Do you believe this?   Open your wallet right now and take a look at how you treat your money.

Is your wallet in good condition with your dollar bills organized and lined up by denomination or is your wallet scruffy, with the dollar bills and old receipts just stuffed into it?

What feelings come up when you think about money?

Are they feelings of joy, gratitude, ease and flow or fear, worry, doubt and embarrassment?

Now think about other areas of your life and notice what’s happening here.

How you do money is how you do everything.

I teach a course called, Secrets of Successful High Earners:  Going to the Next Level in Life where I take women through a five step process to step into their power and take charge of their money and their earnings.  The impact of these teachings goes far beyond money.

Former workshop graduates reported that the most common results of the workshop were – in this order – significant weight loss, better financial habits, more leisure time, improved health, increased optimism, and enhanced relationships.

This is pretty powerful stuff touching all areas of life!  Feeling great about your finances gives you a sense of confidence, clarity, happiness and peace of mind like nothing else.

We all know that money does now buy happiness, but your relationship with money and how you treat it, think about it and what you do with it will determine where you live, where your children go to school, where you vacation and how often, what you eat, what type of health care you receive, how you enjoy “retirement” and what type of legacy you leave when you are gone.

The average American spends more time planning their family vacation than planning for their retirement.  I want to help you create your ideal life, one of health, wealth and happiness.  It starts with getting smart about money.

Creating true prosperity is an art, and over the next few weeks, I will be writing about how to take charge of your finances, get organized, clear the clutter, and how to create, keep and grow your wealth.

Today, I want to introduce you to several very special FREE gifts in the Smart Women’s Prosperity System:

• My 33 page signature Financial Organizer and Planning System ebook which will help you find your stuff, get organized and see where you stand financially.  It’s the same system I used for 20 years with my best clients.  I highly recommend you print this out and use it.
• My Master Class on “Creating Wealth While Doing What You Love” audio and workbook.  This program includes my signature system; The Six Pillars of Awakened Prosperity that helped me retire at 48 financially independent and it will work for you too.

This is what I suggest you do now:

• Click here to pick up your gifts.
• Schedule time immediately to listen to the audio with the workbook printed out.
• Plus make a date to work on your finances using the Financial Organizer Planner.

These products will only be available for free for a short time, so please pick them up now and share them with your friends!  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at katana@katanaabbott.com

To your prosperity,

Katana Abbott, CFP, CSA
Founder and Prosperity Coach
Smart Women’s Prosperity Institute

• How would you like to live with more joy, ease and gratitude?
• Would you like to attract wealth more effortlessly into your life?
• What if all of this could be a lot easier than you ever imagined possible?

Watch my video above where I share with you a simple daily practice that you can begin to help you stay focused and present so you can live with more joy, ease and abundance. By simply creating a daily practice you will not only reduce the stress in your life, but you will find yourself happier and able to attract and manifest the things that you have only been dreaming of.

Here are a few free gifts for you that you have enjoy immediately:

• Feel free to sign up for my free Midlife Millionaire Success System right here on this page, where you will receive a full hour interview on creating your millionaire lifestyle, plus a full transcript and article, plus ongoing interviews, resources and tools on How To Retire TO Something Not FROM Something!
• In addition, you will begin to receive invitations to my weekly radio show, Smart Women Talk we interview bestselling authors, thought leaders and change agents.

I’d love to know what your daily practice is. Share with us on my Facebook Fan Page. Be sure to “Like” my page so you can be part of our group!  You can pick up your free gifts on my Facebook page too!

With love and gratitude,

Katana Abbott, CFP, CSA
Prosperity Coach

Click here to view the embedded video.

I purchased my first gold and silver 15 years ago when gold was about $400/oz. It then went down to about $225/oz. and is currently over $1400/oz. You might think that it is over valued at this price and it could be. I believe though, based on the state of the economy, the way the Federal Reserve is printing money, our current national debt and global instability it makes sense to have some precious metals and commodities in my portfolio.

Although I am still a Certified Financial Planner practitioner, I no longer sell or manage investments for clients, so be sure to check with your financial professional for advise. You will want to discuss your individual needs, goals, and risk tolerances with your advisor, so this may be a good time to schedule that meeting to review your goals and your asset allocation.

