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. Welcome to another program of retirement unpacked. I want to thank you for tuning in. We have a lot of good information for you this afternoon plus a guess whom I will introduce just a little bit later. Last week I talked about what caused the market drop. And there were quite a few things we looked at and we talked about the labor report that came out before the market declined and so forth. But I wanted to put that market decline that we experienced last week in the context because it’s really sort of just a blip. The S&P for example is up 9% from where it was in February of this year. The S&P is up 13% from where it was in December of 2023. It’s up 21% from one year ago. August of 2023. Also over the course of one month the S&P is down about 3% but in the last five days the S&P is up 4.78%. And we can also look at the NASDAQ or any one of the other indices but the S&P with its 500 companies is often the index of choice when looking at the whole economy. Well have some things coming up. The biggest of which is Western Welcome Week. That’s coming up this weekend. The big event is Saturday. There are parades. There are booze. It’s a really big day in downtown Littleton. They’ve had this event for I should have looked up the number of years but I think it’s close to 100 years. It’s been a very big deal in downtown Littleton for a long time. They close off Main Street, part of Prince Street and there’s food, booth, music and I will have my own booth there where people can spin a wheel and win a prize if they land in the right spot on the wheel. They can go into the money booth. The money booth will have currency flying around it and if you adhere to the rules you can grab some of that currency and take it with you. Again, if you would like to have a conversation with me especially with a little bit of the uncertainty that’s taken place in the market and if you want to find out if you’re on track for your saving, your saving for retirement, your investments, give my office a call at 303-744-1128. We’re in for a real treat today because Barbara Matthews, Eleanor, is with us here and she is someone I’ve known for a while and although she is the age of a lot of her peers, she wears a lot of hats. Not only is she tenuously to be employed as an interior designer but she does great fun for raising work for a multiple of different organizations which we’re going to hear about. Barbara, thank you so much for being on my radio show. Tell us a little bit about what is the most enjoyable thing you have with all the hats that you wear. Thank you, Elle. What a treat to be here. I’m not sure I’ve done a radio show so this is fun for me. I grew up in the Denver area just to give you a little background. Went to East High School and then up to Fort Collins for studies of interior design, architecture and graphic design. I’ve been doing interior design work ever since I got out of Colorado State University and actually had an office up in the ski resorts of Colorado with some architects. I’m also an office in downtown Denver at 18th in Clarkson. Over the years I’ve had a really fun time doing interior design work. Because of clients up in the ski resorts, I’ve been able to do projects around the country. One of which was in St. Louis and that project took about three years. It was 10,000 square feet and was able to get that project on the cover of St. Louis homes and lifestyles. Is that the one with the big arc? Yes. It’s been a good career. I’ve been very blessed with that gift of funny enough. My father had a lot of degrees so initially I thought maybe I wanted to study law but I soon found out that that’s not where my gifts were because I kept flanking out of any of my pre-law classes. So definitely went into the art department which was my other actually true love. It’s been a good career. More recently, in the last 10 years my husband and I have been working on a project in downtown Scottsdale. We’re doing eight homes. Seven are steel, sandstone and glass. It’s a small gated community in downtown Scottsdale. We have a five acre parcel that we purchased and did the infrastructure toward down some dilapidated homes. Then we also have an old Arizona ranch house on the five acres that we use for our personal use. That’s been a beautiful project and we have an architect, Scott Roder and builder, FHP and then Greg, my husband is the developer and I’m the interior designer. So that’s been a beautiful project. It’s almost to the finish line. Another probably month or so and we’ll have the last home which again is just a pretty neat design. You can go to our website and see that it’s paloverde lane.com is our website and the project is called paloverde lane. And beautiful project because it’s an infill project. You can walk into downtown Scottsdale and fashion square. You can get on the canal on your bike and do road bikes all the way through Scottsdale and Phoenix. So great location. But yes, I’m glad to almost be completed with that project because Colorado is my home ground. And so I’m looking forward to being back here full time. Right now I’ve been splitting time back and forth between Colorado and Arizona. And I look