Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence E-Book

Doug Lennick

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 254

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Smart financial decisions boost more than your bottom line--they'll make you healthier and happier too! Are you one of the 90% of people who are stressed about money? If so, you know it can take its toll on every part of your life. Financial health, physical health and happiness are profoundly interconnected. It's almost impossible to enjoy any one of these without the help of the other two. The authors describe this phenomenon as the intersection of money, health, and happiness. Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence will teach you a powerful values-based approach to achieving your most important life goals. As you take steps to improve your financial well-being, you'll discover that leveraging your financial intelligence will also fuel your physical and emotional well-being. Backed by the latest research findings in neuroscience, psychology, health, and cultural anthropology, the authors' invaluable advice focuses on the practical actions you can take to improve not just your finances, but your overall life satisfaction. You'll be inspired by meeting people from all walks of life who have leveraged their financial intelligence to build financial security, promote fitness and health, and increase their daily sense of happiness. Proven recommendations from the authors' work with countless clients, along with worksheets, self-assessments, and other tools will help you apply the book's concepts to enhance your own financial, physical and emotional health. Use the strategies presented in this book to leverage your financial intelligence in a way that's tailored to your individual circumstances and allows you to create your own extraordinary intersection of money, health, and happiness.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter One: Money, Health, and Happiness: How They're Connected

MONEY AND HAPPINESS

MONEY AND HEALTH

HAPPINESS AND HEALTH

NOTES

Chapter Two: Living in Alignment

THE ALIGNMENT MODEL

IDEAL SELF

RESPONSIBILITY

VALUES

NOTES

Chapter Three: Setting and Achieving Goals

LIVING ON PURPOSE

WHAT ON EARTH IS “WIDDY WIFFY”?

STEP 1: HAVE A GOAL

STEP 2: HAVE A PLAN

STEP 3: IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN

STEP 4: CONTROL DIRECTION

STEP 5: THROW OFF DISCOURAGEMENT

NOTES

Chapter Four: Money

FROM MISERY TO WISDOM

THE SECRET OF WISDOM: PREPARING FOR THE CERTAINTY OF UNCERTAINTY

WHAT CAN'T YOU KNOW?

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE SMART MONEY PHILOSOPHY

MAKING YOUR OWN SMART MONEY PLAN

HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED?

SMART MONEY PLANNING GUIDELINES

ADJUSTING YOUR SMART MONEY PLAN

NOTES

Chapter Five: Health

BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR HEALTH

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR HEALTH?

STRESS

MANY DISEASES, ONE CURE

PREVENTING AND MANAGING THE MOST COMMON DISEASES

EATING HEALTHFULLY

PRIORITIZING YOUR HEALTH GOALS

MAKE A PLAN FOR YOUR HEALTH GOALS

BEYOND PHYSICAL HEALTH

NOTES

Chapter Six: Happiness

FINDING YOUR HAPPINESS RECIPE

HAPPINESS IS MORE THAN A CHEERFUL MOOD

HAPPINESS MEANS LIVING IN ALIGNMENT

HAPPINESS DEPENDS ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

FREEZE!

CAPITALIZING ON SELF-AWARENESS

YOUR BRAIN ON HAPPINESS

ASSESSING YOUR LEVEL OF HAPPINESS

CHARACTERISTICS OF HAPPY PEOPLE

PLANNING TO BE HAPPY

KEY ACTIVITIES AND PRACTICES FOR BEING HAPPY

NOTES

Afterword

NOTE

Appendix A: Exercise: What Are Your Top Values?

Appendix B: Exercise: Values and Behavior Alignment

Appendix C: Exercise: What Is Your Life's Purpose?

NOTE

Appendix D: Exercise: Visualize Yourself Living Your Purpose

NOTE

Appendix E: Goal Achievement Planning

PART I: TURNING WANTS INTO GOALS

PART II: GOAL ACHIEVEMENT PLAN

Appendix F: Exercise: Play the Freeze Game

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

FIGURE 1.1 COLA HAPPINESS BENCHMARK INCOMES BY STATE

Chapter 2

FIGURE 2.1 ALIGNMENT MODEL

Chapter 3

FIGURE 3.1 WIDYWFY

Chapter 4

FIGURE 4.1 MISERY: IMPACT OF FINANCIAL STRESS

FIGURE 4.2 WISDOM: REDUCING FINANCIAL STRESS

Chapter 5

FIGURE 5.1 HEALTHY EATING PLATE

Chapter 6

FIGURE 6.1 THE EXPERIENTIAL TRIANGLE

FIGURE 6.2 THE EQ-I WELL-BEING INDICATOR

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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E1

Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence

At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness

Doug Lennick, Roy Geer, and Ryan Goulart

Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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ISBN 9781119430780 (Hardcover)

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ISBN 9781119430841 (ePub)

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Cover Image: © Juan Stockenstroom/Getty Images

Preface

By Doug Lennick

It was nearly 43 years ago when I first met co-author Roy Geer. Roy passed away on March 8th, 2017, shortly before we had completed writing this book. You can imagine how sad this turn of events was. Roy would have been 90 years of age on his next birthday.

