Junk Drawer

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Webinar in Review Blog: Staying Safe with Best Practices

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Contributed by: James Brown James Brown

In today’s technology environment, information is just a click away. Sadly, bad guys looking for your information are just a click away also. Good security practices can protect you from becoming prey while you are on the Web.

The Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® offers some best practices on how to protect your accounts and your information.

Basic Security Hygiene: (Minute 1:15)

  • Prevention

  • Updates

  • Firewalls

  • Safe Browsing

Mobile\Wireless Security: (Minute 6:50)

  • Limit your transactions

  • Make sure the network is the right network

  • ·Turn off what you are not using

Passwords: (Minute 11:10)

  • Bad Practices

  • Good Practices

Final Solution: (Minute 25:00)

  • Your Backup Plan

  • Backup best Practices

James Brown is an IT Manager at Center for Financial Planning, Inc.®

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Branding Your New Year

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Contributed by: Kimberly Wyman

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*Originally posted December 30, 2015

A New Year is traditionally a time to set resolutions you hope to accomplish over the coming year. At The Center, we encourage you to Live YOUR Plan™ every day, but what a better time of the year to reinforce and embrace all that you wish to be, do and have.

Identifying the lifestyle that best suits you is similar to crafting a personal brand and crafting a personal brand can be greatly supported by setting goals a.k.a. setting New Year’s resolutions.

A personal brand is about:

  • Realizing you already have a personal brand – everyone does. Your existing personal brand is someone’s gut feeling about you and your existing perception of yourself. Does your brand say what you want it to say?

  • Acknowledging where you currently are. What is your gut feeling about yourself? What do others say?

  • Recognizing where you want to be. How do you want to be perceived, by yourself and by others?

  • Bridging the gap between the two points. This is your personal brand journey and an excellent lead-in to your desired lifestyle.

5 Ways to Brand Your New Year

  1. What are you passionate about? Most of us know what gets us up in the morning. If you don’t, consider spending time exploring this. If you truly aren’t passionate about anything, how about if you pick something and stick with it for 3 months? By eliminating things that you’re not passionate about, it just may lead you to what you are passionate about. Knowing this passion will help you set a resolution that is sure to make you proud of yourself.

  2. Where do your strengths lie? Sometimes we’re good at things that don’t interest us. But, understanding what we’re good at can help us leverage what we truly want by taking some of the extra legwork out of the equation.

  3. What do you want to learn about? Are there a million things that come to mind? Just pick one to focus on. If you have nothing that comes to mind, then just pick something and stick with learning all about it for a designated period of time. Eventually, you’ll discover things you truly want to learn about via process of elimination.

  4. Where do you want to explore? Your neighborhood? You community? Your state? Your country? The world? Pick a place. Read about it, learn about it, visit…even if only virtually. This world is pretty big and pretty small at the same time. Take time to learn about another tiny corner besides that in which you live.

  5. Be consistent. As with any type of branding – personal or professional – branding relies on consistency. Be faithful. Be reliable. Be steadfast. 

Having a clear vision of your desired lifestyle can help you make very good decisions about which paths you follow and which you choose to decline. Having a clear vision of your desired lifestyle will also make planning for your everyday and your future easier. Make life count. Live YOUR Plan™ and Happy New Year!

Any opinions are those of Kimberly Wyman and not necessarily those of Raymond James.

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Tastebuds the True Winners at our Guac Off!

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Our stomachs were rumbling as we prepared to dip our chips at The Center’s 1st ever Guac Off! The competition sprouted out of a friendly conversation in our Center Café and four team members took the challenge of creating an award-winning guacamole. Sandy Adams, Angela Palacios, Melissa Parkins, and Matt Trujillo all started with a simple avocado and mixed and mashed up top-secret recipes.

Each contender lined up a bowl on the café counter and the rest of the office eagerly piled up on chips. The lucky judges included the rest of The Center team members willing to dip a chip!  Everyone enjoyed scraping the bowls clean of the glorious green! Judge Gerri Harmer said the tasty competition was, “The best job I’ve ever had.”

Our victor, Angie Palacios said her recipe was inspired by a weekend getaway to Sante Fe, New Mexico.  “It was there I finally learned how to make great guacamole when we ordered it tableside at a restaurant,” Angela remembers.  “While I do add lots of different vegetables and spices, it all has to start with a few perfectly ripened avocados!”

I just make it by taste so I don’t have any measurements. I think that day I had to work with:

Ingredients:

8 ripe avocados (the kind that are very small and come in bags of 4 taste the best – a tip I picked up from Marilynn Levin)

Juice of 2 limes

½ bunch of cilantro chopped

2 or 3 roma tomatoes chopped

¼ cup of chopped onion (I’m guessing I had red but can’t remember)

1 package of “Great Guacamole” mix

Salt to taste if needed

Mix ingredients together in a bowl and cover with saran wrap pressed down to touch the guacamole and let it rest for 30-60 minutes

Dan’s Desk: The Legacy Revealed

When I saw Center founder Dan Boyce’s email offering up his desk and credenza, I knew what I had to do. This was in the summer, as The Center was preparing to move offices, and Dan was getting new furniture. I couldn’t stand to see such an iconic piece of Center history vanish into the night, so, without much hesitation, I went to Dan’s office to inspect the desk and see if I could make use of it.