forward to being back to my home base of Colorado. Well, the architecture of sandstone steel in glass did that require some special architectural knowledge or how does that fit in with all of the building codes and everything like that. That sounds incredibly interesting and also unique. So it’s sandstone that’s being quarried out of northern Arizona. And when we were first designing the project, it’s actually a design that my husband’s had in his thought pattern for years. He’s been wanting to do something like this. And so we thought about the different areas that it might work well in the design and knew that Arizona might be a perfect fit. So that’s how we selected Arizona. We looked in Phoenix and Scottsdale for the land. And yes, it’s definitely probably I’m going to say because I’ve done my homework. I’ve looked around all throughout California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. I’ve yet to see an entire small gated community that has this type of a design because the sandstone is as much on the inside of the house as it is on the outside. And there’s very little drywall and it’s very, very unique. And my whole effort from the beginning was that this project would glorify God. And it’s really the materials come to find out, not even realizing it. If you go back to First Kings in the Old Testament, it talks about some of the materials used in Solomon’s Temple. And sure enough, the stone that we’re getting out of Northern Arizona looks very much like the Jerusalem stone that you see in Israel. And then also the other interesting thing is we decided on cedar for the wood for the ceilings. And that’s another material that was used in Solomon’s Temple. So really fun project. We have an architect, builder, and the one amenity is a saltwater lap pool. We very open no walls in between the homes and a beautiful serpentine steel fabricated fenced area that is just beautiful as you approach. You can see into the development and then we can all see out. So we protestly didn’t want walls in between. When are we going to have one of these developments in Colorado? Is that on the radar? Well, you know, that’s a good question. I don’t know. It’s been a long journey. So I think if my husband has his way, yes, he would like to do something like this in Colorado. So but we’ll see. We’ll see where that goes. We’re just at this point. We’re taking one day at a time. Want it obviously to get this one to the finish line. And we’re almost there. So we’ll see. If it’s going to go on to another project here in Colorado. And you designed all the interiors of all the homes. Is that accurate? Basically the way it’s worked is we have the architect Scott and my husband and then myself. We came together with what materials we would be using. So the floors are concrete. And yes, the stone is being cut at the quarry. And so I came together with what materials we would be using for cabinetry, countertops and plumbing fixtures, that kind of thing. And then yes, for our first initial house, which by the way was actually purchased from someone in the Denver area from the Cherry Hills area purchased our first home back in 2019. But basically the layout is the same for all seven of the modern homes at Palo Verde Lane. And the last home that we’re just about to the finish line on will have one more month left on it. It’s actually a little bit bigger. The first six homes out are 3,300 square feet. And this last one is closer to a 4,500 square feet because it’s on a bigger lot. Is this like on a great big cul de sac or a long street with a cul de sac at the end? Or what’s the configuration? So it’s a beautiful rectangle shape is this five acres. And again, I have to say some even some developers that have been around that area for a while. They were scratching their heads wondering how we found this five acres in the center of part right near fashion square in downtown Scottsdale. So it was truly by the grace of God that there were two homeowners that both had the five acres and were in agreement to sell at the same time. So it’s a beautiful rectangle shape, right, literally, within walking distance off of Scottsdale Road and McDonald. Bob, I know you’re a Christian and I know you and I both believe there are no coincidences. And so if part of the goal of this is to build beautiful structures and to glorify God, you’ve certainly accomplished that. And I guess we’re about to land the plane with the sale of the last home. But tell me about some of the other hats that you wear because I know you stay incredibly busy as a fundraiser and are involved in some nonprofits. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, one of the ones that I’ve really gotten close to in the last four or five years is a program called Channel Mom that Jenny Dean Schmidt started. And what I love about Channel Mom, I’m on the board and I also have a sister, Trisha Fullendorf, who’s on the board of Channel Mom. She actually got on the board first and then when I saw what the Channel Mom group was doing, I was then asked to join the board too because they saw my interest. And what Channel Mom has been doing in the Colorado area is they’re helping moms coming out of prison. There’s a beautiful program called Forever Moms where women that are in prison are learning the skills, the life set skills needed too. So when they come out of prison, they don’t go back. There’s such a recidivism where so many people, they fall back into their poor habits and their poor because they don’t have the life skills. So Channel Mom is completely changing that and they have a whole program to teach and educate these mothers that are in prison. How to get their life in order, how to get back into the working world and get a job, how to then re-engage with their children. And so there’s mentorships that can happen and just a beautiful thing that we’re seeing happening with the women at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. And actually even have a bit of a waiting list because we’ve got so many people that we can work with and we could use some more volunteers actually on that. So anybody that’s interested, you can just get a hold of Channel Mom. And then recently Channel 7 Denver News did a whole video on Forever Moms. Well that is awesome and we’re going to have time to talk more about some of the other hats that you wear and how you’re able to help some of the nonprofits. And maybe I know there is a big exciting event that Channel Mom will be having and we’ll talk more about that right after the break. Every day that you don’t have golden eagle financial managing your retirement, you’re losing money. As you move closer to retirement, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial can help you make up for lost time and ensure that your resources are performing well. Now is the time to reevaluate your flex spending account, life insurance, savings plan or anything else that you’re doing. As you prepare to retire on your terms, compound interest as you say for retirement is exponential. Every day you wait will cost you money. So you need to contact Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial today to create your customized solution by going to the advertisers page at kalzradio.com. Investment advisory services offer through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered in Seoul through individually licensed and appointed agents. Welcome back to retirement unpacked and after hearing all of that really cool information about Palo Verde Lane, the development that’s taking place that you and your husband have worked on for the last 10 years where the structures are sandstone, steel and glass. If people want to really see more about that they would go to Palo Verde Lane.com. Is that correct, Barbara? Yes, that’s perfect Al. That’s our website and they’re welcome to get a hold of my husband Greg Eleanor and he can obviously lead them to the information that basically we’ve got the one home left and available and so yeah, pretty unique opportunity and it seems like there is a big connection of people in Colorado and Arizona that like to go back and forth between the two states. Absolutely, the snowbirds and the people who like the warmer weather in January. Now I know Channel Mom that you’ve been talking about that really, really helps women who are presently incarcerated or who are making the transition out of incarceration or just women who for one reason or another have truly struggled. I know there’s a big event coming up next month. Tell us about that. Yeah, I’d love to be able to tell you about that. But before I go into our big celebration party that we’re doing, there is one other area to it’s that we help and that’s for our Compassion Fund where we help single moms that are maybe in a domestic violence situation where they’ve needed to get either into an apartment or they need to get their car, their vehicle fixed and so we have what’s called Compassion Fund where people, the moms can get some money from Channel Mom that will help them get their feet up and going again and getting their jobs back in order so that they can move on in life. So that was another area that I wanted to mention to you. But yes, so the really cool thing that we’re doing, this is the third annual, accelerate and we’re doing it on a Thursday, September 12th and it’ll start at 5 p.m. And we’re doing it at Mike Ward Automotive. Mike has graciously stepped in to allow us to have the third annual accelerate at his beautiful facility where his exotic cars are and what we’re going to be able to do is test drive his Maserati McLaren and Aston Martin’s and just a really fun evening. We’re going to have live music with Darling Revival. They’ve actually even played at Red Rocks, an amazing band and we’ll have lots of great food, a really fun live auction with just a few live auction items that are super cool, trips to Mexico, Italy and a few trips like in Arizona and ski resorts of Colorado. So yeah, it’s going to be a really fun night and this is our third annual. In the first two years we did it with the Bandamir family. We did year one and year two out at Sporty Bandamir’s facility and what was neat there is we raised Dodge Challengers down the quarter mile. But now that the Bandamir family is looking for new location, we were not able to work with them this year for it and that’s why we were so excited when Mike Ward graciously stepped up and said, “Hey, we