Bridgeriver Advisors LLC - September 2021

Bridgeriver Advisors LLC - September 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021 Nest Egg

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‘The Three Buckets’ Don’t Miss These Strategies for Income During Retirement

Every year, people are living longer and longer, so it’s understandable that you may be a little worried about how you’ll sustain your savings. The key strategy is to manage risks. When financially strategizing for a person’s golden years, I often tell my clients about “three buckets,” or three main types of ways to get income during retirement. The percentage that you invest in each bucket really depends on your personal risk tolerance, how much you want your income guaranteed, and how much of your principal you want protected from market loss. Once we figure out those three things, we can see which percentage of your savings can go in each bucket. The first bucket is your normal growth diversified portfolio. When the market is doing very well, you can take some money out of the gains you’re receiving without eliminating too much principal. However, as discussed in the past newsletter, withdrawing money from your growth portfolio while the market is crashing will essentially kill dollars that would’ve been there as the market returns. So, if you want steady income, you should also invest in other portfolios or “buckets” as well. The second bucket is a dividend portfolio. This means you buy a portfolio of stocks that pay out higher than average dividends. Growth companies tend to not pay out many dividends to their investors. They put the money back into the company. Of course, this means that dividend companies will probably grow at a slower rate, but it also means you may not have to touch your principal ever. Instead, your money works for you.

The third bucket is the realm of principal protection. They’re fixed-income products that guarantee to return, at minimum, all invested principal. That way, even if the market takes a downturn, you’ll always receive your money back. Both bonds or an index annuity offer a basic rate of return that will help you protect your money.

It’s increasingly rare for people to receive pensions nowadays. Wherever there’s a gap, we can help you try to fill it with the proper investment

during your retirement. Some buckets are more consistent than others, but all of them will help you have the right resources on your hands. If you need help deciding the next steps toward protecting your future, give us a call. I’m more than happy to help you decide your risk tolerance and what percentages of each bucket will be best for you!

More Income and Less Taxes in Retirement Seminar

Sept. 7, 9, 14, 16 — 6:30 P.M. Filippa’s (Utica))

Sept. 28, 30 — 6:30 P.M. Camp Ticonderoga (Troy)

Register today at BridgeriverLLC.com! Free dinner provided.

-Dan Casey

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FROM A SCATTERBRAINED SUMMER TO AN ORDERLY SCHOOL YEAR HACKS TO GET YOUR KIDS ORGANIZED Summer break (especially for young kiddos) is a lawless time that’s punctuated by a vacation or trips to the park and pool. Transitioning children back to the orderly world of the school year can be challenging for both teachers and parents. How can you make sure your kids trade in their summer hats for their school brains? Well, luckily, you can use a few hacks to make that transition brighter, seamless, and even fun.

You could even just label different hooks in your mudroom or hallway if that’s all you have to work with. Whatever the case, when your kids have an established place to put their school stuff, it’s that much easier for them to find as they head out the door in the morning.

Organize your school lunch supplies.

Making your kids’ lunches each morning can be exhausting, but if you put different lunch items (e.g., bags of chips, apples, juice pouches, etc.) in different, easy-to-reach containers, making school lunches can be an assembly-line process where your kids do most of the work themselves, teaching them responsibility and taking a load off of your shoulders every school morning. You can even consider making the lunches the night before to lighten up the morning routine!

Create a fun checklist for school to-do’s.

Spelling out all the tasks your kids have to do before and after school will help them ease back into the routines of going to bed each night and getting up early for school. Plus, it will introduce them to the satisfaction of checking items off a list after completing them. When your kids know what to do and when to do it, it makes your day a little easier!

Plan your kids’ outfits for the next day … or the next week.

Make a color-coded clock.

If they had their way, you know your kiddos would wear the same Spider Man or Elsa T-shirt every day of the week. So, if you want to make sure they look respectable and

Lots of kids are visual learners, which means an analog clock will be their best friend when it comes to keeping track of time. Color-code different sections of the clock

ready to learn every day, plan out their outfits for the entire school week. This is especially easy if they have a set of hanging cubbies in their closets. Allow them to help choose outfits

for different parts of the day to help them remember what they’re supposed to be doing, whether it’s blue for breakfast time, orange for homework hour, or purple for their bedtime routine.

on a Saturday or Sunday before the new week; it will also help them learn how to dress themselves later in life.

Make school-supply cubbies.

If your child tends to throw their backpack and jackets all over the house, then school-supply cubbies could be a game-changer.

