Financial fitness lifetime net powerful program workout worth

Sponsored Links.. Free Ebook. Subscribe in a reader. Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner. Book Overview Imagine comparing your financial fitness to your physical fitness, and using the analogy all the way through a book, and you have The Net Worth Workout: A Powerful Program for a Lifetime of Financial Fitness.

I could give you more of an overview myself, but instead let's review what the book's PR materials say about it it's just as good as what I'd say : With The Net Worth Workout: A Powerful Program for a Lifetime of Financial Fitness , the financially unfit and confused can immediately get moving towards a secure future.

Discover how to resist splurging and have more money for what matters. The heart of long-term financial health, investing delivers the stamina that drives all other parts of your financial fitness regimen.

So there you have it. Financial fitness described in terms of physical fitness. Comments You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. Start a Blog. Stock photo. Brand new: Lowest price The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. See all 6 brand new listings. Buy It Now.

Add to cart. Sold by bookindustries About this product Product Information Are your bills bloated, your savings scrawny, and your investments sluggish and lazy? This book presents a program for prioritizing, goal-setting, and follow-up that will get your finances into shape. Inspired by the author's successful seminar program of the same name, The Net Worth Workout uses a subject that people relate to easily -- health and fitness -- to make the nervewracking topic of personal finance more accessible.

The book helps you develop the discipline and consistency you need to build your financial muscle. He says you should enroll in "You U" -- a self-developed program where you:. By the way, I agree that each of these should be part of making the most of your career -- but you should be doing this whether or not you get another degree.

Anyway, the author suggests that you can open the doors that an MBA usually opens for you by writing a specific letter included in the link above that convinces employers that you've gone to You U and are a great hire. He claims the letter should be really effective:. I give talks to executives and often ask them, "Imagine you're an employer and you post a want ad that says 'MBA required. I then say, "Raise your hand if you'd interview him.

First of all, would the executives even see the letter or would some HR intern weed it out since the guy didn't have an MBA?

Third, an interview is not a job offer. It's far from it. Yeah, that headline is a real shocker, isn't it? Not if you have your MBA. If you do have the degree, you know that the education itself is much less valuable in the "real-world" than the experience you get when working. I'll give more of my thoughts on this issue in a bit, but for now let's check out what CareerJournal says about the MBA and how it prepares people for real-life challenges :.

In fact, here are my overall feelings about an MBA:. I have an MBA and am glad I do. It has made a tremendous difference in my net worth through the years. I always say that your career is your most valuable financial asset , offering you many financial benefits.

You can make the most of it by getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential. Doing this well can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime.

An MBA has been a key part of success for me in this area. I learned a lot while getting my education, but not much of it has been used in my almost 20 years of work experience since then.

Yes, I learned statistics, corporate finance, operations and the like, but those where just "book learning" principles. Most importantly, I learned the difference between the way business was supposed to work which is what they teach when you get your MBA and the way it really works. And it's a huge difference. The most valuable part of my MBA education was learning extra skills outside the classroom -- working with other highly-motivated people to accomplish a common task without killing each other , managing my time to complete what seemed like an overwhelming list of tasks, and so on.

These skills have served me well throughout my career. The most valuable part employment-wise of an MBA to me has been that it opened doors for me that would have never been opened otherwise. It gave my career a big kick-start from the beginning and I think that's what it does for most people.

Then, after time, the MBA becomes less and less valuable as a person's experience becomes more and more valuable. The MBA was necessary to get the person where she wanted to be initially, and after that, it's her ability that allows her to succeed or fail. As I've stated before, I'm a big believer in education -- and how it can dramatically improve your lifetime earnings potential and thus your net worth.

I've also noted that an MBA has had a substantial impact on my personal earning ability. But those facts aside, what is the value of an MBA -- or any higher degree -- later in life?