Popular options for purchasing precious metals:

• Purchase the actual metals in coins or bars (can actually be done through the internet and delivered to your home).
• Purchase mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETF) so you may be able to do this right inside your brokerage account or IRA.

Free Gift for you: I have created a new financial organizer planner system for helping you get organized, find your stuff and begin to think about your financial planning. If you are interested in learning how to create your millionaire lifestyle by following your passion, then sign up for my Midlife Millionaire Success System in the top right corner and you will automatically receive your copy!

Do you have questions about how to retire to something rather than from something? Feel free to contact me at katana@katanaabbott.com or schedule a complementary strategy session with me at www.talkwithkatana.com

Katana Abbott, CFP, CSA
Midlife Millionaire Coach

Interest rates are at an all time low.

Our situation: We are actually combining our current 30 year mortgage and 30 year home equity line that were at 5.75% and 6.125% to a new combined mortgage at 4.25% 15 year amortization. 

Coming up with cash:  Our biggest fear was that we would have to come up with cash to make this happen because home values are so low.  If our house does not appraise high enough, we will need to put cash down to reduce the size of the mortgage.  The good news is if we do put down the cash (about $50,000, our payment will be less than we are paying now and we will save hundreds of thousands by paying off in 15 years rather than 30 years.

Comparable appraisals:  Many of the houses on the lake are very unique.  Ours is two cottages joined together into one house…then several additions…lots of landscaping and then waterfront on the lake and on the river.  Finding a comparable house on the lake may be difficult.  Our mortgage broker seems to think that our house will appraise high enough that we won’t need to come up with the cash.  It seems that there have been several home sales on the lake at favorable market rates.  All of this needs to be considered when making a decision to refinance.

What about closing costs?  When there are closing costs, you will need to compare those up front costs to how long it will take for you to break even.  In addition, if you have refinanced in the last few years and paid closing costs, you will want to bring those into this calculation.  In our case, there were no closing costs, so the decision was simple. 

Consolidating other debt:  I mentioned that we are combining a home equity line and our mortgage.  The home equity line was for a major home addition and a lot up north.  I don’t suggest refinancing your unsecured credit card debt into your mortgage especially if this could jeopardize your current financial situtation.  Consult with your tax advisor on this as well.

Is this a good time for you to refinance?  Do the math and see if it makes sense.   Again, consider having a discussin with a financial professional will be your best bet.  Good luck and feel free to share your experiences or ask your questions here.

Join me and our Smart Women’s Coaching Community on Friday, July 30th at Fleming’s Steak House Livonia, Michigan for an evening of fine wines and fabulous appetizers to raise funds and awareness for the Smart Women’s Empowerment Foundation Scholarship Program.  For ticket information, call 248-366-0137 or visit our calendar of events!

P.S.  Be sure to sign up for my RSS feed, so you will continue to receive my posts directly to your email box!    By the way, how are you celebrating Independence Day this year?

Experiencing Joy in Panama with Mark!

I had such a fabulous evening last night when I attended the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert with my husband, Mark.  He plays the French Horn, and this weekend is the last concert series for the year. 

The concert hall was packed with lots of young people and I was thrilled.  It must have been because they had this 16 year old boy soloist named Peng, Peng playing a List Piano concerto.  He was fabulous.  He started taking lessons at 5, and did his first recital at 8!  Then at the end of the concert, they played Stravinski’s Firebird Suite.  (click on the link and you can actually here this pieces…you will recognize and know why I was brought to tears when it finished!)  Every time I go to a concert with my husband, I find myself in this state of joy and gratitude and this energy stays with me for days.

What are you doing every day to create a state of Joy and Gratitude in your life?  I ask this because our mental, emotional and spiritual state will have a direct effect on how much wealth and happiness you have in your life.  I have created a daily series of rituals which I call, My Perfect Life Practice.  By scheduling these practices into my Perfect Life Calendar, and following them daily, I am able to stay rejuvinated and operating at a whole new level.

My morning Perfect Life Practice includes yoga, riding my bike along the wetlands (this is the best!), reading spiritual books (right now, I am reading Awakened Wisdom by Patrick Ryan), and enjoying my morning coffee next to the lake every morning with my husband, Mark.  What is it that you do to raise your energy vibration and and help keep you in a state of joy and gratitude, so you can attract more abundance into your life?  Share you Perfect Life Practice with us below. Thank you!

