Keen On Retirement

When we're working with our clients at Keen Wealth Advisors, we understand that retirement planning is much more than just "getting the numbers right." Yes, you have to track your investments, budget your monthly bills, and calculate how living off retirement assets is going to affect your taxes. But a successful retirement is more than just a spreadsheet -- it's a whole new chapter of your life, and, with good planning, it can be a great chapter. On today’s show, my good friend Dick Blaisdell joins us to share his experiences of what it has been like during his 16 years of retired life to date.

Whether you're a long-term retiree or are on the glide slope, it's that time of year again to collect all of your various documents and prepare to file your taxes. Where your income is coming from, how it's reported, what forms you use, what has been withheld -- these are all things that need to be gathered and accounted for. It can be confusing and it seems that so much continues to change with respect to filing your tax returns. On today's show, we offer some timely and helpful advice on things we see the most in our firm during tax season. This episode will be especially helpful if you're new to the various 1099 forms.

When working with a financial advisor, how do you know whose best interest they are putting first--yours or theirs? If the advisor is required to put your best interests first, then they are operating under what’s called the fiduciary standard. If they are legally able to put their own interests before yours, then they are operating under a less stringent standard called the suitability standard. On today’s show, we discuss these standards, what changes may be coming, and how to understand the costs of your investments.

"How much money do I need to retire?” That’s one of many retirement questions we hear the most when helping clients with retirement planning. With retirement itself undergoing so many drastic changes, it’s not surprising that more and more retirees are trying to quantify their retirement needs and plan accordingly. On today’s show, we tackle this and other common retirement questions submitted by you, our clients and listeners. We do our best to provide expert analysis on the challenges and opportunities facing retirees.

As the IRS starts rolling out its forms to taxpayers, there’s a lot of uncertainty and misinformation, clouding big picture tax issues for both individuals and corporations. A good advisory firm is proactive and thinking ahead on behalf of its clients. Good firms consider market realities rather than the high emotions that dominate the current political landscape. We try to help our clients think about their money in the same way and we are continually monitoring the on-going changes to tax structure so that we understand how our clients will be impacted. On today’s show, we try to sort out the facts from the what-ifs, and make some considered observations about what President Trump may mean for your taxes. Which proposed reforms are most likely to become law? Will there be a compromise with the Democrats? And what should you be doing to prepare yourself and your money for the next four years?

The legendary baseball player Satchel Paige famously asked, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" Chronologically, the calendar may say we're a certain age, but how old do you feel? Today, we're going to share some thoughts on staying young at heart no matter what the calendar says your age is. We all know how important it is to have a hobby and stay social. You hear that in all the different retirement planning pieces that come out, but I wanted to go a little deeper today and share things that I've seen in my 25 years of practice that are working for people. These are things that I'm seeing my clients do to keep themselves staying young, productive, happy, content, and growing in retirement. As we start the new year, I want to thank you for being part of the Keen on Retirement community and taking the time to listen to our podcasts and read our blog posts. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to work with you and we look forward to an amazing 2017.

In this second presentation, my colleague Matt Wilson helps us understand what’s happening with interest rates, with wages and inflation, and with Trump’s policies. Are we heading into trade wars? What will happen to healthcare? What’s going on in the financial markets? Matt does a terrific job of putting all these things into perspective in an informative and entertaining way. On top of that, he helps us understand what we should do with all this information. Because as I like to say, we can talk all we want about the headlines, but it’s what we do in the trenches that really makes a difference for our clients.  

In this first of two presentations, I spend about 20 minutes and introduce several new Keen Wealth Advisors team members and share our business philosophy. I think it’s important for our clients to know how we operate our firm and understand the culture that we purposely create.

Most of us have put together a jigsaw puzzle at some point in our life. But if I asked you, "What is the most important piece of the puzzle?" how would you answer? Well, my co-host Steve hit me cold with that question and it led to a great discussion about the importance of vision and clarity in building a successful financial plan and living a fulfilling life. In today's episode, we also share a few of our favorite quotes and discuss some of the lessons learned behind them. We even got a few chuckles from sharing some "funny" quotes about money. As we near the end of the year, I want to thank you for being part of the Keen on Retirement community and taking the time to listen to our podcasts and read our blog posts. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to work with you and we look forward to an amazing 2017.

At Keen Wealth Advisors, we spend a lot of time helping you build financial security. Yet all that financial security could become secondary when you feel a lump in the breast, the car behind you on the freeway doesn’t stop in time, or you slip on the ice in the winter and your whole world becomes directed to your immediate health care needs. If that happens, your focus turns to trying to get the best medical care possible. In today's episode, we discuss how to get the best medical care possible and share simple things you can do to make better healthcare choices. Our guest is Leslie Michelson. For several decades, Leslie has been at the forefront of helping people get the best healthcare possible. Leslie is the author of The Patient's Playbook and host of The No-Mistake Zone Podcast. I highly recommend both. I think you'll appreciate this show as we touch on the importance of having a primary care physician, how to ensure you are on top of the right medications and treatment options, and how to rally a team

