40% of married couples have serious, recurring arguments about money

According to a Survey by American Express, 91% of couples avoid even talking about finances, household expenses and debt with their partner.¹ Twelve percent said they’ve never talked about money with their spouse and some of the 2000 U.S. adults that participated indicated they knew their partner’s weight but not their salary.

All is fair in love and war…

• Money causes more stress than intimacy (11%), children (9%) and in-laws (4%) and 40% of married couples have serious, recurring arguments about money
• 27% of respondents misrepresented the amount of a purchase to their partner
• 30% have hidden purchases from their partner
• 56% of couples felt they have made a financial mistake in their relationship, ranging from spending too much on their wedding to buying a house at the top of the market

If they could go back in time…

• 32% would put more into savings and investments
• 27% would spend more responsibly
• 17% would discuss financial goals and expectations earlier

Many couples have different values where money is concerned and, as revealed by the numbers above, most neglect to take the time to hash out issues that can potentially ruin their relationship.

It’s never too late to start the conversation...

Begin by taking our Love and Money Financial Self-Assessment.  It’s just in time for Valentine’s Day, and it will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to finance.

We encourage you and your partner to take the three-minute Assessment either separately or together and see how your money values differ from one another.  After all, recognizing the way money can affect your relationship is the best way to prevent problems in the first place and strengthen your the bond between you.

Afterward, we’ll give you some tips on how to start the conversation with your partner and how your relationship can not only survive your difference in financial opinions, but how those differences can strengthen your connection – romantically and financially!

Take the Love and Money Self-Assessment here.  And then tell us what insights the assessment gave you in the comments box below…

1. 2010 American Express Spending & Saving Tracker Survey

Does that seem like a crazy or dumb question?

If you bought into Wall Street’s mantra that as long as you invest for the long haul you’ll come out ahead, you need to watch this video today.

Click the play button below to see the shocking truth Wall Street doesn’t want you to know…

Because of this, most baby boomers have been forced to postpone retirement an average of five years.¹

I’m often asked how using the Bank On Yourself method to save for retirement compares to traditional plans, so I put together this short video that reveals seven reasons Bank On Yourself makes an excellent retirement plan alternative.

Click the play button in the video below and see how many of these seven advantages you’d like to have in your financial plan…

1.  Bankers Life and Casualty Center for a Secure Retirement, May 2011

It’s easier to do than you might think and hundreds of thousands of people are already doing it!

To show you how it works, we’ve created a fast-paced video. This video reveals…

• A way to make major purchases that beats financing, leasing or even paying cash for them!
• How the Bank On Yourself method lets you use your money to buy things…  but still have it earning interest and dividends for you
• Six ways this method beats using traditional financing
• How famous people like Walt Disney and J.C. Penney used this method – when no banker would lend them a dime
• How the average family can add $500,000 – or more – to the their lifetime wealth, simply by running their car and vacation purchases through a Bank On Yourself plan

Click the play button below to watch the video…

Here’s another video you may be interested in…

Would you like to see a specific example showing how much guaranteed and predictable income you could have in retirement, using the Bank On Yourself method?

Click the play button in the video below to see a fascinating example:

Many readers of this blog have asked to see more specific examples showing how much guaranteed and predictable income you could have in retirement, using the Bank On Yourself method. So I’ve included a fascinating example on this video.

If you have the feeling your financial plan has been treading water (or going backwards) for far too long, you’ll want to be sure to watch this video now. It’s got some pretty cool animation in it, too!

Click the play button to watch it and tell us what you think in the comments box below…

If you’ve been having a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ve been treading water in your financial plan for what seems like forever, these three graphic “snapshots” reveal the ugly truth.

These snapshots clearly illustrate the fatal flaws in the conventional wisdom that’s been shoved down our throats for so long about saving and investing.

This is your retirement plan powered by Wall Street

A quick look at this snapshot tells you everything you need to know…

Let me ask you a question…

Where is it written that you must suffer a lost decade – or more – growing your nest egg?

Isn’t that what Wall Street wants us to believe?

The fact of the matter is that the only guarantee Wall Street gives you is that they’ll get paid whether you win or lose!

It’s also why they desperately don’t want you to know about the peace of mind, guarantees, and predictability you get when your retirement plan is powered by Bank On Yourself.

Once again, a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s compare the growth in a Bank On Yourself plan side-by-side with what the Wall Street Casino offers:

The chart on the right above shows the growth pattern in a typical Bank On Yourself-type policy.  The growth is exponential (in the mathematical sense of the word).  That means the growth curve gets steeper every year you have the policy – with no luck, skill or guesswork required to make that happen.

