In the weeks following his participation in the 2017 KHTS Sacramento Road Trip, Total Financial Solutions President/CEO Arif Halaby is talking about the financial condition of California and how it’s affecting residents.

Halaby, a Certified Estate Planner, noted he loved having the opportunity to give his feedback to elected officials in Sacramento, and not only shared his own concerns about important issues related to finances, but the concerns of his clients as well.

“I can tell you without a doubt the thousands of people that I have met with at Total Financial Solutions have very similar concerns,” he said. “I’m looking at a single mother in my office with two children, or a hard-working dad with three or four or five children, and he says, ‘Look, all I want to do is make sure that my kids have food on the table and that I don’t lose my house — that maybe I can pay for some of their college.’”

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However, Halaby added that he was “disheartened” to find that these concerns don’t appear to be a high priority for government officials, who he said are instead focused on issues like immigration and global warming.

“I have never been so saddened by what I found in Sacramento,” Halaby said. “You have in the state of California budget after budget, deficit after deficit — and a pension system that is hundreds of billions of dollars upside down. That means there isn’t money… The government’s values and what they find important and necessary to fix and change are not the same that I have been seeing with my clients.”

For example, Halaby has clients who have been paying into the pension system or working jobs public service jobs like law enforcement for decades and plan to retire soon, but are now realizing that the pension they were promised “may or may not be there,” according to Halaby.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, I can just tell you there isn’t money,” he said, noting that he has been forced to pay fines as an employer for each of his employees in order to compensate for some of the debt incurred by the government.

“Last year it was about $150 an employee. This year it’s $175 an employee, and they didn’t balance the budget again,” Halaby said. “So what ends up happening is, you chase away businesses.”

In fact, more than 9,000 companies have made the decision to leave the state of California in the last eight years, including Nestle and Toyota, according to Halaby.

“The state of California keeps focusing in on issues like global warming … and that’s fine, right — let’s not put junk in the air. I get it,” Halaby said. “But don’t forget, you guys want a job and you want pay raises and you want whatever benefits that were promised to you 10, 20, 30 years ago. You want them to be there. Those are all reasonable expectations.”

Total Financial Solutions offers assistance with preparing for retirement and financial planning in Santa Clarita and the surrounding valleys. Santa Clarita financial advisor Arif M. Halaby, a Certified Estate Planner, and Total Financial Solutions staff work with people of all ages, helping them protect, grow and preserve their assets through an individualized approach. Arif Halaby is also the host of “Total Financial Solutions Safer Money Hour” on KHTS AM-1220. Launched in 2004, the show offers listeners from Santa Clarita financial planning tips and guidance for dealing with today’s ever-changing financial needs.  

Total Financial Solutions, Inc.

24322 Main Street

Newhall, CA 91321

661-753-9683

800-990-7344