Star Tribune
Religious ideas can help guide your secular financial planning
I love reading religious books from all religions.
The lessons I receive from them have provided context for how I think about money and helped me explore important questions with our clients. So here are some religious ideas with a secular approach to financial planning.
We are investing for an uncertain tomorrow with a belief that by doing so, we will create choices for our future. By saving or investing, we are agreeing to sacrifice something today in order to create later-day security or options. We don’t know when we will be in a position for those to occur, but we believe that by giving up something today, our tomorrow will be better.
There are parts of our lives we have earned, and there are also parts that happened through the work of others or because we beneficially handled something that came our way. I was able to put myself through college and start a company that grew beyond my expectations partly through hard work, but also because the state subsidized my tuition at the University of Minnesota. And also because I had a wife who worked and helped provide financial security when my business partner and I were trying to build our venture. There were also mentors who invested time in me, clients who believed in what we were trying to do before we fully earned that belief, and colleagues, co-workers and writers who influenced me in ways that both changed and formed my thinking. There are certainly some things that I have had that I didn’t want, and many things that I did, but all was and is an act of grace.
Certainty is the opposite of faith …
… yet it is one of the things for which we are always clamoring. Financial planning is not about creating certainty. It is about developing strategies to handle life’s inevitable uncertainties. What would you do differently if you had five years to live or five months to live? Alternately, will what you are currently worked up about matter in five months or five years? The financial-planning question to constantly assess is, “What can I be doing so that I will have less regret? What do I want more of, less of or none of?
Regardless of our beliefs, answers might less determine our futures than questions.
Ross Levin is the founder of Accredited Investors Wealth Management in Edina. He can be reached at ross@accredited.com.
Minnesota utility regulators on Thursday unanimously approved what would be the state’s first carbon dioxide pipeline, stretching 28 rural miles from an ethanol plant near Fergus Falls to the North Dakota border.
The decision is the latest victory for Summit Carbon Solutions for its plan to capture planet-warming gases from 57 ethanol plants, transport them through a sprawling network of Midwestern pipelines and bury the carbon in North Dakota.
The “Midwest Carbon Express” has sparked contentious debate in Minnesota over whether this type of carbon capture is actually a benefit for the climate — or worth the health and safety risks of a rupture.
Summit says the project will help ethanol plants earn premium prices in California’s regulated fuel markets by slashing carbon emissions, and possibly open a Midwest market for lower-carbon aviation fuel made of ethanol.
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted 5-0 to grant Summit a route permit. In exchange, the company must start construction in North Dakota before it can build the Minnesota pipeline, among other conditions.
“It’s a new concept, we get that,” said Republican commissioner John Tuma. “We’re going to have to try some new things. Some of them will be successful, some of them are going to fail. If we’re really truly about reducing carbon and meeting our 2040 goal, we gotta look at all things.”
The PUC’s vote Thursday marks a continuing turnaround for the five-state, $8.9 billion system, which once looked to be in doubt.
Weeks after what would have been Olivia Flores’ 19th birthday, her family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the former Minnesota state trooper involved in the May crash that killed her.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, Carlos and Stephanie Flores allege that Shane Roper, 32, “consciously disregarded” the safety of others when he crashed his car into a vehicle occupied by their daughter outside Rochester’s Apache Mall on May 18. Olivia Flores died the next day from blunt-force injuries to her head and torso. Five others were seriously injured in the three-car wreck.
Video from the dashcam and body-worn camera show Roper did not have his emergency signals activated as he accelerated to 83 mph — twice the posted speed limit — just before reaching the intersection.
“Roper’s conscious disregard for the health, safety, and substantive due process rights of Ms. Flores, and others, constitutes criminal recklessness and deliberate indifference,” lawyers for the family wrote. “Such indifference shocks the conscience under the specific circumstances of this case.”
The Flores family is seeking “compensatory damages, general damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” from Roper. Attorneys for the family declined to say the specific amount they are seeking.
In addition to the civil suit, Roper faces nine criminal charges, including felony charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide, for his role in the fatal wreck. Roper has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is due back in court in February.
Roper was fired from the patrol in early September after an internal investigation found there was “no justification” for the way he was driving at the time of the crash. The report said his conduct was “reckless” and reflected “discredit on the agency.”
The fatal crash was the latest in a series of on-duty crashes involving Roper. Patrol records show Roper had been reprimanded on four occasions for reckless driving dating to 2019. Two of the incidents led to one-day suspensions, while the others resulted in written reprimands.
Alexandria’s pain was felt throughout Hopkins High School’s gymnasium.
The Clemson commit left because of a right shoulder injury after a Raiders basket pulled them within 48-43 with 12:25 remaining. He returned two minutes later with the lead down to one at 50-49. Thompson made a difference defensively as the Cardinals scored six unanswered points, but writhed in pain every time he touched the ball on offense. He exited for good with 8:53 remaining.
Three days later, Alexandria dropped an 81-76 decision to No. 5 Sauk Rapids-Rice (3-0) without the services of Thompson.
Records through Wednesday, Dec. 11. Teams are Class 4A unless noted.
1. Cretin-Derham Hall (3-0). Last week’s ranking: No. 1
2. Hopkins (3-0). Last week: No. 3
3. Orono (Class 3A, 2-0). Last week: No. 7
