My Smart Retirement

Last week, on September 17th, we celebrated Constitution Day. As we reflected upon the constitution and its foundational importance to the success of our country, we began to think of the foundational importance of planning for our retirement lifestyle.

On today's episode, we will be discussing our retirement lifestyle choices. After we are done working we will have a lot more free time on our hands. With more time comes more freedom to make changes that we have always dreamt about. We will discuss some ideas we have heard from clients over the years and hope that some may inspire you on your foundational planning journey.

Perhaps you are looking for a bit of adventure after retirement like a couple of our clients who have been avid marlin fishers. As they reached retirement this is something they wanted to do more often. Similarly, the RV lifestyle has become very popular within the past few years. Some people even continue this into their 80s!

Other ideas include the 'two-house solution' and the 'front porch' lifestyle. Both are about enjoying what you have. The two-house solution is one where people take advantage of two homes in different locations of the country. The front porch lifestyle is about relaxation! Enjoy your free time and have a glass of lemonade on a warm summer evening.

Lastly, we wanted to highlight the importance of following your passion after you retire. Maybe there is something you have always felt called to do. Do you want to learn a new hobby? Donate your time to a non-profit? This is a perfect time to do it. It is always wonderful when our clients volunteer and get involved with projects they really enjoy.

Whether you know exactly what you want to do when you retire or you are just starting to formulate ideas, having this foundational knowledge will better prepare you for the future. You will be able to set up your financial and retirement plans in accordance with your lifestyle goals. Listen to the full episode for more inspiration!

What we discuss: 

0:55 – Constitution celebration

3:13 – Constitution principles

7:51 – Founding our lifestyle

8:15 – Marlin fishing and a second home

10:14 – The RV lifestyle

11:11 – Two house solution

13:09 – If you can dream it segment

19:27 – Front porch idea

20:29 – Following a passion  

For more visit us at:

https://www.flemingfinancialservices.com/

Retirement is a crossroads in life and we must choose a path to take. With this decision comes many questions.

As the famous poem by Robert Frost details, a crossroads is a time to reflect and think over our decisions. Today, we are going to discuss three big questions that may come up when it comes to retirement and which path you should be taking.

Our first question is about taking in income while also withdrawing from Social Security.  A common reason that this happens is when someone decides to retire from the corporate world and start their own business. In this situation, you will want to make sure you are setting yourself up successfully when it comes to the taxes you will have to pay.

Another question a lot of our clients ask is whether there is a way around minimum distributions on our IRAs. 70 used to be the minimum distribution age, but it has now gone up to 72. Unfortunately, there are not many ways you can avoid meeting the minimum distribution without being penalized. Although if there is a market crash like in 2008 or after the coronavirus pandemic, sometimes minimum distribution requirements will be delayed. You can also decide to donate your minimum distribution to a charity in which case you will not be taxed.

Lastly, we want to discuss IRAs that are part of an employer's 401(k). Contributing to an IRA in a 401(k) has a few perks. While individually set up IRAs have an annual contribution limit, employer IRAs don't.  Sometimes employers also match up to a certain percentage. Make sure you research your IRA and 401(k) to see how you can benefit.

Whether you are at the crossroads of retirement or developing your retirement plan these questions will provide you with valuable information on making the best decisions for yourself and your future.

What we discuss on today's episode: 

1:33 – The questions people face

3:15 – Social security and owning a business

5:44 – Paying into Social Security

8:15 – Required minimum distributions

13:01 – If you can dream it segment

15:46 – 401k with a roth option

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com

It’s easy to become overly confident with your retirement plan. You've been working on it for many years! But there are gaps in nearly every financial plan that can blindside us if we’re not careful.

On today's episode, Nancy goes in-depth on some of the common gaps she sees in planning for retirement and how we can address them now. We know that gaps are going to happen, but if we mind them now and plan accordingly, we will be able to have a better financial future.

After we retire, we will have a lot more responsibility when it comes to our income and insurance. We need to know how we are going to compensate for the paycheck we are no longer receiving. This can mean having savings we dip into until we are ready to pull from Social Security or simply starting Social Security payments right away.

In addition, we have to account for adjustments we may see between our employer's healthcare and Medicare. Insurance is one of the biggest factors in deciding a retirement age. By calculating these differences, we can adjust our plans to create a financial safety net for retirement.