And while these plans grow more slowly at the start (there’s no such thing as a magic pill!), the growth is at its peak at the time you need it most – retirement.

The chart above is based on the actual growth I’ve received in one of my own policies so far, along with the projected growth based on the current dividend scale.

Dividends aren’t guaranteed, but the companies preferred by the Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisors have paid them every single year for more than 100 years.

So now let’s take a look at another bit of conventional financial wisdom gone awry…

We were taught we could count on the equity in our homes to be a major part of our retirement nest-egg.  A lot of people who thought they were doing the right thing made extra mortgage payments, so they could have the “security” of knowing their home was paid off in full when they retired.

They plowed money they could have put into safe savings into their homes instead – which got them a ZERO rate of return on their hard-earned dollars AND locked up their money in a depreciating asset.

And here’s a snapshot of where that got them…

News Flash!  There’s a better way!  Did you know that you can save up enough cash value in a Bank On Yourself policy to be able to write a check to pay off your mortgage in full, any time you choose to do that?

My husband and I could do that TODAY – if we chose to.  But we made the smart decision to leave that money in our Bank On Yourself plans where it is working much harder for us.

How much harder is that money working for us?  This blog post I wrote on the rate of return of a Bank On Yourself plan reveals why you’d need to get a 7-8% return in a tax-deferred account, like a 401(k) or IRA, to equal the return of a typical Bank On Yourself plan.

And that’s without the risk or volatility of traditional investments!

Now let’s take a look at the promise of gold.  Again, a picture is worth a thousand words…

I’ve found most people who are buying gold today have no clue about the volatile history of that metal.  And those who forget (or are ignorant of) the past are condemned to repeat it.

And keep this in mind – Bank On Yourself doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition, because you can use the money in your plan to make purchases or to take advantage of opportunities and investments.  (It’s your money, after all!)  Your policy continues growing as though you never touched it.  (Work with a Bank On Yourself Authorized Advisor to make sure your policy is from a company that offers this feature.)

Having your money in something that’s safe and liquid doesn’t take away your options!

This is the time of year when people often take stock of where they are today, and where they’d rather be in the future.

If you still believe that Wall Street holds the key to your financial security, and if you believe the economic challenges we’ve been facing that have caused the unprecedented volatility in the market are over with… then keep doing what you’ve been doing and hope it all works out.

But if you’re determined that the next ten years are going to be a lot better than the last ten or more, then today is the day to take the first step towards a financial future you can predict and count on by requesting your FREE Analysis, if you haven’t already done so.

When you do, you’ll find out if you qualify for a Bank On Yourself plan.  It can take up to 60 days for your policy to be approved.  So you can see why you need to start today to hit the ground running in 2012.

Request your free Analysis now… and find out how much your financial picture could improve by adding Bank On Yourself to your financial plan.

At a dinner party recently, I sat next to a retired business owner and we got into a conversation about money and finances.

In response to one of his questions, I mentioned an important principle of finance, at which point he turned to me and said, “I’m a CPA and an MBA and I’ve never heard of that!”

Actually, it’s fairly common that I meet highly educated people who are unaware of some of the really critical basics of how money and finances work.

Funny thing is that I think many of our subscribers know these principles, even if they don’t have alphabet soup after their names.

Applying a little logic and common sense (which is admittedly in short supply in our society today) is usually all that’s needed.

And to prove my point, I’m holding a contest to see how many of our subscribers can answer the questions below correctly.

If you answer even one of these questions correctly and/or insightfully, you can win a prize.

I know that people deepen their understanding more when they participate and articulate their thoughts, so I decided to “ethically bribe” you to take a shot at it by holding a contest.

Here’s all you have to do to enter the contest…

Just type in your answer to any one or more of the five questions below, no later than Monday, November 14, at midnight.  If you want, you can comment on someone else’s answer to qualify to win.

After the contest ends, our team will pick the best entry (best because it’s correct, insightful, entertaining or a combination of those).  That person will win a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate.  And two runners-up will be chosen to receive their choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate, or a personally autographed copy of my best-selling book, Bank On Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future.

Three more winners will be chosen at random – all entries containing at least one correct answer will be entered into a random drawing for another $100 Amazon Gift Certificate and two prizes of your choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate or autographed book.  (Sorry – U.S. residents only.)

Although there are five questions, you don’t have to answer all of them to qualify.

So test your money IQ now by answering as many of these five questions as you want:

If you finance a $30,000 car through a finance company, your actual cost for the car is the money you spend on it, plus the interest you pay, less the value of your trade-in at the end of your loan repayment period.

Question:  If you pay cash for a car, what’s your actual cost for the car?