I'll start with my opinion: The later in life you get an advanced degree, the less it's worth. And it's not worth less simply because there are less years for you to use it in other words, if you get an MBA at 25 you have 40 years to capitalize on it versus only 20 years if you get it at 45 , but the rate of decline in value of an advanced degree accelerates as you get older.

And past a certain age, maybe 40 or 45, it's fairly worthless if you're simply looking at the economic benefit involved. In that case, it's as if you're fresh out of college and need an extra boost. In this circumstance, an advanced degree is valuable at a much later age.

So why do I say the value of a degree decreases more rapidly as time goes on? Because with each year, your education becomes less important and your experience becomes more important. The gap widens every year until eventually your work experience totally overshadows your education. There has been absolutely no benefit economically to the degree. In fact, there could be a loss economically if the person forfeited two years of work and pay to get the degree.

Now I understand that to some people there is simply a "value in learning" that is in and of itself worth getting an advanced degree. It's not a good deal later in life. Furthermore, I'm looking at this as it pertains to the business world primarily -- maybe it's different in other disciplines.

For instance, getting a doctorate later in life may still be worth it if you're a college professor. Or perhaps if you're a scientist. Maybe you can think of a few more instances where this is the case. So what do you think, am I on target or just full of it? Let me know in the comments below -- I'm interested in hearing your opinion.

One of the most important steps in becoming financially fit [is] increasing your level of awareness of how you think about finances. According to Annamaria Lusardi, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, that step alone can add significantly to your bottom line.

Lusardi has shown that offering workers seminars on financial planning and retirement topics significantly increases their wealth. Such programs, according to the study, can increase employees' wealth by 15 percent to 20 percent -- regardless of their respective income levels. In fact, they seem low if anything. Then again, maybe it's the "and apply them to their lives" part that hampers the results.

Maybe all of them get the education, but those who don't apply the learning -- probably a majority of people -- depress the results to "only" 15 to 20 percent. The chart lists various education level and what people at those education levels can expect to earn throughout their lives according to the U. Census Bureau. The results:. Just to be clear, here's how Wikipedia defines professional degrees :. In the United States and Canada, professional degrees refer to academic degrees that are specific to a particular vocation or profession.

I've noted several times that your career is your most valuable financial asset , offering you many financial benefits and that you can make the most of it by getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential.

I've also said that doing this well can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime. It seems like this chart backs up these thoughts. Want more information? I've got tons of it on how an education and good career management can significantly increase your income.

Here are just a few of my posts on the subject:. Here's a list of what I consider to be some of the best college and education related posts here at Free Money Finance:. Here's a piece from Marketwatch where the author gives money advice to recent high school graduates. There is lots of good stuff in this piece and I want to highlight in green a few of the parts I like best. I've added in my commentary where appropriate as well. Here goes:. Financial success starts with spending less than you earn, and using the surplus dollars to reduce debt or save for the future.

It all does start with spending less than you earn -- it's the one way people of almost any income can become wealthy. But if you over-spend, it doesn't matter how much you make, you'll still be going backwards.

If you couple spending less than you earn with a great saving and investment plan, it's easy to get rich and earn a million or two!

If friends, neighbors and acquaintances are fortunate enough to do a little better financially, feel free to applaud their efforts, but don't try to keep pace. Most people feel like they are entitled to nice things; the truth is that they are entitled to what they can afford to pay for while still protecting their future.

Allowing someone else's priorities and earning power to set your own financial life off-kilter is dumb. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons so many Americans carry so much debt -- they see a friend get something and they want it or something better. They don't worry about the financial consequences -- they just borrow to pay for it. Bad move. Today's graduates will know they have reached a new level of money maturity when they are able to give some of their cash away.

The sooner someone learns that, the better they will feel about how they handle money. It's nice to see a financial advice piece talk about the advantages of giving. Not only does giving help others and make the givers feel good, but some think that giving is one of the keys to getting rich. Some call this the power of giving.

