Managing Your Financial Future with Lucia Capital Group

Social Security retirement benefits are the bedrock of guaranteed income for most American retirees.  It forms the income basis that helps to build the rest of your portfolio's withdrawal strategy.  So it makes sense to ask the question: at what age should I begin taking my retirement benefits?

Everyone eligible for benefits has a "full retirement age" at which benefits may be paid out. You may also take them earlier and receive a reduced benefit, or you may take them later for an enhanced benefit.  Figuring out the "best" age to start those benefits depends on a number of factors and can be complicated.

And that's why we're talking about it today! Find out what you need to know about when to start your Social Security benefits from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick "The Professor" Plum, CFP® on today's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

Very few things in life are universal, especially when it comes to finances.  What’s right for one person may be completely wrong for another.  Yet there are certain lessons with money that everyone could benefit from knowing, no matter what a person’s individual circumstances may be. 

After careful review, we’ve narrowed them down to six. 

What are the six financial lessons that everyone should know?  Find out from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick “The Professor” Plum, CFP® on today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future! 

You may have noticed that real estate prices have been ticking up at a steady rate for the past several years.  For many people, that means they have no choice but to take out a mortgage. At the same time, there are those who have either enough current gains or enough cash on hand to consider buying a home with cash.

Having the cash to pay for a home, versus investing that amount and taking out a mortgage, is something of a dilemma.  Some people like the security of owning a home outright, but there are also those who believe they can earn more than the cost of the mortgage through savvy investing.

Which way may be potentially right for you? Should you pay cash for your home or take out a mortgage? In this episode of Managing Your Financial Future, podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® talk about what you need to consider before making that big decision!

Once you hit retirement, you'll probably have money in several types of accounts: a 401(k) from work, some personal money in a brokerage account, your regular checking account at the bank, and maybe some Roth IRAs, to name a few.
Once it's time to start withdrawing that money, the important question you should ask yourself is this: from which account(s) should my funds be taken out, and in what order?  Do I spend my fully-taxable IRA money first, do I defer and use the Roth or personal funds, or some combination of all of them?
Getting it wrong can be costly, and detrimental to your financial health.  Find out more about the "Spending Order of Funds" with podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on this week's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

There are many ways to save for retirement.  Two of the most popular are the 401(k) and the IRA. Both are savings vehicles, but both have different attributes that may make one of them better for you. 

There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Do you need a tax break now? Are you able to deduct contributions to an IRA? Does your company have a match on any of your 401(k) contributions? These are important questions that you need to consider.

Learn more about what should factor into your decision with podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick "The Professor" Plum, CFP® on today's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

You may have heard that stocks are too volatile for retired people to own. In fact, there’s an old rule-of-thumb formula that says you should decrease your stock holdings by 1 percent every year and replace them with bonds.  These generic “guidelines,” though, are hardly prudent advice for most people, because everyone’s situation requires a different approach. 

It may actually be more beneficial for some people to have a greater exposure to stocks as they get older.  What counts more is having a withdrawal strategy that takes into account the short-term risks of investing in stocks by creating the time – and cash flow – necessary to overcome those risks.  

Find out more from podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® on this week’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future! 

We're half way through 2024, and it's time to get your financial house in order!  What moves, if any, should you have made at this point?  What about going forward? There's still time to do some tax management, maybe take a look at your 401(k) plan, and decide how you may want to allocate your investments before the year is out.

So what's left to do? There's still plenty of time, but then again, the clock is ticking.  What should be on YOUR mid-year money checklist? Find out from podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on this week's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

What’s your most valuable asset when it comes to investing? Is it maybe knowing the right stock to buy and when? How about a spreadsheet of things like P/E ratios, or being diversified across dozens of different classes?  No – as it turns out, your most valuable asset with investing is time. 

The stock market, despite what you may have heard, is a long-term game. The daily, weekly, and monthly noise you hear on TV and online about why stocks went up or down is nothing more than that – noise.  But over long time periods, magical things can happen to people who are regular savers and who don’t panic when times get rough. 

So how do you acquire the time you need for that “magic” to happen when you have bills you need to pay right now?  Learn more from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick “The Professor” Plum, CFP® on today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

When you buy a bond, you might expect that the amount of interest stated on the coupon is the amount of interest that you’ll be receiving.  So if you have, say, a $10,000 bond paying 5 percent interest, you probably figure it will pay you $500 each year. 

But that isn’t always the case.  This is where it’s important to understand not just the bond’s current yield, but probably more importantly, the bond’s yield to maturity. There may be a difference between the bond’s present cash flow and what you’ll ultimately receive after all interest payments and the return of the principal. 

Sound confusing? Let’s clear it up.  Tune in to today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future as podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® tell you what you need to know before – and after – you purchase your bonds! 

It’s been said that the most important rule of finance is to not consistently mess things up.  In other words, you need to survive the short-term chaos – and there’s lots of it – to reap the potential long-term rewards. If you can buy enough time to weather the constant storms, you may find yourself in a very good position down the road.

The Bucket Strategy® is something we’ve talked about for decades.  What we love is that its aim is to buy enough time for those above-noted potential long-term gains to become reality.  By matching your assets to your liabilities, you may stand a much lower chance of running out of money before you run out of time. And isn’t that what financial planning is all about?

Learn more from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick “The Professor” Plum, CFP® on this “don’t miss” episode of Managing Your Financial Future!