The “empty nester” phase is such a fun stage of financial planning. (And near and dear to my heart because we have just moved into this stage!)

By now, the hope is that we have passed some financial savvy along to our children and launched them successfully into the “young adult” phase. We have hopefully gotten into a rhythm with our spending patterns, helping us to manage the month-to-month and find more places to build in margin more easily. We typically have a bit more freedom with our time and maybe even can begin envisioning what an “Act 2” (what is typically called “retirement”) might look like for us. Often, the financial focus in this phase can be ramping up retirement contributions to provide greater certainty in retirement outcomes. In addition, thought can be given to what kinds of buckets we will want in retirement: qualified, tax-deferred (traditional IRAs, 401k’s, etc.) vs. qualified tax-favored (Roth IRAs or Roth 401k’s) vs. non-qualified assets (brokerage account, real estate, etc.).

A good plan will often incorporate all of these, and this is the time to begin discussing how each will be used in the future to maximize after-tax income. In addition, it will be vital to make sure we understand other income sources that will be available, such as pensions and Social Security, and start thinking through how and when it might make sense to drawing each of them (and make sure we haven’t forgotten any =).

Transition to Act 2, or retirement, is in sight…this is the time to finish the planning journey well!

We want to let you know that we are switching to a new phone system during the month of September. The new system will allow us to receive and respond to your phone calls more effectively and expediently. Please continue to reach our office at the following number 815-842-4393. We’d ask that if you have been reaching David and Darrell via their cell phone numbers that you would instead begin using the 815-842-4393 number. We are hopeful that you will not encounter any difficulties in reaching any of us during this time but in the case you do, we ask for your patience.

Dear friends,

There are moments in your life when you feel like God is trying to teach you something. As we reflect on the past 16 months, this seems to be one of those times. COVID has changed how we work & study, how we interact with one another, how we travel…the list goes on. As we approach the 4th of July, it strikes us that COVID also has impacted how we think about the word “freedom”.

We, as Americans, treasure freedom. And COVID surely took some of that away, at least for a time. We have been challenged to figure out what our freedom means, what it costs, and how we prioritize it when other factors are at play. Difficult stuff, and it reminds us of how challenging our forefathers must have found it to balance and address all the issues facing a young country as it strove for freedom. So many of the tenets that were laid then are still fundamental to our lives today, and yet we also know that the pursuit of freedom was not a perfect endeavor. We live, we learn and hopefully we keep growing…as a country, as communities, as individuals.

So, as we get ready to celebrate Independence Day it is our hope that we are building a community at Douglass Financial Services that believes in the collective power of remembering and learning from our past, admitting to times that we haven’t lived up to what we aspire to, extending grace, embracing joy, and committing to growing.

Freedom is part of DFS’s mission statement…we hope what we do in some small way allows you to experience more freedom in your lives. And our prayer is that the way in which we go about our business encourages and inspires you to wield that freedom to make your community, country, and world a better place.

Happy 4th everyone!!!!

Darrell & David

As our community starts to open back up, if you are looking for ways to volunteer your time, below are a few local opportunities that may interest you.

Red Cross (redcrossblood.org) Blood donation appointments can be scheduled by visiting their website.

Baby Fold (thebabyfold.org) The Baby Fold embodies Christian principles to help families and children develop the hope, courage, and love they need to become whole and healthy.

Faith in Action (bnfia.org) Volunteers provide free rides to medical appointments and grocery shopping, friendly visits, reassuring phone calls & light home maintenance.

Often, when we meet clients that have entered the “growing family/expanding household” stage, they articulate that it feels as if life is speeding up (and passing by quicker!). Because attention is on the day-to-day and energy is often at a premium, it is harder to focus on long-term planning. Hopefully, if building blocks have been put into place during the “early adult” phase, we can put some things on auto pilot.

For example, we encourage clients at this stage to take advantage, when possible, of automatic 401k sign up or automatic yearly increases (allowing them to increase their saving without even thinking) and to consider setting up some sort of automatic re-balancing on their investment accounts.

Of course, this is also a time when attention needs to be paid to budgeting on some level, as often expenses are going up and sometimes adjustments are being made to work/family life balance. We encourage people to think of budgeting as a way of understanding where their money is going, not something that is just meant to restrict or punish. Developing a healthy relationship to spending tracking and spending goals is vital at this stage to ensure plans stay on track long-term.

This is also often when near- and mid-term goals become more real, such a buying a first or bigger home or beginning to save for children’s educational expenses. Because the time horizon for these goals is shorter, it is important to spend time thinking through what exactly it is you are shooting for: what size and type of home will fit your family both for the near- and longer-term and how much do you feel comfortable tying up in real estate; or how much of your children’s educational costs do you want to contribute to and how much will you ask them to participate; or do you want to tag educational savings as just that—solely for education—or do you want to build in some flexibility (e.g. using a 529 plan vs using a UTMA acct)?

And another focus should be on making sure we are protecting our ability to work towards those things, by looking at how to integrate life and disability insurance into our planning. The hope is that clients see this as time to begin to dream a bit and then put in place the plans to make those dreams come true.