Note from the mamas: Congratulations to Lynette Duncan, mom of two in Fayetteville who won the professional planning sessions with Chris Haas. Enjoy, Lynette!
We had an amazing guest post on the site yesterday by NWA blogger Stephanie McCratic who shared her story of paring down $50,000 in debt to less than $3,000 — in only three years!
A local financial planner, Chris Haas, helped Stephanie and her husband define and start reaching their goals. They still meet with him to stay on track and to make sure that debt goes down to ZERO soon.
Well, Chris has generously offered to give away five professional planning sessions to a Motherlode reader! And listen, you don’t have to be in debt to sign up for this giveaway. If you just want help thinking through saving for college, planning for some big life events or even for retirement, these five, hour-long sessions will help you. Chris is a professional all the way and will keep your information confidential.
ABOUT CHRIS HAAS: Chris is licensed Financial Advisor (Series 7 &66) who started the non-profit Freedom 5:one Ministries. He’s passionate about helping people achieve financial health and has coached hundreds of people to create financial plans to help families experience financial freedom.
Chris is a graduate of UA in Finance, received a Master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, and is a member of Northside Rotary. He worked as a financial advisor with Clement Financial prior to starting the non-profit organization. Freedom 5:one is a member of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.
Chris and his wife Tiffany (who has the awesome local business, Maggie’s Raggs) have four children and live in Fayetteville. You can reach Chris at Freedom5one[at]yahoo[dot]com.
HOW TO ENTER: You’ll win five, one-hour sessions with local financial planner Chris Haas. He can help you take steps to knock down debt or just think through future financial goals and how best to start reaching them now. You can throw your name in the hat by hitting the comment button at the bottom of this post and answering the question, “What would you do if you suddenly received a large windfall of money?” I would pay off some old debts, buy a house with enough acreage for a horse and set up a rockin’ retirement account. I might also buy a beach house. Yes, definitely.
You can also email your comments to us at giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING: If you’d like to increase your odds of winning, simply send an email to your friends/family about this giveaway and help us spread the word about this great opportunity for financial planning with Chris. We’ll give you an extra chance to win for every person you tell. Just be sure to put giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com on the CC line of your e-mail so we’ll know about it.
Good luck!
Pay off the house, invest some, and take a cruise. 🙂
I would most definitely pay off all of our debt! Buying a house is something my husband and I both want to do and getting that done would aid in that tremendously!!! A vacation for my family would be a nice little treat as well!!
We would buy a bigger home and save it for our children and their future. College, weddings, vacations, you name it!!
I could definitely use some advice on wiping out debt!
pay off our debts and put the rest towards the kids’ college fund. and maybe a family vacation!
If suddenly given a large sum of cashola, I’d pay off student loans and head to the beach for a week with the tot! But seriously…as a recently-divorced single mama and starting all over again financially, I could use some long-range planning!
New car (okay, station wagon) and invest for retirement
With a big amount of extra money, I’d love to pad our kids’ college accounts (and those of my niece and other kids in my family), our retirement accounts, and hopefully have enough left over for a new couch!!
With an unexpected gift of money, I would pay off my van and fully fund college for my three kiddos. Then, if there was anything left, I would buy some land in my home state, AZ, and build a cozy little house to grow old it.
Pay off debt, put some money in the bank to build a safety net, and send my kid to college!
would pay off debt, save for kid’s college, and pay off house. Could really use the sessions!
Pay off the house and add to our college funds for our kids.
Pay off debt including our home, travel and save for our children’s college funds.
Pay off the mortgage and stash the rest under my mattress! 🙂
Pay off debt and buy some land.
Pay off debt, go on vacation/s, save for children’s college, etc. and get a new (bigger) car.
Pay off medical bills and other bills and get some things taken care of around the house. Oh what I couldn’t do with extra money — college for my children, give more to charity, and no more ramen noodles !
I would invest the money to cover future expenses (including travel, children’s college fund, and retirement). Basically cover things that we don’t seem to have the money to cover right now, at least not as much as we would like.
Great giveaway! We’ve already gone through the Dave Ramsey program and gotten rid of all of our credit cards – saved us about $500 a month! If I were to come into some cash I would definitely get some house projects done, pay off our one car loan, take the family on a vacation to Europe, and set up a college fund for the grand-cuteness. 🙂
Wow, we would pay off debt, of course, then work on the foundation of our house. Either mow it down and start all over, or a BIG redo! That would be awesome and it would keep my husband from worrying all the time!
I would pay off the house that we’re about to close on (yay!) and probably get some adult furniture to replace our hand-me-downs 🙂 If there was still money left over then I’d look into the best kind of account to invest in for retirement, college fund for the baby, car fund, and miscellaneous.
If I was to receive a sudden abundance amount of money I would definitely take some time off from working so that I could spend it with my soon to be newborn!! I would LOVE to be there to experience all the little things that I would miss while working. Then I would start a savings plan for her with the additional money. Maybe this financial planning session could help me to achieve that!!
I would definitely pay off my credit card debt because my husband and I have a lot and pay back everyone that has helped us out. Over the past couple of years, we have been hit by the recession and ended up basically living off of credit cards and now each month wonder how are we going to even pay the minimum. By the grace of God, I am now employed full time with a wonderful company and my husband has started his own lawn care business. We are trying to get back to where we were and start chipping away at the debt but we could definitely use some advice.
I would start a good college fund for my kids and go on a nice vacation!
Payoff debt and save for college and retirement.
I would pay off debt, give to charity and church, and take a much needed vacation!
If I were to win a big lump of money. The first thing I would do is take a deep breath, to just enjoy the feeling. Then I would pay off all of mine and my husband’s school loans (big relief), sell our home that is too small and not worth enough (now in this market…in 2006 it was worth ALOT more). Then purchase and pay off another home, pay off a car, put back alot of money for college fund for my little man or at least start one, and then I would buy my poor momma a nice new car with air conditioning. Then I would whisk all of us including my poor momma to a nice long vacation at the beach with no plans but to rest.
Great topic. Thi king about financial planing is crucial for a good headstart for our kids.
I would buy a bunch of land, build a bigger house, go on a BIG vacation (while the house is under construction)…How much money are we talking? If it was a lot, I’d also make my husband quit his job so he could stay home with us!! 🙂