Like many in Baltimore, our financial family planner Leonard Raskin will be cheering on the Ravens this week and offers our audience some sensible and friendly advice for making 2025 the best year ever for knowing your future and where your money and important assets are assigned. Always solid advice here for year-end planning about what’s really important.
Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discussed the Ravens’ recent game against the Giants, highlighting Lamar Jackson’s impressive play and the team’s penalties. They previewed the upcoming Ravens-Steelers match, emphasizing its significance for division standings. Leonard shared his experience watching the game in New York, detailing his visit to Bryant Park and the Empire State Building. They also delved into the importance of family financial planning, advocating for family meetings to discuss values and financial strategies. Leonard emphasized the need for clear communication and planning to avoid family conflicts and ensure financial stability across generations.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens win, holiday season, crab cakes, football game, family meetings, financial planning, money discussions, Steelers game, Lamar Jackson, penalties, winning mentality, family values, inheritance planning, holiday traditions, family gatherings
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Oh, welcome home. We are W, N, S T, A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive the Ravens won. The holidays are here. We’re all feeling good. I’m eating crab cakes. I’m eating meatballs. I’m eating those special amicis, meatballs with the garlic cheesy toast. Oh, my God, it’s going to be delicious, uh, the Maryland crab cake horse back out on the road. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Conjunction with Jiffy Lube, multi care. We’re to meet you on Tuesday, on Wednesday. We are at cost this in we might even have a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer stop and buy gene is trying to get over with us. I will have other Hall of Famers with us, including Calvin stadium of holly bird and Pikesville Middle School of fame joining us on Wednesday as well. So happy holidays to everybody celebrating. We had a hell of a football game going on this week. Last week we talked about money, put money away end of the year, being nice to your family, figuring having tough talks, all of this stuff with Leonard Raskin from Raskin global this week, dude, I’m just going to cut right straight there. I’m not going to do the Rubinstein thing with you this week. I did that last week with Bill. Week with Bill COVID. You are the Orioles going to bring us any toys underneath of the Christmas tree? Mr. Rubenstein. Hey, you know this Raven Steelers game and this whole it’s not a triangle, it’s a quad with Houston and Kansas City playing these games on Saturday and then playing again on Christmas on Wednesday. Well, we’re gonna have some football this week. In addition, probably got some ham and a Grinch, amongst others.
Leonard Raskin 01:25
It’s, it’s gonna be wild. Great game against the Giants I’m watching. And I gotta tell you, I didn’t have sound ability where I was, I was in New York, did not go to the game, but was in the city of Manhattan for the weekend, so I had the opportunity to watch the game, but not hear the game.
Nestor Aparicio 01:49
You go to Manhattan and you don’t ask me for where to go, for the good stuff. I can’t it’s a very hard time believing that letter. Some place I
Leonard Raskin 01:57
would well, we went.
Nestor Aparicio 02:01
I can’t help you, man, right?
Leonard Raskin 02:03
Met some family up there. Did the Christmas markets? Had a great time. I’d never been, oh, you said
Nestor Aparicio 02:11
you went to Bryant Park, yeah, Brian Park, the ice rink, the Hulk. Yes, yes, never been hell, right? It was in the 20s in New York. No,
Leonard Raskin 02:18
it was, it was in the 20s, Saturday, Sunday. Was in the high 30s. It was good. Never been up the Empire State Building. Did that? Did you did little touristy kind of stuff?
Nestor Aparicio 02:31
I’ve only done that one time, and it was like sleep was in Seattle. I had a Norwegian girlfriend last There you go, last century. She wanted to do it. And I have pictures of she and I at the top. So I’ve only done it because every time I go to Line, how long does it take to get up there?
Leonard Raskin 02:47
We did the Express. I gotta tell you. We did the Express. The lines were nothing. We bought the tickets ahead. We we’d had no lines. We did all we wanted to do. We ended in the gift shop. They saw us coming. New York. Did Bryant Park, did Dude, we did. We did Macy’s, Oh, we did Macy’s, oh, it was we did the windows. We did the windows. We we looked at the the windows. We did the the the food court, the which, the the holly village, right outside of Macy’s. We did all the stuff, the hot chocolate, the apple cider, the you name it. We had it. It was a great weekend. I love it. Hudson Square. It was great. But you didn’t go to the game, huh? No, we did not go to the game, alright. So, so we’re in Bryant Park, and as people were waiting in line for food and doing what they were doing, I had the game on the on the cell phone, on the, you know, the small screen,
Nestor Aparicio 03:43
perfect, dude. That thing’s unbelievable, because there’s tie steak on a stick right there, right there. You get gumbo over anything you want.
