<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Financial Partners, Inc]]></title><description><![CDATA[Financial Partners, Inc. provides personalized financial planning, investment management, retirement, and wealth strategies in Ottumwa, IA.]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:32:27 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Moments with Melody – No Buts!]]></title><description><![CDATA[“Yeah, but…” “Maybe, but…” “Chicken butts…”  But guess what? I don’t really want to talk about chicken butts.   I want to share a different thought revolving around the word “but.” It’s a word we all use frequently. Many of us don’t even think about it when we use this word. How many times do you ask your children, your co-workers, your friends, to do something and the word “but” pops up?  Perhaps I notice this word more than others do based on years of writing and it always gives me pause....]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/moments-with-melody-no-buts</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a76046df605b59da3ebe968</guid><category><![CDATA[Moments with Melody]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:22:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96dec8_9480de8b6bea4bfd9ae4353dce316327~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>rmiller178</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Moments with Melody – Life is Messy!]]></title><description><![CDATA[So… Cleanliness is next to Godliness, they say, but let me be the Devil’s advocate for a moment. Please bear with me down the winding path. One of the factors leading to my “cool grandma” status, is allowing the grandchildren to get dirty, do messy stuff, and use my tools. There are days you would be horrified to see the mess left in the wake of grandkid projects, but they are so happy when they’ve successfully created something. Small and large. My oldest grandson built an island for my...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/moments-with-melody-life-is-messy</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d7e29a93b53fe8896f6ae</guid><category><![CDATA[Moments with Melody]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:48:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96dec8_9480de8b6bea4bfd9ae4353dce316327~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Moments with Melody – Complacency, Curriculum, Curiosity (and the Cat)]]></title><description><![CDATA[I may have mentioned in previous writings how much I enjoy surfing the internet and learning new things. Fun things, odd things, serious things, useful things, and dumb things. Everything. There is always something that catches my interest as I explore. That leads me to start my thoughts off today with “complacency.” I understand that there is an absolute comfort in our routines, to sticking to what we know, to avoiding change. However, the world just doesn’t work like that, or it shouldn’t....]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/moments-with-melody-complacency-curriculum-curiosity-and-the-cat</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d7ddc07012931ee175d55</guid><category><![CDATA[Moments with Melody]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:46:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96dec8_9480de8b6bea4bfd9ae4353dce316327~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Moments with Melody – Don’t Talk to Strangers]]></title><description><![CDATA[It’s something we’ve all been taught since we were small – don’t talk to strangers… However, there are strangers, and then there are strangers, and then there are strangers. Yeah, I know, but the world keeps changing so the rule needs to change with it to keep us safe. Here’s how I see it. First, there are strangers. These are just people we don’t know. We stand next to them in the cashier’s line at the grocery store, we stand next to them at the gas pump, we stand next to them at the coffee...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/moments-with-melody-don-t-talk-to-strangers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d7d2f07012931ee175bff</guid><category><![CDATA[Moments with Melody]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:44:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96dec8_9480de8b6bea4bfd9ae4353dce316327~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Moments with Melody – Let’s Talk About Tech]]></title><description><![CDATA[A few years ago, the “talk” on the internet was whether people were “tech savvy” or “tech dependent.” I think that discussion is still pertinent now, maybe even more so than in the past. Where do you think you stand? What’s the difference? Tech savvy means you understand your tools well enough to use the right one, use it efficiently, troubleshoot basic issues, and have “intentional control” over what you are doing.  Tech dependent means exactly that. You can use a program, but you don’t...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/moments-with-melody-let-s-talk-about-tech</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d7a2307012931ee17564a</guid><category><![CDATA[Moments with Melody]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 01:30:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96dec8_9480de8b6bea4bfd9ae4353dce316327~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_960,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI July 2026 - How Trump Accounts Work]]></title><description><![CDATA[Blake Smith - July 8, 2026 Hello everyone. Blake Smith at Financial Partners here, excited to bring you this month's video. I'm going to talk about what's been on a lot of folks' minds. I've been getting a lot of questions over the last several months from parents, grandparents, about Trump accounts. So, first and foremost, what is a Trump account? A Trump account is a long-term retirement savings vehicle that comes packed with many rules and restrictions. Ultimately, it's a federally created...