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Simple Six-Step Retirement Checkup

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Many investors suffered painful losses in their portfolio during last year’s historic bear market for both stocks and bonds. Now, with the risks of a recession growing, our strategists believe more economic and market turbulence may be ahead.

The recent volatility has made it important to check your current retirement plan to confirm that you’re on track toward meeting your investment goals. Even when the broader market continues to rebound off its 2022 lows, you’ll want to confirm that your own investments are performing in line with expectations. What’s more, if you haven’t been keeping up with your contributions or have otherwise deviated from the plan, you’ll want to see how that has impacted your status.

A Financial Advisor may be able to help you get back on track if you aren’t making the progress you expected. If you have a lot of time until you retire, small tweaks in savings or investment strategy may make a big difference toward meeting your goal. Retirement just around the corner? Sometimes a few changes to your plan now can help you cross the finish line, even if market conditions are less than fully cooperative. Are you doing even better than anticipated? Maybe now is a good time to reduce your risk exposure to lock in that progress and protect against future market volatility.

Here’s a six-step retirement plan checkup that may be helpful, including how a Financial Advisor can help you adjust your plan as needed:

1. Determine where you stand.

Find out whether the amount you’re saving and investing is on pace with the money you’ll need to retire (with some margin for error). You can ask your Financial Advisor if you have one or you can find numerous calculators online to help. Also, some investment advisory accounts inform you automatically when you aren’t meeting your goals. If you have accumulated several different retirement accounts from past jobs, however, knowing where you stand may be harder than it should be. A Financial Advisor may be able to help you consolidate your retirement accounts.

2. If you’re off track, figure out why.

Are you saving as much as you planned? Are you maximizing your contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement plan or individual retirement account (IRA)? Is the amount of money you’ll need in retirement increasing? If you’re not on course because your investments aren’t performing well, your Financial Advisor may suggest you make a change to your asset allocation strategy or to the specific investments you’ve chosen. If your investments are not performing at least in line with benchmarks, your Financial Advisor may review the latest research in the context of the original rationale for the investment. Assuming that checks out, it may be preferable to hold off on any changes, as chasing top performers may be a poor way to make decisions.

3. Decide how to get back on track.

That could include revisiting your goal, for example by stretching out the time horizon until you retire or reducing the amount of money you plan to spend in retirement. It could mean creating a financial plan that reflects the propensity for retirees to spend less as retirement goes on, which means you might be better prepared than you think. It can also mean increasing portfolio risk, though only after careful consideration of your risk tolerance. It could be that the most palatable option is a little of all three, which makes the magnitude of any one change smaller. Consulting with a Financial Advisor may be able to help you identify a clear path to reaching your goals.

4. Take advantage of ways to improve returns without magnifying the risks.

These strategies may include options to mitigate taxes, such as “income smoothing” and tax loss harvesting. Insurance can also play a role. Long-term care, life insurance and annuities may have the potential to bolster your retirement plan due to their tax treatment and risk mitigation features. These strategies can be complex and a Financial Advisor may be able help you implement them.

5. Tally up your income sources.

If you are retiring soon, you need to get the most out of all your sources of income. That could include strategies for claiming Social Security and traditional pension fund payments, and where applicable, approaches to help you secure or maximize rental income. If your reliable sources of income are not significant enough to cover a good portion of your needs, your Financial Advisor may suggest you add more conservative income-oriented investments, such as dividend paying stocks or bonds.

6. Assess the risk level of your plan.

If you run through these steps and realize that you are on target to retire in a few years with room to spare, your Financial Advisor may suggest you consider reducing the amount of risk in your portfolio.

Checking in on your retirement plan doesn’t just entail making sure you are saving enough money. It also means helping ensure the savings you’ve worked so hard to accumulate will be there when you need it.

Data compiled by SHOOK Research LLC based on time period from 3/31/21-3/31/22.

Disclosures

Article by Morgan Stanley and provided courtesy of Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor.

Richard bloom is a Financial Advisor in 1290 Avenue of the Americas at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”). He can be reached by email at Richard.Bloom@MorganStanley.com or by telephone at 212-893-7597. His website is http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/mayergelwarggroup

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any security or instrument, or to participate in any trading strategy. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Morgan Stanley or its affiliates. All opinions are subject to change without notice. Neither the information provided nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness.

Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice and are not “fiduciaries” (under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or otherwise) with respect to the services or activities described herein except as otherwise provided in writing by Morgan Stanley and/or as described at www.morganstanley.com/disclosures/dol. Individuals are encouraged to consult their tax and legal advisors (a) before establishing a retirement plan or account, and (b) regarding any potential tax, ERISA and related consequences of any investments made under such plan or account.

When Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors and Private Wealth Advisors (collectively, “Morgan Stanley”) provide “investment advice” regarding a retirement or welfare benefit plan account, an individual retirement account or a Coverdell education savings account (“Retirement Account”), Morgan Stanley is a “fiduciary” as those terms are defined under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), as applicable. When Morgan Stanley provides investment education, takes orders on an unsolicited basis or otherwise does not provide “investment advice”, Morgan Stanley will not be considered a “fiduciary” under ERISA and/or the Code. For more information regarding Morgan Stanley’s role with respect to a Retirement Account, please visit www.morganstanley.com/disclosures/dol. Tax laws are complex and subject to change. Morgan Stanley does not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals are encouraged to consult their tax and legal advisors (a) before establishing a Retirement Account, and (b) regarding any potential tax, ERISA and related consequences of any investments or other transactions made with respect to a Retirement Account. Insurance products are offered in conjunction with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC’s licensed insurance agency affiliates.

Equity securities may fluctuate in response to news on companies, industries, market conditions and general economic environment. Companies paying dividends can reduce or stop payouts at any time.

Fixed Income investing entails credit risks and interest rate risks. When interest rates rise, bond prices generally fall.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Richard Bloom may only transact business, follow-up with individualized responses, or render personalized investment advice for compensation, in states where he is registered or excluded or exempted from registration, http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/mayergelwarggroup.

© 2023 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC. CRC 5634886 (04/2023)

Rabbi Couple Sing New Life into Pleasantville Community Synagogue

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Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman have brought a heightened sense of spirituality, social activism and community to their congregation – not to mention, music.

Pleasantville Community Synagogue’s Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben

After moving from NYC to Westchester over a decade ago, I began searching for a new spiritual home. I attended services at five different synagogues, but the place I connected with best was Pleasantville Community Synagogue, more commonly known as PCS.

There I was warmly greeted by the congregants. Smiles and handshakes abounded, and I was even asked to read a poem as part of the service. The rabbi applied the lessons found in ancient texts to our current times with deep psychological insight. People seemed genuinely engaged in the proceedings.

As I got to know more about PCS, I discovered that its members lived all over the county and included traditional and non-traditional Jews, interfaith couples, those from the LGBTQ community, and multi-racial individuals and families. They came from many traditions: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist and Jewish Renewal.

At a Pleasantville Community Synagogue Hanukkah event

Wow, I thought. This sure is different. It seemed that the shul’s tagline, “Joyful Judaism,” was more than just a slogan. And so I decided to join, along with my husband and twin sons, both of whom attended PCS’s Hebrew school, accurately billed as one “your kids can love.” Last year, my boys became Bar Mitzvahs there.

These days I also serve on the PCS board with others who are devoted to the health, welfare and mission of the synagogue and its congregants. Our biggest recent decision was the hiring of Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman as co-rabbis.

Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben, a married couple, have brought new energy to the synagogue, with a heavy emphasis on music (Rabbi Ben is rarely seen without a guitar slung over his shoulder). They actively focus on “tikkun olam,” one of the main tenets of Judaism, which means “repairing the world.” Our once-a-month musical Friday night Shabbat service has become a not-to-be-missed event – it includes a musical Shabbat program for young children, dinner for all, and prayer service where the rabbis and their musician friends, usually a trumpet player, bassist, percussionist and clarinetist, turn the sanctuary into a concert hall.

“We welcome everyone to our Jewish spiritual community,” said Rabbi Shosh. “There’s a lot we’ve all been faced with, both personally and politically, and we are trying to create a restorative space.”

Notable events this year have included an interfaith gathering on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in conjunction with a local church and mosque, a talk by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, author of “Judaism Disrupted,” and our annual gala, a family-friendly event held outdoors at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff, with a raptor show that had everyone enraptured.

Rabbi Shosh grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, with a strong commitment to community engagement and activism. She found her Jewish spiritual path in 1996 several years after graduating from Dartmouth College, attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She co-creates a weekly podcast called “Four Worlds Torah” with Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz

Rabbi Ben grew up in Scarsdale and studied Religion and Culture at Skidmore College, followed by the Academy for Jewish Religion. He administers a Facebook group of 4,000+ called “The Zohar,” where he posts interviews with Kabbalah scholars through his weekly podcast, “The Neshamah Project” (neshamah means “soul” in Hebrew).

“Ben and I met at Elat Chayyim, a Jewish retreat center, in 2002 and we were married in 2006,” said Rabbi Shosh. “Music brought us together, kept us together through Covid, and is the center of our Jewish spiritual practice as a married rabbi team.”