I was 22 when I first met Roy, and he was 47. Roy first became my mentor, and ultimately a friend and colleague. We shared a lot over the years, and one of the most important things we shared was a passion for making a difference. Our first book, How to Get What You Want and Remain True to Yourself, published in 1989, grew out of that passion. Several years ago, we decided it was time to work together on another book. Last year we realized our new book would be stronger if we added the perspective of a younger author, and that's when Ryan Goulart, a Millennial, joined the team as a co-author. Ryan, who had already been helping us with research, is now 29 years old. Among his many skills is a deep understanding of the Millennial generation's values, which in turn drive positive life choices; but even more important, Ryan shares our passion for making a difference. In addition, Ryan has deeply researched, and understands from personal experience, how Millennials experience the intersection of money, health, and happiness. As you'll see throughout this book, different generations—Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers—have both similar and unique ways of optimizing happiness by leveraging financial intelligence to promote positive health and happiness practices.

Roy Geer was an inspiration for many, including Ryan and me. As Roy got older, he also got wiser. Roy knew how to age well, and that had a lot to do with knowing how to behave young. He remained an interested and active learner throughout his life. In fact, at the time of his death Roy was not only working on this book, but he was also in the process of completing the requirements for his PhD. For decades I had thought Roy had a PhD in industrial psychology, and he didn't correct my assumption quickly. About 10 years ago, feeling guilty, Roy admitted to me that he didn't have a PhD, but that he was inspired—in part by my mistaken belief—to pursue his doctorate. Though Roy didn't complete his PhD before he left us, I believe that his PhD studies greatly enhanced his happiness, longevity, and purpose. Richard Leider, bestselling author of The Power of Purpose and Repacking Your Bags (co-authored with David A. Shapiro), notes that “aging is changing” and that “purpose matters more.” Leider speaks about “the language of living, not the language of aging.” Words like discovery, learning, opportunity, meaning, and others represent the “language of living.” Roy was all about that, and so is this book.

Our subtitle, At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness, sets the stage for what you are about to experience. Research and the individual experiences of the authors and the many people we have coached or interviewed led us to conclude that indeed there is a clear connection between one's financial well-being, one's physical well-being, and one's happiness. As is true with the chicken and the egg, it is hard to know which comes first, but happiness expert Dan Buettner of Blue Zone fame states, “When it comes to health and wealth and happiness, it's hard to be happy if you don't have good health.” We certainly agree with that, though there are many heartening examples of people facing extraordinary health challenges who, despite their circumstances, demonstrate remarkable emotional resilience, find joy in life, and spread positive energy to those around them. We also know that it's harder to be healthy if one is under financial stress, which countless studies and surveys indicate that up to 90 percent of Americans experience. Hence the significance of the title Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness. Happiness may be one's ultimate goal, but we believe the fastest way to achieve happiness is to begin reducing financial stress by using the strategies presented in this book.

My book, Financial Intelligence: Making Smart, Values-Based Decisions with Your Money and Your Life, written several years ago with the support of my long-time, incredible collaborative writer, Kathy Jordan, was designed to help people understand and develop financial intelligence. Financial intelligence is “the ability to make smart, responsible, values-based decisions with and about money in the face of competing and difficult to deal with emotions.” Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: Making Smart, Values-Based Decisions with Your Money and Your Life is exactly what it says. When you leverage your financial intelligence, you create your own intersection of money, health, and happiness. We've had the privilege of knowing many people who have leveraged their financial intelligence to support financial, physical, and emotional well-being.

For example, consider Moses (Moe) Smith, a chiropractor and business owner who is financially intelligent:

I knew I wanted a job that gave me the opportunity to make unlimited income. I learned both how to be a chiropractor and how to be a businesswoman. I want to know what's going on. I can tell you within $10 at any point in time what's in my checking, savings, and investment accounts. There are only two options: You're either stressed out about money or you aren't. I know too many people who are smart and end up broke.

Moe is both smart and not broke. She is also generally not stressed out about money, which has contributed both to her physical health and her happiness. As Moe puts it, “When I get stressed financially or otherwise, I stop exercising. I have to combat that all of the time.” That's why Moe decided to become financially intelligent, and that's why she is able to leverage her financial intelligence and create her own intersection of money, health, and happiness.

