SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Welcome to Retirement Unpacked with Al Smith, owner of Golden Eagle Financial. You want a retirement plan that alleviates your fears about the future so you know your money will last. As a chartered financial consultant, Al Smith will help you find a balance between the risk and reward of the market and the safety of your retirement income. And now, here’s your host, Al Smith.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:25

Welcome to another program of Retirement Unpacked. I appreciate you tuning in. There’s other things I’m sure you could be doing, but I’d like you to start thinking about the coming year just a little bit. And in thinking about that, think about maybe lowering your taxes just a little bit. We’re going to have a gathering about that, an event on January 10th at Arapahoe Community College. If you would like to attend the event, the title is Effective Tax Strategies for Retirement. If you would like to attend that event, call my office, 303-744-1128. If you happen to call when no one’s in it, we’ll go to voicemail and we will respond to you quickly. If you’re driving or something, reach out to KLZ. and they’ll get me your information. We already have some sign-ups, and the room will be limited, but we’re expecting a good number of people. It’s January 10th at Arapahoe Community College. That is a Saturday. It will be from 10 till 1130 in room 3750. And if you don’t know where Arapahoe Community College is, it’s 5900 South Santa Fe. It’s right in downtown Littleton at the intersection of Santa Fe and Church Street. Parking is really, really easy. This is a Saturday, so there won’t be a lot of congestion. And if you have concerns about maybe lowering your taxes in retirement, or if you are approaching retirement and you have some concerns that your IRA is growing and it’s going to be a tax monster by the time you reach retirement, this is an event that will truly benefit you. We have a lot of ideas and concepts that are going to be very useful today. for people planning for transitioning into or already retired. Again, if you’d like to attend, call my office, 303-744-1128. Again, thank you for listening, and I don’t think we have to reiterate or go into great detail what time of year it is. It’s Christmastime, and there are probably some things about Christmas that you don’t know. And, for example, when was Christmas first celebrated? We know 2,000 years ago was the birth of Christ, and 2,000 years ago is a very long time. Now, he was crucified 33 years later. but his birth was not celebrated initially, even though there was an enormous surge in believers in the years after his death, thanks to St. Paul and many of the other disciples. But the early church, by early I mean the first few hundred years, they did not celebrate birthdays at all. If there was a saint, they often celebrated on his day of death, but they did not celebrate birthdays because that was a pagan custom. It wasn’t until 336 A.D. that they began to celebrate Jesus’ birth. And there are a few documents that indicate there might have been some celebration before 336 A.D. One of those documents is called the Didascalia. That was in 250 A.D. And there was something called the Epiphany at that time. And the Epiphany was described as a manifestation of Christ in ordinary people. And the Epiphany was celebrated by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Orthodox churches. And that was how early churches, early Christians, began to celebrate Christmas. It was through what’s called the Epiphany. And originally… That was celebrated on January 6th. That was the day of the epiphany. And January 6th, that was based on the Julian calendar. Many, many years ago, Julius Caesar adopted what’s called the Julian calendar. And it was reasonably accurate, but not totally accurate. There was a monk, I believe, named Gregor, and we are now on what’s called the Gregorian calendar. If we convert January 6th from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, that brings the date of Jesus’ birth to December 25th, which is the one that we celebrate. And another document called the Liber Pontificalis, Pope Telesphorus celebrated Jesus’ birth, and this was way before 336 A.D. So there’s some limited evidence out there that it was celebrated before 336, but we know that after 336, it began to be celebrated as Christmas, the birth of Christ. And there’s also a legend that one of the impetus for celebrating it then was after the martyrs of Nicodemia. Roman soldiers killed 20,000 people, Christians, young Christians, in a church in 303 