Podcasts about your social security

What is your retirement income style? Dr. Wade Pfau, CFA, RICP®, is the co-founder of RISAprofile.com, providing investors with retirement income style awareness. He returns to Your Money, Your Wealth® today on podcast number 522 to talk about four different styles of retirement income, distribution planning and the four percent rule. Plus, what does Dr. Pfau think will happen with President Trump's 2017 tax cuts, scheduled to sunset at the end of this year? What are Dr. Pfau's thoughts on annuities as part of your retirement plan? Next, "Joe Anderson's Top 5 Things" to help you manage the impact of all this market volatility on your portfolio. Also, Joe Anderson CFP® and Big Al Clopine, CPA spitball for "Al Bundy" in St. Louis: what withdrawal strategy makes sense for him, and what he should do with his IRA and 401(k) money? Free financial resources & episode transcript: https://bit.ly/ymyw-522 DOWNLOAD the Recession Protection Guide DOWNLOAD The Tax Planning Guide WATCH Escape These 11 Tax Traps and You'll Save in Retirement on YMYW TV ASK Joe & Big Al for your Retirement Spitball Analysis SCHEDULE your Free Financial Assessment SUBSCRIBE to YMYW on YouTube DOWNLOAD more free guides READ financial blogs WATCH educational videos SUBSCRIBE to the YMYW Newsletter Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro: This Week on the YMYW Podcast 01:00 - Retirement Income Style, Tax Laws, and Annuities with Dr. Wade Pfau 16:39 - What's the Future of Your Social Security? Watch Last Week's YMYW Podcast & Subscribe on YouTube 17:08 - Joe Anderson's Top 5 Things: How to Manage Market Volatility 26:27 - Learn to Escape These 11 Tax Traps and You'll Save in Retirement on YMYW TV, Download the Tax Planning Guide 27:13 - What Should I Do With My IRA and 401(k)? I'm 61 and Have $10M. (Al Bundy, St. Louis) 00:00 - YMYW Podcast Outro

Your Social Security benefits can be an important part of your retirement income — but when should you start collecting them? It's a big decision, so you'll want to consider your options carefully.

It's time to explore "Resistance Theater" through two powerful World War II-era films: "Passage to Marseilles" (1944) and "Pimpernel Smith" (1941). These classic propaganda films draw fascinating parallels to current events, and it's worth examining how MAGA forces are attempting to erase and rewrite history through modern tactics. From book banning at military bases to corporate attempts to appease Trump, this episode analyzes how resistance to fascism remains relevant today. The episode includes discussions of historic films while tying them to contemporary threats to democracy, media manipulation, and the importance of preserving historical truth. This wide-ranging conversation also covers notable news, including Wisconsin voting rights, DeJoy's departure from USPS, Trump's Ukraine plans, and Musk's invasion of YOUR Social Security data. This podcast is not safe for work.Support the show

In this episode, Tyler Emrick, CFA®, CFP®, explores the key financial and psychological factors driving early Social Security claims. Discover how a well-optimized strategy could boost your lifetime spending by more than 10%. Your Social Security decision isn't just about dollars and cents—it's a critical piece of your retirement puzzle. Join us to learn how to sidestep common pitfalls, maximize your benefits, and secure a more confident, fulfilling retirement. Here's some of what we discuss in this episode: What research and stats tell us about the benefits that get left on the table. What's the motivation behind the decision to claim early. Will Social Security still be around when it's time for you to claim? What if President Trump stops taxes on Social Security? The benefits of waiting to take it later in life. Have questions? Need help making sure your investments and retirement plan are on track? Click to schedule a free 15-minute call with one of True Wealth's CFP® Professionals. http://bit.ly/calltruewealth

Your Social Security Number... If you live in the United States, you've been told, taught and trained, since you were about 12-years old, to guard this numeric form of personal identification with your life! Whelp, congratulations, you just failed. No really, it's true.  Your Social Security number is now out in the wild. Last week, a company called National Public Data announced that they had been hacked and every Social Security number, of every U.S. citizen had been stolen. So, what does this mean to all of us?  Is this something thats really bad, or is it not that big of a deal? Tom and Chunga think they have a pretty good read on the situation and have some advice for everyone, in this episode of The Hacks!  Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Are you approaching retirement with tons of questions about Social Security? Then don't miss this episode! I'm going over the seven most frequently asked questions about Social Security benefits from clients and listeners alike. Hit play for the tips and tricks you have to know before you start collecting. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... When am I eligible to collect Social Security benefits? [2:30] How much will I earn from Social Security? [5:12] What are spousal benefits and how do they work? [7:34] What are divorced spousal benefits? [8:36] Can I work and collect Social Security benefits? [9:29] Are Social Security benefits taxable? [12:10] How do I apply for Social Security benefits? [14:49] Understanding the pathways to Social Security benefits There are four different pathways to gain eligibility for Social Security benefits. First, Social Security disability offers access to full retirement benefits earlier contingent on meeting specific disability criteria. If ineligible for disability benefits, there are three alternative methods for accessing Social Security benefits. Full retirement age typically spans between 66 and 67, varying with birth year. However, benefits can commence as early as age 62 with a reduction of about five-ninths of a percent per month until full retirement age, resulting in 70-75% of the total benefit.  Alternatively, delaying collection past full retirement age yields an 8% annual increase, maximizing at a 24% boost if waiting until age 70. Additionally, annual cost-of-living adjustments, averaging around 2.8%, might impact benefits, offering further considerations for individuals planning their Social Security benefits. These pathways offer flexibility, allowing individuals to strategize based on their unique circumstances and financial objectives. Crunching the numbers Figuring out how much you'll earn from Social Security isn't straightforward. It's a blend of your work history, timing of collection, and a formula that considers your highest 35 years of earnings. If you've got fewer than 35 years in the workforce, those years without earnings factor in. But here's the trick: working longer can swap those zeros for higher-earning years, beefing up your benefits. If your income has varied, working more years can replace low-earning ones with better ones, boosting what you receive. Cost-of-living adjustments matter too. Your Social Security statement holds the key to what you're eligible for. Once you start collecting, there's no turning back, except for a one-time do-over within a year, but that means repaying what you've received. Many folks jump in early but armed with this knowledge, you're better equipped to make a wise decision. Listen to this episode for more of the most-asked Social Security questions! Resources Mentioned Retirement Readiness Review (use code RETIRE40 for 40% off!) Subscribe to the Retire with Ryan YouTube Channel SSA.gov Connect With Morrissey Wealth Management  www.MorrisseyWealthManagement.com/contact

Social Security is a complex system that impacts nearly everyone's financial future. Despite its importance, there's a lot that the average person doesn't know or understand about it. Today we're going to explore some of these lesser-known facts so that you can make the most informed decisions for your financial future.   Here's some of what we discuss in today's show: What are work credits, and how do they impact Social Security benefits? How do spousal benefits work, and can non-working spouses receive benefits? Former spouses who were married for at least 10 years may be eligible to claim benefits based on their ex-spouse's earnings. What is the earnings test, and how can it affect early Social Security withdrawal? Your Social Security benefits can be garnished by the federal government.   Want to get in touch with Mark?  Web: https://silverman-associates.com/home Email: mark@silverman-associates.com Phone: 520.512.8832 520.618.5323

Social Security is a big part of what we discuss with clients on a daily basis because the majority of us will rely on this retirement benefit for income after we've stopped working. Despite its importance to planning, there's a lot that the average person doesn't know about Social Security.   Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: What are work credits and how many do you need? Some of the rules surrounding spousal benefits and who might benefit. The conditions for claiming benefits from your ex-spouse. What is the earnings test and how does it tie into your benefits? Your Social Security benefits can actually be garnished by the federal government.   Want to get in touch with Mark?  https://retirementhuddle.com/ mark@howardfinancialgroup.com 888-511-7526                 

Have you ever seen a rat's nest? It is tangled, messy, and unorganized. Your retirement can end up looking just like a rat's nest if you don't plan properly! Your Social Security, pension, taxes, Medicare…everything entangled into a chaotic mess. In this episode, J. Barry Watts shares a six-step process to untangle the retirement rat's nest, so you can retire with clarity and confidence. Barry discusses: Why financial planning is a lot more than just “managing money” How to build a tax-efficient income that lasts until you're 100 years old Planning for healthcare and long-term care How to leave behind a lasting legacy that extends beyond material possessions And more Connect With Barry Watts: Schedule an Introductory Call PriorityCare@WealthCareCorp.com  (417) 882-1726 WealthCareCORP.com LinkedIn: J Barry Watts LinkedIn: WealthCareCorporation Twitter:@jbarrywatts

The timing of when you start receiving Social Security benefits can greatly affect your retirement experience. In this episode of the One for the Money podcast, I share a few things every American should know about Social Security. At the end of the episode, I share a tip on where you can find out the details regarding your Social Security benefit.In this episode...Eligibility for Social Security [02:19]Is Social Security enough? [03:16]Retirement doesn't mean lower living expenses [06:32]Will Social Security run out? [08:46]Estimating your benefits [15:03]What is Social Security?Social Security is an essential aspect of retirement planning, providing a source of income not affected by market fluctuations. Given its significance, Americans need to have a thorough understanding of Social Security. To receive Social Security benefits, individuals must contribute by paying FICA taxes. Employees and employers each pay 6.2% up to a certain level of income. A self-employed individual is responsible for paying the employer and employee portions of Social Security.Relying on Social SecurityUnfortunately, living on Social Security alone leaves people on the brink of poverty. According to the Social Security Administration, 21% of married couples and about 44% of unmarried people rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their retirement income. Social Security was never meant to provide for a comfortable retirement. Rather, it is intended to help ensure lower-paid workers do not have to retire in relative poverty. Social Security retirement benefits will replace only about 40% of your pre-retirement income if you have average earnings. Your Social Security benefit is determined by calculating your average monthly income over your lifetime. This figure is then divided into three portions using a formula, with the lowest portion being given the most weight. The result is that the less a person earns while working, the more income Social Security replaces.Living expenses in retirementMany assume that Social Security will be enough because their living expenses will reduce in retirement. Unfortunately, expenses don't go down as much as one might expect. More and more people are taking mortgages into retirement. Homes require regular repairs and maintenance, and some of those repairs can be very expensive. Transportation costs will remain about the same, as well as everyday household expenses. In retirement, expenses for healthcare and leisure activities increase significantly, with healthcare being particularly costly. A couple, on average, spends over $250,000 on health care in retirement. Consequently, people are expected to need 70-80% of their pre-retirement income to live comfortably in retirement. Social Security doesn't provide enough to meet that need, which is why people need to supplement Social Security with 401k or IRA savings.Securities and Advisory services offered through LPL Financial. A registered investment advisor. Member FINRA & SIPC.Resources & People MentionedFear Over Social Security's Future Leads Some to Claim Retirement Benefits Early - WSJSSAWhat Is Social Security Tax? Definition, Exemptions, and ExampleSocial Security Benefit Amounts

Retirement can come with a lot of tax questions and concerns. From understanding the tax implications of withdrawing from your retirement accounts to minimizing taxes on investment income, it can be overwhelming. In today's episode, we'll break down the 7 tax questions that people approaching retirement are asking.   Here are a few lessons that we'll discuss in this episode:  What are the tax implications of withdrawing money from different retirement accounts? (4:16) Does the taxation of my pension income differ from other forms of income? (6:11) Your Social Security benefits might be taxed. (7:39) How will my taxes change if I move to another state in retirement? (13:47) Should I do a Roth conversion now or wait until retirement? (21:31)   Get your free guide to unlock hidden tax saving opportunities: lifemoneyshow.com/taxes   Want to get in touch? Web: https://sierensfinancialgroup.com/ Email: office@sierensfinancialgroup.com Phone: 847-235-6989 Read more and get additional financial resources here: http://lifemoneyshow.com  Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPhQ-u12d60Z0HNCwwVubdQ       

