By Tony Mauro
5
11 ratings
The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.
Remember the thrill of shaking a Magic 8 Ball to get answers to your childhood questions? Would we ace that math test? Would we be famous someday? Well, today, we're bringing a bit of that magic back. But instead of asking about pop quizzes and playground crushes, we’re turning to the Magic 8 Ball for advice on something much more important: your retirement planning! What would the Magic 8 Ball have to say about these common retirement questions if it had the wisdom of a financial advisor?
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Speaker 1:
Do you guys remember the thrill of shaking that magic eight ball that we had when we were kids and we would hopefully get the answers we were looking for and sometimes be disappointed when not? Well, let's have a little fun this week here on Plan with the Tax Man and go with the magic eight ball's guide to retirement planning. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2:
Look up in the sky.
Speaker 3:
It's a bird.
Speaker 4:
It's a plane.
Speaker 5:
No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero, but Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for Plan with the Tax Man.
Speaker 1:
Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with Tony and myself as we talk investing, finance and retirement. And Tony, I'm going to let you break out your magic eight ball and plan some financial stuff with us. I think sometimes people maybe actually approach their finances with this old idea. Sometimes they just don't quite do the things they should be doing, and I thought it'd be kind of fun, be kind of humorous to, I'll ask you some questions. You give us a magic eight ball answer, but then you also obviously elaborate on that for us. What do you think?
Tony Morrow:
I think that's good. Going back to the magic eight ball, I'm old enough to have had one of those. So for those of you that are young listening, you should look it up on the internet and see what kind of toys we had as kids.
Speaker 1:
Well, actually they still make it.
Tony Morrow:
Do they still make it? Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, they still make it. Yeah. So the idea popped up with one of our producers or writers because they have little ones and they saw it and I was like, oh, well, there you go. I didn't know they still made that thing, but very cool. Yeah, so some of the really cool toys still exist, so that's always good to see, right? They're not all going the way of the Dodo Bird. I don't think Stretch Armstrong exists anymore, but I loved my Stretch Armstrong. Do you remember that?
Tony Morrow:
I remember the Stretch Armstrong. We had that and then we cut him and...
Speaker 1:
To see what was inside it?
Tony Morrow:
We wanted to see what was inside. Yeah, that was...
Speaker 1:
Just sort just some sort of goop?
Tony Morrow:
Yeah, some sort of goop. We liked The Six Million Dollar Man and all that. The bionic eye...
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah. Six Million Dollar Man and his a little bionic eye. That was so cool.
Tony Morrow:
Yeah. So it didn't take much to entertain us.
Speaker 1:
No, it didn't because we didn't have these stupid phones, which was great. So anyway, let's have a little fun. Let's go back in time here. Tony, let's get it started. Should I start saving for retirement now? What does the magic eight ball say and what does Tony say?
Tony Morrow:
I have to agree with the magic eight ball because it's going to say yes. Definitely right now. It's never too late. And now it doesn't matter where you're at on the spectrum because you're going to need this. I was just in a meeting with my employees talking to them about that, about state of affairs today. Employers are not going to take care of you. This isn't the day of the pension, the old-fashioned pension, and where you work for somebody for 40 years and retiring at this monthly income, you can't outlive. I mean, it's all on us. So if you procrastinate this, the longer you do, the more you're going to have to save to get to your goals, and you need to have some goals anyway, but that is a short down and dirty on that.
Speaker 1:
Right. Yeah, no, I agree. And thinking about the magic eight ball too. So it had an assortment of answers, right? It had the yes, definitely. It had a bunch of, I guess what we would call the greens or the positives. Without a doubt. It's decidedly so. Outlook good. And then it had things like reply hazy or can't predict now. Had some of that middle ground. And it had some of those reds, right? My reply is, no, don't count on it. So on and so forth. So kind of thinking about those, Tony as you're shaking that and giving us some answers. But yeah, there's no better time than now no matter where you're at. Waiting another day only makes things even more complicated. So should I start saving now? Yes, definitely. Is a million dollars enough to retire on magic eight ball?
Tony Morrow:
Magic eight ball says, "Reply hazy. Try again." I'm going to answer. I think what they're talking about there is it depends. And ironically too, I was just reading an article this morning in a financial magazine saying that the new retirement numbers like 1.8, 1.9 million. Now again, that's just somebody's opinion and they make their piece for it.
Speaker 1:
Sure. Well, how you live, where you live, that's going to change all that.
Tony Morrow:
That's going to change all that. I think probably it depends on where you live, but it could be enough If you want a modest lifestyle, you're definitely not going to be destitute if we're just talking real general terms. But depending on what you want, what your goals are, that certainly may not be enough in today's world to do what you want to do. But that's kind of the number that still everybody's got in their mind, they like to shoot for. We as advisors like to take that a step further and say, "Look, let's really talk about what you want and see if that's enough or not." I think that's the help of an advisor.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, Tony, we're two different people here on this podcast. A million dollars might work for you, and it might be more than I needed to get to. I could work too long and not enjoy my retirement if because I didn't need that much because maybe I have a pension and you don't to your point earlier.
Tony Morrow:
Right.
Speaker 1:
Right?
Tony Morrow:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Or maybe my lifestyle is much more significantly lower than yours or whatever the case might be. So is a million dollars enough? You have reply hazy great because well, maybe and maybe not. So retirement's a math problem.
Tony Morrow:
It is.
Speaker 1:
You got to solve the math. So maybe you've got to work to get to the million and maybe you could retire sooner, or maybe you got to work to get to 2 million, but you're not going to know until you run those numbers so definitely make sure that you're sitting down with a qualified professional like Tony on that. Magic eight ball, can I rely on social security for my retirement?
Tony Morrow:
I've got it in front of me. I looked it up on the internet. I wanted to see, and the first picture is the answer and it says, "Outlook not so good," and I agree with that. Social security that could be a whole topic and it's discussed a lot. I do a lot of webinars on it and I send out a lot of information on it. It is an important piece, especially for those that are getting closer to it, especially when they take it type of thing. But if you're relying on that, social security wasn't meant to be what some people think it is, and it really was an insurance policy to keep people from being destitute and dying in the streets way back when it was [inaudible 00:05:52].
Speaker 1:
And we had much less people and all that. All the things we know. And I think Tony, let ask you to this way, can you do it? Yes, I've got a family member who's surviving solely on social security. Are they happy about it? No. Right?
Tony Morrow:
Right.
Speaker 1:
What kind of retirement do you want? And if you want the bare minimum, then yeah, it probably can be done because I mean many thousands of people, millions of people are probably doing it, but it's not the ideal thing, right?
Tony Morrow:
It's not the ideal thing. And this is where you want to have a plan. It can be part of your plan. Now, obviously, if you're at the end, and like you said, that's all you have, it's better than nothing, obviously.
Speaker 1:
Sure. That was the point.
Tony Morrow:
I've got an uncle who just passed away and they didn't do any planning. And ironically, he had a pension plan from the state, but he took the highest payout. So once he died, the pension's over, he does have a spouse that's still living. She's in her late eighties, and so they're down to $1,800 a month in social security net, and their rent is 1400. Now that's leaves $400 for everything else. That probably doable, but not great at all. So I mean, you want to probably stay out of that. And then looking forward, in about 10 years, social security trust fund is going to be paying out well more than it's taking in. They're going to have to fix it. That's why the outlook is really not that good. I don't think they'll let it go by the wayside, but it might look different in 10 to three years from now.
Speaker 1:
I definitely think it's going to look different for anybody under the age of 40.
Tony Morrow:
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
It's going to almost have to. All right, so let's do a couple more here, Tony. Magic eight ball, can I expect to have fewer expenses in retirement compared to when I'm working?
Tony Morrow:
Yeah, don't count on it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's the same thing. That's-
Tony Morrow:
That's the eight ball answer.
Speaker 1:
That's the same thing that Marsha Smith said to me when I asked her out to the eighth grade dance. She said, "Don't count on it." People often think this, Tony, they come in and see a financial professional like yourself, and they're like, "Well, listen, we think we got enough to retire on because we're going to spend less money in retirement than we are now." So they're kind of like fudging the math to make themselves feel good about maybe getting into retirement, but they don't truly have that plan. And as you've seen, because you've been doing this for many, many years now, do you want to live a lesser lifestyle in retirement, then don't count on it. Just because expenses change doesn't mean they're necessarily lower.
Tony Morrow:
Yeah. And then everybody that I see entering retirement two years in, they all are telling me the same thing is my expenses are higher. And it really is, comes down to a couple of things. One, healthcare costs rise tremendously, and two, they're doing more because [inaudible 00:08:22] they're actually out and they're spending more money, which is the whole idea. But the old adage, like you say, of, oh yeah, I can retire and I won't have any expenses. Some will go away, but others will increase.
Speaker 1:
Others come on. Yeah.
Tony Morrow:
Yeah. And so you got to watch that when you got to plan it.
Speaker 1:
Yep, so don't count on them. Don't count on it. It's a great response there from the magic eight ball. And again, all of this is going to come back to that, this is the point of why you need a full strategy design for specialty for yourself, because every situation is going to be a little bit different. So dialing it in, we can get all those generalities because we all do suffer from the same kind of universal questions when it comes to retirement. But then how each puzzle kind of plays out for person to person is different. And that's why it's so important, again, to sit down and talk with qualified professionals like Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc.
All right, one or two more here, Tony. We'll wrap it up. Will my retirement play and be affected by future changes in tax laws? What might the magic eight ball say?
Tony Morrow:
Magic eight ball says, "Signs point to yes." I got to think that. Of course, I say that all the time because tax laws change almost all the time now, especially with administrations. And some of them were drastic. Back in the day, I remember tax laws were, major things were pretty few and far between. Now everything changes so quickly. And I definitely think you need to stay on top of that. Obviously you have your advisor for that to help you with that. But if you're not taking that into account that really could blindside you retirement, if you're not careful.
Speaker 1:
Well, you think about what the tax implications are going to do to us with our retirement plan. And it's one of those ones that can really scalp your plan. So it's like, Hey, we thought we've got a good plan in place, but then taxation rates come along or change or get higher. And obviously with the debt that we have, the signs are certainly likely that that's going to happen.
I was just on an interview last week, Tony, with former Comptroller General of the US David Walker, and asked him the question, can we just tax our way out of this debt? And he's like, "No." I mean, even just taxing people to the hilt is not going to get it done. There's going to have to cut spending and there's going to have to be changes in order to fix all this. And the problem is finding politicians that will actually do it and [inaudible 00:10:29] be fiscally responsible. And he was talking about the fact that there hasn't been a fiscally responsible president since Bill Clinton. He said none of the presidents since Bill Clinton have been fiscally responsible. And I thought, well, that's kind of stark, right?
So yeah, are we going to be affected by future tax changes? I would say signs certainly point to yes. I think magic eight ball's right on the money there. Okay. Let's see. Should I review my retirement plan annually, magic eight ball? Pretty easy one, I think?
Tony Morrow:
Without a doubt.
Speaker 1:
Without a doubt.
Tony Morrow:
Eight ball. And obviously that's an easy one. I mean, if you're not doing that, really then going to end up getting probably off track, especially if you don't do it for long periods of time.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Tony Morrow:
This is where I believe that an advisor can offer the most value, is to at least meet with your advisor, I would recommend this at least once a year. Make sure you're still on track. Make sure that your plan is still performing the way you want it to. And gives you a chance to make changes because maybe even your goals are something change. And if you just, especially in the accumulation stage when you're younger, you're just planning pretty easy to skip this and just hope for the best. And you don't want to do that because obviously as things change and a lot of the stuff that we just talked about comes into play, suddenly you could be way off.
Speaker 1:
Very true.
Tony Morrow:
Not even know it until it's a little bit too late.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, course corrections along the way are important. That's why you have those, so certainly, yep, certainly a good idea to do and we'll make this last one a layup here. So should I consider working with a professional as I near retirement? The magic eight ball's got to say yes.
Tony Morrow:
Magic eight ball says, "Yes." Yeah, he's popping out saying yes.
Speaker 1:
That's right. That's right.
Tony Morrow:
I think especially as you get near towards retirement, your focus changes less on accumulation maybe to more of income distribution. Do I have enough to live on and how's this going to look for me? And that's where I think advisor can help not only continue to build things after retirement and making sure you're getting the income you need along with a little bit hopefully of growth and expense management. So I definitely would say yes. I'm not saying that you shouldn't work [inaudible 00:12:28] advisor even if you're young, but it's all the same, I think order to get to where you want to go, have that good plan in place. I think an advisor is a necessity in my opinion.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, especially as you do near retirement, we get older. Can you get by DIY-ing and building your wealth when you're younger? Yeah. I mean, many people do, and it's a little bit easier to build it than it is to do the preservation stage, which is retirement.
But as you get closer to it, there's a lot more to deal with, which we obviously talk about on the regular and that's why you need to turn to a qualified professional like Tony, who's got 30 plus years in the industry. He's a CPA, a CFP, and an EA so he's a great resource for you to tap into. If you're listening to the podcast and you're not already working with him, consider reaching out to them at yourplanningpros.com. That is yourplanningpros.com. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you can catch new and future episodes by subscribing on Apple or Spotify or whatever platform you like using. You can find all that information again at Tony's website yourplanningpros.com, and get yourself onto the calendar with he and his team at Tax Doctor Inc.
Tony, thanks for hanging out my friend and walking down the nostalgia path with the old magic eight ball here.
Tony Morrow:
Yeah, sounds good. We'll see you next time. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:
Always appreciate you and we'll catch you next time here on Plan With the Tax Man with Tony Morrow.
Speaker 7:
Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.
Life can throw unexpected challenges our way, and dealing with a tough medical diagnosis is one of the hardest. In today's episode, we'll discuss a real case study of a young family dealing with the heartbreaking reality of a terminal illness. Listen in as Tony shares practical steps to take when faced with such difficult news, including handling taxes, planning for the future of a business, and ensuring loved ones are financially secure.
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
This week on Plan With The Tax Man, let's talk about tough medical diagnosis and financial situations that unfortunately maybe come out of the blue and how to handle those. So we're going to spend some time looking at a case study with Tony here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Hey, everybody. Welcome into the podcast with Tony Mauro and myself as we're talking investing, finance and retirement. Tony is the owner at Tax Doc Inc, and he's CPA, CFP and EA with 30 plus years of experience and a great resource for you to tap into and turn to if you need some help with situations. And unfortunately, situations like the one we're going to discuss this week. Tony, you want to share a little bit on some tough times, financial planning and dealing with things when the unexpected pops up. And in this particular case, you wanted to share some things about a tough diagnosis if you've unfortunately received one of these, what that might look like and how that might change things. How are you doing this week, by the way?
Tony Mauro:
I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for asking. And yeah, some of these types of things creep up on us, and so I wanted to just take a break from what we normally talk about. It still has some financial planning relevance, I think everybody can get something out of.
Marc Killian:
Well, and I think these things are also very important because it's life, right?
Tony Mauro:
Right.
Marc Killian:
Unfortunately, things happen to us in life and we can't see them coming and they're heartbreaking and then unfortunate, but we still have to deal with them or our families might be left behind to deal with them. So why don't you just go ahead and jump in and lay this out for us and share some things?
Tony Mauro:
Okay. Well, as we've done taxes for such a long time, you do see a lot of this kind of thing. And it's funny, it even affects us, but in a different way than if our own family, this was happening to because sometimes my aunts are here and then they're not.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, and you form relationships with folks and it's like them finding out bad news is obviously heartbreaking for them and their family, but it's very personal for you guys as well, especially when you're a boutique firm where clients... It's cliche, but clients become friends.
Tony Mauro:
They do. They become friends and in this situation, this is a younger family in their 40s, and we have them as an accounting client. They have a small business and we also do some financial planning for them. So they're in the wealth accumulation stage with where they're at. They've got three little kids.
Marc Killian:
Okay.
Tony Mauro:
Husband is a firefighter, and anyway, they got a horrible diagnosis last year that the wife has brain cancer and she's not going to make it. She's got maybe a year and a half left. So they've got a business they're trying to run. He is going to have work for a long time, but he is going to be left with three small children to have to take care of. You start thinking of some of this stuff.
Marc Killian:
Right? That's daunting.
Tony Mauro:
And they're trying to figure out... Well, let me back up a minute. On top of that, before we got them, they had a few issues that they still have some unpaid taxes with the IRS. We're trying to get that caught up and paid, but we've really shifted years immensely from, okay, trying to operate the business as a profit, accumulating things for retirement, to 180 degree turn of what are you going to do with the business when you're gone? Husband's not going to run it because he's a firefighter.
Marc Killian:
He's busy. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
How's this going to look for them and whatnot? And he's going to have to carry on. We've basically been working with them on three areas. One, make up with a plan to make sure that we get the back taxes paid so the IRS is not hounding him several years down the line.
Marc Killian:
Right.
Tony Mauro:
Now, two, how are you going to sell this business? Because that's what we're looking at is trying to find a buyer either internally or externally to [inaudible 00:04:00].
Marc Killian:
So you're going through valuation processes and so on and so forth there.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And then now the shift has been in the financial planning area. It's really been more so a little bit towards advising on, well, how do we wrap up her affairs when she's gone? And then he's got to continue on and try to keep saving and build his own retirement plan. That's going to look much different than I'm sure... You just put yourself in that situation, just even mentally, what that would look like by yourself and possibly having a lot of years by yourself. I think to tie this to financial planning, I think we all... I don't care what age you are, I think you need to have a few things in place. One, a will. Two, a life book. We've talked about that before, and both spouses need to know what's going on with the finances and everything else so that if something like this were to happen, besides all the grief and all of that, you can carry on as best as possible.
