L V Plummer Jr. #1

Investing with a Thankful Mind with Certified Financial Planner Practitioner and LPL Strategist L.V. Plummer Jr., on The Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
D Memphis probably presents the Ben Johnson Show.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say, Bath, I've done, I've gone empty me first,
let me you say.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
She's gone nappist gain.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
No matter of the problem, she can have you.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
So all the phone and a normal your mind. She
was there Jimmy ding in the hair by challing you
to just.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Keep the fair.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Went around.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'm picking up Miss Johnson show. He got out, gay
happen fuck.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
You can hear every day w D I ain't well,
be got me a missed hopping. Good morning, good morning,

(01:49):
good morning, and welcome into w D I a the
Bev Johnson Show.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
I'm Bev, it is in adeed a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I have you with us once again, and on this Tuesday,
November eighteenth, twenty twenty five, enjoyed this fabulous day to day.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Get ready to put your ears on as we share
the good news.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
First hour coming up, it is our certified financial Planner
Practitioner LPL Wealth Strategist l V a Plumber Junior will
be talking with us getting our money right. Second hour,
we'll be talking with the master mechanic Adrian.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Right, yeah, so I got problems with your cars. Get ready.
Second hour to talk to Adrian. He's gonna help you out.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
The numbers to dial nine zero one five three five
nine three four to two eight one hundred five zero
three nine three four to two eight three three five
three five nine three four to two will get you
in to me.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
And if this day, this, this, this, this, this, this
this here today.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Tuesday, November eighteenth, twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Five is your birthday. Have your birthday, each.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And every one of y'all out there who may be
celebrating a birthday on this day. You know what we say,
Go out, y'all, go out and celebrate your life. You better,
you better. When we come back, we will talk with

(03:41):
our certified Financial Planner Practitioner l P L Wealth Strategists,
Lawrence Plummer Junior, better known to us as l V.
Next right here on the Heart and Soul of Memphis
w d I am welcome back to w d I

(04:52):
A The Beth Johnson Show. We're gonna get right into
it as once again, let me before I do that.
Securities and Advisory services offer through LPL Financial, a Registered
Investment Advisor member of FINRA Sipsey. The opinions express of
those of Lawrence Plummer Junior, certifive financial planner practitioner lp

(05:17):
L Wealth Strategist LV and Plumber Wealth Strategist will be
offering a complementary consultation to the first first all five
callers and first five people who book an appointment online.
For those who may be at work cannot call, just
go to p WS Planning dot com send them an
email by clicking the contact us button to schedule your

(05:41):
complementary consultation with LV their phone number. For those five
callers who call in nine zero one seven four to
eight zero zero five zero nine zero one seven four
eight zero zero five zero the email to LV LV
at pw S Planning dot com or service at pw

(06:03):
S Planning dot com. Also note that you can navigate
to their website PEWS Planning dot com. And as always,
let us say good morning to our certified financial planner
practitioner l P L Will Strategists, Lawrence Plummer Junior, better

(06:24):
known does is l V.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Good morning l V HO or you good morning, doing
really well? BEV? How are you?

Speaker 4 (06:33):
I'm hanging in here, l V.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
I'm hanging yeah, yeah, we are. We're we're on funes
here at a Plumberwell Strategy November. It's I actually can
even believe that we're ready towards the end of the year.
I mean, it went by like such a flash from January.
But it's been a it's been a good year for us.
It has been absolutely insane as far as just our
day to day KO. So you know, as usual, Bev,

(06:56):
I want to thank everyone on the show and off
the show that's been with us, helped usport throughout this
year and and really how it helps us have a
really record year as far as our growth. So thank
you all for listening, thank you all for supporting. It's
been a great twenty twenty five, and I'm praying and
hoping that we help as many people as we can
for twenty twenty six and beyond. So and thank you
again Bev for your platform. And hopefully I have a
lot of good stuff to talk about today.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, I'm ready to get in at LV because I
know you want to talk about today investing with a
thankful mind. I like that LV, investing with a thankful mind,
and always we are always so glad to have you back.
Welcome back. So let's LV dive intoday's title. What exactly
do you mean by investing.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
With a thankful mind? During this holiday season.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, you know, Bev, it's crazy because this is a
weird time for us, right And you know, I'd like
to give stories. I'll give some analogies and a few things,
you know, bits of experience that we go through a
team here at Plumberwell strategies, but honestly be both. You know,
I was going over the notes of the show, and
like I want to go over strategies. I want to
go over thoughts and ideas. I always want to give
as much good information as I can, just due to

(08:06):
the feedback we get from the show. And I think
a lot of people take great notes and they extract
a lot of value from the time we spend together
in this bed. And again I really appreciate this. But
the one thing that I kind of wanted to talk
about today bed was like I want to talk financial today,
but I also kind of want to just make sure
I put a little bug in everyone's ear that this
is the time of the year where we should be

(08:26):
just you know, as cheesy as it sounds, just figure
out what we are grateful for and reshift our focus
behind not just really how we build money, how we invest,
how we accumulate wealth, but like what is the purpose
of all this? And I say that I'm much cool,
but because I've met so many people this year, great clients,
some that ultimately became clients, some that weren't a get

(08:48):
good for us. But I think the one thing that
we start talking about, regardless who was in our office,
is that one word that eludes a lot of people,
which is perspective. Right, And I think during the holiday
season there is this weird palpable craze that is in
the air, and people are running around, they're shopping, they're
worrying about their investments. Like even you turn on the
news right now today, which will get in the minute.

(09:09):
We're in the middle of a little bit of a
shock in the stock markets, and I think everyone just
loses perspective about where it really is truly important. I'm
not even talking about the holidays and eating turkey next
week and buying Christmas gifts. I'm talking about just the
essence of family, the essence of gratitude. You know, how
good that a lot of us have it in this
country as far as our ability to earn income, our bodies,

(09:29):
our minds, our opportunities. And this is just a show
that will off beat but I just wanted to talk
about a few stories and a few things that really
I just hope brings a little value of people on
a non fundential standpoint and really helps people with certain
actionable strategies for what I would consider is the most
important part of wealth advisory planning, which is making sure
that we're building up a legacy for our the ones

(09:51):
that we love and also leaving the world a better
place after we know, the Lord calls us back. So
that's kind of the whole point of today's show. We're
going to dive into the finances, but I I also
want to just again do my absolute best to just
help people think differently about this whole journey of wealth planning.
So that's kind of the whole point of today's show.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sounds good, LV, So let's start out with some market
coming ery. What's happening out there in the world of money,
and how are you preparing clients LV for.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
The end of this year?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yep, And I got them preaching about non financial stuff,
and of course we're starting off with financial stuff, you know,
but I can say that I just say that that's
a great wig start bed because at the end of
the day, I know a lot of people can't listen
to the entire show, and I know a lot of
people get good feedback on just me being a voice
of reason amongst chaos. Because right now, BEV, make the mistake,
there's some chaos right now happening on Wall Street. So

(10:42):
here here's the thing, you know, perception versus reality. The
perception right now is that the world is ending, markets
are crashing, run for the hills, the a You know, BEV,
but you know it me for years. You know, I
don't subscribe to that mentality as far as being an advisor.
We you know, no matter how good things are, no
matter how how bad things are, reality is always in
the middle. So the reality right now is it's still