If you have a $20 stock and it goes up by 40%, how much money did you make on that stock?  (Hint:  This is about a key financial principle, not a math question.)

According to Morningstar, Inc., the top-performing mutual fund for the last decade (ending December 31, 2009) enjoyed an 18% annual return.

However, the typical investor in that fund wasn’t so fortunate.

Question:  What was the annual return of the typical investor in that top-performing fund?  And why was their return so different from the return reported by the fund?

What percentage of mutual funds, financial advisors and investment advisory services underperform the overall market?  And why?

You could have $10,000 in a mutual fund that reports an average annual return of 25% for four years… and at the end of the fourth year end up with only the $10,000 you started with.

How is that possible?

So there you have it – just answer one or more of these questions, or comment on someone else’s answer, no later than midnight, Monday, November 14, to get in the running to win one of the six prizes!

We’ll announce all the winners in a blog post later this month.

So scroll down to the comments box below and start typing!  (Note – all comments are moderated, so there will be some delay before your comment appears.)

Here is how the responses to each of our 10 survey questions have broken down.  The percentages reveal which option our survey-takers find more scary!

You’ll see that snakes, blood, public nudity, eating fire-hot peppers, and even close proximity to a psychotic killer caused far fewer trembles than did the terrifying prospect of winding up in a serious financial jam.

Here’s what Americans find most scary…

1. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 22.2% – Death

• 78% – Outliving Your Money

  

2. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 28.6% – Having all of your investment decisions — good and bad — published in your local newspaper

• 71.4% – Walking naked down a fashion runway while being photographed

3. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 17.5% – Having to remain awake for 48 uninterrupted hours

• 82.5% – Having to memorize all the fine print on your 401(k) plan in no more than 48 hours

4. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 64.3% – Watching your stock portfolio lose 40% of its value in only a few weeks

• 36.4% – Ingesting 40 habanero peppers within 24 hours

5. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 58.8% – Sitting for 30 minutes in a tub of live snakes

• 41.7% – Explaining to your family or other loved ones that you’ve lost your home to foreclosure

6. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 49.2% – Having to pick the one mutual fund (among hundreds) that will outperform all others during the year

• 52.1% – Bobbing for a 10 oz gold bar in a vat containing 50 gallons of cow’s blood

7. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 9.4% – Going on twelve once-a-month blind dates with a randomly selected bachelor or bachelorette

• 91% – Entrusting your retirement portfolio to an anonymous fund administrator, who may or may not have any special education or training

Editors Note: Although 9 out of 10 Americans fear entrusting their retirement to an incompetent administrator, millions of Americans may unknowingly be doing exactly that right now! Read our shocking exposé and learn the facts!

8. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 64% – Having my personal tax returns audited by the IRS

• 37.3% -Walking around for a week wearing pants with pockets overflowing with live worms

9. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 31.7% – Be strapped atop a vintage stunt plane while it performs a typical aerobatics routine

• 70.% – Be tied to the Social Security program as your sole source of retirement income

10. Which of the following is more frightful to you?

• 66.1% – Losing my job and having to live only off of my current savings for a year

• 34.6% -Renting an extended-stay room in the Bates Motel and sharing a shower with Anthony Perkins

Were you surprised by any of your responses?

These results are a sad commentary on the financial condition and current state of mind of so many of our family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

The definition of insanity is doing the same things in the same way and hoping for different results.  So, if you’re ready to find a better way to save and invest for your financial future that gives you peace of mind and lifetime financial security, check out the Bank On Yourself method.

To find out how much brighter your financial picture could be if you added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan, request your free, no-obligation Analysis now, while it’s fresh on your mind!

If you want to scare the bejesus out of home dwellers this Halloween, trying dressing up as an IRS auditor or a foreclosure process server.

In fact, an exclusive nationwide online survey conducted this month by my company,  Bank On Yourself, finds that by a margin of almost four-to-one, many Americans would rather die than outlive their money.

The results are neither trick nor treat: They’re a sad commentary on the financial condition and current state of mind of so many of our family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

More than 500 adults took part in our Bank On Yourself Fear Factors Challenge: Personal Finance Edition. Like the popular television contest that inspired us, we presented players with some icky, gross, terrifying or truly embarrassing scenarios. We then quizzed them on what makes their flesh crawl more: Our scares or the frights associated with personal finance failures?

Snakes, blood, public nudity and eating fire-hot peppers caused far fewer trembles among many of our respondents than did the terrifying prospect of winding up in a serious financial jam.

While our challenge and its results do not constitute a scientific poll, they do unquestionably underscore the depths of anxiety that so many Americans harbor over the economy and its potential impact on their lives.