would love to have it celebrate at our facility at Lucent and C470.” So just so you all know, we strategically do these parties on a Thursday evening because we want people from out of state to be able to come in for them. We get a lot of people from out of state that like to come to these things that have to do with cars. And then the other neat thing is all of our Colorado buddies. If any of them want to lead to go up to the mountains on Friday, they still have that opportunity. So yes, it’s Thursday, September 12th, starts at 5 p.m. and we love the young man that works for Mike Ward, Foster Pounders, is our go-to at Mike Ward. He started there when he was 18 and he says, “Barb, we can go as late as you want.” He goes, “I’ve got the key to where the exotic cars are located and we’ll go as late as you want this party to go to.” So we’re super excited and he says, “Of all the parties that they’re doing, this is one that he’s very, very excited to be helping with.” Well, it sounds really exciting. I can only think if I got to drive a McLaren or something like that and there was a big dinner and a band and I was on the fun test drive, I’m not sure I’d want to come back. I’ve seen some of those cars and they are absolutely awesome. So an opportunity to drive one of those and help a great organization like Channel Mom, that sounds like a real opportunity for listeners. Any of you out there really like exotic cars and you’d like the opportunity to drive one and to help a great nonprofit organization contact Channel Mom. You can just Google Channel Mom and that will pop right up. Again, it’s Thursday, September 12th, which we’re getting really close to September already. That’s only less than 30 days away. I know there was another organization that you’ve been helpful with, Barbara, and I can’t recall in the tip of my tongue what it is, but I know you have real skills along with your sister and fundraising. Well, just over the years, I think what I was explaining to Elle is that I got a start with in Denver, I started working with MAKA Wish and I started with Kristian Walter Eisenberg. Kristie was involved with that and she wanted some help with that. So I got involved with MAKA Wish years ago when some of that fundraising was going. So that was kind of my start and then because I was when I seemed to be serial entrepreneurs, we were also in the New Mexico, San Fe, Albuquerque area and I got involved with a really great program there that also helps families come out of incarceration and break that generational cycle. So I started a party there called Celebration of Champions, which has been in effect for over 10 years now. And I just, I don’t know, what I like is I grew up in a big family in Denver. We all loved music. We were exposed to all kinds of music from opera to R&B and country and I just definitely like to have live music. I never want to do a sit-down dinner. So even at Accelerate this year at MAKWords, we’re going to have it catered but it’ll be food stations. So we just, the whole idea is just to have fun, raise some money and just keep going year after year after year and keep building on the momentum. In the past we’ve had easily 125 people, 130 show up for the party at Bandamere but now this year we’ve got plenty of room and we’re hoping to just break open the garage doors of the venue and literally foster plan plan is to have all the garage doors wide open on that evening. And we’re looking to get maybe closer to 200 people there this year. Well, food stations sound so much cooler than a banquet. Oh my gosh. I can only imagine a banquet fundraiser where people, some of them have to wear black ties. Listen to someone’s stuffy tar. There’s a big X that goes through even the thought of those kinds of things. We don’t even do a silent auction. We just do this really fun, crazy live auction and we call it good. Well fun is good and I think people who enjoy fun and also enjoy helping those who are less fortunate, either women who are incarcerated or women who are struggling from any one of them many things, domestic abuse and so forth can really, really benefit from this big event coming up. I’d like to talk just very briefly about something that I’m going to be doing here soon. I’ve talked about it a little bit but it’s about to land the plane. I have a book coming out called The Christian Path to Retirement and it’s in the final editing phase. We looked at it and it had a couple of small errors that we’re going to have corrected. So it will be available either directly through me or through Amazon. If you’d like to have a conversation with me about if you’re on track for retirement, as you can do to save better, things that you can do to save more. Safely, have your money and retirement go farther. Call my office and we’ll have a conversation 303-744-1128. Thank you for listening to Retirement Unpacked with your host, Al Smith, of Golden Eagle Financial. Set up a free consultation with Al today at klseradio.com/money. Find your purpose in retirement with Golden Eagle Financial. Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. VCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through VCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.