Shotwell Rutter Baer

When it comes to retirement planning, what are your key numbers? How often should you review them? Watch on YouTube HERE In today’s world, there’s a lot of different numbers out there. There are a lot of different things that you can stress about.  So we are going to talk today about what numbers are actually important to think about when it comes to retirement. It might surprise you. It is probab...

Join Dave and Nick for a special Thanksgiving Episode where they talk about what they are thankful for, the Markets, what’s good for retirees, and financial planning. We’ve got a lot to be thankful for as investors and financial planners this year despite the fact that it often seems like there’s a lot more bad news going on this year than there was last year. However, it’s kind of the reverse whe...

Join Dave and Nick as they try something new today on the show. Watch on YouTube HERE We hope this catches on and we can continue to do this on a regular basis. Both of us do a fair amount of reading when it comes to retirement planning and personal finance information. However, if you are in the habit of digesting news by just reading the headlines, this can be dangerous when it comes to controve...

Join Dave and Nick as they chat with Dr. Darla Bishop, the author of the upcoming book, How to Afford Everything. Watch on YouTube HERE Her book is available for pre-order until December 12, 2023, and then it will be available to the public. You can use the code KTF on her website for 20% off her book for a limited time. Order here: https://darlabishop.com/ Check out her Podcast here: https://www....

Join Nick and Dave as they discuss how the all-encompassing world of artificial intelligence may affect your investment portfolio. Watch on YouTube HERE This definitely isn’t a podcast about how it’s going to change our industry but we think of it in terms of how will it make us more efficient so we can help more people. It doesn’t seem like, in our lifetime, there has ever been a type of technolo...

Join Nick and Dave as they address some questions they have received recently about interest rates and CDs. Interest rates are looking pretty good, especially when you start driving around town and seeing billboards for 6 % twelve-month CDs. So part of the questions have been, “Why don’t we just put everything in CDs and earn 6% and be happy and go on our merry way?” When you look at the stock mar...

Join Nick and Dave for their 3rd Quarter 2023 Economic and Market Update. Watch this episode on YouTube HERE You can read the in-depth blog article HERE Our portfolio managers at East Bay Investment Solutions provide us every quarter with what they consider the positives and negatives of our current economic situation, as well as in-depth commentary on the past quarter’s markets. You can download...

Join Dave and Nick as they discuss a few of their favorite movies about money. Do you have any to add to the list? Drop them in the comments. Watch on YouTube Here Here is a list of the movies discussed in this episode Wallstreet – this is what everybody in our generation thought being a stockbroker was all about. Glengarry Glen Ross – the story about four days in the lives of these guys who are w...

Join Dave and Nick for another helpful MSU Case study. This time they review retirement options for a retired couple with more than enough for retirement. Watch on YouTube HERE Check out our past case studies and you might find one that fits your situation, or close to it. Ep 114: Retirement Planning Case Study for an MSU Employee Ep 120: New MSU Professor Retirement Planning Ep 128 – MSU Case Stu...

Join Dave and Nick as they walk you through how to decipher and decode all the information that comes at us in the media regarding finances. Watch on YouTube HERE This is something we both talk about with our clients on a regular basis. Sometimes this is good stuff to remind ourselves as well, It’s all kinds of stuff that get you and me riled up in the market and the financial media about the mark...

Join Dave and Nick on today’s topic, which is an extension of an earlier podcast they did on the book review of The Soul of Money . An underlying topic is how to make yourself heard with the voice of money. What we mean by that is we all make conscious or unconscious decisions on how we spend our money. Put another way, where we purchase things from and what we do with our excess discretionary mon...

Join Nick and Dave as they discuss the interesting topic of what to do when your “Too Hard” pile gets too big. This is inspired by the article My ‘Too Hard’ Pile Is Pretty Big by Christine Benz in the Morningstar publication about personal finances. What is a “Too Hard Pile?” The term “Too Hard Pile” was coined by Charlie Munger to describe investments that just aren’t worth the effort because the...