Another factor we need to talk about is inflation. Inflation has been at the forefront of many financial conversations over the past few months and it is something you will need to mind as you plan for retirement. Your plan has to outpace inflation or you will see your buying power diminish. What you pay as a consumer today will be very different in ten or twenty years. It will cost you more money to live the same lifestyle and you will need to prepare whether that is by saving more money now or adjusting how you live after retirement.

These are just some of the financial gaps you may face once you are retired. Without acknowledging gaps, you can find yourself in a situation that is cumbersome to the health of your retirement plan. If you are not saving early on for a big financial event when that financial decision has to be made, it becomes a lot more difficult. A good financial plan anticipates and incorporates these gaps in life.

What we discuss on this episode: 

1:25 – Plans change

3:42 – The paycheck gap

5:35 – Insurance gap

7: 27 – Inflation gap

12:47 – ‘If You Can Dream It’ segment

15:19 – The long term care gap

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com

Every year we face new challenges to our financial plan, but it seems the past year brought us more than we’re used to. The pandemic changed a lot around our country, and it’s definitely impacted the economy.

On this episode of My Smart Retirement, we want to identify some of the key challenges that are facing investors right now so that you know what to be focusing on within your retirement plan. To help us do this, we asked Michael Sorrentino, CFA, to join the show to give us his insight on the economy. Sorrentino serves as the Chief Investment Officer for Darwin Asset Management and often appears as a guest on financial shows so he can really speak to what’s happening right now.

To understand how we’ve gotten to this point, we’ll begin by discussing the Fed’s decision to increase the supply of money due to the fear of liquidity drying up. That money was sent out to people in the form of stimulus checks but most people didn’t have the ability to spend it because of the pandemic. Now we’re seeing this significant increase in money supply in the economy, which we’ll explain why that’s so significant.

If you’ve watched or listened to anyone in the financial world over the past few months, you’ve also probably heard the topic of inflation come up. It’s a big concern for people, especially retirees who are worried about how long their money will last. We’ve already started to see prices tick up due to this rise in inflation, but how much longer can we expect it to last. That’s what we’ll try and learn from Sorrentino on the show.

Each of these things affects what you do with your money. From an investment standpoint, it makes the bond market incredibly more difficult to navigate. On the other side, it makes the equity market much more attractive. So we’ve seen this shift from investors as they try to outpace inflation.

Just look at interest rates. They’ve been at historically low levels for a long time, but many people expect them to begin going up again. Rising interest rates will likely come, but Sorrentino doesn’t believe it will happen in the near term. And once the increases begin, they will be very slow-moving.

These interest rates impact many areas of financial planning, especially cash and savings. Anyone that wants to keep their money in cash and play it safe is losing out to inflation over time. That means you have to find other places to put your money, which is what your advisor can help you with.

Just think about this nugget that Sorrentino shared on the show. The last time interest rates were almost non-existent for savings accounts was during the Great Depression, and it took 34 years for cash investments to yield 3.4%. That’s a staggering fact and one that leads many to believe that there could be a similar recovery now before we reach the interest rate levels of the early 2000s.

We’ll take you through all of these challenges on the show today and talk about how you can adjust to keep your retirement on track. The good news is that there is still plenty of opportunity out there for people that are willing to reassess their investments and make adjustments to account for what’s happening in our world today.

If you have any more questions about our conversation today or want to have us take a look at your financial plan, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to sit down and start that conversation.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:42 – Inflation

3:15 – Money Supply issue

5:59 – When will inflation go away?

7:40 – Interest rates and cash investments

10:06 – How this impacts your budget 

12:12 – Client story

14:12 – Banks not incentivized to increase interest

18:46 – Interest rates will go up

22:31 – Investing differently than 20 years ago

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

We were recently out spending time with some friends over a meal when the fortune cookies came out. As we all cracked them open to see what piece of wisdom awaited us, it got us thinking about financial fortunes.

Who’s to say that you can’t take that message of inspiration and apply it to your financial plan, right? So that’s what we decided to do on this episode of the podcast. We’re going to run through a few of the quotes from inside that crunchy cookie and apply them to real-life scenarios that we encounter with clients.

Accept something you cannot change and you will feel better.

The first thing that immediately comes to mind are taxes. It’s a frustrating topic when you start thinking about how much money you are paying and will have to pay in taxes over your lifetime, but there’s nothing you can do about the laws. What you can do, however, is start taking action to limit your tax obligations in retirement. We do this through a variety of tax planning strategies and it can save you significant amounts throughout your life.  

