The freshness of the New Year can also help us gain a fresh perspective on what's really important and what we want to accomplish.

From a comprehensive financial planning perspective, that might mean looking beyond your numbers and thinking about what your money is really for.

On today's show, my Keen on Retirement co-hosts and I share a few words of wisdom that I hope will help you maintain balance during the inevitable ups and downs of the markets, the news, and your life in the year ahead.

Longtime Keen on Retirement listeners and friends of the firm are probably familiar with The Big Hat.

Matt Wilson, our Chief Investment Officer and President, is the proud owner of an oversized Dow 100,000 cap that he wears on our show from time to time. And when folks visit our offices, such as during our annual Holiday Breakfast, they often spot Matt's hat in his office and have a bit of a chuckle about its pie-in-the-sky prediction. More than once, I've heard someone tell Matt, "Gosh, I'll never see that in my lifetime."

But ... is the Dow hitting 100,000 really all that far-fetched?

On our final show of 2025, we look to market history and current trends to give you a head start in your financial planning for 2026.

I also share some stories from my big Hollywood red carpet debut as part of the Keen Wealth Foundation's charitable mission.

"How am I doing?"

"Am I falling behind my peers?"

"Do I have enough money?"

"How does my nest egg measure up?"

My team at Keen Wealth spends a lot of time talking folks through these kinds of questions. And, as the years go by and folks enter their 50s, 60s and beyond, that conversation evolves and begins to coalesce around another question: "Can I retire?"

You might try to answer these questions on your own by comparing your account balances to benchmarks or rules of thumb you've seen on social media. But are "averages" really the best way to assess where you are on your financial journey, especially as you get closer to retirement?

On today's show, we dig into some recent data on retirement savings and discuss why achieving your financial goals is about more than dollars and decimal points.