Marc Killian:
Well, that's a good point, Tony because you mentioned being in their 40s. When I was 41, I had to have a quadruple bypass and it came out of the blue and it was like, "Okay, if I don't survive this surgery," and the odds were pretty good of surviving it, but there still was risks. Obviously when there're completely opening you up and doing stuff, it's like, "We don't have any of these things in place yet," because I was thinking, "I'm 41, I got plenty of time." Right? And I think people do tend to do that. And that was the point of having this conversation today is that we're all one blood test away from maybe being uninsurable or being hit with devastating news and you start scrambling. And so that's again, the importance of working with somebody so that God willing, you're not going to get these kinds of news.
Tony Mauro:
Right.
Marc Killian:
But if you do, you've got some pieces already in place, which will hopefully make it a little smoother. Yeah?
Tony Mauro:
I think so. And I always tell everybody, and I tell my own wife that too, my motto, everybody that's married, is that one day one of us is going to be alone.
Marc Killian:
Yes.
Tony Mauro:
And meaning that one of us is... We're probably not going to die together and we're going to be faced with that and carrying on, whatever age that might be.
Marc Killian:
Indeed.
Tony Mauro:
And we have to have a plan, and my own personal plan, besides the will and some of that legal stuff because that's a given, is really having a playbook, if you will, especially in this digital age of where everything's at, especially if the spouse is the one that doesn't do the finances.
Marc Killian:
Well, let's drill that down for just a second, Tony. So think about that. Everything we have out there nowadays, if one person's in charge of it, and let's just for the sake of the argument say that unfortunately this person that received the terrible diagnosis is the one that handles that, and they may no longer be here sooner than expected. You've got to get the other person up to snuff, right? They've got to get up on all the things. Where are the accounts? Passwords, geez. Think about the complicatedness of that.
Tony Mauro:
Yes.
Marc Killian:
Or even just someone even passing unexpectedly, a car accident, and you don't even know how to get into some accounts, or even into their computer maybe, right?
Tony Mauro:
That's it.
Marc Killian:
So a lot of these things, you really got to put together. And I know a lot of advisors provide tools and resources to help their clients with that kind of stuff.
Tony Mauro:
We do. With our advising clients, we spend a lot of time, and part of every annual meeting, we talk about that, of just these kinds of things is, "Have you checked this off that you've got a password keeper?" So to speak.
Marc Killian:
Right.
Tony Mauro:
And they know where it's at.
Marc Killian:
Or a notebook somewhere where everyone knows where it's at. Right? Is it in the sock drawer and everybody knows which one it is? Or something.
Tony Mauro:
Right. So I think a lot of that, sometimes... Well, I know people don't think about it, not to the extent that I go into it with them, but it's just going to make... I think if you have some devastating news or just all of a sudden, like you were talking about, hit by a car or a car accident type thing, where you're just here today, gone tomorrow, at least these people have a little bit of time to at least plan. You got to think about some of these things because I think it's going to make that transition a whole lot... I don't want to say easier, but at least tolerable, I guess.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, it's tough sometimes to find the right word, right? It's like you've got to be able to... Like it or not, life moves on. Right? Life continues on for the people left behind, and I think we all go through the... Obviously there's the stages of grief. Right? I sat there in the hospital, but they kept me a full... I want to say 36 hours before they actually did the surgery. And when my wife and daughter left for a little bit to go pick up some things to come to be with me, and it was maybe no more than an hour and a half by myself, but boy, your mind goes through a whole lot of stuff in that hour and a half. And you find yourself going, "How are they going to get on without me?" And then you kind of go, "Well, they are going to have to move on without me." And then you feel like, "Well, all the things I'm going to miss," and you get angry and you get sad, and you're all over the map on that kind of thing.
But I think once you had a chance to... In this situation you've brought up today, unfortunately that's not a lot of time left for this individual, and the heart certainly breaks for them, but maybe it gives them time to at least get some of these things checked off and planned, versus something like a car accident or an emergency surgery that you don't wake up from.
Tony Mauro:
I agree. A lot of times, even with this situation, and I ask my staff that, is, "Put yourself in this person's situation. How would you elect to spend the next year and a half or two? What would you do?" And just let that settle in a little bit as the person receiving the diagnosis.
Marc Killian:
True.
Tony Mauro:
Obviously there's some planning to do, but there's all kinds of emotions.
Marc Killian:
And they want to enjoy their time that they have left. Right?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah.
Marc Killian:
So unfortunately, and if you are caught a little off guard, maybe you're a little younger and this happens, you are having to do some work, some scrambling to some of the things that you're helping this young couple with, but at the same time, knowing that you and your staff want to make that as efficient and painless as possible so that the person can enjoy, maximize their time that they have left with their loved ones. You and I talk every... Twice a month, we do a podcast and we do some fun stuff. We do some serious stuff, but we go all over the map in the podcast. But ultimately, at the end of the day, what you guys do is very, very serious. Whether it's dealing with folks' retirement money and a good long life that they've enjoyed to the fullest or bad situations or whatever the case is.
But what you guys do is very, very serious and important stuff when you really stop and think about it, because we get to a point in life where you don't have that time on your side anymore to this, that, or the other, whatever that might be in your little world. And so it's really important to be working with somebody, I think that can help you, again, to my point a second ago, be as efficient as possible so that you can maximize your time, because even if you get blessed with a long life, Tony, do you really want to sit around and stress over your finances in your retirement years when you could be hopefully living that up and enjoying those years that you have left? Whether it's a short amount of time, like this poor unfortunate person, or a nice 30-year retirement. Whatever the case is, you probably want to spend that doing the things that you love doing.
Tony Mauro:
As much as possible. Yeah, I would agree totally. Because even if you are blessed enough to get into retirement, have a long one, the key is generally, the health starts going down a little bit and how much of that is really good time versus total time?
Marc Killian:
Sure. Yeah. My mom's 83 in about a month, and her mobility is now starting to suffer a little bit more, and she's pretty frustrated by it, but you've got to find... Like everything in life, we have to find these silver lining points where we can.
Tony Mauro:
That's right. That's right, because my dad's going through the same thing at 83, and he is still relatively healthy, but he cannot do the things he did 10 years ago.
Marc Killian:
Even five years ago.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. He's had to readjust and find new things that he can like to do. So yeah, it's all over the board, but it just was a good... I don't want to say story, but-
Marc Killian:
Definitely not a good story, but an important one I think, because folks, again, you never know what's going to happen. We're all literally one blood test away from terrible news sometimes or whatever the case is.
Tony Mauro:
[inaudible 00:12:47].
Marc Killian:
Or one diagnosis going in. I just went in because I was like, "Hey, I'm winded. Why am I winded? I'm a little fat, but I shouldn't be that winded at 41." And they're like, "You're not winded. You have four massive blockages. You can't leave." They wouldn't let me leave the hospital. So you just never know when these things are going to happen, and that's the importance of... Even if you feel like you're in a place in life, Tony, where, "Hey, I am not quite ready for a financial professional yet," maybe you are, and maybe it's worth looking at a little sooner than... I think a lot of people feel like, "Hey, I don't need to talk to a retirement professional until I get over 50." But to your point, luckily for these folks, I guess a little silver lining, if you will, as they were already tax clients. So they had you there now to help start guiding them with some of these other pieces.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, yeah. No, I agree because I do think the younger people certainly don't give it as much thought as they need to.
Marc Killian:
No, and understandable. None of us do.
Tony Mauro:
No.
Marc Killian:
We're all invincible till we're not.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. That's it.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Well, folks, again, it's terrible to have to share stories like this, but it is part of life and it's why it's important to have a team on your side, some people that are there to help you finding the right financial professionals for the time of life that you're in, and the things that you might need to tackle events, whether it's traditional retirement or a sped up timeline, like this situation, this story here. So if you need some help, reach out to Tony and his team at yourplanningpros.com, yourplanningpros.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify, whatever platform you like using. We're on all the major ones there, so just type in, "Plan With The Tax Man," in the search box, and you can find it that way. Or of course, just go to Tony's website, yourplanningpros.com. Tony, all my best, my friend, and thank you so much for sharing the story and the very best to these folks as well.
Tony Mauro:
See you on the next episode.
Marc Killian:
All right, my friend. We'll see you the next time, right here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.
Imagine your retirement plan as a sports jersey, customized just for you. Today, we're exploring how every detail from numbers to names can define your financial future.
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Imagine your retirement plan as a sports jersey, customized just for you. Well, today we're going to explore how every detail, from numbers to names, can define your financial future, here, on Plan With The Tax Man.
Speaker 2:
Look up in the sky.
Speaker 3:
It's a bird.
Speaker 4:
It's a plane.
Speaker 5:
No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero, but Tony Mauro has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for Plan With The Tax Man.
Marc Killian:
Hey, everybody, welcome into the podcast, Tony Mauro and myself here to talk about tailoring your financial jersey for the perfect retirement fit. How's that for a little metaphor? Action going on? Tony and I are going to have some fun. It's preseason football time, and so I figured, hey, what the heck, right? Let's have a good conversation about this kind of stuff, Tony. And people are getting excited, geared up for the new sports seasons coming around. Hockey will be back. I'm a hockey fan. So, hockey will be back in about two months. So, why not? We'll have a little fun with this stuff. How you doing, my friend?
Tony Mauro:
I've been good. We're approaching the end of summer here, so state fair time here, and everybody knows that everybody goes out and has fun at that, but then everybody gets into the fall mode. So I figure, yeah, like you, football season around the corner, college football for us here, and everybody gets excited this time of year.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, yeah. We're taping this second week of August, I guess. So, we'll be dropping this this week, I believe. Yeah. So, it's right around that time. College football, professional football's about to hit us. Like I said, several other sports will be back soon. So, good stuff. Of course, baseball's obviously going. Seems like baseball goes forever anyway.
Tony Mauro:
Forever.
Marc Killian:
But let's have a little fun with this analogy, Tony. So, every jersey, well, has a number, I guess, unless... Well, wait, the Yankees don't have names, right?
Tony Mauro:
No.
Marc Killian:
But they have their numbers, right?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. Numbers, no names. Yeah.
Marc Killian:
All right. So in some sports, though, the jersey number is dictated by the position you play, or at least it used to be. I still have trouble sometimes with some of the football stuff nowadays. It used to be linemen only wore certain numbers, like fifties, sixties, seventies, that kind of thing. And quarterbacks were always 19 and below, kickers, punters. But it's gotten a little looser, I guess, with the restrictions on some of that stuff nowadays.
I think some of the players, when they came from college, where I don't think those rules applied as much, I think they were really adamant about keeping their number if it was particularly lucky for them or whatever. So, therefore, they wanted to keep it, right? You might have a wide receiver that's a number two, even though that didn't used to be the norm. They used to be... Mostly, all receivers were in the eighties, right?
Tony Mauro:
Yep.
Marc Killian:
That was the norm for that position. Anyway, so if you've got numbers tied to the jerseys, well, you're probably definitely going to have numbers tied to your retirement account. At least you hope you do, anyway.
Tony Mauro:
You hope you do. And back to football for a second, some of these contracts these players are getting-
Marc Killian:
Oh, man.
Tony Mauro:
... with enormous money being spent, and they only have a very short career in the NFL, of course. It's not like baseball where you can play it a long, long time. But nevertheless, I don't know if that dictates some of the getting away from some of the traditional jersey stuff because they're making so much they get to decide, but anyway.
Marc Killian:
Oh, well, yeah, you're paying somebody $250 million, I'm pretty sure they let them do whatever you want, right?
Tony Mauro:
Whatever they want. But I do think, I mean, obviously, everybody's got their own number in their head about how much they should have for retirement. And really, I think what we work with them a lot of times on is they tend to focus on the wrong number. It's an important number. Know what you're going to have your nest egg, or your stash, whatever you want to call it. But I think they tend to focus too much on that.
Marc Killian:
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. The more important number, really, is whatever you have, what income is that going to throw off? Because that's what you're going to use to pay your bills and whatnot. And if that's not enough, how much do you need to get into the principal or your stash to have a retirement?
Marc Killian:
I like that, stash.
Tony Mauro:
And-
Marc Killian:
I like that, the retirement stash. That's pretty good. I like that.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. The stash, your nest egg.
Marc Killian:
That's right.
Tony Mauro:
And a lot of people don't end up adding up properly. I mean, we do it with them. Because you got to take income from all sources, not just your 401(k). I mean, there's your social security. There might be a pension in there. There might be something else. Maybe you've just got an account sitting. So, it's important to go over everything so that you know what the right number is and then what that first number is that you focus on because that is important. It's part of it.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Well, and think about players, taking it back to that. Like I said, sometimes players, they come out of college, and they're adamant that they want to keep their college number for whatever reason, sentimental value or an attachment, good luck, whatever the case is. And so, sometimes we do kind of get attached to thinking a specific number is what we need to have, and maybe that is the wrong viewpoint of doing it.
And you got other players that are like, "Hey, I'm going to this team," and let's say that number is tied to an all-time legend or something. And it's like, "A, you're not getting that number, first of all, or B, have to ask their permission," or whatever the case is. And they're like, "You know what? It's not that big a deal. Let me focus on just having a good career here no matter what my number is." And I think that's maybe the message in your retirement number. While it's okay, I guess, to shoot for a specific, let's just go with the million dollar thing, while it's okay to maybe want to shoot for having a million dollars when you get to retirement, I wouldn't let that be the complete hang-up, right? That's what you're saying.
Tony Mauro:
What I'm saying, yeah, is because depending on where you're at, and hopefully you're working with your advisor on these goals and things, you may not be able to achieve that number. And so, your number might be a little different, even though it's in your head, "I'm going to try to get to a million," there just may not be enough time and money to put aside to be able to do that. So, you got to adjust.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, got to adjust. All right. Well, actually, so I guess thinking on that point, we'll go to the next point, which is, typically, jerseys always have the name on the back. As we just established, the Yankees don't do that. And actually, the Indiana Hoosiers don't do that either.
Tony Mauro:
That's right.
Marc Killian:
They don't put players' names on the back of the jerseys. But, and this might sound dumb, Tony, the way I'm going to word this, but obviously, it's important for your retirement plan to have your name on it. Now, that might scratch somebody's head for a second and go, "Well, yeah. Hello." But think about those places where basically they're providing almost the same exact plan from person to person to person. Is it really your plan or is it one that the company, this larger broker firm or whatever, has deemed a good fit for 80% of people or something like that?
Tony Mauro:
And it's so important to have an individual plan. I think that's where we're going with this, just like the name. And you're right, it has to have your name on it, meaning that it has to be specific to you and your circumstances and what you've got going on in your life, not just be-
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Not like a rubber stamp kind of thing.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. Yeah, just not the run-of-the-mill, "Well, here, you should be fine. Do this," type of thing. Maybe in most cases you will be, but you want to know. I mean, that's the whole value of working with an advisor, I think, is you want to have a unique plan, and it needs to be based on your set of circumstances, not just run-of-the-mill. Some of it you can apply to everybody-
Marc Killian:
Of course. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
... basically, but others you really can't because everybody's got different goals and different lifestyles and what they want out of retirement. So, definitely, it's-
Marc Killian:
Well, I think in a world where we have crafted so much stuff, Tony, to be applicable to a large number of people, and I get it, businesses, no matter what the business, tries to make their product, if you will, applicable to as many people as they can because then, stands to reason, they get a chance of making more money, right? Because, hey, if everybody can fit into this jersey, for example, we'll just stick with that, if everybody can wear an extra large, or the majority of people can wear this particular size, then they know they're going to print more of those because they're going to sell more of those, right?
And so, if you're thinking about the brokerage places, if they're like, "Hey, we've got this pretty good plan that really works pretty well for 75% or 80% of people. We'll just rubber stamp names on this and send them in and out the door and make this a little bit more turnstile, turnkey, if you will." And maybe, to your point, maybe that does work for someone, but why risk it when you could get a truly customized plan from more of an independent boutique firm like yourself than just some big box cookie cutter thing?
Tony Mauro:
I agree. And we tell clients it's similar... And you're right, businesses are out to make money. And I always use McDonald's, who's been very successful over the years, but you buy a McDonald's hamburger here versus where you're at or even versus overseas, they all taste the same.
Marc Killian:
Should, right. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
That's how they make money.
Marc Killian:
Right.
Tony Mauro:
And you don't get to go to McDonald's and say, "Well, you know what? I don't really want what you have. I want this eight ounce fillet with such and such." They're going to shake it out and vice versa. But so tying that back to financial planning, really, is you have to, in my mind, have some individuality. Can't go off that standardization type of thing because I don't think you're going to really... You're certainly not going to get the value out of your advisor if you're doing that.
Marc Killian:
True. That's a good point. That's a good point. All right. So, we would be remiss if we didn't talk about some jerseys, they're pretty hot, right? They look pretty good. You're like, "Okay, these are nice looking jerseys." And then, there's some that are just god awful, right? I'm looking at you, 1980s Astros, with some of the most hideous jerseys ever known to man. Or if you're a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, hey, no offense, but sorry, those jailbird ones from the '20s or '30s-
Tony Mauro:
Oh, yeah. I-
Marc Killian:
... they use them to throwback, or they call them the bumblebees sometimes, not a good look. But the jerseys might be hot, they might look great, but the team, it's going to stink this year.
Tony Mauro:
It's going to be bad.
Marc Killian:
They've lost players, whatever. They're in a rebuild mode, whatever the case might be, right? So think about the White Sox of the '80s, right? They often get lauded for their jerseys, but they didn't have a single winning season during that entire period, right? The pinstripe. Or not the pinstripe, the Chicago White Sox of that era... Well, no, they did have some pinstripes too, but different than that.
Tony Mauro:
I think they did have it.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, different than the Yankees. But anyway, so I mean, you want a good... I guess, Tony, do you want a good-looking plan, or do you want an effective plan? I guess that's where I'm going with this.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. Well, I think overall you want an effective plan. It doesn't really matter if it looks good or not.
Marc Killian:
How many pie charts are in it?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, how many pie charts, how fancy it is, which is kind of funny. I was just in Denver last weekend visiting my son, and we stayed right near Coors Stadium there for the Rockies.