You can take my free 7 part audio mini course, Your Perfect Life Focus, where I share the entire process I use to create My Perfect Life!  Enjoy!

All my contributions have been tax deductible, however, at retirement, the distributions will be taxable.  Will tax rates be higher or lower 10, 20 years from now?  What do you think?  I think they will be higher.  I don’t expect my income to be lower either since I am continuing to build an ongoing residual income from my businesses. 

 Therefore, I am considering converting my traditional and SEP IRA (which are all “pre tax” contributions) to a Roth IRA.  This will mean that I pay tax on all the dollars when I make this conversion from Traditional to Roth.   There are several reasons I am considering this tax planning technique this year. 

Planning opportunity:

1. A Roth IRA allows you to contribute after tax dollars.  You still get the tax deferral on your investment, however the income distributionscome out tax free.  (Contribute after – tax with tax free distributions)
2. In addition on January 1, 2010, the IRS removed the “Phase Out Limits” on converting to a Roth IRA.  In another words, prior to 2010, there were income limitations that restricted many individuals from converting their regular IRA to a Roth IRA.  Now all tax payers can convert regardless of their income level.
3. Because of the economy this last few years, some individuals my be experiencing a lower adjusted gross income this year, or be unemployed or in transition.
4. Investment values could be down which could be another reason to convert from Traditional to a Roth IRA.
5. For 2010 only, the IRA is allowing tax payers to claim 50% of the conversion amount as income in 2011 and the balance in 2012. 

Since we are just mid year into 2010 and your CPA is finished with tax season, this could be a good time to sit down and do some year end tax planning.  And it is always a good time to begin to take control of your finances by paying attending to your money.   For more information on IRAs and retirement planning, you can visit, IRA Guru, Ed Slott, who is also a Contributing Expert for the Smart Women’s Empowerment Institute 

On Tuesday, May 25th, I will have returned from my two week Mediterranean cruise and will be interviewing, Ameriprise Financial Planner, Deborah Linscott, on RothIRA, Inherited IRAs and planning your legacy for the future generations.  She is also an Elite Advisor with Ed Slott and one of the top IRA advisors in the country.  You won’t want to miss Smart Women Talk on May 25th, so stay tuned!

Do you have questions about buidling and growing your wealth?   Let me know what those are and I will do my very best to help you live with more purpose, passion and prosperity.  You can also send me an email at katana@katanaabbott.com

My husband, Mark and me at our home in Panama

What are you doing to create your millionaire lifestyle? Well, if your goal is not a millionaire lifestyle, what about a million dollar investment portfolio?

Do you know that having $1 million in the bank at age 65 will only generate about $770 per week? That’s right, because that’s all you’ll be able to pull out if you want to ensure that your nest egg lasts for at least 30 years. This doesn’t sound much like a millionaire lifestyle does it?

If you are 50 years old and want to have $1 million saved by the time you are 65, you would need to save about $35,000 per year and earn 10% a year too! The story’s not that bad if your 40…about $10,000 a year at 10%. Even if you can save the money, who is earning 10% consistently anymore?

What’s the solution? I believe creating livetime passive business income doing what you love. It can be something that you start now and develop over the next 10 years, or it could be something that you jump into right away full time. I was working as a financial planner back in 2003 when I came up with my perfect passive income model. My dream was to create a community and program where I could help women learn how to create smart life and financial choices with an army of smart women.

It’s funny how things evolve when you have a goal and a dream and you keep focusing on it. What happened next for me was that I began to sponsor events through my new company, Smart Women’s Coaching. Even though I still ran my financial planning practice full time, I began to focus energy and time on this new venture. I saw that there was a need for it and I began to create a community of support and advisors.

By 2007, I decided to retire and focus 100% of my time on Smart Women’s Coaching and two years later, today…we are launching a new online community called the Smart Women’s Cafe. It’s a membership site where women can learn, grow and connect and features live coaching, teleseminars, an online library, and an amazing team of Contributing Experts who co promote and create joint ventures.

It’s been a lot of work and I have learned so much. I had no idea how different creating a “start up” business would be versus my financial planning “franchise” with Ameriprise Financial. When I started with Ameriprise Financial (formerly American Express Financial Services, formerly IDS) over 20 years ago, I paid a fee and purchased a franchise. This meant everything I needed to run and market my business had been thought out, systematized and branded. All I needed was an office and a computer.

