Local Author Explores Financial Planning for Empty Nesters

BY STEVE DINNEN

With four kids entering college, or grad school, Matt Meline (pictured) found himself at a financial and parenting crossroads. How should he prepare his children from a blended family for life in the workforce once they had finished college? And how should he handle his money now that the kids were out of the house (at least for a while) and relief from tuition payments was soon on the way?

As he moved his way through this situation, the West Des Moines-based financial planner and coach took notes, mental and physical, and they eventually blossomed into a book. “Empty Nest, Full Pockets: How to Emotionally and Financially Prepare for Your Family's Future” is the result, an examination by someone who has been through the process of navigating student loans, tapping savings, putting kids into college and then preparing them – as well as mom and dad – for the future.

Boiled down to its basics, Meline said the secret “is to help those parents who are confused about getting their kids ready to launch.” Your nest may begin to feel empty, he writes, but “you're not stuck navigating this new phase of freedom alone. With a helping hand from a dad who's done it, you can prepare for your transition from full-time parent to empty nester and set your family up for a successful future.”

Meline, 54, is a longtime banker, stockbroker, and financial adviser in Iowa and the Midwest. He currently is CEO of PrairieFire Wealth Planning in Valley Junction.

Focus points of the book include:

The balance between staying engaged in your growing children's lives and encouraging their independence, confidence and goals.
How to reevaluate your new financial priorities and living arrangements, like what to do with a home that is too big.
Creative strategies for paying tuition without student loans while still saving for your retirement.
Simple tips to positively influence your child's financial future.

The book is designed to demystify the college planning process while clarifying changes that take place when parents become empty nesters. Selecting and paying for college is complicated, so Meline works through a preapproval process similar to applying for a mortgage.

“In addition, we discuss many of the beginning empty nest issues like relocation, building an empty nest dream ledger and caring for aging parents,” Meline said.

The goal is to help parents gain greater clarity both emotionally and financially. Noble causes.

“Empty Nest, Full Pockets” debuts today. It costs $8.99 on Kindle, while the paperback version is $14.99. Both are available through Amazon.

Want to Write a Book? Here's Where to Get Help

BY STEVE DINNEN

Everybody has a story to tell. Putting pen to paper is not so easy, though, since you then have to make sense of all those words you’re assembling, and likely find an agent, then find a publisher, and in these days figure out a way to market what you’ve done.

Jackie Haley can help. A published author herself, she now serves as a coach to would-be writers of fiction or nonfiction. With the great wave of retirements and resignations that have swept the land since the pandemic, Haley said she has encountered many people who want to share the knowledge they acquired in, say, banking (where she once worked), or manufacturing, or just plain old entrepreneurship. Maybe they have information to share. Maybe they just want to write a memoir. Or maybe they want to be a public speaker on the their field, in which case their credibility will rise with a published book.

Haley, at jackie@dreamtoauthor.com, can coach you through the writing process and get your manuscript “formatted in a way that hooks the reader.” She’s not an agent, but someone who has gone through the process and can nudge in the “write” direction – and on time.

“I can make them a successful, published author within a year,” she said. Dare to try?

Inflation Prompting 25% of Americans to Delay Retirement

BY CARMEN REINICKE FOR CNBC.COM

Americans’ finances are being squeezed as inflation pushes up prices on things such as rent, groceries and gasoline.

As a result, one-quarter of Americans will have to delay their retirement, according to the BMO Real Financial Progress Index, a quarterly survey conducted between March 30 and April 25.

Putting off retirement plans is mostly due to disrupted savings from increased prices, the survey found. Thirty-six percent of survey respondents have reduced their savings and 21% are putting away less for retirement in order to keep up with growing costs, according to the survey. READ MORE.

The Top 5 Personal Finance Apps to Manage Your Money

BY ROB BERGER FOR FORBES.COM

Technology has been hit or miss when it comes to our money. While fintech apps promise to make managing our money simple, if not even enjoyable, not all of them deliver. I've tested hundreds of personal finance apps and tools over the years. Here are five of the best money apps I’ve found to manage just about every aspect of your finances.

Personal Capital is without question the overall best money app on the market. In fact, for many this could be the only finance app they use. For starters, it covers just about every aspect of one's financial life, from budgeting to investing to retirement. Personal Capital includes tools to evaluate whether you are on track to retire and the effect fees will have on your wealth over time.

It does require users to link financial accounts. These accounts can include bank accounts, credit cards, retirement accounts and brokerage accounts. Personal Capital then imports data on transactions and balances. For investments, Personal Capital provides an interactive tool showing the asset allocation of a user's portfolio. READ MORE.

The New York Times reports how amateur investors who rode the bull market up during the pandemic are now facing a looming bear market.

CNBC.com lists bachelor's degrees that pay more than $100,000 within three years of graduating.
Fortune.com reports that even rich people are living paycheck to paycheck.

dsmWealth is published on the first and third Thursday of each month and updated on dsmMagazine.com.

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