Marjorie and John Wynn are also financially intelligent. Their circumstances are different from Smith's, yet they are financially intelligent nonetheless. Marjorie and John are successful executives and exceptional parents. Marjorie is a marketing executive, and John is a technology executive. Although Marjorie and John make joint financial decisions with the help of their financial advisor, they decided Marjorie should handle all the day-to-day financial responsibilities. John is proud and grateful that “Marjorie takes on the vast majority of the financial issues.”

Marjorie and John live in a beautiful home and neighborhood in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota. When Marjorie and John moved into their home years ago, it was a financial stretch. But as Marjorie put it, “I thought we should invest more for the home and the neighborhood where we would raise our family and where our children would have access to excellent public schools.” This decision to invest in a high-end area was a values-based decision. It was inspired by their belief that where they lived would have a long-lasting impact on their children's success because of the educational, community, and cultural opportunities it would offer them. Meanwhile, Marjorie and John have saved and invested over the years so that they could ensure that their kids would have access to great college education options. This was another values-based decision. And those decisions have paid off: Their oldest daughter graduated from college and now has a job she loves located in the Twin Cities area. Their middle daughter now attends college at the University of Wisconsin. Their youngest is in high school and soon will be making her own college selection.

Another terrific example of financial intelligence comes from Tom and Michelle Young. As head of field distribution for Thrivent Financial, Young constantly works on enhancing his own, his employees', and Thrivent clients' financial intelligence. Michelle, who has been recognized as one of the nation's best financial advisors, and who currently works with Ameriprise Financial, does the same for herself and her clients. When it comes to their family's personal financial security, Tom said,

Michelle and I are at a point where we need to reevaluate our life plans. I'm soon to be 41 and Michelle is almost 40, and we're raising three great kids. In the last number of years, we've been successful in setting goals for money, health, and happiness, and we are grateful that we've achieved our goals. The challenge we face now is that as we grow older and our family's needs evolve, we need to redefine goals for our next phase of life, based on our values and priorities.

Once Tom and Michelle identify their life goals going forward, that is where their intersection between money, health, and happiness will be.

What all of these individuals illustrate is that there are a number of different ways to express and leverage your financial intelligence. Our aim, and the intent of this book, is to help you do so in a way that works for you and, using the strategies presented in this book, will allow you to leverage your financial intelligence to create your own intersection of money, health, and happiness.

Acknowledgments

We begin with our families. If Roy Geer were still here to say it, he would lovingly express gratitude for the inspiration provided by his children, Rhonda, Rhea, and Russell; his grandchildren and great grandchildren; and his sons-in-law. Roy loved his family immensely and spoke of them often and proudly.

Ryan thanks his wife, Joanie, for supporting him through the countless extra hours it took to write this book. There were early hours and late hours and weekend hours, and Joanie was behind him no matter what. Ryan also appreciates the love, support, and guidance he has received all his life from his parents, Dorothy and Rick, and for the lessons learned growing up with his younger siblings, Jonathan and Audrey.

Doug knows his own life and career would not be where they are without the unfailing love and support of his wife, Beth Ann, who is a remarkable role model for healthy living and loving parenting. Doug is also grateful to his parents, who taught him the most important lessons we share in this book, and whose stories we hope will inspire readers to make smart decisions about finances, health, and happiness. In addition, Doug is thankful to be blessed with three wonderful children and their life partners, who have all chosen difference-making careers: Alan and his wife, Sari, Mary and her partner, LaCresia, and Joanie, who is married to co-author Ryan Goulart. Doug also finds regular inspiration from spending time with his grandson and best pal, Dylan.

The authors would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of our collaborative writer, Kathy Jordan, PhD. Leveraging Your Financial Intelligence: At the Intersection of Money, Health, and Happiness is the fourth book Kathy has supported with co-author Doug, and the first book she has collaborated on with co-authors Ryan Goulart and Roy Geer. Kathy has a knack for capturing our voices, and the iterative process of working with her is engaging and results in the best book possible.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the research and literature review done by Alyssa Wynn and her sister, Samantha Wynn. Co-author Ryan coordinated their efforts, and we ended up with binders full of material that were extremely well organized and very well summarized, and that accelerated our progress in developing this book.

Of course, we appreciate greatly the many people we interviewed, from thought leaders and subject matter experts to people from all walks of life willing to share their stories with us and allow us to share their stories with all of you. The real-life stories of real people from their twenties to their seventies make the case for our message that indeed there is an intersection of money, health, and happiness.

