Laurence Plummer Jr.

We are Asking the Expert our Certified Financial Planner Practioner and LPL Wealth Strategist Laurence Plummer Jr., about Making Your Money Milestones onThe Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Memphis probably presents the BEV Johnson Show.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Bath first, let me you say.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
She's gone camphis domain.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
No matter of the problem, she can have.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
So a phone and the normans your mind.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
She understand to be ding in the hair by chilling
you to just keep them fing went around picking up
this dhing show got.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Out in gay.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
You can hear every day. D I ain't.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
My bell got me a missed hopping?

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome in to
w d i A The BEB Johnson Show. I'm Bev.
It is indeed a pleasure to have you with us
once again on this Tuesday, August nineteenth, twenty twenty five.
Enjoy this fabulous day to day. Put your ears on

(02:09):
as we get ready to share the good news. Firstar,
we will be talking with our certified financial planner practitioner
l V. Plumber, junior of LPL Wealth Strategists. L LV
will be in to talk with us this day by

(02:30):
making your money milestones. I like that. Second, Hoar, we
will talk with mister Willie Jacobs of our final expense planning.
So put your ears ears on. When it's your turn
to talk. You know you can nine zero one five
three five nine three four to two eight hundred five

(02:55):
zero three nine three four two eight three three five
three five nine three four to two. We'll get you
in to us. And if this day, this, this, this
this day, Tuesday, August nineteenth, twenty twenty five, is your birthday.

(03:21):
Happy birthday to each and every one of y'all out
there who may be celebrating a birthday on this day.
We say, go out, y'all, go out and celebrate your life.
You better, you better. When we come back, we'll talk

(03:43):
with our certified financial Planner, practitioner and LPL Wealth Strategist,
Lawrence Plummer Junior, better known to us as LV. Next
with me BEV Johnson on the BEV Johnson Show, me
on double d I A.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
M H.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Good morning and welcome back to do w d I
A The BEB Johnson Show. It is indeed a pleasure
to have you with us once again on this hot
Oh it's all right, hot, y'all hot Tuesday, August nineteenth,
twenty twenty five. Enjoy this day, y'all. Be careful out there,
Be careful, be careful, be careful. Well. I am glad

(05:11):
to have him back in the house and let me
say this the securities advisory services offer through LPL Financial,
a Registered Investor Advisor member of Fenrah and Sipsey. The

(05:31):
opinions express or those of Lawrence Plummer Junior, Certified Financial
Planner Practitioner lp, L Wealth Strategist LV and Plumber Wealth
Strategist will be offering a complementary consultation to the first
five y'all only the first five today, yeah, and for
the first five people who book an appointment online. For

(05:56):
those who he may be at work and just cannot call,
you can go to p w S Planning dot com,
send LV and email by clicking the contact us button
to schedule your complimentary consultation with LV. Their number nine
zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero nine

(06:20):
zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero Email
LV at PWS Planning dot com or service at PWS
Planning dot com. Also, you can navigate you'all to their
website at p WS Planning dot com. Well as always

(06:41):
let me say good morning to Large Plumber Junior better
known to us as LB. Good morning, LV, How are you?

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Good morning? Is going to be back? How are you?

Speaker 4 (06:54):
I'm well today, I'm well. Good to have you back.
Have you been on vacation.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
You know, bev you know it's I'm developing a reputation
and I have to stop. So here's the thing I
have to make clear. Yes, I did get back from
a vacation. This is the only true vacation I've taken
this year. Usually I think people think I'm like gone
every month. I actually travel quite a bit for work,
and then I kind of make it a hybrid trip where,
you know, I bring the family with me. We kind
of make you know, limits, that elimonade, that type of deal.

(07:22):
But but no, I did just get back from a
true vacation. I know you've been there before, but Saint
Thomas was absolutely fantastic. That was our first true family
vacation this year. And we have to take, you know,
about four days in the island, spend some time my
two daughters and my wife mother in law. It was
a great time and I got to come back nice
and rejuvenate it. So can I complain it all good?

(07:43):
I'm glad you had a great time.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Well, you deserve it. You work. You work hard, brother,
and I know.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
They say work hard, play hard, but it's a whole different,
whole different mindset when you're an advisor. You gotta you
gotta manage a lot of people's emotions. You know, I'm
almost a psychiatrist part time. I've said that on previous shows. Yeah,
as far as making sure that we're guiding people through
their you know, their mental stresses and planning them for
their lives and their finances. So this is a job
where you definitely have to take those breaks and you know,

(08:11):
kind of just be present with the family. So I
appreciate everyone that's joined on with us. I thank y'all
for your patience. It's been a crazy year or two, bev.
And for those also to preface today, for those that
do call, please give us a little bit of grace.
We are booked up as usual, and I think you
know that about us by now that we can look
up a couple months in advance, and I know this
summer was really brutal and not just on me, but

(08:31):
my team as well, and so we're backed up a
little bit. But for those that do call from the show,
same thing as the last couple of shows, which actually
worked out really really well for us. If you do
want to talk, set up a consultation with me and
the team. We are going to set you up or
my team's going to set you up. If you call
or email us, we'll do a thirty minute intro session
to have a zoom or a conference call just to

(08:52):
kind of feel each other out, talk about your goals,
make sure will be a good fit, and then we'll
have a real meeting in office or a follow up
zoom if you're out of the state, to make sure
we can really kind of go into the depths together.
So for those that do want to talk, it's a
thirty minute session just so you don't have to wait
two to three months to talk to us and get
on our schedule, and usually we get you on I'll
say within the next month or so as far as
that initial call. So thank you all for just the support,

(09:15):
Thank you for listening to the show. And again, BEV.
Those that come from the show say nothing but good
things about you and your platform, so continually I'll say
thank you for allowing it to be on it. It's
still an honor for sure.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Well, thank you, LB, I appreciate you well. As we
get started, LV, I love this title for the show,
making your Money Milestones. I like that and LV, as usual,
let's start with some stock market talk. Because I know
you have it. How are things been since our last
show when we talked with you?

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, and I say it. I think I say these
words every single day of my life at this point, Bev.
It's an upward roller coaster, right, I mean a lot
of people, I think you're looking more of the drops
on the coaster instead of those jumps, and it's and
it's been really solid. That's the thing I want to
make sure everyone's clear on. As you know by now, Bev.
I try to cut through the noise and be that
voice of reason because there are so many media outlets

(10:10):
and social media and TikTok Twitter, everyone has their opinions,
and I try to be that one voice of Hey, factually,
this is where we are as far as the world
of money, and I always like to start out those
shows like this for those that haven't listened before. So
real quick, bottom line everyone, again, it's an upward roller coaster.
The Nasdaq right now, as we're seeing as far as
you're to date, everything's looking really healthy in the tech sector.

(10:31):
We got about almost eleven percent jump from January to now,
so we're already hitting double digits in the text the
tech stock markets right now with companies like Apple, Amazon, Google,
I mean, very very healthy stuff, even though it's been
a little volatile. So you know, nasdac's up about ten
point six s and P five hundred, the American Stock
Index is stuff about nine point one percent from January
to today. Again, very very healthy indicators we're seeing as

(10:54):
far as the S and P five hundred. So if
you're a simple, vanilla, just straightforward investor that buys the
s P five hundred should be smiling right now. It's
actually a really good time to make sure you have
a good, simple, index driven investment strategy. So right now
SMP is up about nine going on nine point two.
And of course the most boring part of the world
right now and the American stock markets is the dal Jones,

(11:14):
those top thirty companies. That one's only up about five
point five percent right now, but still looking positive through
which I cannot overstate. BEV has been one of the
most turbulent, unpredictable, voluable time periods I've ever seen them
as an advisor the last fifteen years. So for those
that are not smiling, I always like to say that
for those that think the world is doom and gloom
from hearing all the uncertainty with tariff news, inflation recessions,

(11:38):
all this stuff that's been kind of circling around. Just
remember the fundamental truth as of today, which could change tomorrow,
but as of today, it's still, in my opinion, a
really healthy economy, really healthy stock market valuations, and even
though you know, values maybe floating a little higher than
we would like, even though we're not hitting bubble territory,
the investors are generally comfortable right now, and I think

(11:58):
for something that everyone to look forward to, we're hoping
in praying, and I can't say that loud enough, hoping
and praying in the next thirty days we finally have
the Federal Reserve start to slash and cut those interest rates.
If that does happen, the Wall Street consensus is that
that's going to be a great way to boost the economy,
jump start you know, more stock market jumps and growth
in all three sectors. And I'm thinking overall that could

(12:19):
be a good tailwind to help propel the markets forward
between now at the end of the year. So we're
really really looking with the micro with a magnifying glass
where those interest rates are going to go. And if
Jerome Palell and the Federal Reserve do end up cutting.
So that's kind of the biggest news we're looking at
right now. And when we're think bev last time I
remember we talked about geopolitics, we talked about the Middle
East last time I was on the show. Obviously, I'm

(12:41):
not a political scientist. I won't go too deep into
that today. But the main thing that we are saying,
I can I kind of say from my purview is
that you know, we're not really looking so much in
that space as much as we were thirty days ago.
Of course, there's still a lot of volatility over there.
We're looking at the war hopefully ending in the next
few months, praying and hoping to cease fires hold. But
right now ourcus has shift from the Middle East over

(13:01):
to really our monetary policy with the FED and with
this current presidential administration, we're looking at as far as
trying to make sure that overall our current policy is
really kind of conducive to growth over the next six
months or so. So we're cautiously optimistic right now. Things
are solid. And if you're one of those that's fearful
and scared and doom and gloom, talk to your advisor,
call us look at your portfolio. We can make sure

(13:23):
everything is kind of firing in all cylinders with this
again kind of turbulent good time we're.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
In right now? Sounds good? Well, LV, let's jump right
into the session today. You speak a lot on this
show about where you think a lot of people go
wrong in their financial lives, and it also sounds like
you want to talk about what are some worthwhile goals
you believe people should strive for when planning out their finances.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yes, absolutely, bet you know, and you know that's the
main thing I always try to strive to do on
this show. But I think that the best, really, the
best kind of exception we get from our clients that
come in from your show, and really any referrals, BEV,
is the exercise that we do on that very first call,
which is again kind of the boring, but the good
stuff is really looking at everything, taking a step back,

(14:13):
looking at the big picture, and looking at really, Okay,
where are you now and where are you going to go?
And Bev, and I've said to them previous shows, the
number one sin that I think people commit is they
don't have a vision for where they want to go
and again, has nothing to do with your background, how
much money you're making, how much money you have. I
think a lot of people lack that introspection to look
and say, you know, what is it that truly value

(14:34):
out of all this I'm hearing all this stuff about
stocks and wealth building, annuities, real estate, all the stuff
that we hear all you know, bounced across social media
and of course the water cooler. But I think a
lot of people truly don't know what they want, BEV.
And that's a weird thing to say. That's why I
wanted to dedicate this show to like, hey, you know,
because I asked people when I first meet them, what
is it you want? What would you define as a

(14:54):
financial success, and what are the best things we can
help you get on the course for To be honest
that that's actually one of the hardest parts of that
first meeting, because most people say, you know what, ELV,
I've never thought about this. I just go to work.
I hopefully put enough my four to one k. I'm
shooting from the hip, and I just hope that what
I'm doing is right. And again, that can be someone

(15:14):
making a million a year that I'm talking to, or
someone is making about you know, thirty grand a year.
It's just one of those things where you know, clearly
defining and setting parameters for yourself about what you would
deem a success and a failure. That's got to be
something that I wanted to talk to about and dedicate
a show to so today, really, like you mentioned, it's
just about really setting up those milestones for yourself and

(15:35):
your family. And I set up five that if I
actually put a lot of thought into this for today's show,
I basically wanted to go over five easy and hard
things that no matter who I'm talking to, whether they
have fifteen million with our company, where they got, you know,
fifteen hundred with our company, doesn't matter. These are some
of the commonalities I want our clients average all the
way up to rich and wealthy, that you know, things

(15:56):
that no matter who you are, you should be able
to hit and strive for on a year to your basis,
and things that we really advise and coach our clients
on making sure we have that gradual progression on to
make sure that you're smiling by the time you're ready
to retire, and even hopefully smiling on your deathbed. By
giving a lot of money you left behind to your
next generation. Uh and maybe even setting up things like trust.
So that's really what today's session is about. Again, five

(16:18):
milestones that I want everybody, rich and poor to hit
no matter what. So that's what I want to dive into.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
All right, Well, then let's begin with your your your
your milestones. And you're starting with the first milestone l.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
V yep yeah yeah. Yeah. We want to go in
order here, so we want to go through. We're gonna
go one through five. So here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, so you just gone want through, so let us
hear because we're taking notes.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'm gonna take my time with one, all right, yeah, yeah,
take your time with one. Yeah yeah. So we'll skip down.
So right now, milestone number one, everybody, you know what
I would want anybody I'm sitting in front of to achieve.
Number one, get to the point in your financial life
where your investment returns exceed your savings rate. And that's

(17:08):
a very very big point, and I want to make
sure that everyone got I'll say that again. You want
to get to the point in your financial life where
your investment returns exceed your savings rate. So my main
point on that big is. I usually advise our clients
no matter what, Like, again, no matter who I'm sitting
in front of, make sure you're paying yourself first, right,
young or old. Make sure that every dollar that comes

(17:29):
to your direct deposit, your checking account, wherever you're working
hard to earn your income. Make sure that we're either
maxing out your four to one K or make sure
that you're maxing out a roth IRA or a traditional IRA. Right,
those are key fundamental no brainer goals that everyone should
do and just for everyone to know. You know, no
matter who you are, you can put up to twenty
three thousand, five hundred dollars into your four to one
k IS if you're blessed to have one. I working

(17:50):
with an employer that offers one, right, twenty three K
is usually the minimum or the maximum. If an IRA
that's away from your job, you set it up on
your own or with an advisor, seven to eight thousand
dollars per year what you can put into that, right,
So I usually try to make sure bev that every
client is putting money into those doors on a systematic
basis year to year. Now going back to my milestone, right,
everyone think about that twenty three K into your four

(18:11):
to one K, seven thousand dollars into an aroth iry, right,
that should be the amount of capital contributions that you're
flowing into those buckets. Now, going to my statement, I
love that when I look at a client statement like
right now is a great time. We're doing client reviews,
and I love for to look at my client four
one ks and they say, hey, for this year, we're

(18:32):
up eight percent or nine percent. Year to date, we've
earned twenty four thousand dollars in returns right in our money, right,
which is a fantastic thing. We're looking at your IRA
and saying, hey, I'm up about seven to eight thousand
for the year. That's a great milestone to set because
that takes the pressure when your investments are working hard
enough for you to be able to have your portfolio
grow by those amounts. That relieves the pressure of you