(11:05):
even amidst some of the jitters we're seeing in the market,
it's still been a really good year for the world
of money, if you ask me, right, just some numbers
throughout everybody. And again this is always where I stop
and say, if everyone, if you are looking at your
portfolios and your investments and you're not feeling decent to
good to really good, that means you need to see
somebody and take a temperature check on your investments to

(11:26):
see where you're actually investing your harder and money, and
why your money is not growing because making the mistakes.
This has been a really good year for growth. So
a few things SMP. Right now, it's up about fourteen percent,
give or take. As far as the top five hundred
stocks that we're looking at. My favorite index right now
obviously is a NASZAC. We add some all time highs.
Recently it has come down quite a bit do the

(11:47):
artificial intelligence may you know, may have peaked in the
short run, so we had a little bit of a drop.
But right now fifteen point seven percent, which is the
NASDAC index, we're still looking pretty good for the year,
though we are seeing some shakiness in that market. And
then of course the Dow Jones that's just kind of
updated in our systems right now, dal Jones are looking
at about nine point two percent for the year. As

(12:10):
far as our returns, the bottom line, we're having double
digits across the American markets. And when I don't talk
enough about that is really even our foreign markets. And
I wanted to throw this out because this day they
came through a couple of days ago. Right now, what
we don't talk about is, you know, areas like emerging markets.
Right Emerging markets are developing nations that are still kind
of building towards the future, integrating into the modern economy.

(12:32):
I throw Russian into that camp, China, Brazil, certain Latin
American nations. So right now, the good thing about where
we are is that emerging markets and in other words,
foreign investments are performing pretty well. A lot of my
clients did receive a white paper on this a couple
of days ago, so if you are a current client
of ours, you actually should have received a good little notice,
a little you know, kind of commentary for me and

(12:53):
my team about where you know, all the markets are.
So right now, again, those emerging markets are hitting almost
an all time high. We're like thirty two point four
percent and investing in the foreign markets for this year,
and that's actually something that I won't say is exceedingly rare,
but it is something that's very, very notable. And even
the international markets of the EPHAH Index, which tracks all
you know, nations across the globe, developed and undeveloped, we're

(13:16):
looking at about twenty seven point four percent as far
as our annual return. So right now, the bottom line
on that bev the American markets are performing very healthy,
the global markets are performing very healthy. And even the
most boring sector that I would call boring in a
good way is the bond market. Bond clients right now
with us are very happy. We're earning about six to
six and a half percent across fixed income boring bonds

(13:37):
that are just paying out fixed interest. So that's in
the average as far as the bond indecks. So bottom
line is as of November today, it's still been a
really healthy year. It's still been a good year for growth.
This is now going into the fourth and fifth year
of the bull market post COVID after twenty twenty two,
and it's been a good last few years, especially once
COVID hit our rear view mirror. So so bottom line,

(13:57):
things are healthy. And the only thing that's on our
radar a couple of things that are going our radars
right now for everyone that is looking at their accounts
and trying to figure out what's happening next year, which
is a bigger story. We've got to see where these
tariffs go. I know everyone is sick of hearing about
the word tariff at the moment, so I know I
am because I can't wait for all this is over personally.
But the bottom line is the Supreme Court is looking

(14:18):
like it's having some issues with the possible tariff ruling
of getting overruled next year. So what I've been telling
our clients is that we are obviously it's a complete
question mark if the tariffs hold or if they don't.
But next year, if the Supreme Court does overturn those tariffs,
that could mean some major question marks for the economy
and especially as far as our foreign trade. So I'm
telling clients that to scare of them, but just to

(14:40):
kind of put them on their radar that that's one
thing we're strategizing around is where in the world these
tariffs are going to go in the next six months,
and only God themself knows, So just something on our
radar and we'll see how that affects the market. And
of course, we are hoping and praying that interest rates
across the board get cut by the Federal Reserve this
year and next year. So and of course, with inflation
cooling off, which is something we're very thankful for, we're

(15:01):
hoping that we get a couple more rate cuts to
help the economy grow and kind of supercharge in the
next three to six months as well. And so among
those two factors of the three, we're hopeful and optimistic.
And the last one, I know everyone is sick of
hearing about artificial intelligence, but we have a lot of
clients with a lot of exposure and it's one of
those things where people were kind of saying, hey, are
we back in nineteen ninety nine, you know, with the

(15:21):
dot com crisis and with things going a little too
good in AI and are things overvalued? Are we in
a bubble? So my thing is right now, I would
still maintain our stance that we don't believe that we're
in a bubble, and there's a bubble burst around the corner,
like you're hearing a lot if you track all this
stuff on Wall Street. But right now I will say that,
you know, valuations are very high, and we are looking
at this point of taking some profits off the table

(15:43):
if you invested in good companies you know a year
or two ago, like Apple and Amazon and Broadcom and
in Nvidia, as everyone knows, which is the biggest company
in the world right now. So I will say this,
you know, we can't predict tomorrow, we can't advise anybody
unless we know their situation. But I will say from
my perspective, we are looking at take some profits off
the table right now because artificial intelligence has changed everything

(16:04):
about our world and about the markets, and it's growing
at a breakneck pace. So if you are investing in
that space, if you have a lot of technology and
AI and your accounts, and you don't have an advisor,
call one or call us and look at all your
holdings and see if you need to make any adjustments,
because right now we are looking at things and thinking
that it's a good time to either take profits off
the table or if you're a young aggressive investor, maybe

(16:26):
even buy more after the next correction because we are
expecting a nice poolback here, which is actually happening today
in real time. The markets at some point have to
take a break. It can't keep going away from going.
We actually wanted to take a break, so we don't
enter into that bubble territory definitively. So very good time
to stop. Look at your four to one k's, talk
to your advisor, look at your stock accounts if you're investing,

(16:47):
and have a good thorough discussion about your risk you're
taking on and what are some moves you can make
to maybe position your portfolio and your wealth for next year,
because next year will be a big year of question mark.
So just wanted to throw that out there today.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
As far as the markets sounds good, LV, all right, LB,
I'm ready to jump on in and ask you.

Speaker 4 (17:05):
I've been thinking about this, LB.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
What are your thoughts on how people should be looking
at the wealth they've been building and LB, so how
should they.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Be grateful as we approach this holiday season?

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, I know everyone's sick of hearing about the cheesy Thanksgiving,
you know, and go around everybody be thankful. I know
there's everyone has difficulties in their lives, things that they're
thankful for and some things that they want to improve,
and even some people in your family want to just
out right get rid of it, right so you know,
But I you know, I have always been bed personally
and professionally. I count your blessings type. I see this

(17:40):
veil over people's face when I meet them for the
first time. In fact, literally an employment a couple hours ago.
You know, clients that come in and they have their
papers clutch to their chests. They're so embarrassed by everything
they've done, and they're you know, and they're just like,
oh man, this is just such a stressful and depressing
thing to talk about money. And every time I meet
a client like that, especially during the holiday season, I

(18:01):
get done with the plan, I get done with the analysis,
and I'm like, hey, I know you don't want to
hear this, but guess what, you're actually a millionaire, right
I look at the numbers. Your network is positive, you're
over a million a network. You're looking really healthy, or hey,
you know you're saving the account is above the recommended levels.
You're really flush with cash. That's a great thing. You
got a great emergency funder. You're saving over and above
the average American as far as your contribution rate to