Leonard Raskin 03:49
It was beautiful, absolutely. Apple cider, so hot. It scorched my tongue. I had to open it wait for it to cool. I
Nestor Aparicio 03:56
just don’t like New York when it’s cold, man, I can’t do cold. It was, I just, it was cold jacket. Inside Macy’s now you’re sweating like, yeah, take it off, right? New York. So we did it is 6055, and above, light jacket perfect for me, yes.
Leonard Raskin 04:12
So, so we did that, but I watched the game, and the one, the one play I’d love, I gotta, I gotta see again and and watch was Lamar running the ball, stopping, almost stopping, and then starting, and Jukin guys and went for like 20 some 30 yards. That was the silliest play I think I saw. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 04:35
I mean, I was laughing at them, right? Because they all went right, and he went left. They got tackled on the play. He did, but
Leonard Raskin 04:43
it was, but it was like, when you ridiculous. It was
Nestor Aparicio 04:47
ridiculous. 22 of that. And literally, it was like, birds going to a decoy. It was, it was,
Leonard Raskin 04:54
it was so bizarre watching, and I just laughed. I was missed some giant fans. Most
Nestor Aparicio 04:59
of this. Second Team. Luke went through this. Luke said that the the depth chart that he got earlier, fourth quarterback, now, well, the depth chart of their defense. Six of the 11 number ones did not weren’t on the field, right? So, like, you know the guys they were trying to get on the field, guys that aren’t out right here, he lit them up. And so they were just a confused lot in a general sense, um, look,
Leonard Raskin 05:26
and I was happy to see him not play the fourth quarter. It was unnecessary. They
Nestor Aparicio 05:31
got rest for him. They got Tucker kicking the ball straight. Yeah. They got the after
Leonard Raskin 05:36
a bye week, right? They got and they got right, that’s right. And now lost, right, right. And now I got, I got some texts so, so the Steelers are losing I’m driving home from New York on Sunday night, and I get texts from my Eagles friends, my Eagles friends saying, You’re welcome, you’re welcome. You’re welcome. So now it gets real. Now it gets real.
Nestor Aparicio 06:07
Yeah, it is real this week, and first place is on the line, so you’re going through the game. I mean, this is, yes, this is the divisions on the line. This feels like a playoff game. It’s Saturday afternoon child’s play. It’s
Leonard Raskin 06:21
going to be wild. It’s going to be a wild a wild Saturday afternoon,
Nestor Aparicio 06:24
and it’s, you know, this is as good as it gets for the schedule. And I talked to Luke about this, they scheduled these four teams and Pittsburgh, there was the reason to believe it wouldn’t be Cincinnati. That would be the really good, right, right? Not Pittsburgh, right? So they, they scheduled this and, you know, for Pittsburgh, having to play Philadelphia, then the rest, then they have Kansas City on Christmas Day Amen.
Leonard Raskin 06:45
Places. That’s why this game is so big. First place, first place, you gotta win. And then Houston on Christmas, it’s it’s a must. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 06:58
penalties continue, terrible, this terrible. Yes,
Leonard Raskin 07:04
terrible. I mean, my goodness, as I said, I’m watching, don’t have sound, but I’m watching a ball thrown by who the hell knows, who the quarterback is to a receiver, Tim Boyle, I know, to a receiver that’s terrible and and Wiggins knocks him down before the ball comes. Like, why? What are you doing? More pass interference, roughing the quarterback, personal fouls.
Nestor Aparicio 07:29
The One Drive was 41 yards in penalties. And Matt, right? I said this to Luke too. They hit quarterbacks in the head and get away with it a lot. Like, you see, there are penalties at burrow. They hit him twice in the head. Yeah, on the goal line a couple. You’re not a burrow guy. Well, that’s one thing about the tournament. Like the Bengals are out of the way. So yes, good quarterback, yes, you get.