Don’t let statistics do a number on you.

We really on numbers and statistics quite a bit in this business, but they shouldn’t always drive your decisions. Just take health and longevity as an example. If you look to your parents and grandparents to try and determine how long you will live, it could directly impact the decisions you make within your retirement plan. If you think your chances of a long retirement are low, then you could put yourself in a position to run out of money in your 80s and 90s.

A foolish man listens to his heart.

When it comes to financial decisions, you want to act with your head and not with emotions. We had a perfect example of this recently when we received a question from a client that was considering selling his home to downsize in retirement but was worried about all of the emotional connections he might lose. The worry was that he was being foolish to hang onto the house when they could save so much more by selling it. We can work through the numbers for both scenarios to determine if the tradeoff will be worth it for you.

No matter what fortune you’re dealt, it’s important to think it through and have a plan for what you want to accomplish.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:32 – Why this topic?  

3:58 – ‘Accept something you cannot change and you will feel better.’

9:02 – ‘Don’t let statistics do a number on you.’

14:07 – If You Can Dream It segment  

17:11 – ‘A foolish man listens to his heart.’

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

As we move through life every day, we devote our attention to things that seem important in that moment. In doing so, we overlook many of the things that protect us in the event of an emergency.

Hopefully if the time ever comes when you need your smoke alarm to work or your airbags to deploy, everything is working properly. The same is true when it comes to financial planning. Much of the work we do is making sure you are taken care of when life throws us those unexpected events.

That’s what we want to talk about on this episode of the podcast. By bringing attention to these things that don’t matter until they do, we hope that it pushes you to action. You’ll want to go through each of these items with your advisor to make sure everything is updated and accurate.

The list we’ll run through includes:

• Legal documents
• Long-term care
• Life insurance
• Lifetime income streams

If any of those haven’t been accounted for and you’re approaching or in retirement, make it a priority to get with your advisor. We’ll explain why each is important and what you need to know during the show.

The other topic we want to cover on this episode is possible updates to the SECURE Act. This important retirement legislation took effect at the beginning of 2020 but lawmakers are already discussing additional proposals that could be adopted in the very near future. We’ll tell you all about them and why they could impact your planning.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:32 – Nancy shares an unusual experience on a recent trip

5:24 – Legal documents

7:57 – Long-term care

9:50 – Life insurance

10:56 – Lifetime income streams

12:34 – ‘If You Can Dream It’ segment

17:48 – Update on the SECURE Act

18:30 – RMD age increasing

19:17 – Automatically enrolling in 401k

20:29 – Catch up contributions

21:07 – Student loan payments

21:47 – National 401k database

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

Spending habits determine much of the success you have during your working career and then into retirement. That’s why budgeting is always one of the first steps towards retirement.

But being a responsible spender is much easier said than done. Otherwise retirement planning and managing finances would be a breeze.

So how should you spend your money? Of course there’s never going to be a cookie-cutter approach that works for everyone because you will always know what’s best for yourself and your family but following the guidance we provide our clients will help you financially over time.

In this episode of the podcast, we’ll share eight different principles to bolster your life satisfactions from spending the money you’ve earned in manner that will make you feel as happy and content as possible. You might know about most or all of these things we discuss but it’s will still serve as a good reminder of what’s important.  

Spending often determines how successful your retirement ends up being. That’s why we develop income plans to cover the expenses you expect to have each month. If you aren’t sure what   Think about a typical day in your life and what that might look like in retirement. That will really help you get a better estimate on what expenses might look like and where you might be spending your money.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:34 – Why we’re talking about this today

4:00 – Smaller purchases 

6:31 – Spending is a science

9:26 – Making sure experiences are broken up

9:50 – Exchange material goods for experiences

12:15 – Use your money to benefit others

14:22 – Overpriced protections 

15:37 – ‘If You Can Dream It’ segment

21:11 – Delay gratification  

24:08 – Consider how purchases my affect your daily life

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

Building a retirement plan requires a mix of ingredients that a financial advisor can help you create, but it’s not all about assets and accounts. There’s much more to life than wealth and that becomes more and more clear in retirement.

That’s why we wanted to share a few circumstances with people we know who were both entering retirement or already in retirement and had questions for us. The circumstances are a little different but they have that common missing ingredient that many people don’t factor in, and that’s the feeling of accomplishment.

Getting that sense of an unexpected letdown is real when you stop working. All of a sudden your days have different meaning and often lack purpose. That’s why you want to have a plan for this second life and how you’ll spend your time. The friendship and fellowship is important, but that sense of accomplishment really helps us find happiness.

Until we feel like we’re achieving something, then people won’t be completely happy. It’s a feeling we have as humans that we need to keep striving to learn and improve so when that stops, it can have an impact emotionally.

That’s why you’ll hear the stories on this episode about people we know that retired but quickly started looking for work again because they no longer had that stability and purpose that their job provided them. Going back to the office isn’t a solution for everyone, which is why you want to work through all of these things with your financial advisor. Make sure the conversations go beyond expenses and income and to what you want your retirement to look like.

We’re more than happy to have these discussions with you and help you build a plan that ensures your retirement is spent how you want it.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

0:57 – Story about Nancy’s granddaughter

4:06 – Missing work in retirement

6:03 – The need for achievement  

8:01 – Unexpected letdown when you reach retirement  

9:51 – Is constant seeking a good thing?  

12:00 – ‘If You Can Dream It’

16:45 – New opportunities that require you to dip into your savings

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

We’ve enjoyed very low inflation in recent years but there’s a lot of concern about how much that could change in the immediate future.

There’s no question that it’s a legitimate concern and one that you need to be addressing within your retirement plan. As inflation rises, your money loses its buying power which means you likely need to build a bigger nest egg.

On this episode of the podcast, we’re going to talk about the other factors that will be impacting your bottomline. It’s not just the increase in the cost of goods that will limit the amount of money you’re able to keep in your own pocket. There’s also the other inflation that hits us squarely in the wallet and that’s taxes.

Let’s think about taxes on top of inflation. Not only do you get the rise in costs but then you have added tax to pay because of the increase in price. Over the course of a year, all these things add up to the point where it’s important to be paying more attention to this.

If you live in Arizona, you’re probably aware of some recent tax proposals but Nancy is going to update you on what’s been happening and share a few stories about local decisions. We often get caught up in national politics but what’s happening closer to home makes a much bigger difference in most cases.

So as we move forward, we want to make sure we’re not only paying attention to our bottomline but also pay attention to other increases that are happening. Are they useful? When you’re working towards a retirement budget, these added costs and fees can have a major impact.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:13 – Lessons learned from childhood

3:30 – Taxes

4:40 – Nancy shares a story about local taxes

9:07 – Inflation

12:04 – ‘If you can dream it’ story

14:01 – Staying on track for your goals

15:21 – Arizona sales tax

16:45 – Nancy shares opinion on tax bill

19:41 – Planning

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com 

The last thing anyone wants to do in retirement is worry. This time in your life should be stress-free and spent however you’d like, but that can be disrupted if your financial plan hasn’t been thoroughly constructed.

So how do you do that? Well, it starts with a good advisor who can help you take the steps to build a comprehensive plan, and that’s what we’re going to talk about on this episode of My Smart Retirement. The goal today will be to help you identify some key areas of planning and develop a better understand of how we assist clients meet their goals.

Before you can do anything, think about what your retirement will look like. How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to do? Having a good idea of what you want that next chapter to be will allow you to make decisions that will align with that vision.

Once that’s done, that’s when we find the best way to help you get there. So many people focus exclusively on saving and growing that nest egg but that’s not enough. The market investment piece of your plan is vital to driving accumulation and getting you to the point of retirement, but then it takes a proper plan to take you through that next stage of life.

One of those key considerations is Social Security. Most people will rely heavily on this benefit for their income plan, and there’s plenty of strategy that goes into deciding when to start claiming that benefit. Plus, with possible adjustments coming in the future to keep Social Security in place and funded, it’s even more important to work with an advisor to prepare for what this could mean to your future.

There’s plenty to talk about, which we’ll do on this episode, but know that the proper plan is out there for you. Find an advisor that can work with you to build that and give you the confidence you deserve. And don’t forget, the longer you wait to do this, the harder it becomes.

Check out the full episode or use the timestamps below to hear a specific segment.

1:31 – Think about what you want to do in retirement

2:32 – Find the best way to get there

5:09 – The evaluation we do for people

8:52 – Social Security  

10:51 – Changes that could come to Social Security

For more, visit us online at http://flemingfinancialservices.com