ABOUT TODAY'S SHOW: Build Your Tribe is brought to you by: The SmartLife™ PUSH Journal is an all-in-one life planner designed to help you become a highly productive, balanced, goal-crushing machine. www.smartlifepushjournal.com In this episode my husband, and CFO of Smart Life Inc Bret Johnson takes over the podcast to share his best financial practices. Full disclosure: Bret is not a professional financial advisor, and the information contained in this episode is purely for entertainment and not to be construed as "investing advice". (That should make the lawyers happy) None the less, as my partner in life and in business… Bret takes this role very seriously. He as do I believes, that one important way to ensure you are working less is by focusing on having your money work harder so you don't have to! The first habit to be aware of is education! As with anything you want to improve, it starts with daily learning. Bret spends the first one to two hours of every day studying the stock market and listening to podcasts and or commentary from expert portfolio managers, stock advisers and market analysts. In this episode he shares with you six easily applicable tips to help you increase your earning potential, decreased spending and create the financial future you desire. 6 Tips Season of Savings- Calendar a date review all bank statements and credit card statements, and to consolidate vendors, cancel subscriptions and unnecessary monthly charges at least once a quarter. Allow at least half a day to do this very significant activity. Set a specific and set amount (between 5%-15%) of your gross income that is set aside for investment purposes. This is not to be confused with the money you have allocated for savings or tithing. It's our personal policy to have a minimum savings available to sustain us at least one year with no income. Frankly, the funds you set aside for investing should be money you're okay with losing. And of course you can decide to invest conservatively. Your first step when investing is to begin with diversification. We personally believe it is important to begin with and S&P index fund to establish this diversification. I call this hack the "Set it and Forget it". Ideally you should consider setting aside your first 5k to 25K and set up an S&P Index Fund before you consider individual stocks. Diversification when it comes to investing is very important and often overlooked. Diversification is important because it affords you a degree of protection from the volatility of individual stocks. When you put all of your money into one sector, one company or one type of enterprise, you open yourself up to a catastrophic loss should the market shift suddenly. Though the returns may be smaller or less exciting, this type of investment is certainly safer and considered more conservative. Now it's time to consider individual stock investments. Create your own diversification by selecting 5-10 Individual Stocks. In this episode I share the metrics by which Chalene and I select our top picks. Again, this is not an endorsement of these stocks nor am I telling you to invest in these stocks. It's just what we do. Re-invest Profits! - This means you will sell portions of a stock as the stock price becomes profitable above your initial investment. As a general rule of thumb when a stock rises 50% above your initial investment, consider taking 25% of the profit from the sale of that stock and reinvest! Seek wise counsel! It's the words we live by! In every area of our life, whether it's our faith, our business or our money, we seek out and hire advisors! Nowhere is this more important than with your money! Here's the truth! We have watched more than a couple of people very close to us, have their trust violated, resulting in financial devastation. People have to be watched. It's your money! We have a very serious practice of using two separate Financial Advisors. They are both aware of each other. This helps to keep us feeling confident and keeps both advisers accountable. As with all things - it's risky to place all your eggs in one basket. Bonus Tip: Here are some of the individual stocks that Chalene and I are currently invested in. Apple Visa American Express Bank of America Disney Pfizer Johnson and Johnson Walmart Starbucks Nike Follow Bret on the socials!! Facebook.com/BretJohnson11 Instagram.com/11BretJohnson And on SnapChat - HangryChef https://www.snapchat.com/add/hangrychef Hey…send me a tweet and let me know what you thought about this show! Use the Hashtag #BuildYourTribe so I know you're a homie! xoxo Chalene Leave Chalene a message: www.chalenejohnson.com/speakpipe ********* Investments, Make Your Money Grow, Diversification, Stocks, Investing, Expert Portfolio Managers, Stock Advisers, Market Analysts, Work Less, S & P Index Fund, Your Money Makng You Money, Dave Ramey Investing Calculator, Bret Johnson, Chalene Johnson, The Chalene Show ********* Hey! It's Chalene! Thanks for listening! You can leave me a message about this episode by going to http://www.chalenejohnson.com/podcast. If you enjoy the show I sure hope you'll subscribe and download a bunch of shows! This is my labor of love. It's hours and hours of discussions, best tips, expert and know-how intended to make your life even better! I encourage you to check out My Life-Coaching Podcast! http://itunes.com/TheChaleneShow The SmartLife™ PUSH Journal is an all-in-one life planner designed to help you become a highly productive, balanced, goal-crushing machine. www.smartlifepushjournal.com My website: http://www.ChaleneJohnson.com Leave me a voice memo: http://www.ChaleneJohnson.com/podcast Connect with me on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/Chalene Some of my Instagram Accounts: @ChaleneJohnson @CrazyCoolBranding @PushMeDaily @Homeworkouts_4u @ChaleneStyle Tweet with me! @ChaleneJohnson Watch me on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/chalenejohnson Check out Smart Success: http://www.SmartSuccessAcademy.com Checkout The Marketing Impact Academy: http://www.MarketingImpactAcademy.com Checkout The Courageous Confidence Club: http://getcourageousconfidence.com/ Checkout The Virtual Business Academy: http://www.chalenejohnson.com/vba So…. are you still reading this? Wow! That's cool. Ps… I hope you have a great day and I totally appreciate that you took the time to look a little further!