Make the New Year Prosperous

Start by reviewing your 2009 income and expenses. Tools you can use include Mint.com, Quicken® or a simple spreadsheet. Go through your bank and credit card statements and categorize your sources of income and expense. Expense categories include things like mortgage, utilities, dining out, groceries, health care, beauty care, etc. Separate your expenses into needs and wants. Take a big picture look at your 2009 habits from this perspective. What do you see?

Next set your 2010 goals. Do you want to go on a summer vacation? Buy a new refrigerator? Pay for your grandchild’s private school? What is really important to you as your prioritize your money?

Prepare a budget for 2010. Start with your needs and add in your goals for 2010. If your expenses exceed your income first look for ways to eliminate unnecessary spending, like brown bagging your lunch instead of eating out. Next look for ways to reduce spending, for example, having your hair cut every six weeks instead of every four. Look at behaviors or habits that cause you to spend money. Do you consider shopping recreation? If so replace that habit with another such as a walk in the park, visit to the local library, game night with your friends.

Many people fail to build an emergency fund. We all need at least 90 days of spending stashed away in a savings or money market account for those unexpected rainy days. If you aren’t there yet, be sure your 2010 budget includes a line item for building your safety net.

Budgeting is essential to take charge of your financial life. If you budget, you are choosing what you want. You are rowing your own boat in the direction you want to go. If you failed to budget, you are leaving your goals to chance, going wherever the river will take you. You may get what you want and you may not. Empowered people budget and plan. Join the budget crew today and create the life you want.

As you plan, remember to think past 2010. A solid financial future is built by saving and increasing your net worth. Review your 401(k) or other employer plan and be sure you are participating at least a level to get the full match. If your budget allows, contribute more. Pay down your credit cards, starting with the smallest one first. Celebrate your victory (without using your credit card) and proceed to the card with the highest interest. Prepare a quarterly net worth statement and give yourself regular at a boy/girls for growing your wealth!

May prosperity be yours,

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
President and CEO, Mackey Advisors

www.CultivatingProsperity.com
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

COBRA Premium Subsidy Program Extended

On December 19, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (DOD) which extends the 65% COBRA premium subsidy to February 28, 2010.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided a government subsidy of 65% of the cost of COBRA coverage for employees (and their eligible family members) who lost their health insurance coverage due to involuntary termination of employment in 2009. The subsidy was to last for up to 9 months. The DOD extends the subsidy to 15 months and includes eligible employees (and their eligible family members) who lose their jobs in January or February of 2010.

How to Stay Fit on a Budget

by: Sheryl Nance-Nash
The Faster Times
December 24, 2009


If you’re like many people, you vow to get in shape around this time every year- and find a way to break the vow somewhere between the Rose Bowl and Valentine’s Day. Well, make your own excuses. But after reading this, you’ll have to let go of the idea that working out is too expensive. Working out should shrink your waistline, not your wallet. Here’s how to do it on the cheap.

Cash in on broken promises

Idle workout equipment needn’t remind you of broken promises: it can look like a fresh start. If you have a bench or LifeCycle in your basement, treat it as a free starter kit: if you need to buy one, scoop somebody else’s discarded treadmill or rower on Craigslist or eBay. “If you make smart purchases, a basic home gym can be set up for under $100 and allow you to perform dozens of exercises,” says Brad Schoenfeld, author, Women’s Home Workout Bible.

Go for the video. For even lower expenses, buy about $60 worth of exercise DVDs- or pay nothing to borrow them from the library. “Get a group of friends together to swap tapes weekly to keep it interesting and your body guessing,” says Mackey McNeill, president of Mackey Advisors CPA’s & Wealth Advisors. You can use a video console to work out with friends. EA Sports Active is a $60 customizable, fitness video game created for the Wii that claims to get your heart pumping in just 20 minutes a day.

If you want to expend some shoe leather, you can probably find a free gym or track in your town- at the high school, perhaps, or in an apartment complex that hasn’t sold out its units. “Ask around town,” says Jenny Realo, executive vice president of CareOne Services, a debt relief services provider. You may also find walking or running groups. “Your chances of success are higher if you have someone keeping check on your workout goals,” adds Realo.

If you have your heart set on joining a gym, now is a good time to look for a membership as there are deals waiting on all those who are making the same resolution to get in shape. You can cut the cost of a personal trainer by sharing one. Ask around at clubs that offer personal training if they have small group arrangements. Be smart. Shop around. Don’t be afraid to negotiate. Gyms need members in a recession, as sorely as you need discipline.