Join Nick and Dave as they talk about money scripts and how they might be affecting your financial plan. They also cover things that you can do to kind of recognize and move forward. Watch on YouTube HERE The guys also reminisce about their first memories of money. Dave’s first memories involve the tooth fairy and separately, his grandfather.  “I remember when I’d see my grandfather when I was you...

Join Nick and Dave as they discuss MiAble Accounts. You may have seen the billboards around town and wondered what they are all about. What are they? Who are they for? Should you get one? Watch on YouTube HERE A MiAble account can be established for an individual with disabilities where they can actually create some savings for themselves without it interfering with government benefits from social...

Join Dave and Nick as they review the book, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Watch on YouTube HERE Thinking, Fast and Slow concerns a few major questions: how do we make decisions? And in what ways do we make decisions poorly? The book covers three areas of Daniel Kahneman’s research: cognitive biases, prospect theory, and happiness. Here is the summary from the website Shortform.com “We...

Join Dave and Ashley (Nick is on vacation) as they talk about Student Loan Repayment Plans, which have been in the news because they’ve just rolled out the details of a new plan. Watch on YouTube HERE The plan is called the SAVE Plan, which is short for Saving on a Valuable Education. It’s going to be replacing the repayment plan that currently exists. If you are in the repay plan you will be auto...

Join Dave and Nick as they talk about different that require insurance and other things that may be an option. Learn some tips on how you may be able to save money on things you might over-insuring. Watch on YouTube HERE Dave got a glossy flyer in the mail recently selling appliance repair insurance that came with a whole caveat of exceptions and exclusions that probably make the offer not worth i...

The year is half over, and despite recession fears, banking turmoil, and a debt-ceiling standoff in Washington, the stock market continued its current roll last quarter. US stocks, as measured by the Russell benchmarks, were positive across the board for the quarter, year to date, and the last 12 months. While international returns aren’t as robust, the results have also been positive across all.....

Dave and Nick have another MSU case study for you. This one is a very common scenario that comes up often – couples who are nearing retirement and seeking help from a financial advisor. They know they want to retire and they are looking for someone to help them put all the pieces together. They have been managing their money themselves, for the most part, with some support from the plan providers....

Join Dave and Nick as they discuss an amalgamation of things that Dave has read over the last year or so and has been studying. Dave’s wife got him a book for Christmas on stoic philosophy that was a general overview. He read different parts every day with explanations of what stoic philosophy entails. He kept thinking, “Boy this is almost a manual for good financial planning attitudes. Source

Join Dave and Nick as they talk about cyber security and keeping yourself safe. They go over some of the steps that they take for their clients to make sure that they maintain safety. Watch on YouTube HERE As you age, there is a real threat of being targeted for different kinds of risks, scams, and abuses out there that are targeted toward the older population. It can be difficult to have these......

We have a special guest back for the second week in a row. Our intern, Cade Campbell comes back to talk about the project he’s been working on this summer for us. Cade was tasked with breaking down the tangible quantifiable return that a client receives from a financial advisor. There are quite a few good studies out there. Join us as Cade goes through his research and findings. In a world where.....

Join Nick as he chats with the SRB summer intern, Cade Cambell, while Dave is on vacation. Watch it on YouTube HERE Cade is a senior at Michigan State studying finance and minoring in insurance and risk management with a second minor in financial planning and wealth management. He grew up in a little town in the middle of Wyoming called Riverton, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Cade is a big....

Join Nick and Dave as they discuss Nick’s best and worst personal money decisions. In case you missed our last episode where Dave discusses his personal financial best and worst, you can find it here: Ep 122: Dave’s Best and Worst Personal Money Moves Watch on YouTube HERE Nick graduated college in 2005, had a one-year-old daughter, and Michigan was already into the recession that hit the rest of....

Join Dave and Nick as Dave reveals one of the best and worst money decisions he’s made over the years. Don’t worry, you will hear from Nick soon, as he reveals his own trials with money as well. People often assume that because we are financial planners and have lots of experience we never screwed up along the way. Our clients are often surprised when we tell them about mistakes we’ve made or... S...