Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb

Summer is here — prime time for road trips, lake weekends and last-minute getaways. But whether you’re heading up north or planning for retirement down the road, one truth holds: you won’t get far without fuel.

In your financial life, cash flow is your fuel. It’s what powers your plans, keeps you moving, and helps you recover from unexpected bumps along the way. Whether you’re navigating today’s expenses or charting a course for long-term goals, smart cash flow planning can make all the difference.

Here are five financial navigation tools every traveler and investor needs.

1. Set your destination: What are you planning for?

Before you leave the driveway, you need a destination. The same goes for your money.

Do you dream of retiring early? Buying a second home? Helping your kids pay for college? Or just tackling debt before it snowballs?

Whatever your journey, you need clear goals to help steer your financial vehicle in the right direction. Remember — if you have no destination, any road will take you there.

2. Pack an emergency kit: Why you need a financial ‘spare tire’

Every smart traveler brings a first-aid kit and a spare tire. In your finances, that’s your emergency fund.

We typically recommend setting aside at least six months of living expenses in liquid savings. This isn’t for a new patio set or vacation — it’s for true emergencies: a medical bill, a job loss or an unexpected house or car repair.

Without that buffer, you may end up dipping into retirement funds or taking on high-interest debt.

3. Scan your dashboard: Use personal financial statements

When you’re behind the wheel, your car’s dashboard gives you critical, real-time feedback: your speed, fuel level and engine health. The financial equivalent? Your personal financial statements. They give you a snapshot of where you stand, how far you’ve come, and whether you’re on pace to reach your destination.

Let’s start with your cash flow statement. This is where you compare inflows and outflows. For many people, the results can eye-opening. Your cash flow statement will highlight whether your monthly spending habits are sustainable, or whether they’re draining your tank faster than you realize. It might reveal that your subscription services, dining out or other discretionary spending are quietly eroding your savings potential. Knowing the reality puts you back in control.

Then there’s your net worth statement — essentially your financial odometer. It adds up everything you own (like your home, investment accounts and savings) and subtracts everything you owe (like credit cards, mortgages and student loans). The result is your net worth, an important bellwether for your financial health and trajectory. Over time, you want to see that number move steadily upward, whether by reducing your debt, growing your assets or both.

Together, these tools let you monitor your progress with clarity. They show you where you are, what’s working, and what parts of your plan may need to be adjusted.

4. Keep track of your route: Where’s your money really going?

Ever missed a turn because you weren’t paying attention? The same thing happens with your budget.

Many people have no idea how much they’re actually spending. Try tracking every expense for a month. Use a budgeting app or even just a notebook. You might be shocked at how much is slipping through the cracks via takeout, impulse buys or auto-renewing subscriptions.

5. Travel in sync: Communicate with your financial co-pilot

If you’re sharing the journey with a spouse, partner or adult child, make sure you’re on the same page. Do you see extra cash as fun money? Or as fuel for the next leg of the trip?

Ongoing conversations can help you avoid money fights, wrong turns, or last-minute stress. When you and your co-pilot are aligned, you’re more likely to reach your destination.

Let the journey begin

Whether you’re headed out for a weekend getaway or planning for the next 30 years, the lesson is the same: it takes intention and fuel to move forward.

Managing your cash flow isn’t about restrictions. It’s about freedom — freedom to go where you want, when you want, with confidence. Because the best journeys start with a full tank — and a good plan.

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb are financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on WCCO 830 AM on Sunday mornings. Email Bruce and Peg at yourmoney@wealthenhancement.com. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC, a registered investment adviser and affiliate of Wealth Enhancement Group.

 

By DASHA LITVINOVA and EMMA BURROWS

In Alaska, President Vladimir Putin walked on a red carpet, shook hands and exchanged smiles with his American counterpart. Donald Trump ended summit praising their relationship and calling Russia “a big power … No. 2 in the world,” albeit admitting they didn’t reach a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.

By Saturday morning Moscow time, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea of a ceasefire as a step toward peace -– something he and Ukraine had pushed for months -– in favor of pursuing a full-fledged “Peace Agreement” to end the war, echoing a long-held Kremlin position. The “severe consequences” he threatened against Moscow for continuing hostilities were nowhere in sight. On Ukraine’s battlefields, Russian troops slowly grinded on, with time on their side.

The hastily arranged Alaska summit “produced nothing for Mr. Trump and gave Mr. Putin most of what he was looking for,” said Laurie Bristow, a former British ambassador to Russia.

The summit spectacle

Putin’s visit to Alaska was his first to the United States in 10 years and his first to a Western country since invading Ukraine in 2022 and plunging U.S.-Russia relations to the lowest point since the Cold War. Crippling sanctions followed, along with efforts to shun Russia on the global stage.

In another major blow, the International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant against Putin on accusations of war crimes, casting a shadow on his foreign trips and contacts with other world leaders.

Trump’s return to the White House appeared to upend all that. He warmly greeted Putin, even clapping for him, on a red carpet as U.S. warplanes flew overhead as the world watched.

The overflight was both “a show of power” and a gesture of welcome from the U.S. president to the Kremlin leader, “shown off to a friend,” said retired Col. Peer de Jong, a former aide to two French presidents and author of ”Putin, Lord of War.”

Russian officials and media reveled in the images of the “pomp-filled reception” and “utmost respect” that Putin received in Alaska.

Putin has “broken out of international isolation,” returning to the world stage as one of two global leaders and “wasn’t in the least challenged” by Trump, who ignored the arrest warrant for Putin from the ICC, Bristow told The Associated Press.

For Putin, ‘mission accomplished’

Putin “came to the Alaska summit with the principal goal of stalling any pressure on Russia to end the war,” said Neil Melvin, director of international security at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. “He will consider the summit outcome as mission accomplished.”

In recent months, Trump has pressed for a ceasefire, something Ukraine and its allies supported and insisted was a prerequisite for any peace talks. The Kremlin has pushed back, however, arguing it’s not interested in a temporary truce -– only in a long-term peace agreement.

Moscow’s official demands for peace so far have remained nonstarter for Kyiv: It wants Ukraine to cede four regions that Russia only partially occupies, along with the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine also must renounce its bid to join NATO and shrink its military, the Kremlin says.

After Alaska, Trump appeared to echo the Kremlin’s position on a ceasefire, posting on social media that after he spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, “it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

In a statement after the Trump call, the European leaders did not address whether a peace deal was preferable to a ceasefire.

The pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda described it as a “huge diplomatic victory” for Putin, whose forces will have time to make more territorial gains.

The summit took place a week after a deadline Trump gave the Kremlin to stop the war or face additional sanctions on its exports of oil in the form of secondary tariffs on countries buying it.

Trump already imposed those tariffs on India, and if applied to others, Russian revenues “would probably be impacted very badly and very quickly,” said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. consultancy.

In the days before Alaska, Trump also threatened unspecified “very severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to stop the war. But whether those consequences will materialize remains unclear. Asked about it in a post-summit interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said he doesn’t need “to think about that right now,” and suggested he might revisit the idea in “two weeks or three weeks or something.”

Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and a former adviser at the Russian Central Bank, posted on X that it was “an important tactical victory for Putin” that gives Moscow “an opportunity to build alternatives and be prepared.”

More pressure on Ukraine

In a statement after the summit, Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” But Trump said “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

In his Fox interview, Trump insisted the onus going forward might be on Zelenskyy “to get it done,” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.

Zelenskyy will meet Trump at the White House on Monday. Both raised the possibility of a trilateral summit with Putin, but Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said it wasn’t discussed in Alaska. The Kremlin has long maintained that Putin would only meet Zelenskyy in the final stages of peace talks.

“Trump now appears to be shifting responsibility towards Kyiv and Europe, while still keeping a role for himself,” Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center wrote on X.

Fiona Hill, a senior adviser on Russia in his first administration, told AP that Trump has met his match because “Putin is a much bigger bully.”

Trump wants to be the negotiator of “a big real estate deal between Russia and Ukraine,” she said, but in his mind he can “apply real pressure” only to one said — Kyiv.