Leonard Raskin 07:54
The better, the better the
Nestor Aparicio 07:57
pathway for them as a potential three seed if they were to win out, and went out to to say they’re just going to win outs crazy and then game, then they’re going to go to Buffalo cats anyway. The pathway to winning this tournament, the winning the Super Bowl, very hard. Yeah, and, and I just think this is a really uphill thing for them, absolutely. And they have really struggled in a lot of ways defensively,
Leonard Raskin 08:21
10 penalties, 12 penalties. I mean, my goodness, and I don’t want another dreadful you
Nestor Aparicio 08:27
know, they’re pissing away Lamar and his prime. But I mean, the dude has 38 touchdowns, and there’s 34 touchdowns and three interceptions his
Leonard Raskin 08:34
best season, his best seat. He’s throwing to everybody, and he’s not
Nestor Aparicio 08:39
even going to win the MVP, because Josh Allen’s doing other things up there, right?
Leonard Raskin 08:43
But he, I mean, he’s throwing the ball to everybody. I don’t know how many receivers caught passes yesterday, but I think three different ones caught five touchdowns or four different
Nestor Aparicio 08:51
Walker was on the team. Did not, yeah, I didn’t think he did. Did not. Well, I said to Luke, when he caught I thought it was Deontay Johnson, but I knew they benched him. I’m like, right? That’s not AG, who, who? Who is that? Who is that guy? What’s that number? All right, right. One thing I’ll say, um, for them in the Giants game, and GOTTA GET RIGHT somewhere. Well, look right, Luke, and I didn’t like the labor the game so much as we have the circumstances of where they are at Pittsburgh, the future? Chris, yes, Houston, all that stuff around the corner, as well as whether mahomes is going to be healthy, whether TJ Watts going to be healthy this Saturday, after, you know, he was hobbled this week. But in the Giants game, I love the aggression, and not so much, the penalties where madam, a little bit Kyle Hamilton, Isaiah likely fighting for yards. The fact that Andrews was involved affected, if Derek Henry still has touches and things are going on there, yeah, the fact that Lamar made a great pass. I mean, unbelievable pass to Bateman. This sort of like Hall of Fame, kind of back of the Yeah, yeah. I mean, Lamar is amazing. This thing can be amazing. The off. Is but defense, middle of the defense, the safety situation, the pass rush, not so much. Well, what the heck did the Eagles do? Stop in the penalties, right?
Leonard Raskin 10:09
What the heck did the Eagles do that? Blew the Steelers off the field. Watch that tape, see what it was. Figure it out. I mean, the Steelers stopped. Stopped. Saquon, pretty cold. He only had like 60 yards rushing, yeah, but
Nestor Aparicio 10:22
they couldn’t stop the quarterback. So, right, right.
Leonard Raskin 10:25
They, they, they, I mean, they beat him up. So, so Lamar has gotta beat him up somehow. He’s gotta get over. He got over the almost got over the Kansas City kryptonite. He’s gotta get over the Steeler kryptonite. They got his number. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 10:42
six and a half point favorites to begin the week. Leonard Raskin is here. He is Raskin global. He follows the American dream as we get into the dream scenario, especially for television Saturday and then for Christmas Day, in putting these games together, and I think the part of them playing on the road and seeing where buffalo is and what buffalo represents in January and what Kansas City would be. It’s funny, Lou starts down talking Kansas City, and I’m like, they’re gonna have a bye. You’re gonna have to go there and win. So what did they blow teams out every week? They’re like every other team, trying to figure it out. Find a way to win, trying to figure it out. Yeah, they find a way to win, trying to figure it out. They’ve
Leonard Raskin 11:26
won. What? Six, seven games, last play, last series, last score, buy one score, whatever it is they that’s not lock. They know how to win. They know how to win. They have that, that spirit. You know, we talked a couple weeks ago, I guess, about Tucker, and that the misses are not in his leg. We think they’re in his head, I think. But who knows? I’m not there with him.
