Keen on Retirement

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 for our nation's future.

Greg's remarks are non-partisan in nature and reflect his deep connections to Washington. I think you'll really enjoy his insider perspective on what is happening…and what may happen come January 2017. Please enjoy!

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.

Where do bonds fit within a portfolio? Do they still make sense even though interest rates are near historic lows?

Today's episode is a basic primer on bonds and how they are a key building block in a diversified portfolio.

As a result of the Great Recession a few years ago, the Federal Reserve lowered short-term interest rates to historically low levels. The thought was by lowering rates, it would make it easier for companies to borrow money to reinvest in their business and jumpstart the economy.

Well, the low rates have, to some degree, helped the economy but it created another problem. With low rates it's hard for savers to find places to get a decent return on their savings.

Finding the right financial advisor is not easy because it's a decision that most people only do once or twice in their life. Unlike buying a car, which you might do dozens of times throughout your lifetime, finding the right financial advisor is not something you can get "experienced" at doing.

Today's episode will give you some excellent tools to shorten that learning curve and help you find a financial advisor who is the right fit for you. Even if you are a current client of Keen Wealth Advisors, what you'll learn today may reinforce your decision to work with us and encourage you to refer other people to us.

If you come across people who are trying to find a financial advisor, please refer them to this podcast and show notes page. It may save them a lot of time by arming them with the questions and characteristics they should look for in a financial advisor.

Today, we're going to discuss what we learned by attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are considered two of the most successful investors of all-time and each year, they answer questions in front of tens of thousands of people at the Berkshire Hathaway annual stockholder's meeting.

At Keen Wealth Advisors, we believe it's critically important to be life long learners. Things change so quickly in our world that as an advisor, we intentionally invest part of our time attending conferences and being around other people from whom we can learn.

Recently, Matt Wilson from our office drove to Omaha to attend the Berkshire Hathaway stockholder's meeting while I was in California meeting with a group of 60 experts in their respective fields sharing best practices.

You, our clients, benefit because we take what we learn and reinvest it right back into our processes to help our clients make smarter decisions about their money and their life.

Are you maximizing your life? If you could categorize your life satisfaction into 10 dimensions and then start making intentional decisions to become happier and more fulfilled in each area, would that be worth spending some time on?

Last episode we introduced the concept of maximizing your life and today we're going to discuss the 10 dimensions of the Money/Life Index. By understanding what these 10 components are, rating your satisfaction in each area, then making a decision on what you'll do to "get happier" in that area, you'll live a much more fulfilling life.

This is Part II of our conversation with author and retirement expert Mitch Anthony.

Often times people get so busy just keeping up with the day-to-day stuff of life that they let life happen to them as opposed to living their life by design. Today's conversation is an opportunity for you to consciously think about what's working and what's not working in your life so you can make a change for the better and maximize your life.

At Keen Wealth Advisors we take a "whole person" approach to working with our clients. We view money as a tool to help our clients live life on their terms. Let's dive in and see how you can use the money tool to get a better life.

Most financial people talk about return on investment. Today, we're going to talk about "maximizing your life" with author and retirement expert Mitch Anthony.

Mitch describes maximizing your life in a couple ways. First, it's about getting the best life you can with the money you have and second, it's about managing your money in a way that improves your life.

This is Part I of a two-part show on how to significantly maximize your life with your money.

Imagine a picture of a sailboat whose sail is made out of a dollar. Mitch says money is simply a utility that we skillfully manipulate in order to navigate.

As you picture that sailboat, it's important to realize that money is not the shore we're headed toward. It's not the sea we sail upon. And it's not the vessel upon which we sail. It's simply a utility we use to help us live our most meaningful life.

Our guest Mitch Anthony is the founder of the Financial Life Planning Institute, the author of multiple books, widely published in financial periodicals, an international speaker, and the host of a syndicated daily radio feature, The Daily Dose.

Should retirees "work" in retirement doing something they love? How does that affect your Social Security income? Is paying off your mortgage before you retire a good idea or are you better off with the extra cash cushion? What should you do when you inherit an IRA from your spouse?

Those are just a few of the questions we'll answer in today's podcast. You asked them and we're answering.

There are two aspects to retirement planning. First--and this is the one that often gets the most attention--is the numbers. It's about how to ensure you have enough money to retire and that you make financially sound money decisions. But the second aspect is what most current and future retirees really want--how to enjoy life without worrying about money.

We cover both topics in today's episode.

As a leadoff, we start the episode talking about a recent book by our friend Steve Moeller titled, Endorphinomics: The Science of Human Flourishing. And Bill gets put on the spot as Steve asks him questions about a concept from the book called the "happiness tipping point." Did Bill rise to the challenge? Listen to find out...

Is retirement a concept that has outlived its usefulness? Does retirement kill more people than hard work ever did? Is retirement a one-way trip to insignificance? Some people think the answer is "yes" to all three of these questions.

Today, we'll explore these questions and a few more as we take a look at what other people are saying about retirement and whether we think they're correct...or just misguided.