Run baby run. Of course, exercise can be free. For little more than the price of running shoes you can run just about anywhere. If winter weather is an issue, you can always do brisk walks in a mall if you do so at hours where there isn’t likely to be a crowd. Just don’t stop to shop!

Find places to add extra walking time, whether it be the distance you park your car at the grocery store or the daily commute to work. “It can also be as easy as adding 10 to 15 minutes extra to the daily walk you have with your pet. A 30-minute walk can shed up to 200 calories,” says Realo.

Take the stairs at work and make it a challenge with your co-workers. “Who can take the stairs the most times in a week or a month?” says McNeill.

That’s right: fitness happens, in 2010, one step at a time. Good luck!

As we close 2009

At Mackey Advisors, Your Prosperity Partner it has been an exciting and challenging year. As we all know, a deep stock market decline began in earnest in October 2008 and continued into early 2009. As wealth advisors, we wish we could control the market, but instead have to rely on discipline and research to make our best judgments for our clients. We did a lot of listening and created many new venues for communication, including webinars, and this new blog.

Mackey Advisors had a few additions for 2009 including:

•The Prosperity Experience®, an integrated wealth advisory program for individuals and businesses that creates a lifelong process for prosperity. TPE was in the creational realm for 3 years. The Wisdom Link, Jon LoDuca, provided the spark to move us into the final phase of development and Mort Nicholson added his wisdom to help craft the final version and align the individual and business processes. Thank you Jon and Mort.
•New team members: Sarah Lee, Administrative Manager; Kathi Baker, CPA and Shared CFO; Katie Kreimer, Staff Accountant; and Grace Mohr, Marketing and Communications Coordinator.
•Many new business and individual clients thanks to our friends and clients who beat the drum and tell their friends and family about our services.

May prosperity be yours,

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
Mackey Advisors, CPA
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

4 Last Minute Holiday Money Tips!

by: Brian J. O'Connor
The Detroit News

The 2009 holiday shopping season has only four days left, but consumers still have time to take a minute to review how their spending is progressing. CPA Mackey McNeill, a member of the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission, offers these tips for a cost-effective holiday:

• Review your budget: Take a moment to review your holiday shopping list to see if your budget is still in check.
Ask yourself: Am I on target with my original budget for the season? Do I need to revise for whom I am buying or what I am buying for them? Do I have any last-minute gifts or people that I did not account for originally?

• In the spirit of giving: Consider making a donation in the name of a family member or friend to their favorite charity instead of, or including, a small gift.
The charity donation will help someone less fortunate during the holidays, and you can take a deduction on your 2009 taxes.

• Cost-efficient holiday ideas: Be creative in your gift giving. Frame a special photograph, for example. If you have a talent that lends itself to personal expression, like knitting or songwriting, make use of it. Gifts like these will have sentimental value and be memorable; not to mention less expensive.

• Do additional research: Once you have reviewed your shopping list, become an educated shopper and compare prices. You may be able to save a few dollars on each gift, which can add up and allow you to stretch your budget even further. Use coupons for additional discounts.

Solstice Prosperity Lessons

What is often needed to create more prosperity in our lives is a change of perspective. Have you ever heard the saying, "It is darkest, just before dawn?"

When there is the least amount of sunlight every day, Winter Solstice, is the day when the earth begins to create more light. We may not notice the new light for several weeks or months, but none the less, it is happening little by little.

If you are in a dark moment of prosperity, remember this saying and hold it as comfort. The light is coming. You may not see it right away, but it is coming all the same.

This year Winter Solstice is December 21st. Why not use this day as a day of gratitude, for the darkness that teaches us about the light?

May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
CEO and President
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

Quit Whining and Get Financially Healthy

Rarely does a week go by that I don't hear about some small business person who cannot get a loan. PLEASE! The main reason we are in the mess we are in now, is that access to credit was too easy. If you could fog a mirror you could get a loan.

Now you have to actually be credit worthy. For a small business owner, that involves going the right things financially, like building equity either from your personal funds or from retaining earnings in the business. It means managing your business. Treating it like a business and not just a job.

Today if you have a healthy balance sheet, you can access credit. If you don't, instead of complaining about it, why not just get busy doing what you need to do to make yourself credit worthy. Lower your debt. Build your equity. Manage your cash flow. Watch your numbers like a hawk. Grow your market share.

Quit whining and get busy!

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

Simple Lifestyle Changes that will Save You Money!

The weather outside may be frightful, but here are a few ways to keep the inside delightful and not break the bank. With just a few changes in your lifestyle you can save the planet by cutting down on your energy use and save a little pocket change.

Energy Saving Tips for the Winter Ahead:

• Close up rooms that are not used on a regular basis, like a guest bedroom. Close the vents, turn down the thermostat, and close the door. There is no sense heating a room that is not occupied

• Turn down the thermostat and use space heaters in frequently used spaces. Turning down your thermostat even 1 degree can save you 3% on your energy bill!

• Minimize the use of ventilation fans. A bathroom fan can suck all the heated air out of the average home in little more than an hour.

• Keep your furnace, heat pump, or other heating equipment maintained and running as efficiently as possible. Look into purchasing a maintenance agreement. In the long run it could save your family lots of money.

• Ceiling fans do more than keep you cool during the summer; they can warm during the winter. It’s as simple as flipping a switch to change the direction of the blades, which pushes warm air down.

• Keep the water heater temperature at 120 degrees or cooler.

• When washing clothes always wash full loads and use cold water whenever possible.

• We all love those long hot showers in the winter, but by cutting your shower time in half you can save 33% on hot water costs.

• Let Mother Nature lend a warm hand. Open up the curtains and blinds on all South facing windows during the day and let the sunlight heat the house naturally. But be sure to close them before the sun goes down to keep the heat within the house.

By: Grace Mohr

Focusing on the “Important” and not on the “Urgent”

by Mackey McNeill

Several years ago, my weekly schedule was structured around working in my Covington office three days a week and in my home office two days a week. It was a transformative time for the firm, and it gave me the freedom to work ON my business rather than IN my business, focusing on the important and non-urgent matters of the firm rather than the daily tasks associated with its function. That much focus and attention paid to entrepreneurial, visionary work was time well spent and resulted in a new foundation for Mackey Advisors. In fact, it worked so well that I quit doing it! Maybe you have had a similar experience. Something worked so well, you think you’re finished and you return to an old routine.

My abnormal schedule drew questions from my peers, as its “normal” to go the office five days a week. People would ask me, “What do you do at home two days a week?” I would explain that I spent it working “on” my business by connecting with key customers, reviewing my strategic plan, updating my budget and projections and thinking through new ideas and processes. I would watch as they run my response through their judgment filter, thinking, “Mackey is goofing off two days a week.”

In Stephen Covey’s work, he calls it the Four Quadrants. Click here for the quadrant matrix It is Quadrant 2, focusing on the Important and Non-urgent matters, that allow us to make quantum leaps in our lives. During my work-at-home period, I focused heavily on Quadrant 2 activity, and saw tremendous growth and positive change in my business.

For 2010, I have lots of goals…and one big schedule change. I am ready to return to a regular work-at-home schedule, dedicating focused attention on strategic matters that will continue to define Mackey Advisors as the leader in innovative financial services.

As of January 1, 2010, I am going to schedule one work-at-home day per week. My goal is to be so effective with this strategy as to allow me to reduce my schedule to a four day work week (three in the Covington office and one in my home office) by July 1st 2010. The extra day I create will be used to play, garden, fly fish, and spend time on community projects relative to greening the environment and creating a more sustainable world. Some might see that as “goofing off”, but I prefer to see it as a way to nurture my creativity, to deliver results in additional areas for which I have passion, and to expand upon the legacy I wish to leave for future generations.

The new year is a natural time for new beginnings. Why not take an evening, or just a quiet hour to assess the Important and Non urgent matters in your business and your personal life, especially with regard to your spouse or your children? Find the one big change you will make in your life in 2010 and prepare to leap into a new vision of your life.

Know more about your Food

If you have an interest in local and organic food, grown using ecologically sound principles, consider attending the OEFFA conference this February in Granville, Ohio. OEFFA stands for Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.

My husband and I attended the OEFFA conference last year and found it very informative. Some of the topics we learned about where: cooking local food, beekeeping, storm water management, traditional methods of farming and their impact on the environment, starting and growing a CSA.

This years conference features Joel Salatin, author of Everything I Want to do is Illegal.

Learn more at www.OEFFA.org

May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

Favorite Holiday Tradition

Several years ago, I began a holiday tradition with my family. I bake them a tin of their favorite cookies, and they give me a list of their Top 10 Best Things of the Year. On Christmas day they read the list out loud, embellishing each item. One the performance is over, they get their tin of cookies.

Not only is this great fun, it makes wonderful memories. I keep all the Top 10 lists in a notebook. I never tire of walking down memory lane with the Top 10 list book.

My daughter always asks for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip. Below is the recipe I modified from my Mother's oatmeal nut cookie recipe.