(18:53):
having to take your new money and chilling it up
into those buckets because your money is working enough to
really make sure that you're building up enough at economic
gains and growth just via your investments performing well. So
I wanted to throw some numbers out there as far
as those milestones, so everyone remember twenty three K and
your four one K, seven K and your IRA. Right, So,
in order for your money to be able to earn

(19:14):
returns of that dollar amount, right, you would need to
have eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars right in an
investment account yielding roughly about eight percent per year. And
so when you get to that point where your portfolio,
especially that IRA, is about eighty seven thousand dollars, that's
when seven to nine thousand that range as far as
the average return would be enough for you to make

(19:35):
that seven to eight thousand per year. That's a beautiful
place to be. Is your money again really compound and
you can start building that up over the six figure level.
Now where most of our client's wealth is bev is
those obviously those four one ks. So this is a
very important number to jot down by magic number to
where your investment returns at an eight to nine percent
rate of return are going to be enough to really

(19:55):
make sure that you're you know, earning that twenty three
thousand dollars amount per year or that's you putting in dime,
it's about two hundred and ninety three thousand dollars. Is
that average balance that I want to make sure that
we feed with our clients. So when you get that
two ninety k plus mark, that's a fantastic milestone because
you're saying, no, what even if I don't put in
the dime and my money is diversified and we have

(20:16):
a good year in the stock markets, your money is
growing by that twenty k and up level, and that's
going to really give you a great segue into compounding
and exponentially growing your portfolio and your wealth over the
next ten to twenty years. So just remember that everyone
I raise, if you have them, eighty seven thousand is
the great milestone number two hundred and ninety thousand dollars,
and your four to one k is a great mileson
number to where again your balance is and your investment

(20:37):
returns can really organically grow and build in those double
digits or really five figure levels. I should say so,
and I don't want to make one more note on
that bit of And this is very important as well
for our younger clients now, compounding interest it's an absolute miracle.
It's one of those things I preach all day and
all night about, especially those that are just starting their
financial journeys of saving and investing. So does everyone remember

(20:58):
if you're you know, these are for the younger ones
that are of building up their first six figures. That
first one hundred thousand dollars for everyone is the hardest.
It is scrappy, it's difficult. You got to save quite
a bit of money. You got to be patient. Getting
to that first hundred thousand dollars is going to take you,
on average about you know, if you're saving at least
ten thousand year, at least probably five plus years to
get there. If you're really consistent, you're earning some good

(21:19):
high returns. But you know, in that first five to
ten years of saving and investing. The thing is this,
when you get past that first hundred thousand dollars, that
is when the magic happens. And that's another milestone that's
kind of part of Part one B. Is when you
get to that first hundred, that means that it's going
to take much much less time as the years go
on to make sure you get to the next hundred
and the next hundred, so you know, and overall it's

(21:42):
going to make sure that again that compounding and that
miracle like effect of your money starting to earn money
on top of your returns. That usually starts that one
hundred thousand dollars and up mark. So, even though it
does sound arbitrary, I think everyone's goal, especially younger wealth builders,
get to that first six figures again. Try to get
to eighty seven plus thousand year IRA and that two
hundred to three hundred thousand dollars mark to be exact,

(22:02):
two ninety. That's a great goal to set for yourself
if you're in your thirties, forties, fifties and you're really
starting to build up those portfolio assets. So and one
more thing, I want to make a note when we
move on to the next milestone, BEV you know you
need to you need to have really and this is
the bottom line. I'm gonna get into a milestone five.
But and I'll go over this in a minute, but seven.

(22:23):
The ultimate goal for milestone five we'll jump back to
in a minute, is going to be seven hundred to
a million dollars seven hundred thousand and one million dollars
at the end of your road, which I'll get into later,
but that should be the end game when you run
projections with an advisor or yourself whatever. Seven hundred and
seventy thousand to one million to be exact, and kind
of in that rough range. That's a really good number
to shoot for. Sorry far as saying, hey, listen, I'm

(22:45):
fifty five to sixty five years old, I'm ready to retire,
and this is what I'm going to need to live
a good, comfortable life. So just remember that. That's a
good thing is you know, everyone, you see those articles
all the time about hey, should I have you know,
a million in retirement or two million? That number is
highly subjective and we'll go over those reasons why, but
just remember that's the goal is by the time you
hit those fifties and sixties, I like to see those

(23:06):
numbers in that really seven hundred and eight hundred thousand
dollars range as far as how much you saved from
age twenty one when you started working, all the way
until your retirement years. So we'll go back to that
in a minute. But everyone just remembered though, as milestone one,
make sure overall that we start making sure that we
get to those capital contribution rates and your money can
work organically and really compound for you beautifully over the years.

(23:27):
So hope you took those bullet points.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Now, good you know and listening to you talk, and
as we get into the second milestone, it'll be it
seems like more of a big picture goal than you've said.
It's vital to your process as an advisor. So what
should people be doing whether or not they work with
an advisor?

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yep, And I've touched on this before in previous shows,
So I'm going to keep on saying to that because
it's like, no matter who I meet, whether it's from
this show or just a referral or someone I met
from somewhere else, I still don't think. Maybe there's might
have been five clients I've meant that I've actually done this,
but I think one of the most important things to do,
just like you track your health, your weight, your body,

(24:09):
your blood pressure, your blood glucose, all these different metrics
for your health and your body, the number one metric
we as advisors look at is the simplest one, which
is your net worth. So for milestone two, if you
cannot comfortably look yourself in the mirror or look at
your advisor and say, hey, my net worth is X amount,
I think that's a mistake and I think that's something

(24:30):
that everyone should easily address by simply just composing a
balance sheet for themselves. So tracking your net worth and
really getting to the point where you can say, hey, listen,
I know my household is worth one hundred thousand dollars
or negative fifty thousand, like I see with some young
people in the student loans, or you know, we're worth
over two million dollars, right, So that's simple just knowledge
of saying, okay, we are financially solvent or we are

(24:53):
financially insolvent, and we have things that we need to
work on. That net worth is one of the key
barometers we look at to gauge whether what a client
is doing is working or whether it's hurting. And I
think it's something that we when we do that for
the first time with clients. It's really funny, bed because
most the clients when we run use our older clients
that come in from the very first time, and we're

(25:14):
setting up a balance sheet and income statements, and we're
looking at all those different components of their financial life,
and we start off with that net worth. A lot
of times I'll run that net worth, which, again not
to insult anybody, but you know, assets minus your liability
is easy calculation, as far as how to get there.
But when we run that asset and we subtract that
liabilities and we run that number, you know, with their

(25:34):
home equity involved and with their cash their for one case,
it's funny because a lot of times on that screen
bed we will see a number in excess of one
million dollars. And by definition, if your net worth is
over a million, you're a millionaire. So I think people
laugh when we get to that because I have a
lot of people that come to me with just full
of stress, full of anxiety, knowing the world is burning
down around them, and I run their net worth and

(25:55):
you know, we see it's one point one or one
point two million, and they look and they're like, there's
no way we're millionaires. We don't feel like it because
right because we don't have we're not cash millionaires, and
you know, we have this debt and we have that debt.
We're stressed about this. So, you know, I think a
lot of people put themselves in psychological poverty when it
comes to their money, but the economic reality is that
a lot of people are much better off in where
they think they are. And I love that part of

(26:16):
the meeting. When we first meet new people, because again
there's always that dislocation of Okay, this is where we
are our perception and this is where we are as
far as the reality. And it does help perk people
up that think that they're failing at their financial life
when I zoom out with them and say, hey, listen
and guys, it's not all bad. Your assets far away,
your liabilities, We got a positive net worth, we're over
five hundred thousand. It gives them a little bit of

(26:38):
a bread fresh air because I think bev, especially my
generation forty m blow right. We don't really look at
the big picture. We focus on, Hey, what's cryptocurrency doing right? What?

