Keen On Retirement™

In March of 2009, the markets bottomed out in the aftermath of the housing crisis and bank collapses. Gigantic financial institutions teetered on bankruptcy and scrambled for government support. Millions of ordinary folks lost their homes or their jobs, and all saw their retirement savings decline in value. In the moment, it was hard to imagine how our economy would get back to normal.

How much about mom and dad’s financial picture should the kids be aware of? And when do kids need to know numbers and other hard details instead of just generalities?

In just the past six months or so the markets have passed some amazing historical milestones. We’ve reflected on one of the true revolutions in financial services, had a couple complicated runs of volatility, and, the country made it through the contentious midterm elections that were fought against the background of some major economic challenges at home and abroad.

A few times every year a new client walks into Keen Wealth so excited to start planning and saving that they think they’ve already done the work for me! They show me this big, beautiful spreadsheet they’ve put together that has everything: salaries, assets, liabilities, cash in the bank, investment accounts, their whole financial picture.

When Dr. Daniel Crosby was in his 20s, he had a fateful conversation with his father about what he should do for a living. Dr. Crosby’s father was a financial advisor, but young Daniel didn’t think finance was a good fit for his interests and skill set.

Social media is an invaluable tool for getting information, keeping in touch with our loved ones, and breaking up our days with a quick hit of entertainment. But the flipside to clicking through all those Facebook posts and vacation photos is, inevitably, we start comparing what we have and how we’re living to the people we follow.