Nestor Aparicio 11:56
Penalties are in their head. Right line of switch, dead ball, foul, right? On the other hand, they have winning on the road, where there’s going to be noise, you know what I mean, right? But
Leonard Raskin 12:06
I’m saying the Chiefs have winning in their head. They they all just believe they can win, and that belief is strong and carries you a long way. Look, I tell people all the time when it comes to money, there are people that I work with that don’t make a lot of money, that have a lot of money, and I work with people that make a lot of money, that don’t have any money. And it is a mentality. It’s not income related, it’s how you think about what you’re doing with it, and recognizing what your true purpose is that is greater than just having an income. It’s about what you value and how you spend and how you save, and then how we invest it, protect it. And the Chiefs man, they they have a winning mentality. They are. They are in the game every game to win and and they don’t stop until that 00, is on the clock. And they’ve obviously been very successful winning for a number of years now. And I think that starts two places. It starts with the coach. It starts with the quarterback, mahomes, I think, gets their defense fired up, and he gets on him. I don’t, I don’t see Lamar getting on the defense at all. Now, I’m not saying it’s his job to do that, but he’s clearly the leader of the team, and he’s gotta,
Nestor Aparicio 13:39
well, the defense has a leader. That’s roquan Smith, right? He’s be the leader. He is the leader. I mean, Marlon Humphrey, he’s a pretend leader. I don’t
Leonard Raskin 13:48
know. He had some pretty strong comments after their last loss. He
Nestor Aparicio 13:51
always has comments. That’s the problem. I don’t see. He’s not a leader. He doesn’t speak like a leader. Walk Like a Leader. Roquan Smith’s a leader, and the Ray Lewis kind of leader. The interesting thing, from a tactical standpoint, is Trenton Simpson’s been benched. They’re trying to figure out who the other linebackers are. They’ve been trying to figure out the safety situation since they moved Kyle Hamilton off the line of scrimmage, right back off the line. Marcus Williams is the second highest paid player on the team, or actually on the defense, behind Marlon Humphrey, but the third eyes play player on the team, and where’s he and he is a healthy scratch at this right? They got rid of Eddie Jackson, yeah, they had this wide receiver that’s been a problem, amount content that they dealt for bag of peanuts, and they’ve lost more games than they should have lost, which is why this now they have to win. We’re right, but they put themselves in a position here where they can write all of their wrongs with one winning by winning these three games, that’s right. One, they have to win them all right, no shorts, so Jim Schwartz is going to be a miles. Garrett me coming to direct them last week. Absolutely. The snow might be swirling for that. Who knows what the game is going to be, right? But you’re going to go to here. Interested on Christmas. Hey, Pittsburgh’s got to beat Cincinnati too last week. They don’t just roll the ball. They
Leonard Raskin 15:04
got it. They got a tough schedule. They have a tough schedule all
Nestor Aparicio 15:08
the way through, and they’ve already lost the first they’ve lost the first one, the tough first, tough one. Yes, right now they got to come in here and put their chin straps on. That’s right to your point. The Ravens don’t have a lot of pedigree beating the Steelers here. Nope. It’s time. It’s time. Big Game. Big game writer Raskin is here, money wise. You sound like you wanted to talk about money, and anything you want to give people is their family comes home this weekend, because this is sometimes the only time family gets together unless, yeah, so like when you don’t just when people get sicker when they die, right? Which
Leonard Raskin 15:42
is not the right time to do it. I would say, you know, for us, we have a lot of family meetings around this time of year, meaning the matriarch, Patriarch, you know, the big family stuff, like you said, everybody’s home. We sit down. We a lot of families. Sadly, ness have this thing called the no talk rule. We don’t talk about money, we don’t talk about politics, we don’t talk about religion, whatever it is, you know, but money is a big one. People don’t talk about money. I encourage, we encourage our clients to have family meetings so you don’t have to roll out the balance sheet and the income statement and tell them what you have and where it is and and how much you make and where it goes, but you should have the conversation around here’s what our values are as a family. Here’s what’s important. Here’s what you can expect being a member of this family. Here’s what’s expected of you being a member of this family. And I have
Nestor Aparicio 16:42
the Patriarch in any family you know would that they would have these family meetings and people around and do it over pasta, or do it over food, or do it right? No, do it in a conference room, or do it at all room, or do it over like that happens in the movies, right? Yes, what you just said, I need to know what you can expect. It sounds like a mafia what, what you can expect from this family, or like John Harbaugh, what you what about, you know, like, right? I doesn’t happen. I don’t like, never, never happened with my father and my family. Doesn’t happen. Doesn’t happen. And the problem is, years old, right? Now, if I died tomorrow, my someone have no idea where, yeah, my bones are buried. He’s never
Leonard Raskin 17:23
so the idea is, right? Well, the idea is you have to make them interested, because here’s what, here’s what happens. Too often we have uneducated, un, incapable adult children who suddenly come into any or significant wealth from the family inherited. And in one generation,
Nestor Aparicio 17:46
I do this all the time. You gotta hide. In one generation, it’s last week, it’s gone.
Leonard Raskin 17:51
Yeah, usually in a generation, sometimes faster. And so with our with our families that we work with, we encourage these family meetings. What is, what is the families purposely look work with a lot of business owners. You ask a business owner if they have a business plan, what does it tell you about a business owner that doesn’t have a business plan, you won’t have a business long, right? So the family that doesn’t have a financial plan won’t have the money for too long, then they’re going to squander it. The next generation is going to lose it. They don’t know who to talk to. I have thank God. You know, 37 years of doing this, lots of people we work with, and their statement in their information, it says to the kids do nothing until you talk to him. You know, people make mistakes on IRAs when somebody dies, the taxes can be catastrophic and they’re unrepairable. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 18:52
I was lied to by the future care people that took care of my mother at the end about where the insurance would be in the money I was literally lied to and I spent four years after that getting screwed. You know, my mother, my family, got screwed out of money in my book, in my book, in the Medicare, Medicaid, absolutely 98 years old, absolutely what’s what’s a temporary residence, what’s there for good, what’s in the hospital, what’s out of the hospital, what insurance will cover? Horrible. What the deed of your house? My mother’s house was paid for for 40 years. And they’re like, Nah, here’s the lien on the house, until you pay it
Leonard Raskin 19:32
right, right? And people don’t know what they’re responsible for, what’s covered, what’s not covered, where the money is. And so we we encourage it this time of year that you have a conversation with your family. If it’s you’re in my generation, you have to start the conversation with your parents. You have to make them sit down and have this conversation. If it’s our generation to the kids, it’s time to start having that conversation with your children. Children. They’re undoubtedly adult children. At this point, your son is 4040, yeah, my son is 22 they need to know what happens if who to call, who to rely on, who to ignore, who’s important, who’s not, people will come out of the woodwork. Cousins will show up that never existed, one of the hardest things for a widow, for instance, is two little letter word. No, I should do that backwards. No. People will come and ask you if you need help. If you don’t need help, they’re going to ask you for money. So do you need any help? Do you need anything? No, can I borrow $10,000 charity comes out of the woodwork, uh, lots of takers. In the book. We call them damn takers. The reason is they intrude on the money, transferring where it needs to get to. And so we look at all that, and we talk to people about making sure that the right people get what you want when you’re no longer here. And that’s
Nestor Aparicio 21:04
fiduciary because your book, yes, like, it’s like, I think I told you this, I was in Houston last year and I almost got killed in a crosswalk. I I was crossing the street and a woman wasn’t paying attention, and literally came as close as I ever want to come to dying, yeah, yeah. Car was coming for me and I couldn’t move. I mean, right, literally, in the crosswalk, and it was a big ass truck, gorilla, GMC, you know, from the truck, yeah. And I thought, what you know, what you know, what then would happen, right? Right? The radio station this that my kid, my wife, I think, like it because it, you know, it. Sometimes it takes that moment where you’re like, what could happen? Certainly figure it out. We had no idea that was going to happen, you know. That’s right. It dropped into our laps. That’s
Leonard Raskin 21:53
right, you know. So these are the times you know, around the holidays, whether it’s Thanksgiving, whether it’s the Christmas holidays, whatever it is game or
Nestor Aparicio 22:01
after the Raven game on Christmas Day, I’m just before,
Leonard Raskin 22:05
because you don’t want to be unhappy after, if something happens. CJ Stroud, goes sideways, you know, go goes deep, and we pass, interfere, inferior receivers, and then we then we give them first downs on the two. There’s
Nestor Aparicio 22:20
no bad time to do it. I would say the other. No, that’s exactly right. You know, speaking from this of multiple families that I’ve been involved in during my life, being passed around and married into, and like all of that, there is a point where you’re like, look, let’s get through the holiday, but like, let’s set a meeting in early January. Like, like, lose weight with our friends at Planet Fitness. Like, actually get in the gym, you know, get go in there and get, yeah, there is,