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-july-2026-how-trump-accounts-work</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6676dd10a4941c072b7ff0</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=143wuox1I28" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI June 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Jun 2, 2026 Greetings, everyone. This is Bob Kramer giving you your June economic update. One of the subjects that we have always emphasize with our clients is that of diversification. Now, Webster's dictionary defines diversification as a strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio in an attempt to reduce overall risk. So, we're all about managing risk and we have spent many hours on this subject making sure that our clients are well diversified and in light of the...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-june-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3dd57c43356881844a3ed6</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:37:14 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/Y8hp-BRCDGw" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI May 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[May 4, 2026 Greetings everyone. This is Bob Kramer giving you your May economic update with Financial Partners. So, we're past May Day, May 1st on Friday, and the markets have acted pretty pretty good so far this year. Just wanted to let you know the S&#38;P 500 right now is sitting at about 5.6% to the positive. The Dow around 3%. MSCI, which is a Morgan Stanley International Composite, is about 2 and 1/2% and then the ones that are really rocking right now are the emerging markets sits at a 17%...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-may-2026-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3dda4343356881844a4a52</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 01:57:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/e8ZbtbRkG8o" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI April 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Apr 9, 2026 Yeah! Hello everyone. Blake Smith at Financial Partners here bringing you your April 2026 economic update. It was exactly 1 month ago that we did one of these videos and the conflict that Iran had just broken out at that point. And as we discussed in that video, we had several weeks of a lot of volatility. As I'm sitting here on Wednesday, first week of April, we're seeing a big uplift in the markets due to a potential ceasefire that was signed by all sides last night. We'll see...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-april-2026-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3de0b7faba6cee57da02e7</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 02:15:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/h1qjdKSP2Hs" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI March 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mar 5, 2026 Hello everyone. Blake Smith with Financial Partners bringing you your March 2026 financial and economic update. And I'm going to dive right in. What's on everybody's minds? We got breaking news over the weekend that the United States and Israel were launching combat operations against Iran and that ever since that news broke, there's been a lot of investors on edge in this first week of March. And rightfully so, headlines like these caused a lot of chaos in the markets. We saw an...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-march-2026-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3de166faba6cee57da047f</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 03:28:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/EVNnF4C_Opc" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI February 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Bob Kramer - February 2, 2026 Greetings everyone. This is Bob Kramer giving you your February economic update with Financial Partners. So we're starting the new year. January is come and gone and one of the things I like to share with people is a little book called the stock market almanac in every year whether come out in the electronic or or paper form. The almanac does give stock market data and it goes way back to 1950. Since 1950, if the stock market performed favorably in January, there...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-february-2026-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d8ada769cc21e56f2394a</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 03:42:03 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/qJhqYKpAKXA?si=-zcqck7XxW3UR6Mn" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI January 2026 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Blake Smith - January 13, 2026 Hello everyone. Blake Smith at Financial Partners here. Very excited to start off the new year with you and doing one of these videos. We're going to do several of these of course throughout the year. We're going to be digging in on topics as the economy evolves, as markets evolve, as tax and estate law evolves. We'll be there with you every step of the way uh to provide updates. But I did want to zoom out a little bit to start the year and just kind of talk...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/financial-partners-inc-january-2026-economic-update</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d8b9307012931ee1779c9</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 03:52:16 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/XWCdfSHmKzM?si=izGi_usM2kM75MJw" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[FPI December 2025 Economic Update]]></title><description><![CDATA[Blake Smith - December 8, 2025 Hello everyone, Blake Smith at Financial Partners here. Very excited to wrap up the year with this video as we close out 2025 and get closer to the Christmas and holiday season. First and foremost, I just want to thank all of you. You know, we appreciate all of our clients and their families and the lives that we get to touch in a positive way. Without all of you, we we could not do what we do. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for another great year...]]></description><link>https://www.financialpartnersinc.net/post/fpi-economic-update-december-2025</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5d922ad7ba55359546d9c9</guid><category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2025 04:13:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://youtu.be/gPE-DqfdslU?si=UWuE12vdmROVkzUM" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Lindsey Newland</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>