Scott and James discuss the tax implications of withdrawing income from various accounts in retirement.

Listener Question:

Can you talk about how some of the main retirement accounts are taxed upon withdrawal? 

Example topic: Are withdrawals just subject to Federal taxes, or FICA taxes as well? And how / if withdrawing from retirement accounts affects eligibility / taxes you have to pay on social security? 

Can you talk about how after tax brokerage accounts are taxed both while investing and when you start to withdraw? And what withdrawals from that look like when you are retired (whether or not you are at ‘retirement age’ or not).

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - Introduction

6:17 - Accounts Aren't Equal

11:15 - Tax Overview

14:46 - Maximizing Your Finances

16:05 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott and James discuss how to reduce costs inside of your company's 401(k).

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Listener Question:

What is a good expense ratio for a retirement account? Is this something you can control with an employer sponsored plan? I want to make sure my money is working for me and I am maximizing my returns

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Expense Overview

11:15 - Planning Options

14:46 - Individual Choices

16:55 - Business Size

21:05 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott and James discuss how real estate should factor into your retirement plan.

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Listener Question:

Me and my wife enjoy doing live and flip rentals and are planning on the cash flow to be part of our retirement funds. We are planning to move in a year and would like to pick up a third house to add to our portfolio when we do. How would you run the numbers to see if this is a safe investment for us. Ensure we are not taking on too much risk to expand.

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Rental Overview

11:15 - Understanding Real Estate

14:46 - Income Understanding

16:46 - Customization is Key

19:00 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott and James discuss how to best diversify a concentrated stock holding.

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Listener Question:

How do I exit a concentrated stock position?

I’m an employee at a large tech company and I’ve vested RSUs over the last 4 years. Some of my stock has appreciated 4x since I was granted it. My non-company stock brokerage account value is around $700k, and on top of that my vested company stock (APPL) is worth $250k at the moment. I expect to continue to accumulate more company stock through ESPP and RSU grants over time. My current gross income is around $325k ($200k salary + $125k annual RSU stock grants). I would like to take action to diversify this position into other equities (equity index funds). The reason I would like to diversify is to reduce my portfolio risk. Having just seen some other companies like Meta take a 70% stock hit, it feels like a responsible action to take. As I’ve heard in your podcast, I should not have too much of my net worth in one stock, and the only free lunch is diversification. I can sell all $250,000 vested shares tomorrow, but then I believe I would get hit with a large tax bill for all of the gains, which seems like it could be a burden. I am thinking I could start by selling the shares that I’ve held for over a year to make sure to get the long-term gains tax rate instead of the short term tax rate. And then next year, I could sell the stock I got this year, etc. I am thinking of starting a DAF in the next couple years and gifting $10k of appreciated stock to charity (apple does 2:1 promotions where they match up to $10k, meaning I could initiate the DAF with $30k), but the rest I would like to re-invest in a more diverse way to meet my short and long-term financial goals. 

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

5:58 - Tax Consequences

9:16 - Stock Vesting

13:45 - Minimize Your Taxes

16:56 - Best Stocks

25:30 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

LET'S CONNECT!

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Scott

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Submit Your Question For The Show Here!

Scott and James discuss how 5 things to start the new year right with your finances.

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Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Financial Goals

11:15 - Priorities in Money

24:46 - Individual Choices

30:46 - Customization is Key

33:00 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott and James discuss how you should choose your survivor benefits options for your pension.

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Listener Question:

I'm not sure if this can be a whole show but I was wondering if you guys can go over how to think about choosing between the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) and whole or term insurance. I'm in the military and will be retiring soon. I work with a lot of members that are retiring and this choice seems like a coin flip or they simple go off of what someone else did. I know this decision is different for everyone so I was hoping you guys could go over a framework of how to compare the two. I would love to be able to point people to a podcast that walks them through the process of comparing the two.

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Pension Overview

11:15 - Understanding Your Options

14:46 - Individual Choices

16:46 - Customization is Key

19:00 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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James

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Scott

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Scott and James discuss misleading financial rules to avoid.

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Listener Question:

How do you both think about the common wisdom that you should have a certain multiple of your income saved by a specific age (e.g. save at least 1x your salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67)?

I am in a situation where my income has tripled between ages 30 and 35. As an example, let's say I had 100K saved at age 30 (1x my salary), but I'm 35 and my salary is now 300K. I don't have 900K saved in retirement, in fact, it's about half that. Am I in trouble?

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - How Much Do I Need To Save?

8:52 - How Much Money Do I Need?

12:54 - Portfolio Changes

14:45 - Income Diversification

18:21 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott

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Scott and James discuss annuities and announce Real Personal Finance NATION!

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Listener Question:

I've met with multiple financial advisors and all of them have 2 things in common.
1. They all say they are Fiduciary.
2. They all try and pitch me on various types of annuities to supplement or augment my portfolio.
Can you please address annuities on a show? Everything I have read online says to stay away from annuities (all types), and I am losing trust for the financial advisor industry. Are there cases where an annuity is a good move?
P.S. I asked the last guy your recommended set of questions from a previous show. He was impressed with the question I asked, "How else are you paid?" And did say insurance commissions, but also said nobody asked him that.

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Annuity Overview

14:15 - Exchanging Annuities

23:46 - Financial Advisors

29:15 - Advisor Resources

35:10 - Real Personal Finance NATION!

39:30 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott and James discuss the best way to enter the financial planning industry as a career changer.

Wilson Liu Financial Resources

We're on YouTube here!

Listener Question:

I really enjoy your podcast. I've had a 10-year career in nonprofit development, but I've had a passion for investing and personal finance since I was a little kid. I'm trying to pivot into wealth management. I know in a recent episode you addressed the path into the industry for someone coming out of college. I'd love to hear if you have any insight for someone making a pivot mid-career. Maybe the pathway is the same, but it would be great to hear what you think.

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Financial Resources

10:15 - Understanding Your Options

12:46 - Career Change Sample

15:55 - Characteristics Scott/James Look For

23:00 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

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Scott

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Scott and James discuss how you can know when you're financially free.

NEW: We're on YouTube here!

Listener Question:

If you think we can step away from work when I hit "my number" whether it be at age 49 or 54 - knowing that I would only pull approx 3% from my brokerage until I reach 59.5. My goal would be to leave FT work at age 50, and have my wife and I only work PT or consulting to cover expenses and carry healthcare - w/o withdrawing from the portfolio until we hit our number (BTW we think total number is about 3.5M). 

We're both 40
We have about 900,000 in liquid assets (not including our home equity). Of that total amount, about 500k in roth, 250k in traditional ira, 130k brokerage and 20k hsa. 90/10 portfolio of just a few diversified vanguard ETFs
combined income of 300k
spend about 85k today
after tax, we save/invest about 60% and if you add employer match in total it's about 115k a year towards investments
mortgage will be paid off by 50 and kids will be in college
we'd like to forecast spending about 90-95k in todays dollars in retirement

So, in about 10 years, will we reach enough to execute our plan of having options? And how large should our brokerage account be to cover our plan of spending our 50s doing some PT work to cover expenses and then withdrawing in our mid-50s?

Planning Points Discussed

• Utilizing Time Efficiently
• Capital Appreciation
• Purchasing Power
• Other issues (IRAs, Inflation, Financial Goals, etc.)

Timestamps:

2:30 - We're on YouTube HERE!

6:17 - Listener Question

10:30 - Truth of Investing

13:16 - Financial Freedom

18:20 - Tax Planning

20:53 - Risk Management

23:00 - Aligning Your Financial Goals

LET'S CONNECT!

James

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Scott

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Don’t miss an episode, subscribe via iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Play.

Submit Your Question For The Show Here!