If you are thinking about starting a business — and many women are — then be sure to do your homework. There are several things you will want to do if you are starting from scratch. Watch for my future posts, as I share with you my Secrets for Creating Lifetime Passive Income while Following Your Passion.

If your are serious and would like to get started right away identifying your Perfect Business Model and Strategy, then visit the Smart Women’s Cafe and pick up The Way to Wealth, by Brian Tracy ($100 value) and your free video training on Twitter by Lou Bortone…then take a free 30 day test drive and get started right away!

Also, for free live teleclasses this week on creating a Millionaire Lifestyle, visit our Calendar of Events!

Read more here:
Create Your Millionaire Lifestyle

• 32% Financial
• 22% Don’t Know Where to Start
• 12% Confidence
• 10% Time
• 7% Relationships
• 3% Health
• 14% Other

There were quite a few comments (one out of four of you wanted to tell your story) and here are a few of them:

• I am searching for a new career and desperately want to make that change now that I am unemployed and available to make that change.
• I need to make enough money through my business to negate my husband’s dream for me to go back to work!
• Up until I lost my job in 2007 I considered myself a “smart woman”, although finances are considerably low, my biggest challenge is how to tap into a realm of creativity. It seems I have lost my passion and/or motivation to get going again.
• After 23 years of raising my sons, getting my masters, and working 19 years with autistic children, I am ready to make my own dreams and business happen. I read your steps to success and go strong, but then burn myself out with energy and money by second guessing everything I do. If I had a mentor to help with decisions, ideas, marketing, and business, it would make my finances, time, and confidence become assets to my dreams and realities.
• My biggest challenge is self-sabotage and pragmatism. I focus more on perfection rather than “just doing it.”
• I have an amazing business that I can’t focus on doing because I work a 9-5 during the day!
• Not enough time in the day to act on all my ideas… even the prioritized ones.
• I often don’t feel I can do it. My perfect life involves starting a jewelry business and then moving to NM to live on a ranch.
• Life transitions in 2004 left me at ground zero with no savings, property, pension, home or other resources. I know where I want to be and what my goals are but need support, help and resources to get there because I cannot do it alone.
• Difficulties with family relationships and life transitions – Lack of Clarity, support and finances hold me back. I have been trying for a year, but nothing seems to be shifting. I do not do well without human live support i.e. online courses/business building or network marketing.
• I know that my life does not have to be as hectic as it is. I am looking to learn to let go, and focus on what is most important!

What I am hearing from you is that finances or money and then knowing where to start are your number one priorities. I read the “other” comments, and they were primarily financial and knowing where to start as well. So, what do you do about this? This is exactly why I created the Smart Women’s Café.

When I was a financial planner, I worked with hundreds of wealthy individuals. I had no time left to help those who needed help getting started and creating financial security.Today, I am honored to have attracted some of the most amazing financial, business, career, and lifestyle experts in the word to join me in this mission of helping women create their perfect life with purpose, passion and prosperity.

The Smart Women’s Café is the perfect place to do this because it is a supportive and interactive community where women can learn, grow and connect by accessing resources at their own leisure in the member library. Plus, we offer three hours of live coaching and training every month.

These statistics were not that surprising to see. Right now, the need for financial planning assistance, whether it be in the small-business environment, schooling or household maintenance has sky-rocketed as a direct result of our economy. You are not alone. 33% of American’s carry debt balances up to $10,000 (median balance: $2,254). 64% of the people polled who carry debt admitted that debt is a cause of worry and stress for them. 93% percent of retirees carry debt into old age.

Finance troubles affects your path to the Perfect Life everyday. These worries can cause a ripple effect on everything else, which may have caused 22% percent of people surveyed to respond with, “not knowing where to start.”

Vist the Smart Women’s Cafe now to receive your Free Gifts: Video Training on how to maximize Twitter and Brian Tracy’s Report, The Way to Wealth ($100 value). You can also take a 30 day free test drive of our community of smart women and access free, live coaching, resources and support towards living with Purpose, Passion and Prosperity.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our poll! Sharing your thoughts with us was great appreciated. A national press release will be released this week, documenting your concerns.