The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You? 

Today, I’m talking about using your crystallized intelligence effectively for a happier phased retirement. 

Now if you aren’t familiar with the term, crystallized intelligence, it’s important that you know what it is, because it has important implications for being happy in your late-working years. 

 There’s 2 types of intelligence - fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and think flexibly. Crystallized intelligence refers to the accumulation of knowledge, facts, and skills that are acquired throughout life.

At nearly 15 years in to my career as a financial advisor, believe it or not, I’m nearing the peak of my fluid intelligence in my career. If I stay in this career another 20 years, I will definitely start to see some noticeable declines in my fluid intelligence. 

But that’s ok, because even though fluid intelligence declines for all of us and earlier than we think, crystallized intelligence actually increases with age. Many aspects of fluid intelligence peak in adolescence and begin to decline progressively beginning around age 30 or 40. 

Jobs that require you to be at the peak of your fluid intelligence are often frustrating for older workers. As we age, we lose our edge and our ability to reason and deal with complex information. 

But that’s ok, because this other aspect of our intelligence - crystallized intelligence - continues to increase with age. The key is working in a job, especially a job later in your career - that uses your crystallized intelligence and doesn’t demand so much of what’s left of your fluid intelligence. 

Examples of this would be a manager or a supervisor, where you have the opportunity. Jobs that involve speaking and teaching or writing are also good for using your crystallized intelligence, without the frustration of fighting against the decline of your fluid intelligence. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You? 

Today, I’m talking about some of most common applications of a phased retirement. 

My husband is a CPA and with his experience and qualifications, he could pretty much work wherever he wants and command a high income. I don’t say this to brag…he’s actually decided not to do that since he doesn’t like to tax season grind and would prefer to have a more balanced schedule. I say this because labor shortages are a serious problem in the world of public accounting, and in many other industries as well. I’ve had conversations with clients who are lawyers and architects and the same problem exists in their industries. They can’t find qualified younger workers to fill positions of those who have quit or retired…this was a problem before Covid and it’s only gotten worse over the last couple years. 

So if you’re in an industry that has some real labor shortages, you can more likely negotiate your way into a phased retirement that’s going to give you the balance of schedule and free time that you’re looking for while still maintaining some of your income and benefits. 

Phased retirements work really well for knowledge workers like CPAs, lawyers, engineers, many desk jobs - especially in government, education, healthcare, and pretty much any position with hard-to-replace skills or knowledge. Phased retirements can also work well for more physically demanding jobs where you might be on your feet all day. Nursing comes to mind here. It’s physically demanding and stressful, but you can maybe last a couple more years on the job if you are working 20 hours a week instead of 40-50+. 

Owens Corning, a Toledo, Ohio-based maker of building and construction materials, launched a phased retirement program in 2020. Paula Russell, their chief human resource officer said that with a projected wave of retirements, “we were concerned we were going to lose a lot of institutional knowledge and intellectual capital,”

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You? 

Today, I’m talking about the benefits of a phased retirement. 

I don’t know about you, but when I read a really good article, especially an editorial piece, I find that the comments are often more interesting and insightful than the article itself.

That was the case with this WSJ article that is the basis for this week’s podcast which talks about how more companies are now giving phased retirements a try to deal with the labor shortage and knowledge transfer issues. And inevitably, there was a comment from a reader who articulated so well the benefits of a phased retirement in her own experience. 

Jean says: 

“I worked part time for 5 years after decades of full-time work for a company.  I worked special projects that we all agreed on ahead of time.  I was able to keep my health insurance benefit (most important).  I was an hourly worker subject to state rules that gave me overtime rates for longer days and weekends.  As a result, I sometimes made more than I would have as a salaried employee.  I worked on interesting tasks that required my specific expertise, no administrative tasks to fill in my day when I wasn't busy.  I sometimes worked from home, sometimes from an office, sometimes on travel.

I had plenty of free time.  I retired at 65 and was ready for it.

It was a great way to evolve into retirement.”

A great way to evolve into retirement…Jean hit the nail on the head. She kept her great income and health insurance benefits, which most likely also kept her from tapping into her social security and her investment portfolio. This is the main financial benefit of the phased retirement, and it’s huge. To allow your portfolio and your social security income to continue growing for even just an extra year or 2 can make all the difference. 