One lesson that was driven home again during the recent 24-hour news cycle surrounding the election was, "Don't believe everything you read and hear." Regardless of your political persuasion, what you hear on the campaign trail often differs markedly from what happens after the election. It's similar in the financial markets. Scary headlines one day could turn into "the markets are on their way to new highs" the next day. The recent election night is a great example of how things can turn on a dime. When it became clear that Donald Trump was performing much better than the polls had suggested, the financial futures market, which trades pretty much 24 hours a day, started dropping rapidly. The markets were not expecting Mr. Trump to win. But then before the regular trading markets opened up on Wednesday morning, the numbers had completely turned around and the markets opened higher. The initial knee-jerk reaction to the election in the financial markets was negative, but less than 12 hours later, it had turned

Thanks to the aging Baby Boomer generation, about one in every seven Americans is 65 years or older. That number is expected to continue rising for decades to come, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As we age, it's important to make sure we have a plan in place. And not just a financial plan. Having a will, of course, is important. But we also need to have a plan to take care of ourselves and our loved ones in case we get sick or begin to experience diminished cognitive ability.  These issues can occur slowly over time and difficult to assess. These are not fun questions to address, but it's best to address them while you can and not wait until you have to. In today's episode, we tackle some tough questions so you can be prepared if the need arises.

As you know, the name of our podcast is Keen On Retirement. Normally, we talk about things like Social Security and retirement income. But today we're going to talk about the fun part of retirement. Our guest today is Mark Wolf. Mark is a close personal friend of mine for nearly 20 years. I'm very fortunate to call him a friend. He also has a long history in the travel industry, and he is an expert on cruising. Carissa and I returned from a European cruise a few weeks ago. It made me think about how nice it would be to have someone come on the show, especially someone as close as Mark, to talk about spending some time cruising in your retirement. Mark has 50 years of experience in the travel industry and he shares some tips and pointers on how to get the most our of your cruising experience. Whether you've been on a cruise before or not, Mark has some great ideas and thoughts on how to make your next cruise your best cruise.

Dr. Daniel Crosby is one of the country's leading authorities on behavioral investing. He joins the show today to discuss some of the key learnings from his new book, The Laws of Wealth. We review some of the rules of behavioral self-management and cover some key ideas to remember so we can all make sound financial decisions. One of the most important things we do at Keen Wealth Advisors is educating and helping our clients and listeners to be engaged in the planning process. I believe in lifetime learning, and that’s why we reached out to Dr. Crosby and asked him to be on the show. We like to collaborate with the best of the best, find out what's working and bring those ideas to our clients through our podcast and our meetings. As Dr. Crosby said on the podcast, "Behavioral finance tries to account for the messiness of imperfect human decision-making and amend it to make it a little bit closer to perfect."

Should you delay taking social security payments? When you're retired, should you still try to "save" money each month and put it in a bank account just like you did before you retired? Those are just a couple of the questions we address in today's show that were prompted from what our client's are asking us. As we meet with our clients, we enjoy learning what questions they have and what issues are concerning them. So today, our episode is devoted to discussing some of the common questions we're hearing right now from our clients.

Do I have enough money to retire comfortably? That's the most common question I get asked. And my answer is always the same--let's go through the financial planing process, put a plan together, and see what the numbers indicate. In today's show, we take you behind the curtain and discuss our financial planning process. You'll learn what goes into a plan, how numbers are calculated, and how they are personalized for each of our clients.    

Chances are you've received a call from the "IRS" saying you owe money and that you have to pay up immediately. This type of "IRS" scam can be spotted pretty quickly if you are armed with some basic information. As you'll learn in today's show, there are ways to protect yourself from these frauds. So please listen in as we discuss how you can avoid being the victim of a scammer.

If you died today, would you feel comfortable that all your assets are properly titled, your beneficiary designations are in order, and your assets would go to exactly who you want them to go to? Many people have worked a lifetime to accumulate assets but then fail to take the final step to ensure they are distributed to the right people after they pass. In today's show, I'm joined by estate planning attorney Jason Salinardi and we discuss how to make sure your assets and life wishes are handled exactly as you desire in the event of your incapacitation or death. Estate planning is not just for rich people with $10 million estates. We all need an estate plan because a proper estate plan includes more than just your financial assets. As you'll learn in today's show, a proper estate plan also covers what happens if you become incapacitated, beneficiary protection planning, and legacy planning. In all, there are seven components of a comprehensive estate plan and we discuss all of them in today's episode.

How will the change to a new president in January affect our economy? Our country? The financial markets? To help us explore these questions and get an inside look at what’s going on in Washington, we have a special guest on today’s podcast. Greg Valliere has 40 years of experience following Washington issues for institutional and retail investors. He's widely quoted in the national media on political and current events, federal reserve policy and tax and spending issues. If you've tuned into any of the political news recently, you may have seen him on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, or CBS Radio to name a few. Greg is currently the Chief Political Strategist at Horizon Investments. Greg was the keynote speaker at our recent Summer Educational Event and we are excited to share his remarks with you via our podcast and the notes below. I think we can all agree this presidential campaign has turned into a spectacle that has captivated the nation. Both major political parties have candidates that offer stark contrasts f

It's hard to find places to get a decent return on your money. Around the globe, there is now $13 trillion of negative-yielding government debt, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Even in Italy, a country with massive banking problems, more than $1.5 trillion in government debt has a negative interest rate. In an earlier blog post, we discussed the problems caused by negative interest rates. Yet, since that blog post came out just two months ago, we've added another $3 trillion to the negative-yielding pile. Fortunately, there are other ways besides government securities to get a return on your invested money. And today we'll explore one of them--owning dividend-paying stocks.