a person to hold you accountable to work that system.

You already know which one will work.

Do you want to get well?

Argent Advisors, Inc. is an SEC-registered investment adviser. A copy of our current written disclosure statement discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please See Important Disclosure Information at https://ruston.argentadvisors.com/important-disclosure-information

Answer: I think it would be helpful to think of financial wellness in much the same way we think of physical wellness. It isn’t so much a destination as a state of being.

On the negative side of physical wellness is (obviously) illness. At the extreme, one might be terminally ill, chronically ill or simply not healthy enough to sustain work effort for any significant period of time. An obese person who smokes and drinks a fifth of whiskey for lunch would be considered living an unhealthy lifestyle, even if they showed no immediate signs of distress. Think Winston Churchill. 

On the positive side of wellness, at a minimum, one is free of illness. But surely there is more, right? Moving in the positive direction, a well person has increasing amounts of energy and alertness. Perhaps their physical fitness can be constantly improved. And their overall sense of wellbeing can be so positive that they can share utilize their wellness to serve others. Think soldiers and first responders (some, anyway!).

So perhaps it would be helpful to think of financial wellness as an ongoing journey of moving from one level of financial wellness (or lack thereof) to the next, more positive level. Here are some potential stages by which we might measure our progress towards financial wellness. 

Survival. We start at a level many in the world will never reach. Yet we will hardly ever meet a person in our country incapable of surviving. By surviving, I mean their most basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are being met, but by someone else. This is someone living at or near the poverty level and being sustained by the government or a relative.

Safe. The safe stage is reached when one has a job producing an income capable of sustaining their most basic needs. Obviously the safety only lasts as long as the job does. 

Stable. Here is where most middle class Americans at least have an opportunity to be. Stability is reached when sufficient income is matched with habits of wise planning, thoughtful spending and systematic saving. Stability is less an indication of a certain level of affluence and more likely caused by financial maturity and careful decision making.

Strong. The strong level is the inevitable consequence of stability over time. Financial strength occurs when sufficient levels of legal and insurance protection are in place, and savings are equal to three to six months of expenses.

Satisfied. The road to financial wellness begins with getting a job so you can work for money. The finish line is reached when you have a sufficient amount of money to work for you, so you don’t have to. The satisfaction level is true financial independence and usually takes a lifetime of work to achieve.

Significant. There’s a big difference between being physically well and being fit enough to win the Boston Marathon. That elite level of fitness is only reached by a tiny fraction of the population. 

That is perhaps how we should think about the significance stage of wellness – only a tiny fraction will ever reach it. Good for them, but don’t make it your goal.

For this tiny fraction, their financial wellness will become significant wealth. Either through their entrepreneurial efforts, or through philanthropic causes, their wealth will have an opportunity to impact others outside their nuclear family. 

Such opportunities may be seen as a burden or a blessing, mostly based on that individual’s attitude toward herself, others and her wealth. 

It would be a mistake to hold up the “significant” level, or even the “satisfied” level as the model for everyone’s financial life now. If you are still struggling to get to “stable,” you simply may not have vision for that.

So if I was designing a program to promote financial wellness among a group of workers, I would find ways to help them make progress to the next step. And then the next. 

You’ll find that daily, weekly and monthly financial habits result in lifetime financial results.

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