I want you to imagine something today.

You open your retirement account tomorrow morning...

and:

$100,000 IS GONE.

You'd lose your mind.

You'd call your financial adviser.

Your CPA.

Your spouse.

Maybe the police.

You'd want to know:

WHERE THE HECK DID MY $100,000 GO?

But here's what's interesting.

What if you didn't lose $100,000 overnight?

What if you lost $10,000 here...

$7,000 there...

$15,000 somewhere else...

over five or ten years?

Would you even notice?

Because after more than 30 years in financial services, I've learned something:

The retirement mistakes that hurt people aren't always catastrophic.

Sometimes they're boring.

A bad tax decision.

Too much cash sitting around.

Helping the kids when you really can't afford it.

Buying too much car.

Selling investments because you're scared.

Carrying expensive debt.

Paying fees you don't understand.

Individually, none of them destroys your retirement.

But put ten of them together?

There goes $100,000.

Maybe $200,000.

Maybe considerably more.

So today we're going hunting.

We're looking for 10 quiet retirement mistakes that can slowly steal $100,000 from your future.

And I'm betting almost everybody listening is making at least one of them.

I've got a question for homeowners today.

And I think millions of Americans are wrestling with it.

You bought or refinanced your house several years ago.

Your mortgage rate:

3%.

Maybe even 2-point-something.

You probably brag about that mortgage.

And you should.

Because today, according to Mortgage News Daily, the average top-tier 30-year fixed mortgage rate is:

7.37%.

That's more than double your rate. Mortgage News Daily

So you're sitting there thinking:

‘Jon, they'll have to pry this mortgage out of my cold dead hands.’

I get it.

But then something happens.

You find THE HOUSE.

Maybe it's the ranch you've always wanted.

Maybe it's the house with the three-car garage.

Maybe you need another bedroom.

Maybe you're tired of your neighborhood.

Maybe you're retiring and this is where you want to spend the next 20 years.

And suddenly you've got a problem.

You don't just have to buy the new house.

You have to give up one of the greatest financial assets you own:

Your 3% mortgage.

And this isn't some tiny group of people.

As of the first quarter, 19.5% of outstanding mortgages were still at 3% or below. Realtor

So today Aaron, Dwight and I are answering one question:

When does it make sense to give up a 3% mortgage?

Because eventually there's a point where protecting the mortgage may start interfering with living the life you actually want.

And today we're going to find that point.”

I've got a number for you today that you're probably not going to believe.

Yesterday, according to Mortgage News Daily, the average top-tier 30-year fixed mortgage rate was:

7.19%.

Ouch.

But now let me give you another number:

3.92%.

No, I didn't travel back to 2021.

According to new research from Realtor.com, nearly one out of every seven new-construction listings advertised some type of reduced mortgage rate in August.

And the average advertised reduced rate was...

3.92%.

So immediately I'm thinking:

WAIT A MINUTE.

How in the heck can Dwight be sitting here telling me mortgages are around 7%...

while a homebuilder down the street is advertising something with a 3 or a 4 in front of it?

Somebody's lying!

Actually, nobody necessarily is.

And that's what we're going to explain today.

Because homebuilders have figured something out.

Buyers don't necessarily shop for a house based solely on the purchase price anymore.

They're shopping for the monthly payment.

And builders are increasingly spending serious money to make that payment look a whole lot better.

But there's a catch.

Sometimes that 3.92% is temporary.

Sometimes it's an adjustable-rate mortgage.

Sometimes it's a permanent buydown.

Sometimes you have to use the builder's preferred lender.

And sometimes the house itself may cost more.

So today Cory, Dwight and I are going shopping.

We're going to take:

A brand-new house with a subsidized mortgage

versus

an existing house with a conventional market-rate mortgage

and answer one question:

Which one is REALLY the better deal?

I’m Jon Sanchez, and today we are talking about a retirement expense that almost nobody puts into their financial plan.

It isn’t healthcare.

It isn’t inflation.

It isn’t taxes.

It isn’t a stock-market correction.

It’s your adult children.

That may sound harsh, but this is not a show about criticizing young adults. Housing is expensive. Groceries are expensive. Insurance, childcare, automobiles and borrowing costs have all become more difficult for young families.

Many adult children are working hard and still struggling.

And when your child calls and says:

“Mom, I’m short on rent.”

“Dad, my car broke down.”

“We need help with a down payment.”

“We can’t afford daycare.”

What parent doesn’t want to help?

But here is the question nobody wants to ask:

At what point does helping your children begin jeopardizing your own retirement?

A recent BMO survey found that 48% of parents and 41% of grandparents planned to financially assist their adult children. Even more revealing, 27% of Americans said parents should financially support their children for as long as they are alive.

That means millions of retirement plans may contain an expense that was never included in the original calculation.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to help your family without becoming their permanent financial safety net—and how to recognize when love and guilt are making financial decisions that your retirement plan cannot afford.

How do I keep my family out of probate?

