1) Increase your 401k contribution rate by one percentage point. If you have the Roth 401k option at work, use that bucket for your one percentage point increase. You will not miss that extra 1% of your annual pay.

It's a phrase we have heard many times during meetings: "I max out my 401(k) every year." We typically reply back with something like this: "Wow, you contribute $18,000 of your pay to your 401(k) each year?" (or for people over age 50, $24,000 per year). Typically, the answer we hear back is no, they are not actually maxing out their 401(k).

The average U.S. household is in the best condition we have seen in nearly three decades, according to the most recent research released by the Federal Reserve. The scars of the Financial Crisis have continued to serve as a positive catalyst for deleveraging in America -- a trend we cheer with the utmost vigor.

Review insurance coverages The goal of insurance is to protect you from catastrophic risk. Insurance is not designed to help you build wealth, nor is insurance a catch-all to compensate for poor planning. Ideally, insurance is something that rarely comes into play; that is, you hope not to ever use it. The Wealth Group is always available to help you review the various insurance coverages in your life. We have seen some clients save thousands of dollars per year in premiums, after we have reviewed policies and provided recommendations. Here is an overview of the things we consider when reviewing clients' coverages.

Deploy your year-end bonus (or upcoming tax refund) wisely If you were blessed with a year-end bonus for exceptional performance on the job, or if you're due to have a meaningful tax refund this spring, consider deploying that money with a "diversification" mentality. That is, instead of allocating those dollars 100% to a vacation or a remodeling project at home, consider a broader scope for those dollars. Perhaps you commit 50% of the bonus toward "fun money" and 50% toward improving your long-term financial situation. It's natural to feel some tension between spending vs. saving. With this compromise, the inner saver and the inner spender in you are both satisfied.

Bump up that 401(k) contribution percentage We coach all of our clients to aim for a retirement savings rate equal to at least 15% of their gross income. Let's say you're not anywhere near that number today, and let's also assume it's not realistic for you to triple your 401(k) contribution immediately, from 5% up to 15%. How about increasing your contributions by 1% each year? A 1% bump-up in retirement savings each year is not going to your monthly take-home pay by all that much, so it should be a doable step for all of us. Especially if you just received a raise heading into 2017. You would just be allocating part of your increased income toward increased contributions into your 401(k).

Round Up That Mortgage Payment What better way to ring in 2017 than by increasing the amount you pay each month on your mortgage? When I recently told my wife that we will now be paying $150 per month of additional principal on our 15-year mortgage, she shouted for joy and ran gleefully into my arms for a 30-second embrace. It turns out she loves financial planning and speedy debt repayment just as much as me. You doubt whether that happened?

2017 Cash Flow Checklist Part I: How is your vehicle savings fund? Today, we kick off a short series to get help you get in gear with 2017 cash flow planning. We are on day 12 of the new year, and The Wealth Group is here to provide real-life, simple cash flow planning tips/ideas for 2017. This series will contain tips that will take you just minutes to implement, but could save you tens of thousands of dollars (and more) over the long haul. As we always say: simple, not easy.

One of the things golfers talk about is avoiding the "big miss". Hooking multiple tee shots out-of-bounds really blows up a round of golf (I know that from personal experience, on multiple occasions). Avoiding the big miss is a great metaphor when applied to personal finance. In order to reduce your spending, the best place to look is the largest categories in the family budget. From the chart above, transportation and housing costs have seen massive growth since 1941 (all of these numbers are adjusted for inflation, and the spending numbers are per household).

You're probably thinking this post is some kind of joke. But really, I'm here to talk about great ways to spend some money. Not ways to spend less, and not ways to save more. Just some high-quality uses of those greenbacks in your wallet.

Oftentimes, I hear people talk about how so-and-so has a lot of money. What they really mean is that so-and-so spends a lot of money. Or, perhaps a better phrasing would be that so-and-so wants to look like they have a lot of money. However, research consistently shows that one of the strongest ongoing traits in America’s millionaires is simple frugality: spending fewer dollars than what they make.

"Where will the market go from here?" "Is there more downside to come?" "Should I even own stocks?" "Why do I own these lousy bonds?" "How will this election affect my portfolio?" Our emotions are mostly unhelpful in guiding our saving and investing decisions. The human brain is not naturally wired to excel at saving and investing money. It is easier for us to pontificate about the direction of the US economy than it is to review our annual savings rate over the past three years. That is one of the reasons you work with The Wealth Group: one of our many roles as your financial coach is to help guide you toward focusing on what really matters -- and on what you can control.