Speaker 4 (26:47):
You know?

Speaker 1 (26:48):
What are the stocks I can buy? What is this
these hot things? You know I'm hearing on TikTok. We're
very We're kind of in a microwave generation right now,
and I think in that microwave generation and mindset, we
want now, now now, and we think small, small, small,
And I think it's refreshing for a lot of younger
investors and clients that we take on. They kind of
take it to step back and say, Okay, forget about
all the short term opportunities. What have you done and

(27:08):
where are you right now? When we really paying a
framework for what you're good at and what you're bad at,
as far as your strengths and weaknesses, and usually bev
it's usually a great just one of my best parts
of the week is when we put that networth in
the screen and we say, hey, guys and girls, it's
not that bad. You're actually doing a lot better than
you think you're doing. So I know it sounds trivial
and simple for some people. It isn't. For some people

(27:28):
it is. But for those even if you don't call today,
for those listening, get your net worth, take your and
if you need help with that, call our firm. We
can email you a template and you can basically punch
in on our system. We have a system called Asset
Map where a client can just get financially organized. Put
your investment accounts in the system. Put your home equity
if you have a home and your homeowner, if you

(27:48):
have rental properties, if you have cash in the bank,
you know if you have and you know insurance policies
that have cash value embedded. You can take all that.
Take an inventory of you know, your debts, like your
credit card, student loan, mortgages and if that number is
positive at the end of the row, BEV. When you
run that calculation, I hate to say it, but I
love to say it, you're better off than you think
you are. Right that net worth is a critical critical

(28:10):
barometer in metric we look at so so anyway, that's
milestone two. It's simple, BEV. But just you know, you
may be an everyday millionaire and you don't even know it, right,
And I think people think that's some weird, nebulous thing
that we can never obtain as being a millionaire. A
lot of people are walking around you're a millionaires. They
don't even realize because they've never taken the networth test.
So anyway, that's milestone two. Run the numbers. If you

(28:32):
need help, call us. That's our first step we take
on our new clients. And that may give you a
breath of fresh air if you're sitting down with yourself
or your spouse, to say, hey, we're actually doing a
little better than than we thought we were doing, and
now we're looking at this with more of a broad perspective.
You know, it may help you see things not only now,
but also down the road with a clearer vision.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Okay, all right, before LB we get to milestone number
three and we're going to take a break, and let
me remind you all that LV will be taking the
five people who call nine zero one seven four eight
zero zero five zero. The first five people call to

(29:09):
make a consultation, it will be free to book on
book with him. Or if you just can't call those
five people who book online, and let me tell you
where you go to PWS Planning dot com send LB
and email by clicking the contact us button to schedule

(29:29):
your complimentary consultation at his office and his email also
LV at Pwsplanning dot com or service at PWS Planning
dot com. So the first five who book online, first
five who call nine zero one seven four eight zero
zero five zero, you will get a free consultation. We

(29:53):
are talking this day with our certified financial planner practitioner
L ke L with strategists LB Plumber Junior. If you
have a question or two always nine zero one five
three five nine three four two eight hundred five zero
three nine three four two eight three three five three

(30:17):
five nine three four two will get you in to us.
Oh and if you have a question and you can't
want to don't want to call, email me the question
at Bev Johnson at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll get your
question to LV. You're listening to the Bev Johnson Show.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
On w d I A don't go away. The Bev
Johnson Show returns after these messages.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
The Bev john says show, I tell you you.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
Went around enough being show, and we're talking with our
certified financial Planner practitioner l P, l Well Strategist and
LB as we go to the third milestone I've.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Been taking those. It sounds like you're gonna talk to
us about those dark days when they come and how
people can prepare for those unexpected and turbulent times of
their financial lives. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, and it's never fun to talk about. We dedicated
the shows to this before as far as like disaster
planning and planning for catastrophes, premature death, sickness, surgeries, all
those things that you know really can put us through
financial and spiritual hardship. So today again, you know, when
it comes down to these milestones, it's one of those
things I mentioned earlier, like disaster myopia. I think a

(32:40):
lot of people suffer from that where they say, hey, listen,
I got this. I have this, I've built here, I
have this income. All this is going to last forever.
I'm good. If something happens, I'm good. Right. I would
love for every climate worker to say that confidently and
to be able to live and act, you know, without fear.
But there are sometimes in my experience that people do

(33:00):
have that mindset before we really get to work. And
I'm saying, you know what, if something does happened, you
actually would be in more trouble than you think you
would be. And I hate to say it, Beth, I
was proven right. And a lot of client situations during
twenty twenty to twenty twenty two, when our clients were
making six figures across the board, you know, went through
COVID related losses and family members businesses, you know, shuddering,

(33:22):
and just incomes disrupted all the way, from my athletes,
my restaurant owners. It was really rough those two years.
I will hold it against those clients because COVID was
a once in a generation Oh my god, hopefully this
never happens against situation. But that did test the integrity
of a lot of financial plans in those first two
years of COVID, and and a lot of people unfortunately
didn't weather the storm and really had financial ruin. Even

(33:44):
after all the stimulus and loans from the government, it
still was a very rough time for a lot of people.
So my thing is this, you know, milestone number three
is it's what I call in my headhandon right, I
call it the I'll be fine tests. Right, I'll be
fine tests now? If you know so, you should be
at the point in your life where you can comfortably
sit back in your chair at home and say, hey self,

(34:07):
if I lost my primary income right now, this second,
I'd be fine for at least a year.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
And I know where everyone's mindset shifts when I say that.
That's the Dave Ramsey stuff. That's very easy. Everyone heards
that has heard that good old rule of you know,
I have three to six months in your savings, which
again is vital. You definitely want to have those cash
reserves to be able to weather the storm something happens
to you or your spouse's income. That's just one component, right,
But what I'm talking about is this, that's just the
first step of the i'll be fined has So obviously

(34:34):
you want to make sure, in my opinion, bev I'm
a little more harsh with our clients. I actually want
everyone to have twelve months really like nine to twelve
months worth of reserves based on their employment, you know,
to make sure if something does happen, we have significant
cash laying around to be able to live off of,
to dip into for emergencies, to pay off debts if
we need to. We want to have that emergency backup

(34:54):
system just in case something does happen to a client
or their spouse's income, or if something is really really
disruptive in their financial life. Right, So I say nine
to twelve months personally for my clients, but on top
of that, I want to have again those emergency backup
systems to make sure that our clients have either one
of two things a passive income, right, And I know
people hear that, and that's touched on countless times in

(35:17):
social media today. Though I don't believe in the term
passive income, because all income requires active effort, whether it's
real estate or side jobs or whatever. It's always good
to have something that is working for you. And of
course the most common one I see is having like
rental property income, which is very common in America for
people who set up as a side supplemental income for themselves.
So of those two things you want to make sure

(35:38):
you accomplish, not just those cash reserves. You want to
have something that you can still rely on in addition
to your primary income. And also one thing that I
think may be much easier bev that I tell people
to save for. You also want to have an investment bucket, right,
an investment portfolio that's a non retirement investment account, right,
not a four to one K where you'll be penalized
if you touch it before fifty nine and a half IRA,

(36:00):
because the same rules apply. So something that is not
necessarily designated for those retirement income years. But something that
what I call a flex portfolio, right, something that you
can tap into to use for you know, anything that
comes up in life. If you need that capital to
put into your first rental property, if you want to
be able to touch something for a major you know,
your child turning eighteen, to give them a one time

(36:21):
monetary gift. Just things that can happen in life between
age twenty one and age fifty nine and a half,
and you don't want to dig into your long term
retirement accounts for right. This is like what we call
a non qualified or non retirement portfolio. That's really meant
for that middle ground or the intermediate time space. So
with that account, what that would look like. Then I
tell people you want to definitely have a three bucket strategy.

