Episode 12: The 12 Days of Financial Planning

The Financial Huddle Christmas Special delivers exactly what the season demands: nostalgia, music, and a financial planning twist wrapped in pure holiday energy. Ryan, Ed, and Brian open with their favorite Christmas songs—Bing Crosby, Pentatonix, Little Drummer Boy—and pivot straight into a full breakdown of “The 12 Days of Financial Planning,” a playful but legitimately valuable guide built around the classic Christmas tune.

Across the episode, the team walks through each “day” with clear, practical takeaways: fully funded emergency accounts, retirement account diversification, core estate documents, budgeting essentials, investing principles, milestone tracking, income streams, smart-purchase questions, automation benefits, retirement savings targets, year-end tax moves, and the importance of tracking your net worth. It’s lighthearted, it’s energetic, and it still gives listeners real, applicable financial structure heading into a new year.

This episode blends holiday spirit with a grounded planning framework—twelve gifts that actually matter. No gimmicks. Just a Christmas special that’s fun to listen to and worth revisiting every December.

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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

The financial huddle does not provide tax, legal, financial, or other professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to consult with their own advisors in these areas. Alright, huddlers, huddle on. Tis the season.

Ryan Fleming: 0:10

This is the financial huddle. Ready. Everybody, welcome back to the Huddle Nation. Uh guys, break out the eggnog. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Here's to you. Here we go, everybody. Welcome back.

Brian Minier: 0:29

Merry Christmas.

Ryan Fleming: 0:30

Merry Christmas. Felice Navidad. Felice Navidad. It's that time of the year. Oh my gosh, man. This time of year is so nostalgic for me. I can't even begin to explain it on this podcast. I don't know about you guys, but uh let's let's maybe just let's talk about songs. Um the one I just sang was one of my favorite. Uh Brian, what do you got, man?

Brian Minier: 0:52

I don't know, man. Uh Little Drummer Boy. Little drummer boy. My dad, my dad was a drummer, so that probably why. I love it. Yeah. Ed.

Ed Beemiller: 1:02

You know, I I I do have some old school, you know, originals that uh that I enjoy. But here, a recent one that I really enjoy is uh That's Christmas to Me by Pentatonics.

Ryan Fleming: 1:14

They are phenomenal. Yes, yeah, and that's a really good version. Oh, yeah, great Hallelujah. Yep. Uh amazing one.

Ed Beemiller: 1:21

Yeah.

Ryan Fleming: 1:22

I I'm a sucker for some old Bing Crosby.

Ed Beemiller: 1:24

Yep.

Ryan Fleming: 1:25

I mean you you can't go wrong with uh chestnuts roasting at a yeah, all that stuff, man. Open fire, old blue eyes himself, snipping at your nose. Oh yeah. I'm dreaming. That's just classic. So it's classic. It's good stuff. Huddlers, welcome back. I hope you're having a great uh beginning uh countdown to their Christmas season. I hope you guys love it as much as we do. And uh, you know, what we thought we would do today, it just in typical Christmas fashion is just go right along with the uh the theme of the song, the the 12 uh best days of financial planning. Yeah, the 12 days literally of financial planning.

Brian Minier: 2:04

It's another classic.

Ryan Fleming: 2:05

It is a classic. We're gonna make it a classic. We're gonna make it a classic.

Brian Minier: 2:08

It's a big song. We're gonna evolve it. And I think I can start us off. You kick us off, bro. What is it? On the first day of planning. My planner gave to me one fully funded emergency account. Really important to have that in your in your arsenal. Very nice baritone voice. Thank you. Appreciate that. I don't know, maybe ten or baritone, somewhere in between there. But that's great. Uh target three to six months worth of expenses, protect you from jobs, losses, and unexpected things, right? For sure. On the second day of planning, my planner gave to me two types of retirement accounts. Maybe specifically a 401k and a Roth IRA. Oh, yeah. It gives you different types of tax planning, different types of contributions. And so we've always talked about tax diversification, really important, right? Two is better than one. We love options. We love options, strength and numbers. On the third day of planning, my planner gave to me three essential estate documents: a will, a power of attorney, and a medical directive. This protects your family, assets, and medical wishes.

Ed Beemiller: 3:15

And it's amazing, just a quick uh interruption in terms of how many people do not even have a simple will.

