Author: Chuck Rylant

Chuck Rylant is a retired police officer and regular contributor to CopsAlive.com. He owns his own financial planning business and built it while he was still working in law enforcement. Prior to that Chuck had been a full time California Police Officer for 15 years. He has worked as a detective, patrol officer, field training officer and SWAT team member. He also served his department by volunteering as a Police Officer Association Board member. Chuck is also an active member of the Santa Maria Police Council which is a non-profit community organization developed to raise money specifically for the police department. Chuck is the owner of C. J. Rylant Wealth Management. His firm provides personal fee only financial planning and specializes in providing objective advice to police officers. His clients have discovered how to worry less about money and enjoy life more. Chuck can be reached on his website at: http://www.chuckrylant.com. Here's a link to an interesting video from Chuck about Mutual Fund Fees: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLm6ngyLnw8
One Comment

A Cop’s Perspective on the Difference Between Millionaires and the Middle Class

  By

Many have searched for the pattern, or a model, to explain why the rich are rich. Thomas Stanley has made a living studying and writing about wealthy people. He found consistent behaviors among them and first wrote about it in the “Millionaire Next Door.”

In the classic book published in 1937, “Think and Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill wrote about the “16 laws of success” after twenty years of studying wealthy people.

Certainly many things separate the rich from the poor. Contrary to what the poor want to believe, it’s not only luck or fate. Of the 2009 Forbes 400 richest, 274 (68%) are self-made, but… Continue reading

No comments

A Manifesto for The Perfect Life

  By

Editors Note: Chuck Rylant, a police officer from California who is also a Certified Financial Planner and a regular contributor on CopsAlive.com, gives us all a New Year’s Manifesto for a Perfect Life and shows us the process it takes to get there.

THE PERFECT LIFE MANIFESTO
By
Chuck J. Rylant
How you can achieve more this year than in the past 10 years combined

This report is free. I encourage you to share it or post it on your web site. My only request is that you do not edit it and keep it in it’s entirety. You are welcome to publish excerpts as long as you identify Chuck J. Rylant as the author. And a link it www.chuckrylant.com is always appreciated.
© 2010 Chuck Rylant

THE MAGIC FORMULA

Every year around January 1st a lot of people will begin new years resolutions or do some sort of goal setting, but only about 3% of those people will actually achieve those new goals. Previously I wrote about goal setting from a different perspective, but in that article Brian Tracy found that only 3% of the population writes their goals down. And according to research, those 3% are 1000 time more likely to accomplish their goals.
But this isn’t just another story about writing your goals. There’s plenty of that advice out there already. Traditional goal setting usually involves a written list of the things you want to accomplish. This step alone, as mentioned above, has incredible power at helping you get things accomplished. But there is a better way.

“Most people aren’t really happy, but they aren’t unhappy enough to do any thing about it. That’s a dangerous place to be.”
Tony Robbins

I’ve always been somewhat of a goal setter and usually do fairly well at accomplishing my goals. But when working with private clients, I’ve learned that it’s very hard for most people to accomplish their goals. So this led me to really study the subject of getting things done through goal setting. In researching and working with others, I realized that my informal goal setting wasn’t working as well as it could.

It wasn’t until 2008 that I took those goals that were bouncing around in my head and put them in some logical order on paper. As part of a leadership retreat, we were sent for two hours to sit overlooking the ocean and write our goals. With nothing to do for two hours but think, I figured out some amazing things about myself.

“Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.”
Brian Tracy

The following two years I continued this process and expanded it by taking a couple of days each year and devoting them strictly to goal setting. Last year I went to a beach resort and while there, created the beginnings of the process I’m about to share. But it wasn’t until I read Leo Babauta’s blog post titled “the best goal is no goal” that I really put this whole thing together. My approach is very different than Leo’s, but what he said got me thinking.

The reason people don’t usually accomplish their goals is partially because… Continue reading

No comments

Cop’s Honeymoon with Money: The #1 Rule That Will Keep you Out of Debt Forever

  By

Personal finance is an area most people struggle with, but police officers face unique challenges.  There are five distinct emotional cycles that most cops go through in their relationship with money.  The first cycle is honeymoon.

More often than not, new police officers come from middle class families and it’s not uncommon for them to have grown up very poor.  Although the trend is changing, the majority of entry level cops have no formal education beyond high school.  Aside from low wage jobs, most cops did not have a career before becoming a cop and few enter law enforcement as a career change.

Because most police officers had entry level jobs before entering the business, they’re not used to the significant salary increase they earn when hired.  Frequently cops double or triple their salary immediately upon taking their first police officer position.