Putting it all together  Retiring is all about cash flow. It doesn't matter if you retire early or late.  Your Social Security and Pension (if you have one) are two financial assets that provide income in retirement. The key consideration is how to get the most out of them. Start by assessing your personal inventory of financial assets. Think as a successful money business owner would. "I have cash, investments, real estate, a pension fund, and Social Security (you could easily replace the terms pension fund and Social Security with annuity). Each of my financial assets has unique properties…advantages and disadvantages." Real Estate (easier to lend against, real asset, not related to stock market – may not keep up with inflation, cannot easily cash out)Cash (easier to access, not related to stock market – doesn't keep up with inflation)IRAs (easier to access, potential for high returns – taxed on when cashed out, tied to the stock market)ROTHs (same as IRA only not taxed when cashed out)Pension (Either an asset or an income, responsible party backing the benefit – taxed when received, once claimed it is normally permanent, not likely to keep up with inflation)Social Security (Tax friendly, yearly COLI, secured by the federal government – not liquid, longevity gamble)Assess your financial situation. What are your cash flow needs? Assess the difference between your cash flow (before claiming any benefits) and expenses. This is your Needs Gap!Assess your tax situation? Are you in a high or low tax situation?Assess your investment strategy and growth rates on each of your assets. Are there some with higher growth rates than others?Consider any liabilities you know or believe you will have, including emergencies. Earmark assets to cover them. Take your Needs Gap and look at your assets, what is the most efficient way to fill this?A Secret About Retirement PlanningIt is just like when you are working in that it is all about cash flow. You need cash flow to pay the bills. The difference is where you source your cash flow from. You may actually have to manage your money business, or hire a manager – i.e. a fee-only financial planner. Which assets should you use, how much, and when to cover your income gap?To answer the question – What do I do between early retirement age and when I can claim Social Security? – How to put it all together?The answer will be unique to your situation, and all the small details of your situation need to be considered. You are not likely to be successful in making isolated decisions that overlap with a number of other key issues. How you handle one issue might dramatically impact what your options are for another. It's like a game of chess, you need to be thinking many moves ahead, or you're likely to get trapped. Thanks to our sponsor, S.E.E.D. Planning Group! S.E.E.D. is a fee-only financial planning firm with a fiduciary obligation to put your best interest first. Schedule your free discovery meeting at www.seedpg.com

Make up your mind - China unhappy about everything. Yellen says inflation to cool. CPI comes in a bit better than feared. What is in store for the end of 2022 and into 2023? Announcing the 2022 Closest to The Pin Cup! PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm Up - Announcing Winner of latest CTP AND Entries for the CTP Cup 2022 - China lockdowns - scaring citizens - End of the year - Goodbye 2022 - People still concerned about 2023 - Musk boo'd ay Dave Chapelle stand-up - China - from zero-Covid to 100% Covid - Markets convulsing.... - Sam Bankman Fried Jailed - or just Sam Bankman NotFree or Sam Bankman Jailed Market Update -The S&P 500 index fell 3.4% last week as investors worried that a recent round of better-than-expected economic data might prompt the Federal Reserve to keep its key rate higher for longer. - All of the S&P 500's sectors fell last week. -- Energy had the largest percentage drop, down 8.4%, followed by communication services, which slid 5.4%, and consumer discretionary, which fell 4.5%. Other decliners included financials, down 3.9%; and technology and materials, which slipped 3.3% each. The smallest decline came from utilities, which edged down 0.3%. - All eyes are the Fed meeting this week - FOMC rate decision on Thursday (75% prob of a 50 basis point hike) - CPI Report released today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing turn of events... 2022 Exit Plan - Investors have good deal of capital losses - End of year could see some selling to book those deductions - - If that happens, look for a big January Effect mid January 2023 - Investors seem mentally exhausted from 2022 - get biz done now until end of year and "hope" for a more pleasant 2023 - 2023 may be  just as volatile as Fed not done CPI Report - Lighter than feared - markets go bananas on the print (November Core CPI 0.2% vs. 0.3% Briefing.com consensus; prior 0.3%) -  Total CPI was up "only" 7.1%, versus 7.7% in October, and core-CPI was up "only" 6.0%, versus 6.3% in October. - 10 year moves to 3.44%, USD drops hard, Stock futures soar - CME Fed Funds Futures at 79% for a 50 bps hike; One month ago it was at 80.6% (Meeting on Dec 14) CPI REPORT REACTION CPI Report Reaction One Musk - Got on stage at Dave Chapelle stand up concert - - Introduced as the world's richest person (which he no longer  is - Bernie Arnault took over - LVMH) - Supposedly significant # of people booing - (San Francisco venue) - Video of event ripped down off of Twitter (This is the problem - what happened to free speech?) CTP for 2022 - Past Winners Only for the CUP Marcus Galliford David Norman Paul Retzlaff Simon Lutzenberger Michael Devietro Matheau Phillips Rusty Shacklefordd DJIA is the index you will be guessing - you have until 12/21/2022 to enter. - Emails went out to all of you - NO ONE ELSE ENTER - Your price guess will be deleted if you are not the someone mentioned above. Not Pretty Fixed (Broken) Income Returns $600 = 1099K - Venmo, Paypal over $600 will be reported to IRS - Supposed to be for business transactions --- IRS admits, some personal transactions may be coded incorrectly - - BUT, all income is required to be reported, so this impacts you if you have not been compliant - - - ODD - Zelle is not reporting any transactions to the IRS.... -- - - - Zelle itself said it does not have to declare transactions made through the payment service because it is a network that does not hold the funds 2023 - Collection Social Security? - "Your Social Security benefits will increase by 8.7% in 2023 because of a rise in cost of living," the Social Security Administration states in the annual statem...

Most people think of their home as their largest asset. But for retirees, that may not be the case. In fact, your retirement savings may be your biggest asset. And it's important to manage those assets carefully in order to ensure a comfortable retirement. In this episode, we will discuss some tips for managing your retirement savings wisely.   Here's what we discuss in this episode: 0:52 – The 401(k) account 1:55 – How the house fits into planning 3:25 – Your Social Security 5:44 – Future savings potential 7:16 – All of your smaller accounts   9:22 – Mailbag question on 401(k) rollovers 10:46 – Mailbag question on getting married a second time 12:48 – Mailbag question on inherited IRAs   Check out our other free financial resources here: https://johnsonbrunetti.com/financial-resources/ Contact our team: https://johnsonbrunetti.com/contact-us/   

Alyssa Young hosted the Sept. 24 radio show. During the 8:30 a.m. segment, Social Security and Medicare specialist Mark Bacak joined to talk about strategies for claiming Social Security based on expected lifespans; special family circumstances such as death of a spouse and minor or disabled children; and the start of a new tax year being right around the corner. Alyssa provided the upcoming dates of Mark's free consultations at the MtM Financial Group office. She also talked about what investors should expect in a recession and how to interpret the values on your account statements for investments such as CD's, structured notes and buffered ETF's. And if you have a child who's 18, she explains a legal document you need in order to handle financial or health issues that could pop up. Alyssa answered listener questions: How can we find a reliable person or organization to manage our financial affairs if we become unwell?What should I do with money I inherited that I plan to use to buy a home in two or three years?What do you think about stock buybacks?Can I roll my 401k into an existing IRA or does it need to go into a new, separate IRA? Schedule a free second opinion meeting: Is your retirement plan on track? Are your investments appropriate? Meet with an MtM financial advisor.Talk to Mark Bacak about YOUR Social Security & Medicare options.Ask Mike Pompei to audit your life insurance policy—and explore whether a long-term care policy works for you.Make sure your will and legal documents are comprehensive: Talk with estate planning attorney Keith Strohl.Do your current annuities fit your needs? Kegan Morris will do an audit and explain them.Should you get a reverse mortgage? Tiffany Shutta can help. Call 610-746-7007 today to schedule an appointment with any of the above caring, professional specialists.

In October of every year, the Social Security Administration announces the cost of living adjustment for recipients starting that will go into effect in January the following year. So when they announce it in 2022, it will go into effect in January of 2023. Last October, they announced that the cost-of-living adjustment was 5.9%. The number they land on depends on their calculation of inflation at that time. I imagine that the adjustment they land on will be higher than last year. I'm estimating it to be somewhere between 7–9%. While this means that Social Security recipients will see an increase in their benefits, it will negatively impact what they will receive in the future. How? Learn more in this episode of the Retirement Made Easy podcast.  You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... [1:02] Submit your questions at RetirementMadeEasyPodcast.com [2:02] Three steps to take to create your dream retirement [4:36] Don't forget that Medicare Part B impacts your Social Security Benefit [7:10] How inflation impacts the average person's benefits [10:38] How the income cap on FICA taxes will impact the trust fund [13:23] Why the cost-of-living adjustment is a double-edged sword Don't forget that Medicare Part B impacts your Social Security Benefit Medicare Part B will be announced in November. In 2021, it went from $145 a month to $170 a month—a 14.5% increase—for the lowest earners. When you're looking at your Social Security statement and it says your benefit is $1,200—don't forget that Medicare Part B is deducted from your benefits. It's automatically withdrawn once you turn 65. So if you started with $1,200 a month you'd end up with $1,030 remaining. Your Social Security benefit estimates are NOT the number you'll actually receive. How inflation impacts the average person's benefits As of April 2022, according to the Social Security Administration, the average retirement benefit is about $1,620 a month. If the average person is 65 and Medicare deducts $170, that leaves $1,450 a month. If the average person has a Medicare supplement plan—which costs an average of $150 a month—they're down to $1,300 a month.  If this person doesn't have a pension, doesn't have part-time income, and doesn't have retirement savings to supplement their social security income, $1,300 a month is tight. That's why retirees are getting squeezed by high inflation. By 2035, if we make no changes to the social security trust fund, it will only be able to pay out 75 cents on the dollar.  The higher the cost-of-living adjustment, the more social security recipients will be getting, which will further shrink the trust fund—sooner than expected. Benefits will likely be cut by 25% sooner. Congress needs to fix this. 70 million Baby Boomers are counting on this money. We can't reduce their income by 25%. How the income cap on FICA taxes will impact the trust fund You pay 6.2% of your earnings—up to $147,000—to Social Security (the FICA tax). Your employer is paying another 6.2% on that $147,000. What does this mean for you? If you make $400,000, you're only paying taxes on the first $147,000. You don't pay into social security for any dollar above that.  I'm concerned about the social security trust remaining solvent. When people get a Social Security raise because of inflation, it puts more stress on the Social security trust fund. More money is going out than coming in, and it's only expected to increase. If the cost of living is increasing 8–10%, more people need to be paying into Social Security. The easy solution? I share my thoughts in this episode. Give it a listen! Resources & People Mentioned Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2022 The Basics of Health Insurance in Retirement, Ep #56 Illinois Policy Connect With Gregg Gonzalez Email at: Gregg@RetireSTL.com  Podcast: https://RetirementMadeEasyPodcast.com Website: https://StLouisFinancialAdvisor.com Follow Gregg on LinkedIn Follow Gregg on Facebook Follow Gregg on YouTube Subscribe to Retirement Made EasyOn Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts

Alyssa Young is your host today. She interviews Keith Strohl, an estate planning attorney with Steckel and Stopp who partners with MtM Financial Group, to talk about elder planning, also known as asset protection planning. How much money is off-limits from a nursing home for a healthy spouse who can live independently? What happens if you run out of money while receiving long-term care? What are the ways you can proactively prevent your money from being used to pay the nursing home? He introduces the pros and cons to consider. Also joining Alyssa today is MtM senior investment advisor Mark Belcak. He explains a strategy that provides both downside protection and income that may be appropriate for some people during this market volatility. In addition: What are the stages of retirement and why should you care?Why consider converting your IRA to a Roth?She answers an emailed question about how to avoid bank overdraft charges. Schedule a Free Second Opinion Meeting: Is your retirement plan on track? Are your investments appropriate? Meet with an MtM financial advisor.Talk to Mark Bacak about YOUR Social Security & Medicare options.Ask Mike Pompei to audit your life insurance policy—and explore whether a long-term care policy works for you.Make sure your will and legal documents are comprehensive: Talk with estate planning attorney Keith Strohl.Do your current annuities fit your needs? Kegan Morris will do an audit and explain them.Should you get a reverse mortgage? Tiffany Shutta can help. Call 610-746-7007 today to schedule an appointment with any of the above caring, professional specialists.

Alyssa Young hosts todays show and interviews Social Security & Medicare specialist Mark Bacak about the differences between Advantage & Medigap plans. Mark helps listeners understand what they can expect to pay and which might be the most appropriate choice for their individual needs. The consumer price index rose another 8.6% since May 2021, so Alyssa and listeners discuss ways to save a few dollars on food and gasoline. On the bright side: Medicare premiums will likely go DOWN in 2023, and the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment next year could be another new high. Alyssa also answers listener questions: Married couple says, “We are not even sure we are set for him to retire.”Parents want to know how to give their son their beach house with the lowest tax billRetiring firefighter seeks information on annuities to invest $100,000 in “something really safe”Do I owe state and federal taxes on the Pennsylvania home I sold to move to Florida? Plus, a client shares an outstanding experience with MtM Financial Group's life insurance partner, Mike Pompei. Schedule a Free Second Opinion Meeting: Is your retirement plan on track? Are your investments appropriate? Meet with an MtM financial advisor.Talk to Mark Bacak about YOUR Social Security & Medicare options.Ask Mike Pompei to audit your life insurance policy—and explore whether a long-term care policy works for you.Make sure your will and legal documents are comprehensive: Talk with estate planning attorney Keith Strohl.Do your current annuities fit your needs? Kegan Morris will do an audit and explain them.Should you get a reverse mortgage? Tiffany Shutta can help. Call 610-746-7007 today to schedule an appointment with any of the above caring, professional specialists.

