Finding the Money
By Jim Hallisey / Ozark Financial Services / Rogers
Your Circle of Wealth® represents all the money that you will ever have. Your circle is larger than some people. Some others are larger than yours. Most of us have one thing in common though; we want our circle to grow.
What is the first thing that comes to mind as to how to grow your circle? For many people it might be saving more, working longer or harder, or getting better rates of return on investments.
According to Don Blanton, creator of the Circle of Wealth® concept, there are three types of money.
1. Accumulated Money – these are the dollars you have already saved and are currently saving.
Here are the questions to consider: On a scale of 1 to 10, where are you in accumulating the assets you will need to meet your future retirement goals? How are you doing at accumulating? Most people I visit with have not accumulated nearly enough when we first meet. They have often been chasing after that “perfect investment” with higher and faster returns. Their focus and that of many advisors is on picking products.
Using golf as a metaphor, it would be like me, a rank amateur, preparing to play in The Masters by purchasing a new set of clubs. I would be much better served using my existing clubs and finding and working with a really good swing coach, wouldn’t it?
2. Lifestyle Money – These are the dollars that support your standard of living. Many of us want our Circle of Wealth® to grow but we do not want to make cuts in this area, do we?
3. Transferred Money – this third area is comprised of the dollars you are transferring from your Circle of Wealth® unknowingly and unnecessarily. For example, how you pay for your mortgage, taxes, how you fund your pension plans (especially amounts above the match), college costs, credit cards, and car payments.
Finding money in this area and transferring it back to the accumulation category helps make your future more solid without lowering your lifestyle. In fact, you may even be able to move some of your “found money” into the lifestyle area to make your journey more enjoyable.We can typically do more to help people by uncovering places where you are unknowingly and unnecessarily transferring wealth away (avoiding losses of dollars and opportunity costs) than we can by trying to pick the next “winner” investment. If you can plug the holes in your financial bucket, what you do to fill it (accumulation money) will just naturally occur more effectively and efficiently and your Circle of Wealth® cannot help but grow.
Here are some of the most common areas to be examined as major areas of wealth transfer.
Income Taxes
Car Loans
Compound Interest
Various Insurances
Estate Planning
Credit Cards
Home Loans
Taxes of Social Security Benefits
Trading Cars
College Funding
Wills and Trusts
Long Term Care 