Leonard Raskin 22:46
there is nothing that says the meeting has to be over the holidays, but you got to talk about it. You got to start the conversation. And and I have met. I’ll give you an example. You know, some of the, some of the wealthiest families that we work with. I started meeting with the kids, with the family, when the kids were in their elementary school, you know, they bring them to a meeting to meet me, we start to discuss how the kids are going to invest a little bit of money, how they’re going to give a little bit to something they care about, a charity they care about. And we used to gather up Matthew’s toys and two damn many toys. We gather them up before the holiday, and he’d have to figure out, you know, where did he want to donate them? To a hospital, to Goodwill, to Salvation Army, to whatever, to understand that it’s important that people have less, and you want to give something that you have more of to people that have less, whatever that is, but it starts a conversation about what’s important as a family. And I also have families where their kids are late 20s, 30 conversations have never been had. And I tell people, the worst time for me to meet your heirs is at your funeral. It’s not a good time, so let’s meet him before then let’s talk about this. Have these meetings and square things away. And we do a lot of them. We do a lot of them, and it’s a beautiful thing, because everybody gets on the same page about what matters to the family. And that’s what matters,
Nestor Aparicio 24:24
whatever that is. Eliminate the gray area, yeah.
Leonard Raskin 24:27
And, and we also, we also draw out some of the emotion of whatever it is, because we’re handling the money, you know, we’re the ones handling it all. So, so some of that, you know, you didn’t come to my sixth grade graduation or, or, you know, whatever it may be, you voted for the wrong person, or,
Nestor Aparicio 24:51
I don’t like that time at the beach, yeah,
Leonard Raskin 24:53
whatever it is, whatever it is, we encourage the conversation and we moderate it. You know, we feel. Facilitate it. And so that’s cool. You know, we are the we are the general manager, if you will, of your financial team. We want to oversee all the pieces, and we know where all the as you said earlier, we know where the bones are buried. We know who the beneficiaries are. We know who the executors are. We know what’s going on out there. So we make sure all the players and all the coaches are doing their appropriate job around their area of expertise, and when something happens, we we know who to call. We call in the team, we call in the coaches. We make stuff happen. So it’s a good time of year to start that conversation, if you haven’t to continue that conversation, and you should do it right after a Steelers win with some eggnog and a little rum,
Nestor Aparicio 25:45
like spike eggnog, Leonard Raskin. That’s whatever is making you happy.
Leonard Raskin 25:53
Your apple cider. I’m an apple cider guy. I’m not an odd guy.
Nestor Aparicio 25:56
Listen all this to kids say Christmas and Merry Christmas and happy, hot, all of it is happy, merry, joyous.
Leonard Raskin 26:04
Yes, say whatever you want and
Nestor Aparicio 26:07
it be happy. This week is all I want people to do. And it’s very hard to be happy when the ravens are dangling as a rogue wild card at this point, let a rascal will be at the game. He manages money in the American dream. You can find out more at Raskin global com. You can also find him anytime out of the front of Baltimore positive.com and our work together. And I hope you have a good week here, and I know we’re gonna have a short turnaround next week with the Wednesday game and the holidays and all that stuff. But appreciate all that you do for us and keeping us square around here as well. And six and a half point favorite. They’re going to win Saturday, right? Yeah,
Leonard Raskin 26:43
I, I can’t see how they can’t. They lost. We when we played in Pittsburgh, let’s, let’s refresh. Six field goals. Yes, they didn’t score, they didn’t score a touchdown, and we lost a better kicker right now, at least until proven otherwise, six field goals and we lost. We can’t beat a Justin
Nestor Aparicio 27:03
Tucker just started drinking the royal farms coffee. Maybe this would actually there you go. He needs to do I am, I am Nestor. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. Happy Holidays from all of us here in this wacky place, in our 26th anniversary where Baltimore positive Luke’s got you covered from here until Pittsburgh on Saturday night as well.