Today we're talking about the Social Security Normal Retirement Age, also called the Full Retirement Age, which is between ages 65 and 67 depending on the year you were born. When you begin drawing Social Security retirement benefits, the amount you will received each month will depend on whether you start before your normal retirement age, at that age, or after.  If you were born before 1937 your Normal Retirement Age is 65. If you were born in 1960 or later, your Normal Retirement Age is age 67. Everybody else, yours is in-between age 65 and 67. Check out your exact Normal Retirement Age in years and months on the Social Security website https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/nra.html.I highly recommend you go to the Social Security website if you haven't already, and establish an account. https://www.ssa.gov/site/signin/en/ You've been earning Social Security credits based on your earnings record. Your employers have been withholding Social Security and Medical taxes from your pay and reporting to Social Security what they paid you each year. You want to be sure these earnings records are accurate. Your retirement benefit will be based on your highest 35 years of income, so every year is important.  Log into ssa.gov once a year and compare what earnings they recorded for last year with your tax documents to and make sure it's accurate, or correct any mistakes. The website will also give you estimates of future payments. Find out how much you would qualify for if you become disabled, what your family members would receive if you die, and what your Social Security retirement benefits would be.Your Normal Retirement Age. is the age you can start receiving your full Social Security retirement benefit. The formula used to compute it is very complicated, but its's easy to see the amount when you log into your account. Everyone eligible can apply and begin receiving benefits anytime from age 62 to age 70. But if you start early you receive less each month. Start later and you receive more.  As an example, if you were born in 1990. Your Normal or Full Retirement Age is 67. You want to begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits at age 62. That's 5 years early, so your monthly benefit would be reduced by 30%. If you full retirement benefit is $2,000 a month, you would receive only $1,400 a month if you start at age 62. You could choose any age between 62 and 67. But the earlier you begin benefits, the lower the payments.For each year you delay benefits after your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit will increase by 8% year. That's huge. In our example. For someone with a full retirement benefit of $2,000 a month, if you delay receiving benefits until you're age 70, your payment will be $2,480 a month. Looking at the yearly amounts, you could retire with $16,800 a year at 62, $24,000 a year at 67, or $29,760 starting at age 70. How do you decide when to start drawing benefits? It depends on your situation. Will you have enough resources to live on while you delay? Delaying is a low risk way of getting a higher benefit. How long will you live? Just from a numbers perspective, the longer you live the better off you are delaying benefits. One of the biggest concerns when planning for retirements is making sure you don't run out of money before you run out of life. Delaying drawing Social Security can help prevent that. If your health is poor and  and you think you will die younger than average, it may be better for you to start benefits earlier. Taxes can also impact your decision. Your Social Security benefits are taxed when you other taxable income crosses certain thresholds.

What happens with your taxes in retirement? This is the first of our three-part series for what to do and how to prepare if you are three to five years away from retirement.   Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://coveryourassetskc.com/episode-132-3-things-you-must-understand-if-youre-retiring-in-3-5-years-part-1/    What we discuss on this episode:  0:40 - Celebrating the 4th with family, fun, and fireworks. 3:10 - Why is the three to five year timeline before retirement so important? 5:05 - Your Social Security is likely to be taxed. 7:40 - Should you take a pension lump sum or monthly payments? 12:31 - The widow's tax is rarely discussed but important. 16:52 - Talk to your advisor about all of these.

Sometimes the easiest way to learn about something is make it really simple. Like some of the first true/false tests you might have taken in school, let’s play a round of fact or fiction to test your financial planning acuity. Important Links Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com Call: 844-707-7381 ----more---- Transcript Of Today's Show: Marc: Hey, everybody. Welcome into May on this edition of Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro and myself because we're going to hang out and talk about financial fact or fiction this go around. We're going to have a little bit of fun here. I've got some questions I'm going to lob at Tony and see if he can tell us if these are fact or fiction. Of course, like anything financial-related, you can almost always say it depends because it truly does. There's all these little variables. But we're going to try to see if we can get him to pin these down just a little bit. And like any of these things we talk about, they're kind of generalities and there's some different varying factors that might play into it.   Marc: So if you have any questions about something that you hear, please make sure you reach out and have a conversation about your specific situation with Tony and his team at (844) 707-7381. But we're going to have some fun with this and see what we get here on financial fact or fiction. Tony, what's going on, my friend? How are you?   Tony Mauro: I am spectacular. It's coming off one of the craziest tax seasons that I've ever been involved in, that's for sure.   Marc: Even more so than the prior year?   Tony Mauro: Even more so than the prior year with all the last-minute tax law changes.   Marc: Oh, very true. Yeah, very true.   Tony Mauro: It was a wild ride.   Marc: It's the wild west.   Tony Mauro: And the IRS, in our state anyway, are just trying to get back to some sort of normalcy and they've been running way behind.   Marc: Yeah. I've been hearing a lot of states have been duking it out with the feds on how they're doing things a little bit differently as well.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, man.   Marc: And that's kind of normal, I suppose, but I guess it's been heightened this past year.   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Marc: So yeah, very, very interesting. And I'm glad that you're basically through it now. So we're right at the tail end of it. This is our early March, or excuse me, early May edition, so I think you got a little bit more to go, but we're almost there. So let's do some financial fact or fiction, okay?   Tony Mauro: All right.   Marc: Now, as I mentioned before, you could probably say it depends on all of these, and if you really need to, feel free to go for it.   Tony Mauro: All right.   Marc: But it could be in the wording of the statement. So listen carefully and see how you do. Your Social Security can be taxable fact or fiction?   Tony Mauro: That's fact. I hate to say it. But it is a fact. And it does depend on the income, but it can be taxable and you got to watch that on your tax return and in your financial situation quite a bit because if you go over the limits, meaning that if you have money coming in, in retirement from other sources, once you go over a certain limit, depending on your filing status, then that Social Security is taxable, not a hundred percent of it, only up to 85% of it, but a little bit of more income can cause you to have that taxable. Now, these are fairly low limits, so you want it to be taxable. I mean, if you've got any kind of financial plan at all, and you're living any type of retirement, some of your Social Security is going to be taxable. You're just going to have to plan on it.   Marc: Okay. And a couple of things on this. So how often do people actually realize that? Because I think it's gotten better over the last few years, but I know many folks just were like, what, seriously, didn't I pay tax on this, going in?   Tony Mauro: Going in, and which you did. And it usually affects people the first and second year of retirement when they're not expecting it. They'll start Social Security, get almost a full year of it, and then not hold anything out on it, and realize 85% of that was taxable. Now that's not an 85% tax rate.   Marc: Right. Thank you, yes.   Tony Mauro: Yeah. Just the amount, 85% is taxable. But if you're in the 20, 25% bracket, that all of a sudden adds to income and you may end up owing or getting a little less back because of that. I just had it yesterday, I was checking over a lady's tax return, and last year, she got a refund, in 2020, she started taking Social Security, she made over the limit and she owed. And of course, she was asking, anytime you go from getting a refund, oh, and you want to know why. And so I told her, you made enough to where it's taxable and we're going to have to plan for that, or you've got to make some estimates or withhold out of it.   Marc: Right.   Tony Mauro: Otherwise, every year you're going to owe.   Marc: Yeah. And so a lot of times it does catch people off guard. They're just not aware that it is possible. But again, it's not the end of the world. It's just something to be aware of. So there you go. That one is technically fact. It can be taxable. All right. Fact or fiction, Tony, your taxes will likely be lower in retirement?   Tony Mauro: Well, I'm going to say that most planners might disagree because I think they're going to say that that's a fact. I'm going to say that that's fiction because most of the clients I see, generally, the ones that have had a plan and now are starting to execute that plan, they're making as much or more in retirement than they did when they were working and all of their deductions have disappeared. And the deductions that they have now really are charity, medical expenses, and things like that, that they can't get over thresholds. And then all of a sudden it's kind of like, well, I don't have anything to deduct anymore and my taxes are actually a little higher. It's not by a lot. But I think that a lot of times that can be fiction. And like you said, at the beginning, it could go the other way. I mean, the old adage is, well, I'm going to be making less, therefore, I'm going to be in a lower bracket and my taxes are going to be lower. But I don't find that as much now.   Marc: Right. Yeah, and I think a lot of times, I guess, depending on how you're looking at this, Tony, it could be if you're saying total tax, I think in general, because yes, we're not paying FICA now typically, right? So when you're no longer working, there's maybe in total tax, it is less. But if you're talking just the income tax bracket, that is probably a different conversation piece there.   Tony Mauro: Okay. Yeah.   Marc: All right. I don't know why my computer is beeping, but it is. I can't seem to figure out why to shut it up, but that's okay. We're going to keep rocking and rolling here. Financial fact or fiction, this one, I might let you get away with, it depends on this.   Tony Mauro: All right.   Marc: But term life insurance is better than whole life insurance.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, you didn't give me any clue words, so I got to take [crosstalk 00:05:43].   Marc: Better is tough, right?   Tony Mauro: Yeah, better is tough. I'm going to say, here's what I tell clients, I tell young clients if you really need insurance, term is so cheap now, and if you need it to cover if you or your spouse dies and you need it to cover expenses, help the family, term insurance is the better option because it's so inexpensive now. And of course, the old adage is, buy term and invest the difference because whole life and some of the other life insurance policies, you'll pay more but you have permanent insurance generally, that you don't have to worry about. I mean, I loaded up on a bunch of term insurance when I was younger. But I'm coming off of that now because the maximum you can go out is 30 years and then that term runs out. If you outlive the term, now you have no more insurance. Now, I'm ending the years I really need it.   Tony Mauro: But I think whole life and some of these other life insurance policies still have some value depending on what you're looking for. It's generally not the most face amount you can buy. It's generally some cash value, some ability to borrow against, that kind of thing.   Marc: Gotcha. Yeah.   Tony Mauro: A little more involved.   Marc: Like a lot of products, Tony, there's pros and cons depending on what you need.   Tony Mauro: There is, yeah.   Marc: So there's some places where one may be better than the other, but the other may be again, vice versa. So in this situation, that's a little bit of a trick question there. So it's a little bit tougher.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, it's a tough one.   Marc: Tougher to just go fact or fiction on that because the time of life and what you're trying to accomplish with that particular product could make that a true or false scenario.   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Marc: All right. Another little tricky one depending on how much you want to break this down. Medicare will cover most of your medical needs in retirement. And turning to fact or fiction, and what are we going to constitute as most?   Tony Mauro: Most, right. That's what I was going to ask you. But I would say if you're just going to random right off the top of your head, that's a fact. It's going to cover most. But how much is most? We don't know. And we all, I would assume, know that there are a lot of gaps with Medicare.   Marc: Sure.   Tony Mauro: Most people need supplements and things like that to cover those gaps because depending on your health and your needs that most could shrink down to less than 50 to 40% of it, depending.   Marc: Right. Because we're talking Part A and B. That's covering your hospital stuff and most of your basic doctor visits, but there is that 80/20 split, right?   Tony Mauro: Yeah. Yeah, and [crosstalk 00:08:11].   Marc: So that's if you're saying that's the general use, but there's nothing for dental, certainly nothing for long-term care.   Tony Mauro: No, the long-term care is the big one. Medicare doesn't cover hardly anything there and then you have to use Medicaid or private pay. But most of the people we work with on the financial planning side, we really make sure that they're covered all the way around should they want to be.   Marc: Right.   Tony Mauro: And almost everybody wants to be because well, the retirees do not like spending all their money on healthcare and that's a big cost for them.   Marc: Who would, right? Exactly.   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Marc: Exactly. And so there's a lot of little ... I mean, Medicare could be a great system, definitely for sure.   Tony Mauro: True.   Marc: But there's definitely some gaps in there so you want to make sure you're having a conversation with an advisor on how to fill those gaps and how to cover some of those differences if you feel like Medicare is going to cover just about everything you need, it's a good chunk of it, but there's still some things that it definitely doesn't. I mean, something as simple as eye care, because it's a surgery like cataracts it helps with, but not just normal eye care visits. So going to the eye doctor doesn't count, but eye surgery does.   Tony Mauro: I'll tell you what, the Medicare is a whole niche. It's crazy what they do and don't cover. I mean, you really have to work with it every day to understand some of those gaps and whatnot. And the normal client, the normal person's not going to know that. And so you really want to make sure that you're covered because you got to have it.   Marc: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of firms actually wind up having a Medicare specialist or they'll freelance with someone who will come in to help sometimes when you have to really get into the nitty-gritty of it. Because it is, yeah, it's definitely its own animal unto itself for sure. All right. Let's do one more here. Fact or fiction, this one's kind of fun. I think some of these, Tony, too, you could also apply a timeline. Maybe sometime before 2000, maybe some of these might've been more fact than fiction or vice versa. But as you get older, we should probably gradually shift from stocks to bonds, fact or fiction?   Tony Mauro: Well, I think the old adage is that was a fact because people as they get to the end don't have time to make up for the gyrations in the stock market. However, I'm going to say, in these days, and I've been telling clients this for about eight years now, that that's fiction.   Marc: Okay.   Tony Mauro: Because all I've got to do is show them, well, if we go into bonds, here's what you're going to get.   Marc: And they're pretty volatile right now, too.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, they're volatile. They're not paying anything. And can you live on this? And most people say, absolutely not, I can't do that. Of course, I get some people saying, "Well, what happened to the 8% bonds?" I said, "Well, you've been out of it in a while."   Marc: You better call up 1986.   Tony Mauro: Yeah. And so they still think they can get 3, 4, 5% on their savings account. But we do go over things with them and we tell them you have to be the one to decide. But I think you need a little higher mix of stocks than in the older days because I think we're living longer and we've got inflation. Things are going up and it's just going to erode your purchasing power, which is going to lead to not that great of an existence over time.   Marc: Right.   Tony Mauro: But you'll some clients that just say, "You know what, I can't sleep at night unless I have FDIC insurance." And if that's the case, then we show them where they're at and try to make the best of it.   Marc: Well, let me ask you, Tony, if you were saying it used to be the case, and you'd kind of maybe lean towards fact that way. If the idea was, and this was the classic idea, was that shifting from stocks to bonds was to reduce risk, right?   Tony Mauro: Right.   Marc: So we would want to keep some money in the market to outpace inflation, but we were going to peel some risk off the table. Well, there's other ways to do that. It doesn't have to necessarily be bonds, right? There's other vehicles out there if you want to de-risk you can certainly talk to an advisor about.   Tony Mauro: Absolutely. There's a lot of different options out there that, yeah, I can get you somewhere between a lot of market risk and then bonds and really get a little hybrid-type of model going.   Marc: Exactly. Yeah.   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Marc: Yeah, so that's something to certainly think about. So that's kind of along the lines of the classic 60/40 portfolio. And that's just not necessarily the case nowadays, as much as it used to be. So again, every situation is a bit different. So you want to have the conversation to say it doesn't have to all be ... People, we talk about this often, Tony, people feel like, well, it's either got to be in the market or in cash.   Tony Mauro: Right.   Marc: I mean, it's pretty much my only two options. It's like, no, there's a lot of other things. There are so many kinds of investment vehicles in the financial world, it's kind of staggering actually.   Tony Mauro: Today it is. I mean, from back when I first started in the business, well, even before I started back in '87, the amount of different product options today, it's mind-boggling compared to back then.   Marc: Yeah.   Tony Mauro: And most products, in my mind, generally, will fit some sort of investment purpose. Now, it's not for everybody.   Marc: Right.   Tony Mauro: I think some people get out there and they're watching the news and they see the latest and greatest this or that, and they just feel well, if it's out, I should have it. And that's definitely not the case, especially in retirement.   Marc: Exactly. Agreed. Especially in retirement. Yeah. So it's all about finding the right mix of things for you. And some of these things are definitely, some of these things are fact, some of these things are fiction. Some of these things definitely could go with it depends. But every situation is unique, so make sure you're having a conversation.   Marc: But just some basic things to remember when it comes to this week's show, hopefully, you found that interesting. Social Security can be taxable. A lot of people are surprised by that, things of that nature. So as always, follow up with a qualified professional like Tony. He's a CFP, certified financial professional, as well as an EA here in the Des Moines area. But also, he's got clients all over the place. So if you need some help and you caught this podcast, subscribe to it to catch future episodes on Apple, Google, Spotify, whatever you're using. Just hit the little heart button, I think on Apple to subscribe, things of that nature.   Marc: You can also find all of that and learn more about Tony and his team at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com. You can check him out online and learn more, and reach out to him, maybe schedule some time to talk, whatever that might look like for you. All right, my friend, thanks for hanging out with me this week and playing financial fact or fiction. Hope you have a great week and looking forward to talking to you soon.   Tony Mauro: All right. Thanks, Marc.   Marc: We'll catch you later, folks, here on Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro, from Tax Doctor, Inc., serving you here in the greater Des Moines area. We'll talk to you next time on the show. Stay safe and sane, folks. We'll catch you later.   Disclaimer: Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services.  Member FINRA, SIPC, Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services.  Insurance services offered through Avantax Insurance Agency.

