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Learn how to overcome financial stress, why finances can affect your health, what kind of stress money can cause, and how to overcome health issues related to money. According to the American Psychological Association, 73% of respondents cited money as a significant source of stress in their lives…and for people coping with existing health problems financial and interpersonal stress can exacerbate their conditions. It can lead to ulcers, migraines, back pain, anxiety, depression, heart atttacks, lost sleep, marital issues… Three out of 4 Americans are in debt according to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. If you’re in debt, tackle it head on. There are many things that are within your control like: a) Talk to the credit card company and asking for a lower interest rate. Many companies will try to accommodate you if you’ve lost your job or have health issues in the family, for example. b) Talk to a debt consolidation company. Companies can consolidate your debt into one payment and it usually do

Learn the advantages and disadvantages of renting vs. owning a home, how to decide what's right for you and the ONE thing that should be the deciding factor. Advantages of Home Ownership: Forced savings in the form of equity Tax benefits (interest deduction) In control You own the property Can do what you want to it Benefit from prices rising Disadvantages of Home Ownership: Mortgage interest to pay and mostly interest at first Debt around your neck Can be foreclosed Pay for repairs, maintenance, insurance, yard Property tax Advantages of Renting: No real responsibilities other than rent No cost of repair or maintenance No Taxes or insurance Might be less expensive than buying No down payment Opportunity cost of down payment Flexibility to move, change neighborhoods or states Disadvantages of Renting: All the money goes out the door Opportunity cost of down payment - could earn $$ or 0 Can’t personalize the rental to your liking or make upgrades At end of 30 years, own nothing You have a landlord Owner is in

Learn how much money you need to invest in stocks. I worked in the mutual fund industry for most of my career. That’s where professional money managers manage a pool of stocks, bonds or a combination on behalf of investors. The investor pays a commission or fee or both for it. One of the reasons mutual funds became so popular in the last 50 years, was not only because of professional management, ease of purchase, good relative performance and diversification was because they had a low minimum initial investment. Prior to mutual funds, you had to buy shares of stock and that could be expensive. Mutual funds had a $500 or $1,000 minimum and to buy 100 shares, called a round lot, of stocks was 100 x $30 = $3,000 for one stock, which offered no diversification. All your eggs were in one basket. Today we have more choices of where to invest money - ETF’s are the biggest change. We can invest in unmanaged, diversified baskets of stocks, bonds or both. Instead of having a professional manager, it’s a static group o

Learn how to choose a Financial Adviser and what questions to ask for investment advice. Interview with best selling author of Rich as a King, Doug Goldstein. Places to check up on Financial Advisers: Finra.org/brokercheck CFP.net Sec.gov/investor/brokers.htm Doug’s book: Rich as a King Doug’s website: RichAsAKing.com

Learn 2 ways you can make money during a stock and/or bond market decline: inverse ETFs and Puts. Listener question: Hi Linda, I’ve been listening to you and I’m concerned about the stock and bond markets. How do you recommend I protect my account? Christy There are 2 ways you can make money during a stock and/or bond market decline: Inverse ETF’s and Puts. Inverse ETF’s are Exchange Traded Funds that make money (go up) when the market declines. You are buying futures, and this was not possible a decade ag????. It was something only professional traders could do. You have to be very careful, it’s not something to buy and hold. You want to trade and be in and out of these. They can move against you quickly. There are about 75 inverse ETF’s providing protection on US equites, government and corporate debt, foreign markets and commodities. One of the most popular inverse ETFs is ProShares Short S & P 500 (SH). If the market dropped about 10%, it would go up about 8%. At the time of this recording, the S &am

Learn are a few of the important terms you need to know as an investor. 1. What is a stock? Shares in a company. A way to raise capital. It creates wealth. Increases in value if growing earnings. Risk is limited to amount invested. Example of Tory Burch - wants to open boutiques worldwide and sells stock in an IPO - Initial Public Offering - to do it and raise capital for boutiques, inventory, etc. 2. What is a bond? An IOU; debt from a corporation, government or municipality. Supposed to be less risky than stocks. Considered more conservative investments. Moves inversely to interest rates. Cycles in interest rates run about 30 years. 3. What is asset allocation? The percentage allocated to stocks and bonds, a virtual pie chart. The most important factor in Modern Portfolio Theory; a finding by Henry Markowitz, Nobel Prize Winner. Asset allocation is where the majority of returns come from. A rising tide lifts all boats. It’s not from stock picking or timing the market. It’s from the choices you make about wh