Finally, we'd like to thank our colleagues. Roy worked throughout his life, and in later years conducted his consulting and coaching business as an independent practitioner. Before going solo he collaborated with his long-time partner, Bob Roberts. Ryan and Doug work together at think2perform with an incredibly talented group of people geographically spread throughout the country. They encourage you to visit think2perform.com and acquaint yourself with the think2perform team. Special thanks to office manager and company co-founder Kay May, who has worked with Doug since 1979, for arranging all the book interviews and writing time to get us to the finish line.

Oh, and one more very important acknowledgment. We thank and acknowledge you, the reader. What would a book be without our readers? Thank you!

Chapter OneMoney, Health, and Happiness: How They're Connected

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

—President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Just after 9:00 AM on September 11, 2001, life changed forever for Mary Ann Malone, though she couldn't have realized it at the time. She and her fellow Merrill Lynch traders had a disturbingly clear view of a massive fire at the World Trade Center just across the Hudson River from their Jersey City office, caused by a plane that had plowed into the WTC north tower. At 9:03 AM a second plane struck, this time crashing into the south tower. An hour later, the Merrill Lynch high-rise building was evacuated, and Mary Ann began a tortuous five-hour trip home to Westchester, just north of New York City. Major roads and bridges along her normal commute were closed, and cellular service was down, so she had no idea then that the WTC attack had taken the lives of countless friends and colleagues in the Wall Street trading community. All Mary Ann knew for certain was that she desperately needed to get home to her four-year-old daughter, and that she never again wanted to work where a body of water separated her from her child. For a year afterward, Mary Ann says, “I was a mess, and my daughter had issues because I had issues.”

Mary Ann had grown up in working-class Queens, New York, and dropped out of college in the fall of 1978 after only a month, because she quickly realized that the academic life was not for her. Mary Ann initially got a clerical job on a stock-trading desk. By her early twenties, Mary Ann was making a six-figure income as a NASDAQ market maker, no small feat for a woman back in the 1970s, and by the early 1990s she was undeniably wealthy. Mary Ann was financially secure, but after 9/11, she was also emotionally devastated. When Merrill Lynch offered a generous separation package in the wake of the post 9/11 financial downturn, Mary Ann jumped at the opportunity. She took her daughter to Ireland, her ancestral home, for the summer of 2002. While there, Mary Ann learned about the EDUCO seminar,1 a powerful personal development experience. On the one-year anniversary of 9/11, Mary Ann flew to the Bahamas to attend the EDUCO seminar, and it changed her life. There, Mary Ann learned to use her mind to control her thoughts so she could live the life she wanted to live. Mary Ann discovered that she had a choice about how to live her life: She could look at life through the lens of the fear of terrorism, or she could live life through the lens of joy, positivity, and meaningful personal connections.

When Mary Ann returned from the seminar in September 2002, her friends immediately noticed a positive difference in her. She no longer focused obsessively on the past. Previously, Mary Ann had trouble talking to her friends about anything other than the awful losses of 9/11. Today, it's rare for her to think about the terror of 9/11, not because 9/11 isn't important, but because Mary Ann learned to use her mind to focus on what she can control—not the past but the future—which includes creating positive experiences for herself, her family, and her community.

Mary Ann has enjoyed taking on some exciting career challenges since then. She became a registered yoga instructor. Mary Ann also launched and operated a fitness center in Denver for four years. It was an extremely rewarding venture for Mary Ann. She loved being able to help people see the benefits they would derive from the training, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. The fitness center created another priceless benefit: That was where Mary Ann met her loving partner, Tom Perkins, now 55, who had coincidentally taken the same EDUCO personal development seminar several years before Mary Ann had, and who also coincidentally became a regular client at Mary Ann's fitness center in Denver.

Sitting in Tom and Mary Ann's comfortable living room in Saint Augustine, Florida, surrounded by their two affectionate dogs, it's tempting to imagine yourself around a campfire, listening to the story of how these two very different people miraculously came together. Tom, who grew up on a Wyoming cattle ranch, got his pilot's license at age 16 and leveraged a lifelong passion for aviation into a series of lucrative aviation-support businesses; and Mary Ann, a scrappy girl from a New York outer borough, leveraged her smarts when still a teenager to become one of the earliest female stock traders on Wall Street.