Marc Killian:
Okay.
Tony Mauro:
He informed me, "I don't follow them," that, "I think they have a second-worst record in baseball right now. The White Sox, I think, are in the cellar, and they've only won like 28 games," he said, "which is awful." But the Coors Stadium there, I went there, and it's cool. It's right in the middle of downtown. I mean, it's got a great vibe to it. But obviously, the product, the team right now is not very good.
So, getting that back to our talk, you're right, I mean, just you have some plan and it's filled with fancy pie charts and things that maybe you don't understand, and maybe it's even thick, so it feels like you really got something, is it effective for you and your situation, like we just talked about? Because if it's not, none of that really matters. At the end of the day, what matters is are you going to get to your goal and be able to do what you...
Marc Killian:
Yeah, exactly. Are you going to be able to? It doesn't matter how good it looks, all the boilerplate stuff that's in there. And even if you've got a good effective plan that looks really nice, if it's more complicated, then you can really, I guess, deal with, or it's not resonating with you, are you going to be as effective with it, right? So, just some things to bear in mind with that.
And look, we'll end it with this one. I'll just tie this last one here together, Tony. Jerseys change over time to the point of some jerseys look good, they go through periods where they do redesigns, and so on, and so forth, whether it's to do the classic throwbacks, or modernize them, or whatever the case might be. And that's why, because the marketing office, the head, somebody in the office somewhere said, "Hey, we need to overhaul. We want to freshen up," whatever. Well, the same thing with your retirement plan. I mean, it's pretty easy, low-hanging fruit here, but that's the reality of doing reviews. That's the reality of getting those annual, or more than maybe annually, conversations in with your advisor so that your plan is fresh, I suppose, and up-to-date, because the financial world is ever-changing.
Tony Mauro:
It's changing. That's the only thing that's the constant there is that. And if you just again go with, like we talked about, some type of plan that is a boiler point or... What do you call it? Boiler, just standard-
Marc Killian:
Boilerplate. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Boilerplate. And as things change, and as your life changes, and the economy changes, and all of that, that even tax laws, because, obviously, they're set to maybe have some major changes at the end of next year, that if you're not going to make these changes and change with things as your circumstances change, you're going to be left behind. Not that you're going to end up in financial ruin-
Marc Killian:
Sure.
Tony Mauro:
... but you may not end up with meeting your goals or really having the type of retirement I think that you want. And this is the whole purpose of, I think, being able to work with an advisor and having those annual, maybe more, meetings, talk about that kind of stuff. Most advisors, they're not just going to come in and just basically just talk about the weather and things like that. Most of them are using financial planning software. Most of them are going to be able to tell you where you're at right now, "What's going on? Are we still on track?" after you talk about the craziness in the market and all that.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's always going to be those one-offs, and the market's always going to do its thing. It's going to be moving around. So, little adjustments are required here and there. Sometimes your life's going to change. Somebody, a daughter's getting married, and it's going to be a bigger deal than you thought, and you were going to pay for the whole thing, and now you got to look at the best structure to change this or that. Even if you've got a great plan put together with Tony and his team, life changes, right? So, you may have to update that.
And of course, for many people, they've been doing it themselves because it's been fairly easy, I guess, for the last little bit when the markets overall have been pretty good on a fairly long run. It's definitely had some blips, and some sizable blips, over the last couple of years, but still, I think a lot of people have been doing the DIY mode for a while. And if you're growing your wealth, Tony, it's a lot easier to be in DIY mode than when you get to actual retirement or getting close to it because it's, again, when you pull one lever in retirement, it affects so many other things. How you pull your income, from where and when, it changes a lot of stuff. And that's where, I think, people start to go, "Okay, this is maybe more complicated than I realized."
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, I agree. And for us, it's using what we call tax-intelligent type of planning so that especially on the distribution stage, like you're saying, there are ways to minimize taxes, because taxes are the biggest chunk that could be taken from you. So, if you just haphazardly start doing that, it's going to work, but you could end up paying a lot more to Uncle Sam than you really needed to legally. So-
Marc Killian:
Yeah, absolutely.
Tony Mauro:
... keep that in mind.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, it's definitely important to get on with an advisor, have a conversation. As always, if you need some help and you've got some questions, reach out to Tony before you take any action. You always want to do that no matter what you hear on any kind of financial thing. Whether it's big talking heads or little talking heads like us, whatever the case might be, you certainly want to have a conversation with a qualified pro. And Tony's been doing this for 30 plus years. He's a CPA, CFP and an EA. And if you're already working with him, you already know that.
If you're already listening to the podcast, thank you so much for checking out our episodes when we do these, and hopefully they provide you with some good nuggets of information and things to think about. And don't forget to share the podcast with others that might benefit from the message as well. They can find it on Apple, or Spotify, or YouTube, and you can find all the information at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com. You can also just check the show notes of each episode. There's usually some little details in there as well. You can click on the links that way to subscribe to Plan With The Tax Man on whatever app you like using. So Tony, thanks for hanging out, my friend, and getting into the sports feel of this thing, and hopefully your college team does well this year.
Tony Mauro:
So yeah, we'll see you on the next one. My college team, my true love is, of course, Notre Dame, and, of course, then the Hawks.
Marc Killian:
Okay.
Tony Mauro:
Everybody starts out, sky-high expectations, and then it just starts dwindling.
Marc Killian:
Well-
Tony Mauro:
We'll see.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. What is it? Hope springs eternal, and I think that certainly applies to sports fans. They're always like, "It's a new season. We got a shot."
Tony Mauro:
Oh, yeah.
Marc Killian:
Even if walking into it, you know your team doesn't look good on paper, the true fans are like, "Yeah, we don't look that great on paper, but you know what? You can't measure. Paper doesn't measure heart, so we're going to see how they do," or something like that. All right, folks, well, thanks for hanging out with us again. Don't forget to subscribe to us, and we'll catch you next time here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.
Imagine retiring comfortably on just $42 per month—sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it’s exactly the assertion you might have seen in the headline of a recent article online. So today, we’ll dive into the sensational claim and uncover what it really takes to build your retirement nest egg.
Article
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/articles/you-can-retire-on-4167-a-month-if-you-do-these-2-things/
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Retire on $42 a month. Let's talk about that this week here on the podcast. This is Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro. Is the article clickbait or is it possible? Let's get into it.
Marc Killian:
Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with Tony Mauro and myself as we talk investing, finance and retirement. And we're going to talk about this interesting article that we found here that we want to run through and just kind of see if this stuff, is this kind of stuff just clickbait? Probably is. Or is it something that is worthwhile for people to seriously think about? So we're going to get into that chat this week here with Tony, and we'll share links to the article so you guys can check it out for yourself. And I think that realistically, Tony, this thing probably is clickbait. So I want to jump right forward into the conversation because one of the big things is talking about advisors all across the country for years have been saying, "Hey, you got to put at least 10% away in order to save for retirement."
Now, that new number has changed to maybe 15%. And one of the things talks about how it's really difficult for... I mean, it's easy to do if you have a long timeline to retire on $42 a month, but if you don't have that timeline and you haven't started early, makes this really difficult to pull off. Don't kind of walk yourself down that line of, well, I just won't do anything because I'm never going to get there anyway. Something's better than nothing at any age. Would you agree from your years of experience or am I crazy?
Tony Mauro:
Nope. I would agree a hundred percent. And when you, even in your scenario, 10 years or no, you said 17 years-
Marc Killian:
17, yeah.
Tony Mauro:
And you can get to 10% if you can do that, you're going to have a decent size nest egg. Now, it may not coincide with the goals you thought you wanted, but maybe instead of just living off the income, well, you had to spend some principle. Or maybe you need to work a little bit in retirement, but at least you know, but you'd definitely be so much better off than if you didn't do anything that it's never really too late to start.
Marc Killian:
All right, so let's kind of look at some more of these pieces here, Tony. The article mentions a 10% average annual return from the stock market on investments. All right. How realistic is this expectation over a long period? I mean, any kind of data you want to share with us over that 10% IED. It sounds great. How feasible is it?
Tony Mauro:
I would say I tried to use a little lower percentage. I mean, if you look back all the way back to the beginning of the stock market or the S&P 500, you can kind of get around that, but I think there's much more to it than that. There's tax efficiency, there's some risk factors. Maybe you're not a real risk-taker. So maybe realistically, I always tell them maybe we should start out with a little bit lower projection for that. That way if we end up at 10% over long-term, we are even better off. But let's not assume that. So I think that's a little, I don't want to say far-fetched because it is probably a round that. But again, not everybody wants to take those types of risks. So I don't like to go with that because then once you tell people that, boy, when it doesn't happen every year, they're upset. That's not the purpose.
Marc Killian:
They throw this AI stuff at us left and right all the time now. So every time you do something, you're going to get some information from it. So take that with a grain of salt. But just kind of quickly to follow up on your information there, Tony, since the S&P 500's average annual return has been around 10.5% since its inception in 1957, a hundred years, a hundred-year average, 10.6 average yearly return, or 7.4 when adjusted for inflation. Now, so I wanted to touch on that because okay, you could sit there and say, "Okay, maybe realistically over 50 years of working towards retirement, I should be averaging 10%."
But then you got to factor in inflation, which is okay, according to this, it's about 7% you're now bringing in. Then you got to start thinking about things like sequence of returns risk, right? So I want you to explain that a little bit to folks, Tony, if you would, because if you retired in 2001, guess what? You went through the lost decade where the market didn't return anything. So there's 10 years out of this 40 or 50 year plan you had that were just shot to hell.
Tony Mauro:
Exactly. So I think when it, depending on, again, when you start, I think it's naive to just use that overall 10% number in projections. And another thing stepping back to it is that's assuming A, that you're in the S&P 500, maybe an ETF or something. But let's say that you get to little skittish and you decide to get out of the market five or 10 times or 20 times over 30 years, the best days, and you miss those, what that does to returns.
And so our job is to try to, wherever our clients are at, is to keep them focused on the end goal and not let them do that. But there's a lot to it. Then you jump ahead to inflation, which a lot of clients don't ever take into consideration. We always do because we're saying, it's what you get to keep, what we're shooting for and inflation we have no control over. And that's going to average what it has. And so that's why we're trying to get a little bit better returns rather than just leaving money in a cash account or something. Because inflation is just going to erode that future value of that so badly that your nest egg's not going to be anywhere near what it would be if we can get decent returns over the long haul.
Marc Killian:
Very true, very true. So what is sequence of returns risk that I mentioned for folks who are not familiar with that?
Tony Mauro:
The sequence of returns risk, you mean talking about when they pull money out or?
Marc Killian:
Yeah, so like if you were putting money in your portfolio, but depending on when you retire, what the economy's doing, what it can do to you, right, what can happen?
Tony Mauro:
Oh, you're talking about that part.
Marc Killian:
Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Yes. Yeah. Well, it is just like you're talking about the decade of lost returns and you started saving for retirement, say in 2000, you went 10 years and didn't have any returns, versus a guy who started saving, I don't know, say 20 years earlier. Yeah, he's had the same decade of lost returns, but he's already well ahead of you even if you chose the same investments just because of the timing and the sequencing of returns. I mean, I went through it. I continue to invest my own money. And boy, I remember it, that 10 years I was always complaining to my wife is, "Boy, these investments, they're just not growing. I mean, we've lost 10 years now." In theory we did, but I kept investing dollar cost averaging just like we tell our clients to do. And so now the last 15 years, boy, I've seen some nice rewards for that-
Marc Killian:
Okay, gotcha.
Tony Mauro:
... by keeping in the market, keeping investing because it wasn't good. So there's all of that that comes into play as well, which is why I like to use a lower average even going in because it depends on when you start. If somebody's starting today, well, we're kind of at market highs. They could come in and say, "Well, geez, the market's too high." I think it's going down over the next three years. It's been everything else that's going on in the world into it. And yeah, maybe they're right, maybe they're not. But I tell them, you got to get started. Forget about all that. The important key is to get going. And if we have a downturn, then you'll end up rewarded the next upturn.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. And so you kind of think about it, you've probably seen things like this folks, these breakdowns on this where you have two different people, person A and person B. They both have a million dollars on retirement. They plan on pulling 45,000 out a year or 40,000 out a year, 4%, whatever you want to call it, easy math. And the first person has positive returns in the first three or four years of retirement. The market is up those three or four years, but then they experience a couple of downturns a little later. It has a dramatic effect versus this person B, who's first three or four years of retirement, the market's down every year because it winds up. That's what really starts to wind up hurting. And it really changes the longevity of your plan, right, Tony? That's where you guys have to run stress tests in various scenarios.
Okay, what happens if we retire on an up market? What happens if we retire on down market? How long does this nest egg last? And then that way you're able to speculate out and then maybe make some adjustments or have plans in line for such events, right? Because you can't control what the market's going to do, but here's the projecting that we think is going to happen should you retire with this, this, or this. And then that comes back to taking money from what accounts and when, right? Maybe that's changing when social security gets turned on. Again, pulling one lever and a bunch of other ones get impacted.
Tony Mauro:
The stress testing, while that sounds like a bad word, it's actually a lot of fun.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. It's not stress testing your heart.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, it's not going to kill you. But the computers make it very easy now to run scenarios in the matter of seconds. And really what it spits out, a long story short is the percentage of time, or say for example, based on where we're at now, taking worst case scenarios, best case, how much money you want to take out. You've got to say, I'm just using an example, 90% chance of your money lasting you to 95.
Marc Killian:
Okay.
Tony Mauro:
And that's through thick and thin. And when people hear those percentages, they can resonate with that. They say, "Well, that's pretty good," versus, well, you only got a 40% chance. They're like, oh boy, we got to do something different. But I don't like to get people lost in all the calculations. I like to just go with it based on here. This is the percent that we think. And if that's above 85%, you're in good shape and you can feel pretty good about what you're going to do.
Marc Killian:
Okay. Well, so overall, and again, we'll share links to this article. We kind of got a little bit sidetracked, but I think the idea still being fairly sound and having a chat about this, do you think articles like this, Tony, ultimately help or hurt folks thinking about retirement, right? Is it an oversimplification? Is it information overload? What do you think?
Tony Mauro:
I think it's information overload. I mean, they disguise the headline as simple. So that's pretty simple. But I think there's so much more to it that when you get down, like we just discussed it for what, 15 or so minutes and we just touched the surface, that there's a lot of information that has to go into it before you make a good decision. So I think it's probably a little too much. It does get the juices flowing about maybe asking some questions to your advisor, and you could have the same type of discussion that we just had and get yourself online or in line if you're not. But I think it's a little too much info trying to be simple. But obviously the goal of it is to probably market and to probably try to get the phones to ring or emails to be coming in.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, if it gets you, I think articles in general, in our current world that we live in with everything online all the time, that if it gets you motivated to take some action, I think that you can find a positive there. But I think if you just run with it without vetting the information with a proper resources, truly like a trained professional, then you can be hurting yourself and doing a disservice. So, hey, if it causes you to listen to this podcast because you saw this headline and then you then decided to call up Tony and say, "Hey, can I retire on saving $42 a month?" Then great. Because now, you've taken action. But just temper that with a grain of salt. So when Tony comes back and says, "Not if you just started saving $42 a month and you're 55 years old, no."
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, right.
Marc Killian:
I mean, yes, you can retire, but it's probably going to be more heavily on social security than you might've wanted. I think I use my mother often, Tony, on these conversations because she's retired solely on social security. She's 83 now, and is she surviving? Is she okay and comfortable? Yes. Is it the retirement she wanted? No. Right. She doesn't get to take trips or didn't as before. She's gotten to the point where her body's not letting her, but she didn't get to take the trips that she wanted to. She doesn't get to do some of the things that she wanted to, that she probably had plans or dreams for. But she is okay, right? She is surviving, she is comfortable, she is overall happy, but she also does require some help from her children. And I think most of us don't want to be there. She certainly doesn't. She tells me all the time, "This was not my plan." So that's the point of having a plan in my opinion. And I'm sure yours as well.
Tony Mauro:
I think so. That's the whole point of having a plan, is a story like that. And at least, like I say, I usually don't have much to say good about the government and taxes and everything, but they do have program and social security is one of them. And yes, it has problems and that's a whole another story, but at least it makes people comfortable and helps them along those lines. And otherwise, I mean, what other options would she have if she didn't have that? She maybe out in the streets or her family would really have to take care of her and have her move in maybe. But so yeah, it is those types of stories that you hear about. I got an aunt and uncle that are going down that same path. They're in their 70s. They had their own business, didn't really put a lot into the system for social security. So their social security benefit's very small. No savings. So they'll get by, but definitely not what they had thought a long time ago where they would be.
Marc Killian:
Not what you hoped for. Yeah, exactly. Well, all right folks, that's going to do it for us this week. So again, we'll post links in the show notes there so you can check out the article if you'd like as well. But I think at the end of the day, when we see salacious headlines or interesting things, hey again, if it gets the juices flow into what make you want to learn more or find out more about the situation for your unique needs, then great. But definitely vetted out and walk through that conversation with a qualified professional. Somebody like Tony, who again is 30 years experience in the industry. He's a CPA and a CFP and an EA and a great resource for you to tap into.
So he's in the Iowa area, but he's got clients all over. So if you're listening to the podcast and you're from someplace else, don't hesitate. Still reach out to them, go check him out online at your planningpros.com, that's your planning.pros.com. Tax Doctor Inc. is the name of the company. Lots of good tools, tips and services there. You can check out, you can get in contact with them, you can subscribe to the podcast, all that good stuff. Drop a line into the team, whatever you need. So go check them out at your planningpros.com. Tony, my friend, have yourself a great remainder of this month, which is just about over and I will catch you a little bit later.
Tony Mauro:
All right, we'll see you on the next episode.
Marc Killian:
We'll see you on the next episode of Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro.
Speaker 7:
Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC, investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services, insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.