Enjoy

Sarah’s Christmas Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
350 degrees, 10 minutes
• 1 C butter
• ½ C brown sugar
• 1 C granulated sugar
• ½ t vanilla
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 ¼ c sifted plain flour
• 1 t baking soda
• ½ t salt
• ½ t cinnamon
• 3 C oatmeal
• 1 bag chocolate chips
• ½ c nuts if you like
Turn oven on to preheat. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and eggs and mix well. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to butter, sugar and egg mixture. Beat until mixed, but do not beat longer than what is required to mix. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips.
Drop by teaspoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Mackey McNeill CPA/PFS
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

The Top 10 Reasons People Don’t Live a Prosperous Life

By: Sandra Baptist

If it were easy, everyone would do it; everyone would have it. That “IT” is prosperity and we’re all trying to achieve that stage in our lives where wealth, health, success are a daily part of our lives.

So what’s the problem? Why aren’t some of us living a prosperous life? Read on, my friends…

1. Clarity: Many people don’t know what they truly want in life. They have not clarified exactly what they desire and where they want to be within a year, 5 years, or even 3 months. Because they don’t know where they are going they drift along with the daily grind, totally forgetting that they want to attain true prosperity.

2. A Clear Path: There are some that have a goal for their life, yet they do not know how to attain it. They go through the motions daily and never actually make a conscious decision to attain their goal.

3. Struggle: Many are desperately trying to live a life of happiness, wealth and success. They are focused on achieving true prosperity, but yet constantly find themselves struggling to attain it. It is this struggle that actually prevents them from being truly prosperous.

4. Fear: False. Evidence. Appearing. Real. This one four-letter word prevents us from going forward to achieve all that we desire. What will our family think? Will our friends still like us? A very high percentage of persons fear success because of how it will affect us and our relationship with others.

5. Conditioning: As children and young adults our environment affects a great deal of our “conditioning” and has a profound effect on the way we think, act and live. Our environment here could include our parents, our friends, television, politics, religion, school courses and our job. For example, the TV may constantly bombard us with images of prosperous persons as unhappy, as crooks or gangsters or as lonely and selfish. If we really believe this, who would want to lead a prosperous, successful life?

6. The Norm: “I can’t be bothered. This is too much work. It’s too hard” Some people cannot be bothered to achieve prosperity. They live each day in a trance, in a numb existence, going along with the status-quo and have no desire to change their lives for the better.

7. Out-Grow Your Peers: Some people don’t want to change. You may be hesitant to achieve your dreams, goals, your vision because once you do achieve true prosperity it may reduce your inventory of what is actually possible for you. It may mean that you grow beyond your partner, your friends and your family. What will that mean for you?

8. Negativity: Our lives are stuck by the negativity we are drawn to in our daily lives. A large percentage of people want to out do their co-workers or friends with the amount and magnitude of problems that they have. Most of us live our lives in total lack and shortage and that prevents us from achieving true prosperity.

9. Courage: It takes courage to be prosperous. It takes courage to make that change! We need to focus our thoughts towards our vision of true prosperity and hold to that vision. Once we have the courage and the beliefs, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

10. Beliefs: “It can’t happen to us. Prosperity is for other people. They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth”. We are programmed to think that being poor equals happiness. Our belief system totally affects how we live our lives. It is these beliefs that hold us back from our true potential and our true prosperity.

www.hinduwebsite.com

Fiscal Responsibility

Several times a week, I see articles suggesting if Americans don't start spending, then the economy will be derailed. Nonsense! This is akin to saying fiscal responsibility is a bad habit.

This recession was primarily driven my excessive use of credit, compounded by a zero or negative savings rate. This isn't a fiscally responsible way of living, nor is it sustainable.

There is good debt, for home purchases and to grow your business, and bad debt, for consumer spending. It is past time we learned to live within our means. It is also great news that our savings rate is up higher than it has been in 20 years.

Avoid reading articles like this one http://tinyurl.com/yjcsrxb which attempt to scare us back into being hooked on debt consumers. Put your own oxygen mask on first, keep reducing debt and saving.

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
CEO of Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com

New content added to Mackey Advisors Website

Click here to read an interesting article by Jeff Plungis on credit card companies charging inactivity fees.

Click here to view the PDF of Forefield's 2010 Key Numbers for tax planning. These numbers will help you with:

• Individual tax planning
• Marginal tax planning
• Investment planning
• Education planning
• Retirement planning
• Business planning
• Estate planning
• Protection planning

If you have any questions or would like more information call 859.331.7755