Before I give you my nine steps, however, there's something Nevada residents need to understand.

Not every estate containing probate assets necessarily requires a full probate administration.

Nevada has special procedures for smaller estates.

And the numbers matter.

I want to talk about a number today that probably doesn't mean much to the average American:

5%.

Today, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury crossed 5%, reaching its highest level since 2007.

At the same time, according to Mortgage News Daily, the average top-tier 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 7.22%.

And tomorrow afternoon, the Federal Reserve concludes its two-day meeting, with financial markets overwhelmingly expecting another quarter-point increase in the federal funds rate.

Those may sound like three separate stories.

They're not.

They're all connected.

Something has changed in the bond market.

Investors are demanding more money to lend money to the United States government.

Mortgage rates are moving higher.

Borrowing costs are rising.

And the Federal Reserve is once again confronting an inflation problem.

So today I want to answer two questions:

Why are interest rates rising so quickly?

And far more importantly:

What does this mean for you?

Joining me today are Cory Edge of Edge Realty and Dwight Millard of OnQ Home Loans.

I was planning on talking about retirement today.

Then something happened over the weekend that made me change today's show.

And I'll tell you why.

I use artificial intelligence virtually every day.

I use it in my businesses.

I use it for research.

I use it to analyze ideas.

I use it to help prepare this radio show.

And I think artificial intelligence may ultimately become one of the most important technologies created during our lifetime.

But this weekend, Dario Amodei—the CEO of Anthropic, the company behind Claude—published an essay with a title that got my attention:

‘We Must Pace the Frontier.’

In plain English?

We need to slow down.

Now, if some college professor or politician who'd never used artificial intelligence said that, maybe I wouldn't think much of it.

But this is one of the guys actually BUILDING the technology.

And then something even more remarkable happened.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI...

agreed.

Elon Musk...

agreed.

These guys compete with each other.

They're spending enormous amounts of money racing to build the most capable AI systems on Earth.

And suddenly they're agreeing on something:

Maybe we're going too fast.

And Wall Street heard them.

Nvidia dropped more than 3% this morning. AMD, Intel and Marvell were hit. The semiconductor index fell about 5%.

So today we're putting retirement planning aside.

Because I want to answer a question that frankly gives me goosebumps:

What do the people building artificial intelligence know today that they didn't know six months ago?

And should the rest of us be worried?”

I want to ask you a difficult question today.

And if you're married, it's a question I think every retirement plan should answer:

Could your retirement plan survive your spouse dying?

Nobody likes talking about this.

I certainly don't.

But one of you is probably going to die first.

And when that happens, something interesting occurs financially.

People tend to assume:

‘Well, now there's only one person, so expenses will be cut in half.’

Really?

Does the property-tax bill get cut in half?

Does homeowners insurance?

Does the roof cost half as much to replace?

Does your internet provider say, ‘We're sorry about your husband—here's 50% off?’

No.

A lot of the household expenses continue.

But some of the household income may disappear.

Your tax situation can change.

Your Social Security can change.

Your Medicare costs can potentially change.

Your investment strategy may change.

And the person who wasn't managing the finances may suddenly be responsible for all of it...

while grieving.

So today we're going to do something uncomfortable—but incredibly important.

And then we're going to find out:

Does the retirement plan still work when two becomes one?”

Well, if you're shopping for a house today...

The bond market just punched you in the mouth.

😂

The 10-year Treasury yield surged today, closing around 4.94%.

And according to Mortgage News Daily, the national average 30-year fixed mortgage jumped another 10 basis points today to:

7.07%.

Yesterday it was 6.97%.

Tuesday it was 6.89%.

So in roughly two days we've gone from 6.89% to 7.07%.

And immediately somebody listening is thinking:

‘Well, that's it, Jon. I'm not buying a house.’

Hold on.

Because today's show isn't about telling you whether you should buy a house.

It's about answering a much better question:

If you WANT to buy a house in a 7% mortgage-rate environment, how do you play the game differently?

Do you negotiate the price?

Ask the seller to buy down your rate?

Take an ARM?

Put more money down?

Buy a cheaper house?

Ask for closing costs?

Lock the rate?

Or sit on your hands and wait?

Aaron, Dwight and I are going to build the 7% Mortgage Playbook today.

Because you can't control interest rates.

But you can control how you respond to them.

If your husband died tonight, would you know what to do tomorrow morning?

Where are the investment accounts?

What does he have in his 401(k)?

How is your house titled?

Who is named on the life insurance?

What bills are on autopay?

Where are the passwords?

Who is your successor trustee?

Who do you call first?

And maybe you're sitting there saying:

‘Jon, my husband handles all of that.’

Okay.

That's exactly why we're having today's conversation.

And gentlemen, listen closely.

Because if you're the one who handles all the finances in your marriage, one of the greatest gifts you can give your wife is making sure she doesn't have to become a financial detective while she's grieving.

Estate planning isn't simply deciding who gets your money when you die.

It's making sure the people you love can actually function when you're no longer there to help them.