Disclaimer: Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Member FINRA, S.I.P.C. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Are you telling yourself financial lies? Discover the top 5 lies people often tell themselves about money and retirement. Some of these could be severely holding you back, so stay tuned!
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Are you telling yourself financial lies? Well, this week on the podcast, discover some of the top lies we often tell ourselves about money and retirement, some of these could be severely holding you back, right here on Plan with the Tax Man.
Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast, Tony Mauro and myself back to talk investing, finance and retirement. And we're going to talk about some money lies we maybe tell ourselves about how we deal with things and handle things. I think it's something that we all do in various walks of life. We kind of, I don't know, little white lie ourselves, kid ourselves, whatever you want to kind of call it. I think we all can probably admit that we do it about various different things, and certainly money is one of those ones where we can do that.
So I thought this would be a good conversation for Tony and I to dive into today because, Tony, you see people doing these kinds of things on the regular. They kind of come in and you hear these different excuses that we make or things of that nature. It doesn't mean you're a bad person or a bad investor or anything like that. It just means it could be something that's causing you to not be as efficient or where you'd like to be in your retirement journey. So I thought it was a good idea to talk about that. How you doing bud?
Tony Mauro:
I've been doing well. How about you?
Marc Killian:
Doing pretty good. So do you kind of see these kinds of things often where people, they kind of rationalize, maybe that's a better word. We kind of rationalize how we have made choices we've made or how we feel about certain things in our money standpoint. You have to kind of show them how it's holding them back from reaching their goals.
Tony Mauro:
We do. We hear it all the time. And we can make probably a list of 50 of these babies and we could be here all day.
Marc Killian:
Okay, well we'll just do five. How about that?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, I picked top five, but you're exactly right. People say these kinds of things all the time because obviously they do them.
Marc Killian:
Sure.
Tony Mauro:
And most of them go against your bigger goal and your plan. So that's why I wanted to talk about some of these today.
Marc Killian:
All right, well let's jump in and do the first one. I love this first one for the fact that you got to be honest with yourself folks as you're listening to this. The first one is, I'll pay back the money that I've taken out of my savings or borrowed from my own 401k. All right, come on. Let's be honest. How many times through your life have you said, "All right, I'm going to take some money out of whatever account to do some thing and I'm going to put it back." We never pay ourselves back. I shouldn't say never, but many people wind up... Life always gets in the way, Tony. And so it's kind of hard sometimes to truly pay yourself back.
Tony Mauro:
It is. And just like you said, I would never say never, but I almost never see clients do that and pay themselves back. Hardly ever.
Marc Killian:
I guess the 401k, you kind of have to, if you did the loan thing, right?
Tony Mauro:
If you did the loan thing, you have to. But many times they'll just say, "I just took money out of my 401k," and we'll ask them why, and it's not really an emergency. And they'll always tell us, "But don't worry, I'll pay it back." And a year or two goes down the road, they haven't paid it back.
Marc Killian:
And boy, that's like a triple whammy. Well, I guess it could be, depending on your age, right? If you hit with the tax, the penalty plus the loss of compound.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. All that comes into play. And then you also have to, if you take all that in and really do the math, you have to pay more back than you borrowed or that you took out if you factor it in. But the big key we try to tell people in this area is you're saving money for different goals. If you're planning your whole financial life properly, you shouldn't have to borrow from these things or take it out for something that is not that goal. And so it might be a bigger problem that we have to help you try to solve there so that you don't do this. Because if you are constantly doing this and going backwards, you're really not getting any closer to your goals.
The big example I have, and this is true life, happened right here in Des Moines, Iowa. I have an accounting and payroll client who we do the 401k advising for. A young kid, and he calls up a couple weeks ago and says, "I'm not making any money in my 401k. All my money does is go down. But yet the people that I work with," which is only about two or three others, "...they had a great year last year. Why is that?" So he pulled up his account and what he'd been doing is putting in like $200 a paycheck, and every two weeks, he'd take it out. So he actually withdrew everything out that he put in except for like a hundred dollars. And he wonders why last year in the market specifically most funds and everything else went up. He did not. And so it was a very simple conversation of you have to stop pulling money out of this. Why are you even putting it in if you got to pull it out?
Marc Killian:
Yeah, he's sabotaging himself.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, sabotaging himself. So he's a laborer and he did not know that he was supposed to leave it in there. And I said, "Well, what do you think you're... Why are we even doing this?" And so I had him come in, had a long talk about finances and where he wanted to go and whatnot, and I think we've got him on the straight and narrow. But he actually just thought that this was a temporary savings and then he was to pull it out when he needed it. And so that kind of stuff goes on. I mean, everywhere. Not to that extent, but...
Marc Killian:
Right, but it's how we get in our own way. And again, the point is these things can severely hold us back or even wreck our strategies. So we certainly don't want to do that. And it's always hard to pay ourselves back. I mean, it's bad enough this old adage about not borrowing money from or not loaning money to family, right? Because they know, "Well, you're family. I shouldn't have to pay you back." That kind of thing. Same kind of thing with yourself sometimes. "I shouldn't have to pay myself back."
But again, you're kind of paying future you back, or you're not paying future you back, I suppose, by not doing it. So, all right, good one there. That's certainly a good one to think about. All right, let's go to the next one here. And it's, "You'll only live once. Might as well spend it now." There's a bunch of people who can certainly, I can even identify with this somewhat, Tony. I mean, there's lots of times where you're thinking, what is the old saying, Tony?
There's not a Brinks truck following the hearse, right? On the way to the funeral or to the cemetery, so might as well enjoy it. And we want to enjoy it, but you got to be a little bit responsible. And this is the point of a strategy or a plan because it seems like people fall in two categories. They either have saved fantastically, they got a ton of stuff that they'll never be able to use, and then they're still afraid they can't use it so they don't enjoy their retirement. Or you got the ones who blow it a little too much and they're worried about not making it all the way through retirement. You got to find a happy ground in there somewhere.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, the keyword, you just mentioned it, is balance. And you have to balance everything there, which is why you want to have a plan in the first place. So I look at this one as this is the people that don't even start with the last topic we just discussed. They don't even save any money to even pull it out. They're just spending every dime.
Marc Killian:
They're just big wheeling it. Okay.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And I agree that, yes, we can't control when the end is for each one of us, and so I get it. And this is a great topic where if you get a plan in place and then learn to live without, you can have a little of both and still have some fun in life and have a great retirement towards the end. But you can't do that. You can't just live above your means and constantly not save. You'll never get to where you're going. And believe it or not, we have a lot of tax clients that they've gone all their lives and they're now in their late seventies, early eighties, and they've done this. And only now are they scratching their head saying, "Man, I probably messed up a little bit. I shouldn't have done all that and I did it incorrectly." And they don't have any more time. So for them, it is what it is and you got to take what you have. But especially the young, you got to get out of that habit.
Marc Killian:
Gotcha. Well, talking about young, let's go to our next one here. "I'm too young to start saving for retirement." So that fits very well to what you were just saying. But man, I got a 27-year-old daughter, she's had a good career now in last three or four years, and I've been harping on her. You're in a great place. Put more away than you think you can while you can because you don't have any kids and things of that nature right now. That stuff's going to change. And so don't act like, "Well, I'm 27, I'm young, I'm having fun, blah." Great, but still. Put 15% away, man, don't be a dolt.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, I think it's never too young to start saving. Even if it's 10, 20 bucks a paycheck, get in the habit of saving.
Marc Killian:
Heck yeah.
Tony Mauro:
You can always add more as you make more. But as you said, life starts getting in the way. Kids start coming for the young people, marriage, all kinds of things, and-
Marc Killian:
Of course, look at the cost of housing now, right? They're terrified they can't even afford to buy a house. So they feel like, "Well, how am I going to save for retirement when I'm trying to save for a house?" I get it. But to your point, God willing, future you is still standing down the road waiting, Tony. At some point, you're going to be 70 and you're going to really wish that younger you wouldn't have been a goober and not put anything away.
Tony Mauro:
It's interesting too, you get with an advisor and start asking them, "Well, if I put away say a hundred dollars a month now and what I'll have at say age 70 versus if I start in five years from now, what will I have?" And let them show you what those differences are, and they are pretty large. So delaying is a bad tactic because it's going to cost you a lot more. You're just going to have to spend up, and we're going to talk about that in a second. You're going to have to save more later and it's going to be a lot more and it's going to be a lot more painful.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, very true. And we don't want that, right? The painful part is what we're trying to avoid by hopefully-
Tony Mauro:
Try to avoid that, yeah.
Marc Killian:
... building a nest egg early on. And again, to your point, and you can go do some crazy, you can go out there and look at some really cool interesting things. You can use some calculators. Just putting away 30 bucks a month starting at 18 or 20, what it can do by the time you're 65 is crazy. Some good stuff out there that you can certainly be doing even when you can't afford it. But especially if you are in your twenties and you are making a decent living and you can put a little extra away because you don't have some of those extra things going on and maybe it cuts back your partying or your going out or your whatever. It's worth it in the long run. Just a little bit here and there to do that so that you can kind of let that compounding interest really kick in over the next 35 or 40 years. So never too young.
All right, let's see, what else have we got here, Tony? Like you said, there's like a list of 50 of these we could go through. So let's do this one here. "I can make up for lost time." Okay, and here we go. So I didn't start young. I'm too young, so I'm not going to start. Well, you rolled yourself into number four here, which is, "I can make up for lost time by saving more later on." This is almost like the paying myself back conversation. Are you going to make up for lost time? If you spent 30 years not getting ready for retirement and then you went, "Oh, crap, I'm 55, I better get started." Yeah, it's never too late. I suppose we need to say that, and there's definitely ways you can do some things and there's catch up contributions and things that allow us to make up some ground, but maybe this is more of a willpower conversation, Tony. Are you going to actually put the effort in this time?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. Are you going to do that, put the effort in? And then if you're going to say that and we show you the numbers, now you're talking a lot of pain, because if you can have the willpower to do it, you are going to have to start saving a lot more. And then you are going to have to really make some tough decisions in your life as to whether I want to get to the end with a certain goal in mind, and do I want to give up that kind of money, not give up, but save that kind of money? Will my lifestyle afford that?
Marc Killian:
Yeah, alter your lifestyle for a little while going into it. I mean, nobody wants to go backwards in their retirement lifestyle. From the ideal, I mean, ideally, Tony, when we're 50-plus, we're hopefully making the most money, right? This is all common sense stuff. We're hopefully making the most money we have in our professional careers. Hopefully the kids are out of the house, we're working our way towards the house being paid off. So yes, there are ways. And you are in a good spot to save more, but how badly have you damaged yourself by not doing any prep ahead of time? Some people it's a little, some people it's a lot. So you may have to truly decide, what am I cutting out to get this extra savings in? It may have to be more than you planned on, so just be prepared for that.
And I'm sure that you've seen people in various stages of this, right? I mean, and so many of us walk into a financial advisor's office for the first time and I think it's pretty overwhelming. I want to say it's like seven out of every 10 people or whatever feel like they walk in and they're already filled with dread because they're like, "I know I'm not in a good spot, I'm not in good shape." And oftentimes they're actually pretty pleasantly surprised to find out they're in better shape than they realize, which is good. Do you see that as well?
Tony Mauro:
We do see that, and I think a lot of people think they're going to walk out of here and we're just going to beat them up over, "Well, you haven't done all this. You didn't start early enough, blah, blah, blah." But it really isn't about that. It really is, "Here's where you're at, and if you want to be here, here's what it takes to get there. How can we do that?" And at least you know, well, maybe my goal is too farfetched or maybe I'm better off than I thought I was and this isn't going to be too bad. And it's good to walk out having some sort of plan.
Marc Killian:
It's a minor tweak, it's a major tweak. It's no tweaks. It could be anything.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, could be anything. And then try to work that plan and feel like you have somebody on your side helping you with that. And then if you do get off a little bit where you might be tempted to pull some money out of savings to take a vacation, we can be at least a sounding board. Obviously at the end of the day, it's your decision. It's always your money. But yeah.
Marc Killian:
Okay. Well, speaking of advisors, let's wrap it up with this one, Tony. For a long time, and it's definitely gotten better, but here even in 2024, you'll still hear people go, "I don't earn enough or have enough," or whatever, "...to hire a financial advisor. I'm not rich." I think there used to be a stigma about, definitely was a stigma about financial advisors and certainly something like a trust where, "Well, that's only for the really wealthy." And that has changed so dramatically. I mean, so many people in various walks of life have financial professionals that help them out because it's a coach. It's like coaching to be better at golf or your baseball swing or whatever.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And I like this one because when I hear that, I try to ask clients or potential clients, "Well, what have you heard? How do you think that we are paid and how much do you think we're paid?" Because it's, most advisors today are either fee only or asset-based, which is a form of a fee. And even if you start young and you don't have particularly a lot to get started with, most advisors are going to help you. The fees are not going to be as high as somebody that has a lot of money, but the complexity is not going to be there either.
Marc Killian:
Sure. Well, you're talking stages of life, right? Because you may hear some people, you'll hear somebody say, "Well, this advisor only works with somebody who has a million dollars saved. And I don't have that, so I'm not rich," or whatever the case is. But again, you're talking about various different types of advisors or professionals out there and what stage are you at? So it's looking for the professional that's maybe helping you with climbing the mountain versus helping you with descending the mountain. You're going to be in both of those points, but find the right person to help you with where you're at currently, right?
Tony Mauro:
That's it. And you want to ask the advisor, you want to know what they're getting paid just like you would any place else, whether you take your car somewhere or buy it, go buy a piece of clothing, you want to know what you're paying. And you also want to know what you're getting because I think that's the most important point because as long as the expectations are lined up and you find value there, then you're going to be in good shape. Now if you're going into an advisory relationship and you're just starting out and say you're going to start with an IRA and put five, $6,000 a year in it, you can't expect your advisor to meet with you 15 times a year and you're calling, bouncing stock ideas off them, because they just can't be profitable like that. But as long as they set up saying, "Here's what we're doing for you at this stage of life," and you're good with that and aligns with whatever you're paying them, it's a win-win.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, okay. All right. And like I said, we've seen this financial lie or myth or whatever get better through the years where more people are certainly waking up to the idea that they can provide value. And even if you're a do-it-yourselfer, think about the fact that Vanguard, which is one of the cheapest options out there for do-it-yourselfers to use, Tony. They even publish fairly often their findings that advisors bring real value to the table, often in the area of behavioral management, just keeping us from being our own worst enemy. Back to that number one where we take money and do something incorrectly with it.
Tony Mauro:
That's what we're getting paid for these days. And I say this, and this goes against a lot of advisors type of talk, but you really don't need an advisor to go pick investments. I mean, there's so much information out there.
Marc Killian:
So much technology, yeah.
Tony Mauro:
And what you need us for is what we just talked about and trying to keep you on plan and making sure you're trying to hit your goals. That's what you're paying for. And the investment part, even if you go do that part on your own and you're still paying an advisor just a fee, it's really that coaching slash consulting throughout the different stages of life.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. And Tony, and don't sell yourself short too though. I think the downside, the down, I shouldn't say downside. The downward trek from the mountain, it's coming down off the mountain, which is retirement where we're now pulling money out. There's a lot of levers being moved at this point, and it's how these things all play together. It's a lot easier to build wealth than it is to preserve it and then distribute it throughout retirement. That's really where I think the rubber meets the road as well.
The behavioral thing is certainly there because when we get, because we're nervous, right? I don't want to be 80 and without any money, so I want to make sure I don't make any mistakes. And often we wind up making mistakes trying to not make mistakes because we get scared of whatever. So I think it's really both those pieces in my mind, the value you guys bring into the table is that how do all these pieces now play together in this thing called retirement along with the behavioral coaching to say, "Okay, now I get why you're nervous, but let's not do this or that or whatever without really thinking it through."
Tony Mauro:
You're right. That's the favorite part that I like the most anyway, is once you do get to these goals, which is usually around retirement, is okay, now everything changes. Now we got to try to figure out how do we make this money last and so you can enjoy what you just spent a lifetime building. And you're right, there's a lot of different pieces then. And obviously people want to earn as much as they can on the money that they've got accumulated so that they can use this in the ways that they want. So that's where it becomes difficult.
Marc Killian:
Well, and then the behavioral management comes in of don't risk pushing for big earnings and putting yourself in this vulnerable state where you can also lose a lot because you're taking on more risks than you really need to. Hey, the plan says you're good. We've built this plan and you can get by on or not even get by, but you can be successful on 6% return or, I'm just making up a number here. So why are you risking serious pain for 12%? Yeah, I get it. We all would love 12% year over year. It's not realistic, so why risk it?
Tony Mauro:
No, I agree with that.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, okay. All right, well there you go. And of course then there's the tax lever, right? So I'm going to wrap it up here. But basically when we're thinking about retirement, and Tony, obviously as a CPA and a CFP, you've got both sides of this going on in your head there. But when we're building wealth, it's a whole lot easier just kind of putting the stuff in there and blah, blah, blah. But when we're starting thinking about retirement, when you pull one lever about where you take money from and when, it affects three or four other levers. So tax efficiency becomes a big part of this conversation as well.
Tony Mauro:
Big part of the conversation. Absolutely.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it. So five lies we might tell ourselves about money. And of course, if you need some help, especially on that behavioral side, I've been kidding myself, or I've been leading myself around by the nose, maybe I should stop doing that. Well, reach out to Tony and his team if you've got questions, need some help. As always, before you take any action, check with a qualified professional like Tony. Again, he is a CPA and a CFP and EA of 30-plus years in the industry. So great resource for you to tap into. Subscribe to the podcast Plan with the Tax Man. You can find all the information you need at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com. Tony, thanks for hanging out buddy.
Tony Mauro:
Okay, we'll see you next time.
Marc Killian:
I always appreciate you. We'll catch you a little bit later here on Plan with the Tax Man with Tony Mauro from Tax Doctor Inc.
Disclaimer: Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Member FINRA, S.I.P.C. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Very often, we see people who know that the financial decisions that they’re making aren’t the best decisions, but they try to create excuses or explanations for why they’re doing what they’re doing. Let’s talk about why these excuses usually don’t hold water.
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Very often we see people who know that the financial decisions that they're making aren't the best decisions, but they try to create excuses to explain why they do what they do. So, let's talk about that this week here on Plan With The Tax Man. Hey, everybody. Welcome into the podcast. Tony, myself, here to talk investing, finance, and retirement. Tony and myself. I don't know why I can't talk this week. To have a conversation about popular excuses for poor financial decision-making. And really, Tony, I've just got five basic questions here. Look, we're all really good at saying, "Well, I did this because of that." and sometimes we know it's a bunch of BS, that we're just throwing some junk out there, because we didn't think it through or we rushed to a decision. And certainly, that's part of life. It's part of being human. But, when it comes to the financial stuff, especially as we're getting closer to retirement, we really don't want to be making excuses for bad decisions, because we don't really have the time to fix these bad decisions. So, let's maybe try to get it right the first time.
Tony Mauro:
Okay. Yeah. I agree with it.
Marc Killian:
That makes sense? It makes your job easier, too, when we can get it right the first time, because it makes it easier for you to build that plan for us. So, let's talk about a few places where we might get this wrong and make an excuse. And obviously, we're going to start with social security, clearly. The whole turning it on at 62 thing, the excuse being, "I want to get it back before it's gone," Or whatever thing you want to grab onto, other than just saying, "I truly need the money, and that's why I'm turning it on." Okay, that's a valid reason. But just saying, "They owe me. It's mine. Whatever. I'm turning it on." Well, fine, but you could be costing yourself a ton of money, if you do that.
Tony Mauro:
A ton of money. The other excuse that goes along with that is they're going broke. They won't get it. Blah. Blah. Blah. And I just had an email this morning from a tax client, asking this very question. And his email went, "My wife is 67. We're thinking about waiting until 70. I've asked different people. They all give me different answers." Of course they do. And they want to know about when they should take it. Now, most people at the younger ages, they may want the money. That's a valid reason, and there's all kinds of things that go into it.
But what I can say from a financial planning standpoint is ... And we have this and we utilize this for our clients, and your advisor should have this, is there is some sophisticated software that we can run and punch numbers in to show you basically, "Here's what you're going to get over your lifetime if you take it at 62. Full retirement, age 70, whatever you want." And show you how long it takes to break even, because that's most of the time what you're asking, is, "How long do I have to live to break even and actually come out ahead?" And there's a lot of factors, and there's no wrong answer. But, don't just rush to take it at 62, because you think that you're going to get the government. You're going to show them.
Marc Killian:
"I'm going to stick it to the man."
Tony Mauro:
And start taking the money.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, "I'm going to stick it to them." Yeah. No. And you're sticking it to yourself if you do this wrong. Right?
Tony Mauro:
You're sticking it to yourself, because every year you wait, all the way up to the max, which is 70, they give you a little bit of an incentive to wait, because they increase it by about 8%. And then people get confused, and they say, "Well, yeah. But, I didn't get it for eight years or five years." And that's where we could show them with some software, and make it very easy with some calculations. And obviously, we're going to show them in layman's terms, not show them all this other stuff. But, it's easy to show somebody, "If you wait until this, based on your average life, how much you actually could come out ahead." And then it's up to, of course, the client to decide.
Marc Killian:
Exactly.
Tony Mauro:
There's a lot of factors that go into this. There's health, there's longevity in your family, things like that. And like you said, if you really need or want the money now, no one's going to say you can't do it. It just might be a bad decision.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. That's what the stress test is for, the social security Maximisation. Right?
Tony:
It is.
Marc Killian:
You guys can go through that and see where it stands, what makes the most sense. What is your breakeven point? So, don't just make that excuse. Get the answer and then make the decision. Number two, when someone's taking too much risk with their money, often we'll hear excuses like, "Well, I got behind. I'm making up for lost time," which is normal. We all feel that way. We feel like we didn't get enough saved for retirement. But, a lot of times, Tony, you'll hear this when somebody comes in for that initial consultation and you're looking through their portfolio and you're working on building something with them. And you're like, "Oh, you're taking way more risks than you probably should be at this age." and they're like, "Yeah, that's because I got behind." Well, that's the point of the evaluation, is that maybe you're taking more risk, and you don't actually have to. Maybe you're not as in as bad a shape as you thought you were.
Tony Mauro:
That's right. And it all comes down to trying to figure that out and backing into it from a good plan, a good starting point, because it depends on what their goals are and whatnot. And if they haven't defined that and we sit down with them and come up with those goals and what they actually say their risk tolerance is, compared to what they're doing ... And I hear this all the time. We try to tell them, "Well, maybe we can get to these goals by you just saving a little more, because the risks you're taking might be far too large." And risk is a risk. If that risk does not pay off, you're really going to be in a real bad spot, versus "Maybe we better back it down a little bit. Yeah. You might not get to where you need to be, but you're going to have something." That's what we try to go over there.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Great point. So again, you want to make sure that if you're feeling behind, first find out if you truly are, before you start swinging for the fences.
Tony Mauro:
Right. Yeah.
Marc Killian:
And then your advisor's going to say, "Okay. Look, we are a little bit behind. Here's a couple of strategies that we may need to do to get you to your goal, versus just willy-nilly taking the risk when you may not need to," or as much risk or more risk than you need to. So, sitting on too much cash. They'll often explain it, "Well, I don't want to lose it like I lost last time the market went down." Now, I realize that that's changed a little bit these past couple of years, with cash finally paying a little something. But, if you're still being pretty hesitant to be in the market for your long-term monies, you're doing yourself a disservice, because ultimately, even the cash that we're getting right now, Tony, which is better, it still doesn't keep up with inflation. So, you've got to have some growth monies.
Tony Mauro:
You got to have some growth monies. And this is where a good plan comes into place, because hopefully, you can be diversified. Yes. You can keep some additional monies in cash, especially these days, because it is better than it's been. But, long-term-wise, it's not going to get you to your growth goals, especially if you're a little younger. It's a little different for retirees. But, at the same time, most of the time we'll ask them, "Well, if you lost all your money the last time, what were you actually doing? Were you trying to do all this yourself and took too much risk?", which we just were talking about. "And you had a bad short-term fluctuation in the market. You panicked and sold everything?" So, we try to get them off of that, trying to time the market and not worry so much about that and base it off truly what their plan is.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Definitely. And I get it. I get having that feeling of, "Oh, I feel better seeing X amount of dollars in the bank," or whatever the case is. But again, basic conversation is that you're losing money safely, even if you are getting four or 5%, which is what we can see right now. Still not truly keeping up with what we know real inflation to be, not just CPI numbers.
Okay. Number four, when someone has no idea what they're invested in or what their money's even doing for them, well, the excuse sometimes is, "I don't know. I picked this," or, "I did that, but it's not my thing. So, it's looked good." Whatever excuse you want to pick, you've got to understand what it is you have and why you have it. Even if it's not your thing, you need a basic understanding of that. And I think a good advisor's going to help explain that to you, why they're recommending what they've recommended and what it's doing for you.
Tony Mauro:
That's exactly it. This is my favorite, especially when people come in and they have money in their 401k different investments, they have no idea what it is in, or even what it's done. And that, just like you said, that is where, just like we talked about on the last episode, a financial advisor that you're paying a fee to is going to be able to help you-
Marc Killian:
[inaudible 00:08:44] Well, think about it like this, Tony-
Tony Mauro:
This is our thing.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. Think about it like this. How many people get into a stock because they hear it's cool, or because their dad loved it, whatever. "Dad had Coke. I want Coke." That's not an endorsement for Coke, by the way, folks. Coca Cola. Coca Cola. Let me clarify. But, you know what I mean? Or GM, or whatever, right? "Well, Dad always drove a Chevy, so I love GM stock," or something like that. That's fine. But, is it really beneficial in your overall strategy? I guess there's nothing wrong with having some favorites, but whenever you're sitting down to craft a plan with your advisor, let them know that there's some personal attachment to that. But also, be open to hearing the fact that maybe you shouldn't have this percentage in just that thing, because it's not helping you, or whatever the case is.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And we have clients that did want certain types of investments for sentimental reasons. Nothing's wrong with it, like you say, but it's just part of the overall plan. But, if you're just out there willy nilly and say, "Well, I've got this. I've got that, because of this," or your quote, "excuse," that may not be or have anything to do with getting you to where you need to be with your goals and then your plan. And so, that needs to be looked at. And again, that's where an advisor is going to help.
Marc Killian:
True. And sometimes we'll hear stuff like, "Well, I went to three different companies and bought three different mutual funds, so therefore I'm diversified. Because I don't really understand this, but I figured that has me covered. So, I covered myself by buying three different funds from three different companies," and somehow thinking that you're diversified and oftentimes you're not. You've really bought three mutual funds with the same junk in them.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. With the same holdings. Yeah. Absolutely.
Marc Killian:
Exactly. All right. Last one, Tony. If you're working with a professional, an advisor, broker, whatever, and you're not sure that you want to move on, but you feel like you should. First of all, if you're already asking yourself that question, if you're already saying, "Maybe I need to be looking for more out of my advisory relationship," then some things' clearly bugging you, and you need to get to the bottom of that with the current one. But, if you're not willing to walk away, just because you've had a good relationship or it's been a long relationship, the excuse sometimes is, "I just don't want to be hurtful," or, "They've always done me right,' or whatever the case is.
And I make this joke often, Tony, but that's like saying, "Well, I keep going to my pediatrician, even though I'm 60 years old, just because he's a good guy or a good gal." Well, they're not the right doctor for you anymore. They work with kids. You know what I mean? So, you need to see a doctor who's helping older folks and things of that nature that specializes in that. And I think the same thing applies with what you guys do, whether it's the specialty thing or if it's just you're not getting out of the relationship what you should be at this time of your life. Don't be afraid to look around for a new one.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And I think if you're asking yourself that question, just like you were mentioning something is bothering you, I think what you need to do is first of all, figure out what that is. There's some part of the value proposition that you're not getting as a client and that you maybe think you should. First thing you probably should do, if you really want to bring it out into the open is talk to the advisor about it and just tell him or her that, "Hey, I think I should be doing this. Does this fit in what you do and how we're doing it?" And if not, don't be afraid to say, "Well, I think I need that and I may want to go to somebody else." That's the first thing, because obviously it's not going to get better unless something happens.
Marc Killian:
It gets addressed. Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. Communication or something. I had a client like that, and he came over and as a relationship developed, really, I found that he did not want to do financial planning. All of a sudden he came in and, "Oh, yeah. All that's great." Blah. Blah. Blah. But, really all he wanted to do was, he was a TV watcher, and he constantly wanted us to find equities for him that outperformed the S&P. And we just finally said, "You know what? We can't do that. I could admit it. I'm not a stock picker. I'm a planner. And if you can-
Marc Killian:
You're not a day trader. You're not a day trader. You're a broker. Yeah. No.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. That's just not where I want to be. And I tried several times to get him and his wife together to lead the plan. Didn't have any interest in that. Finally, I told him, I said, "You know what? I can't be of value to you. You need to go either do what you want to do on your own, or find another advisor because ... " So, I actually severed the relationship, because I said, "As a fiduciary ... " We talked about that a little bit earlier. "I can't provide you any value. You're paying me a fee and I can't give you what you want."
Marc Killian:
Right. No. And that's great. You've got to have the right relationship for what it is that you're looking for and being able to receive. So, even if you are older and you know, need a financial advisor who specializes in retirement or building those kinds of strategies, but you're not willing to receive that information, and, or, work the plan that you guys create together, then you're just wasting everybody's time and money. So-
Tony Mauro:
And money.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. So, it's good to have an advisor that can give you ... Look, we all want to have our hand held from time to time, but you also need that person that gives it to you straight. Like, I changed my cardiologist after having heart surgery, because the other guy I had, while a fine doctor, his delivery style didn't work for me, Tony. It wasn't communicating well for me to do the things I needed to do for my recovery. So, I switched to a different cardiologist and this guy got tired of my junk and he started getting in my face. And it worked, because that's what I needed. I needed someone to be a little bit more stern with me. You'd think that you would need someone to be stern with you when dealing with a heart situation, but I did. And so, therefore, I had to find the right doctor. Same thing. Same exact thing.
Tony Mauro:
Same thing. Absolutely. Obviously, everybody knows there's a lot of advisors out there. You've got to find somebody that is going to be your style, so to speak. Because otherwise, it's like any other relationship, just like you were saying, it doesn't work for you,
Marc Killian:
Doesn't work. Starts to fizzle. You dread going. You don't really follow through with things. Whatever. So, those are some things to think about folks on our conversation this week. Don't make excuses for yourself. We're humans, we do it pretty darn easily. But, when it comes to your finance, try to eliminate those, so you can get it right the first time and have that happy and enjoyable retirement future that we all want. And if you need some help with that, you need to find the right person for you, well sit down for a consultation with Tony and his team and see if they are the right fit for you at yourplanningpros.com, that's yourplanningpros.com. Tony's been doing this for 30-plus years, a great resource for you to tap into. He's a CPA, a CFP and an EA. And again, a great resource for you to reach out to at yourplanningpros.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, so you can catch future episodes as well as past episodes. And Tony, my friend, thank you for hanging out.
Tony Mauro:
All right. We'll see you on the next episode.
Marc Killian:
Yes, sir. We'll catch you next time here on Plan with The Tax Man with Tony Mauro.
Disclaimer: Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Member FINRA, S.I.P.C. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Uncover the critical mistakes many make when choosing a financial advisor. We're cutting through the noise to highlight what often goes wrong—from misplaced trust in big names to overlooking the fine print. This episode is your essential guide to avoiding those pitfalls and making informed decisions that align with your financial goals
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian 00:01
On this edition of the podcast, we're going to uncover some critical mistakes many make when choosing a financial advisor, we'll try to cut through the noise and figure out where we go wrong when it comes to finding the right financial advisor here on plan with the tax man. Look up in the sky. It's a bird.
Announcer 2 00:18
It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero, but Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
Marc Killian 00:33
Hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast, Tony and myself here to talk investing financial retirement, and mistakes made when choosing a financial advisor is the topic of conversation. See if we can go through a couple of things here I got a I got a pretty long list. But we'll do at least a few of these, Tony and see how we can highlight some stuff for folks, how you doing?
Tony Mauro 00:51
And well, how
Marc Killian 00:52
about you hanging in there looking forward to a good conversation with you, as always, in getting ourselves into the groove with our podcast here, everything's going well for you.
Tony Mauro 01:03
It's going good, you know, tax season is as we're recording this now behind us, we have a few clients that we still they still owe us some information to get those done. But everybody is kind of taken care of and course around here now that the sun is shining a little bit everybody's getting outside more so like everybody's always a little happier. You don't want to come around. I'll
Marc Killian 01:26
tell you what, my neck of the woods, it's rained for like six days straight and about over it. Yeah, ready for some sunshine, we had a lot of sunshine for it. So I guess can't complain too much. But let's get into our topic today. Here. I've got a bunch of these, like I said, I don't know, we could easily turn this into a two parter. We'll see how it goes. But let's let's get started. See if we can run through some mistakes that people make when choosing a financial advisor. First and foremost, not understanding how the advisor gets paid. Look, this doesn't have to be a taboo thing, right? I mean, you guys don't work for free. But certainly as the client or potential client, it's okay for us to ask and understand how do you get paid? That's
Tony Mauro 02:01
right. And I think you do have to ask that to, you know, have your advisor. And you know, when you're choosing advisors, they should be able to tell you exactly how they're how they're doing that right. commission based fee based what right? Yeah, and you know, it's a little it's in yet you, what you need to do is maybe take a step further and ask for an explanation, if you don't understand most advisors today are either that they're either commission fee based or asset based, you know, and what we try to do is stay away from the commission based, you know, if at all possible, and what we do is we go kind of go over it and writing with our clients, you know, here's the way we get paid. And they have a choice, basically, at least with us, is they can just pay us a financial planning fee, just like they would if I put on my accountant hat and pay for that. Or they can and then go take and then invest and manage the assets themselves. Or like a lot of advisors, they call it an asset based fee, it's usually between a half and 1%. And what that is, is, you know, based on the amount you have invested, say it's $10,000, the advisor then makes you know, a half to 1% of that as his or her fee for, you know, helping you with your plan. And then you know, so you both grow together, but it's not based on any types of commissions or anything like that. Gotcha, gotcha, key, yeah, it's just really get it out in front of you. And, and then make sure you understand it, and ask a lot of questions.
Marc Killian 03:31
Exactly. And there's, people get a little weird sometimes when asking about that part of things, which I don't nearly understand in the financial services world, but it does happen. You go to you go to your mechanic, you ask him how much they're gonna charge you to fix the car, right? So I don't understand, sometimes you will get a little bit, you know, trepidatious around dealing with the how do you get paid question when it comes to financial advisors, but certainly nothing wrong with it, they expect it. So don't make that mistake, folks, and just talk it through and make sure that it's the right type of fee structure for you. Alright, number two, what about putting too much trust in big name brands, Tony, like, you know, I think the with the way it works now, with so many independent financial advisors, like yourself all across the country, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean because you're working with this person's smaller practice, that they can't do the same things that a big national brand can do, especially when a lot of times, you know, you guys are middle of people are going through fidelity or or whoever as the backing? Is it make a difference? does is it needed any more to go with the big name brand?