The graduates I was talking to may have gotten a good education, but it didn't include 10 cents worth of information on managing money. They don't know how to balance a checkbook, make and keep a budget, or invest in a stock that Grandpa didn't pick for them. That has to change, and the sooner the better.

They won't actually learn those lessons while taking college classes, but if they are lucky they will learn them during their time in college, so that they can be prepared to move on when next they graduate. But regardless of when someone learns money management skills, the important thing is that they figure it out, and the sooner the better. I've discussed this a few times and several people have commented on it.

Our education system does a poor job of teaching kids about how to handle money. That's why we, as parents, need to be sure we do it. The only problem with this is that many parents don't know what they're doing when it comes to handling money.

Money provides opportunity, but it doesn't guarantee happiness. And until someone can put a price tag on what it takes to be truly content and happy, it will pay to remember that adult life is not all about the pursuit of greenbacks. That's why I have a whole category here at Free Money Finance devoted to things that are more important than money. A few things on my list: time , health , kids , mind , and happiness. Here's a simple, but profound piece from Yahoo featuring some money advice to graduates.

The entire piece boils down to this thought from the author:. Try to live within your means, and save money. I shared a tiny apartment with a roommate and cut my housing costs in half.

I brown-bagged my lunch; walked or took the subway or the bus; ran outside instead of joining a gym; shopped sample sales in the Garment Center; and never took up smoking. I hung out with other people who were both fun and as poor as I was.

By my late 20s, my salary had risen, and then I joined a gym, traveled without having to stay in hostels, ate out more often, and continued to save. She also notes a money saving tip for today's graduates -- but one that has a fast-approaching deadline:. For anyone with student loans, here's a guaranteed way to save: Consolidate your debt immediately to lock in today's lower interest rates.

Last week, the Department of Education announced that the rate on existing Stafford Loans will jump to 7. This is simply excellent advice. Of any one principle, spending less than you earn is the key to wealth -- not only for graduates, but for everyone. If you master this concept, you can accumulate a large net worth. I've written before about the value of an MBA and even detailed how it's made a tremendous, positive impact in my life.

On that post, I received the following comment recently:. I do not have a business background, and would like such an education to help advance my career. But at the salary bracket that I am already in, do you think it is worth it, even in the long run, to pursue an MBA with a non-Ivy league school? First, what do you want to do with your life? If you're doing it and getting an MBA won't help you advance, then there's no need.

However, if you do want to do something else in another field, another specialty, etc. The keys are:. Be sure the school you go to has lots of companies in your chosen field recruiting at it.

If not, you may end up with a degree and no job at the end of it. Check the starting salaries for these sorts of positions. Once you check these two out and feel comfortable with them, run the math. Calculate how long it will take you to make this amount up probably years.

Is it worth it? The intangible question is: what makes you happy? If an MBA gets you a job you love versus the one you may or may not like now, then factor that in as well. Having a job you like is worth a whole lot of money. It shows how much more an MBA graduate makes even over a bachelor's degree grad. It's a good amount. I've posted several times on the value of education , how it can earn you more and save you money and how education is the key to getting a good job.

I've also noted that your career is your most valuable financial asset and managing it correctly can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime. But I've done this all on separate posts. Today, I'd like to tie them all together and show you the value of an education as well as managing your career -- the impact these have on your career earnings over a lifetime.

There are really two major issues to consider when you try to compare the financial impact of education and career the lifetime earnings you could make under various options. These are:. I'm going to look at several groups of education levels and several earning scenarios under each group. They are:.

Group 2: Those graduating high school but not going to college at all. Group 3: Those graduating high school, having some college, but not graduating college. Group 4: Those graduating with a college Bachelor's degree. Group 5: Those graduating with a college Master's degree. Group 6: Those graduating with a college Doctorate degree. Group 7: Those graduating with a college Professional degree. Based on my post titled Sell College to Your Kids , here are the average starting salaries for each of the groups highlighted above:.

