Tag: chuck rylant

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A Gift to Cops from CopsAlive During National Police Week

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Our mission at Cops Alive is “Saving the lives of the people who save lives.” I’ve shared many times about the many hidden dangers of law enforcement. We’re reminded of the 73 officers murdered each year, but we rarely acknowledge the 400 plus officers who take their own lives each year by suicide.

The list of stressors that lead cops to commit suicide is long, but one that certainly plagues a great number of us is stress and worry about money. Financial mismanagement does not always lead to suicide, but it’s definitely a contributor.

We train hard and allocate resources to shooting and unarmed tactics, yet ignore the more probable risk factors like alcohol abuse, marital problems and personal finance issues. Stress at home distracts cops from doing their job effectively, opening them up to greater risks on the streets.

We ought to use the same strategies to manage the hidden risks that we do to plan tactical situations. For example, imagine how… Continue reading

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

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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

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Social Media Tips for Cops

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Social Media Tips for Cops is an interview with our CopsAlive.com contributor Chuck Rylant about The 7 Deadly Mistakes Cops can Avoid with Social Media in Business or on their personal pages.

First, Our Congratulations to our CopsAlive.com contributor Chuck Rylant who just recently retired from his career of over a decade in law enforcement to pursue his financial management business full time.  Before he opened his financial planning practice, he worked in a number of different police roles including detective and SWAT team member. He was also a firearms and self-defense tactics instructor. Way to go Chuck and congratulations on your transition!

As he has developed his financial management practice Chuck has become an expert of sorts on the business use of Social Media networks like: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  In our 30 minute interview we discuss how you can better utilize the social media networks for… Continue reading

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A Manifesto for The Perfect Life

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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

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Police Officer’s Personal Success Story

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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

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

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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

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How Much is Your Life Worth? Part III

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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

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How Much is Your Life Worth? Part II

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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

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How Much is Your Life Worth? Part I

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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

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Cops Can Make Money and Have Fun With Social Networking

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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