(36:42):
You want your savings accounts right that nine to twelve
months for those emergencies oh man, something really bad is
happening situations. You want your long term bucket for your
four to one k's iras roth accounts for future you
to enjoy down the road. But you also want that
intermediate bucket right and again that non retirement investment account
where on this milestone to make sure that if you
need to turn income on. Like I had a client

(37:04):
a couple of days ago, we did designate about she
inherited some funds. We businated about two hundred to two
hundred and fifty thousand in one of these accounts. So
when we took that portfolio, you know, this client, when
she lost her father, unfortunately has a lot of needs
and she needs a little time to breathe right to
make sure she can find the next job. More in
her father, a lot happening in her life. So what
I love about that two hundred thousand dollars account that

(37:24):
we set up is that it is positioned, which I
usually advise people to do, to where she can touch
that money and invest in things that generate income now
right real estate investment trust, unicipal tax free bonds, dividend
stocks basically create that bucket to be able to turn
income on and off as needed, are on an ad
hoc basis to make sure that she can kind of

(37:44):
live off of income for a minute or bridge the
gap if she's in between jobs. It's really good to
have that because again it's that emergency backup system where
you can live off of the dividends and interest, and
with the right investment they'll be very tax efficient as well,
so you know, it's also a great vehicle to where
you won't be invading your principle if you manage it
and invest it the right way with a good advisory team.
So again, not a boring savings account, also not a

(38:07):
super exciting long term stock account for your retirement. Something
in the middle where you can live off of the
dividends interest, turn it on during those emergency periods where
you may have a job loss or a family loss
and live off of what that portfolio produces, and when
you get back to normal life, you can turn that
income off and just let it keep growing for you. Right.
So I love that because that's kind of my two prongs,

(38:27):
you know, support system cash and having a good non
retirement portfolio in the middle that we can rely on
if we need to during those dark days. In my opinion,
that's the perfect support system for those emergencies. And you'll
be shocked all way it to my wealthiest clients how
little or how few people actually have that type of
investment portfolio. A lot of people have just their cash
and they have just their four one ks and that's it.

(38:49):
This is again another third arm where again it's meant
for those dark days to help support your emergency situation.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
So are you saying, LB, is that not good just
to have the cab four one K? You need more? Yes?

Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yes, yes, if you want to summarize that, you need more.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
I hate to use the term need because everybody's different,
but in my opinion, the vast majority of Americans do
need more. It's not enough to have two buckets. In
my opinion, you need to have three buckets again, short
term cash, long term investments. You leave alone, and it
doesn't exist until you retire. And then again this intermediate
third bucket that's really meant for the dark days and
to be able to use for investment capital for anything

(39:28):
that come up down the road. That way, you don't
pay penalties and taxes to touch into your touch your money,
and you don't disrupt your emergency fund, and you also
don't disrupt your future money that's supposed to be for
your future self. Right, So that third arm is a
critical critical component of of making sure you have a
good kind of comprehensive plan. Oh and one more thing.
I don't talk about it a lot bit, but I
just had an athlete that reached out to a couple

(39:49):
of weeks ago, and he reminded me, I forget about
this a lot. I don't think I've ever said the
term disability insurance on this show before, and I've been
with you for like eight years. Yeah, aout that, So yeah,
it's I gets I get asked about a lot now.
I'm not. I don't really advise on disability that much.
It's not an area that I usually spend a lot
of time and space in. But I do refer my
clients to third party insurance agents because one of it,

(40:10):
you know, those areas of what can go wrong. I
will help advise on their capital and their savings and
their investments. But it's always good to have a good
insurance agent BEV that can help you with things like disability.
And that's actually the third kind of support system I
recommend people have is you know, if you have a
job where you know, if you were to be disabled,
or if you were to have any major disruption of
family loss, you want it's always good, in my opinion

(40:31):
or most of the time, it's good to have a
good low cost disability, short term and long term disability
insurance plan, either through your job or in an independent
policy you can buy through an independent agent. That way, overall,
hopefully those policies can last you at least six to
twelve months. That will allow you to leave your emergency
fund alone as much as possible after you trigger it.
And then also you know it'll be that extra support

(40:52):
system to minimize how much you need to impact your
portfolios in the long run to be able to you know,
to live off of that way again, you can have
an insurance company me paying you those dollars instead of
you pulling it from your own pocket. One thing I
will say that surprises people bed when if you go now,
if everyone hears me and they go to their insurance
agent at State Farm or whatever, and they buy these policies.
Remember a lot of those disability policies have a waiting period, right,

(41:13):
or an elimination period where you have to wait for
a minute after you call them to claim make a claim.
So that's why that emergency fund is still critical. You
want to have enough money if it's a one month
waiting period or a three month or a ninety day
whatever that is, you want to have that cash still
ready to go to be able to wait as you're
waiting for that policy to pay your first dollar for
your disability. And again that's why it's very important to

(41:34):
have all three of those so that way you have
things to rely on while you're waiting for that insurance
company to make you your first payment. So so just
remember that disability policy. I don't talk about it enough,
but in my opinion, if you have a skilled position,
even if you're non skilled, you know, whatever your job is,
it's always good in my opinion, to say, hey, what
is going to pay me? If you know something does
happen to if I break an arm or have an injury,

(41:56):
or if I have a family loss and I need
time away from the job, if I have you know,
any thing that can happen down the road, good mat
or ugly, that disability policy BED is very, very overlooked.
That's why usually in the fall that's coming up at
our practice, I usually do benefits reviews with our clients
when they come young and old, usually starting in September
October and enrollment season, to say, hey, what is your
job offering, and let's go through the menu of all

(42:17):
those options to see if they offer disability, critical illness,
you know, life insurance, whatever that's on the menu. I
like to make sure that if you can find very cheap,
affordable insurance like disability policies through your employer, in my opinion,
that's the best place to get it.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Now.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
If you're like me and your self employed and you
don't have that privilege, then you got to go and
get it on your own. So if you're a self
employed and remember, see a good advisor or see a
good insurance agent and say, hey, this is my business,
this is my occupation. What do I need to make
sure or something bad happens to me, then you know
my employees can keep getting a check and my business
can keep rolling. Right, So those disability policies are very critical,

(42:52):
but always see a third party advisor before you sign.
I do a lot of that BED. Even though I
don't recommend disability directly through my firm, I do help
clients that you know, look at those structures and see
what policies are good and bad and ugly, and help
our clients make those decisions more as a consultant. So
make sure you work with a third party and an
insurance agent to make sure you can make a good
decision for yourself and your family on.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
That sounds good, LV. All right, boy, I'm learning some
things today. So, LV, debt is something we talk about
a lot. We talk about credit cards, we talk about mortgages.
You've talked about student loans a little bit. Seem to
really be stressing people out those things, LB. So what