A.D. And fortunately, the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, it established the toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire. So obviously, the Martyrs of Nicodemus in 303, that was prior to the Roman Empire permitting Christianity. And about 50 years later, the Edict of Thessalonica adopted Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. And as a result, celebration of Christmas was obviously much easier at that point. And the way it was celebrated was very different. Jews celebrated with a festival of lights, and Germans celebrated what they called the Yule Festival, and there were Celtic legends that Balder, a sun god of Scandinavia, was struck by a mistletoe arrow that is celebrated around the time of Christmas. Now we all have heard of St. Nicholas. We associate him with Christmas, St. Nicholas, but what do we know about him? Well, he was called Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas of Bari. He was in the fourth century. He was also called Nicholas the Wonder Worker. He was the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, pawnbrokers, store makers, single people, and students. He had the legendary habit of secret gift giving. And he truly was a saint. And it’s accurate that he did actually live. He was born in Anatolian seaport of Patara, which is in Lycia, L-Y-C-I-A. That was in Asia Minor, which I believe is Turkey right at the present time. He was born… to wealthy parents and because of that he was able to help people financially. Legend has it that he rescued girls from being forced into prostitution by providing on three separate days gold so that they would not be forced into prostitution. The gold was given to their parents who could not afford a dowry. He was also, based on a legend, claimed that he rescued three soldiers from execution. During his youth, St. Nicholas did a pilgrimage to Syria and Egypt and Palestine, and after that he became the Bishop of Myra. And he was also imprisoned during the prosecution of Diocletian. I believe he was a Roman emperor, but he was released after Constantine came into power. Now, the reason that we know St. saint nicholas is a real person not just a legend the council of nicaea is the council that helped determine which books ended up in the bible that was in 325 a.d he actually his signature is actually in those who attended the council of nicaea He was also, while he attended, he was imprisoned for slapping a heretic named Arius. And he is also, according to legend, he resurrected three children who were killed and pickled and put in brine and to be sold as pork. This was during a severe drought in Europe. Theodosius II created the Church of St. Nicholas. It was Nicholas’s name at that time. What he went by in the church was Nicholas of Myra of Lycia. And I mentioned that he was listed on the attendees of the Council of Nicaea. And the first book written about St. Nicholas didn’t happen until the 1800s. And the book was written by Michael the Archimandrite. What I find really interesting… when I do some of this research, is when people had their name, they either referenced their ethnic heritage or the location where they were from. Like this author, Michael the Archie Andrite. I don’t know what an Archie Andrite is, but like Nicholas, for example, he was Nicholas of Myra of Lycia. I find it interesting how part of… people’s names had to do with where they came from. Frequently in the Bible you will see people named and it will make reference to their father, which I find also very, very interesting. Well, how was this handled a little bit later? Well, in Martin Luther’s time, People were praying to St. Nicholas, and Martin Luther, being the solid Christian that he was, following the Bible, he said we should not be praying to saints. So he created what is called Christkind. We should pay to Christkind. Now, what Christkind actually means is child of God. And Christkind, when translated into German, is called Kris Kringle. Now what’s interesting, I don’t know that any of you out there think of Kris Kringle as synonymous with Jesus Christ, but that is what Martin Luther was portraying. And Kris Kringle or St. Nicholas was very well known for being a tremendous gift giver. His name in Dutch was S-I-N-T, Nicolaas, spelled N-I-K-O-L-A-A-S. That was the Dutch spelling. That was translated to the English spelling, St. Nicholas, and that was eventually translated into Santa Claus in the English. We’ll have a little bit more information about the history of the celebration of Christmas after the break.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:26