She also had the flexibility that a part-time work schedule allowed, so she could work from home occasionally, travel, and have plenty of free time without being shackled to her desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. With so many companies used to providing more flexible hours and work schedules in the post-Covid world, it’s not a big ask anymore for many people to downshift their schedules like Jean did.

This flexibility made working longer more sustainable and much more enjoyable as well. 

There are also important psychological benefits to working longer, especially if you like the work you do. There’s dignity in work. Work helps to provide meaning, purpose, and structure to our lives, and keeps our minds and bodies physically and mentally active. Lots of research points to a direct connection between working longer and living longer, as well as staving off cognitive problems like dementia. 

So if you want to transition into retirement, the tremendous multi-faceted benefits of working longer, especially on a reduced schedule, are worth serious consideration. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: A Phased Retirement…Is It Right For You? 

Today, I’m sharing with you a recent article from the WSJ which talks about the concept of a phased retirement. I’ll be using this article as a jumping off point for this week’s them. 

If you would like to check out the article, I’ve linked to it in today’s show notes. The article was published on March 15, 2022 and the title is “Part-Time Retirement Programs Are on the Rise.”

Link to article: 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/part-time-retirement-programs-are-on-the-rise-11647336602?st=hvd9lb4oky9pnr4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink 

 

The article says:  “Plenty of older workers have wished for something between full-bore work and retirement. Now, more companies seem to be giving them what they want.

Phased retirement programs—which allow workers nearing retirement age to cut back on their hours while keeping some pay and benefits—are growing in popularity. Human-resource executives say the pandemic has opened bosses to flexible work arrangements, while the fierce hiring market and higher-than-expected rate of retirements have motivated managers to find ways to retain older workers with key skills.

In a forthcoming survey of 1,736 HR executives world-wide from consultant Mercer LLC, about 38% say they offer phased retirement, more than double the 17.2% that did so before the pandemic.”

It’s really interesting, but not surprising that such a game-changing HR practice has become commonplace since the pandemic. And with the current labor shortage, I think many companies simply have no other choice. On top of that, many companies benefit tremendously when the more experienced employees are able to successfully transfer knowledge and train the new hires. Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about the benefits - both financial and psychological - that come from a phased retirement.But for today, I just wanted to let you know that phased retirements are more common than ever, and if it isn’t a formal practice at your employer, it could be a great time to ask about whether your employer would consider something like this . 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Is a Phased Retirement Right For You? 

Actually, he just opted for a phased retirement instead. He could work the hours and schedule he wanted without any of the headaches of running a practice or managing employees. 

I recently came across an article in the WSJ that talks about this concept of a phased or semi-retirement in detail, so since I seem to be coming across this more and more in the real world with clients, I thought it was fitting to do a deeper dive on this topic in this week’s podcast. 

So this week, we’ll talk about this WSJ article to help you explore the idea of a phased retirement and whether it might be right for you. 

I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and your family’s safety. And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast

This week the theme was: Prepping for emergencies in 2022

In case you missed any episodes, here’s what I covered in each episode this week:

• Prepping For The Zombie Apocalypse
• Your Best Investments: Canned Food, Gold Coins, & A Gun
• Prepping Goals
• 3 Golden Rules Of Prepping
• Become A Prepper…More Resources

The most important takeaway from this week is: Preparing for emergencies is an essential part of your long-term planning and how you approach it is very similar to how you go about planning for retirement. Start where you are and focus on the most important and most impactful things you can do that will make the biggest difference for you in the long-run. 

Since I’ve been talking this week about prepping for the worst, it’s time to lighten things up with a more positive weekly theme, so tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Is a Phased Retirement Right For You? 

I’ve noticed a really strong trend among many of my clients over the last 5 years or so, where many of them continue working in their early retirement years, but at a much reduced pace to the rat race they’ve been in for the previous 30-40 years. Then I recently came across a WSJ article about part-time retirement programs on the rise, saying: “Workers have longed for a way to ease into retirement while keeping some pay and benefits. More companies are giving it a try.”

So next week, we’ll look at this new and exciting opportunity for Americans in their later working years to downshift their schedules, travel more, have more control over their working hours, all while earning enough to hold off on tapping into retirement accounts, paying for expensive healthcare benefits before medicare kicks in, and wait on taking Social security income. 

Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement. 

Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.