This creates an immediate surplus of money that the young officer does not have the experience to handle.  Young, single officers with no children and minimal financial responsibilities now see the opportunity to buy things they only wished for before.  How many of you bought your first new car just after landing your police officer position?  It’s very common.

Since the officer has gone without these luxuries his whole life, he does not have the patience to wait any longer and starts buying stuff.  This alone is not a significant problem; however it leads to… Continue reading

6 Comments

Police Beatings: Balancing Anarchy and Tyranny

  By

A Seattle police officer punched a woman in the face after detaining a woman for jay walking.  The officer tried to detain the woman but she refused to cooperate by pulling away.  As she resisted, the officer grabbed her and struggled as she pulled away.  This continued as an angry crowd began to circle the officer.

Soon a second woman entered the scene and pushed the officer to help her resisting friend.  The officer immediately reacted by punching the second woman in the face, removing her from the picture while he continued struggling with the first woman.  This obviously upset the crowd and also excited a negative reaction toward the officer from the normally pro police — Bill O’Reilly.

Surprisingly, this type of incident is similar to those that provoke most citizen complaints and law suits against law enforcement.  For the most part, it isn’t the shootings or other more seemingly serious incidents that draw… Continue reading

One Comment

Police Officer’s Personal Success Story

  By

Editors Note:  The following is excerpted from the personal blog of CopsAlive regular contributor Chuck Rylant.  For those of you who don’t know him, Chuck is a working police officer, has his own financial planning business AND now is co-owner of RockStar Fitness with his wife.  Chuck is an amazing person and continues to be a role model for all of us on how to get the most out of life.  It is our pleasure to celebrate with the Rylant’s and share their story with you.  If you want to learn more about Chuck you can listen to our first interview with him CLICK HERE.  In that interview he talked about the importance of writing and using a business plan.  Remember he did all of this while still working full time at his police department.

We Actually Pulled it Off

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted to CopsAlive.com because I’ve been so busy launching a new fitness club called RockStar Fitness, while still growing my financial planning firm in Santa Maria.  For now, I’m enjoying being a partner with my wife in this new venture.  We really do make a good team in business and life.  It really has been fun,  rewarding, exciting, stressful and scary all at the same time.

Now that it’s open, we’re discovering all new stresses, but also some incredible rewards.  It was gratifying… Continue reading

No comments

What’s the Point of All This Work as a Cop?

  By

If you’ve followed my writings for a while, you may have noticed my slant on financial planning for police officers is less about money and more about a rewarding and satisfying life.  Money is a necessary part of life, but not the purpose of it.  Sometimes as cops, we get so focused on earning money, that we forget what that money is for.

Here is a tale that always brings me back to reality when it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.   I’ve seen this many places so I don’t know who credit as the original author.

“It had been almost two years since the American businessman, with an MBA from a prestigious Ivy League school, took a vacation.  He had a very important role as a business advisor at… Continue reading

No comments

How Much is Your Life Worth? Part III

  By

Previously we calculated how much we are really worth per hour as police officers and how it is far less than we thought. Now I hope to pull it all together into a usable concept. Believe it or not, figuring your true hourly wage is all about debt. Doing this exercise will help you get, and stay out of, debt forever. The reason we all go into debt is to overcome some unhappiness in our life.

We as police officers and sheriff’s deputies use debt to live a life we really can’t… Continue reading

No comments

How Much is Your Life Worth? Part II

  By

In my last post I suggested that the hourly wage your agency exchanges for your life, working as a police officer or sheriff’s deputy, is worth far less than you think.  In this post I’m going to help you get a better handle on what that number really is.

To correctly estimate how much you’re worth per hour as a police officer… Continue reading

No comments

How Much is Your Life Worth? Part I

  By

As a police officer have you ever wondered out how much your life is worth?  I’m not talking about your value as a cop nor your net worth, which is the value of everything you own minus your debt.  I mean how much are you trading your life in law enforcement for, in exchange for your employer’s money?  Strange idea, isn’t it? But as cops we should really be doing some financial planning.

This will be no surprise to you… Continue reading

No comments

Cops Can Make Money and Have Fun With Social Networking

  By

Social Networking is a bit of a stray from my typical financial planning topics, but earning money is not.  I’ve received a lot of questions about social networking after I was quoted in several news articles about Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.  Financial advisors were the audience of the articles, but the information is relevant to any business or profession.  You can Google my name if you’re interested in reading the articles. (Isn’t it neat how Google has become a verb?)

Let me begin by addressing the many that are reluctant to try these websites.  My introduction to social networking began a few years ago… Continue reading