Brian Minier: 3:21

Three out of four. Gotta have it. Incredible. And then on the fourth day of planning, my planner gave to me four main budget categories to nail down. Those four housing, that's a majority for most people of your expenses, transportation, food. That's a big one for me, and then saving and investing.

Ed Beemiller: 3:42

Especially this time of year, food.

Brian Minier: 3:44

Food, love food. Food, food, food.

Ed Beemiller: 3:46

On the fifth day of planning, my planner gave to me five core investing principles. That was right. Michael Boblet. Thank you. Thank you. Um amongst those five, time is greater than timing. Diversification, which you always hear, you know, financial planners talk about diversification.

Ryan Fleming: 4:10

You mean time in the market?

Ed Beemiller: 4:12

Meaning trying to time the market is not good.

Ryan Fleming: 4:15

But being in the market.

Ed Beemiller: 4:16

Being in the market, staying in. Okay. Uh low costs, you know, that's talking about fees, expense ratios, discipline, and rebalancing. These are all simple rules that lead to long-term financial success. On the sixth day of planning, my planner gave to me six months until your next major money goal. And this just really gets back into taking that snapshot and rather than waiting a full year, maybe break that year into two pieces and make sure you're on track, you know, for those goals. What do you want to accomplish like this time of the year by the summer? And then kind of readjust uh going into the year end. You may want to pay off debt, hit some milestones, get promoted, whatever. They could be financial goals, life goals, any of those types of people. On the seventh day of planning, my planner gave to me. Seven streams of income to aspire towards. You know, amongst these, you have earned income, you have dividend income, interest income, rental income if you happen to be involved in real estate, uh, business income, obviously business owners, which the three of us are, so business income is always good, capital gains, and royalty income. Don't know a lot of people that have royalty, but if you do have it, good for you.

Brian Minier: 5:40

Ah, not a lot, but she gets a little royalty.

Ed Beemiller: 5:43

Royalty equals residual, which is good. Good, good. That's her plan.

Ryan Fleming: 5:46

That's Mr. Wonderful, man. That's his that's his thing.

Ed Beemiller: 5:49

And on the eighth day of planning, my planner gave to me. These are eight questions before you make a big capital purchase. Something we should all think about. You know, we we we we have this you know immediate need, right? Of it's I want my satisfaction now, as opposed to waiting. Do I really need this? Whatever item I'm buying, do I need it? Will it add value? Will it really add value to my life, to to my goals, my aspirations? Can I afford it? Very important this time of year. Pretty important. Don't use that credit card, all right? You know impulse buying. Yep. Get you. Don't do it. And this is one is it a want versus a need? You know, do I do I really need this or do I want it? That's the emotional buying side of this. Is it the best time to make the purchase? You know, um that's important too, because you're maybe already spending a lot of money here in the holiday season, and uh maybe it isn't a time for for a big capital purchase. Have you done appropriate research? That means you know, pricing. What are the different options out there? Does buying this item get me closer or further away from my financial goals? That's an interesting one. That's a good one. And eight, is this purchase for the right reason? Why are you buying this? Once again, kind of ties everything up together. I like those eight questions.

Ryan Fleming: 7:10

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, we're moving on to the ninth day. The ninth day. The the ninth day of planning, my planner gave to me, would be nine pros of automating your finances. Interesting. So those would be reduced stress and mental load, builds good habits effortlessly, helps you stay consistent, okay, avoids late fees and penalties, boosts savings without thinking about it, makes budgeting way easier. Um, you know, people hate budgeting, but way easier. Um, encourages long-term growth and frees up time for what matters most. There you go. All right, nine pros of automating your finances. Get to it, ladies and gentlemen.

Ed Beemiller: 7:58

The holidays are about family, not necessarily purchases.

Ryan Fleming: 8:01

That's exactly right. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Ed Beemiller: 8:02

I try to tell my kids this, but now I'm they're actually realizing this at age 30 and 28. We we kind of had to lay the hammer down a little bit and say, listen, Santa doesn't exist. I'm sorry.

Ryan Fleming: 8:15

What? What when did this happen? Yes. But on the 10th day of planning, my planner gave to me 10% towards retirement or more. Is that aggressive? That could be. Or it could be it could be light. Yeah, um, what if you're over 50? You can save you know 31,000 or so probably. If you're under 23,500. So how about save 10, 15% of income towards your long-term financial freeman uh freedom? That's your uh that's your 10 day here.

