CG Financial Group, LLC

08/26/2026

We did another successful seminar. Talking to 37 retirees and pre-retirees.  Did they get a “sales pitch”? No. That’s not how we work. When we educate, versus sell, our clients appreciate that, and therefore become lifelong clients. 

08/24/2026

Have too much "lazy" money in checking or savings accounts? As in, not earning much interest? How about these rates:

5.05% guaranteed for a two year annuity
5.60% guaranteed for a three year annuity
5.90% guaranteed for a five year annuity

All A-rated insurance companies. Plus, you do not get taxed on the interest until you "cash out". This is different than bank CDs on non-IRA money!!! Send us a message if you have questions!!!

Call now to connect with business.

08/22/2026

Folks approaching retirement are faced with a completely different set of challenges than what they have had in their pre-retirement years from a financial standpoint. Accumulating money over 40 years is actually quite simple compared to the new stage that they are entering, the decumulation years.

The decumulation years can be summed up by: taking enough money from your retirement portfolio to enjoy your retirement, but not so much that you run out of money over your potentially 30 year retirement. This also includes taking things into consideration such as sequence of returns risk, taxes, inflation, and the big one, long-term care.

To sum it up, the decumulation years require much more analysis and different tools than the accumulation years. 

08/09/2026

Many folks approaching retirement do not know what their “retirement number” is. That is, the amount of money they can withdraw annually on an after tax and inflation-adjusted basis from their portfolio in order to not run out of money over their retirement. Not only do we project this out for you based off of 5,000 different market scenarios, we also show you ways that you can make your “retirement number” larger. Ways that we can do this are, Social Security maximization, taxation minimization, Roth IRA conversions, etc.

We do these “retirement income plans“ FREE shipping for you, whether you prefer a Zoom call or in person. 

08/03/2026

He clearly was not interested in protecting his family. 😂

In all seriousness, when it comes to helping you with financial planning, we do not do this cheesy sales stuff. We report and you decide. Not only that, we do free plans/analysis for you and if you want to implement it, we will help you. If not, you can walk away, and you never hear from us again.

Side note that this fella did not appreciate. We do offer dozens and dozens of the best insurance companies in the industry when it comes to helping you cover your most important asset - your life!!!

08/02/2026

Doing Roth IRA conversions is not just about you paying no taxes later on on those Roth IRAs, it may also be about passing on a “tax-free” asset to your beneficiaries. Roth IRAs are not taxable to your beneficiaries, Traditional IRAs are.

06/10/2026

CPAs: like with financial advisors, there are good ones and there are bad ones. A while back I posted something about the new senior deduction, and whether it was “above the line”, or “below the line”. This is relevant because as we plan for keeping your “adjusted Gross income” low, we need to know that if the new senior deduction affects adjusted gross income. Note: it does not, even though it actually applies whether one is itemizing or using the standard deduction.

This “CPA” came on and effectively minimized our conversation and said that any software system out there will tell us where it needs to go, so basically it doesn’t matter whether it’s above the line or below the line. “Like a monkey can do, just punch it in the software and it will take care of it.”

That is a perfect example of the bad CPAs that I often talk about. That is a tax historian. “You tell me what has already happened, and I will punch it into my software, and I will tell you how much your taxes are due”. The good CPAs might consult with you on how to reduce your tax liability. Such as, since the senior deduction is not “above the line”, it does not reduce your adjusted gross income, but there are other ways to reduce your adjusted gross income.

There are differences between tax historians, and tax planners. If I were a high net worth client, I would want to work with advisors and CPAs that helped me plan versus telling me how much I owe in hindsight.

06/09/2026

Advice for the youngsters.

Everything is so darned expensive. You need a lot of money to retire, when you do 40 years from now. Being the almighty "millionaire" today is not that big of a flex, and it certainly wont be 40 years from now. You have to have time in the market/savings, and when you have time in the market/savings, it doesn't take a ton of money with the power of compounding.

For a 25 year old who wants to retire at 65:
- Saving $200 a month for 40 years at 8% (not a guarantee! Just an example) = $698,202
-You procrastinate for 5 years. Saving $200 a month for 35 years at 8% = $458,776
-You procrastinate for 10 years. Saving $200 a month for 30 years at 8% = $298,072
-You procrastinate for 20 years. Saving $200 a month for 20 years at 8% = $117,804

From my first example (698,202) to my last example (117,804), you have 83% LESS MONEY, even though you only procrastinated 50% of the time. Time is of the essence.

06/01/2026

5 Years (or so) from retirement? Great article that speaks to what we have been educating on for decades.

Although "stocks and bonds" usually do great over the long run, once you get into that "retirement red zone", as in 5 years from retirement, you need to look at a baseline guaranteed income stream with a PORTION of your portfolio.

As Charlie often discusses, at age 46, he put $200k into an annuity that will generate $44k in guaranteed income per year, once he hits age 65. That 44k will go for as long as Charlie and Noelle are alive. What if they die early? The balance goes to the beneficiaries.

We are independent. Meaning, we have the ability to scan the entire industry for the best annuity for your situation. We have the software to do this. Let us know if we can help.

You'll likely be earning the most in the last few years of your career. That's when to start planning how to generate income over 20 to 30 years of retirement.

05/29/2026

The older that I get, the more that I believe in spending money on “experiences” versus “things”.

Whenever I talk with clients about what they want to do in retirement, it always revolves around experiences. Traveling, doing things with the grandkids, etc.

I think as we get older we do a lot of soul searching and realize what is truly important.

At CG Financial Group, we allow our clients to live out those “experiences“ with the financial products we offer.