The Money Maze

by Jim Stovall

The current turmoil in the financial markets has created more confusion and controversy surrounding money, wealth, and personal finance than ever before.  Surprisingly, money is not the key to wealth.  Knowledge is the key to wealth. People who are wealthy have a high degree of knowledge and understanding as it relates to money.  They did not obtain this knowledge because they have money.  They have money because they obtained this knowledge. If you divided all the money in the world up equally among those of us in a capitalistic, free enterprise economy, within a few short years, those dollars would find their way home again, and the rich would continue to get richer while the poor got poorer. Whether you’re dealing with medicine, mechanics, or your money, knowledge is power.  When you visit your doctor or auto mechanic, the more you know, the better off you are and the more likely you become to have a positive outcome from the encounter. I have written 16 books, and as they are released into the retail marketplace, they all take on a life of their own.  Recently, I have written a book with my co-author Tim Maurer entitled The Ultimate Financial Plan.  When it hit the marketplace, it began getting a lot of attention from high places.  Here are the reviews from USA Today and the New York Times. This type of publicity for a brand new book is indicative of the hunger in our society of people looking for answers for evermore perplexing questions. In The Ultimate Financial Plan, we do not seek to give you the answers to all of the questions, but instead, we seek to equip you with the knowledge you will need to evaluate investments and investment professionals. In today’s financial realm, it’s not enough to simply evaluate financial advice.  You have to evaluate financial advisors.  Financial decisions are among the most important you will ever make for your family and your future.  Unfortunately, if you make the wrong decisions today, you may not know it until you get way down the road toward college expenses, family emergencies, or retirement.  At that point, it’s too late to correct a poor decision and recover.  You can’t wait until you’re thirsty to start digging the well. We humans have a tendency to avoid perplexing life questions that confuse and frustrate us.  Always remember that doing nothing is never a good financial plan, and to not decide is a decision, in and of itself, and rarely a good one. As you go through your day today, commit to obtaining the basic knowledge you need to create your own customized money strategy, and then you will have the ultimate financial plan. Today’s the day!