Christine Benz - Morningstars 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances

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Table of Contents

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For Greg, my comfort and joy

Foreword

YOUD THINK THAT MANAGING YOUR OWN MONEY would be the most elemental of life skills, one we would all master at an early age. You work and are paid money. You spend some and save the rest. You invest some of what you save for higher returns in the future in case you cant work then. It doesnt sound like that difficult a set of skills to develop. Certainly, most of us develop much more complex capabilities for social interaction: how we dress, behave in public, develop a sense of humor, choose friends, maintain relationships, find employment, select a place to live, and so forth. Compared with that, personal finance should be a breeze.

Yet for most people personal finance remains a mystery, leaving far too many of us prone to scams that play on our navet. Small wonderfor most of us, the subject of saving and investing wasnt something discussed at home while we were growing up. It most certainly wasnt something taught in our schools. And to compound the problem, the financial services industry seemingly goes out of its way to make the topic impenetrable. What other industry has more needless complexity and more confusing and constantly changing terminology? Did your Fannie Mae ARM get turned into an RMBS or a CMO with a long WAM rated by a NRSRO and sold to a convert/arb shop?

Fortunately, it is possible to cut through the nonsense and forge a sound financial path, even if youre not hip to this weeks financial acronym. The basics of personal finance are just that: basic. Buy low, sell high; live within your means; understand your time horizon; set reasonable goalsthese are all simple concepts that can be readily grasped and, with effort, mastered by all of us. All you need is a good coach to help you cut through the clutter and keep you on target. 30-Minute Money Solutions is designed to be just such a guide to get you started or to help you brush up on individual tasks such as saving for college or rolling over a 401(k) plan.

I can think of no finer guide for conquering these tasks than Christine Benz. Christine is a gifted financial analystas talented as any weve ever had at Morningstar. She quickly rose through the ranks as an analyst to become director of all our mutual fund analysts. Under her leadership, the team did groundbreaking work and Christine nurtured a team of fine young analysts into seasoned pros. Following the typical Morningstar career path, Christine was poised to run a business unit or to take a central role in corporate management, but she chose to follow her heart. She recognized that her first love was helping investors, so she opted to become Morningstars in-house financial-planning expertand shes really run with that mandate, editing our PracticalFinance newsletter and contributing regularly to Morningstar.com.

Christine recognizes what far too many people in financial services forgetthat its all about the individual investor. If the investor doesnt win, everyone in and around the investment process has failed, no matter how big a bonus some investment banker or bond trader may walk away with. Personal finance is about people. Helping people navigate this terrain and meet their goals is Christines passion. Youll see that concern and the human element throughout this book, which centers on real issues faced by real investors. I truly believe that 30-Minute Money Solutions will help you take control of your financial life and master the elemental skill of personal finance. And by doing that, youll put your familys security and your own dreams on firmer footing, something we would all define as a winning outcome.

DON PHILLIPS

Managing Director

Morningstar, Inc.

Preface

INVESTORS ARE MOTIVATED by fear and greed, the saying goes. But I saw another emotion on display in the 2008 bear market: grief. And it played out exactly the way psychiatrist Elisabeth Kbler-Ross documented back in the late 1960s.

The first stage, denial, was widespread during the late 2007 through early 2009 downturn. Countless friends, colleagues, and Morningstar readers told me that they werent opening their investment statements, as if not seeing their losses in black and white would make it all go away.

Others got angry (the next stage), and there were certainly plenty of targets available during the recent debacle. Choose your culprit: reckless lenders, greedy investment firms, and consumers signing up for loans that they knew they couldnt possibly afford. All had a hand in causing the worst stock market calamity since the Great Depression.

Bargaining is the next phase, and while its less common than the other stages of the grief process, Ive seen that in action, too. Many investors have told me that theyre hanging on to stocks that they know are too risky for them in the hope of getting back to the price where they bought them. Another couple in their early sixties acknowledged that they have too much of their retirement kitty in stocks but theyre determined to hang on. They say that theyll switch to a more age-appropriate mix just as soon as their portfolio gets back to the high point it scaled in 2007.

There have also been plenty of depressed people walking around, not just because of the stock market but because of the overall gloom surrounding the economy. Retirees have had to go back to work, adult kids have had to move in with their parents, and everyone with anything in the stock market has had to recalibrate their dreams. Ill be working until Im 95! one of my friends lamented after taking a pay cut and seeing the value of her 401(k) cut in half.

Finally, theres acceptance, and I think thats where many people are today. With the economy showing signs of life and the market rebounding off its lows, most individuals have made peace with what theyve lost. Theyre ready to get on with the business of their lives, wiser than they were before subprime entered the national lexicon, and determined not to get sucked into the next bubble.

At the same time, theyre every bit as concerned with meeting their key financial goalsfunding comfortable retirements, sending their kids to school, or buying their first homesas they were before the crisis.

Thats where this book comes in. Whether youre a newbie investor or youre trying to revitalize a portfolio thats gone through the wringer, this book is designed to help you meet your financial goals, one step at a time.

Your Get-It-Done Guide

Because you dont have an unlimited amount of time to devote to your financial affairs, 30-Minute Money Solutions breaks down the broad, daunting goal of getting ones financial house in order into manageable, doable steps. I recognize that most individuals probably cant spend hours at a time tackling financial tasks, and even if they could, they might choose to spend that time another way. Instead, this book is designed to help you use smaller windows of time30 minutes or an hourto accomplish a specific financial task, check it off your list, and move on to the next one.

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