Today, I’m talking about some further resources if you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole of prepping. Let me be clear - I’m not suggesting this 

In generations past, a bad winter, a drought, disease or a bad year for crops would have wiped out an entire family, town, or region. That’s not the case today, and if our ancestors would have had the financial resources and storage capacity to stockpile food, would they not have done that to keep themselves and their families alive? In our world of stocked grocery store shelves and greased supply chains, we have largely forgotten the need to prepare of some likely emergencies. 

I strongly believe that while you don’t want to get carried away here, it’s prudent to use your financial resources to not just prepare for your future retirement, but to prepare for your basic future survival in a variety of emergency circumstances. 

With that in mind, I want to turn today to some further resources that are worth exploring: 

I just scratched the surface of prepping this week, so if you’re new to prepping, focus on the basics and getting started. It’s better to grab a 40 pack of bottled water today at Costco than to research how to build a rainwater catchment system that might take you thousands of dollars and several months to complete. 

The best place to start are places like ready.gov - which has supply lists, and how to plan for various types of emergencies like floods and hurricanes. The Red Cross is also a great resource with lots of guides and an interactive map that shows you the most common types of disasters based on where you live. 

Websites & Blogs - there is a long list of websites and blogs 

YouTube videos - great for building knowledge, learning skills and strategies like building and organizing your food and water storage so things get used and don’t go to waste. One word of caution: easy to get down some rabbit holes with some of the prepper videos. Videos about preparing for doomsday are really common and unnerving, so just be careful about what you watch and listen to when the predictions turn dire…it’s probably not good for your mental health and could even scare you and paralyze you into doing nothing about it. 

Books! Great for building knowledge & keeping for reference in an emergency - can’t google how to give someone CPR or clean and stitch a deep wound if you’ve lost power. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022. Why am I focusing on prepping for emergencies when this is a podcast about planning for retirement? Although I am not an expert prepper and there are plenty of people who know a lot more about this than I do, prepping for emergencies goes hand in hand with planning for retirement. 

What good is your 401k if the power goes out this coming winter for a week, it’s below freezing outside, the power won’t be back on for a week like it was in Texas last year, and you haven’t devoted any time, effort, or money on basic preparedness and essential life skills? 

So today, I’m talking about 3 Golden Rules of Prepping. These aren’t the only golden rules of prepping, but based on what I’ve learned over the years here are 3 golden rules of prepping that I believe will serve you well in preparing yourself, your family, and your home for emergency situations: 

1. The Rule of 3s to guide your priorities. 

Earlier this week, I talked about the prepping pyramid that should guide where you focus most of your efforts. This includes building emergency stores of food, water, and basic safety supplies like a flashlight, before you move on to storing up 300 lbs of rice in mylar bags and buckets. 

The Rule of 3s means that:

• You can survive three minutes without breathable air 
• You can survive three hours in a harsh environment (extreme heat or cold).
• You can survive three days without drinkable water.
• You can survive three weeks without food.

The Rule of 3s is useful because it can help your prioritize the right kind of preparations in the right order - air, shelter/warmth, water, then food. 

The 2nd golden rule is: 

1. Store what you eat and eat what you store

This rule is very useful in not wasting a bunch of money on canned goods you’ll never eat. When I first started exploring building up some emergency stores of food and water, my biggest hang ups were the shelf life of most items, and finding the space to store things. Why would I buy 100 cans of spam if there was no way we would ever eat that?

Storing what you eat, and eating what you store helped to shift the way I think about building up a stockpile of food. My kids love applesauce pouches and pirate’s booty, so I can buy 10 giant bags of pirate’s booty and 10 boxes of applesauce pouches from Costco, that will go into a rotation that will get used up within the next year, so it will never go to waste and whenever something runs out, I go to the pantry to grab a new one, and then add that item to my list to replenish the back of our stockpile. 

Now I have to say that I don’t have a large stockpile of any of these items, but now that I understand emergency food storage isn’t just about hundreds of pounds of dried beans and rice, I feel better about building up food stockpiles for emergencies that won’t go to waste. 

1. Knowledge is the most important tool you have. 

I don’t know how to change a flat tire, I’m pretty worthless at getting any tough stains out of clothes, I’ve never been successful at growing anything edible in my garden, and God help you if you ever need me to stitch up a wound, because I was never interested in learning how to sew. 

But I can read a map and compass, I can sail a boat, start a fire, cook most anything, build a shelter out of a tarp and some rope, and live alone in the woods for a couple of days which no food (which I actually did when I was 15 years old). In the early days of Covid I learned how to cut hair, and I know the correct way to hold a wine glass. 