They served as rabbis in Ft. Collins, Colorado for seven years before moving back to New York in 2016. Upon their return, Rabbi Shosh was recruited to work at Romemu in Manhattan as their first Director of Youth and Family Education, and Rabbi Ben started Shtiebel, an innovative community that draws together people from the Rivertowns.

“PCS has been a great fit for us,” said Rabbi Ben. “We feel at home. The warmth, peacefulness, and spiritual depth lines up squarely with our approach to Judaism.”

PCS is often compared to a large tent with room for all. With our progressive spiritual leaders at the helm, that tent will continue to welcome everyone who seeks meaningful and sacred connections to community, Jewish values and social justice.

The High Holidays at the Pleasantville Community Synagogue with World-Renowned Musician Oren Neiman

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The Pleasantville Community Synagogue is thrilled to announce that guitarist and composer Oren Neiman will participate in PCS’s Kol Nidre/Erev Yom Kippur and morning Yom Kippur services. If you are interested in guest tickets for PCS’s High Holiday services – led by the synagogue’s dynamic and musical husband/wife team of Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman – please contact Executive Director Marcy Gray, mgray@shalompcs.com; 914-769-2672; www.shalompcs.com.

Oren Neiman’s compositions combine a jazz sensibility with Middle Eastern rhythms and melody. Oren, who was born in Israel, has been based in New York for the last 20 years. He has released three albums, and composes and arranges music for various projects with collaborators such as the bands Isra-Alien and Sha’ar, playwright Robin Goldfin, singer Zhenya Lopatnik and others. He performs in New York, has toured nationally and internationally, and was the guitar/mandolin chair in the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene’s award-winning production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish directed by Joel Grey. Oren’s most recent project is his new trio album Serenity Now, released in July 2023.

Please contact PCS for more information about the High Holidays, Hebrew School, programs for the little ones, membership, social action initiatives, adult education, teen groups and everything else!

Beauty Through A Lens: Close Up with Photographer Randi Childs and her 40/40 Project

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Randi in Milan, Italy
Photo by Sarah Edmunds

“I want women to step into their power.  They can do anything they want to do.”

In 2022, Chappaqua photographer Randi Childs sought to build upon the movement of women embracing the aging process, using her portrait skills to show women that no matter their age, they are beautiful. “Too many women over 40 feel invisible. I want to help change that and make a difference.”

Forty Over 40 (“40/40”) was born.

“I started this project because I wanted to give women an opportunity where they can see themselves through my lens and know that they’re beautiful,” Childs said. “Their age, weight, number of wrinkles, gray hair–none of that determines their self worth, value to society, or their beauty.”

Love of the Art

The mother of two grown daughters, Childs has always been enamored with photography and the ability to document life’s events and create memories. She sought out private lessons from fellow Chappaqua photographer Randy Matusow in 2012 and then “devoured” classes at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. Never intending to become a professional, she was simply indulging her passion, renting studio space in the city to practice photographing models and playing with lighting and styling “just for me,” she said.

Childs began experimenting with NYC street photography, seeking out interesting buildings, light, billboards, and people, approaching strangers saying she loved their vibe or what they were wearing. One encounter in Times Square was fortuitous; her subject published Turning Point lifestyle magazine, and soon thereafter invited Childs to contribute and eventually photograph Motown legends for a 50th Anniversary celebration issue. Other projects followed, including a Times Square Spotify billboard for a singer/songwriter she works with, and she expanded her repertoire to portraits, personal branding, headshots, maternity and fashion photography. Her international award-winning work has been featured everywhere from People Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar (Vietnam and Arabia editions) to photography publications.

Front Steps Project to Support Town Merchants

Childs opened a studio in Katonah in 2020, just weeks before the pandemic brought everything to a halt. With time on her hands, she offered to take family photographs ­– safely outdoors on their front steps – asking only that donations be made to help keep New Castle businesses afloat. She eventually partnered with the Chamber of Commerce’s Go Fund Me page to disburse the approximately $10,000 raised by photographing over 100 local families.

Helping Women Recognize Their Beauty

But it is Childs’ passion to photograph 40 women over the age of 40, last year and again in 2023, that has been empowering for both the photographer and her subjects. “It’s cliche,” Childs said, “but beauty really does come from within. This project is all about helping women ‘find their light’ and learn to be comfortable in their own skin.” Her warm and friendly personality sets her subjects at ease while giving them a platform to tell their stories, celebrating the fact that beauty does not diminish with age.

A 40/40 photo session includes a pre-shoot consultation regarding colors, styling and mood, access to her studio’s expansive couture wardrobe, professional hair and makeup, a “celebrity style” photoshoot, and, of course, the photos themselves. Childs prides herself on making her subjects feel relaxed, fully listening to their stories and documenting their feelings about being a woman over 40.