(18:22):
your four to one K. So I always try to
be that guy that is as positive as possible with
the experience and the journey of financial planning, because I
think everyone is very negative right now. And I find
one thing that's wrong with their life and they say, man,
I'm terrible with this, or I haven't saved enough, or
I'm so behind, And I look at everything with the
macro analysis and the macro view, and I say, you
know what, actually, you're doing good here and hey, it's

(18:45):
not going to be the hard to reach your goal.
You can get that house, you can retire it at
the stage. So my thing is is that you haven't
put the numbers together, you know, sit down with someone
and put the numbers together and really assess your goals,
which is again what we do, but also really just
put that hat on of.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
I know it sounds bad, but it could always, always,
always be so much, so much worse as far as
where you are. And then I wanted to tell this,
you know, ten second story, you know, my ultimate experience.
And I won't say any names do the confidentiality, but
we had a very very very good client of ours
that passed away a couple of years ago. That was
actually with Lawrence Plumber Senior back in the nineteen sixties

(19:19):
and seventies, right, So he was one of our legacy
clients passed away. It's good dear friends of ours. And
I tell a little bit of this story because he
was probably one of the wealthiest men that we've managed.
And again net worthd well over twenty thirty forty million
dollars at the end of the day, right wow. And
so my thing is that this was a man that
did everything right when it comes to our world financial right.

(19:41):
By saying perfect man, perfect family, nothing like that, I mean,
you know, would it not be a great thing to
sit back in your eighties and say, you know what,
I have twenty million dollars to my name. I think
that a lot of Americans get that thrilled. And I
would say that's an ultimate finish line for a lot
of people. And you would imagine that would be, you know,
the happiest possible thing you can feel when you're in
your eighties and you built up wealth for yourself and
you're getting ready to pass down to your kids and grandkids.

(20:03):
To me, that's a mission accomplished situation. So but I
like to tell his story because while this gentleman was alive,
the funny thing about it, he never really spent money us.
It was one of those things where he was very,
very tight, always a perfect financial programming. He always thought
he was broke. So we laughed about that for the years.
Never never, you would never, you would look at him
today and you would never imagine by the car he drove,

(20:25):
by the clothes he wore, that he was worth what
he was worth every day. What we call it everyday
multi millionaire, right right. And so my thing is this,
he never got risk his soul, He never spent his money,
and he never enjoyed his wealth just due to the
fact that he was such an absolute machine when it
came to working over the last sixty years, so his
last few years. So the thing was this, the last

(20:46):
few years that he was with us, you know, he
was in a rush. And think about this, having millions
in the bank, in a massive rush to spend his money.
He was, you know, going through major issues with his health.
Things were failing, not looking that great, and the last
year or two of his life, he was in an
absolute rush to just enjoy his life, spend his money,
do this, do this, pull this money out, pull that

(21:06):
money out. And one thing I you know that we
noticed about him is that before his health started failing,
we never got those calls theft Like, he never called
and asked for fifty thousand here to go on a trip,
for ten thousand here to take his family into Disney World.
We never got those calls. But the worst thing about
the story, in a great respectful way, is that you know,
he spent his whole life doing what I talk about right, building, investing, saving,

(21:28):
and never got any time to actually enjoy it with
him and his family. In fact, his kids I've told
me multiple times, they've never even He's been very rare,
they're even taking family vacations. So my thing is this,
you know, during the holiday season with the stories like that,
where it kind of hurts my heart to look at
someone's situation that's done everything right right and they get
to that finish line and they never enjoyed their life.

(21:49):
To me, I kind of stop clients all the time
and I say, hey, listen, you know you only need
but so much money to be happy and enjoy the
time that God has blessed us all with right, everyone
doesn't need twenty thirty million dollars because the end of
the day, if you don't live your life, enjoy your time.
I know this sounds counterintuitive, bed but I'm that weirdo
that actually tells people to spend certain money. I know
Dave Ramsey hopefully isn't listening, but like, I actually want

(22:12):
people to enjoy their days here because you can die
with multiple millions of dollars, which is also the goal.
I am not saying that everyone shouldn't do that, but
you can die with all the money in the world,
look back and have nothing. I won't say nothing to
show Ford, but I can say have a lot of
deep regrets about how you spent the time because you
were so hyper focused on building wealth and investing for
the family. And and you know, I tell that story

(22:34):
bed because I just I think that's my ultimate fear
with a lot of people, don't. I love people who
are in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, even eighties, I
would argue, because those are hopefully the healthy years where
you can travel, enjoy time with family, you know, even
continue building in certain ways and strategizing. And you know,
I want people to not get so fixated as they're

(22:54):
building up and enjoying their life on all the stuff
we talk about all day and all night. You know,
I want people to really make sure that they builds
up memories. That's my biggest thing is that you know,
find a way to build, save, invest, but don't forget
about the journey of life along the road. And I
think a lot of people that have surprisingly have forgotten that.
And that's why every day when I come in the office,
I'm meeting a new person or an existing client, and

(23:15):
you know, they pull out their spreadsheets, which is awesome.
I love spreadsheets. I love talking about investing. I love
stocks and all this fun stuff. But at some point,
but we have to stop and say, Okay, you know what,
let's let's let's pull the reins back and make sure
that we're doing everything we can. Let's invest, let's be smart,
let's be sensible, let's work with an advisor. Make sure
I'm putting all my ducks in a row. But let's
also ensure that we stop and count everything that we

(23:38):
are thankful for, that we are gracious for, as far
as our ability to earn income, our ability to save,
if we have discretionary income to go on a trip
in vacation. I think a lot of people just are
forgetting about that, And I honestly be not to sound
like an old man, but I do blame social media
for this, TikTok and Facebook. So I think that there's
a disillusion been happening right now across a massive scale,

(24:00):
and it's really convosive across our culture where like no
one gets a break from this stuff anymore, right, Like
you get online, Hey, this guy's making millions, Let me
follow his advice. This guy has a has a Maserati
in his driveway. He's taking a video. I wonder what
you've got to say about crypto right right, you know,
it's just a constant onslaught of information. So that's why
I said, today's kind of weird. There's not my spirit
to tell everyone shut it off. Yeah, work on an advisor.

(24:22):
Doesn't have to be us, but work the advisor, get
your future set, and then turn off social media. So
that way you aren't spending the next ten twenty years
of your life not only doing everything's right, but also
being deceived in the thinking you're doing something wrong by
not following this guy's advisor, that girl's advice. Work with
someone that knows the craft, that knows the trade, can say, hey,
this is an objective analysis on what you're doing, and

(24:44):
let's create a plan and stick with it. That's it.
That's all you have to do. You don't have to
be a multi multi millionaire, you don't have to have
ten twenty thirty lay in around, you know. Just make
sure you get on a plan, stay in a plan,
build for yourself and build for your family. And then
when God does call you home, which we'll get into
in a few minutes, make sure you a plan of
action and leaving the world a better place than you
found it. So I want to just preach about that

(25:05):
for a second, because it's just something that again, I'm
seeing all the time, and I just got to put
a stop to it and get to as many ears
as I can and get people sometimes away from the
dollars and cents, especially during the holiday season when you
know this is I would debate, and my family knows
my favorite time of the year is November December as
far as turning all the noise off and going to
our grandparents' house and having a good dinner and spending

