Shane Tenny, CFP®, shares what he thinks is the best prescription for healthy finances. It is something that can be done to significantly improve the progress you're making towards saving for the future or help get rid of that pesky debt. It's not a pill to take or an injection to receive, but there is a step you can make that's easy, free, and always effective - the automatic transfer.
Transcript:
SHANE TENNY: Hi there. Shane Tenny, managing partner at Spaugh Dameron Tenny. And today I wanted to talk about miracle cures.
I've got a friend who works at Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company, which you may not have heard of, but undoubtedly, you've heard of what they make - Ozempic.
It is the apparent wonder drug sweeping the globe, helping millions of people lose weight when they previously thought it impossible. And one of the neatest parts about Ozempic is that it apparently has very little side effects.
Now, I'm no clinician, and I'm sure there's a lot of fine print at the bottom of the TV ads or the website, but the conventional thought is that Ozempic is a very effective way to lose weight with very little side effects. It's changing people's lives radically.
Now, as a financial planner and one who works in advice and human behavior, I began thinking, is there any comparable sort of thing that can radically change people's financial lives and financial behavior?
And it dawned on me there is. In fact, there is something that can be done to significantly improve the progress you're making towards saving for the future. There's something you can do that can help get rid of that pesky debt. It's not a pill to take or an injection to receive, but there is a step that you can take that's easy, that's free, and that's always effective - the automatic transfer.
Yes, the boring old automatic transfer. The same thing that happens with your paycheck every month by direct deposit or your pension or your Social Security. The automatic transfer puts money in your account without your interaction at all, automatically, at the same time every month. You don't have to think about it. It just happens.
In fact, this is the way that 401(k) accounts grow so effectively because you don't have to do something every paycheck or every month to get money in there. It just happens automatically.
Now, you can do the same thing at your bank or with your investment firm. You can set up an automatic transfer to fund your children's college savings accounts. You can set up an automatic transfer to build your investment portfolio or to pay down debt more aggressively. You can definitely set up automatic transfers to automatically pay off the entire balance of your credit card every month so it doesn't accrue.
There are all kinds of effective things you can do with automatic transfers. In fact, my partners and I often laugh at ourselves when we realize that one of the core traits and effective skills that we give clients is the ability to set up automatic transfers to make the progress they want to make toward their goals with no side effects.
So, if you haven't yet set up an automatic transfer to accrue money for travel and vacations or to build money every month for holidays at the end of the year, you might be missing out.
Give it a try. It's easy, free, and always effective. The automatic transfer. Take two. Call me in the morning, and let's see the difference it makes for you and your family.
Thanks. I'll see you back here next time. Bye.