What’s fact and what’s fiction when it comes to these financial planning concepts? Phil sets the record straight in order for you to plan accordingly.   Read more and get additional financial resources here: https://philstaxhacks.com/podcast/ep-83-financial-fact-or-fiction/    Watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/DY69Ko0EGA8    What we discuss on this episode:  0:50 - Listen for Phil to say “run the numbers” on the podcast. 2:11 - “Your Social Security can be taxable.” 4:00 - “Your taxes will likely be lower in retirement.”  8:01 - “Term life insurance is better than whole life insurance.” 9:45 - “Medicare will cover most of your medical needs in retirement.” 13:33 - “As we get older, we should gradually shift from stocks to bonds.”

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. In this segment, Josh guides a caller who has some questions about hedging against inflation as they consider taking money out of mutual funds and re-investing in a rental property. Is this a good strategy? Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the many benefits of the STRETCH IRA that are no longer available since congress did away with it, and other dangerous legislation on the horizon. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the reality of the federal government taxing retirement accounts more and more as the federal debt increases, with safe legal strategies on how to protect your portfolio from the inevitable tax increases that are on the way. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the many benefits of life insurance as a wealth generator. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob answer a caller question about the right age to begin collecting social security. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the various ways to protect yourself from bad legislation coming down from Washington D.C. that will affect your retirement accounts. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the many benefits to delaying collecting social security benefits. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

Josh Jalinski, The Financial Quarterback is joined by “America's #1 retirement expert” Bob Carlson, author of Where's My Money?: Secrets to Getting the Most out of Your Social Security, and editor of the monthly newsletter, Retirement Watch. Together Josh and Bob discuss the different social security strategies available to divorcees or even widowers that aren't available single filers or married couples. Listen to the Financial Quarterback live every Sat/Sun 9am EST on WOR AM710. Follow Josh on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit Jalinski.org for more information, and pick up his latest book, Retirement Reality Check now.

A lot of small business owners put so much into their business plan and into their business, that sometimes they overlook themselves. One of their biggest assets and efforts is their business itself, but what about retirement? On today’s episode of the podcast, Phil and Marc talk about the kinds of decisions business owners face, sharing personal experiences and advice for business owners trying to save for retirement.   Read more and get additional planning resources here: https://philstaxhacks.com/podcast/ep-75-saving-for-retirement-as-a-business-owner/    Watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/oE6gLViu1sE      What we discuss on this episode:  0:37 - What should business owners know about retirement? 1:03 - Is a good business plan enough?    2:25 - Are you paying yourself first? 3:59 - Your Social Security may be lower. 5:19 - Are you planning to sell your business as your retirement plan? 9:00 - What do business owners need to consider from a tax standpoint? 10:57 - There are a lot of little things to being a small business owner.

Guaranteed income options can be limited in retirement, but an annuity income rider can help. Your Social Security benefit and pension are both types of guaranteed income and, from a retirement planning perspective, they should cover your essential income needs. But what if they don’t? Some annuities offer an income rider feature designed to provide you with guaranteed income for the rest of your life. If you’re considering getting an annuity or already have one, listen to this episode to find out if an income rider could benefit you. Press “play” to hear Radon and Murs continue their “Annuities – Why Ever Use Them” series by explaining how an income rider works, what the fees are, and what the long-term benefits can be. In this episode find out: Why we recommend a fixed index annuity for retirees What guaranteed income is and why it’s important in retirement How an annuity income rider provides guaranteed income The cost of an annuity income rider How an annuity income rider could suit your future Tweetable Quotes: “When you add an income feature to an annuity, it gives you lifetime income” – Radon Stancil “The longer you wait to take income from an annuity, the higher the income will be” – Radon Stancil Important Links & Mentions https://youtu.be/uWAEacnGO28 (Part 1 – Annuities – Why Ever Use Them) https://youtu.be/WowKPRfsocQ (Part 2 – Annuities – Why Ever Use Them) https://youtu.be/aWa6R1OAONg (Part 3 ­– Annuities – Why Ever Use Them) https://youtu.be/Sd-9GRHACYk (Part 4 – Annuities ­– Why Ever Use Them) https://pomwealth.net/ (Our website) Resources: If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement! To access the course, simply visit http://pomwealth.net/podcast (POMWealth.net/podcast). To receive our free book, Get Off the Retirement Rollercoaster, leave a 5-star rating review on Apple Podcasts and send a screenshot to mailto:morgan@pomwealth.net. 

Should you take Social Security at 62? Or, should you wait until your Full Retirement Age or later? Taking Social Security early can be a mistake that costs some retirees $100,000 or more in retirement benefits. However, in some cases taking Social Security at 62 is just the right decision. In this episode we'll dive into the pros and cons of taking Social Security at 62. KNOW YOUR FULL RETIREMENT AGE Before jumping into Social Security, it's important to understand a couple of key terms. The first term is PIA or Primary Insurance Amount. This is the amount of your benefit when you reach Full Retirement Age (FRA) or Normal Retirement Age. Your primary insurance amount is based on your highest 35 years of working history, indexed for inflation. If you have years where you have zero earnings and only have 15 years of working history, those zero years would be a part of the calculation. Your Social Security benefit will be based on your Primary Insurance Amount. If you were born between 1943-1954 your FRA is 66. Then for every year between 1955 to 1959 they had two months to your FRA. If you were born in 1955 your FRA is 66 and 2 months, in 1956 it would be 66 and 4 months, in 1957 - 66 and 6 months, in 1958 - 66 and 8 months, and 1959 - 66 and 10 months. If you were born in 1960 or later your FRA is 67.  You can see your FRA on your Social Security statement and can register for an online account at ssa.gov. REDUCTION IN BENEFITS AT 62 If you're contemplating taking your benefits at 62, or anytime before your Normal Retirement Age, you'll receive a reduced benefit. If a person's FRA is 66 and they decide to take their Social Security benefit at 62, their benefit will be reduced by 25% of their Primary Insurance Amount each month. This 25% reduction is a permanent reduction, meaning it won't increase later except for cost of living adjustments (COLA). Some people mistakenly believe that their FRA benefit will increase to 100% of PIA but that isn't correct. This is a permanent reduction based on a reduced portion of your PIA. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THE EARNINGS TEST If you decide to claim benefits early, it's important to be aware that you'll also become subject to the earnings test, if you continue to have earned income. Note that there's a difference between earned income and ordinary income. Earned income looks at wages and doesn't include other income sources such as pension, real estate, investments, and retirement accounts withdrawals. Basically, $1 in benefits will be withheld for every $2 of earnings above the limit of $18,960 (for 2021). This means that your Social Security income can be reduced if you make above the threshold. As an example, say you made $40,000 in earned income. They would reduce your Social Security by $10,520 that year ($40,000 - $18,960/2 = $10,520). These thresholds change in the year you reach FRA.  It's important to understand that though your Social Security benefit is reduced, it isn't permanently lost. It will be added back to your benefit after FRA.  WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU TAKE SOCIAL SECURITY LATER If you reach FRA and still haven't claimed Social Security, your benefit will increase 8% per year until you reach age 70. It doesn't ever make sense to wait after age 70 to take your benefit. (As a side note, while we haven't addressed the spousal benefit in this article, it won't experience any increase after FRA, so your best option is to take any spousal benefit no later than at your Full Retirement Age.) Another way of looking at delaying Social Security benefits is that you'll be getting 8% per year on your Social Security money. If you could get a guaranteed 8% per year on your other investments with no risk would that be a good investment? It certainly would! While Social Security isn't an investment, when you compare it to your other retirement assets, it can make a lot of sense to delay claiming. In a free on-demand class I created I showed one case study where a family delayed...

