Updates & Announcements
Announcements:
- Everyone had compliments for Mindfest and the Mindfest volunteers. Stan gave the Conifer Award to all the people who showed up to volunteer.
- Tim provided the following update: Jeffco Open Space is holding an Earth Day event April 20 at Crown Hill Park. He wants to do a big group photo. He is now president of the Denver chapter of the Colorado Native Plant Society. He asked people to please come to volunteer, for an hour or two. No time yet.
- Suzanne updated everyone that she is the RYLA/young RYLA chair. Rotary Youth Leadership gives awards for high school and junior high school to learn leadership. It draws out the ability to lead. Camps are held at YMCA camp at Estes Park. They are one week long, run by Rotary volunteers. Adults are advisors in the background. The junior and senior counselors run the camp. When we are recruiting, we are not looking for the kids who are already running projects. We’re looking for kids who are shy, or forced to go by a Rotary grandparent. Last summer one kid reported he hated it and wanted to leave. He loved it by the third day and now is a junior counselor. We got to witness first-hand the RYLA magic. Tim’s son went. One exercise has 12 kids standing on a mat and they need to figure out how to turn it over while all 12 are standing on it. It’s now time to apply online. This year we have space for 4 for seniors and 4 for young RYLA. There are a lot of home-school kids we need to reach. There is no cost to families. Our club is paying 100 percent of the fees. Young RYLA is for current 7th graders; RYLA is for sophomores, juniors and seniors. RockyMountainRYLA.org. We will interview the end of April. Maria Rosa said she was a senior counselor for 7 years, and mentor to junior counselors. “It’s an extraordinary experience. The junior counselors have a team of 12. Senior counselor is there just to support the junior counselors, debrief, etc.”
- Morti shared that our own Sara Gardner is vice president of wealth management at EP Wealth Advisors. She will speak about financial planning. She is a certified financial planner.
Upcoming Events
- April 13-14 is the Foothills Home and Garden Show. Janine is looking for sponsors and vendors. Non-profits can get a free space but need to sign up.
- Earth Day event April 20 at Crown Hill Park.
Meeting program
The Importance of Financial Planning, Sara Gardner, Vice President of Wealth Management
OVERVIEW:
We look at everything: cars, home, insurance and estate planning. The idea is that if your plan won’t work for what you are planning, then we set goals and priorities. From jobs and careers to managing debt, home purchases, etc.
Common goals are:
- Eliminate credit card debt. Powerpay.org, helps you eliminate credit card debt.
- Establish an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.
- Open and contribute to a retirement account. She recommends the Roth IRA because it is tax-free when you take it out. People are ending up jumping tax brackets after retirement because they must take required distributions from other retirement plans and pay taxes on them. Start contributing 5% of your salary in your 20s and raise it over time. At 50, you are allowed to contribute up to $23,000 plus $7,500 catch-up.
Note that if your credit score is poor, your insurance rates will rise.
Diversify. We look at the annual returns of your assets.
We have an attorney who works with us on estate documents.
Ed suggested using a donor advised fund. You can put highly appreciated stocks into a donor-advised funds, irrevocably, as a charitable deduction. In one year with exceptionally high income, you make a huge donation so you are above the standard deduction, then distribute to the charities of your choice over years.