Debra Baron, one of Childs’ first  40/40 subjects, called it an “incredible experience… I felt completely outside my comfort zone, but after five minutes Randi created a comfortable setting and we had so much fun.”

“Women have cried during the sessions or when looking at the finished photos,” Childs recalled, becoming emotional describing a 64-year old woman and her 86-year old mom who experienced the day together, and a former Orthodox woman who themed her photoshoot “taking control of my life.” Ellyn Altman, at 81, one of Childs’ oldest subjects, saw someone in the photos who she had not seen in years.

“I wondered if the woman in every one of the beautiful photos could really be me,” Altman shared. “I thought that appearance was long gone. Randi is an artist; the results of the photo shoot was a wonderful reminder of who I have been and who I am.”

Last year’s 40/40 Project culminated in a gallery exhibition of all 43 portraits at Westport MoCa, which Childs plans to repeat in 2023. She was in awe seeing her subjects react to their own and each other’s photographs on display.

“It’s been transformational for me, watching these women step into their self-love.”

Visit randiover40.com and randichilds.com for more information.

Tea, Anyone? The Tea Experience – An Online Catering Service Offers a Tea for Every Season

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Leslie Allicks, owner, The Tea Experience

‘‘Nobody else is doing what we’re doing,” said Leslie Allicks, owner of The Tea Experience, a traditional English tea catering company and online tea retailer.  “Everyone wants an experience. That’s why paint and sip became popular,” said Allicks. The Tea Experience is a popular choice in the area for everything from bridal showers to princess themed birthday parties to fundraising events. The Tea Experience events come complete with the traditional accoutrement such as scones served on three tiered trays.

“People will remember your event,” said Allicks. And they’re easy too. “We bring everything from the tea, to wait-staff, to food, to china,” said Allicks. She admits that the catering side of her business is mainly patronized by women (of all ages), but she’s had great success when male clients have come knocking.

Allicks recently put together an event for an all-male book club who were used to drinking bourbon and smoking cigars in meetings – certainly not having tea. When a member of the club approached Allicks and asked if she could put together a more macho event than she might be used to, she said, “Easy peasy.” She made gift baskets with miniature cigar cutters and miniature bottles of bourbon, pens in the shape of golf clubs for the golfers in the group, and Earl Grey tea – “The strong, manly man tea,” said Allicks. When the club got together for their tea, the members were absolutely blown away – much like a man getting a pedicure for the first time.

Though The Tea Experience’s catering wing is in full swing now, that was not the case three years ago, when like every business in the world, Allicks had to suspend operations indefinitely. “Covid has taught us how to be resilient in a very daunting and unexpected environment,” said Allicks. “Everyone had to do the most with the least.” Allicks always had TheTeaExperienceNY.com, but the bulk of the company’s income had been coming from events up until that point.

Then what caused the problem ended up being the solution. “My friend has Covid. Can you send them some chamomile tea from me?” “Can I have the same order delivered to me or my friend every month?” And thus her popular SimpliciTEA subscription service was born.

Photos by Ana Ruggerio

Community Conscious

Community plays a significant role in the Tea Experience. Allick’s first incarnation of the business was Lola’s Tea House, a brick and mortar shop that was named after her mother. Many of Allick’s clients are carry-overs from Lola’s. One of them works for The Cerebral Palsy Foundation, where The Tea Experience is scheduled to host a “Tea 101” event with the staff, as well some of the students involved in their after-school program. “It gives me the opportunity to connect with another organization, to offer some sort of support, and to highlight the benefits of drinking tea to that particular community,” said Allicks. Allicks and The Tea Experience will also be a part of the Feeding Westchester Gala.

The Tea Experience is also a force for community in your own home. The Tea Experience offers a starter kit with the four major types of tea: black, green, white, and oolong, all made from the same tea leaf. Simply try the different types of tea and figure out what you like. “It’s the perfect first step on your journey in the world of tea,” said Allicks.

For the more advanced, you can follow along with Allicks’ recommendations for seasonal tea drinking. She tends to go with, “Dark, deep warming teas in the colder months,” like Chai and Earl Grey. Then in the spring, “As the weather lightens up, my choice of tea lightens up.” She recommends green teas (jasmine tea, and genmaicha – a green tea blended with popped corn and toasted rice).

And for the truly hot months, Allicks has one sage piece of advice: “Anything goes because you can make anything iced.” She recommends anything with fruity elements to it, but the idea is to experiment. If you like a certain tea when it’s hot, try it on ice during the summer. But as a blanket statement: For every season… just try something new.