Tony Mauro 04:29
Short answer? No, I would say, right, well make it easy, you know, and that not to knock the big, big houses and things like that. They certainly have a name and brand recognition and things like that. But these days, you know, every financial adviser has access to depending on on how they're licensed and whatnot, how access to pretty much every types of of investment, you know, whether it be stocks, bonds, mutual funds, all the way across the board. And so what it really comes down to in my mind is the relationship Forget about names, and make sure you have a good relationship. You understand what this advisor is going to do from you, regardless of where you're at, you know, I think the, you know, in the old days, you know, when everybody was you watch the movies and whatnot, and you see those big wire houses and things, peddling individual investments and things like that. It's not like that anymore. You know, it's about the planning and whatnot. But I don't think it's, you know, it's putting too much trust in or maybe even lack thereof of I don't think in any of us are a better option than the other just because of a name, I guess.
Marc Killian 05:38
Yeah. And I like that, too. It's about the relationship. Right? You know, you can certainly go to one of the big name places, but they also do have sometimes agendas, right. So they may have quotas that they're asking of their, their franchises across the nation, or whatever. And so sometimes you look like a, you know, a nail, because they, they've been given a hammer to use, right. So you want to make sure that you're having those conversations as well. And, you know, when you're talking about making mistakes here, as the end user, as the client, if you're sitting there meeting with an advisor, you're going through the the initial consultation period to find out if it's the right fit, don't just sit nod your head and smile. If you don't truly understand something, don't be afraid to look like you don't understand, right? There's nothing wrong with that. That's why you went to see them and to begin with, because this is not your forte. So ask clarifying questions, right? You do, you
Tony Mauro 06:25
got to ask a lot of questions. And it's any advisor that is comfortable in what they're doing. We're not afraid to answer questions, because like you said, that's what you're paying us for. Otherwise, you go out, and you certainly can do these days on your own. And
Marc Killian 06:39
you know, and it's only if the advisor is, is is over talking right? Maybe over explaining or using, you know, terminology that you're not used to, you know, a that's part of the feeling out process, okay, maybe you decided that this person is not going to be the right fit for you during that consultation period, because they're not explaining it to you in a way you can understand. But they also might just be give them the benefit of the doubt that they might just be so used to talking in that way that they need you to kind of say, Hey, I'm not quite fall on you. Can you explain that more? And I think an advisor worth their salt is going to be absolutely no, no problem. Absolutely. Let me back that down and talk to you about it. Right. Absolutely. And I think that's something that we got to be comfortable with as the end user that, you know, that's why the that's why all advisors that I know really do offer that consultation, and conversation that thing complimentary, because it's like, it's a feeling out process. Does my communication style work for you? Does it work? You know, do you receive it? Well, actually, I'll just go to that one. Next on my list, covering expectations and the communication style. Tony, I'll jump around on here. Yeah, I think that's a great one too, right? Because if you meet with someone, you say, okay, hey, what are the expectations for us getting together? How often are we doing this, right? So that you don't feel like later on? Well, my, my guy or gal never calls me that kind of thing.
Tony Mauro 07:52
Exactly. And any advisor that is worthwhile, in my opinion, is going to lay this out, even in the initial consultation, it's what we do, we basically go over, you know, here's what you can expect of us. And here's how we like to communicate. And it's not just, you know, in generalities, we say, we're going to meet this many times a year, right. And if you prefer communications in person, that's what they will do them, if you want zoom calls, we'll do them that way, or even phone calls. But we are going to set up an agenda. And here's what we do all the way through the plan and then monitoring the plan. So they understand what they're getting. Because obviously, we're here to provide value. And if we can't show that we're providing that value, for the fee that they're paying, you know, obviously, they're not going to be real comfortable with that. But in that respect, also, you have to understand too, as as a client, that if you, you know, obviously, advisors are like everybody else, the more work you do, the more you expect to be paid. And so it's different, because you're talking about, you know, clients that their advisor never calls them, well, there could be a reason for that. Because, you know, if you're a client, let's say, and you're putting, for example, by $1,000 $6,000, into a Roth IRA every year, which is great, you should have the expectation that your advisor should at least be meeting with you, I would say annually, maybe a little more. But if you're calling that advisor expecting a meeting every month, they may tell you and they should upfront we do is that that's that's not this relationship, because of the fact that we meet that many times if there's no way that the advisor can be profitable. And I think that's where some of this, you know, voodoo and nobody wants to disclose fees, because there's that disconnect between the value given and the fee earned. And if you're upfront with clients, you know, and they understand that upfront, I think it just sets the tone for a much better relationship. You take the same investor that has say $2 million and a complex situation. Well, they well not only is the advisor going to make more Yes, but they probably need more meetings. But some people, we get it a lot, you know, where it's the young person wants to come in, and they want to talk about stocks. And every time they see us, you know, something on TV, they want to call on talk about it. Well, you know, the advisor might say, Well, wait a minute, you know, that's great and all but, you know, we can't really write to add value with that. And, you know, time is of the essence all the time. And so, the more we're upfront with people with that, I think, the better the relationship is,
Marc Killian 10:32
and to me, that sounds like maybe a bit more of a broker type relationship than looking for a financial advisor, financial advisor, really helping you kind of build, you know, your, your wealth, not only building the wealth, but also obviously, the preservation side of it, which actually really walks me into this next piece, which is picking someone with the wrong specialty. So part of that communication issue could be the fact that you know, you're younger, and you don't need a financial advisor per se, that specializes in retirement or whatever, you need someone who specializes in just wealth accumulation. Or maybe you just need a broker. But if you're over 50, you probably don't want a broker anymore, you want someone who's going to be talking to you about the other piece is like Social Security and like legacy, and so on and so forth.
Tony Mauro 11:16
Yeah. And it lends itself to even if you are a young client, it may start out fairly simple, you know, with a Roth IRA. And that's true, as you you know, as you grow, and as you get older, then it morphs into a different type of relationship more like you say, on the, on the planning side. And I think, you know, there are, it's a question to ask an advisor in the initial consultation is, you know, who basically, do you work with most of that time?
Marc Killian 11:44
Yeah, that's where I was gonna go, I was gonna say, Tony, ever, everybody's different. And you being also having the tax practice of the CPA and stuff, I imagine, there's, there's two types of clients that you guys have that might be good on that front, but they're really not the they're not in the right spot, or they don't need to pay you for the financial side of things yet, because it's just not where they're at right? Now.
Tony Mauro 12:03
It's not where they're at in their life. And we get it a lot of times with the young tax clients that they, they want to they want to bounce ideas off of us, you know, and they're just, they want to say, you know, I want to go out and buy some stocks, I want you to tell me what you think, right? Well, you really don't need us for that there's so much information out there, we have access to pretty much the same information you do. That probably is not a good fit for us. But right, maybe it is for somebody else.
Marc Killian 12:28
Exactly. Yep. Yeah. So there's nothing wrong with specialty, right? You don't go to the PD pediatrician anymore when you're 50. Right. Lily, yeah, you could you go to a different kind of doctor. Right. So same kind of thing, financially speaking. You know, how important is it to check their credentials? You know, it kind of ties back into the speciality, maybe, right, making sure. Are they a fiduciary? Is that what you need? Right? Do you need someone who's insurance only? Or need someone who can do both sides? Right, both, you know, equities and insurance products and things of that nature?
Tony Mauro 13:01
I think so I think it's important that you have an advisor that can do all of that. I mean, it's not necessary, but it's easier as a client. I think, the fiduciary it's been a big term in the financial planning circles. Now. I think it's important. I mean, this is just my opinion. Of course, I'm biased, because you know, I have to be held to that as you are one. Yeah. Because I am one in you really, all that means is that, you know, we're supposed to put the client interest before our own meaning that we should not be biased, as to the fact that well, we will, we're going to do this for you, Mr. Mrs. Client, because we earn more money on that, right. That's where we're, we're advisors whether or not telling people because it it, you know, it might look bad, right?
Marc Killian 13:46
Well, so Tony, think about this way, tell me if I'm wrong here. So like, if you're not a fiduciary, if your suitability only right, and you have three options to put client a into, and of those three options, you get a bigger perk as the as the person handling it as the suitability advisor, by putting him in option C, you get a bigger perk, or maybe even a trip or something like that, you can do that. Because technically, it's still a suitable investment for the end for the client a, but you also get to kind of reap the benefit on picking the better one, whereas the fiduciary, that's not the case, you have to tell client a the absolute, you know, this is the reason why this is the one you must be using, regardless of what how it benefits you, correct? That's correct.
Tony Mauro 14:29
I mean, that's it in a nutshell, and which is why most advisors now are leaning towards, you know, fee only or asset based fee, because then it takes all that off the table. You know, it's just we're making the same no matter what we do. We're more interested in making sure you have a full plan, right? And we're, you know, you're getting to your goals. Now. There's a couple of things out in the investment world, though that still aren't like that. And one of them is Insurance insurance. There's a few products out there where It's, you know, it's a flat fee, but most of the companies are going to pay Whoever sells you that policy, some sort of commission. And we disclose that right up front, we tell them what we're making. And it's a one time deal. But you shouldn't be even asking on those types of products, because it does lend itself to, you know, even with somebody with a fiduciary duty, you know, maybe they're not following their fiduciary duty, which they're gonna get themselves in real trouble if they don't Great point. But, you know, it lends itself to well, I'll do this for the client because of that, like, incentive, you know, yeah,
Marc Killian 15:34
that's a great point, for sure. Well, let me finish it off with this last one here, Tony, which I think maybe is something we wouldn't be thinking about normally, but it might be worth asking, when looking for a new advisor or looking for a financial advisor. You know, typically, the industry is starting to get younger, as far as the advisors out there, they're starting to get younger and which is good. Because it has been an industry where primarily, it was definitely ran, you know, it was older folks, right? You know, advisor has been around a long time, not young and Spry, like yourself, right? But it's it's worthwhile question to say, Hey, what is your succession plan? Because if you do meet with an advisor, and you do like them, and maybe they are a little older, right? What's their plan for stepping away from their own practice? Do they have someone that's going to be taking over? Do they have Junior advisors or people that you know that it's going to continue to serve you? Should that person retire? Nothing wrong with that question?
Tony Mauro 16:23
No, absolutely not. I think it's one of the most important because you're exactly right, is if you know, you and a lot of us advisors, especially when you go out into the smaller towns around America, it's just them. And yeah, you know, as they do age, you want to ask that, because like you said, if that something happens to them, you know, inadvertently or they just want to retire, it's gonna be a lot easier if you can stay in that firm, at least until you feel like you know, you want to move if the relationship isn't the same. Rather than getting, you know, no advice, no help, kind of not knowing who to call, things like that. So I think every advisor should be able to explain their succession plan to you. We I have one in place for myself, I have one Junior advisor, and I have two support staff. And if something happened to them that I have a backup, she has an outside adviser, a friend of mine in town, yep, that could handle these these clients, if something happens to me, because yeah, you don't know. And most advisors, you know, like you say they are at least 40 Plus ish. A lot of us are in our 50s. And even even, you know, there's
Marc Killian 17:33
there's a lot older a lot. Yeah, a lot in their 60s as well, and even even some 70s. So, I mean, you've been doing this 30 years, Tony, I mean, you're you know, you're in your 50s like I am, but you've been doing this a long time, you know, you're a CPA and a CFP and an EA, but it's still important to have to ask that question, right? You know, even if they're even if you're the advisor you found is 30 years old, you still want to ask because I mean, life, you know, a bust can come out of nowhere for anybody. Yes. Right?
Tony Mauro 17:58
It is yeah. And even at 30, you know, something could happen. And again, you could be left with nothing. So I think the team approach works better. I think to it, it's weird. Now that I am in my 50s, the old the older, my retiree clients look at me as young and you know, oh, yeah, you're gonna be in the business forever. The young people look at me, like, they'll ask that question. It's like, well, gosh, you know, you you're a little old. And we want to know, you know, when when you kick the bucket or whatever, who's gonna help us? And so it just depends on where you're at. But it is a great question. And I think it should be asked every advisor
Marc Killian 18:34
All right, well, there you go. So there was some mistakes that you might make when choosing a financial advisor. But again, the consultations and conversations are just about everybody I know. They're always complimentary. And that's the feeling out process to ask them questions, get your questions asked and answered not only about your own situation, but about how it's going, your interaction with them is going to go very, very important stuff. So make sure that you you know, think about that when you sit down and talk with someone. And of course, if you're already working with Tony Williams, you don't have to worry about that because you're already working with him. But if you're not considering doing so, make sure you reach out and have a conversation get onto the calendar at your planning proz.com That's your planning proz.com Let him know you'd like to have a conversation and a consultation about your retirement journey. Tony, thanks for hanging out with me, my friend. Always appreciate you. Alright, we'll
Tony Mauro 19:19
see you on the next one yet.
Marc Killian 19:20
We'll see on the next one. And don't forget to subscribe to us playing with the tax man on Apple, Spotify or YouTube platforms. You can just type it into the search box of those apps or just go to Tony's website you're planning proz.com.
Announcer 1 19:36
Securities offered through a van tax investment services SM Member FINRA SIPC, investment advisory services offered through a van tax advisory services insurance services offered through an event tax affiliated Insurance Agency investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional
Just like an annual checkup is important for maintaining good health, performing regular financial checkups is an essential part of planning for a healthy and successful retirement. By regularly assessing your budget, goals, and progress, you can make informed decisions to keep your finances on track. Although financial wellness is going to look different for everyone, we’ll share some areas you should be paying attention to in today’s episode.
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Just like an annual checkup is important for maintaining good health, performing regular financial checkups is essential part of the planning process for successful retirement health. So on this podcast of Plan With the Tax Man, Tony and I are going to talk about your financial wellness checkup.
Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast this week as Tony Mauro and myself talk about getting our finances, getting a little checkup, getting a little tuneup if you will, some things to think about to make sure that stuff is working the way it should because financial wellness is going to look different for everybody. We want to highlight a few areas where maybe we all should pay attention to various things on this week's episode.
So what's going on, Tony? How you doing, my friend?
Tony Mauro:
I'm doing well. Spring is here, and so I can't wait to talk about this because everybody wants to be outside here pretty quick. And I think besides having physical checkups, depending on where you're at, I think the financial checkup is always well in order.
Marc Killian:
Oh, yeah.
Tony Mauro:
So it's a good topic.
Marc Killian:
Definitely. I mean, you think about reviews that you do with your advisors or you do with your clients, it's kind of the same kind of thing. But we'll kind of tie it into the medical analogy just for fun as well.
But first and foremost, let's say you're trying to lose weight or you're trying to get healthy. So many of us are. You want to review your goals, so you want to discuss the importance of whatever your retirement goals are with your financial professional so that you guys can be on the same page.
Tony Mauro:
Exactly. And really every piece of this whole presentation we're going to talk about today is in essence, when we dig deep into it, it's the financial plan itself. We're only going to touch on a few topics and lightly, but one of the things we do with every client that wants to be a client of ours is we go through a plan with them.
Now a lot of them say, "Well, I don't really want that. I just need this." And I tell them, "You don't go to your doctor and just say, 'Well, I just need this, or this ailment.' I mean, they check you out. They ask you questions. They want to know what's wrong with you before they can diagnose something." And that's exactly what we're trying to do.
But the very first thing is trying to figure out what do you want? What are your goals? Because that's where we have to start and then see where everything else fits. Because without that, the whole thing really is useless.
So we start there in our plan, and we're going to go through some other steps here too, but it's so important because we go back to that at every meeting and visit that because goals change. And so we have to adjust our plan.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. So I mean, you got the outline if you will, which is the retirement goals and what you want to do and so on and so forth. But then you kind of dive into a little bit like you're going to check those vital signs, if you will, which typically is going to be the income and the outgoing, what's coming in, what's going out.
Tony Mauro:
Right. So once you know the goals, then we have to start working on the how do we get there? And much of it is dependent upon how much you're bringing in, how much you're spending. Maybe you have trouble spending maybe a little too much. We have to rein that in a little bit. Otherwise, these goals are never going to be met.
And so we work with them on trying to get them to track their expenses and their income and making sure that they have a little bit of money left at the end of each month. Living below their means is really what it comes down to because it doesn't matter how much you make if you're spending $1 more, then you're really not building any wealth. So that's second.
Marc Killian:
Right, yeah. Because you've got to make sure that you're keeping track of that. I know nobody likes the B word, but again, you've got to have an understanding of what's coming in and what's going out just so that you can make sure that you're staying within the grounds of the goals that you're trying to accomplish. You don't want to overspend, but you also don't want to not enjoy yourself and take advantage of the stuff that you've done. And other little things. I mean, I don't know, is it worthwhile to check your credit score often, Tony, or is there other little things to do in this kind of wellness checkup area?
Tony Mauro:
I would check your credit score once a year-ish I mean, at minimum. Some people I think maybe get a little too overboard with that, but I tend to tell them, "Check your credit score once a year." I tell them to monitor that.
I also tell them to pull when we get in to start talking about financial planning, is to pull their Social Security statement from the administration once a year. It's free. May take a look at it, see what your projected benefit is, and making sure that all your money or all your earnings have been credited and things like that. Just little things that should be on the calendar once a year when we're going through this exercise that you do.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, for sure.
The next piece here, so you got to build some financial immunity. So we're talking to keeping this health analogy, got to build up your tolerance, your immunity system, your immune system, if you will. And this is probably going to be in the form of having some liquidity, yeah?
Tony Mauro:
It is. And one of the things in the plans that we designed, and we're pretty adamant about this, we're pretty easy going on most things, but I'm pretty adamant that if you're going to work with us, we have to at least have you start what they call an emergency fund, we've talked about it before, to make sure that you are ready for the unexpected.
I mean, it could be an emergency. It could be your car completely dies, whatever that emergency is. You lose your job is the biggest one. And then making sure that you're ... even if we only are doing $50 a month, putting something into that emergency fund until we get it to a certain level. Because if you don't, it's a recipe for disaster. It derails everything we're talking about. If you've got all of a sudden shift and allow one minor mishap in life, ruin everything. And so that's what we want to do there.
Marc Killian:
Well, so we're talking determining the appropriate size of the emergency fund. Maybe automate some savings to help get you there. That could be another way to do it. And then of course, just to your point, replenish it as take stuff out as situations come up that you access it. And taking a cruise at the last minute, pulling it from the emergency fund is not really an emergency. That's stuff you should-
Tony Mauro:
That's not an emergency.