(43:32):
milestone do you coach your clients on to get them
to a better place about credit cards, mortgages, student loans?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know it's it's we can't
avoid it, man, And this is gonna I really want
to make sure everyone hears me on this because this
is controversial and what we're in the Dave Ramsey area
right now. Nothing bad it against Dave Ramsey, just everyone
I know to say his name a lot. It's all
great stuff, right. I love that debta verse advice. I
love some of these, you know, bigger financial personalities that say, hey, listen,

(44:02):
don't do anything unless you're out of debt. I can.
I can't disagree with that debt is bad. I never
want everyone thinking that LV says debt is good, dead
is bad. But here's what I'll say, being a realist, BEV,
and I think you know me by now. I'm very pragmatic.
I've dealt with a lot of people, and I can
tell you this, it's extraordinarily and exceedingly hard to live
in American life and never encounter debt at any point

(44:24):
in your days. Right, whether you're a young or old,
you're gonna, like I'm being honest, you're gonna have a mortgage.
A lot of my clients are gonna have student loans,
from my doctors, dennists to business owners and those that
just graduated college. You're gonna have possibly student loans. You're
gonna have credit cards, you're gonna have personal lines, you
might have home equity lines, you're gonna run across you know,
you know, just there's a million things that you're gonna

(44:44):
encounter from the age of twenty one to age ninety. Right.
So my stance and my position is this for milestone
number four. If you if you're not one of those
major proponents of saying, hey, I'm going full Dave Ramsey
and I want all my debt gone, which is a
great thing, I recommend a for the more realistic approach
to that is, keep all of your debt at a
low level and within what I call striking distance. Right,

(45:07):
So in other words, we call that that, we call
that maintaining striking distance debt. So for everyone listening, what
that means is that it's dealing with the inevitability of
knowing that at some point, you know, whether it's a
major curveball and emergency financially or a loss of a
loved one or buying a home, you're going to have
debt in some form. Right, let's go buy that assumption. Now,

(45:27):
what I mean by striking dist instead, it's about making
sure that if you're not going to go for complete
debt freedom, The goal should be to eroad and maintain
your debt levels at such a low level that you
can reasonably pay it off with some of your other
assets you've built up at any time you wish, right,
So in other words, having enough cash, having enough investments,
having enough assets to tap into. Or you can meet

(45:49):
with your advisor and say, hey, advisor, I know I
got this five thousand credit cards, but I also have
I don't know, three hundred thousand in my non qualified account,
like I mentioned that flex account. So let me just
let me wait for a good year in the stock market,
use the interest and dividends from that, and I can
pay that off anytime I want, right, No big deal.
That's why I tell people it's not just enough to
go full you know, full sin and just pay everything

(46:10):
off and you have no assets when the dust is settled.
I'm kind of controversial to where I want our clients
to do both. I just know that at some point
that debt's going to be a reality. I am more
of an asset focused advisor, where I say, hey, as
long as that debt isn't causing you a psychological burden, right,
and even if you have a few thousand on those
credit lines, or as long as it's not building up
crazy interest every month, and as long as it's not

(46:30):
a psychological burden on you and it's not hurting your
financial goals. And this is going to sound crazy, but
it's okay to hold a few balances. I know, I
make it crucified for that. It's okay to hold some debt,
whether it's a little bit of credit card, whether it's
a little bit of you know, a personal line you
had to take out, a home equity line of credit,
which I actually i'm a fan off if we need
to get one. So again, I'm not saying the debt

(46:50):
is good. I'm just saying I'm seeing people who are
like coming to me just with a psychological ton of
weight on their brains and their minds and their souls
because you know, they have a few thousand dollars in
credit card debt. So again, I'm not saying that having
debt is good. I'm just saying that your goal, if
you are having trouble, like truly living that Dave Ramsey
debt free life. In my opinion, Hey, the best method

(47:13):
to get around that if you're struggling is to focus
much more so on your assets, build up your accounts,
your investment accounts, your non qualified accounts, your cash. That way,
you have so much assets to where if you need
to push a button boom, we can pay it off
with whatever we yield on your investments, or we can
use some dividend income to pay down some credit cards
down the road. You want to have wealth weapons at
your disposal to always combat the debt if it does

(47:35):
begin to get out of control. In my opinion, that
it's not enough to be debt free and to have
no assets. To me, that's a controversial thing, but I
want our clients to have both very load debt, if
not no debt, but also have a lot of money
and assets to be able to use for life enjoyment
and then maybe using some of that portfolio income to
eroad whatever we need to down the road when you
get to your retirement agors. So again maintaining load debt

(47:58):
and again within striking distance where you can easily sell
an investment or restructure an investment to be able to
get rid of that debt. So to me, BENV that's
more of in my opinion, being more of a realist,
I think that's more a much more obtainable goal for
a lot of people. You know, if you have one
hundred thousand dollars in student loans, do not take from that.
As LV said, Hey, I'm good with my one hundred
thousand student loans. No, you got to pay that off

(48:19):
as soon as possible. But my goal should be, like, hey,
let's make sure we get to the point where the
next five to ten years that we drop it down
from one hundred thousand to ten thousand or less, right
or twenty five or you know, maybe what I usually
tell clients ten to twenty percent of your total credit line.
Let's get it below that in reasonable levels. That way
that interests can't build up on your credit cards, or
paying down at least eighty to eighty five percent of
your personal loan get to take out when you lost

(48:40):
your job or you know, you didn't have your emergency fund,
or you know, you had a big surgery or a
big medical bill. We should get that all within twenty
five percent or less of those credit lines and make
sure overall that we keep all your interest at bay
and that we avoid high interest accumulation on high interest debt.
So anyway I want to again, that's a controversial milestone MAVE,
but I just wanted to tell everyone, you know, it's

(49:00):
not the end of the world if you have debt,
and honestly, I'll be I'll be fully honest. It's very,
very very rare. My team will tell you we see
probably over thirty to fifty people a week. It's very
rare that I meet someone that's truly debt free. Rich
or poor, it doesn't matter. So just remember the goal
should be that realistic, non social media goals should be
to make sure your debt is at reasonable levels and

(49:21):
that you don't have, even at low levels, don't ever
carry high interest debt. In my opinion, anything above nine
or ten percent or higher, that's when you should pay
it off. But if it's low debt as far as
low interest, and it's something respectable, and you're under twenty
percent or less of your total credit card balances and
it's not a big balance you're holding, and it's not
building up interest aggressively, then in my opinion, it's okay.
Let's focus your capital diverted away from paying everything down

(49:43):
if it's at reasonable levels, and build up your non
retirement account right filling up those three buckets I talked
about earlier and making sure you're paying yourself first. Instead
it's been in the next twenty years, trying to make
sure you're fighting like a tennis match of debt with
a battle with these creditors. I'd rather you pay yourself,
build up those assets, and last thing, I'll say, bed
And it was a great story that I'd tell you
know from a couple of months ago where we had

(50:04):
a client that did just that. She actually built up
her non retirement accounts to about a five hundred thousand
dollars level. And guess what. This year, her five hundred
thousand dollars is probably profited about maybe ninety do one
hundred thousand based on the market jump. So we actually
took that ninety k. She had a couple of car notes,
she had a couple of credit cards that she paid
and guess what, we used the organic production of her

(50:24):
income from that portfolio to pay off what she wanted
to pay off. And she's retiring next year, right, So
it's one of those things where you know, if she
hadn't built up her assets and was very disciplined with
her savings and investment rates over her last twenty years,
she wouldn't have had that money to be able to
do that. That's why it's never dooming gloom in the
end of the world when you have money in your pocket.
I know that sounds simple, but it's like, you want

(50:45):
to make sure you don't ignore the asset side of
your balance. She got to have both. So anyway, that's
milestone four. Still use your income to get things at
a good striking distance level and then making sure that
you don't ignore your asset building as you're working. You've
got to do both in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
All right, LV, before we get to that last milestone,
we will take a break, and we will take a
break with LV. And don't forget that LV is taking
those five fast five first people who call and book
an appointment, you'll get a free consultation and Jamalis, this

(51:22):
is the number. Nine zero one seven four eight zero
zero five zero nine zero one seven four eight zero zero.
Call that number. They're taking the first five and if
you just can't call, you can book online. He's taking
five people. Book online Pwsplanning dot com. Send them an

(51:45):
email by clicking the contact us button to schedule your
free complimentary consultation with LV. We're talking making your money
milestones with LB Plumber Junior, sort of fine financial planner
practitioner l p L Wealth Strategist with me BEB Johnson

(52:07):
on the BEB Johnson Show on w d I A.

Speaker 5 (52:12):
You're listening to Tennessee Radio Hall of Famer BEV Johnson.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
On w d I A The Bev Johnson Show.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
You I A.

Speaker 5 (52:51):
I'm telling everyone.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Talking no, Welcome back to w d i A, the
heart and soul of Memphis. We are talking with our
certified financial planner practitioner lp L Wealth Strategist l V

(53:20):
Plumber Junior LV. Before we get to that last milestone,
Deborah wanted to know. She says, LV, how do you
feel about high yield savings account? I have a four
to three B. I are a and high yield savings account.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Hmm, very nice, Debro. Okay, so I can tell you this, Deborah.
I'm a massive, massive, massive fan of hyield savings accounts.
And here's the thing, without going too far, I love
that you have a three bucket strategy. And I see
that a lot where a lot of people will just
like you, have that four or three B and maybe
a couple other investment accounts, but they have all their
money in checking right normal just retail checking accounts, and

(54:04):
like a normal retail savings account that's still stuck in
like two thousand and five right where or I want
to say thousand and five, maybe twenty fifteen. So put
it this way where everyone that doesn't know there's a
lot of companies right now, most of them, and I'll
be honest, the best ones are actually online only where
if you google, literally just google high yield savings accounts
is very it's not complicated, it's very, very simple these

(54:27):
things right now after COVID, Remember the kind of negative
byproduct of COVID was what positive by product I should
say is that interest rates skyrocketed right as far as
from the COVID up until right now for a lot
of savings accounts. So right now, this is probably the
first time in my career where I would say that
holding those high yeld savings accounts is actually better than

(54:48):
holding it in certain investment portfolios. And that's crazy to
hear and say, but right now, if you go online
to a couple of companies, you google high yield savings accounts,
they're going to probably give you about four to five
different options with very it's very reputable, like online firms
where you can get at least four to four point
five percent with virtually no risk, right just like any
other savings account, and even local banks like I know,

(55:11):
Truest Regions is a few of them that I know
a lot of people use, actually have some very good
promotions and deals where if you put in over ten
thousand dollars and more, they'll offer you, you know, anything
like an excess of three point five to four point
five percent. So I will say this, and that's a
great note, Deborah. If you don't have one, it's very
hard for me to say, don't get one, because as
a matter of if you're still using those older savings accounts,

(55:32):
you may be earning like less than one percent or
zero point two It really comes down to the question
of would you rather in zero point two percent or
four point three percent? To me, it really does come
down to that. But you know, but one thing to
be very wary of, Debora and everyone that's wondering about
high yield savings accounts. My advice to a lot of
new clients is get while the getting is good, because
this is not going to last forever. One thing about
high yield savings accounts is that they do periodically adjust

(55:56):
to fluctuating interest rates, right, so when rates go up,
we adjust up. But right now I can tell you
if anyone watching the news, I know you see Donald J.
Trump and you see Jerome Powell are kind of battling
right now at the FED about lowering those rates. So
if Trump does get his way in the next few months,
which Wall Street consensus is probably saying that he will,
then due to some of the economic numbers we just saw,

(56:18):
I think Jerome Powell, who's the FED chair, is going
to vote very soon to lower those interest rates. And
that's going to be a great thing for borrowers that
are looking to get mortgages and car notes and student loans.
Is going to be great because the cost of the
dollars or the cost of debt's going to go down.
But it's going to be negative for savers because interest
rates on bank savings and institutional savings accounts are going

(56:38):
to go down as well. So bottom line is, if
you don't have a hyold savings and you hear me
saying three to four four point three percent, and that's
attractive to you, please get well to getting's good And
this may sound bad also Deborah, but not just higyold
savings accounts. If you're fearful that rates are going to
get cut, because my professional opinion, I'm thinking we're not
going to be anywhere near this within one to two
years where rates are going to be four percent plus.

(57:00):
They're going to start coming down very soon. So in
my opinion, what I'm advising clients to do if you
have cash on the sidelines. It sounds weird from when
I started fifteen years ago, but a CD may actually
be a good thing to lock in those rates as well,
because remember high yield savings accounts, those are going to
drop and slowly adjust with downward rates when they start
getting slashed. The good thing about it, maybe a six
month to twelve month CD, is that you can lock

(57:21):
in that four percent if they offer it right now,
and when rates start going down from four to two
to three and all that stuff down in the next
twelve months, you'll have a good and then you'll be
able to enjoy that locked in four percent plus rate.
So remember CDs, you hold that rate for the predetermined
time highield savings accounts, it's going to adjust lower as
time goes by. So that's why I'm telling clients it's
probably good to have a little bit of both, and

(57:42):
again for everyone, CDs are probably a good kind of get,
while the getting's good strategy if you want to lock
in anything above four percent, especially if you have significant
cash laying on the sidelines and you don't want to
invest it in the long run. You want to have
a good return for the short run with very very
very little risk. So a great question, Debra on that
big fan.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
All right, LV And for that fifth and final milestone,
how do you advise your client to define and reach
their in game? What should be the final goal that
you believe all people should be striving for.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Yep, And it's so our profession is very complicated. There's
a lot to this job. There's taxes, there's insurance, there's investments,
there's a state planning, you know, there's psychological training. There's
a lot that goes into being someone's advisor to advise
them from their health, their financial health, and their financial wealth. Right,

(58:38):
So I can say this, if I were to boil
down my goal for every client, no matter what I'm
talking to, with all the mini shows we've had, best
the goal is very simple. Right, If I were to
boil it down and distill it down into one kind
of like overarching goal. And so the goal or the
milestone should be to build enough wealth to live a good,

(58:59):
comfortable and sustainable life. That's it. All the stuff we
talk about, BEV. That should be the goal, build enough
wealth to live a good, comfortable, sustainable life. And I
want to break that down three words. I just use
those operative terms. Number one is good, Number two is comfortable,
number three is sustainable. Now good bev is one of
the most overused words in the English language. I don't

(59:20):
know why good gets so used. Every day. Good is
a whole different meeting than what we've adjusted to over
the last hundred years with that word. It's you know,
I had a good day. I'm feeling good right that
No good is to me. It is the most pure
form of satisfaction, happiness and just saying you know what,

(59:41):
I am living a life to where I am free
of fear. To me, that's good. In the realm of finance,
good is not rich. It's not having millions of dollars,
is not living off one hundred thousand dollars a year
in dividends. All the stuff we talk about, that's all
great stuff. But good is you being able to sit
back and to say, hey, I'm I don't have any
fear and I am happy. Goodness is happiness, and it's