The rest is just math. Here's what each of them will have earned at age 65, after paying for college costs if applicable , throughout their careers:. The cost of college is a non-issue in the long run. You earn much, much more through a working career by going to college than the cost of the degree itself. The conclusion is quite simple: for people managing their careers to the same level of effectiveness, the more you go to college, the better off you'll be financially.

Consider "A" versus "Y". Managing your career effectively is much more important financially than getting a college degree. That extra 2. Numbers percentage increases higher than those noted above can be achieved. No matter how you look at it, most of these people end up earning a very large sum throughout their careers.

If people could just learn to spend less than they earn , more people would become wealthy and would be happier with their finances. In other words, an education can help you earn a boatload more money!! But it gets even better. Now advanced education can also help you SAVE money as well -- at least on your car insurance. Here are the details from Money Central:. In states where rating factors can legally include education and occupation, insurers such as Allstate and Geico are now charging drivers with the right kind of jobs much less for insurance.

Geico simply charges the less educated more. As you might imagine, there are a lot of people that are upset with these practices, claiming that they are unfair to the uneducated who are also usually poor. But it gets down to a business decision for the car insurance companies -- if more educated people have fewer accidents, then they should pay less.

But some companies don't see a correlation between education and accident rates. Or maybe it's just too hot of an issue for them. Anyway, here's what other car insurance companies do:. State Farm, the largest car insurer in the country, doesn't use education or occupation to set rates, said spokesman Dick Luedke.

The No. I'm not going to comment on the right-ness or wrong-ness of setting car insurance rates by education. We'll leave that to one of the political blogs. However, I can say that from a financial standpoint, it appears that education can not only help you earn more, but now can also save you money to boot!

I've posted a lot on the benefits of a college degree and how it helps you financially , and here's another piece that reinforces why I do so. This one is from Yahoo and starts with the following information:. According to the numbers, at least, it's still the college degree that's the great dividing line in lifelong economic success. Roughly one-quarter of Americans age 25 and older have attained a bachelor's degree, according to the Census Bureau.

Over an adult's working life, someone with a B. Somehow, this topic keeps coming up: going to college helps you earn much, much more during your lifetime. Here are some of the other posts where I've noted this:. So while college degrees aren't as rare as they used to be, but graduates are still in the minority.

Some highlights:. High school graduates who failed to make the cut can console themselves with the knowledge that, at least economically, they will likely do just as well as their Ivy League peers over time. While previous research had demonstrated an Ivy League salary advantage, the data were problematic because students who attend more selective colleges are likely to have higher earnings regardless of where they go to school. Krueger and Dale restricted their study to equally talented students who applied to the nation's most elite institutions and started college in Some were rejected and attended less selective colleges.

Two decades later, the graduates were earning roughly the same income. The article then goes on to highlight several points I have found true in my life. Here's the first:. And, as Kantrowitz adds: "If you get a PhD. This is the case for me. I got my undergraduate degree at a small, liberal arts school in the Midwest that no one's ever heard of.

But I got into a nationally-recognized, top 25 business school and got my MBA. That's all employers needed to know, and I had an easy time getting my first job. The second point the author makes is that by hard work and perseverance, a graduate from a lower-ranked school can have as much success as one from an elite school:.

As for undergrads, Kantrowitz says, "You may have an easier time finding a job if you go to Harvard vs. I got in the door with my state college degree -- I just had to knock a little harder. But maybe learning to knock harder early in life is good training for the hard knocks you can face later. This was also true for me. The only difference: they made a few thousand more dollars a year than I did.

Five years later, we were all at similar pay levels, with better performers earning the most regardless of what school they attended. As Taylor told me, "it's all about your own motivation. You may get a job because you had a great resume. But if you're not producing, you can't say: 'But I went to so-and-so school.

Once you get that first job, your performance is what matters the most. Yes, your education carries some weight, but the farther you get down your career path, the more and more experience matters and the less and less your degree counts. For those of you focused on saving for college -- any college -- here are some posts from Free Money Finance that could help you:.