KLZ’s relational financial advisor, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial, can make a big difference in the success of your retirement. Al looks at your entire picture, your goals, your lifestyle, the time you want for volunteering, and even potential long-term care needs, because it all matters. Working with a relational financial advisor means you’re not handed off to someone new every time you call Golden Eagle Financial. You talk directly with Al Smith. And because Al knows that life happens, he’s available when you need to talk about your finances by phone, video, or in person, whichever is most convenient for you. We’ll be right back. We’ll be right back.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:33

Welcome back to the second half of Retirement Unpacked, where we’re talking a little bit about the history of the celebration of Christmas. And most recently, we were talking about how Martin Luther… said we should not pray to saints. Some in the Catholic Church were describing praying to various saints and so forth. Martin Luther, being one who adhered strictly to the Bible, said we shouldn’t pray to saints. Rather, we should pray to Christkind, which is child of God. And that word eventually got translated to St. Nicholas, which was translated to Santa Claus. So that’s a little bit what I just got through talking about, about St. Nicholas and the history. How do people actually celebrate Christmas right now? Well, the gift-giving is historical based on what St. Nicholas did. The fact that he was born to wealthy parents put him in a good position and able to help other people, those who were less fortunate. What about trees, Christmas trees? That’s certainly a major part of most everyone’s Christmas. Well, that tradition began in 723 A.D. when a saint, Saint Boniface, he was witnessing a pagan celebration where an oak was sacrificed. He took an axe to the oak, and when he chopped into it, the pagans realized that the gods did not come and do anything with the oak, and supposedly a fir tree grew right next to where the oak was, and from that moment forward, trees were used in part of worship. Initially, they were called paradise trees. And those were then morphed into Christmas trees. Martin Luther is the first one to put candles on Christmas trees. I can only imagine how many fires resulted from that, but he did put traditional candles that were lit on Christmas trees. In the 1790s, Charlotte, who was the wife of King George, decorated the first Christmas tree. And Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, popularized it in the United Kingdom in the 1800s. And so it began in Germany, and as Germans immigrated to other parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom, it became popular in England also. Now, what’s interesting is the Puritans, and if you were here a few weeks back, we talked a lot about the history of Thanksgiving. We talked about how there were actually 90 Native Americans present, and they brought five deer home. And so likely what was on the menu was deer, seafood, and maybe a few turkeys. But in any event, getting back to the Puritans, the Puritans opposed celebrating Christmas because they described it as a pagan tradition. worship, and since it was pagan, the Puritans were totally against that. As a matter of fact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed Christmas, and it did not become popular, and especially with the trees, until about the 1830s, which is quite a number of years after the Massachusetts Bay Colony had outlawed Christmas. And what was found is that after years and years of cutting down Christmas trees, especially in Germany, there was some defloriation going on. And in the 1880s, Germany actually began creating artificial trees. They used goose feather instead of the actual trees. So there may have been some partial wood and added some goose feather. Right now, in the United States, 83% of all trees are artificial. And there are also some, in addition to trees, there are certainly some other, you know, plants and so forth. Holly, for example, is a really common plant that people decorate and things like that. I remember when I was a kid growing up, I used to hear the Christmas call, you know, deck the halls. I used to hear them. And I thought they were thinking, deck the halls with balls of holly. And I kept wondering to myself, how do you make holly into a ball? But that’s another story. I was unaware those were bows until a later time. But in addition to holly, there is the euphorobia ball. pulchrima, and also the, which is the poinsettia. And in addition to the beautiful red poinsettias, some poinsettias have pink or yellow or even striped leaves. And the spelling of it, it’s not actually poinsetta, it’s poinsettia. It’s spelled P-O-I-N-S-E-T-T-I-A. Poinsettias are really beautiful. I know our church always has a number of those up there. up on the altar for the whole Christmas season. And what about viscum album? That’s the European version, or noradendron, I’m sorry, phoradendron serotinum. These are the Latin words. That’s why I’m stumbling over them. The first one, viscum album, that’s European mistletoe. The second one is American mistletoe. Now what you may have not known about mistletoe, it is a parasitic plant, which means it lives off of other plants and sort of strangles them out. Now, I hope some of what we talked about here has been useful. I know I certainly learned some things I didn’t know before about St. Nicholas, celebration of Christmas, the history of Christmas trees. But what about you? What about you’re celebrating Christmas? Well, I think… Sitting back, reading the Christmas story, the passages in Matthew and Luke, I think a quiet sitting down and doing that is very relaxing and it puts you in the mood of what Christmas is really all about. If you’d like to get a better feeling for Christmas really in your heart, and also if you don’t have a massive bank account to be part of the billions spent on Christmas, here’s some other things that you might do. You could volunteer at a soup kitchen. If you would like to do something that would be really helpful financially, Relieve a caregiver. If you know someone who is spending 12 hours a day or more providing care for an elderly person or someone who can’t care for themselves, tell that caregiver, hey, I will watch grandma or whoever this person is for you so that you can get out of the house. You can maybe go out and have a meal, go out and shop or something like that. A lot of things you can do for people at Christmas that don’t involve going to the mall or going on Amazon and having it show up 48 hours later. Watch someone’s children so they can shop. If you know someone who have children at the age when they can’t take them shopping with them because they’re buying toys for the kids, Sit with those kids one evening so their parents can shop and maybe also have a meal. Give a gift of your time. Do a chore. Give someone a ride. If you know someone who has difficulty with daily activities, offer to clean someone’s house or their apartment. If you know someone who hasn’t been right on top of keeping their vehicle clean, offer Offer to detail someone’s car. Take it to the car wash and then get the vacuum out, get the wax and some of the other cleaning materials out to, you know, clean someone’s car. Do someone’s laundry if that’s something that can really be of helpful help. Be helpful to somebody else. And I know there’s a lot of negative things about re-gifting, but if you got a gift two or three or four years ago and it’s still in the box, or maybe you opened it and it’s still in the box and you haven’t used it, but you know that particular gift could be very useful to someone else, well, give it to someone else. If it’s been a few years, and if you don’t give it to the same person, it can be appreciated. Well, we’re arriving at the end of Retirement Unpacked. Thank you for listening. God bless you. And I’m truly hoping that your Christmas is truly blessed and it brings joy to you and those you love. And let’s also pray for the folks in Australia. and those affected by the Brown University event. Let’s keep them in my prayers. Again, God bless you. Hopefully you’ll be here next week.

SPEAKER 02 : 26:41

Thank you for listening to Retirement Unpacked with your host, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial.