Notes From The Nest

The last year has been an interesting one for Jason, Zoe, and I at Blue Jay Financial Group. As I know there have been with you, we too have had many ups and downs, successes and failures. We have lost loved ones, struggled through sickness, and made painful mistakes. But we’ve also celebrated victories and milestones! Through it all we remain grateful and humbled by the opportunity to serve you and our community.

Providing massive value to you has been our obsession this year. We instituted a new and more defined financial planning calendar that will help us deliver a consistent customized comprehensive financial plan. Make sure you check your emails from Blue Jay! This cadence will ensure you get every bit of benefit you can out of us, from saving money on taxes now and in the future to projecting cash flows of your beneficiaries and everything in between. In other efforts to provide massive value to you: Jason, Zoe, and I are on track to complete Certified Financial Planner coursework and exams in 2020 which will yield the only full team of qualified fee-only financial planners within 40 miles!

Sometime in 2020 we will be relocating to our new headquarters we’ve purchased at 509 4th St. in Downtown Defiance. We have undertaken quite a large rehab project, which isn’t out of the ordinary if you know Jason Bernal or myself, but we hope to have a creative workspace that our clients feel welcome in by the summertime.

We’re looking forward to the block of appointments we will have with many of our clients in February. If you need to meet sometime outside of our regular annual and semi-annual times please don’t hesitate to give us a call!

What We’re Reading 

House Resolution 1994 – Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1994)

The SECURE Act has some pretty big implications for your financial plan! We’re making sure we’re up to date on this new act and will implement the changes into our planning calendar. Some of the changes involve moving your Required Minimum Distribution age to 72, expanding 529 plans, allowing variable annuities in 401(k)s, and more.

The Expansion Continues – First Trust Senior Economist Brian Wesbury (https://www.ftportfolios.com/blogs/EconBlog/2019/12/30/the-expansion-continues)

One of Jason and I’s favorite economists gives an end of year wrap up that is focused on the positives and gives his projections for the year (take those with a grain of salt please).


Learning to Love the Psalms – W. Robert Godfrey

I’m (Jason Demland) reading this book which refers to the Psalms as a “little Bible” to glean a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Psalms rather than reading them devotionally.




Drive – Daniel Pink

Reading this book is a great insight into the science of what motivates humans!





Put First Things First – Stephen Covey

We love Stephen Covey’s books and Jason Bernal’s reading this one to learn about how to prioritize based on the principles you value most.