Ross Menke

IT ISN’T EASY STICKING to a budget. I get it. Surprise expenses pop up all the time. How can you possibly be expected to live on a strict dollar amount each and every month?
The answer is, you don’t. But the key is to make sure you have enough financial breathing room, so you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck. That brings me to three common budget busters. These areas of your financial life, if ignored,

INVESTORS OFTEN THINK of their portfolio as conservative or aggressive. More conservative investors put a larger percentage of their portfolio in bonds, while aggressive investors favor stocks. But there’s a different meaning of the word “conservative”—what I think of as behavioral conservatism.
Conservatism means you lean toward the safe side. You favor things that are familiar, preferring them to the new and uncommon. The dictionary definition of conservatism is this: commitment to traditional values and ideas,

HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED a round of golf? If so, how many holes-in-one do you have? I’ve been playing since age four and have yet to make one. Even the best players in the world know how difficult it is to make a tiny ball go into a 4¼-inch hole that’s 200 yards away.
I got close once. It was a windier than normal day in Iowa, when I hit my first shot on a par three.

SELF-EMPLOYED individuals, freelancers and commissioned workers all struggle with a key area of their finances: managing a variable income. When you don’t know how much you’ll make this month or this year, it’s tough to start saving. I know this all too well as a self-employed financial planner.
The uncertainty can leave you stuck, unsure which steps to take next. How can you risk putting money into long-term investments if you might need it to pay the bills a few months from now?

IN THE GRAND SCHEME of things, money is just a tool and net worth is just a number. We shouldn’t work solely to make more money. Instead, our goal should be to use that money to create as happy a life as we possibly can.
In their book Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton explore this idea. How can we best use money to buy happiness?

HAVE YOU EVER considered what you want your retirement to look like? Not just generically, but in vivid detail? If you haven’t, I urge you to go through this exercise as you flesh out your financial goals.
Visualization is used mainly by athletes as they prepare for competition, so that they can get as close to the experience as possible before the competition starts. This was witnessed across the world when American skier Lindsey Vonn’s visualization routine was caught on camera before an Olympic race.

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE about money? I’m talking here about money scripts—subconscious beliefs developed since childhood that influence your financial behavior.
These beliefs have been studied extensively by Ted and Brad Klontz, the father-and-son team who founded the Financial Psychology Institute and authored Mind Over Money. Here are some common money scripts:

“Avoid debt at all costs.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
“We can always make more money.”

While there’s an element of truth to each,

IF YOU’RE GOING TO form one new financial habit this year, make it good recordkeeping. A system that’s easy to follow will improve your financial life both today and for years to come. With all of the annual investment statements and tax documents you’re about to get, this is a great time to start.
Whenever I go to my mailbox, I’m on the receiving end of countless advertisements, credit card offers, insurance notices and more.

THE NEW YEAR BRINGS the opportunity for fresh beginnings. You may be motivated to set a big goal, create a business plan or start a new diet. While I encourage you to always push yourself forward, I’d offer one piece of advice: Start small.
Do you look at your goals and feel overwhelmed? I have this feeling when looking at the total amount I need saved for my eventual financial independence. To help, I reverse engineer the process and focus on the amount I need to save this month.

IF YOU’VE EVER ASKED for career advice, you were probably told to “follow your passion.” This seems like great advice. Who wouldn’t want to do what they’re passionate about every day?
The reality: What you’re passionate about may not be a viable career. I’m passionate about the game of golf. But I fell short of making it my career, despite playing collegiately.
There have been plenty of times when I’ve thought I needed to change direction.

I BEGAN WORKING for my father at age 12. He and his brothers run a sign manufacturing business that was co-founded in 1947 by my grandfather. The first few years, I cleaned pickup trucks, swept floors and took out the trash. When I got my driver’s license in high school, I started running errands for the business—better known as a gopher. As a finance major in college, I was able to work my way into the office,

AFTER YOU’VE BECOME successful and accumulated wealth, what comes next? Americans are facing this question more often than ever before. CNBC notes that the number of millionaire U.S. households grew by more than 700,000 in 2017. This affluence can create a disconnect between parent and child: One generation created the wealth, while the other grows up surrounded by it.
As a financial planner, I’ve learned the younger generation has two options: They can either destroy the wealth or they can add to the family’s legacy.

WHAT DOES FINANCIAL success look like? To some, it might mean owning a mansion, vacation home and luxury cars. But to most Americans, it’s far different: Being able to pay their bills in full, save for retirement and spend time with family is enough.
Unfortunately, even this level of financial success doesn’t come easily. Look at the current state of our financial affairs. Credit card debt is on the rise. We don’t spend enough time with family.

IN AN EFFORT TO understand each other’s financial background, my fiancée and I began holding a money date night. These finance-focused conversations started out slowly. But they’ve become our way to talk about money and our future together.
As a financial planner, I don’t want to dominate the financial side of our lives. I believe household finances should be managed together and not individually. We view this date night as an opportunity to learn about our individual feelings toward money and what our goals are.

THE RANKS OF self-employed Americans are expected to rise to 42 million by 2020. It’s easy to understand why folks flock to self-employment. These workers report higher job satisfaction and overall happiness. The downside: They need to craft a benefits package that mirrors what they lost by leaving traditional fulltime positions.
Other than health insurance, the cornerstone of any employee benefits package is the employer-sponsored retirement plan. Most often, this is a 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan.