Wehner's Wisdom Summer 2013

Karen S. Wehner ♦ Wehner & Associates ♦ 4565 Wilson Street, Minnetonka, MN 55343 ♦ Phone: (952) 937-5072

This Quarter’s Successful Client, Paul Krueger

I've known Paul since the mid 90's. Paul's story is one of resilience, perseverance, courage, and managing life setbacks. When I first met him, Paul was in the mortgage industry, working with housing refinances. As 2006 approached, he was faced with layoff - he was a young 50 something at the time. Jobs were not easy to come by, and he had friends and family in Duluth so he sold his house, and moved from the Twin Cities. He found work he wasn't thrilled with, but stuck with it, which was difficult. The real challenge at this time was personal relationships, and it turned into a significant loss for him, both financially, and emotionally. He used the energy from his disappointments to return to school and develop his earning abilities (probably the biggest piece of financial security). After a few years of hard work, he finished the training. At last then, found full time work - not earning what he wanted, but certainly something he could grow from. Then as luck would have it, another blow - only this time it was his body. He was told he needed surgery on the disks of his back. Fortunately he made a smart move when signing up for employee benefits at work - disability insurance. It's taken several months to claim benefits, but he's stuck with it, and now he's finally getting some back pay. Through it all, he's been a champ - maintained his attitude, kept expenses low, and come back stronger than ever. He's just about ready to begin saving again as well. It's a pleasure for me to serve such a smart and resilient person. Thanks for the opportunity Paul.

What Does it Take to Create Peace Around Your Financial Life?

Feeling peace around your financial life isn't always about more money! It's a mindset! Interestingly, When people come in the office to speak with me about their finances, I almost never hear them say they want to stop worrying about money! What I do hear though is that they don't want to lose money in the market. This has me thinking about what I can do to provide comfort for people when the markets decline. After all, we all know that it's never a straight line upward for the markets! Investors, after all are famous for buying on emotion and the news of the day. The value of a portfolio is probably not the real question here, but rather the underlying issue is will I have enough to reach my goal, my hearts desire? What will happen to me if I don't for example, have enough to sustain my lifestyle when I'm too old or too sick to work? Usually then, the mental enemies of fear and worry set in, and we begin the self defeating worry pattern. For example, if I don't have enough for my old age, I'll be alone in a not too nice nursing home. The truth is, it's a matter of two things: first training our thought to say nope - not me it's just a thought with no more power than we give it: second thing - back up the first part with facts and evidence - look at what you really do have, and be thankful for it! If you need more evidence, of course, come on in, and we'll show you!

Consumer Tip: Always Ask for Reduced Rates On Ongoing Services!

I love sharing positive customer experiences that may help others! Recently, I've had two of them I'd like to share. The first one was with the garbage collection. I had a young lady approach me the other day saying she could save me monies with my trash pickup, so I checked it out. I called my existing company and asked if they could meet their competitor's slightly lower price, and much to my surprise they acknowledged that I had been given a price increase I shouldn't have! The second one was the alarm system for the house - when I was looking for the document to prove I had the system, they let me know they would reduce the bill each year if I just called in when they asked for an increase. Pretty amazing!