Hill said she expects Trump to tell Zelenskyy that “you’re really going to have to make a deal” with Putin because Trump wants the conflict off his plate and is not prepared to put pressure on the Russian president.

Far from the summit venue and its backdrop saying “Pursuing Peace,” Russia continued to bombard Ukraine and make incremental advances on the over 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) front.

Russia fired a ballistic missile and 85 drones overnight. Ukraine shot down or intercepted 61 drones, its air force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had taken control of the village of Kolodyazi in the Donetsk region, along with Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine did not comment on the claims. Russian forces are closing in on the strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 but still only partially controls.

“Unless Mr. Putin is absolutely convinced that he cannot win militarily, the fighting is not going to stop,” said Bristow, the former ambassador. “That’s the big takeaway from the Anchorage summit.”

——

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elise Morton and Pan Pylas in London contributed.

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One person is dead after a shooting in the 300 block of Edmund Avenue in St. Paul, police said.

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Amy Lindgren

We’re hearing that the job market has tightened, and I’m seeing the signs myself. Between layoffs in nonprofits and government, and downsizing for corporations affected by tariffs or other factors, hiring is slowing noticeably.

Job seekers who want to prevail will need to do more than respond to postings. One option might be hiding in the document you’ve been emailing with all your applications: Your résumé.

“Shopping your résumé” is what I call the process of looking for new work opportunities by reviewing each position you’ve held. While anyone with a work history is a candidate for success here, this is one of those times when older workers have an advantage. They’ve simply worked more places and with more people than younger job seekers.

To get started, gather up your current and previous résumés. (By the way, this exercise is reason enough to save all your old résumés. Even though the oldest jobs may have fallen off the page, so to speak, they still represent your personal and professional history.)

With your work history in hand, the next step is fairly simple: Look at all the employers and rank them — which would you work for again? That would include your high school jobs, by the way. I once had a client who snagged a manager role in a grocery store after completing his driving career. He had enjoyed working in groceries as a teenager and found it even more satisfying in his 60s.

But what if you don’t find an employer in your background that you would work for again? Or what if they don’t really exist anymore?

No worries, the shopping can continue. By my count, there are four categories that can be exploited for potential leads or employment when you sift through your work history: The employer; clients you served for the employer; vendors, partners or consultants you worked with on behalf of the employer; and co-workers / past managers from your time with the employer.

As an example, I introduced this concept to participants in a daylong workshop a few years ago. One fellow took me seriously and when we broke for lunch, he began calling past co-workers. In just an hour, he was able to nail down a meeting with a co-worker’s new boss, at a different company, based on her referral. That was a big grin he was wearing for the afternoon session.

You might have a more intuitive or efficient method, but here’s how I might organize things: On a word processing page or piece of paper, I would list each employer, with subheadings for co-workers, managers, clients, vendors, etc. Then I would populate the sub-sections as best I could.

All kinds of things are going to happen as you do this. First, your memory will play some tricks — was Sally the CPA at XYZ company or was she at Acme? Who was that consultant you were assigned to help back at Acme?

Next, you’ll realize that you don’t know how to reach most folks, or that some have retired or even passed away. This is normal, so keep going — there will be gaps no matter how hard you squint and try to fill them.

Now you have decisions to make. If there’s an employer in your past that you would work for again, do you still know anyone there? If so, you don’t need a complicated plan — just reach out and ask if they’d have time for a cup of coffee or phone call.

If you can’t find a past contact, you can try to make a new one. The gold standard would be the current manager of the department where you’d like to work. If you can find that name and contact information, your outreach could be a short email where you introduce yourself as a former employee who has added skills and industry knowledge, while retaining an understanding of how that company works. Ask for a meeting and attach your résumé, then move on to the next one.

In addition to contacting the employers themselves, don’t forget about the other people on your list. For example, if you regularly attended meetings with people from other companies, they could be good contacts. In all cases, your goal is to have a conversation, ask if they or their departments need help, and ask who else you should contact.

Does shopping your résumé work? In my experience, sometimes it does. Since you can’t know until you try, you’ll have to jump in to find that answer yourself.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.