Twin Cities Wealth Minute

Here's a question that sounds ridiculously easy:

Would you prefer an investment portfolio that can earn 8% or 6%?

If you ask someone how they're doing financially, many people mentally reach for a single number.

Net worth. Everything they own, minus everything they owe.

It's a natural instinct, and it's not a useless number.

But it's also not the number that tells you whether you're actually ready to retire.

Second marriages can bring a lot of logistical planning to the surface. 

They can also bring a complication that catches many families by surprise.

If you own a business that’s been your livelihood for years, selling it is a strange kind of milestone.

One day, your net worth is tied up in something you built and understand intimately. 

The next, it's a number in a bank account, liquid but suddenly unfamiliar.

 "I already work with a CPA. Do I really need a financial planner too?"

Now that’s a fair question, and one I hear often.

The honest answer is that the two roles usually do different jobs, even though they overlap.

There's something almost suspiciously calm about using a GPS.

Retirement has a funny way of changing how you experience money.

Not necessarily because you're spending more.

But because the spending feels different.

It's easy to think of a retirement account as one big pile of money.

But in reality, different dollars often have different jobs.

At first, it sounds like a terrible idea.

Someone voluntarily pays taxes... when they could have delayed them.

Why would anyone do that?

There's a particular kind of garage that tells a whole story.

A half-built shelf in the corner.

Paint cans from a room that was going to get "freshened up."

That box of parts from an unfinished project that you were absolutely going to finish at some point.

And of course, the tools.