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BETHALTO - Community members can learn more about retirement planning at an upcoming free seminar.
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From 5–6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, at the Bethalto Senior Citizen Center, Bill Kinkel with Genesis Financial Group will offer “Retirement Ready: A Practical Retirement Planning Workshop.” Attendees will learn more about Medicare, Social Security, taxes, market volatility and more.
“We have 74 million Baby Boomers that are getting ready to retire,” Kinkel said. “Then you have, right behind them, the Gen Xers, and they’re looking at their parents going, holy cow. They see, in many instances, their parents are struggling, and they’re worried about their own situations as they approach retirement. That’s what we’re trying to do here: recognize these fears. Will I have enough money? Do I have enough money to retire? When should I take Social Security? How do all of these interconnected decisions work? That’s what we’re trying to accomplish with this workshop.”
Kinkel will lead the seminar with support from estate planning attorney Walter Ozark and Genesis Financial Group’s Michelle Zimmer. He hopes the three of them can answer any questions that attendees may have.
There will also be a few Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) in attendance through Genesis Financial Group. Kinkel believes these employees will have valuable insights for attendees.
“It’s something that our firm is really proud to bring to the table,” he said. “Their only role is retirement planning. They’re not out trying to wear 20 different hats. They have one role, and that’s working with one of our investment advisor representatives to really develop a retirement plan first. Investments come second. Portfolios should be designed to support the retirement plan. In many instances, folks come in and their assets are first and they’re missing spots of their overall retirement plan. So really, we like to lead with a financial plan.”
All of this will be covered in the workshop on Thursday. Kinkel emphasized that the event has no pressure and no obligation, though Genesis Financial Group is happy to work with you one-on-one in the future to help you solidify your plan and goals.
But Kinkel’s main aim is to help people start the conversation and take the first steps toward preparing for retirement. He noted that the team at Genesis Financial Group is focused on finding the “gaps” in clients’ financial and retirement plans so they can fix these issues and ensure their clients are ready when the time comes.
“What we try to do there through our process is really take a look forward, much farther down the road, to identify where those gaps, where those types of issues, actually are,” he added. “Most of those fears come from not having that financial plan set up.”
The Aug. 6 workshop is free to attend, though registration is encouraged. You can call 618-258-4372 to reserve your seat. For more information about “Retirement Ready: A Practical Retirement Planning Workshop,” click here.
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