(25:26):
time with family. There is no dollar amount on a
spreadsheet that's greater than that. So just wanted to be
out there and put that out there for today's first
Today session.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
I love that. I love that We're off to a
good start.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
LV.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
Please hold on.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
We will take this break and we are talking with
our certified financial Planner Practitioner LPL Will Strategist, l v
Plumber Junior, and LV y'all. We'll be offering a complimentary
consultation to the first five callers who called nine zero one, seven,

(26:00):
four eight, zero, zero, five zero. That's first five. LV
is busy and the first five people who book an
appointment online and online you can go to Pwsplanning dot
com send LV and email by clicking the contact us
button to schedule your complementary consultation with LV.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
We are talking about investing with a thankful mind with LV.
Plumber Junior are certified financial planner practitioner. Don't forget LV
is taking those first five callers.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
First five callers, y'all nine zero one seven four eight
zero zero five zero, or the first five book online
TWS Planning dot com send them an email by clicking
the contact us button. You are listen Snake to the
Heart and Soul of Memphis with l V. Plumber Junior

(27:05):
and BEB Johnson right.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
Here on do w d i A. Don't go away.
The BEB Johnson Show returns after these messages.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Kevin, you did a thing.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
I'm telling him.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
Everyone come talking, Good morning and welcome back to wd
i A.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
We are talking with our certified financial planner practitioner, LB
Plumber Junior and l V as we reflect on our
financial and non financial lives. So Elbie, what are some
strategies you recommend when people reach the stage of their
life when they're comfortable. When they're comfortable, I'm getting there, LV.

(28:32):
You call it a financial finish line. What's that, LV,
A financial finish line?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, I use that term virtually every day here. So
basically that means a lot of things that's subjective based
on someone's life. But I can tell it. You know,
people don't understand a lot of our book of business
that we deal with with our close to two thousand
clients in three four states, a lot of them are
actually over the age of sixty five. I would say
over half at this point. And I can tell you
that I have a lot of financial finish line clients

(29:01):
where like I said earlier, you know, you can comfortably
kick back, kick your feet up and say, you know what,
I've done everything I need to do to live a good, comfortable,
sustainable life with me, or if I'm married my spouse
and you know you you built up all the next
eggs you need to live life the way you want it.
Right that I would consider that the ultimate finish line

(29:22):
that can be applied to everyone's life is just funny,
as we hear it a lot in our industry. Right,
financial independence and autonomy, freedom. So to put this way,
I have a lot of clients that have done that.
They meet us for the first time. We do the
investment strategy, we run the projections right, and we say, okay, listen,
you need two and a half million dollars to live
that life. Congratulations, you hit that. You get your four
one K, you got your pension, you have your annuities,

(29:44):
everything you need, and you have all the income you
need and all the wealth and assets you need to
live a good, comfortable life. That's sustainable. Right. So with
that financial finish line, right, But when we get to
that point, we do shift the focus because think give it. Like,
like I said, if a client needs two million dollars
to live that life of financial autonomy and freedom, and
they've saved up I don't know, two point five million,

(30:05):
and said at this age of maybe seventy at this point,
then we have half a million dollars. That is what
I would call surplus capital, and in other words, money
that you don't need to enjoy and consume, money that
you can position for what we call posterity. Right as
far as planning and in other words, that's going to
be something we can carve out and designate for the

(30:26):
future generations. Right, So in other words, we consume and
eat two million dollars because you need that to go
on vacations, enjoy life. You're now fully retired, to get
all the time in the world. That two million initial
amounts that's for you and your spouse. The other half million,
that's money we need to do things like I talk
about a lot such as trust planning, setting up you know,
for vocable family trust, irrevocable trust, setting up advisory accounts

(30:49):
for kids of my accounts of a million, where you
can go about planning for your family. But during Thanksgiving season,
bed I do like to talk about this a little
more because what we do is we do an analysis
in a check up at the end of the year.
For every line, we say, hey, are you on track
for you right your plan what we call the silo
or the core of the financial plan. And if we
check all the boxes for this year and we say, hey, gey,

(31:10):
guess what we wanted to be at one hundred thousand
dollars in your four one k by now as a
November and hey, we hit it good. We had a
good year. We checked off your box. Now we checked
off your family's boxes as well. Right, do we do
we need to update your estate plan? Did we get
your wills set up? Did we get your trust set up?
Because we update your estate plan if you've ready set
one up in the past with an attorney. And so

(31:31):
I like to talk about that again, that posterity planning,
because that's really important at the year in check boxes
for us is really making sure, like I said earlier,
you know, if something God forbid does happen to you,
and you know, what is your family situation in the
world that you know going to look like after you've
done populating it and after you've done with living your

(31:51):
life here on God's green earth. So I want to
talk a bit about that because that's something that a
lot of clients really do lose perspective perspective of over time.
And I don't speak about it enough, bev, But with
our clients they know I hammer really home in on
this pretty much every single day. But my thing is,
you know, right now, for clients that have not gotten
that far, you know, November December is a fantastic time

(32:12):
to think about that. Like, Hey, let's put all of
our assets on the table. What is our what do
we have. What do we built up? Do we have
our home, do we have real estate? Do we have
investment assets? Do we have cash in the bank? And
you know, I tell people all the time, you need
to do a disaster simulation and say, Okay, if I
stop breathing today, what happens to all this? Do I
have all my ducks in a row and everything in order?

(32:33):
And that's why my clients know. I'm a big fan
of revocable living trust. I think I get asked pretty
much every single meeting about whether or not a client
should set that up. And what I've been really training
people on is that a trust is not for you, right,
It's not for a plan for you. This is again
a mechanism to leave behind wealth in the right way
to the right people at the right time. That's the

(32:55):
whole function of a trust is to make sure that
you leave behind again a personal wealth assistant to act
and behave in your best interest for the benefit of
your next generation. So one thing I wanted to talk about.
I tell people to take notes on this when you
pass away, right, And it's a great time to start
thinking about this during holiday season because you're going to
be spending time with those grandkids. You're gonna be spending
time with your kids, and you know, every family cousins, brothers,

(33:17):
and you really kind of think and get into that
perspective as everyone's enjoying the holiday seasons. Who is it
that sounds bad there? But who are my favorite family members?
Maybe you a little bit more to Tolu and even
those that you make the hay list and that's all.
You know, my brother, you know, he's got a situation
going on. Maybe he's you know, like, my brother's only
what hold his friends? Twenty five will be twenty six

(33:39):
and god, God, God bless my brother. But he is
way too young to inherit any money right now. And
he's not really fully mature yet if you ask me so,
you know. So it's one of those things where you
got to look and say, Okay, you know, even though
I love my brother, I love my sister, I love
my cousins, whatever, do I want to include them in
mid State? You know? Do I think they would be responsible?
Do you think have they lived enough life? And can

(34:01):
I really trust them with the money that I've built
and saved up my whole life if I've died tomorrow,
you know, would they blow it or would they take
care of it and seeing Advisor and get a plan.
So it's a good time during the holiday season bed
to think about that. I know it's not fun to
think about, and I know that's why a lot of
clients avoid it and people avoid it is because it's
just not fun to think about when we're not here anymore.
But again, I caution everyone during the holiday season. I

(34:22):
put that on our planning calendar for a lot of clients, like, hey,
when you guys are spending time with family, really think
about everyone you want to benefit if something where to
happen to you. Where's your life insurance going to go? Right?
Where's your cash in the bank, as far as a
pod going to go? Do we have the trust setup?
Do we have your will setup? If you get sick,
do you have a power of attorney? Right? You really
want to get a good sense of your family and

(34:44):
go into a world where if I stop breathing today,
what is it going to mean for everybody in that
room when you're sitting at the Thanksgiving table? So, again,
not fun. You don't have to talk about it during Thanksgiving.
I think that's a very depressing discussion. Asks during a
happy time like the holidays internally in your mind. Really
just think about that. I really, that's been in my
spirit a lot of an advisor bed since twenty twenty
when COVID happened. Because you know, I've said it before.

(35:06):
We buried a lot of people during COVID. And I
hate to say it, but even a lot of people
that I did not think I would be burying as
an advisor, way sooner than we than I thought, as
you know, my team thought, and you know we are.
We've dealt with a lot of situations where things weren't
in order when someone passed away. And all I can say,
and I know everyone already knows this, but probate and
family battles and going to court, you know, family just

(35:30):
kind of going at each other's next space and who's
getting on and who's this. You don't want to leave
behind chaos for your family. You don't. And that's why
I implore and BEIG clients when they're younger to stop
and think about this, at least once see an advisor,
seeing attorney, get yourself a trust set up. What I
always put on our clients is this for if you
have people in the family where they may not be

(35:50):
responsible cough like my brother yet because so yesin is
someone that just you know, has not lived a lot
of life yet where you wouldn't look down with confidence
that they would manage that. Well. I've been telling everyone
about It's called hymns, right, HGMS. You want to put
a hymn see set up a trust for your less
responsible or younger family members, especially those miners. And the

(36:12):
great thing about setting up a HYMNS trust again, that's
HEMS that stands for health care, education, maintenance and support. Right,
you leave that money in that trust. They can only
touch that money, right, they have to go through your
trustee for this wherever you appoint over your trust. But
that child or that not so responsible adult child or
family member cannot go into the trust that you leave

(36:33):
behind unless it qualifies for that HMS. In other words,
that has to be a healthcare expense that they have coming,
like a surgery or a major procedure that they needs
to done. They can test the trust for that. An
education cost which would be for tuition, room board, anyone
anything to help advance their educational pursuits. And of course
maintenance and support, which is God forbid, you know, you
lose a job, down on your luck, you know you

(36:54):
need a little bit of support to get you through
certain times. Trustee can approve that transaction if they come
to the trust and say, hey, I need this because
I had a big life that then happened, right, so
you know. So it's one of those things. I love
that style of the trust and that provision on the
trust because when you invest that money when you're dead,
it's in that trust vehicle. You can allow that money
to keep growing and building for your family. Right, that's

(37:14):
how you really plan for posterity. You leave that money alone,
protect that child or that family member from themselves, protect
it from mismanagement. You keep investing, you keep building, and
they can only touch the interest or the dividends, or
if that withdrawal requests comes down to an HG and
mess like I mentioned, if it qualifies. So and again
you protect that money, You retain the capital, you grow

(37:35):
it with a good advisory team, and that money, you know,
it really helps you stretch out that money for longer
than one generation and protect it also from divorces. Because
I hate to say it, be but when we're out
of here, not forbid, when when your kids has a
divorce or follows bankruptcy or creditors come after him or her.
You want to have your money that you love behind
in that trust where it's protected. So that's why I'm

(37:56):
a big fan of that. I just got done preaching
to a client earlier this morning about that there it's
not enough anymore but to just make money and to
build wealth. It's all about the distribution about their wealth
and how you protect your wealth after God's called you
back home and you have to do that. Your kids
and grandkids and whoever else you're leaving this money to
can't do that. You have to do it. The burner
responsibility is on you to make sure that when you

(38:17):
leave behind that money, there's a structure, there's border, no chaos,
no probates, and you set the rules who gets to it,
when they get it, and how they get it. And again,
it's one of those things where going back to my
holiday analogy, like you know, you got to really sit down,
maybe even talk to family once and just say, hey, guys,
you know, if something happens, this is the game plan.
And our clients that come in for appointments. It's actually

(38:39):
something that clients love to talk about when theymber with
their advisor, but they hate talking about it with their family.
You know, they can be stressful. So I help them
and help them facilitate, and my team helps them facilitate
in a state plan to make sure that all eyes
are doutavant teaser crossed, and that overall your money can
last by you know, more than one generation. You want
at least two to three generations if possible. So but anyway,
I wanted to just go over that today. One last

(39:00):
thing bev business owners. We don't talk about you guys enough.
That's the world that I'm in as well. And just
remember this. If you are a business owner, please please
please work with an advisor whoever you choose. Call us
if you want to talk. But I think probably one
out of ten of the business owners, the many ones
that I meet throughout the year, have an actual what
we call an equity and succession plan. Right. All that

(39:22):
means in English is you are building up these businesses.
You're building up the revenue, you're building up the valuation
of the business. Do you have a plan to pass
it on to your family or if they don't want
to take over your business, do you have a plan
to break up the shares of the business and create
liquidity for your family. In other words, have someone in
the family step in or an executive step in after
you've passed away, sell your business in the open market,

(39:45):
so that way your family gets something out of the
business that you've worked so hard with blood, sweat and
tears to build. So again, it's about who's gonna take
over when you retire. If you pass away prematurely, how
is your family going to get a pay out of
the business to sell them the open market, or have
a partner step in and buy the business from your family.
I won't go into that today. That's another show. But
we call that equity and succession planning, making sure you

(40:07):
transfer the power of the business from your hands to
someone else's potentially a buyer, and make sure that your
family is compensated for the value of the business that
you built. So that does demand an entire hour that
we'll go inside later for business owners, But just remember,
equity and succession planning is something that we do at
our firm, and a lot of advisors do as well.
But a very very very vast minority of business owners

(40:30):
actually have a plan. A lot of times people just
they die and then the businesses dissolves. And to me,
that's such a way from an opportunity, especially if you
built a business that's generating good, solid revenue. Maybe you
have contracts under your belt, maybe you have partners. You
have to have an organizational structure for what happens if
you decide to retire, walk away, or if you die,
and how you really distribute the ownership of the business

(40:52):
to your family after you die. So if you haven't
done that, call us, call them advisors, CFP, anyone that
deals in that world, and make sure you set that
up and have a discussion. So I wanted to talk
about that.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Stage, all right, LV, Well pause for the cause, and
we're talking with LV Plumber Junior, our certified Financial Planner
Practitioner lp L Wealth Strategist. LV is offering a complementary
consultations of the first five callers who call nine zero

(41:22):
one seven four eight zero zero five zero. That's nine
zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero, Or
for the first five people who can't call, you can
book online. Just go to PWS Planning dot com send

(41:44):
LV an email by clicking the contact us button. So
don't forget those those first five who call those first
five who call, and you know, give him a call
seven nine zero one seven four eight zero zero five

(42:10):
zero call that number and book online. P WS Planning.
We're talking about investing with a thankful mind.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Yeah, with L B.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Plumber Junior, our certified financial Planner practitioner lp L with strategists.
And you're listening to the Heart and Soul of Memphis
w d I A.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
You're listening to Tennessee Radio Paul of Famer Stef Johnson
on wd IA.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
I'm telling everyone, talking everyone, and we're.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Talking with our certified financial Planner practitioner l p L
Wealth Strategist l V.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
Plumber Junior.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Now, l V, let's talk about giving back and and
a lot of people don't do it.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
A lot of people do.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Do you recommend charitable gifting plans and strategies to your
clients about giving back?

Speaker 3 (43:57):
L V? Yes, So I guess some really greedy people
in your bed. Okay, I think that, loving lou but
my goodness, no, So you know this isn't just for
finish line clients. Like I mentioned that, I really wanted
to throw this out there today because you know it's
not my equal gifts is equal sacrifice, and that's always
what I've been taught when it comes down to giving
and just making sure over all that you make some

(44:18):
kind of impact while you're here. And you know, so, yeah,
the answer is yes.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
There.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
There's plenty of things we talk about, probably demands a
whole other show, but one thing that you know we
talk about is listen throughout the year, There's a million
ways to give back to the community. There's plenty of
ways to make sure you allocate your wealth, whether it's
a portion of your wealth or whether it's a certain
amount systematically every month. Million ways to do about it.
I didn't want to nrow down a couple just to

(44:43):
talk about today, because I do get asked. It's a
lot of clients that you know, and you already know
that I'm pretty deep with the Church of God in Christ.
I deal with a lot of ministries that deal with
a lot of nonprofits and charities and churches. So you know,
if I'll say this, if you're one where your entire
giving life is not in highly dominated by giving in tides,
which by the way, for the record, I'm a man

(45:03):
of faith myself. I believe in sizing as far as
the ten percent but you know, if that's kind of
the only thing you're doing, then you're saying, you know,
what I want to give to my ministry, but I
also want to make an impact, you know, with feeding
the hungry, with you know, maybe social initiatives, investing in
black communities, investing in maybe you know, areas that deal
with impoverished areas, and you know, just feeding the needy.

(45:24):
So there's a million organizations to give to. So the
only ones I wanted to talk about today as far
as strategies. Number one is donor advised funds. And I
know some people have researched that on their own and
always kind of wonder what it is. But a donor
advised fund, in my opinion, no matter who you are,
is a fantastic investment vehicle. You're that correctly investment vehicle
to put money into to amplify not only your gift,

(45:46):
but also to make sure that you can grow your
gift over time to be able to give more as
you get older. So what I love about adif in
short form, you you drop in whatever you want into
a donor advised fund. You can put an appreciated stock,
you can put in cash investments, and you actually bed
get a dollar for a dollar ride off on whatever
you contribute. That's why it's an awesome tax shelter. If
I meet someone that I have a lot of FedEx

(46:07):
clients is a great example. So you know, sometimes I'll
meet someone in their fifties and sixties getting ready for
retirement and they say, hey, LV, I got fifty grand
in this stock that I bought when I first started
working thirty years ago. I put in ten thousand dollars
and now it's worth fifty thousand. So that's awesome. But
it's also a taxable event there right, So whenever you
have them up, gay gains in your stock. So if

(46:27):
I have a client that says, hey, I got enough
to enjoy in my life and my four one K
and other assets in this stock I don't want to
pay tax on because it's grown so much, you can
drop that stock in a daf A donor advice fund
and you can get a full ride off and avoid
that tax all together on that donor advice portfolio, which
is amazing. So and the best thing about it, not
only do you get it ride off on the way
into the fund, but you can grow the fund fully

(46:50):
tax free as long as you want. And that's the
most amazing thing about it. That money can keep growing
in your donor advice fund. Uncle Sam doesn't tax it
at all. And again, be the only thing you give
up for those taking notes. You can't enjoy that money anymore.
So it is a gifting fund. So let's say you
turn that fifty grand into one hundred grand in the
next five years, and that don't advise fund. You turn
around five years later and you want to make an

(47:12):
impact in the community or overseas, whatever you can take
not only the principle you put in, but also the earnings,
and you can actually gift it strategically to a church,
your alma monteror a nonprofit, a charitable organization, anybody that's
a qualified five oh one c three. You can actually
give that money. And again, you didn't just give fifty
grand that you actually you know, again, you're all that money,

(47:33):
Uncle Sam. Let you grow tax free, obviously, let you
amplify and exponentially increase how much money you can give
back to the community. So I love that even and
again it's not for you, even though you do get
a big tax break on whatever you put in, which
is for you, But The best thing about it is, again,
you can grow that money and snowball that portfolio as
long as you want, and then when it's on your
heart and spirit to give down the road you work.

(47:55):
You can work with your advisor or Fidelita or wherever
that money is with and you can say, hey, let
me give three grand to this nonprofit down the street
that does for the Christmas season to help with you know,
feeding the homeless and the Memphis Let me give five
grand to my alma mater. They are setting up a
new fund that I want to support, so let me
gift it over to my alma mater, you know. So
you can basically give it to anybody that's a qualified

(48:15):
five to one C three for philanthropy, charitable giving, or
even to your ministry if you want to give it
to your church. And that's a beauty about that, and
it helps you, again give a lot more than just
writing a check to an institution. So I like that
plan because you win by that ride off, but the
community wins because you can grow that wealth over the years.
And that's usually a big strategy I recommend for clients

(48:36):
that really really are getting a heart to give back
and really want to make an impact while they're here.
So again for the note takers, don't advise fund one
of my all time favorite things to recommend. The last thing,
which is very a lot more simple, is and people
forget they can do this. But if you're in your
retiring year, lest say, you're starting to think about your
mortality and you're thinking, okay, you know what, I know

(48:58):
God's got me, But what if something happens, What if
I'm getting older and getting sicker? You know something you
can have. So what I tell people all the time,
they forget about if they have money with us or
even outside of us, or let's say it's it's a bank,
or what they're four to one K. Remember, everybody, you
can if you are very impassioned and deep with your
ministry and you don't want to go through the complexity
of setting up trust or don't advise funds or anything

(49:20):
like that. Just everybody, remember you can literally put any
institution as a beneficiary on your investment accounts. Right if
your life savings is your four to one K at
your job, you can say, hey, listen, call your custodian
whoever has that four to one K, and say, hey,
I want ninety five percent of my money to go
to my spouse, or ninety percent to go to my
spouse and five percent to go to my kids. And

(49:40):
then you can say, you know what, takes five percent
of my investment and give it to my charity or
my church. Am I alma man. You can literally just
go there anytime you want and just make your nonprofit
charity or church a hardcore beneficiary on your portfolio wherever
it is. I think people forget they can do that.
So if you're one of those where it's on your
spirit to say, hey, if I stop breathing and I
have a really simple life, I don't want to set

(50:01):
up any fancy stuff for charitable giving. But if you
want to give one last tithe or one last check
to the community after you die, go to your investment accounts,
your advisor, or wherever your money is and just add
them on as the beneficiary to say, hey, ten percent
goes to my ministry, your fifteen percent goes to Saint Jude,
or you know, whatever percentage is on your spirit and heart.
You can do that. So I just wanted to put
that out there during the holiday season bed because we've

(50:23):
had some clients where I had went about five years
ago that passed away with a very good amount, well
over one plus million dollars, and her kids knew that
she was very passionate about the Make a Wish Foundation,
and there was also a couple other ones Make a Wish,
Saint Jude, a few of the ones that are really
great institutions that helped do a lot of great in
the community. But she didn't put anywhere in her estate
or her trust or anywhere that she wanted to benefit

(50:44):
those nonprofits after she died, so you know, her kids
kind of had to go through some difficulty to try
to get some of that money over to those institutions.
And in a perfect world, we would have gone on
a time machine, went back in time and said, hey,
I know you feel great about these organizations and how
good they do with community. Let's make sure we put
up in the state plan add your beneficiaries or adding
a trust or a don't advise fund. Let's find some

