By Steve Sanduski, CFP®

“Anybody who thinks money will make you happy, hasn’t got money,” according to billionaire David Geffen. Now we have a new scientific study that helps quantify the connection between money and happiness.

Researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton of Princeton University analyzed data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and tried to determine how income affects an individual’s emotional well-being and overall life satisfaction. They measured emotional well-being as an individual’s day-to-day level of happiness (e.g., how much enjoyment, laughter, smiling, anger, stress, or worry they experience each day), while overall life satisfaction was measured as an individual’s satisfaction with their life in general.

Here’s what they found.

As a person’s annual income rises up to about $75,000, their emotional well-being, or day-to-day happiness, rises, too. But, beyond $75,000 in annual income, there was no additional boost to day-to-day happiness, according to the researchers’ article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reported by Inc. magazine.

What’s the key to $75,000? According to LiveScience.com, “The researchers suggest that making anything more than $75,000 no longer improves a person’s ability to spend time with friends, avoid pain and disease, and enjoy leisure time – all factors involved in emotional well-being.”

Ah, but more money does increase overall life satisfaction. According to the Inc. article, “With every doubling of income, people tended to say they were more and more satisfied with their lives on a 10-point scale – a pattern that continued for household incomes well above $120,000.”

Do these findings hold true for you and your clients?

You’ve read the Bear forecast, now see what the Bull forecasters have to say.

So, what do you think? Post your feedback in the comments section below.

Read Steve Sanduski’s latest post from Financial Planning magazine’s The Prosperous Advisor.

The financial advisor’s equivalent of the real estate agent’s “location, location, location” mantra is “communication, communication, communication.” Given the events in the Middle East, you have a perfect opportunity to communicate with your clients, deepen your relationship with them, and position yourself as a thought leader with the investing public through a timely, well-written update letter.

You have an opportunity to speak in front of a group. The pressure is on. Can you deliver? Author and speaker Dan Pallotta has 13 rules that will increase your odds of hitting a home run.

By Steve Sanduski, CFP®

I admit that I’m a sucker for the “What Are You Passionate About?” question. For advisors, we coach them on how to turn their passions into new business through a process we call Passion Prospecting™. If you like gourmet cooking, great, throw some dinner parties for your A+ clients and their friends and you are now an official “Passion Prospector.” Well, it’s not quite that easy, but you get the picture.

Now, Dan Pink comes along in an article and says he “detests” the passion question…and he makes a good point.

As humans, we say one thing, but often our actions do not support what we say. For example, most Americans say we should cut the budget deficit and reduce government spending. But, a recent Wall Street Journal poll showed that very few Americans are willing to cut entitlement spending—the very programs that account for the bulk of the government’s budget.

Pink says if we really want to know what moves people, we shouldn’t ask them what they’re passionate about; instead, we should ask them, “What do you do?”

The old cliché is true—actions speak louder than words. What you do in your free time is a better gauge of what you are passionate about than your words.

The difference between “passion” and “what do you do” is a bit like the stages of love, says Pink.

When people first fall in love, they experience that woozy and besotted feeling that verges on obsessiveness. That's passion, and it's great. But, as couples bond more enduringly, that fiery intensity can give way to a calmer warmth. That's true love—and that's where the magic is.

The “true love” is essentially what you do over the long term. It’s what you find yourself continually coming back to long after the original roaring fire of new love has settled into a cozy contentedness.

So, to identify your “true love,” Pink suggests you ask these questions.

1. What did you do last Saturday afternoon for fun; for yourself?

2. What books do you read or blogs do you visit, not for work, but just because you're interested in them?

3. What are you great at? What comes easily to you?

4. What would you do—or are you already doing—for free?

Here’s your challenge. Answer Pink’s four questions above and then come up with a creative way to turn your answers into a Passion Prospecting event that brings together people who share that same “true love.” When you are hosting an event with clients and prospects where you all share the same “true love,” it’s much easier to turn that prospect into a new client.

Describe your event in the comments section below and let’s see who’s the most creative.

Sleep, that is. As we try to be more productive and “get things done,” sleep is often the first to go. Wrong, says Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of The Way We're Working Isn't Working.

He says sleep is even more important than food. Read why you need to be getting “a good night’s sleep” in order to be a top financial advisor.

Congratulations to Peak Advisor Alliance members who made Barron’s 2011 Top Advisors List, including our very own Ron Carson, #1 advisor in NE.

Others on the list: Sal Flores (AZ), Trevor Wilde (AZ), Kerrick Bubb (CA), Mark Brown (CO), Dan Pinkerton (ID), John Lynch (MD), Joe Jacques (MD), Leo Lapito (MT), Roy Williams (NJ), Patti Brennan (PA), and Gordon Wollman (SD).

Click here to view Barron’s 2011 Top Rankings: State by State.

If you’re looking to add entry-level financial advisors to your practice, it helps to know what the going rate is. According to the Financial Planning Association's latest salary survey as reported in Investment News, “Last year, the average salary for financial advisors with less than four year’s experience was $47,450, up slightly from $47,404 in 2009.”

For all the details, check out the full article.

...With A Self-Directed Learning Program Like The Resource Center

You may think that you are a self-starter, but are you? Do you know what you need to do to be effective with a self-directed learning program? Peak Advisor Alliance offers a program for the self-directed advisor called The Resource Center. We also have a program that comes with a coach called The Coaching Program.

Cath Duncan presents six key steps on how to drive your self-directed learning plan.

Here’s the fifth of her six key steps:
5. Design Your Plan. As a subset of that she says, “Learn from other people who are ahead of you. This helps you to stay inspired of the possibilities and to discover more about the territory you’re heading into before you get there.” Hey, that’s one of the benefits of Peak Advisor Alliance; you’re learning from 20-time #1 producer Ron Carson.

No matter which program you choose, you can benefit from all the ideas in this article from Cath Duncan.

There’s only one of you so, if you rely on yourself to be the key rainmaker for your firm, your growth will be limited. Establishing relationships with key influencers who can help your business grow will geometrically expand the number of people who are “selling” for your firm.

Mike Michalowicz shares 7 ways to meet these influencers. Here’s one of our favorites:

Bring Them Together. Consider starting an “insiders retreat” where you can bring them all together under one roof. You can facilitate the retreat and, at the same time, you will be learning, picking their brains, and getting your business in front of them. Be sure to take notes about each individual person. You may just learn that one likes to play tennis every Tuesday night at a nearby club. That is the sort of information that can be used later!

Click here to read the other six.

Financial advisors are generally not shy. Those who have accomplished much are rightfully proud of their accomplishments. But, there’s a fine line between “bragging” about your accomplishments and simply “presenting your information.”

Prospects want to know your “information,” but they don’t want it presented in a way that comes across as bragging. This article from Morty Lefkoe helps you separate the two.

Do you remember Mary Meeker? The former Morgan Stanley Internet analyst and “Queen of the Net” has turned her attention to the finances of the U.S. government. In a fascinating new report, she analyzed the U.S. as if it were a business. Like a traditional analyst report, she examines revenue and expenses, reviews trends, analyzes the quality of earnings, and discusses potential ways to grow profitability.

Here are a few excerpts from the mammoth report in a “letter to shareholders” that was published in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

“The U.S. is in sounder shape than Apple (AAPL) was in 1997, when it lost a billion dollars.”

“The bottom line on USA Inc.? Cash flow and net worth are negative, profits are rare, and off-balance-sheet liabilities are enormous. The "company" has underinvested in productive capital, education, and technology—the very tools needed to compete in the global marketplace. Lenders have been patient so far, but the sky-high rates on the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal suggest what might lie ahead for USA Inc. shareholders and our children.”

“By our rough estimate, USA Inc. has a net worth of negative $44 trillion. That comes to $143,000 per capita. Negative.”

“Since Medicare and Medicaid are the biggest challenges to USA Inc.'s solvency, fixing their finances has to be at the top of the agenda.” 

“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that USA Inc. could reach break-even without policy changes if economic growth were to average 6 percent to 7 percent in 2012-14 and 4 percent to 5 percent in 2015-20. That's well above the 40-year average growth rate of 3 percent, and it simply won't happen. But even a small jump in the growth rate would ease the pain of austerity.”

This report presents the challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. Read it and you’ll be in a position to intelligently discuss the budget issues facing our country.