Back-to-school season doesn’t have to be hectic — and with a few of these hacks in mind, it won’t be!

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UNIQUE BEAUTY TRENDS

THROUGHOUT WORLD HISTORY

ancient Greek women were encouraged to let them grow into one. Unibrows were seen as a sign of purity, and some women went so far as to darken their eyebrows with black powder or close the gap with animal hair. Skull Shaping in Ancient Mesoamerica Popularized among the Mayans beginning around 1,000 B.C., parents of newborn children would bind their heads in order to make them grow into an unnaturally elongated shape, possibly to mimic their depiction of one of their gods. Other tribes around the world actually had similar beauty practices, including the Incas, Hawaiians, and even Germanic Hun tribes. Ta Moko Tattoos Among the Maoris in New Zealand Even today, beauty standards remain disparate. For over 1,000 years, members of the indigenous Maori tribe of New Zealand have decorated their faces with intricate tattoos called ta moko. Far from what a face tattoo represents in the United States, these tattoos represent strength and beauty in women and a readiness for adult responsibilities in men. Cosmetic Surgery as a Status Symbol in South Korea South Koreans prize porcelain white skin, pointed noses, small faces, and large eyes — to the point where 1 in every 5 people undergo plastic surgery, mostly to alter the shape of their eyes and noses. These surgeries are expensive, which goes to show that even today, people will go to extreme lengths to conform to their society’s definition of beauty.

The phrase “beauty standards” could easily be considered an oxymoron because beauty is rarely standard. Throughout history, what people in one society or time period found beautiful would often be found ugly, strange, or downright reprehensible in another. To illustrate that point, here are a few examples of the strangest beauty trends throughout world history — by our society’s own subjective standards, of course! Unibrows in Ancient Greece Rather than the intensely plucked and manicured eyebrows that are in style for women today,

But if beauty is so plainly subjective, how far should people be willing to go to appear “beautiful”?

HAVE A LAUGH

PB&J on a Stick

Inspired by TasteOfHome.com

Ingredients

• • •

Peanut butter of choice

• • •

1 cup of grapes, red or green

Jelly of choice Sliced bread

2 bananas, peeled and cut into rounds Kebab skewers, one per sandwich

Directions

1. Spread peanut butter and jelly onto two pieces of sliced bread and create a sandwich. Make as many sandwiches as you have kebab skewers. 2. Slice the sandwich or sandwiches into four pieces. 3. Slide one piece of sandwich onto a skewer. Follow that piece with one grape, then one banana round. Repeat until the skewer is full or the skewer has four sandwich pieces.

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40900 WOODWARD AVE., STE. 305 BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 48304

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INSIDE This Issue 3 Strategies for Income During Retirement Hacks to Get Your Kids Organized for the School Year

Unique Historical Beauty Trends

Lunchtime Idea: PB&J on a Stick

Remembering the Heroes of 9/11

REMEMBERING THE HEROES AMID THE TRAGEDY The Everyday People Who Saved Countless Lives on 9/11 As we approach its 20th anniversary, Sept. 11, 2001, remains one of the darkest days in American history. Almost 3,000 people lost their lives when terrorists flew passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The infrastructural damage was severe, but the damage done to thousands of families across the country was even worse. While 9/11 remains a day of remembrance of these tragic events, it should also be a day to remember the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives to save others. These are just a few of their stories. Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney After five al-Qaida terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, Ong and Sweeney, two flight attendants, used the crew phone to call their colleagues and give them information about their attackers, including what they looked like and what seats they had been sitting in. Both attendants perished, but the information they shared helped the FBI jump-start their investigation. Rick Rescorla A Vietnam veteran who had earned a silver star for his service, Rescorla was no stranger to stressful life and death situations. As the head of corporate security for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower, he defied orders from Port Authority to stay put and instead escorted 2,700 people out of the building before it collapsed. After that, he headed back in to look for stragglers. That was the last time anyone saw him.

Passengers of Flight 93 While two planes hit the World Trade Center towers and one plane hit the Pentagon, another plane that headed for the White House never reached its destination. That’s because passengers aboard this flight, upon learning their plane had been hijacked, decided to rush the cockpit and overtake the terrorists. They caused the plane to crash in an empty field in Pennsylvania, saving the White House but killing everyone on board. Sad though their deaths may be, these heroic men and women continue to inspire people even 20 years later. We should never forget the tragedy of 9/11, but we should also remember these regular people who decided to take extraordinary lengths to save others.

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