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1085/29 We continue to see the collateral damage caused by the COVID pandemic. One survey shows that 20% of Americans have changed their retirement plansnot exactly the golden years. However, delaying retirement isnt all bad news at all! It has its benefits, financial and otherwise, that you may not have considered. Kingdom Advisors President Rob West goes over them today. Having to push back your retirement date can be disappointing, and millions of Americans have had to do it due to lost income and retirement assets from COVID. But we want to encourage folks about hidden benefits of delaying retirement. First, delaying retirement means youll have fewer years when you need to make withdrawals for living expenses. Second, for most seniors, youll have more peak earning years. The easiest time to make maximum contributions to a 401(k) or IRA is when youre at the top of your pay scale. And third, those added working years give your nest egg more time to grow through compound earnings. Although, as always, youll want to keep a smaller portion of your portfolio in the market as you near retirement. Another financial benefit of delayed retirement is that you may be able to delay withdrawals from your 401(k). The Cares Act suspended Required Minimum Distributions in 2020 for both 401(k)s and IRAs due to the coronavirus. But that was just a one year reprieve. Normally, you have to start taking RMDs when you reach the age of 70 or 72, depending on when you were born. If you have to delay retirement, your Social Security check will almost certainly be larger. This happens in two ways: (1) Every year past full retirement age (now 66 or 67), your check will increase by 8% up to age 70. (2) Your Social Security benefit is based on your highest 35 earning years. Assuming youre earning more now than you did when you entered the workforce, each higher earning year replaces a lower earning year which increases your check. In one respect, it may actually be easier on your routine. If one spouse retires and the other doesnt, you can find yourself out of sync. Whos supposed to do what? Do all household responsibilities fall on the retired spouse? That sort of thing. Another benefit is that you get to maintain your social network for a longer time. You can lose touch with work friends after you retire, plus, there a psychological benefit to interacting with other people. It keeps us on our toes and stimulates our brains. Finally, the only place in the Bible we seem to find the idea of retirement is a verse referring to the Levitical priests in Numbers 8:25, And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more. This means God fully expects us to continue working for His glory even after we retire. Something to think about for when were no longer earning a paycheck. Here are some questions we answered from our callers on todays program: What advice can you give me regarding online passwords and security, especially in light of COVID? I have about $160,000 in savings for my future. Whats the best way to grow this money? I dont want it sitting there collecting minimal interest. Marcus.com and Ally.com were websites mentioned in reference to this caller. I have some money saved up. Should I pay off my mortgage (doing a HELOC in case I have an emergency) even though it means depleting my emergency fund? Or should I keep this money and continue paying on this mortgage? What do you think about self-directed IRAs? Ask your questions at (800) 525-7000 or email them at questions@moneywise.org. Visit our website at moneywise.org where you can connect with a MoneyWise Coach, purchase books, and even download free, helpful resources. Like and Follow us on Facebook at MoneyWise Media for videos and the very latest discussion!Remember that its your prayerful and financial support that keeps MoneyWise on the air. Help us continue this outreach by clicking the Donate tab at the top of the page.

Guests: Jackie Turner, Executive Director and Timothy Rush, Director of Unemployment Insurance from Mississippi Department of Employment Security mdes.ms.govAs soon as you become unemployed, you may file a claim for unemployment insurance benefits online or by calling 601-855-3133 or 1-888-844-3577. MDES takes phone claims Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm. You can file claims online anytime on their website.You should be prepared to provide the following information:Your Social Security number,Your complete mailing address and phone number,The names, addresses, and phone numbers for all your employers for the last eighteen (18) months,The dates you worked and the reason you left each employer.Alien Registration number or Visa number, if you are not a U.S. Citizen.ReSkillMS is a new program designed to help individuals adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic find jobs with better wages and also help support employers who want to hire and train new employees on the job. ReSkillMS.comThe “Mississippi Library Association’s Map of Free Wi-Fi Hotspots Across the State”. website MDES went from processing 800 claims per week to 5,000 per week to 45,000 claims per week.Topics discussed:phishing scamsfinancial market behaviornational unemployment going downMDES's computer systemself employed wagesPandemic Employment AssistanceLost Wages Assistance - distribution is on hold now. FEMA funds being used for other emergenciesappeals processcertificationfurloughed See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, the podcast takes a look at what to do with a 401(k) account left behind with a former employer - should you leave it there, or roll it over to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)? I wrote about this topic last weekend for The New York Times - the context being the stunning job losses the country is experiencing now due to the coronavirus crisis.People stuck in this situation will be looking for emergency lifelines to meet living expenses. And retirement accounts will be a tempting option, as the emergency CARES Act passed in March provides flexible hardship withdrawal options for 401(k) and individual retirement accounts.  For jobless workers who don’t need to tap retirement accounts right now, the choice is to leave the money where it is, or roll it over to an IRA. This is an important decision whenever you leave a job.Joining me on the podcast this week to talk about IRA rollovers is Scott Puritz. Scott is the managing director of Rebalance, an investment firm that helps clients manage retirement assets. Rebalance argues that rollovers usually are the best move - and especially so when you’re shifting out of a high cost 401k plans into an IRA invested in very low cost passive mutual funds. Listen to the podcast by clicking the player icon at the top of the page. The podcast also can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.Not a subscriber yet? Take advantage of a special offerSign up now for the free or subscriber edition of the newsletter, and I’ll email a copy of my latest retirement guide to you. This one looks at dealing with the Social Security Administration during the COVID19 crisis. Customer service at the Social Security Administration has changed during the coronavirus crisis - the agency closed its network of more than 1,200 field offices to the public in March. Just a reminder- subscribers, have access to the entire series of guides at any time. Click on the little green button to subscribe, or go here to learn more.House Democrats propose multi-employer pension rescue House Democrats will take another run at rescuing multi-employer pension plans in the next round of coronavirus relief. Roughly 10.6 million workers and retirees are relying on pensions from multi-employer plans, which are created under collective bargaining agreements and jointly funded by groups of employers in industries like construction, trucking, mining, and food retailing. There are about 1,400 multiemployer pension plans today.Before the virus crisis, multiemployer plans covering 1.3 million workers and retirees were considered badly underfunded. Lawmakers have considered a variety of fixes, but had not reached agreement.The $3 trillion House coronavirus relief bill, coming up for a vote by the end of this week, would require the federal government to set up a fund to rescue financially troubled multiemployer plans. Stay tuned.Elsewhere, public pension plans had the worst first quarter on record due to the stock market’s volatility.How Medicare’s new telehealth reimbursement is workingFor years, advocates and researchers have urged greater use of telemedicine — delivered by video or phone, through online patient portals or remote monitoring devices — particularly for older adults. But Medicare has been slow to adapt, keeping tight barriers in place that prevented reimbursement to healthcare providers in most cases. The barriers have come down during the coronavirus pandemic - Medicare is now providing full reimbursement for video and phone visits. Paula Span reports on how that is going in The New Old Age:Still, by mid-April more than 20 percent of people over 70 had experienced a telehealth appointment since the start of the pandemic, a nationwide survey by NORC at the University of Chicago found. Almost half said they found the experience equivalent to an in-person visit; about 40 percent said it was worse.In interviews, patients told me of similarly mixed reactions.Learn more in Paula’s column for The New York Times.Born in 1960? Your Social Security benefit could be lowerAn odd coronavirus-related technical problem threatens a sizeable cut in Social Security benefits for people born in 1960. The issue stems from the way Social Security calculates a worker’s career earnings - a calculation that is critical to determining benefit levels. If the problem isn’t addressed - and I think it will be - these workers could see a permanent reduction in Social Security retirement benefits of around 13.8 percent, according to a research paper by Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration during the George W. Bush administration.The issue here is falling national average wages this year due to the coronavirus recession. Before averaging past earnings, Social Security indexes your earnings to the growth of national average wages up to the year in which you turn 60. Nominal earnings in any past year are multiplied by the ratio of the national average wage in the year the worker turns 60 to the national average wage in the year the earnings took place. Right now, that is the 1960 birth cohort.A decline in national average wages in that year reduces Social Security’s indexed measure of all your past earnings - and that leads to the lower Social Security benefit.Biggs suggests fixing the problem by shifting the entire Social Security system from wage indexing to a formula that calculates benefits as a percentage of inflation-adjusted career-average earnings. Biggs and other conservative policy folks have been arguing for that change for quite a while. But the goal of any pension plan - including Social Security - is wage replacement. And generally, wage indexing produces stable replacement rates over time. Consumer price indexing would lead to declining replacement rates, e.g. benefit cuts.Instead, Congress should simply add a hold harmless provision to the wage indexing provision. We already do that with the annual cost-of-living adjustment (something I’ll have more to say about soon, because the 2021 COLA is shaping up to be one of those weird years). A hold-harmless clause for wage indexing would protect workers against the occasional black swan event, like the one we are experiencing now. Learn more about this issue in Andrew’s paper, or an op-ed he penned on the topic this week for The Wall Street Journal.Recommended reading this weekMcDonald’s workers in Denmark pity us . . . The housing market faces its next crisis . . . How to earn a great risk-free return by paying down debt . . . Fearing covid-19, older people alter their living wills . . .Will COVID-19 make the decline narrative of aging worse . . . How I’m finding purpose in a pandemic. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at retirementrevised.substack.com/subscribe

Are you in the Social Security tax bubble? Tax rules are complicated enough, and Social Security benefits during retirement years add another layer of complexity. Watch corresponding Youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RnQY0NxhSM&t=39s Your Social Security income can cause your actual tax rate to be much higher than expected. Not understanding how and when Social Security benefits are taxed can lead to an unpleasant surprise when Uncle Sam comes calling. You’ll also learn why multi-year tax planning is so important in retirement.  How should you decide when to take Social Security? If you are approaching age 62 you may be considering when to take Social Security. It can be tempting to take that low hanging fruit as soon as possible. But we often recommend that you delay taking your Social Security benefit for as long as you can. If you don’t take Social Security early then you need to think about how you’ll make enough money to cover the costs of your lifestyle. Do you have IRA’s, 401K’s, or even an old-fashioned pension? When planning your retirement income you’ll also want to think ahead to age 70 ½ when you’ll have to take the required minimum distribution or RMD. Have you decided when to take your Social Security benefit?  Social Security tax bubble or tax torpedo? Your Social Security benefit can be taxed like any other income source. But there is a way to determine if and how your benefit will be taxed. You can use a special calculation that is determined by the IRS. To do this, add up your taxable income and add half of your projected benefit. If it is over a certain threshold then it will be taxed. You’ll need to be careful when determining your income since tax rates increase slowly and then suddenly jump from 22% to 41%. You don’t want those taxes to torpedo your retirement planning. Listen in to find out how to plan ahead. It pays to plan ahead Sure, you want to pay the lowest amount in taxes each year, but retirement tax planning is a bit more complicated. You’ll want to consider your lifetime tax bill. You don’t want to pay 0% in taxes this year only to be stuck with a 24% tax bill next year. You’ll want to have a comprehensive retirement plan which considers when to take out more money for those big-ticket items that will inevitably come up. With a little bit of planning, you can spread your tax burden out over multiple years. You also need to consider that your 60’s provide you with a unique opportunity to name the income that you won’t have in your 70’s. Discover why your 60’s may be the most important tax planning decade by listening to Will Holt’s tax expertise.  Understand all the tax opportunities and risks that are out there There are plenty of risks involved with retirement tax planning but there are also lots of opportunities to save on taxes as well. One tax opportunity you shouldn’t miss is topping out your tax bracket with Roth conversions to help minimize your RMD once you turn 70 ½.  If you are planning to retire early the Affordable Care Act could throw you another curveball. It is important to understand the income levels needed to qualify for the subsidies available. There is a lot to consider when in retirement tax planning.  Financial Symmetry is a Raleigh Financial Advisor. Proudly serving clients by providing financial planning to the Triangle residents of North Carolina for 20 years. Outline of This Episode [1:27] When should you take Social Security? [4:12] A brief overview of the Social Security tax bubble [9:00] Why you should not only consider this year’s tax bracket [13:22] Can you change your mind when to take Social Security? [15:44] Why would someone take Social Security early? [17:32] What are other considerations? Resources & People Mentioned Episode 99 Connect with Will Holt Connect With Chad and Mike https://www.financialsymmetry.com/podcast-archive/ Connect on Twitter @csmithraleigh@TeamFSINC Follow Financial Symmetry on Facebook Subscribe To This Podcast Apple Podcasts Stitcher Google Play

