Think about the things in your life that you don’t think about that often. The smoke alarm, airbags in your car, fire extinguishers. Each of these things don’t really matter day-to-day until you need them and you’re glad they’re available and working.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/08/things-that-dont-matteruntil-they-do/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

2:56 – Legal Documents

5:45 – Long Term Care

8:36 – Life Insurance

10:58 – Lifetime Income Streams

The world is a serious enough place as it is so let’s take a deep breath and have a little fun on this episode. We found a handful of financial jokes that we thought were pretty funny so we’re sharing them with you on this episode. Let’s also explore the financial lessons we can gain from the punchline.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/08/its-just-a-joke/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

2:16 – Credit Card Debt

5:39 – Bonds

7:32 – Balances

10:06 – Investing

11:45 – Stock Market volatility

16:25 – Retirement age

The planning methods and your parents used likely won’t get you to where you want to be in retirement today. So much has changed over the past 20-30 years that make it harder on pre-retirees today. Let’s look at how planning has shifted and what you need to be aware of with your finances.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/07/not-your-fathers-retirement/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

1:18 – Reality of retirement planning today

4:14 – Working beyond the age of 65

9:08 – Expenses not decreasing in retirement

12:04 – So many more things to juggle

14:33 – Portfolio have to last longer

17:29 – Stresses the importance of planning

At first glance, each of these statements seem like basic common sense that everyone agrees with. But when we look at the way people actually behave with their money, it seems that common sense is actually a bit uncommon. 

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/07/learning-through-uncommon-sense/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode here:

2:39 – Buy Low and Sell High

5:03 – Don’t pay more in taxes than you have to

9:03 – Keep costs low

13:26 – Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket

16:09 – Market timing is virtually impossible

Now that the first 100 days of President Biden is in the books, what needs to be on your radar in terms of financial planning? Chris shares his thoughts on some key policy proposals and what it could mean to clients. 

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/06/financial-planning-under-president-biden/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

1:11 – What we’re hearing from clients

3:03 – Stimulus spending

8:37 – Infrastructure plan

12:13 – Capital Gains Tax Increase

13:40 – International relations

15:16 – Green New Deal

Have you ever been speaking with a financial professional and felt like they were speaking in code? Today we’ll look at a few examples of what you might hear someone say and break the code by telling you what they really meant.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/06/what-you-really-meant-to-say-was/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

2:49 – Market Corrections

4:26 – Stocks  

8:03 – Setting parameters and expectations

9:44 – Fee structures  

12:15 – Financial Designations

15:52 – Making Planning Too Confusing

The question everyone has about retirement is how much am I going to need? A million dollars seems like a magic number, but how long will it actually last you? We’ll go through a recent Yahoo! Finance survey and discuss how we help clients determine that number for their retirement.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/05/how-long-will-a-million-dollars-last-you/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

2:38 – Details on the Yahoo! survey

6:14 – Annual expense measurement

8:56 – How much our average clients spends every year

10:36 – How many years should you plan for in retirement?

There are areas of your financial life that might be in bad shape and you don’t even realize it. On this episode, we’ll identify five areas of planning that could result in disaster if you haven’t paid them any attention.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/05/are-you-flirting-with-financial-disaster/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

2:12 – Out of date legal documents  

6:01 – Beneficiaries

9:31 – Tax time bomb

13:03 – Longterm care expenses

17:31 – The 60/40 investing portfolio

Have you ever wondered how much your advisor thinks about your portfolio and how invested they get in your performance? We want to pull back the curtain a bit and give you the perspective from the other side of the table.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/04/are-advisors-invested-in-your-results/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

1:37 – What does Chris do after tax day?

4:36 – All about trust

5:46 – Setting expectations

10:29 – Acting emotionally

13:57 – Open door policy

16:33 – Final thoughts

Many of our clients ask about annuities and whether they’re a good option to create income in retirement. If you’re in that same position, you’ll want to hear our detailed breakdown of this product, the pros and cons, and who would be a good fit for an annuity.

 

Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://pffirm.com/2021/04/what-you-need-to-know-about-annuities/ 

 

What we discuss on this episode: 

3:42 – The different types of annuities starting with Fixed

4:44 – Variable

6:54 – Fixed Index Annuity

10:00 – Pros and cons

15:11 – Performance during bull and bear markets

21:58 – Who is an annuity good for?

26:26 – Chris works with clients quite a bit on this