Ed Beemiller: 8:49

Yeah, and attach that into number nine, which you just read. Automate it, right? Yeah. So it yeah, it's just have it done.

Ryan Fleming: 8:55

That's right.

Ed Beemiller: 8:56

That's a BOGO deal.

Ryan Fleming: 8:59

On the 11th day of planning, uh, my planner gave to me 11 tax moves before the year end. Oh my goodness. That's a lot of moves. You can do 11. I had to write them down. Wow. Here we go. 11 tax moves before the end of the year. Ready? Max out your 401k, 403B, something like that, like a TSP. Uh, contribute to a health savings account, other known as a uh HSA. Triple benefits, triple tax advantage in 2025 if you're an individual. Your limits 4,300. As a family, $8,600. $1,000 catch up if you're $55 or older. Uh number three would use your FSA funds, spin down some of those flexible spending accounts by the year end. Um, or some plans allow a rollover, but you got check. Number four would be uh harvest investment losses. Um, you know, sell underperforming assets to uh offset some capital gains. Make a charitable contribution. You know, donate cash, uh securities, or you know, get receipts.

Ed Beemiller: 9:58

Uh tis the time of the year.

Ryan Fleming: 10:00

Yeah.

Ed Beemiller: 10:01

Think of others. The gifts for yourself. I know it's hard.

Ryan Fleming: 10:04

Yep. December 31 is a cutoff. So uh yeah, that charitable contribution thing. Awesome. Perform a Roth IRA conversion. Uh pay taxes now on these pre-tax traditional IRAs and enjoy that tax-free growth the rest of your life. Yep. Uh gift up to the annual exclusion. So this year uh the maximum gift is uh $18,000 per person without triggering uh the gift tax. Uh take two, take your RMD. Um, make sure we don't miss RMDs. Um if you do, you're gonna get smacked with some penalties. Um so it applies to people that are uh 73 or older, uh 75 if you're born in 1960 or later. Number nine would be make a qualified charitable distribution, a QCD. So if you're 70 and 100, take advantage of those, those are great. Yeah, if you're 70 and a half or more, you can donate directly from your IRA to a charity and avoid that income tax on withdrawal. That's legit. Number 10, uh check your tax withholdings and estimated payments. Want to make sure that that's in line. Uh make some catch-up payments to avoid uh underpayment penalties, and last but not least, uh defer some income if you're able to. If you're self-employed like we are, you have control over your year in comp. Um, it might be good to defer some of that, like into a SEP IRA if we expect your income or love with SEP to be lower uh next year. Nice job on that. Thanks, guys. Uh last one, but not least, the 12th day. Uh, my planner uh gave to me 12 months of tracking your net worth. How about that? One year of consistent progress equals real change, fellas. So, you know, with that, I I can't think of too much more advice that we give. It's these are the gifts that keep on giving, like Santa sliding down the chimney. Um you should be just as excited to hear these as you are to see.

Ed Beemiller: 11:54

Or the elf on the shelf, you know, which has you know definitely come to more prominence here in the last decade. Wasn't around really when I was growing up, the elf on the shelf.

Ryan Fleming: 12:03

Yeah. But either way, whether it's Santa or the elf on the shelf, it literally someone's coming with those presents, man.

Ed Beemiller: 12:10

Right.

Ryan Fleming: 12:10

It's literally life-giving, right?

Brian Minier: 12:13

We just gave we just gave our listeners the gift that keeps on giving.

Ryan Fleming: 12:17

Yeah, and we love you guys out there in all seriousness. You know, we dressed up for you guys. You know, this time of the year, we have so much to be thankful for. It's a great time of year to reflect on the the gifts and the blessings that we've had. Um, please keep listening to us. Thank you for tuning in. Uh, please like, subscribe, click the bell, let other people know about what we're trying to do here, promoting financial literacy, moving on into the year 2026 and beyond.

Ed Beemiller: 12:40

And the the other thing, just you know, that we've talked about with the listeners out there, if you have any ideas or or topics or or things that maybe you'd like us to discuss and maybe bring a little clarity to uh here coming up into 2026. For sure. We we're a little bit of an open forum. So we're we we will take uh requests.

Ryan Fleming: 13:00

Absolutely. Happy holidays, everybody. Happy holidays, merry Christmas, everybody. Enjoy your family, everyone. Tune back in. See ya.