Nobody likes taxes, but tax management in retirement doesn’t have to hurt so bad. During this Retirement Tax Management series, you’ll learn about tools and tricks you can use during retirement to lessen your tax burden and make paying taxes as painless as possible. On this episode, we’ll focus on Social Security and how it affects your tax burden. You’ll also hear retirement tax tips from a variety of other professionals. Make sure to listen to the whole series to learn as much as you can and when you’re done be sure to take the listener survey so that we can get your opinions to refine the show to cover topics that interest you.  Tax management tips from a variety of professionals When looking for good advice it helps to crowdsource to hear a variety of tips. Check out these ideas to help you lessen your tax burden in retirement.  CFA, CFP and writer, Peter Lazaroff, focuses his advice on limiting your RMD liability. He encourages listeners to minimize their RMD liability early on, prior to age 70 ½, by doing partial Roth conversions. It’s important to remember all of those pretax dollars will be taxed eventually. Think about it early on so you won’t get stuck with a huge tax bill at age 70 ½.  Julie is currently maxing out her husband’s 401K to save for retirement, In addition, she is funding an HSA with pre-tax money. She is paying cash for her medical bills now and saving those receipts to withdraw from the HSA in retirement. She is using the HSA like a slush fund. Julie also uses a donor-advised fund for charitable giving. Brandon Renfro Ph.D. encourages you to consider your multi-year tax rate. In retirement, income is multi-dimensional and you can manage when you  Michael Hennessy, CFA, CFP, recommends using a qualified charitable distribution if you are charitably inclined. When having to take your RMD, if you don’t need the full amount of money, give it away. This will help with IRMA as well as help you manage your tax brackets.  Michael Molitoris suggests auto-withholding a portion of your IRA distribution for tax purposes. Make sure to also withhold taxes from your Social Security check. This will help save you from filing quarterly taxes and it will further save you from a huge tax bill.  Ashley Daniels use your tax return as a tool to help you think about tax brackets, IRMAA, and Social Security.  What can you do to help you get ready to plan for your Social Security benefit? As you are sitting here thinking about Social Security and retirement, you might be wondering what you can do to be proactive. There are 2 things you can do right now. First, go to ssa.gov and set up your login to begin to manage your account. Review your earnings history, give it a once over to make sure it is reported correctly. Your benefit is based on the reported earnings history so you’ll want to make sure they are in the right ballpark and act early if something is amiss.  Secondly, check out the retirement estimator calculator. This is a great tool to help you with multi-year tax planning which is imperative in retirement.  Are your social security benefits taxable? Wait! I already paid taxes on my Social Security benefits, why are they taxing me again? This is why we’re learning about retirement tax management now. So there won’t be any surprises later. Your Social Security benefit is taxable but only up to a certain amount. It really depends on your adjusted gross income (AGI) and your nontaxable interest accounts. Make sure you listen to the examples I give to fully understand when and how your Social Security benefits are taxed.  What can you do now to help manage future taxes? In your working years, you don’t really have control over your tax bracket or how much you will owe, but in retirement, you can have a lot of control if you are proactive. Multi-year tax planning is so important and that’s why you are listening to Retirement Answer Man now.  There are several strategies that you can think about using to manage your taxes. Consider these: Delay Social Security while you take distributions from your IRA’s or earn income in pretirement Start converting your IRA’s to Roth IRA’s early Consider multi-year tax strategies to think about your IRA withdrawals Fill your tax bracket Make sure to listen in next week to meet our old friend IRMAA and find out how she could affect your Medicare premiums.  OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN HOT TOPIC SEGMENT [4:00] Tax tips from financial advisors PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT [11:40] How does the tax scheme work in retirement for your Social Security benefit [14:07] Are your Social Security benefits taxable? [17:45] Let’s look at an example [23:22] What can you do now to plan for the future? THE THANKFUL LAB SEGMENT [26:30] I’m thankful for the listener interaction we get TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT [28:14] Go register at SSA.gov and check out the new retirement calculator Resources Mentioned In This Episode SSA.gov Retirement Estimator Calculator IRS Publication 915 BOOK - Making Money Simple by Peter Lazaroff Rock Retirement Club Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney Work with Roger Roger’s Retirement Learning Center

Your Social Security may be the windfall you have been earning your entire adult life. After all, it may be your last windfall to do the things you know you need to do or have always wanted to do. Don't let it slip through your fingers.

Whoa! Kansas is NOT a tax haven for retirees no matter how how you cut. From taxing Social Security to all private pensions, high property tax rates and top 10 in the nation for sales tax rates, Kansas leaves a lot to be desired from the tax perspective. Here is one thing that jumped out at me regarding Kansas tax that you need to be aware of. Your Social Security is taxed based on your AGI...NOT your taxable income. Why is that important? Well simple. Let's say you're a politician in Kansas. You can say "We don't tax your Social Security until your AGI is above $75k." That sounds reasonable, no? But that also means if you have taxable income above $49k you will pay tax on your Social Security benefits. Same exact scenario. But the code discussed AGI as opposed to taxable income as a way to minimize the initial affect a citizen will have when they hear how the taxes work. Yet, it doesn't stop there. In other areas, Kansas DOES say explicitly they will tax you if your TAXABLE INCOME is above a certain threshold, as opposed to AGI. Trust me, these folks knew what they were doing when they were concocting the tax code. Semantics? Yes. But if you don't understand the semantics of the tax code in whatever state you live, you could be in for a rude awakening. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

Dr True Ott PhD, American 30 Points of Truth, Review to Point, Luciferic Vatican UN IMF Scam, Get How to Win in Court, File Pro Se, Don’t Run for Fake Office, Don’t Buy Into False Legal Systems, Read Plan Pray Act for Personal and Corporate Greater Good of Mankind, Read the Documents, GOD will Remove Evil with the Rapture, Restoration of the Covenant of Eden, Fusion of Eternal GOD with Bride of Saved Humanity SOON!, Dr Bill Deagle MD AAEM ACAM A4M, NutriMedical Report Show, www.NutriMedical.com, www.ClayandIRON.com, www.Deagle-Network.com,NutriMedical Report Show,https://atrueott.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/30-facts-about-america/30 Facts About AmericaFiled under: Uncategorized — 8 CommentsSeptember 4, 2018I originally wrote this back in 2011. It is even more pertinent in 2018.You want to “drain the swamp”? You have to get REAL about REALITY – which means you have to research these 30 facts and the source documentation behind them.True In order to understand what is REALLY going on covertly, “behind the curtain” in America – one needs to internalize and understand the following 30 basic facts about “The Powers That Be”. (TPTB).Thirty Little Known Facts about America1. The IRS is NOT a U.S. Government Agency. It is an Agency of the IMF. Sources: Diversified Metal Products v IRS et al. CV-93-405E-EJEU.S.D.C.I.Public Law 94-564Senate Report 94-1148, pg 5967Reorganization Plan #26Public Law 102-3912. The IMF is an Agency of the U.N. and was organized in 1944 at Bretton Woods, N.H. well before WWII was concluded.Source: Black’s Law Dictionary 6th Ed. Pg 8163. The United States has NOT had a Treasury since 1921.41 Stat. Ch. 214 page 6544. The U.S. Treasury is now the IMF.Presi dential Documents Volume 29 No. 4 page 113Source: 22 U.S.C. 285-2885. The U.S. does not have any employees because there is no longera United States. No more reorganizations. After 200 years of bankruptcy it is finally over.Source: Executive Order 128036. The FCC, CIA, FBI, NSA and all of the other Alphabet Gangs werenever part of the U.S. Government, even though the ‘U.S. Governmentheld stock in said ‘Agencies’.Sources: U.S. v. Strang, 254 U.S. 491Lewis v. U.S., 680 F.2d, 12397. Social Security Numbers are issued by the UN through the IMF. The application for a SSN is the SS5 form. The Department of the Treasury (IMF) issues the SS5, not the ‘Social Security Administration. The new SS5 forms do not state who publishes them while the old form states they are Department of Treasury.Source: 20 CFR Chap. 111 Subpart B 422.103 (b)8. There are NO Judicial Courts in America and there have not been any in America since 1789.Judges do NOT enforce Statutes and Codes. “Executive Administrators” enforce Statutes and Codes. Thus, the “Uniform Commercial Code” is the supreme law of the courts, NOT the U.S. Constitution.Sources: FRC v. GE, 281 U.S. 464Keller v. Potomac Elec. Co., 261 U.S. 4281 Stat. 138-1789. There have NOT been any ‘Judges’ in America since 1789.There have only been “Executive Administrators”. (Now you know why “judges” will hold you in “contempt” if you cite the U.S. Constitution in their presence.)Sources: FRC v. GE, 281 U.S. 464Keller v. Potomac Elec. Co., 261 U.S. 4281 Stat. 138-17810. According to GATT provisions, you MUST have a Social Security Number.Source: House Report 103-82611. New York City is defined in the Federal Regulations as the “United Nations”. Rudolph Guiliani stated on C-Span that “New York City is the Capital of the World”. For once, he told the truth.Source: 20 CFR Chap. 111 subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2)12. Social Security is NOT insurance nor is it a binding contract. Nor is there a “Trust Fund”.Source: Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619Steward Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 54813. Your Social Security check comes directly from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is a “for profit corporate agency” of the United Nations. Examine one SS Check: top-left should be written ‘United States Treasurysee 2-4 above.14. You actually own NO property. Slaves can’t own property, you see. Read carefully the Deed to the property you think is yours. You are listed as “a TENANT”. Often times the Mortgage Holder or the State is listed as “Seised in demesne as of fee”.Source: Senate Document 43, 73rd Congress 1st Session( What is “Seised in demesne as of fee” and what does this Latin Legal term mean? This is the strict technical legal expression used to describe the ownership in “an estate in fee-simple in possession in a corporeal hereditament”. The word “seised” is used to express the “seisin or owner’s possession of a freehold property”; the phrase ‘in demesne’, or ‘in his demesne’, (in dominico suo) signifies that he’s seised as owner of the land itself, and not merely of the seigniory services; and the concluding words, ‘as of fee, import that he is seised of an estate of inheritance in fee-simple. Where the subject is incorporeal, or the estate expectant on a precedent freehold, the words ‘in his demesne are omitted. Source: (Co. Litt. 17a; Fleta, 1.5, c. 5, 18; Bract. 1.4, tr. 5, c. 2, 2) Brown. “Black’s Law DictionaryFourth Edition, page 1523.15. The most powerful court in America is NOT the United States Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.Source: 42 Pa. C.S.A. 50216. The King of England financially backed both sides of the Revolutionary War.Source: Treaty of Versailles. Signed July 16, 1782Treaty of Peace 8 Stat. 8017. You CANNOT use the U.S. Constitution to defend yourself because you are NOT a party to it.Source: Padelford Fay & Co. v. The Mayor & Alderman of the City of Savannah, 14Georgia 438, 52018. America is a British Colony. The ‘United States’ is a corporation, not a land mass and it existed before the Revolutionary War and the occupying British Troops did not leave until 1796.Sources: Respublica v. Sweers, 1 Dallas 43Treaty of Commerce 8 Stat 116Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80IRS Publication 6209Articles of Association October 20, 177419. Britain is owned by the Vatican.Source: Treaty of 121320. The Pope can therefore abolish any law in the United States.Source: Elements of Ecclesiastical Law Vol. 1, 53-5421. A 1040 Form is for Tribute paid to Britain.Source: IRS Publication 620922. The Pope claims to own the entire world through the laws of Conquest and Discovery.(Ever wonder why an Attorney, who is an often unwitting Agent of the Pope through the International Bar Association, wants to do “discovery” with you?)Source: Papal Bulls of 1495 & 149323. The Pope has ordered the genocide and enslavement of Millions of people.Source: Papal Bulls of 1455 & 149324. The Pope’s ‘Laws’ are obligatory on everyone on the earth.Source: Bened. XIV., De Syn. Dioec, lib, ix, c. vii., n.4. Prati, 1844Syllabus prop 28, 29, 4425. We are SLAVES and own ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Not even what we think are “our children”.Source: Tillman v. Roberts, 108 So. 62Van Koten v. Van Koten, 154 N.E. 146Senate Document 43, 73rd Congress 1st SessionWynehammer v. People, 13 N.Y. Rep 378, 48126. Military Dictator George Washington divided up the States (aka Estates) into Districts.Source: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume 1 page 991828 Dictionary definition of ‘Estate27. ‘We, The People” does NOT include the General Populace, or what you THINK is ‘We, The People”.Source: Barron v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 32 U.S. 24328. It is NOT the ‘duty of the police to protect you. Their job is simply to protect THE STATE OR LOCAL CORPORATION and arrest “Code Breakers”.Sources: Sapp v. Tallahassee, 348 So.2nd. 363Reiff v. City of Philla., 477 F.Supp. 1262Lynch v. NC Dept. of Justice, 376 S.E.2nd. 24729. Everything in the ‘United States is up For Sale: Bridges, Roads, Water, Schools, Hospitals, Prisons, Airports, “Federal Lands”, “State (estate) Lands” etc.Did anybody take time to check who recently bought Klamath Lake and the Arizona State Capital?Source: Executive Order 1280330. ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ are HUMAN CAPITAL – aka as “Goyim” to the rulers of the world.Source: Executive Order 13037The U.N. has financed the operations of the ‘United States Government for over 50 years and now ‘owns’ every man, woman, and child in America. The U.N. also holds all of the land of America in Fee Simple.Why is the above so difficult for most people to understand? Simple: words like ‘person’, ‘citizen’, ‘people’, ‘or’, ‘nation’, ‘is’, ‘fact’, ‘authority’, ‘truth’, ‘nation’, ‘crime’, ‘fraud’, ‘charge’, ‘right’, ‘statute’, ‘preferred’, ‘assume’, ‘prefer’, ‘constitutor’, ‘creditor’, ‘debtor’, ‘debit’, ‘discharge’, ‘payment’, ‘law’, ‘United States’, and hundreds of other words do NOT mean what you think they mean and you were never taught the ‘Legal Definitions’ so you would ‘Understand that you DON’T understand’.Don’t let this information alarm you because without it you cannot ever HOPE to be free.You have to understand that all slavery and freedom originates in the human mind. As the philospher Goethe wrote: “No man is more hopelessly enslaved than he who WRONGLY BELIEVES that he is free.”When your mind allows you to accept and understand that the United States, Great Brittan and the Vatican are Corporations which are nothing but fictional entities which have been placed in your mind, you will understand our slavery remains primarily because we believe in false fictions.The Illusion is MUCH larger than the irrefutable 30 points above, and the 30 points above are not even the tip of the tip of the iceberg. But it is, at least a starting point. For more information, see:www.atgpress.comwww.TheAmericanVoice.comhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=IRS+is+a+Fraudwww.ZeitgeistMovie.comwww.FreedomToFascism.comhttp://www.myspace. com/KC7AQKhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=911+Truth+Movementhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klwWcp9eiPw&feature=related For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I receive an email where someone is concerned about their Social Security benefit being wrong. They look at their statement and see that they'll receive say $2,000 at FRA but when they calculate the numbers themselves they don't come up with anything close to that. Then they'll see Youtube videos and other blog posts saying "Your Social Security statement is WRONG!!!" And without understanding they'll simply believe what they see, hear or read. This is not good because it leads people to stay in their crappy, old job for many more years than they should, solely due to ignorance. So, let's look at how Social Security benefits are actually calculated. I've talked a million times to Sunday on the AIME (Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings) numbers. You take your top 35 years of earnings, INFLATE THEM as per Social Security's guidelines) add them up, and divide by 420. That is your AIME. But your AIME is NOT your benefit amount. Your benefit amount is your PIA, which is a fraction of your AIME. To figure your PIA you take your first $895 of AIME and times by .90. You take the next amount, up to $5397 and times that by .32. Any amount above $5397 times by .15 and that is your PIA, the amount you'll receive at your FULL RETIREMENT AGE. So, let's say you're looking at your statement and see you only made $16k in 1984. You're like "Oh no. My benefit is going to be small because I wasn't make very much back then." You'd be wrong! That $16k is the same as $50 in 2017. If you made nothing but the average wage, $50k in 2017 numbers, your benefit would be $1950 at your Full Retirement Age. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Especially if you have NO DEBT! https://www.ssa.gov/oact/COLA/AWI.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_Indexed_Monthly_Earnings ================================= GET ALL MY LATEST BLOGPOSTS: https://heritagewealthplanning.com If you like what you see, a thumbs up helps A LOT. It tells YouTube that people are engaged and so the Youtube algorithm will show the video to others who may be interested in the content. So, give me a thumbs up, please! Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEzy4i9xrKPoaU9z0_XbmA?sub_confirmation=1 Contact me: Josh@heritagewealthplanning.com GET MY BOOKS: Both are FREE to Kindle Unlimited Subscribers! The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement Accounts: How The Roth IRA Can Help You Avoid It https://amzn.to/2LHwQpt Strategic Money Planning: 8 Easy Ways To Put Your House In Order https://amzn.to/2wKGi50 PODCAST: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/josh-scandlen-podcast/id1368065459?mt=2 http://heritagewealthplanning.com/category/podcasts/ LET'S SOCIALIZE! Facebook: http://Facebook.com/heritagewealthplanning Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshscandlen/ Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Josh-Scandlen Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/1/108893802372783791910 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