Marc Killian:
That's stuff you should be planning for, right?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, you should have a vacation fund for that.
Marc Killian:
Right, right, in fact.
Tony Mauro:
So we get into some of these funds and different things so that you can start allocating money for things that you want to do. Absolutely.
Marc Killian:
Okay. Well, let's give our portfolio a good screening here, doc, if you will, so make sure that the investments are doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Tony Mauro:
They are. We take people through. We ask them to bring us everything that they have in terms of statements. Let's see where you're at now and see how you're invested because we've got to make sure after we kind of know a little bit about your risk tolerance, about how you're diversified and your goals is what you're doing now, what you have, is it going to get you there or not? Or maybe you just took something off the TV and it sounded good and maybe it's too aggressive for you or something like that.
This is probably where the rubber meets the road is. Obviously we're trying to get you to save some money, but then we have to make it earn as much as you're comfortable with. And that's the investment strategy.
Marc Killian:
Exactly. You got to make sure that that strategy is going to fit the risk level that you're comfortable with and all those pieces that we've talked about a bunch of times. But if you're talking about just keeping this and this fun little analogy here, you got to have that screening, that review of the portfolio to make sure that you're adjusting it along the way.
And then you might want to take a look at diagnosing the debt that you've got clearly. So if we're thinking about debt, obviously there's these schools of thought of don't have any, it's okay to have some, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right?
Tony Mauro:
It is. And debt is the biggest thing that stands in people's way because most people have what I consider too much. I'm kind of in the camp of let's try to work towards eliminating all your debt eventually, not living real skinny to do it and not having any fun, but let's work that into the plan to make sure that we can get the highest debt paid down. Then other things and maybe the car and then maybe even the home. Because once you do that and you're debt free, I mean you could really free up a lot of cash flow. Hopefully you can either save or have some fun with along the way. That's a big issue in the plan.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, I mean, are you making progress and getting those debts paid off or are you not? Are you kind of trying to avoid some things? Have you explored other consolidation strategies if that's on the docket? Have you talked with an advisor and said, "Okay, here's what I got. Can you help me? Or if not, point me in the direction of someone that maybe can help me." Because obviously debt can be a huge piece to this whole equation. So make sure that you're absolutely diagnosing that for sure.
Preventative measures. So now we're talking about getting a little more proactive. If we're kind of moving through this as stages, you got to discuss the proactive, you got to discuss the future stuff. It's not all just about what do I have today and what am I doing? It's also what's this going to look like through the next number of years, 10, 15, 20, and the various pieces that come with that.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And some of the most important pieces of that looking towards the future, and you can kind of guess what these are. It's the rising cost of healthcare. Where will taxes be in 15 years? I mean, right now we don't seem to be paying our bills as a nation. Taxes I would say could be up. And then of course you've got the infamous we're all living a lot longer and you potentially could need some care toward the end of life, long-term care, assisted living, things like that.
So are you factoring these into the overall plan and just as contingencies, especially healthcare and long-term care? I mean, you can say what you want about taxes. I always say that I think they're going up and somehow I'm wrong completely because they keep going down, but I don't know how they can keep doing this. But I guess what we're trying to do in this stage of the plan for us is we're planning for the worst. And then if that doesn't happen, then we're well protected in our plan.
Marc Killian:
Right. I mean, because you've got to have the conversations about potentially healthcare expenses in the future. They're obviously going to go up. What's the plan and the long-term financial impacts of that? And clearly obviously Tony, what you do with what taxes. I mean, it's the end of April here, so hopefully you're all done with the tax season. You can have some stragglers here and there, but tax efficiency, man, I mean that can really make or break it.
Tony Mauro:
It can. Tax efficiency is backing up to the investment strategy really is where we fit in, trying to make sure that your portfolio is as tax-efficient as possible. A lot of people don't really take that into account and they think, "Ah, that's not really real." It really is real once you start showing people what the tax effect on some things are.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, I mean again, taxes are going to make or break it. So make sure that you're definitely having that as part of the conversation. And reach out to Tony, of course, if you need some help at yourplanningpros.com.
Tony, insurance coverage I guess could be another place to talk about this. There's lots of schools of thought. Do you need it? Is it adequate for you? But I mean, insurance products in general have changed, so there could be some useful things here. So certainly doing a review of this is not a bad idea.
Tony Mauro:
Definitely not a bad idea. No. And again, part of the plan that we do, a lot of people don't like to talk about insurance because they think you're going to talk to them into maybe a lot of life insurance or something like that. But I think it goes a lot deeper than that. It's the health. It's your auto and home. Of course, life fits in there. Liability insurance may be an umbrella, certainly disability insurance, the long-term care aspect of it, all that fits into the plan because boy, if you're not adequately insured, something bad happens, that could destroy you completely.
Marc Killian:
Do you find that people are more interested in talking about it as an option than they used to be because they have made so many changes? I mean, there's a lot of ways where insurance could play a really pivotal role or an insurance product, I suppose I should say, of some kind in your overall strategy.
Tony Mauro:
I think so. If we're keeping it to the investment/retirement strategy, it definitely can. I still like some of the whole life type of policies are issued that build up some cash value. Yes, they have gotten a bad name because I believe been sold where they weren't needed. But in certain instances I think that's very good.
I think annuities still have a place in certain situations. I mean, it's technically an insurance project, but I consider it more of an investment product. But things like that definitely could help in certain situations.
You hear on TV, of course with the insurance, if you're talking to like the whole old, I don't know who coined that. Was that ... I can't think of the company.
Marc Killian:
Prudential?
Tony Mauro:
Who was buy term and invest the difference, that was that ...
Marc Killian:
Oh yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Way back when.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, I'm not sure who that was, buy term, invest the rest or something like that.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, something like that, which that has its place too. But I do think cash value products do have, depending on, because it's a permanent type of policy, a place in people's plan if it fits.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, if it fits. That's the key word right there. So again, and being open. We talked on a prior podcast about just being open to the fact, especially if you're having retirement stress, open to suggestions or ideas or things because sometimes people will definitely walk in and say, "I don't want to talk about X, Y, or Z" when X, Y, or Z might be the thing that actually helps you get accomplish what you're after. So make sure you go through a plan and then also follow up with that plan.
We'll kind of finish it there. Just like any wellness check, you want to kind of check back in, whether you're losing weight or dieting or whatever, you want to kind of keep track of this stuff and set some goals and then see how you're tracking, see how you're doing.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, you're doing, yeah. And with today's technology in the planning process, all of this, a client's plan is basically out there for them 24/7. In other words, they see what I see. And as their investment products change, that's reflected, but their overall goals and plan are out there. And so it isn't like it's a surprise when we visit. They have an idea of what we're going to talk about and what we're going to go over, and then we make changes and then it's instantly updated.
So I think that that is one of really the cornerstones of why you're paying an advisor is really what we talked about. Obviously much more in depth when you're in an advisory meeting, but this is what you want out of the relationship is right here.
Marc Killian:
Yeah, for sure. So have yourself a financial wellness plan and kind of go through and find that relationship as Tony was just kind of finishing that up. The whole point is to find someone that resonates with you.
That's why it's important to come in and kind of get started with that complementary review that advisors offer, Tony certainly does the same thing, to see if it's the right fit all the way around. There's usually no cost or obligation for these things, and it's just a good chance to see, hey, does your philosophy match my philosophy? Can we work together? Because you've got to be able to hear the advice and be able to work that plan, but at the same time, the advisor's got to know that you're receptive to that as well. Otherwise, you guys are just banging your head against the wall.
So you want to make sure that you've got a good strategy with a good person that works well for you and a good team, and that's what Tony and his team strive to do. So if you need some help, reach out to him.
Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Google or YouTube or ... I say Google, but it's YouTube or Spotify or whatever. You can find all the information at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com. Tony is a CPA, a CFP, and an EA with 30 plus years of experience in the industry. So a great resource for you to reach out to at Tax Doctor Inc, again at Tax Doctor Inc, but the website is yourplanningpros.com.
Tony, my friend, thanks for hanging out and I always appreciate your time and I'm glad that tax season is behind you. Looking forward to talking to you in May.
Tony Mauro:
All right, sounds good. Take care. Until next time.
Marc Killian:
We'll see you next time right here on Plan With the Tax Man.
Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Member FINRA, S.I.P.C. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Psychologists have determined that retirement is one of the most stressful events that some people will experience in life. In this episode, we’ll look at the ways to proactively deal with the stress surrounding the retirement process.
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian:
Psychologists have determined that retirement is one of the most stressful events that some people will experience in life. On this episode, we'll look at the ways to proactively deal with the stress surrounding the retirement process here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Tony Mauro and myself here to talk about steering clear of retirement stress here on this episode with Tony. We're going to see if we can help you guys figure out a couple of key places hopefully to help reduce some of that stress.
Tony, what's going on my friend? How are you?
Tony Mauro:
Yeah, I'm doing good. We were just talking before we came on, it's actually cold and snowy here today. Of course, we're still in the tax season, so bad weather has not quite left us.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. It's trying. Spring is trying to completely pop up.
Tony Mauro:
Trying, yeah. We've had good weather, so I can't complain.
Marc Killian:
You guys were just warm not too long ago at the time we're taping this too.
Tony Mauro:
We were, yeah.
Marc Killian:
It's been all around the map. Yeah, for sure.
Well, but you know what? It can be a little stressful though, if we want to tie that into our conversation, Tony, right? So it's like, "Oh, good days, good days. Oh, bad days." And then it's like, "Man, I just really want some good days." You get a little stressed kind of waiting for it hopefully to show up and stay around.
So let's kind of transition that into some of this retirement stress that we were talking about and that I was teeing up, and kick it off with just understanding the fact that this is a significant gear change. I mean, often we get so focused on the X's and O's of, is my money good, Tony, for retirement, that we kind of forget about some of the little things like, "Oh yeah, my whole life is about to change."
Tony Mauro:
It is. And we've been conditioned to work our whole lives. And at least the people I see are not used to it and sometimes have a trouble adjusting outside of all the money stuff. I mean, that's part of it that causes them stress.
But we're so used to, at least in America I think, compared to other countries, we're always stressed. We're always running to the next thing and work life, personal life. I mean, you name it. You talk to people and they're stressed out.
Retirement's supposed to be, let's move away from that a little bit. So these are just going to be some good topics to talk about today.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. And so if you're thinking about that gear change, I mean, first and foremost, yeah, it's great because you're no longer on the clock, but there's still some stress that comes with it.
Tony Mauro:
There is. I mean, even though for most of the retirees, you're not working, there still is... I think the first thing that hits my clients is, "Now I have no purpose." And they get stressed out about that right off the bat.
And then little things start creeping in, such as anything from grandkids and things like that, to if they pick up a part-time job, being able to make sure they make that. Just to the normal everyday life things. What I think we need to do really is sit down and plan our days a little bit, just like we were when we were working, to alleviate some of that stress, and make sure that you understand that you still do have a purpose and you are still going out and doing things, even if you're not working,
Marc Killian:
Right. Because I mean, on the one hand you go, "Yeah, no clock, no meetings, no annoying coworkers, this all sounds fantastic." But sometimes humans don't do that great with change. And then you start kind of stressing and going, "Okay, so what do I do with my time? Or how do I run here? Or what am I going to do there?" Blah, blah, blah. So it can just add a layer of stress that you maybe weren't totally thinking about.
Because I think we're also creatures of habits, so sometimes even though those other things from the work life that I just mentioned can be annoying, they do provide us with some structure, and sometimes humans really kind of crave structure, even if they don't think they do. So just something to be aware of.
Second one is embracing the opportunity now to face some new challenges. Well, okay. So we are here, so let's take a look at some things that we might want to do.
Tony Mauro:
That's right. And a lot of people, they've always had things that they... You talk to them about it, "Well, I'm going to do this when I'm retired and that when I'm retired." But some of that stuff is challenging. And I think you should definitely sit down with your advisor and kind of go over some of those things as what do you really want to do? And take that and embrace it.
And the good news is, I think the way at least I'm looking forward to feeling is, whatever that challenge is, it's not work where you have to go out. I mean, because we have been trained since when to go out and trade our money for time and of course our jobs. You don't have to worry about that stress anymore. It's whatever this challenge is, well, even if you struggle with it, whether it be a hobby or work or something, it's okay, because it's just part of life.
And I think retirees I see that do take on challenges, I think they fare better with their mental state, their personal health, and their physical state as well, rather than just not doing anything.
Marc Killian:
No, I definitely agree with you there. So having those challenges and being open to some new challenges, even though sometimes, again, change can be hard. But it's going to help keep you engaged and active.
And so now think about going into retirement, being a little stressed or whatever, but you got to keep those options open. Because it's not like life is always just going to go, "Oh, you're retired and everything's going to be totally perfectly smooth." So you got to be willing to roll with the punches too.
Tony Mauro:
I think you do. I think that a lot of times these challenges and some of the stuff we want to do, you get into it, I know I have, it's like, "Wow, this is not what I really thought it would be." Unlike when you're at maybe a job that you have to say, "Well, I got to keep working because I got to pay my bills." You can just say, "Hey, look, pivot. This wasn't what I thought. Let's move on to something else." It could be as little as basically... I mean, I don't plan on ever relocating permanently, but if I get somewhere and I don't like the weather or something or whatnot, well, I'm just not going to go back there the next year. Or if I'm doing some volunteer work and it's just not fulfilling, I'm going to change it.
So the good news is you have options. You got to keep them open. Keep an open mind. Because it's pretty easy to stress yourself out over stuff that probably isn't really, I don't want to say that important, but it's not the end of the world.
Marc Killian:
Well, and you think about keeping the options open. So if we're talking about getting into some of the finance, some people, the dream is to move down to Florida, for example. But then after a little while you go, "Well, this actually kind of sucks." It's too hot, it's too busy, it's too sticky, it's too whatever. And so then you may want to move someplace else or whatever.
And so you just got to keep those options open, and also be talking with your advisor on that stuff so that you're making sure that you're being careful when it comes to whatever it might be that's going to change during those golden years. So just got to be flexible in there.
And also keep a sense of perspective. If we're keeping our options open, let's also keep things in perspective. It's easy to watch a commercial and think a bunch of commercials and everything's going to be great, or your neighbor's got it made. But you got to be realistic about the fact that life is life.
Tony Mauro:
Life is life. And we all dream of retiring and being healthy and being able to do all the things we wanted to do, and sometimes that doesn't happen. But more times than not, most of the retirees are still fairly healthy, the ones that I see.
And I think it's kind of a weird thought to think that us living as long as we're living now wasn't always the case. I mean, 150 years ago, nobody was living this long. Retirement wasn't even kind of real. You just worked till the end and that was it. Generally you died.
And now we've got so many millions of baby boomers. And I read a stat the other day, I can't remember it, but how many are going to be retired by the year 2040. It's just a big, big number.
Marc Killian:
Oh, yeah. I just literally saw one that said something about 4 million were on the docket to apply for something in the month of April this year of 2024 just alone. I was like, holy moly. And that doesn't mean that they're going to, but I guess based on age of turning either... I can't remember if it was either turning eligible for early or full retirement age. But either way, it was being eligible for social security.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah. And so I think if you're fortunate enough to have your health, and the whole reason for this even conversation is to get with your advisor and then of course, plan some of this stuff out so that you can enjoy the later years in your life as long as you can.
I mean, I always kid with clients and I tell them, "Don't you wish life was kind of reversed?" In other words, you got to do all the fun stuff you want to do in retirement when you're young when your body can maybe handle it, maybe when you're healthier, versus at the end. And you work at 40 some years to what, maybe enjoy 10, 15, 20. Again, perspective is everything. And I think you got to try, in my mind, enjoy what you can while you can.
Marc Killian:
Yeah. And when it comes down to it, your going to have to have some help. Because again, we wind up focusing so much on the X's and the O's, which again, the dollars and the cents, that we don't sometimes start thinking about some of the other pieces that are going to go into it.
And often, Tony, the biggest piece, and we'll just finish up with this, is just the fact that it is that big gear shift. People often just go, "Well, now how do I turn all the stuff that I've done into checks and whatnot because I'm not getting a paycheck anymore? So how do I turn it into that? How do I make sure that I'm going to be okay?" Because money is the biggest cause of stress that humans deal with pretty much all the time. I mean, it's kind of the number one problem for just about everything is how you feel about money or how things are going to go. So having a good financial professional maybe will hopefully eliminate some of those worries.
Tony Mauro:
I would say so for sure. I mean, as a retiree, you want a good financial planner or advisor in your corner that can help you do just that. And it really is trying to set up your monthly income stream, whatever that is for you, so that it's stress-free, it comes the same time every month, you know what it is. And get in and visit with your planner two to four times a year and make sure everything's still on track.
And make adjustments as you see fit, as you're out there trying to enjoy life. Because last thing you want, like you've mentioned, is to be worrying about money. We've worried about money for all our lives, and in retirement, this is the last thing I think you want to be worried about.
And I think you need to keep your finances fairly simple. And simple by meaning, try to get everything on auto-pay, and then the money coming in on auto deposit, so that you don't have to spend tons of time managing this stuff, and it flows pretty seamlessly.
Marc Killian:
And that's really the ending piece, is taking the time to get it started. Because often that's where we struggle. Once you get it moving, you go, "Oh, this is actually pretty good. This is not so bad." But you wind up having that kind of... I mean, well, honestly, if we're talking about stress, sometimes there's just stress in thinking about having to deal with the finances or dealing with the retirement. "Oh man, I really need to go see somebody, but I don't think I'm going to be in good shape," or, "I'm afraid of what they're going to tell me," or whatever. And that causes stress.
So sometimes you just got to bite the bullet, have the conversation, especially when often you can get these... Most financial advisors do complementary reviews for that reason. So you can go through the process, find out if what they do is a good fit for you and if you're a good fit for them. And to maybe take a little bit of that stress off the table when you start working together.
So as always, if you need some help steering clear of retirement stress, well, a plan, a strategy, is a great way to do that. And that's what Tony and his team do at Tax Doctor, Inc. So get on the calendar and plan with the tax man at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com.
We are taping, this is April, Tony's right in the middle of taxes. So I'm not going to keep you. I'm going to let you go so you can get back to it.
Tony Mauro:
A couple of weeks left.
Marc Killian:
A couple of weeks left for tax season, but you hang in there. And we'll see you guys next time here on the podcast with Tony Mauro. Again, visit him at your planningpros.com.
Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Member FINRA, S.I.P.C. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.
Unpack the toolbox of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning, but does it deliver? This episode takes a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software to online calculators, and questions whether they truly simplify the planning process or introduce new complexities
Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com
Call: 844-707-7381
----more----
Transcript:
Marc Killian 00:01
Let's unpack the tool box of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning. But does it actually deliver? So on this episode of playing with the tax man will take a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software, to online calculators and more. Stick around for this episode playing with a text.
00:22
Look up in the sky. It's a bird.
Announcer 2 00:24
It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.
Marc Killian 00:38
Hey, gang, what's going on this week here, Tony Morrow and I back once again to talk investing finance and retirement. And Tony is going to help us talk about you know, technology, is it and how is it redefining retirement planning? What are some pros and cons of various different things we'll run through and how does he feel about it as a seasoned professional, a CPA, a CFP and an EA of 30 plus years? What does he think of all this tech and the things that he's seen through his many years of helping folks to and through retirement? So that's on the docket? We're gonna get into it with Tony this week. What's going on? Brother? How are you?
Tony Mauro 01:10
I'm fantastic. Looking forward to talking tech. I love tech.
Marc Killian 01:14
Yeah. Big tech guy.
Tony Mauro 01:16
I'm a big tech guy. Okay, sometimes to my own detriment.
Marc Killian 01:19
Aren't we all?
Tony Mauro 01:20
Yeah,
Marc Killian 01:21
that is certainly the case. Well, you know, like I said, You've been doing this a long time, Tony. So you've certainly we've seen this tech boom. And I'm not trying to make you sound old, by the way. Because I know you're not, but you just been doing this a long time. And there's been a obviously a huge boom, in various different things in the last 20 years, from a tech standpoint. So it should be an interesting conversation to have, because many of your clients and the folks that check out our podcasts and things, they are 50 over, I'm 52, right, we're starting to get older, and I'm pretty tech savvy as well. But you know, you have friends that are the same age or maybe a few years older, and you can see that some people just aren't as up with it or something, you're think you're tech savvy, then something even newer comes out. And you're like, Man, I'm I'm so tired of this stuff. I don't want to learn one more new thing, right? So it can be daunting. So let's, let's talk about a few here. Let's start with the simple big elephant, 800 pound, gorilla, whatever you want to call it. In the room, which is Google, everybody, Google something at some point, and it has certainly altered how we look up information, what's your take on it from the financial standpoint, or
Tony Mauro 02:27
from the financial standpoint, I think it can be good, you know, and I'll try to do goods and Bad's of of each of these that we hit. But you know, obviously, the ease of it is you can get a lot of financial questions possibly answered. Very quickly, you have many, many choices. Many people obviously, don't scroll down very far. They take about the first two or three and take that as gospel. And I think that's where sometimes it could get you into trouble a little bit on the financial side is is what you're reading from somebody what I would consider authoritative. In other words, somebody that you know, really knows what they're talking about? Or is this just some guy or
Marc Killian 03:08
gal and it's hard to tell the paid ads? Yes, from the resources, right, because they've gotten so good. And allow now a lot of times, they better will say sponsored or something, you might notice that in the fine print or whatever. But just be careful. Again, I think it's a great way of looking at it to get some general information rolling Google's fantastic. I think at this point, it's obviously changed our world entirely. You know, there's certain things that the cell phone the smartphone, obviously changed us, I think, as a species and as as a society on all the things that change that way. But then there's certain things with inside that and Google being one of those. That is I don't know that anybody doesn't use it on a regular somewhat regular basis. So just grain of salt, right? Don't you know, don't go too far or don't believe everything you see that your Google right away. That's
Tony Mauro 03:56
true. I started using and really have been into and it's very, very new, you know, is the AI the artificial intelligence and chat GPT especially for accountants, sure. And financial planners, where it's actually spooky to ask it things and it gives you answers that you have to read them. But it isn't like Google, you don't have to search it gives you answers. And I don't like to say it's just scary. Interesting.
Marc Killian 04:25
Yeah, very true. Yeah. Well in that regard, in that regard, then let's go to the next one, which is robo advisors, which kind of is using AI and predictive elements. So as an advisor yourself what's what's your take on the Robo?
Tony Mauro 04:38
Well, Robo since they're, you know, competitors, I gotta say, I don't like him. No, I think that they have a use. I've looked at them and you know, they do a pretty good job or a simple things, especially now I'm sure it'll it's gonna get better as time goes on and whatnot. And, you know, I don't think they'll ever rip Replace the human advisor. I think that most of the facts are good. But I think what the robo advisors aren't showing me yet is, you know, is this in tune with, you know, the most tax effective strategy? You know, how often can a person change a plan? It doesn't seem like there's a lot of flexibility, but they do have some appeals probably, especially to the younger people who are very used to just wanting all that they don't want human interaction, they just want to deal with somebody, you know, something quick.
Marc Killian 05:28
Yeah, quick and easy. And I'm with you, I think there's certain industries where I can see where people say, hey, if it's the computer, the computer is not going to try to take advantage of me, but it also is not going to be able to understand you, or, you know, relate with you as a human to a human. So there's, it's a double edged sword, right, dealing with humans does have its pros and cons. But it you know, when you find the right one, I think we all can probably agree that there's there's relationships where it's truly more beneficial, because you are working with another person. So
Tony Mauro 05:58
I think so. I mean, I think it's an emotional factor with human beings, at least with our clients. You can relate. Yeah, an emotional thing. Yeah,
Marc Killian 06:05
you know, what I'm going through, you've been there to your you know, your fellow breathing human. online calculators, Tony, super popular, you can online calculate just about anything and mortgage retirement accounts, all sorts of stuff. I don't know, kind of a useful tool, but do you want to take them to, you know, to super hard or what, I don't know, what do you think, you know, I
Tony Mauro 06:25
have a lot of them on our website. And I do like them for a quick hitters, you know, that people can go out now and calculate all kinds of things, whether it's a future value, like you're saying mortgage, amortization schedule, even some tougher things, you know, I mean, if you go out to like, calculator.net, they have got just a ton of free and I'm talking stuff, it can calculate your, you know, your body mass index, they got everything. And it is cool to play with, I think it's good for quick hitters, especially for talking in the financial area. And then I think you need to try to incorporate that with your advisor, and help implement it into your plan. But at least it gives you an idea of some things that were very difficult to calculate, you know, in previous years. And so I use them a lot, but I use them in the context of our overall financial plan. But it is nice to add it to show closure.
Marc Killian 07:18
Yeah, yeah. And again, something like that kind of thing can be a very useful tool to start kind of getting yourself quickly dialed in or walking into your advisor and saying, okay, hey, I did some quick online calculators with this, this and this. You know, here's what I'm seeing, you know, how do we break this down? What are you seeing? What do you think? And that way, when you're stress testing, various scenarios, you guys can kind of be on the same page. So great use, yeah. What do you think about platforms like Scottrade, or trade or any of that stuff that's out there. You know, it's certainly very appealing to the do it yourselfer, as well, and, you know, fidelity and so on and so forth. So, and clearly not going anywhere. What's your take on it as a as a CFP?
Tony Mauro 07:56
Well, I think some people look at him and say, Well, you know, these are, you know, there's I have no use for my advisor, you know, and whatnot, because I don't need you to trade what you really don't I mean, every product is available to you without an advisor. I think so the goods of them are they have all across the industry, even with us, it's brought costs to do things down. And I think that's good for the end user, the investor or the client. But I think though, that and they do, some of them offer a lot of information. Now, probably maybe information overload. But I think, you know, if you're going to use those kinds of things, you know, you just use those to execute trades. And you know, that kind of thing. I still think there you need a plan with an advisor or on your own. And, you know, work that plan. Those are just platforms to execute transactions in my in my opinion, we basically one of our financial planning packages is we do the plan. And if you don't want us to help you manage the assets on an ongoing basis, you paid us for the plan, but you can certainly go out and manage that part on your own not through a Scottrade e trade or something, and then just have check ins with us, you know, we're all fee based anyway. So it is it doesn't really matter where you hold the assets if you want them with us in advisory fee, you can but it's not necessary either. So I think they have their place even for working with guys like us.
Marc Killian 09:24
Yep, never very true. Right. And so there's so many things you can do there. And obviously, many clients want to build a plan. They want to build a strategy, Tony that's going to help them feel good sleep at night, have that peace of mind all those things, and have that good, strong financial plan together. But they still also want to dabble a little bit. They do kind of enjoy the you know, picking some stocks or doing some things and that's cool too. So having an account to do that is great. Just again, make sure you're working with your advisor on what those things are you're doing and make sure that it's speculative. Make sure it's something that you can sort of fund money if you will, and if you hate if you knock one out of the park, that's great, but if you Do something it's not going to derail the retirement. Right? Yep. Okay. Well, you know, podcasts, for example, can be added now to economic and business news. Certainly 24 hour news channels have been the thing for a long time. But think about that for a minute. Even just financial, economic and business news, Tony, 24 hours a day, multiple channels seven days a week. They have to and we know the nature of news anymore is they have to be creative. Right, where it's constantly they have to, they have to fill all this time with some sort of content. And that kind of gets sometimes a little sensate. Well, not a little they get a lot sensationalistic or whatever, because they just need to get eyeballs. So, you know, be careful. And it's certainly changed people's view on finance, right? Because think about it, you'll you'll turn on the news. And you'll say, you know, see the market, you know, suffered a, you know, a crashing day today. And it's down like 1%. Right. And it's like, really, is that really worth the crushing headline?
Tony Mauro 11:07
Yeah, I think this for us, as an advisor, at least for me, in my opinion, is kind of somewhat the bane of our existence. Because people do watch too much of it, I think. And it gets them all worked up. And if you let yourself get like that, the whole idea of all these things we're talking about is to try to make your life easier and simpler. And if you let yourself just believe all of everything you hear about verifying it, which I think that's where the adviser steps in and puts some, you know, some expectations and some truth to it, is you can let yourself go down weird rabbit holes. And then if you're actually following some of this advice, which I think these most of these people are journalists, they're there, like you said, to get eyeballs, they're not doing financial plans everyday, they may come off like they do. Yeah, but they really aren't. And so I always say take that with a grain of salt, double check, you know, what they're saying with your advisor? For sure.
Marc Killian 12:06
What do you think as a professional, what do you think about personal financial software like Quicken, for example,
Tony Mauro 12:11
I like Quicken, I really like personal financial software from the more from the accounting standpoint of knowing where you're at with your personal finances at every step of every month, just like everything else. And all the software it's gotten very, very good. It can pull bank feeds in it's not cumbersome. Like it used to be. But I think a lot of people get confused with it. Stop using it because they sometimes can't figure it out. And they just throw up their hands and say, I don't like it now Quicken again, I have a love hate relationship with their, their company, which is into it. I mean, into it's been around, I do like into it. But I think sometimes they try to make it again, all encompassing, kind of like the trading platforms where they're trying to steer you along your financial way. It basically by answering some yes, no questions. And I think there's a lot more to it than
Marc Killian 13:01
that. Even good software companies, the new business model of constantly updating or subscription based, that stuff can can certainly get annoying. Definitely. But yeah, it's it can be a love hate thing. But I think overall, it can be a useful tool.
Tony Mauro 13:16
I think it'd be a very useful tool. Absolutely. I would recommend anybody using Quicken mints, whatever else they can find that they like, keep track of their personal monthly finances, ya
Marc Killian 13:26
know? And yeah,
Tony Mauro 13:27
I think, you know, the, the downsides are minimal. You know, the other thing I don't like is, we were talking about it on the last episode, because we didn't touch on this is, you know, the data mining that these companies do with us, they get us all in there. And they know everything about us. And they can, you know, mine our data and market us, but that's part of it. I think you're better off with personal finance software than without, okay. Well,
Marc Killian 13:50
and we'll finish with kind of staying in that sort of space. Right? So that's personal software, maybe you've downloaded or maybe it's you know, now nowadays, it's definitely just, you know, over over the web, mobile banking apps, right. I mean, just, you know, 10 years ago, seven years ago, you know, maybe half the people I knew felt confident or comfortable using the, the mobile banking app right from their phone. Now, it's virtually everybody. It's just, it's just faster and
Tony Mauro 14:13
easier, faster and easier. And you can really pretty much do everything on the mobile app, now that you could inside a bank, you can even now take pictures of cheque you get and mobile deposits. It's up to a certain amount, I think, at least with my bank, but you really don't need to visit the bank, but the bank is still there. And you've got that mobile app, check. Check balances paid bills, right from your phone, again, with the idea of trying to make your life easier this this whole thing is if you use all this tech properly, you can really simplify your life but you can also go down and it just you feel overwhelmed. So I think you need to get with your advisor. We help clients with their tech. We're trying to make their life as easy as possible and they basically can run their life we always tell them we want you to run your life from your phone. And no matter what age you are, you want to be confident to do it. We want to help
Marc Killian 15:04
them do that. Yeah, for sure. And finally, Tony, if you're talking about digital space and doing some of these things, what do you think about the digital estate planning services, you know, online wills trust or Legal Zoom? Like, I don't know, you know, I kept feeling back and forth with some of this stuff. It's this kind of world where it's quick and easy. And maybe if it's really basic, maybe that's okay. But, you know, it's still worthwhile to see a professional, if you need something a little more complicated.
Tony Mauro 15:30
I definitely agree with that. 100%, I try to steer people away from that, let's say just need something very, very basic. The attorney is, in my mind, I know they get a bad rap, we always, always make fun of them. But I think that they are essential in you know, wills, trusts, things like that by cells, whatever, to make sure all your bases are covered. Now, I just had my own will updated, you know, and I went to my attorney, you know, and they're talking to me, just like I talked to clients about stuff that I, you know, kind of brushed over and I don't know, if I would have got it online, maybe I would have maybe I wouldn't have but you know, my financial power of attorney, my advanced directives, you know, my medical power of attorney, all that stuff, that I you know, unless you're answering the boxes in the questions, right, and online, you may not have that, and you may not even know it. So again, having a real life, bro, it's a human, I think is better off in that area. 100%
Marc Killian 16:32
Yeah, yeah. And again, there's so many facets to this stuff nowadays, it's certainly changing everything in the world. So you know, just kind of wrapping it up. It's, it's just something to be cognizant of, it's, we have to think about, think about COVID. And people having to go to zoom for so many things, and especially even seeing their financial professional or whatever. And we had to do things online. And in the first couple of months, talking with advisors, people, you know, clients were very leery to have to use the portal and then be sharing and talking online, right on Zoom, if you will. And then as time went by now, people actually prefer it, because now they're like, I it's time for my annual review. I don't need to come into the office, right, we can just do this over zoom, you know. So we
Tony Mauro 17:12
do it really literally today is our day in and this is mostly seniors, and this deals with tax clients. But we have a day where the seniors who just can't get on the portal because we normally have our tax clients e sign, you know, they look at their tax return and there's a page they sign it's it's legal for us at the IRS says that that serves as their signature, but some just can't, can't do it. And so we have a day where they come in and they make an appointment, and they come in just to sign which again, I think is a waste of time, but their time that is right, right. But it's not everybody's gonna be able to adapt to the technology. But I you know, we have many, many seniors that I It surprises me
Marc Killian 17:54
that they're okay with not driving, and they're like, yeah, we'll just do it online.
Tony Mauro 17:58
They do it online. Yeah. I mean, they more and more of them, you know, are adapting to this, which tells me that they haven't thrown up their hands yet and says, I don't want to learn anything, because the world's forcing them to do it came true,
Marc Killian 18:10
very true. My mom's 82 And she's pretty good with a lot of stuff, a lot of digital and online stuff. So which I didn't see coming, you know, so kudos to, to her. But you know, I think yeah, sometimes though, you know, some people just like, hey, I still want to, I still want to look somebody in the eye and shake a hand. So, and there's nothing wrong with that, either. Oh,
Tony Mauro 18:31
nothing wrong with that.
Marc Killian 18:32
There you go. All right. Well, how was technology redefining retirement planning? It is there's no way around it. It's changing it a lot has been and of course, you know, we have to adapt or get left behind. But I think there's still a way to have a happy medium. And of course, if you need some help, you know, kind of finding that balance. I mean, a retirement plan is about balance. So also in the way you're using tech to work with your retirement plan. It could be about balance. Tony and his team are here to help you're planning proz.com That's your planning proz.com. He's got 30 plus years of experience helping folks get to and through retirement. As I said earlier, he's a CPA, a CFP and an EA. So a great resource for you to tap into. So give him a call. Get on the calendar, stop by whatever you need to do if you need some help. And don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple, Google, Spotify. Guess what YouTube now instead of just Google, they've merged everything over to there but either way, find us on whatever podcasting app you like by simply searching it out playing with the tax man or visiting in his website. You're planning proz.com Tony, my friend, have yourself a great week. Aren't you the same. We'll see on the next episode. We'll see you in April. Hopefully you won't be too too swamped with tax season, but we'll catch you next time here on plant with the Texas.
Announcer 1 19:47
Securities offered through a van tax investment services SM Member FINRA SIPC investment advisory services offered through a van tax advisory services insurance services offered through an event tax affiliated insurance Agency investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors please consult with a financial professional
The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.