Your career is your most valuable financial asset and managing it correctly can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime. A key part of making the most of your career is getting a good education. There's no doubt that education is the key to getting a good job and there's tremendous value in education. It simply gives you a huge advantage versus others without it. Then, when you capitalize on your education by actively managing your career, you're on your way to financial freedom.

This article from David Bach talks about why education is so important to your financial future. A few of his thoughts:. Investing wisely in higher education is one of the best financial decisions you can make. More education means higher earnings -- for life. Unemployment numbers also drop dramatically as education level increases: College graduates were nearly half as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates, and professional degree holders were nearly a quarter as likely.

Yet even knowing that an education will reap tremendous financial rewards , there still is a pretty big financial burden on families and students to pay for college. Bach gives the following tips to help cushion the financial requirements of funding an education:.

Below I'm listing some links that supplement what Bach is saying for those of you who want some additional information. In the third chapter of The Richest Man in Babylon the book lists and details "seven cures for a lean purse.

As a man perfecteth himself in his calling even so doth his ability to earn increase. The more wisdom we know, the more we may earn. That man who seeks to learn more of his craft shall be richly rewarded. Thus the seventh and last remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself.

Here at Free Money Finance, we've already established that your career is your 1 financial asset -- and managing it appropriately can make you millions throughout your working years. The best way to jumpstart your career is to get a good or additional education. There is a big, big difference in starting salaries and earning power over a lifetime with a college degree versus not having one.

And for those wanting to earn even more, getting an MBA is an option. Couple this with spending less than you earn and it's impossible not to become wealthy. For those of you who are saving for college to give your kids a leg up in earning power, here are some posts from Free Money Finance that can help you pay for it:. I think it's clear that a college education is well worth the time and money spent on it. If you disagree, check out these posts:. But here's a more difficult question: is an elite college Harvard, Yale and the like a better investment than any other college?

Here's what MSN Money says:. The economist Alan B. Krueger teaches at Princeton University, but in his view, it's probably not worth the money it takes to send your kid there. Not in terms of future earnings, anyway.

Krueger ignited a minor furor when he and Stacy B. Dale, a researcher at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, concluded in that elite colleges do not pay off in higher earnings. They only appear to do so, the researchers contended. Krueger and Dale claimed that, in most cases, the higher earnings piled up by graduates of elite schools were attributable to elite individuals, not their college education.

In other words, if you're smart enough to get into Princeton, you're smart enough to make a lot of money wherever you go to school. Whether or not Krueger and Dale's research holds up--and the jury is still out--tuition-paying parents will want to follow the debate closely. The article then goes on and on debating the subject. However, it does end with some suggestions on what we should all do as we ponder this question for ourselves and our children:. If your kid intends to become a social worker or minister, an Ivy League education will never pay off in financial terms.

And if your child wants to study studio art but is admitted to Cal Tech, there's no point paying for Cal Tech. Spend the money on a school with a better art program.

If you live in a state with a premier public institution--a school such as UC Berkeley, the University of Virginia, or the University of Wisconsin--it's hard to justify going elsewhere, unless elsewhere is one of the very best private schools. Even then, in the view of Dan Black, you should pick your state school. Under no circumstances should you pay for a mediocre private school.

These make no sense at all. If you are made of money, send your kid to the most selective school you possibly can. It can't hurt. If you are African American and your kid gets into Yale, do whatever you can to send him or her. Krueger and Dale found that black students get a bigger financial bang from a top-tier school. There is also some evidence that the same applies to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds generally. This decision is still a long way off for me and my family, so it's not pressing for us.

However, this information will be food for thought for several years down the road. Here's a piece from Money Central lamenting the fact that college is so expensive. The piece notes that there are five main reasons college costs so much:. Let me be sympathetic for just a few seconds. Yes, higher education is expensive.

Yes, it's getting more expensive every day.