A Desk with a History

As I expected, there was normal wear and tear from years of use. Dan had leaned over that desk in countless meetings with clients. He had signed off on too many documents to count. He may have even spilled a little coffee on it here and there. But that wasn’t the whole story. Dan told me he bought the furniture in the late ‘80s from his father-in-law, an attorney who’d used it for years as he worked as an attorney in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph. But he didn’t get it new. Dan’s father-in-law purchased it from his mentor, Charles Gore. Gore was also an attorney and had purchased it new in the ‘20s or ‘30s. This was a desk where business had been conducted for close to a century!

From Before to After

I felt confident with a little TLC I could restore the desk to its former glory. The project took me about three weeks. I sanded the desk down to the original wood and put a clear coat on it. I purposely didn’t stain it because I thought the underlying natural wood was beautiful. I’m really happy with the results and hope it will bring me the same mental acuteness it brought Dan throughout his career. I see myself pulling up a chair and sitting down behind the desk, making a difference in people’s financial lives just like Dan.

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Sharing Your Tax Documents with Your Financial Planner

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Dear Diary,

In 2013, I worked hard and got that raise I was hoping for. But when it came to filing taxes …

I like to refer to a tax return as a “financial diary”.It contains so much valuable and personal financial information – how much you made last year working, capital gains/loss, interest, dividends, IRA distributions, Social Security benefits, pension benefits, taxable income, your marginal vs. effective tax rate, just to name a few.All of these items help guide us throughout the year to make strategic investment and planning recommendations, based on your current and projected tax situation.As financial planners, we look at your return as a “diary” of what happened in your financial life last year that could help us take advantage of planning opportunities in the future. We do not let taxes be the sole driver in any investment or financial planning decision, however, as comprehensive advisors; tax planning is an integral part of our process of determining what financial choices will benefit you the most.

A team approach adds value for clients

We partner with many tax professionals to keep us all on the same page.By coordinating with other experts, we work as a team to better serve you, our clients.For example, if we are considering completing a Roth IRA conversion for a client, we will contact the client’s tax advisor to get his or her opinion on the conversion and estimate any tax liability or other ramifications.With so many moving parts in financial planning, being able to speak to other experts is key to providing great service and value to clients.

Sharing your “diary” made simple

Because taxes are such an important part of financial planning, we request that clients send us their most recent return once completed each year.Typically, this is something most clients will send to us prior to their annual meeting, however, the sooner we can get them, the better.This allows us to spend more time taking a closer look at the return to see if there are any potential planning opportunities that we can help uncover.We also now have the option for clients to sign a form that authorizes us to contact your CPA or tax advisor directly to have them send us your return once filed to save you any time and hassle it may create.Our goal is to take as much off your plate as possible to make life easier on you.

If you ever have questions on your tax situation or would like to speak to us in greater detail about financial planning, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are here to help!

Nick Defenthaler, CFP® is a Support Associate at Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Nick currently assists Center planners and clients, and is a contributor to Money Centered and Center Connections.

You should discuss any tax or legal matters with the appropriate professional.

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The Center is Presenting Sponsor of 2013 Vine & Dine

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Streetside Seafood, one of the participating restaurants of Vine & Dine 2013, does a cooking segment on Fox 2 News. Learn how to make Rockefeller Oysters from the chef of Birmingham's Streetside Seafood. Center for Financial Planning, Inc. is the presenting sponsor of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber's Vine & Dine 2013 Gala benefiting Gleaner's Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan.

Rockefeller Filling - Yield 16 Coated Oysters

Ingredients: 

  • .5 # Bacon
  • .5 C Spanish onion, fine dice
  • 1 ounce Sambuca or Pernod
  • 1 C Heavy Cream
  • .25 # Spinach (rough chop)
  • .5 C Shredded parmesan cheese
  • .25 C Italian breadcrumbs
  • 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
  • .5 tsp Fresh Black Pepper

Directions:

  1. In a medium sauce pot, render bacon until slightly crisp. About 5 minutes on medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent. Flambe with Sambuca. Cook until alcohol burns off.
  2. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil.
  3. Add chopped spinach, cheese, and breadcrumbs and reduce until slightly thick. About 3-4 minutes. 
  4. Place filling on a sheet tray and refrigerate. Once cooled, generously coat each shucked oyster to cover. Top with a little of the parmesan cheese.
  5. Place oysters on a baking sheet with topping and cheese and bake in a preheated 400° oven for 5-7 minutes. Place oysters on a serving platter and garnish with a lemon wedge and cocktail fork.

Live YOUR Plan™