Creating a comprehensive financial plan for clients is just part of what differentiates us. Investable assets are not just numbers on a page. They represent hopes and dreams. The best financial advice is that which is tailored for the individual, advice that creates a better life for you and those you love. So when we meet with you we take into account all of these issues all the while looking at the big picture and the tax consequences of your decisions. This is what custom comprehensive planning is all about. And we will be here when you need us. There will be no automated response to any of your questions or calls. We are here to serve you. Call or stop by our office to set up an appointment or to learn more about how we can help.
Team Intro
Creating a comprehensive financial plan for clients is just part of what differentiates us. Investable assets are not just numbers on a page. They represent hopes and dreams. The best financial advice is that which is tailored for the individual, advice that creates a better life for you and those you love. So when we meet with you we take into account all of these issues all the while looking at the big picture and the tax consequences of your decisions. This is what custom comprehensive planning is all about. And we will be here when you need us. There will be no automated response to any of your questions or calls. We are here to serve you. Call or stop by our office to set up an appointment or to learn more about how we can help.
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When you join Thrivent, you become part of something bigger. You share in the collective ownership of our company and you’re part of a community of people looking out for others. In addition to Thrivent’s financial expertise and solutions, membership provides eligible clients with tools and resources to make it easy to give of yourself and live a more meaningful life.
Events
2026-11-02T14:00:00
Thanksgiving Basket Donation Drive for Alicia's House Food Pantry
Help us fill over 600 Thanksgiving baskets to benefit local families in need. Maar Financial Group will be hosting a donation drive for Alicia's House Food Pantry. Details on donations needed to be announced at a later date.
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We are proud to be part of Thrivent, a company with a long heritage of financial strength and fiscal stability. For more than 120 years, Thrivent has helped people build their financial futures and live more generous lives. Today, Thrivent is a Fortune 500 company, offering a full range of expert financial solutions, serving more than 2.4 million clients, as well as the communities in which they live and work.
News and insights
MFG Winter 2026 Commentary
February is often referred to as “the dead of winter,” and I can understand how it may seem that way. On bitter cold mornings when I take the dogs out, everything can seem deathly quiet. There is no sound: no birds singing, no leaves rustling — just the sound the dogs and I make in the frozen stillness as my boots crunch a path through the snow. Yet, in reality, our snow-covered landscape is far from “dead.” It only appears that way to us humans who are limited by our sense of sight and sound. If we had the hearing of the Grey Owl we would hear the heartbeat of animals even if they were under a foot of snow. If we had the eyesight of the American Eagle we could detect a bird on a branch from over a mile away. After a snowfall, we may see the tracks of rabbits, squirrels, deer, and all sorts of animals. Ones we never heard or saw. Even on these bitter cold mornings there is much life going on all around us. Trees and plants are already preparing for the spring that will soon arrive.
Nonetheless, a sense of peace exists in the quiet stillness. Then the dogs and I go inside where I check the morning news and suddenly, I’m bombarded by many, sometimes alarming, headlines. The mornings’ peace dissipates quickly, replaced with the effort it takes to sift through the events from the previous day. Being constantly connected via the internet and the 24-hour news cycle can leave us feeling overwhelmed and anxious. I have first-hand experience with this, because as the day goes on, clients will be asking how these news stories will affect the markets. I will often have to answer in absolute honesty, “I have no idea.” The truth is once again our human nature can mislead us. Humans look for patterns and find comfort in believing they can detect cause and effect. That is usually just as much an illusion as standing in a still winter landscape in the dead of winter.
The headlines are representative of just a tiny fraction of “events” that have happened in a narrow band of time. Over a 24-hour period how many events take place that have the potential to cause people to buy or sell in what we call the market? Dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of events? Whatever the number actually is (and no one knows) very few of these events will actually make the news.
It is all too easy to be alarmed by news stories that cause uncertainty and it’s only natural to worry that these events may affect our financial security. But the impact of any event will be altered by countless other events happening at the same time. This is what is known as “market dynamics,” which is a technical term for “the unknown.” And there are different types of unknowns. When he was Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld was criticized for saying there were “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.” This may have sounded strange, but he was making a valid point, one that very much influences market dynamics.
There are things that we know will happen at some point; we just don’t know when. Those are the “known unknowns.” At some point the Fed will adjust the prime lending rate, either up or down. At some point a major company will announce record profits or losses. We know these things will happen, but it is foolish to try and peer into the future and attempt to predict. The “unknown unknowns” are when events we couldn’t possibly foresee take place. These could be natural disasters or something caused by human behavior such as the attacks on September 11, 2001. Events, predicted or not, can have the power to move markets. But acknowledging that to be true is a far cry from claiming one can discern cause and effect. And what of unintended consequences?
One striking example is what happened when the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 reduced the thriving city of Chicago to a smoldering ash heap. Experts predicted this would be the end of Chicago as a major American city. Instead, it became a tremendous opportunity for the city to be made new, and within a decade Chicago was rivaling New York as the most important American city. Any event can have effects that even the most informed experts cannot imagine.
Even though the cause and effect of market dynamics can be murky, at Maar Financial Group we take all of this into account as we fashion your financial plan. This is why it is important for you to work with professionals. While there is no crystal ball that tells us what the effects of an event will be, we know that over the course of time there will be changes, even sudden changes, in markets. We don’t pretend we can predict specific events, but we can predict that markets evolve and that is built into the planning we do. Of course, we monitor the ever-changing financial landscape, but we don’t react to every shifting trend. A trend is defined as a “preference that many people follow, a shift to something new.”
We don’t chase or follow trends. Trends can be as illusory as “the dead of winter.” Our thinking is long-term, because over the long-term events achieve a clarity lacking in the short-term. A term for this is “purposeful investing.” This approach frees you from worrying about every headline and allows you to focus on things like meaningful friendships, helping others, and enjoying family. These are the sorts of things that don’t make headlines. But in life they are the things that actually matter. It can be easy to lose sight of that when caught up in the endless news cycle. We can help make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Thrivent is a diversified financial services organization that helps people achieve financial clarity, enabling lives full of meaning and gratitude. Thrivent and its subsidiary and affiliate companies serve more than 2.3 million clients, offering advice, insurance, investments, banking and generosity products and programs over the phone, online as well as through financial professionals and independent agents nationwide.
Thrivent is the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Insurance products issued by Thrivent. Not available in all states. Securities and investment advisory services offered through Thrivent Investment Management Inc., a registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC, and a subsidiary of Thrivent. Licensed agent/producer of Thrivent. Registered representative of Thrivent Investment Management, Inc. Advisory services available through investment adviser representatives only. Thrivent.com/disclosures.
The concepts presented are intended for educational purposes only. This information should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy, or product.
MFG Winter 2026 Commentary
February is often referred to as “the dead of winter,” and I can understand how it may seem that way. On bitter cold mornings when I take the dogs out, everything can seem deathly quiet. There is no sound: no birds singing, no leaves rustling — just the sound the dogs and I make in the frozen stillness as my boots crunch a path through the snow. Yet, in reality, our snow-covered landscape is far from “dead.” It only appears that way to us humans who are limited by our sense of sight and sound. If we had the hearing of the Grey Owl we would hear the heartbeat of animals even if they were under a foot of snow. If we had the eyesight of the American Eagle we could detect a bird on a branch from over a mile away. After a snowfall, we may see the tracks of rabbits, squirrels, deer, and all sorts of animals. Ones we never heard or saw. Even on these bitter cold mornings there is much life going on all around us. Trees and plants are already preparing for the spring that will soon arrive.
Nonetheless, a sense of peace exists in the quiet stillness. Then the dogs and I go inside where I check the morning news and suddenly, I’m bombarded by many, sometimes alarming, headlines. The mornings’ peace dissipates quickly, replaced with the effort it takes to sift through the events from the previous day. Being constantly connected via the internet and the 24-hour news cycle can leave us feeling overwhelmed and anxious. I have first-hand experience with this, because as the day goes on, clients will be asking how these news stories will affect the markets. I will often have to answer in absolute honesty, “I have no idea.” The truth is once again our human nature can mislead us. Humans look for patterns and find comfort in believing they can detect cause and effect. That is usually just as much an illusion as standing in a still winter landscape in the dead of winter.
The headlines are representative of just a tiny fraction of “events” that have happened in a narrow band of time. Over a 24-hour period how many events take place that have the potential to cause people to buy or sell in what we call the market? Dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of events? Whatever the number actually is (and no one knows) very few of these events will actually make the news.
It is all too easy to be alarmed by news stories that cause uncertainty and it’s only natural to worry that these events may affect our financial security. But the impact of any event will be altered by countless other events happening at the same time. This is what is known as “market dynamics,” which is a technical term for “the unknown.” And there are different types of unknowns. When he was Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld was criticized for saying there were “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.” This may have sounded strange, but he was making a valid point, one that very much influences market dynamics.
There are things that we know will happen at some point; we just don’t know when. Those are the “known unknowns.” At some point the Fed will adjust the prime lending rate, either up or down. At some point a major company will announce record profits or losses. We know these things will happen, but it is foolish to try and peer into the future and attempt to predict.
The “unknown unknowns” are when events we couldn’t possibly foresee take place. These could be natural disasters or something caused by human behavior such as the attacks on September 11, 2001. Events, predicted or not, can have the power to move markets. But acknowledging that to be true is a far cry from claiming one can discern cause and effect. And what of unintended consequences?
One striking example is what happened when the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 reduced the thriving city of Chicago to a smoldering ash heap. Experts predicted this would be the end of Chicago as a major American city. Instead, it became a tremendous opportunity for the city to be made new, and within a decade Chicago was rivaling New York as the most important American city. Any event can have effects that even the most informed experts cannot imagine.
Even though the cause and effect of market dynamics can be murky, at Maar Financial Group we take all of this into account as we fashion your financial plan. This is why it is important for you to work with professionals. While there is no crystal ball that tells us what the effects of an event will be, we know that over the course of time there will be changes, even sudden changes, in markets. We don’t pretend we can predict specific events, but we can predict that markets evolve and that is built into the planning we do. Of course, we monitor the ever-changing financial landscape, but we don’t react to every shifting trend.
