Susan A. Berson - Personal Finance for Professionals

Appendix A
Resources

Appendix B
Spender Quiz: What Kind of Spender Are You?

Appendix C
Financial To-Do Checklist

Susan began her legal career in Washington, D.C., in 1990, as a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice, Tax Division, representing the Internal Revenue Service. While at the Justice Department, Susan received the Attorney Generals Outstanding Attorney Award in 1996 for her legal work. In 1998, Susan entered private practice, relocating to Kansas City and becoming a Partner with an Am Law 100 law firms business litigation practice group representing a broad client base ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses in a variety of industries. In 2005, Susan founded her own law firm, focusing her practice on representing small-business owners involved in IRS and state tax disputes. Then, in 2007, she and her husband, Dave, an experienced banking and securities attorney, successfully integrated their practices into what is now known as the Berson Law Group LLP (www.banktaxlaw.com). Their firm primarily represents banks and small-business owners and their directors and officers. Every year since 2005, both Susan and Dave have been included in the Best of the Bar published by the Business Journal of Kansas City. Susan is admitted in the District of Columbia, Missouri, Kansas, the Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. Supreme Court. A certified mediator, Susan is also retained by other attorneys to help their clients find cost-effective resolutions to problems and disputes. She also presides over administrative hearings involving financial professionals and their clients as a FINRA Arbitrator.

In addition to her law practice, Susan is a contributing columnist for the ABA Journal Magazine s retirement series; author of the treatise Federal Tax Litigation (Law Journal Press, 2001, updated twice a year), The Modern Rules of Personal Finance for Professionals (American Bar Association, rev. 2014), and The Lawyers Retirement Planning Guide (American Bar Association, rev. 2014); and coauthor of The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: From Legislation to Implementation to Litigation (American Bar Association, 2011). A sought-after speaker, Susan teaches at conferences, seminars, and law firms on topics ranging from contingency planning for attorneys to personal finance to substantive legal issues involved in defending clients against the IRS and handling administrative hearings against government agencies.

Susan is a member of, and has held leadership positions in, several professional and civic associations, including the American Bar Association (ABA), the Kansas Women Attorneys Association, and the International Womens Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC), Midwest Region. Susan is especially active in Food from the Bar, originally a grassroots campaign by the National Conference of Womens Bar Associations to organize legal communities to raise food and monetary donations for their respective local pantries helping to feed the hungry.

Susan can be contacted at .

A portion of the graphics provided by Brian J. Laughlin

Financially speaking, most young professionals feel either smothered by student loan and credit card debt or euphoric at being flush with cash from a hefty paycheck and preparing to engage in mass consumerism and purchase all the accoutrements of wealth their hard work deserves. There are even a few who feel fortunate at being already financially wealthythough not super-rich yet. No matter where you stand on this spectrum, this book is for you. Common to everyone is the often-quoted axiom, People dont plan to fail, they fail to plan. Thats true with financial success. By the way, the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants attitude, vowing to save next year, is not a plan. It eventually leads to financial problems, regardless of whether youre earning $60,000 or $1 million. When you become financially strapped, workno matter how glamorous or prestigiouscan seem more like a dungeon than a career.

The purpose of this book is to help you learn how to manage what you can control: your money. Effective money management is the tool that is going to help you find the means to achieve your dreams. After graduation, you begin at the helm of a glorious ship thats sailing off into a very beautiful sunsetbut its very important that you know what route youre going to follow. The advice in this book is based on the experiences of those who have sailed these waters before. The ideas offered could guarantee you a financially successful voyage. But, it depends on you. Will you work to fund a financial lifestyle or create financial independence? The price for financial independence can be as little as 10 percent of your paycheck every month. For those who are drowning in debt and feel as though theyll never get afloat, dont be discouraged. Remember that part of success is believing that you can do anything you set your mind to dothink of the billions amassed by Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, and Warren Buffett. Sure, your inner monologue says, theyre all unique, but that only explains why they made money, not how they were able to retain and grow their wealth when others in their respective industries have lost or squandered their earnings. Armed with the sound financial practices in this book, achieving your financial goals will become milestones, not endpoints. There is a multi millionaire inside youit just requires learning to effectively manage your spending and saving habits, as well as risk and contingency planning.

When it comes to finances, its important to be the captain of your own ship. Many professionals set career goals for themselves to achieve, yet put little energy into charting their financial goals. Where you are in lifes events will dictate what you need and want and, thus, what your financial goals should be. For example, the number one priority of most recent graduates may be paying off their student loans. Seasoned working professionals, on the other hand, might be more interested in retiring early. Surprisingly, very few professionals, young or seasoned, take the time to chart out the financial goals that crop up when life events occur between becoming debt-free and retiring early. When it comes to your finances, winging it will not produce a positive result. Diagramming your financial goals, and a corresponding plan to achieve them, is key to achieving lifelong financial prosperity.

Drafting a blueprint for your financial prosperity involves three steps: (1) assessing your present financial condition, (2) determining your financial goals, and (3) developing a strategy to meet your goals. So, before doing anything else, assess where you are financially in life by preparing a balance sheet. List everything you own on one side of the page and all debt on the other side. Then, add up each side of the page, and subtract all of your liabilities from your total assets to arrive at your net worth. The Net Worth Balance Worksheet in Your total assets and liabilities should be reviewed annually to track your progress and gain an accurate understanding of your financial condition, should refining your priorities and goals become necessary.

FIGURE 1.1