Tom and Mary Ann are each strong-willed and independent. But they know how to manage occasional differences, because what joins them as a couple is a shared belief that their life is in their hands, and that they are the ultimate creators of their lives. As Mary Ann says, “The way we think is our creative tool—our gift from God, our co-creation with God.” Whether you think of your source of spiritual energy as God, or Universal Energy, or Buddha, the result is the same. According to Mary Ann:

It's not just about making money and being profitable. It's about employees. It's about customers. You want not just you, but them, to flourish, thrive, and be happy. When you understand how your mind operates, you can create a positive or negative story about your life. Why not make it positive?

Mary Ann and Tom consistently focus on managing their thoughts to create alignment with their day-to-day behaviors. In addition, they also recognize the connection between their thoughts and emotions and their physical well-being. When each independently decided at some point to build a blueprint for personal happiness, both Tom and Mary Ann included physical fitness as a key ingredient. In fact, that was why Mary Ann had opened the fitness center in Denver—to help people translate their positive thoughts about vitality and fitness into their daily lives. Mary Ann, now 57, talks about how her mental state fuels her physical state. A few years ago, Mary Ann found she was able to leg press 10 repetitions at a 550-pound weight. Tom's mind-over-matter moment came when he leg pressed 1,000 pounds. Both attribute these accomplishments not just to regular workouts, but to their mental focus, a perspective they believe allows them to overperform ordinary physical expectations. But for both Tom and Mary Ann, their physical strength has a more important purpose. As Mary Ann says:

Working out regularly makes all the difference. It clears your head and makes you feel better about yourself and your body. It's very easy to understand how your mind works through working out. Everybody wants to feel good. We all have that in common. Ultimately, it's not about the way you look—though working out will improve that—but about how you feel. When you work out, you feel strong, fit, energetic, and happy.

Both Mary Ann and Tom have experienced financial stress. Mary Ann had a day trading business in the late 1990s, which was financially unsuccessful. Tom suffered significant financial losses in 2008, when his company's funding bank went bankrupt. But neither of them dwell on their business losses. Both moved on quickly, and both optimistically emphasize what they learned from business challenges.

When asked what makes them happy, Mary Ann and Tom share similar perspectives.

Mary Ann sums up the source of her happiness in this way: “Happiness is knowing who I truly am so I can connect with other people and who they truly are.” Tom believes he was put here to experience life and be happy. He adds, “Experiencing life makes me happy.” We authors (Doug and Ryan) can't help but imagine that our late co-author, Roy Geer, would have said essentially the same—and that he would have enjoyed meeting Tom and trading stories with him.

Mary Ann and Tom exemplify the spirit of this book. Both are financially intelligent, and both continuously invest time and resources in practices that support their physical and emotional well-being. Their home is comfortable but modest (though they could easily afford a more upscale house). They take pleasure in working in their yard. (though if they chose, they could hire someone to landscape their property.) They work out at the gym. Mary Ann is a ballroom dancer. They enjoy time with family and friends. Mary Ann and Tom have discovered their own prescription for living life in a way that integrates money, health, and happiness.

Like Mary Ann and Tom, each of us has our own unique recipe for personal well-being. Our principles and values determine what's most important to us. Our sense of well-being depends on our ability to put those principles and values into action. Later in the book, we'll discuss practical approaches for defining and achieving personal well-being. In this chapter, we want to set the table for the three most common contributors to personal well-being—financial health, physical health, and emotional health. These three elements are also the most common potential obstacles to happiness. In fact, financial health, physical health, and happiness are profoundly interconnected. It's almost impossible to have one without the help of the other two.

MONEY AND HAPPINESS

The saying “money can't buy happiness” is a common expression, and like many sayings, it's not quite true. Research on the relationship between money and happiness is a mixed bag. For instance, psychologist and happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky has found that there is a significant correlation between income and happiness, though the relationship is not as strong as we might expect.2 Some studies suggest the relationship between money and happiness may only apply to certain types of happiness:

When people are asked to consider how happy or satisfied they are in general, those with more money report being more happy and satisfied. But when people are asked how happy they are moment to moment in their daily lives—e.g., “How joyful, stressed, angry, affectionate, and sad were you yesterday?”—then those with more money are hardly more likely to have experienced happy feelings.3,4

How Much Is Enough?

Jamie Hale summarizes key research on the relationship between U.S. income and happiness:

Americans who earn $50,000 per year are much happier than those who earn $10,000 per year, but Americans who earn $5 million per year are not much happier than those who earn $100,000 per year. People who live in poor nations are much less happy than people who live in moderately wealthy nations, but people who live in moderately wealthy nations are not much less happy than people who live in extremely wealthy nations (Gilbert, 2007, p. 239).5

When it comes to the relationship between annual household income and happiness, a daily survey of 1,000 U.S. residents found that self-reports of day-to-day happiness increase up to an annual household income of $75,000.