Blind dates versus incompetent retirement plan administrators

Blind dates are nerve-wracking experiences for almost all people: “Will my date like me?” “Will I like my date?” “What will we talk about?” “What if my date is unattractive or unpleasant?”

Yet, in our Bank on Yourself Fear Factors Challenge, fully nine out of every ten players said they prefer facing 12, once-a-month blind dates with a companion selected at random, to entrusting their retirement portfolios to an anonymous plan administrator.

What’s so surprising about that response is how many millions of Americans, in real life, hand over the selection and responsibility for their retirement portfolio – especially 401(k) plans – to others, who may or may not have any special education or training.

Because there are no mandated standards for who is permitted to administer the majority of company-sponsored retirement plans, nothing prevents employees from unwittingly entrusting the most important financial decision of their lifetime to their boss’s dunderhead brother-in-law.

Now that really is chilling. (See: More than 15 Million “Zombie Investors” Unwittingly Allow Others to Feed Off Their Retirement Savings)

We offered our contestants this creepy choice: Rent an extended-stay room in the Bates Motel (from the 1960 classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho) and share a shower with Anthony Perkins (who starred as the mommy-dominated slasher). Or, lose your job and live off only your current savings for a year.

Well make way Janet Leigh, two out of every three of our challenge participants would rather bunk with you and Tony than face the blood-curdling prospect of having to get by for a year on their savings alone.

What could be more mortifying?

42% of our challengers find the prospect of having to explain to their family or other loved ones that they’ve lost their home to foreclosure an unbearable horror. In fact, they’d opt for sitting 30 minutes in a tub of live snakes ahead of having to break the bad news to those closest to them.

While I don’t know how many Americans actually bathed with squirming serpents last year, RealtyTrac, which monitors nationwide filings, reported that a record 2.9 million homes received foreclosure filings in 2010. This year is well on its way to being another gory one for homeowners.

Wall Street and the mutual fund industry often tout their annual breakout performers. But our challenge-takers know from experience that picking the winners from the losers can be a waking nightmare.

Almost half of those who participated in our Bank on Yourself Fear Factors Challenge equated the pain of trying to single out the one mutual fund that will outperform all others in a given year to bobbing for a 10oz gold bar in a vat containing 50 gallons of cow’s blood. To both options, all I can say is, “yuck.”

What would you rather do: Walk naked down a fashion runway while being photographed or see your dumbest financial decisions published for everyone to gawk at in your local newspaper?

Will it be naked or exposed for you?

Just shy of 30% of our survey-takers think they’ve got the abs and pecks to strut their buff stuff before the paparazzi. Either that – or, more likely – they’d be absolutely humiliated if the people around them ever knew just how poorly they’ve handled their investment and savings decisions.

Indeed, watching their stock portfolios nosedive 40% in only a few weeks – as happened to so many investors during the 2008 crash – is less appetizing to almost two-thirds of our contestants than would be munching down 40 fiery-hot habanero peppers within 24 hours. Both scenarios are guaranteed to induce a serious case of heartburn. Only the peppers don’t require you to rethink all your life’s goals and retirement plans.

On the topic of retirement, most respondents view Social Security as an apparition that is most likely to haunt them, not help them in their golden years.

Just over 70% of those who took our survey say they’d rather be strapped atop a vintage stunt plane while it performs a typical aerobatics routine than be tied to the Social Security program as their sole source of retirement income.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and other reliable sources indicate that roughly one-in-five Americans rely strictly on the financially troubled government benefits program for all of their financial needs.

In the 1998 Tim Burton film, Beetlejuice, the title character, a freelance bio-exorcist ghost played by Michael Keaton, stashes bugs, snakes and an entire menagerie of creepy-crawlies in his musty overcoat pockets. Most viewers probably assumed that Beetlejuice had odd epicurean tastes and was merely collecting snacks to keep on hand.

But our Bank on Yourself Fear Factors Challenge revealed another possible explanation: The head-spinning bio-exorcist was simply trying to avoid an IRS audit, himself.

You see, fully 64% of our challenge-takers said they’d rather walk around for a week wearing pants overflowing with live worms than have their personal tax returns scrutinized by the government.

Word from Hollywood is it that Warner Brothers is in the process of producing a remake or sequel to Beetlejuice. Details about the possible reboot are still sketchy.

But perhaps, instead of setting the horror-comedy in another idyllic New England country manor, the producers will give the next iteration an extra dose of realism and set it in an a typical American household spooked by fears of job loss, portfolio volatility, foreclosure and – worst of all – Social Security dependency.

As for casting, take your pick. There are millions of us who qualify to play ourselves.

Check out the full results of the survey here… and how your Fear Factors choices compare to the rest of America!