Learn about billionaire Carl Icahn, how he made his money, what stocks he owns and his outlook on the stock and bond market. Carl Icahn is an 80 year old investor worth $20 billion and one of the 50 wealthiest people in the world. He owns 90% of Icahn Enterprises, an investment fund, the symbol is IEP. He’s a shareholder activist, one of the original corporate raiders and greenmailers. That means he buys stock in companies and causes contention with management about why their stock is undervalued, to the point that they pay him to get rid of him. He’s famous for trying to takeover companies and they either succumb to his management suggestions or pay him to go away. Attempted to takeover Nabisco and was paid $600 million by Philip Morris to go away. Carl Icahn gained fame in the 1980’s by taking over and attempting to take over some large companies like Texaco, TWA and American Airlines. He was successful taking over TWA. It went bankrupt and eventually re-emerged. More recently he’s been contentious with man

Listener Questions - How to Get a Spouse on the Same Page; Broker/Dealers And now for listener questions... From Jacob: Hi Linda! I just wanted to thank you. I have listened to your first 20 podcasts and I am a believer.  I am a hairstylist, and I give quality service for a dollar store price, and I have been pretty unsuccessful. Your podcasts have been helpful for helping me understand why. I'm developing a brand and your information has been so helpful. The next thing I do today is to give you a 5 star rating on iTunes. Thank you thank you thank you! I also want to know, how to get a spouse on board with becoming wealthy? My personal mentoring clients have struggled with this. 1. The first thing I do is explain the difference between how women and men invest. Men comfortable with risk, women like security. You're already at odds! He wants to grow the money, she wants to protect the money. A woman's #1 fear is being homeless. So the nest - your home - is important. BTW, I believe that’s why women usually wan

First, let’s see if you qualify for a Traditonal or Roth IRA. Annual contributions to both accounts are the same in 2016 as in 2015 -- up to $5,500 per person, or $6,500 for individuals who are 50 or older. You may earn too much to fund a Roth, because they're available only to individuals whose modified adjusted gross income doesn't exceed a maximum of $132,000 in 2016. For married couples filing a joint tax return, eligibility requirements end at $194,000. With a traditional IRA, you may be able to claim a full income-tax deduction for your contributions, as long as you don't have access to a retirement plan at work, such as a 401(k). Single filers who do have access to such a plan can take a full deduction if they earn $61,000 or less, or a partial deduction up to $71,000 in 2016. The income limits are trickier for married couples filing jointly. If you have access to a plan, the limits are $98,000 to $118,000; if your spouse has access to a plan but you do not, the limits are $184,000 to $194,000 for join

Learn 9 things to consider before investing in a crowdfunded company, how small investors can be venture capitalists and the 2 classifications to buy shares. 2 Classifications: 1) $100k of income and $100k of net worth. Can invest up to 10% of lesser of income or net worth, up to $100k maximum. For example, $100k income, $500k net worth, could invest ($500k x 10% = $50k). 2) Under $100k income and $100k net worth. Can invest up to 5% of lesser of income or net worth, whichever is less. Compare that to $2k and choose larger number. So if you make $50k and have $150k net worth. 5% of $50k = $2,500 vs. 5% or $150k = $7,500. Lesser is $2,500 and is more than $2k so $2,500 investment is allowed. See more details at www.ZacksInvest.com for a crowdfunding portal. 9 Reasons to consider before investing in a crowdfunded company: 1) No liquidity 2) High risk of loss 3) Early stage companies are not fully tested in the marketplace 4) Long-term commitment 5) Questionable accuracy of information 6) Investing in a product

Listener QuestionsChristy has 2 questions:Linda,I love your show and I've been binge-listening to old episodes.I've always been really afraid of investing and intimidated byanything related to finances. Your show is shifting my perspectiveand helping me take charge of my future with confidence. Thankyou!I have two questions. 1. What other resources (besides yourshow, and mailing list) would you recommend to someone who istrying to learn about this world with no prior knowledge. I want tolearn as much as I can as fast as I can, and there is no end to theamount of books and podcasts, and blogs about the market,investing, business and economics, where is the beginning?Thank you, Christy. I’m so glad the show is giving youconfidence and shifting your thinking! That’s why I’m here! I thinkmany financial experts make investing too difficult and technicaland it just doesn’t have to be that way. I also believe thatthere’s a mental connection to wealth and your thinking isparamount, so I include mindset, belief, and p

Learn what rewards are available with credit cards, are they worth it, which are best and why it might be something you shouldn't do. Websites mentioned to track points: Mint.com and AwardWallet.com A credit card enthusiast tells you how to use credit card reward programs to your advantage and pitfalls to avoid. Main cards discussed are Chase, Discover, Amex as well as airline cards. Points for airline miles, hotels, groceries, gifts and cash back.

What you’ll learn are how investing is different from gambling,how it’s similar to gambling and why real investors are far fromgamblers! I just returned from Las Vegas. I’m not a gambler, mainly because I respect how much effort it takes to make money. I didhowever sign up for a card to get a discount at a nice restaurantand along with that came a guaranteed ace. So I did find myselfseated at a blackjack table with some chips in front of me. I accepted the guaranteed ace and was dealt a 21. I left the table up $2! Lol! That shows you what a gambler I’m NOT! That got me thinking, some people have told me they think investing in the stock market is gambling and I wanted to address that and why I don’t agree with it. Investing is a legitimate way to grow money and compound athigher rates. -My 5th Step to Wealth -Necessary to get higher rates to retire comfortably and build wealth. 2. You’re investing in companies, not making a wager. - If done correctly, shouldn’t be all or nothing -Gambling is win/lose on each

Learn how to separate the stock from the company, what to look for when you buy a stock and why you don't want to judge a stock by how it's done in the past. Today we'll talk about what happened to Apple recently, as an example of why not to fall in love with the stock. What I mean is "don't fall in love with a stock just because you love the company." You'll also learn my reasons to sell a stock.

Hello and welcome to my 2nd anniversary show! Yes, it was exactly 2 years ago today when I started the Be Wealthy & Smart podcast. Today I’ll share with you the best of the best episodes - that is which ones you’ve liked best and I’ll take the #1 rated show and give you a podcast within a podcast about the most popular of all topics! Here’s a little background on how far we’ve come in 2 years: Today BWS has listeners in #143 countries. 80% in the US, and 20% around the world. Our top countries outside the US are: Canada, UK, Australia, China, South Africa, Korea, Sweden, Philippines. But we also have listeners in such far away places as: Oman, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Peru, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan. Thank you so much for listening, tuning in and subscribing to the show! We’ve also gone from 0 to 101 reviews, 96 of which are 5 stars, so thank you everyone who has written a review. If you’re a regular listener and you haven’t left a review yet, please do that and let me know what you think of

Learn why you want to start saving for retirement the moment you have income and why it should be higher on your priority list than it might be. Last episode I was talking about spending priorities and I gave you my list of 10 spending priorities. Spending priorities are a way for you to decrease impulse spending and really focus on matching your money with your priorities. If you know where you want to spend money, you'll be less tempted by purchases that are thousands of dollars and totally unplanned. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT a fan of budgets, unless you have a very limited income and must watch every penny. But for people who have excess money every month, I think budgeting can feel like a diet - too restrictive, you want to go off it as soon as it starts and it may give you a bad relationship with money because you always feel guilty when you spend. Rather, I think you should have spending priorities and be very clear on what they are because then you are matching your money with what matters most to y

Learn how to prioritize your spending following the 10 essentials and 6 questions to ask yourself. This will keep you growing your net worth and keep you away from impulse spending.

Learn 3 things John Paul DeJoria and other billionaires commonly do. Their habits, thought processes, attitudes. How they evaluate business opportunities.

Learn how to make money on Amazon using Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). Hear Brad DeGraw's story about starting with $100 and now having many products selling on Amazon under his brands. Learn the steps to become successful, what not to do, and why you need to tap into emotions to sell. Brad shares his formula: Problem, Fantasy and Desire and explains why it's important to have for each product you market. The steps Brad mentioned are: (First decide to be successful - it's always mindset first!) 1. Select your market.2. Search products and social media. Check competition.3. Read 1, 2, and 3 star reviews on Amazon products you're considering to see how you can improve them.4. Find suppliers5. Sample products6. Get good images and copy7. Connect with bloggers for them to write about and review your product. Brad's website is AmazonSherpa.com. Tools & apps he recommends are: Scan Power - $10/mo.Profit Bandit - $10/mo.JungleScout.com That Kat Radio podcast

Learn my favorite economic indicators I use to follow the economy. Find out why I don't go to their websites and what they are telling you about the economy and possible direction of the stock market. This was a listener's question I answered. I'll also show you the website I go to to find out the direction of the stock market, see when it's about to rollover and keep myself from buying at market tops and selling at market bottoms. They include: GDP, Consumer Confidence, Consumer Price Index, Housing Starts, Employment Situation Survey, Producer Price Index, ISM Index, Baltic Dry Index, S & P 500 Index, and MACD.