In this episode, podcast host and author of “Control Your Retirement Destiny” covers Chapter 1 of the 2nd edition of the book titled, “Why It’s Different Over 50.” If you want to learn even more than what there is time to cover in the podcast series, you can find the book “Control Your Retirement Destiny” on Amazon. Or, if you are looking for a customized plan for your retirement, visit us at sensiblemoney.com to see how we can help.   Chapter 1 – Podcast Script Hi, I’m Dana Anspach, the founder and CEO of Sensible Money, a fee-only financial planning firm that specializes in helping people transition into retirement. I’m also the author of the books Control Your Retirement Destiny, and Social Security Sense. My passion for helping people make the best retirement decisions possible is what led me to write Control Your Retirement Destiny and I’m honored by the incredible 5-star reviews it has received. I wrote it because I wanted people to see what a real retirement plan looks like – and the book spells it all out, step by step. Today, I’m thrilled to bring to you this podcast where we will discuss highlights from the book. In this episode, I’ll be covering Chapter 1 of the 2nd edition of the book titled, “Why It’s Different Over 50.” If you want to learn even more than what we have time to cover in this podcast series, I encourage you go to Amazon.com and search for Control Your Retirement Destiny. Or, if you are looking for a customized plan for your retirement, visit us at sensiblemoney.com to see how we can help. Let’s get started. ---- So, why is it different over 50? Sure, your joints ache more, and you can no longer read menus, but, do the financial aspects of life change too? In many ways, yes, they do. Think of it like this… Imagine you’re planning for a road trip. This road trip has two phases. The first phase is the accumulation phase. This occurs during your working years where your focus is on saving for retirement. You have a set point in time you are saving for – a destination you want to reach by a specific age. The second phase is the decumulation phase of the road trip. This will be the point in time where you will “live off your acorns”. You have a lot more flexibility in this phase, but also, a lot more unknowns. Let’s look at each phase more closely. First, the accumulation road trip. Assume for this portion of the road trip, you’re not going too far, only about 300 miles. Your gas tank holds 18 gallons and you didn’t have an electric car, so you only get about 20 miles per gallon. Taking 18 gallons x 20 miles per gallon, you can estimate you’ll get about 360 miles per tank. Since your destination is 300 miles away, it’s pretty easy to figure out you can get to there on one tank. This type of calculation is simple and easy to do. When you’re young and actively saving for retirement, this type of calculating helps you figure out how much to save. For example, if you’re age 40, and you want to save $1.5 million by age 65, how much do you need to put away each year? The answer is about $24,000 a year – that is assuming you earn about 7% a year on your investments. This type of math is relatively easy to do using a spreadsheet or a financial calculator. It’s easy because you plug in specific data, such as 25 years and a 7% return. Now, let’s start the second part of your road trip – the decumulation phase – and see how the math gets harder. As you start the decumulation phase, here are some of the questions you have. How long is your road trip going to be? What terrain will you be driving over? What will the weather be like? Are they any gas stations along the way? What will the price of gas be? These are all unknowns. Let’s break these unknowns into four risk categories. The first category is called “Longevity Risk”. You don’t know how long you’ll live. So you don’t know how many total miles you’ll be driving. Instead of knowing it is 25 years until you reach age 65, now your road trip could be 20 years, thirty or even 40 years.   The next risk category is called “sequence risk”. This has to do with the unknown market returns. For example, we all know that city driving takes more fuel than highway driving. But with this road trip, you don’t know what conditions you’ll encounter. This risk impacts you when you are accumulating too. But while you are younger you have time to recoup from mistakes, or from a period of time with below average investment returns. As you get closer to retirement, a bad sequence of returns, or several years in a row with poor returns, can cause a result that you didn’t see coming.   This next risk category is “inflation risk”. What will the price of gas be as you travel along? Will prices rise over time, and if so, by how much?   The last challenge you have is rationing your supplies. This is a risk retirees face called “overspending risk.” Suppose you pack your favorite snacks, but you go on a binge early on the trip and gobble them all up? Now, you don’t have enough for the tail end of your trip.   To feel comfortable transitioning into retirement, you need a plan in place to account for these unknowns. In this podcast on Chapter 1 of Control Your Retirement Destiny, I’m going to provide an introduction to each of these four risks; longevity risk, sequence risk, inflation risk, and spending risk. LONGEVITY RISK First, longevity risk. When you run a projection, you must start with an assumption about how long you might live. You can guess, or you can use science… sort of. Science works well for engineering when you’re working with known factors – like gravity. But as we discussed, this road trip has a lot of unknowns, so when it comes to this type of planning, it’s really a scientific guess. Or, the term I love, that one of our clients shared with us, … a SWAG… or Scientific Wild A** Guess. (Can I say that on a podcast?    I sure hope so!) To SWAG longevity risk – the unknown factor of how long your road trip is, it is best to start with mortality tables –– These are the types of tables that insurance companies use and that the government uses when figuring out how much in Social Security they will pay out over time. We’ll start with data from 2014 mortality tables. If you’re curious, you can find these tables and associated research on the Society of Actuaries website. First, let’s look at singles. SINGLES For a single female, age 60, –how likely do you think it is she’ll live to 85? Would you be surprised to know there is a 60% chance? - (64% white collar only) Male – age 60 – A male age 60 has a 51% likelihood of living to 85 - (58% to white collar) Those are high odds. Many people make decisions about money with an off-hand comment such as “well, I might not live that long”. That’s like betting against the odds! Not only do people routinely underestimate how long they’ll live, many married couples make decisions based on their own life expectancy, as if they were single. What they need to do is look at their joint lifespan. If you’re married, how likely is it one of you will live to 85? The odds go up to 80%! 85% when looking at just the white collar data set. What about the likelihood that one of you will live to 90? There’s a 58% chance – which goes up to 65% for white collar folks. ---- I’d play to those odds in Vegas any day. Wouldn’t you? So doesn’t it make sense that you should align your finances to take advantage of those odds? What do you think the 85-year-old… you will wish the 50-year-old you had done? What about the 90-year you? What do you think they’ll wish the 60- year old had thought about? The types of decisions I’m talking about aren’t just “save more and spend less.” There are more complex decisions to make – decisions that help reduce the risk of outliving your money. For example, one decision that can have a big impact on protecting you against the risk of outliving your money is the decision as to when you start Social Security. Your Social Security benefits are inflation adjusted and you get a lot more per month if you start benefits at a later, age rather than as soon as possible. And if you’re married, you must learn how Social Security survivor benefits work. Many couples have one person who made the majority of the income. All too often that person starts Social Security benefits at a young age, and thus severely curtails the survivor benefits available to their spouse. There are many financial tools to consider when looking at how to protect your retirement income for life. You have to be open minded and willing to learn how things really work. This isn’t always easy. The bias against some financial tools can be so strong that when I mention them, you’d think I’d said a four-letter word! What are tools the illicit such strong responses? Things like Reverse mortgages and annuities. These products can be great financial tools when used in the right situation. It’s sad that many of these tools are marketed in such a cheesy way that people refuse to consider them. ---- In conclusion, when it comes to longevity risk, the unknown length of your road trip, be open minded and evaluate financial decisions such as When you begin Social Security Use of a reverse mortgage Purchasing an income annuity To protect the older you, it can also make sense to consider… Working a little longer Using investments that are most likely to keep pace with or outpace inflation   SEQUENCE RISK Next, let’s talk about sequence risk, or to use road trip vernacular, what we’ll call “the gas mileage question.” As we discussed, it would be difficult to calculate how many miles per gallon you were going to get if you didn’t now whether you were going to be driving mostly highway miles, or city miles. When planning for retirement the unknown conditions are your market returns. There’s something called The Retirement Red Zone – considered to be the last 10 years of working and the first 10 years of retirement. What if your Retirement Red Zone occurs during a time where the economy is booming? Or what if it is during a recession? These things make a big difference – and you need to know your plan will work either way. ---- To study how much investment returns can vary, let’s look at two historical examples. First, safe investments. Certificates of Deposit or CDs, issued by banks, are considered a safe investment. In 2001, you could earn over 6% interest on a 3-month CD. If you were planning for retirement, you might have naturally made the assumption that 6% interest was realistic. For every $100,000 you had in CDs, you assumed you’d have $6,000 a year of interest income to spend. Fast forward to 2011 – and that same 3-month CD was paying less than 1/3 of 1%. Your $6,000 of income had dropped to $300 a year. Ouch. ---- Well, if CDs didn’t provide consistent income, what about the stock market? The Standard & Poors 500 Index, commonly referred to as the S&P 500, tracks the collective performance of the stock prices of five hundred of the largest U.S. based companies. From 1926 to 2017, a 92 year time span, the S&P 500 averaged just over 10% a year ( 10.2%) Looking at a more recent time period, 1995 to 2017 The average annual compound return was also just over 10% ( 10.1%) I start by using averages, because financial literature often uses averages to illustrate the historical performance of an investment. And most people use past returns to choose investments and set expectations for the future. Ten percent sounds great. If you earn 10% a year, your money doubles almost every 7 years. But in the book The Black Swan, author Nassim Taleb uses a line I love. He says, “Don’t cross a river if, on average, it is 4 feet deep.” By nature, an average is composed of times where returns were higher, and times where they were lower. Take the time period that has become known as The Lost Decade as an example. The Lost Decade, 2000 – 2009, The S&P 500 had a negative return of .9 – or a loss of about 1% a year over that ten years. All was not lost, however, depending on how you invested. The S&P 500 represents the performance of only 500 large cap stocks. If you used a globally diversified portfolio of stock index funds, with exposure to many other asset classes and to stocks across the globe, you averaged 5.4% a year over The Lost Decade. (DFA Global Equity Index 5.4%) Still, that’s a far cry from the long-term average of 10% that you might have been expecting. Averages can be dangerous by giving you misleading expectations. They can also be dangerous when used in software programs and when planning for retirement. I’ll talk through an example to explain why. From 1973 – 1982, the S&P 500 averaged 6.7%. Not a bad return. Let’s assume its 1973 and you are using an online retirement calculator. Of course, those didn’t exist then, but just humor me for the sake of leaning. You plug in 6.7% for your expected return. The software assumes you earn 6.7% each year. You start with $100,000 and tell the software to withdraw $6,000 per year. It shows you that at the end of the 10 years, you should still have $109,000 left. You think that’s great, especially considering the fact that you took out $60,000 along the way. You retire based on this plan. Unfortunately, what really happened, is in 1973 the stock market went down the first few years. This means when you withdrew the $6,000 you had to sell some shares at a loss. Although the market recovered, you had less shares available to participate in the recovery. So, although the software said you should have $109,000, remaining at the end of the decade, what you ended up with was $83,000. That’s a $26,000 difference between what you thought you would have based on a calculation, and what reality delivered. How do you plan for such varying conditions? Well, when engineers build a bridge they don’t build it for average weather. They test for extremes. You have to do the same thing when planning for retirement. You test your approach to see if it works over bad economies, as well as good ones. You can also build in contingencies. For example, assume you like to travel. Spending extra on travel might work fine as long, as you get average returns. But you know if a recession should materialize, your contingency plan will require you to travel less or give up travel for a few years. Building in contingencies give you flexibility in your planning. Another option is to segment your investments into what is needed for different legs of your trip. For example, picture having safe investments to fuel the first 10 years of your journey and growth investments to fuel years 11 and beyond. The technical term for using this approach is asset liability matching, and I’ll cover it in Chapter 5 on investing.  ---- INFLATION RISK The next thing to consider on your road trip is the unknown price of gas, or inflation risk. When I was in elementary school, I lived in St. Louis, Missouri. Actually Chesterfield, which is a suburb of St. Louis. It was the early 80’s and I used to ride my bike to the nearest Schnuck’s Grocery store to buy my favorite candy bar, a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It cost a quarter. today The price of gas provides another great example. In the 1990’s the price of a gallon of gas ranged from $1 - $1.30. Today, it hovers about $3.00 a gallon. So, we know inflation is real. Prices do rise. The standard rule of thumb in financial planning projections is to assume a 3% inflation rate, as this has been the long-term historical average. Inflation is measured by what is called the Consumer Price Index (or CPI) , which tracks the collective prices of a basket of goods and services. In recent history, 1990 – 2017, inflation has actually been less than 3%, 2.4% as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Over that time, prices of some goods have come down, while prices of some services, such as health care, have gone up. Inflation does NOT impact all things and all people equally. Believe it or not, in retirement, most of you will not need your current level of spending to continue to go up at the same rate as inflation. For example, assume you enter retirement with a mortgage payment of $1,500 a month. Your mortgage has 12 more years. This is a fixed payment. Your mortgage will not go up each year with inflation. Your insurance and taxes will though. Or, early in retirement you may have children who still need financial assistance. That expense is likely to go down later. This is why, once again, I don’t like using averages. If you tally up your expenses, and grow them by 3% a year, and save enough to support that goal, you might actually be over-saving. Now, granted, not a lot of bad things happen by saving too much. Still, many people who develop a custom plan realize they can retire earlier than they thought.  To determine how inflation really impact retirees, research studies examined retirees and how they spend money over time. My favorite research paper on the topic is called Estimating The True Cost of Retirement, written in 2013 by David Blanchett. David is the Head of Retirement Research at Morningstar. The research shows: Spending is at its highest when retirees are in the 60 – 65 age range Then it slows down, with those same retirees spending a lot less as they enter the 75 – 85 age range. As retirees near age 85+ , spending tends to increase again, primarily due to health care needs. This spending pattern is often described as the “Go-go years, slow-go years and, no-go years.” The research paper concludes that many retirees may need approximately 20% less in savings than the common assumptions would indicate. And that retiree expenditures do not, on average, increase each year by inflation This research went even deeper and segmented retirees into three groups. Those who spend about $25,000 a year in retirement, $50,000 a year and $100,000 a year or more. Inflation has the biggest impact on lower income households. That makes sense – when you’re on a tight budget, price increases on basics such as food and gas have a big impact. Inflation has a much lower impact on households spending $100k or more in retirement. The research concludes that “When correctly modeled, the true cost of retirement is highly personalized based on each household’s unique facts and circumstances.” I see this first hand with the work we do with clients. We build in inflation raises in our projections. But as our clients reach their 70’s and we offer their annual inflation raise, they often tell us they don’t need their monthly withdrawal to go up. They’re perfectly comfortable on what they are already getting. In conclusion, Averages can be quite misleading when it comes to market returns, and when it comes to the impact of inflation. When planning for retirement you want to customize your spending assumptions and the impact of inflation to your financial circumstances. Using a rule of thumb, such as inflating all expenses at 3% a year, may result in over-saving for retirement.   OVERSPENDING RISK The last topic to introduce you to in Chapter 1 is Overspending Risk. This is the risk of spending too much too soon. When I think about overspending risk, the movie The Martian, with Matt Damon, pops up in my mind. In the movie, he has to carefully ration his food. If he doesn’t ration his food, he’ll run out of food too soon and die before the rescue team can get to him. In retirement, if you take out too much money too early in retirement, you increase your risk of running out of money early. That’s why you have to plan for big expenditures like auto purchases and major home repairs. Many people forget to include these items when they are figuring out how much they’ll need in retirement. Another problem that occurs - if your investments do well early in retirement, it’s easy to take out the excess and spend it. This may seem reasonable at the time. But remember how averages work. If you are in the middle of a time period where things are doing really well, you have to take some of the gains, and set them aside for the inevitable period of time when investment returns will be below average. This is how you ration your supplies as you travel on the retirement road trip. If you don’t have a way to measure how much you can safely take out, and how to account for big ticket items, you can easily spend too much too soon. Another thing that catches people off guard in retirement are taxes. Take the popular 4% rule as an example. The 4% rule says that you can safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio each year, and reasonably expect to have it last for life. Let’s talk through an example. Using the 4% rule, you would conclude for every $100,000 you have invested, you can withdraw and spend $4,000 a year. That works, except if that $100,000 is all in a Traditional IRA, 401k or other tax-deferred retirement plan. The money you withdraw from traditional retirement plans will be taxed. If you’re in the highest tax bracket, after taxes, you might have only $2,400 of the $4,000 available to spend. Simple rules of thumb can be great to use when you are age 40 and planning for retirement 20 to thirty years away. But once you are within 5 years of your retirement age, they are not an effective way to determine what you can actually take out and spend each year. Rules of thumb do not account for taxes, and even if you try to account for it with an estimated tax rate, such as 20%, in reality, your taxes in retirement may be vastly different than your neighbors. And your taxes are likely to vary from year to year. Taxes depend on the source of income. While Roth IRA withdrawals are not taxed, 401k withdrawals are. And while some people pay no taxes on Social Security benefits, others will pay taxes on 85% of the benefits they receive. You need a customized plan to accurately project how much you’ll pay in taxes in retirement. So, let’s review what we discussed. When you get ready to transition into retirement, it’s like heading out on a road trip where… You don’t know how long you’ll be traveling. We call this longevity risk – the unknown factor of how long you’ll live. You don’t know what type of driving conditions you’ll encounter. We call this sequence risk – the idea that you could retire into a bad economy or a good one – and you need your plan to work either way. You don’t know the future price of gas. This is inflation risk. Research shows the traditional assumptions used in the financial planning industry may be overestimating what you’ll actually need. You have to have a way to ration your supplies. This is overspending risk. Use too much too soon, and you could run short later in your journey. There is a way to account for these challenges. It starts by looking at your household finances. Then, you learn how to align the pieces to work together. We start this journey in Chapter 2, where we begin to follow Wally and Sally, a couple getting ready to retire. We look at how they can most effectively put together a plan. Thanks for joining me for Chapter 1 of Control Your Retirement Destiny. To learn more, get a copy of the book on Amazon, continue through the podcast, or, to work with a professional retirement planner to put together your own customized plan, visit us at SensibleMoney.com.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

Your Social Security and Medicare benefits are changing. Listen in to find out how.

AIME, PIA, FRA, DECs... WHAT THE???? Unfortunately, these are the acronyms used regularly in regards to YOUR Social Security benefits. You really need to understand how these topics work together because many retirees rely heavily on Social Security. In fact, there are studies done that shows Social Security provides MOST of the income for retirees! Given that, doesn't it make sense to understand the Social Security system and how works? Doesn't it also make sense to understand how the system can benefit you? I believe it does. So, in this episode we discuss: ***AIME - Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings ***PIA - Primary Insurance Amount ***FRA - Full Retirement Age *** DECs - Delayed Earnings Credits We also discuss what happens when you file early, but I am not aware of any acronym that identifies that. So, consider that a bonus! As ways, go to my website at www.heritagewealthplanning.com to learn more. Thanks! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/josh-scandlen-podcast/support

You may die tomorrow. You may get sick. There's no way to predict it and there's nothing you can do about it. Yeah, It sucks, I know. I've got the same deal. As important as planning for retirement is, its just as important...no, more important....you make the most of the only life you have. The one that's happening right now! The frailty of life is so easy to forget. We're so busy planning, worrying and doing we can miss enjoying the here and now. Lately, I've had lots of reminders of how important enjoying today is. Last year, my sister passed and aunt passed away, my grandmother (age 96) is in hospice and a old neighbor was just diagnosed with MS. I think of events like these as taps on the shoulder. God reminding me, that I was created to live NOW. Don't just plan a great retirement. Not at the expense of living today. To create a great life, you need to find that balance between living well today AND planning for tomorrow. I know, it's a hard balance to achieve. It might be impossible. You still need to try though. And don't wait, as many do, for a health issue to force your hand. Start today to: Dream up, plan out and begin living an amazing life. In this week's episode, we here Amy's journey to retirement and how health issues helped bring into focus the need to find better balance between living today and planning for retirement? Lessons Learned From Amy's Story Don’t postpone living. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Health issues can hit at any time. Resist the urge to inflate your lifestyle as your income rises. Society has trained us to be consumers and it can rob us of our financial security. Even after financial ruin, you can have a great life. Who is Amy? 46 married 15 years Two children, 19 and 20 Owned our own business, CPA Teaches part time at a local university Shares the same financial philosophy as her spouse Very debt adverse What Does Retirement Means to You?   “I enjoy working. I consider being a professor being retired from being a CPA.” “I don’t see us every not doing anything.” “We envision traveling and work camping to help pay expenses.” “I am disabled and my mobility has gotten worse as I’ve gotten older.” What Are You Most Excited About Retirement? “Not having to worry about the money” “Being able to travel” “Retirement means being able to go do what I want to do.” What Are You Most Worried About Retirement? “My health.” “It (health issues) kinda opens your eyes that you’re not promised tomorrow.” How Do You Think You’re Doing? “My grandparents were always a good role model.” “Being a CPA and seeing a lot of people struggle. I didn’t want to structure.” What’s the Worst Financial Decision You’ve Ever Made? “One thing we both regret, as the careers were lifting off…you always think you’re supposed to have that next big thing. The Cars the boats, the house…So we traded in this really nice house for this big mammoth..house. We got into it thinking that is what we were supposed to have.” What has been the Hardest Thing to Deal with Personally in Managing Your Finances? “I think telling myself that we have enough….because we had nothing and I never we want to go back there.” “For the past 40 years we’ve been accumulating and accumulating. It’s hard now to decompress and flip that switch.” What Resources Have Had the Most Impact in Your Life?   It comes from your multitude of experiences. Mr. Money Mustache Financial blogs How Do You Want to Be Remembered? “Just a good mother, wife and someone that gave back.” “I just want to be happy and for my family to be happy. That’s how I want to be remembered.” I Need Your Help Many of you have asked questions about Social Security benefits.  Smart move. Your Social Security benefit may be the most important retirement assets you have. I'm in the process of creating educational materials on how to maximize your Social Security benefits. What are the 3 things you'd like to learn about taking your Social Security benefit? Click here and let me know.

Episode 102 - Getting the Most from Your Social Security and More With guest Dr. Laurence Kotlikoff