When it comes to basic survival, you might often hear that knowledge is the most important tool you have. In a life or death emergency, you may not have the time or the ability to just google it, so knowing what to do in a variety of circumstances could prove to be the key to survival in an emergency. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.

Today, I’m talking about creating some prepping goals which starts with having enough emergency supplies for: 3 days, then moving up to 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and if you’re really serious about this prepping stuff - 1 year or longer. I’ll probably never make it to a year’s worth of food in storage, but I am actively working towards a 3 month supply of food and water, which is no small feat. 

If I’m being honest, what scares me the most is a prolonged power grid failure, because everything hits the fan when that happens. No heat, no lights, no ability to cook food, the water supply and sanitation would go pretty quickly. No food at the grocery store, no clean running water. And then you have unrest and serious security issues in a prolonged grid-down situation as people become desperate. 

But this is not the most prudent place to start and it’s pretty overwhelming to think about. Do I have basic emergency supplies to keep my family fed, warm, and dry for 3 days? Getting 3 days worth of food, water, and backup power, along with some basic tools like flashlights and a first aid kit are a great place to start. 

Once you’re covered for 3 days, move on to 2 weeks. CDC has some good resources on Creating and Storing an Emergency Water Supply, and recommends 1 gallon of water per person, per day for drinking and sanitation. So that means in my household of 5 + the dog, we need a minimum of 70 gallons of water for a 2 week supply. 

At 2 weeks, you’ll definitely need more food, and a reliable way to stay warm and cook that food, so alternative sources of heat and fuel will become necessary. What good is all that pasta and rice if you have no way to cook it and not enough water for it anyways? 

At 2 weeks to 3 months of preparedness, you’ll need to move into the safety and security category as well if all your basic necessities are covered. This doesn’t just involve guns and ammo. How to protect your property and your family goes well beyond that, and I read recently that a good solid flashlight is the most important personal safety tool you can own. 

I just scratched the surface here, and later this week I’ll talk about some additional resources to help you build up some emergency preps, but for now, just focus on starting small where you are and building up over time. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Prepping for emergencies in 2022.

In the early 1970s when the economy slipped into a recession and inflation jumped to 12.3% by 1974, someone was quoted as saying your best investments going forward will be canned food, gold coins, and a gun. I actually had a copy of this quote that I kept in a binder and would sometimes reference it, since 30 years later in the late 2000s, it seemed like a ridiculous quote. Yet, here we are in 2022 with high inflation and economic uncertainty, and now the advice doesn’t seem so silly. It just shows that history doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.

As it relates to this week's theme, the canned food, gold coins, and a gun advice reminds me that this is probably where we should start with talking about using your financial resources to prepare for emergencies that you and your family might face. 

While I wouldn’t recommend selling your stock and bond portfolio to buy canned food, gold coins, and a gun, there are definitely things you’ll want to invest in and there is a hierarchy that you’ll want to follow with stockpiling emergency provisions.

Many people get this wrong because they might focus on building up security, like tripwire,an arsenal and ammo, but completely ignore their most basic need of clean, drinking water. 

If you’ve seen Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which is shaped like a pyramid and covers most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid all the way to self-actualization at the top of the pyramid, you can think of preparing for emergencies with a similar hierarchy. The Canadian Prepper has a good explainer video on the prepping pyramid on his YT channel that can help guide where to focus your efforts and not waste time on getting a ham radio when you don’t even have a basic first aid kit in your home. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOdirgJrwAI&t=917s 

At the bottom of the prepping pyramid are air, food, water, warmth and shelter. Depending on health concerns, medicine would also fall at the base of this pyramid. So if you’re going to devote time and money to preparing for emergencies, it’s advisable to start here first. Again, clean air, food, water, warmth, and shelter. 

Next comes security and safety. As I mentioned before, I think too many people start here. Plenty of guns and ammo for the band of murderers coming to ransack their home, but no way to stay warm if the power goes out for a few days in the winter. 

After this comes knowledge and skill building. Things like knowing how to use a map and compass could help you find a water source, or knowing how to use a trap or grow your own vegetable garden could help you sustainably stay well-fed. Do you know how to build and cook on an open fire? I worked at a summer camp for 2 years in college and was really into hiking and backpacking at this time. I learned how to sail a boat, build fires, 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance