$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$ Wealth Healthy Women Newsletter Healthy Attitudes ==> Wealthy Women [TM] December, 2002 $=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$ WELCOME to Wealth Healthy Women [TM], a free e-mail newsletter for women seeking greater financial freedom and well-being. To subscribe to this free e-mail newsletter please send an e-mail to Lynne@WealthHealthy.com. In the subject line put "Subscribe Newsletter". $=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$=$ IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Note From Your Editor, Lynne 2. Article: Taking Stock of Your Intentional Investing 3. Resource Spotlight: Holiday Gifts for Intentional Investing 4. WealthHealthy Announcements ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ -=- Note From Lynne -=- Greetings! It doesn't seem long ago that I sharing my New Year's commitment with you, which was to develop a simpler, slower, intentional lifestyle. Now we are approaching the December holiday season and winding down the year 2002. While I'm not sure that my life is simpler, I'm happy to report that I feel much more intentional! Similarly, Intentional Investing became Wealth Healthy Women's theme for the year. I was delighted to hear from so many WHW readers who appreciated the focus on intentionality. For some, it was a reminder to pay attention to themselves in a proactive way. For others, it encouraged them to take some control in uncertain financial times made worse by the loss of confidence in institutions, analysts, and other leaders they had trusted for financial guidance and security. As we approach the year's end, I invite you to take stock of your efforts over the year to intentionally invest in your self. The feature article in this issue will guide you through that overview. I hope you will discover, as I did, that you accomplished more than you thought you had. What a great holiday present! Speaking of presents, consider treating yourself -- or someone you love -- to a WealthHealthy teleclass. We have free teleclasses for support at the holidays, as well as others in the planning stage for 2003. See the WealthHealthy Announcements section for information. I hope that your holiday season is full of all the joys that you desire and truly deserve. Warmly, Lynne ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ -=- Feature Article: Taking Stock of Your Intentional Investing -=- $=$ Intentional Investing $=$ Let's start with a reminder of what Intentional Investing is all about. Intentional Investing means taking your needs, values and goals seriously. And it involves taking *deliberate* action toward fulfilling them. Intentional Investing can refer specifically to your money life. For example, you value your independence. You do not want to rely on your children to support you in your later years. Consequently, you must start saving money toward retirement. Intentional Investing involves deliberate actions, such as allocating a certain amount of income for retirement savings, building it into your budget, and then actually investing the money in your retirement account during the year. Good intentions are not sufficient! Intentional Investing also refers more broadly to investing in your self. That investment may be time or energy as well as money. For example, you say that you want balance. Consequently, you take time to examine the important areas of your life. You determine what is satisfying and what needs to change to attain a better balance, then initiate those changes a step at a time. Implementing your decisions is essential to intentionally investing in yourself. This may take courage to challenge fears of being "selfish," of others' disapproval or disappointment, or simply of change itself. The support of like-minded others is beneficial, and at times absolutely necessary to move forward on your path toward greater intentionality. $=$ Five Steps to Assess Your Intentional Investing $=$ This article on Intentionally Investing focuses on your money life rather than the larger picture of self-investment. (** If you are interested in coaching on assessing your self-investment picture, contact me at Lynne@WealthHealthy.com). Here are five steps to take stock of your Intentional Investing over the past year. 1. Get the broad picture. Key areas of your money life can include Earning, Spending, Budgeting, Investing, and Debt Management. Take some time to write down specific actions you took in each area of your money life. Remember that an "action" can be changing an attitude or mindset, as well as a habit or behavior. If you'd like, rate your satisfaction with your level of intentionality in each area on a scale of 0 - 10. Example: In April, Ella decided to be more intentional in budgeting her money. She had never developed a formal budget before and viewed it as a daunting task. To prepare herself, Ella organized her receipts since January 1 and entered them into a money management program (**Quicken is an example). She then entered her receipts at the end of each month, so that now she has data on the whole year. Ella's next step will be to examine her monthly expenses by category over the past year, and experiment with the software's budget program in January, 2003. Ella gave herself a "9" rating because she stayed conscious of her goal and took deliberate steps to prepare herself for the ultimate step of designing a budget based on her needs and values. 2. Evaluate your financial goals. Perhaps you identified specific money goals during the past year. Pull out those goals, and determine how much progress you have made toward achieving them. You can also rate your progress toward each goal on a 0-10 scale. 3. Review your values. Take stock of your top five values. Write them down. Now go back to your key money areas (step 1) and (step 2). Assess how fully you are living your values in your key money life areas as well as in achieving your financial goals. You can again use a numerical rating scale (1-5) or a descriptive scale (not at all - totally). 4. Check on your mindset. Over the past year, Wealth Healthy Women [TM] delved in to the characteristics of Financial Self-Esteem, which is the framework (or mindset) for Intentional Investing. These "pillars" include: living consciously with money, money self-acceptance, financial self-responsibility, money self-assertiveness, dealing with money purposefully, and money integrity. (**If you missed the 7-issue series, contact me at Lynne@WealthHealthy.com for copies.) Again, take some time to write about the progress that you made in each pillar of Financial Self-Esteem. Be as specific as possible. If you like, rate your satisfaction with the progress that you made. 5. Check on your "mental game." In sports, athletes know that their mental game is crucial to their performance. It's similar in the arena of money. Our emotions and perceptions significantly affect how we earn, spend and invest money. Earlier issues of Wealth Healthy Women addressed topics relevant to the "mental game" such as risk tolerance (October, 2001) amd emotional biases such as overconfidence, selective memory, the herding instinct and regret (April, 2001) that can influence risk management and other money decisions. Emotions including fear, greed and regret can powerfully influence our money life as well. As one financial advisor said to me, "There's nothing like a 'tanking' market to shake out people's true tolerance for risk." It was easy to believe in one's comfort with risk and invest in aggressive growth equities while the market was hot in the late 90s. However, it was a costly misperception for many individuals. Your "mental game" may be the most difficult area to accurately assess. "Mind traps" such as rationalizing, selective memory, and externalizing (October, 2000) can influence our self-evaluations as much as they can influence our money decisions. You may want to ask a trustworthy friend,family member or coach to assist you. Tips for assessing your mental game are offered below, along with ideas for delving into the other four steps. Granted, this type of assessment takes time. However, aren't you worth it?? $=$ TIPS $=$ 1. Make your "big picture" into a visual. Draw a bar graph, with each column representing one of your money life areas. Place the 0-10 scale on the vertical side of the columns. Place your rating for each life area in the corresponding column. For example, to represent her "9" rating on budgeting, Ella drew a horizontal line on the column labeled "Budget" at a level that was 9/10 from the bottom of the column. When the bar graph was completed, Ella had a visual "snapshot" of her intentionality. 2. When evaluating your financial goals, ask yourself: * Which goals were easiest for me to be intentional about? * Which goals were most difficult to focus on and take deliberate steps to achieve? * What information do I glean from my answers to those questions? * What support do I need to further my intentionality? 3. When reviewing your values, ask yourself: * In what areas of my money life is it easiest to live my values? * Where is it most difficult? * How can I best stay conscious of my values on a daily basis? For example, you can write them on a "sticky" and place it on your bathroom mirror, computer screen, daily planner. 4. When checking on your mindset, take note of areas where you need to take further steps. In the spirit of self-acceptance (the second pillar of Financial Self- Esteem), nonjudgmentally make these your goals for 2003. 5. Some check points for your "mental game" include: * How honest am I about my level of risk tolerance? Am I spending and investing my money consistently with my assessment? * How much am I still influenced by fear? This could be the fear of making a mistake, the fear of changing from the familiar, the fear of regretting that I didn't "go for the big one" when investing more conservatively. What progress have I intentionally made this year on challenging my fear? * Have I gained knowledge and awareness over the year about my personal financial picture and\or increased my financial knowledge in general? * What progress have I made in feeling confident about managing my finances? ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ -=-Resource Spotlight-=- $=$ Holiday Gifts for Intentional Investing $=$ Support yourself or a loved one in becoming more intentional about your\their finances. Here are several ideas for holiday gifts**: 1. Books on personal finance, listed alphabetically by author's last name. $ The Money Diet: Reaping the Rewards of Financial Fitness by Ginger Applegarth. $ Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach. $ The Beardstown Ladies' Investment Club. $ Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. $ Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. $ Money Harmony; Overcoming Overspending; and Money Shy to Money Sure: A Woman's Road Map to Financial Well-Being by Olivia Mellan. $ The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman. $ Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 2. Magazines $ For starters on personal and family finance: Money, SmartMoney, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and the newsletter Bottom Line/Personal. $ Check out a neat website that I ran across. It includes a range of financial magazines, with a synopsis of their focus, and links for purchasing: www.beartopia.net/mags.html ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 3. Money Management software Quicken, MSN Money Plus ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 4. A "technical adviser" for your finances. Hire someone experienced in applications such as Quicken or MSN Money Plus to get you set up and comfortable with the software. (Clients of mine have hired friends and family members who they know and trust.) Another option would be hiring a computer consultant or taking a computer training course that covers personal finance. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 5. A personal journal. Journals are great for tracking your personal investment goals, values, commitments and actions. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 6. A clutter expert. Hire someone to help you sort out old financial papers, decide what to save and how to organize files. 7. Gift certificate. Purchase a gift certificate for WealthHealthy teleclasses or individual money coaching. Contact Lynne@WealthHealthy.com for further information. 8. And, the obvious, money. **Please note that inclusion in this list is not an endorsement of the product by Wealth Healthy Women [TM] or its editor. ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^` -=- WealthHealthy Announcements -=- $=$ FREE Teleclasses for the Holidays $=$ -= HOLDING THE LINE FOR THE HOLIDAYS =- * Tired of overspending at the holidays? * Want to reduce the material focus and move toward a simpler, values-focused holiday season? Then join other like-minded women for a lunch-hour teleclass. We'll share tips and support for developing the attitude and actions to get you there. This FREE one-hour teleclass will be offered twice. Details: When: Wednesday, December 11 Noon - 1:00 PM, Eastern Time Tuesday, December 17 Noon - 1:00 PM, Eastern Time Where: The comfort of your home or office! When you register, you will receive the telephone number to call for the teleclass. How much: FREE How do I register? Send an e-mail to: Lynne@WealthHealthy.com, with "Register" in the Subject line. In the body of the e-mail, please include your name, e-mail address, phone number and which day you prefer. $=$ Teleclasses for 2003 $=$ We are designing a number of different teleclasses for the new year. Some will be one-time events, others will be for 3 to 6 classes. Please watch for future announcements. In addition: If you are interested in a particular topic, e-mail Lynne@WealthHealthy.com. As we are currently selecting topics for the new year, we would value your input. If you have a friend or group of friends who would be interested in an individualized money coaching teleclass or group, contact Lynne@WealthHealthy.com. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ To hear a 10-minute description of the WealthHealthy approach, as well as a bit about me, you can call 1-212-461-2660. If you are interested in coaching, simply e-mail me at Lynne@WealthHealthy.com or call me at (202) 387-5923. Please include your name, e-mail address, phone number and brief description of your interest in being coached. ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ Pass this newsletter along to friends, family, and colleagues who also may be interested in moving toward greater financial freedom and well-being. They can get their own free subscription by going to http://WealthHealthy.com and signing up -- it's as simple as typing in your e-mail address. Or, send an e-mail to whw-request@WealthHealthy.com with the word "subscribe newsletter" in the body of the letter. ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ PLEASE NOTE: Wealth Healthy Women [TM] is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for financial, legal, accounting, psychotherapeutic, or other professional advice and consultation. ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ Copyright 2002 Lynne Hornyak. All rights reserved. The above material is copyrighted but you may retransmit or distribute it to whomever you wish as long as not a single word is changed, added or deleted, including the contact information. However, you may not copy it to a website without my permission. Reprint permission will be freely granted upon request. Advance written permission must be obtained for any reprinting of this material in modified or altered form. ^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^`^ $=$ CONTACT INFORMATION $=$ Lynne Hornyak, Ph.D. WealthHealthy.com Phone: (202) 387-5923 Fax: (202) 244-3373 e-mail: Lynne@WealthHealthy.com Web: http://WealthHealthy.com