A trend is defined as a “preference that many people follow, a shift to something new.” We don’t chase or follow trends. Trends can be as illusory as “the dead of winter.” Our thinking is long-term, because over the long-term events achieve a clarity lacking in the short-term. A term for this is “purposeful investing.” This approach frees you from worrying about every headline and allows you to focus on things like meaningful friendships, helping others, and enjoying family. These are the sorts of things that don’t make headlines. But in life they are the things that actually matter. It can be easy to lose sight of that when caught up in the endless news cycle. We can help make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
Thrivent is the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Insurance products issued by Thrivent. Not available in all states. Securities and investment advisory services offered through Thrivent Investment Management Inc., a registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC, and a subsidiary of Thrivent. Licensed agent/producer of Thrivent. Registered representative of Thrivent Investment Management Inc. Advisory services available through investment adviser representatives only.Thrivent.com/disclosures.
Insurance products, securities and investment advisory services are provided by appropriately appointed and licensed financial advisors and professionals. Only individuals who are financial advisors are credentialed to provide investment advisory services. Visit Thrivent.com or FINRA's Broker Check for more information about our financial advisors.
Thrivent provides advice and guidance through its Financial Planning Framework that generally includes a review and analysis of a client’s financial situation. A client may choose to further their planning engagement with Thrivent through its Dedicated Planning Services (an investment advisory service) that results in written recommendations for a fee.
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The mutual fund prospectus contains more information on investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses, which investors should read carefully and consider before investing. Available at Thrivent.com.
Commentary December 2025
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”…. for me, the holiday season kicks off when I hear the first carols and songs of Christmas filtering into my radio, TV, stores, and my home. Have you noticed that every year, this is happening earlier and earlier? No longer do we wait until the turkey is finished on Thanksgiving, the sounds of Christmas are everywhere even before the jack-o-lanterns get tossed. Merchants have their monetary reasons for wanting it to look like Christmas as early as possible, but now many of us have joined in the process of making it look like Christmas earlier than we ever did in the past. And really, why not? Christmas is a beautiful time of year and isn’t it only natural to want to bring beauty into our lives?
But having things LOOK like Christmas is one thing. Feeling like Christmas is something else entirely, and it feels like Christmas comes at a different time for each of us. Another song expresses how wonderful it would be if that Christmas feeling could last all year. Even though many of us may wish that was true, we know it is impossible. The only thing we can do is enjoy this moment as fully as possible. But that “Christmas feeling” is a slippery and sometimes contradictory thing, potentially making this a tricky time of year to navigate. By that, I don’t just mean which parties to attend or how the calendar is filling up, but also emotionally as we perceive the passing of another year.
One of the challenges is how to incorporate our personal Christmas traditions into the ever-changing reality of life. There are so many things that we want to stay the same every year. Perhaps it is the Christmas tree that must be placed in the same spot as always and decorated the same way every year with the same beloved ornaments. Then there are certain Christmas albums we must listen to, or it just wouldn’t seem like Christmas. Perhaps it is the Christmas dinner that must be the same each year. These traditions are such a large part of it feeling like Christmas we feel we tamper with them at our peril.
Yet, we do not want each Christmas to be an exact replica of the past. We also want every Christmas to feel new and fresh. In preparing this commentary I spent some time reviewing my previous holiday commentaries and I thought. “How will I ever come up with something new to say?” I pondered that for quite some time until it occurred to me that there wasn’t anything new to say, and that, is part of what makes the season so special. In a world marked by upheaval and change we depend on so much of the holiday season to be there for us. Unchanged. A season we can depend on to provide that “Christmas feeling” every year, come what may.
Regardless of all the traditions we follow, this Christmas cannot help from being different than last year’s, and from the ones before that. Some of the differences will be ones that may bring us increased joy. Some will not. That fact can be one of the challenges we face in trying to create “that Christmas feeling.” This is something we all experience. We know we cannot control change, but we can control how we deal with it. Christmas has taught us how, if we have paid attention.
Let us remember that first Christmas. “There were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” This passage from Luke captures the peace and quiet of that night, just the shepherds and their sheep. But not for long. “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.” The peace of that night was shattered, the world forever changed, and fear entered their hearts. When we think of change, perhaps we should think of that. For it was at that moment, the first of this holiday we celebrate, when its impact was felt by a small group of frightened human beings. Frightened because they had come in contact with something so much larger than themselves it was scarcely comprehensible. That was the first Christmas, a night of peace, but also one of change.
It is my wish for you that this Christmas is, in all the important ways, the same as your previous happy holidays. It is also my wish that for you this Christmas is, in many joyous ways, different from your previous holidays. May you always remember, and treasure, this Christmas as one of your very best. We at the Maar Financial Group send you our very best wishes for this holiday season.
Office information
Address:
331W 806 NValparaiso, IN 46385
Phone:
219-763-2244Operating Hours:
M – Th 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; F 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Phone:
708-672-0571Operating Hours:
M-Th 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; F 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Phone:
219-763-2244Operating Hours:
By appointment