(51:06):
mechanism to make sure that if you stop breathing, that
you can give one last gift to this church or
charity to that way, you know you can make one
last impact before you know after you're done. So just
I wanted to put that out there because a lot
of people don't realize they can do that. But make
sure you have a discussion with yourself, your family, if
you're working with an advisor, talk about certain things you

(51:27):
can do. But if it's on your spirit you are
more charitably inclined. Make sure you have a discussion around
the time of year about who you want to give to,
how you want to give and again. But at what's
the point of living this life if we're goun to
just focus on ourselves. You know, we're really big on
giving back and helping others. That's the whole mission that
the Lord gave us, was to help our fellow man
and woman, of course, and just making sure that we,

(51:47):
you know, have a plan to leave the world better
than we found it. So big thing we talk about
during the holiday season. If you want to learn more,
I will say that does it's highly contingent on your
situation what kind of form of giving we recommend, but
there's a lot of things better out there as far
as possibilities. Make sure you talk with us or an
advisor so we can help put together a.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Plan that sounds good. LV I like that.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Also, LV you mentioned a few shows ago that you
had a list of non negotiable goals that you start
checking off with clients about this time of the year.
So can you review some of those is Some people
are probably getting their New Year's resolutions drawn up right now.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
Are they?

Speaker 3 (52:25):
What? You know? I hate that word. Yeah, I know,
I know a lot of especially financial resolutions. I know
there's a health one that everyone wants to lose weight
and have a six pack, but you know, it is
what it is. But you're right there. This is the
time of year where I usually start recommending people get
this stuff together for the beginning of the year in
November and not December. So you know, we always go

(52:45):
by in an order of operations and just over a
few minutes. The main thing that I tell people about
as far as those word of operations, when you wind
up towards the end of the year and you're looking
back and you're saying, Okay, what did I accomplish? The
one big thing that we do And I preach about
this in previous session as well as see if your
net worth has grown this year, right and if you
don't know if it has, that means you need to

(53:05):
work with somebody to figure that out and to put
those metrics together. So usually I do a networth review
and say, hey, your net worth was one hundred thousand
dollars in January. What are we today by the end
of the year. And if you aren't seeing a consistent
trend of your net worth going up, in other words,
debt going down, assets going up, that's when you need
to sit down and really put together a hard strategy

(53:26):
with an advisor. Right, So we look at the net worth.
That's a big thing we measure out at the end
of the year. I also make sure the non negotiable
is going to be maxing out those retirement accounts. Whether
you have an IRA where you can put up to
eight nine thousand dollars a year or your four one
K where you can put over twenty grand a year,
make sure that you're if you're not, you know there
are enough income wise to put that much in those plans.
Make sure you're putting at least ten to twenty percent

(53:48):
of your income into any vehicle where it's saving for
the future longevity of your wealth. So again iras rock
accounts four one ks, ten to twenty percent of your
paycheck is our zone. To make sure that you're making,
you're paying your future self and putting that money in
a beautiful time portal to enjoy down the road. So
and to grow for the future. So again that contribution

(54:09):
rate of ten to twenty percent is a big thing.
We look at at the end of the year if
we're below the mark, and it means we got to
make adjustments. If you're in or above the mark, hey,
that's that's a victory. So another one a state planning. Right.
We talked enough about death today, but we do look
in November and December about Okay, you know, do we
have new people in the family, do we have people
that have left the family or maybe passed away. It's

(54:30):
a good time to sit down with your attorney and
your advisor to say, okay, do we need to update
our wills and our trust and our beneficiaries. So make
sure a few guys have not done that yet. End
of the year is a great time to look at
the family and say, you know, a lot of times
that what I see more than anything is people who
get divorced they still have or recently divorced, They forget
to take their ex spouse off of their stuff. And
I catch that a lot. You know where they have,

(54:51):
you know, money going to previous blended family members or
previous spouses and their families changed. They may have new
grandkids or new family members that can amen through marriage.
So just make sure at the end of the year
you do in a state plane review look at all
of your wealth and all your assets and see if
you need to make any adjustments. So that's a big
non negotiable. The last one I would last couple ones liquidity.

(55:12):
Right if you started out the beginning of the year
with not enough cash and emergency funding and you end
of the year the same way, that means we got
to focus on that next year. Always make sure and
again we meet with your advisor or if you want
to call us for us to do the a liquidity analysis.
We're big on cash is king here. So if you're
not making consistent progress on making sure you're building up

(55:32):
a good amount in high old savings accounts, CDs, money
market accounts, whatever at the bank, you've got to have
that emergency and liquidity saved up. So making sure that
you're tracking that and every month you get paid, putting
it in the right place for that immediate buffer or
that immediate emergency fund, very very important thing to do
that we measure at the end of the year as well.
And last thing no one talks about is the benefits

(55:54):
enrollment right because right now it's kind of enrollment season.
If you work for a good company that offers a
lot of benefits like help and earns, long term care,
pre paid legal, you know, any kind of things that
are out there as far as benefits for simply you
working with the company. Please please, please, and I can't
say it as well, and please don't keep marching down
the road without looking at your description of your benefits.

(56:15):
Make sure you stop during enrollment season. I know you
may have signed on when you first got hired by
the company, but always make it a habit to look
at your document. It's called an SPD, a summary plan description.
It's an entire menu of options that your employer has
at your disposal where you can request it from HR
and say, hey, you know what new benefits have y'all
added into the plan? Have we updated our four to

(56:35):
one K if you added new insurance options? Do we
have new pre paid options for legals and wills and
trust things like that. Do we have any changes as
far as our benefit costs, So make sure you're always
reviewing that once a year doing enrollment season, because what
I see by is most people just they make that
initial decision of enrollment when they first get hired and
they never look at it again, and they're usually part
of our planning calendar. We sit down every end of

(56:57):
the year in quarter four and we look at that
sp document with our employees and who say, hey, what's
out there? Are there any changes and what is in
your plan that your employeer is offering that's worth your
time and harder money. So we do a benefits review
once a year just to make sure we're dotting every
I and crossing every T and ensuring that you're making
the absolute most at extracting every dollar of value from

(57:17):
your company while you're working with them. So remember that's
the end of the year, look at your employee benefits,
sit down with an advisor and look at everything and
survey the landscape and make sure you're not making any
mistakes and missing out and really valuable things your employee offers.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
All right, sounds good, LB. And lastly a little bit
talk about taxes. You always have a position that the
tax planning begins way before tax season, So what are
you doing to help people prepare for this?

Speaker 4 (57:45):
As early as November?

Speaker 3 (57:48):
I still I'm hoping for something that someone will change
my mind in this. But I'm still yet there to
meet one single client with a tax plan a before
they were the brand new one that says, hey, I'll
be here's my tax strategy, like print it off. So
you know, I don't beat people up for that because
it's just something that doesn't really exist unless you see
an advisor and work with like a tax strategy team
that we use or any good advisors use. But my

(58:10):
thing is now is the time. I think a lot
of people miss conceive what we talk about when we
talk about tax planning. And that is shocking because whenever
I ask people for the first meeting, hey like, how's
your tax situation? You know, the very first thing people say,
well I ask that question. They say, oh, it's great,
I've got a refund, so that means that's good, right, No,
so they I think everyone does. They quantify their success

(58:34):
of taxes on it, whether they get a refund or
whether they have to pay out of pocket, and that
it's it's so much more deep than that and much
more complex. You know what we constitute a success as
far as planning for a client. It's not about looking
at what you're getting in April or a tax filing season.
It's about are you minimizing your lifetime tax bill? Right?
And that's a weird thing that people never heard of before.

(58:54):
They need us, right, we look at your total taxes, right,
And we're not CPAs, but we are trained and taxes
at CFPU. So what we do is we say, hey,
we want to work with a tax strategy team that
is a that is a CPA firm that can help
facilitate plan and look at deductions and credits. And we
look at you and your spouse if you're married, and
your children, your deductions, and we put together a plan
for your cash flow and say, okay, what is the

(59:15):
optimal strategy for keeping Uncle Sam off of your money
now and also when you retire so and you'd be
surprised that no one does that. And the main thing
is we say, okay, before we met you know, we're
projecting your fifteen year tax bill to be one hundred
thousand dollars over the next fifteen years based on your
income and your tax bracket. If we do this, strategy,
then your bill goes from one hundred thousand dollars to

(59:36):
ninety thousand, right, which is an effective plan. So it's
not just about year to year. It's about multi year
planning and figuring out things that you may be missing
out on as far as deductions and credits. It's about
projecting your tax brackets, which is very difficult because we
don't know where you know, the government's going to go
with tax rates. That's the nightmare to try to predict.
But we try to say, okay, you know, you know,
what are those things we can do while rates are

(59:57):
high or low in your life and has your life
changes to where we can minimize your lifetime bill over
the next fifteen twenty thirty years instead of just worrying
about your refund. So I'm not saying refunds are bad.
I'm just saying that it's one of those things where
you have to look deeper into the tape as far
as what are those things that we can do with
your money as you're earning your income, where do we
position your assets for maximum tax free growth, and how

(01:00:19):
do we make sure that we use everything on the
chess board to keep Uncle Sam as far away as
we can legally with respect to the tax code. So anyway,
those are the thing that we talk about right about
now that we run projections for twenty twenty six in
the future year at around November December, to say, hey,
you know, if you have another month the way you've
had the rest of the year in the previous part
of the year, what is your expected bracket going to

(01:00:40):
be next year? What's your expected tax bill or refund
going to look?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
Everyone knows that. You know. Of course, we have Trump's
one big, beautiful bill that's coming next year, and that's
going to be you know, it's going to be a
big change for a lot of people next year. So
we you know, we're planning for that and running projections
and if that legislation holds, will Thank god, the government
shutdown is over. They were there were some areas they
were trying to clean up. Is agreement between both sides
of the partisan deal. But you know, no matter which

(01:01:04):
side of the aisle you're rooting for politically, you know
there are changes that will impact you. So around November
December we look into the future and say, okay, what's
coming downstream and how do we plan for that? With
respect how we're allocating your money and your wealth to
make sure we minimize tax impact you know, for next
year and beyond. So again that's a very intentional thing
we do. We do an internal analysis and run those

(01:01:25):
projections to hear with our team, and then once we say, okay,
this is the tax plan, let's pass it off to
a CPA firm that could to make sure we didn't
miss anything and to ensure overall that we can have
someone facilitate that plane when it comes time to file.
That's why it's good to have a good advisory team
and a good tax advisory team to work together to
ensure that the plan is effectuated successfully every year. So anyway,

(01:01:46):
most people, especially business owners, don't ever do that. They
go to turbo tax. They just put in their information
and they just spit out their return and say, you know,
refund hopefully and if not and whatever. But you got
to have again a high level of intentionality behind and
to ensure that you're reducing your tax bill now and
of course for the rest of your life, and not
just for your life, but also for your next generation
when you pass as well onto your kids and grandkids.

(01:02:09):
If that's the case. So anyway, tax strategizing is a
big thing to start looking at in November. And for
those people that are hearing me and it sounds like
Chinese and this is something you've never done before, then
that's what those calls and those consultations before. We'll see
if that's an area of planning that is proper for you.
And of course we'll make sure we work with and
get you a nice support of referrals if we need

(01:02:29):
to bring in CPAs to help us, if we need
to bring on some teammates and your plan. So again,
no one, if you've never done that, that's what good
advisors are for. During our consultation, we'll talk, we'll look
at your tax returns and kind of see what are
some things we can do to make sure we minimize
Uncle Sam on your money, because that's the last person
need to give any more money to going forward. So
I'm sure everyone can agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
All right, good work, good works, last thoughts LV you
have for our listeners.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Yeah, and you know just the end, bed you know,
I just don't I want to make sure I kind
of echo my sentiment from earlier this show. Just everyone,
we went over a lot of financial strategies and details
and quick tips and stuff today, But just don't forget
about what I said at the beginning of the show.
Make sure you have your ducks in a row. Make
sure everything's in order, obviously as far as our consultations
with a team, if we filled up or not. But

(01:03:17):
if you do want to talk deeper and more at
a more intimate level with your situation, make sure you
call and we'll see how we can piece all this
together for you in a good cohesive plan that customized
for you. So you know, it's one of those things where,
even though we look forward to everyone we want with,
you know, everyone from the show, we're so grateful to
work with when when you guys call in, so we
really do appreciate it more than you know. But you know,

(01:03:38):
despite all the planning and things that I usually throw
at clients as we're putting plans together, just don't forget
what I said at the beginning of the show. Plan effectively,
but enjoy your life, enjoy your time the holidays coming up,
don't forget about what's really important. And then of course
making sure that when you do call, if you do
and you want to meet, make sure you have a
really really good kind of synopsious about what is most

(01:03:58):
important to you and not just money. It's just like,
you know, what is it that your spirit is leading
you to do and why are you going to do
it when it comes to meeting with an advisor, Because
not enough to just have a million dollars bed like,
we have to have an action plan. We have to
make sure that we have a values based strategy, and
we want to make sure that when it comes to
giving to charities and nonprofits and setting up trust for
your family, all that means nothing unless we really have

(01:04:20):
a good, deep discussion about what is important in life
while you're here, so really think about that, really have
some good introspective Enjoy your time with your family this
upcoming Thanksgiving. And again for those that call, I really
look forward to meeting with you and talking with you.
And again I appreciate the honor being on your show
again for another year. So thanks again for your platform.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
You are so welcome LV And before you get out
of here, I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to
you and your family. Tell Senior I said Happy Thanksgiving
is as well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
Hey hey yeah, I'll tell him you said hi. And
hopefully when you when you talk to me, you can
beat them up for me, because that man is all
over the place right now for people that know tell
them he's still just as busy even though you're retired.
But he didn't want me to tell what he's doing
very well, he's.

Speaker 4 (01:05:04):
Happy, Okay, good good, Thank you l V. And I
appreciate you. Talk to you next month. All right, you too,
Bye bye.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
That is l V Plumber, our certified financial planner practitioner
l P. L Welt Strategist. Don't forget, and I know
call and see if you one of those first five
callers nine zero one seven four eight zero zero five
zero or.

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
One who just can't call.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Go online the book Pwsplanning dot com for that free
consultation with LV. Stick around as we go to the
other side of the Rev. Johnson Show, Get your automobile
questions ready. Adrian Wright is here, Yeah, Master mechanic and
general manager of Winchester Tire in Alignment. He will be

(01:05:57):
talking with us next right here on the Heart and
Soul of Memphis.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
W d I a