(01:00:01):
very hard to define that because everyone's definition is different.
But mine is living a life free of financial fear
and peril and living a life of peace and tranquility
when it comes to your wealth. So you know, so
when it comes down to it, you're having enough wealth
that peace and tranquility, that goodness comes with a price tag,
and my job is to help people quantify that price

(01:00:22):
tag to make sure that they say, hey, my life
of peace is going to cost me one point five
million dollars by age sixty years old, or it's going
to cost me nine hundred thousand dollars, it's going to
cost me three million dollars, right, So we want to
quantifying price price that out and say, Okay, every year
that we're getting better and progressing, are we working towards
addressing that price tag at this time period? Right? So
that's the good part. And what is it going to

(01:00:44):
take to live that good you know, peace of mind
lifestyle that I know everybody wants. The second word was comfortable, Right,
you have to define that as well. What is your
definition edition definition of comfort? I tell clients every day
that I don't have to have millions of dollars, though
that'd be great. I'm one of those guys where I
would actually rather have a pension right from a private
company or from a military wherever it's coming from. I

(01:01:06):
pay me ten thousand dollars a month for the rest
of my life instead of giving me a million dollars today.
That's just me. I prefer income over assets. Even assets
are amazing to have, But my thing is that comfort.
You want to make sure you have the income or
create the income for yourself to where you can say, hey,
family and wife, whatever or self. You know. I know
that I will never run out of money, and I

(01:01:27):
can live a comfortable life until the day God calls
me home. Right, I can pay my bills, my core
expenses like light, gas, water, food, cell phone, whatever. I
can go on a few vacations a year, right and
go to Disney, go to the beach, whatever you want
to do, and be comfortable with that and not have
to worry about gas prices as they're going up and down.
So those you know that comfort is something where I
think our culture has really deviated from that. I think

(01:01:49):
everyone again is looking to make millions and invest in
crypto and get rich tomorrow and all that crazy stuff
you hear about all the day every day on social media.
I think comfort should be the goal. Just what do
you need to do to pay your bills? Be comfortable
and live a good life. And the last word is
sustainable life, right, not just having a good life for
the next five years or ten years. You want to
make sure you map this out with your advisor to

(01:02:11):
last at least until you're ninety plus years old. Be off.
You know, you don't want to just live big the
first ten years. Because I hate to say it, say it.
I see that so often where clients come to me,
no matter what I tell them, they're going to say, hey, Ovie,
I work for thirty years, man, I'm done. Like, I
know you're going to run the numbers, but I don't care.
I'm going to retire, and you know, whatever happens happens.
I have those clients that where they're not advisable and
they just want me to manage their investments and we

(01:02:32):
just hope that it lasts. And then we usually work
together for about six to seven years and we realize
that their spend rate and their burn rate and their
investments and how much money they're living off of is
not sustainable. So they felt good seven years ago when
I met them, but now we're in twenty twenty five.
They started out with nine hundred thousand, now they're down
to maybe one hundred thousand, and they see the money
dissipating and disappearing, and now we're sitting here like, oh man,

(01:02:54):
we should have really planned for that sustainability. And I
usually tell clients, if you are not livingving a sustainable
life right, comfortable and sustainable, you will be back to
work before you're ninety years old, and that's going to
be a horrible situation to be in. Social Security is
not enough. So that's why it's about making those sacrificing
side I'm sorry, sacrifices, carving out your budget, making sure

(01:03:15):
that what your goals and dreams are are not good
for just the next five years, but good for the
next twenty five years, and making sure that overall is
not sustainable. Make the adjustments to make sure you're within
that realm of sustainability and you can last the rest
of your days and hopefully have enough money left over
after you've consumed it to lead to the next generation,
like your spouse or your kids or your grandkids. So
you know, those are the three things that as my

(01:03:36):
last note, you know you want to live a good life,
a comfortable life, and a sustainable life, and have enough
wealth to make that a reality for you and your family.
And one last note of the day. My magic number.
I said it about an hour ago. My magic number
is really between. I know I said earlier, seven hundred thousand.
That's just the beginning to really think, Okay, I have
enough wealth without any pensions, and I have to create

(01:03:56):
income for myself. That number for that milestone is a
to seven hundred thousand for a normal average person. But
my really true requisite wealth magic number for no matter
who I'm talking to. I know it sounds arbitrary, but
I love that million dollar figure for someone that's not
blessed with pensions or major windfalls from family. If you're
truly on your own with no other income and you

(01:04:17):
have to live off of your fruit from what you've
saved over the last forty years, a million to one
point five for me without any other pensions is usually
my starting point to make sure overall that you can
live a good, comfortable and sustainable retirement. That's just a
number that I think everyone should choose for. If you
hear a million dollars and you're laughing right now, say no,
there's no way I'm going to get to a million
dollars and ten five years or whatever. Then that's when

(01:04:38):
it's all about planning and saying, okay, how do we
make those a tactical adjustments to make sure that we
either lower our budget, lower our lifestyle needs, or make
adjustments on our income or social security. There's other things
you can look at if you're not going to have
enough time to build up that million, But remember that's
you know, something to think about is you know, I
want our clients to be able to live organically off
of their annuity, income, their social security, your pensions, and

(01:05:00):
whatever wealth they've saved them over the years. And one
more note, you know, timing social security is something we'll
talk about later, but let's just say you you hit
the optimal plan and you get SOLI security at the
right time, which most people don't really take the time
to calculate, but that's what I do for our clients.
So if you assuming that you time social security well
for you and your spouse. I like that million dollars
to one point five million dollar number because you can

(01:05:21):
usually generate about fifty to sixty five thousand dollars a
year depending on the market of interest and dividends through
dividend stocks, real estate, private equly, whatever that you know
you're going to be investing in. You know that million
dollars is great to get, at least with the average
retiree in America spends, which is roughly about fifty eight
thousand dollars per year. So in a very simple nutshell
ofv if I can get a client's portfolio to the

(01:05:43):
level where they can live off of what their portfolio
produces every month and every quarter and every year, then
it you know, then they wouldn't have to invade their principle.
We have no attrition on their accounts, and we can
kind of live just off of whatever that portfolio produces.
And usually when I say four to five thousand a
month of for a client with a million that comes
on with us, they usually smile, they say, Hey, I
can do that, and I know I'm getting two to

(01:06:04):
three thousand a month in social security. That's over like
seven thousand a month. That's more than some people make
when they were even working. So that's what I'm saying.
If you you know that million dollar number, you can
have four thousand to five thousand a month off dividends
and interest or annuities or whatever, and we have Social
Security coming in to save the day for you or
or spouse. Some people can get to the six figure
level with a million dollars if you coordinate all those
income sources. So that's my job is to say, Okay,

(01:06:27):
what's the strategy for when we time all these income sources,
how we structure the investments so you can enjoy your
life and make sure overall that we never ever ever
have a meeting in fifteen twenty years saying hey, I'm sorry,
but we ro overran our runway and now you're out
of money and I'm sorry. The plan is over a
good luck going to get a day job, right, you know,
we never want to have that discussion. So that's why

(01:06:47):
I tell everyone is the last No. One million to
one point five is that nice sweet spot of making
sure you have that if you are not blessed with
having a substantial pension from a major corporation. If you're
one of those with a big pension, then you got
to talk about taxes, which we'll talk about later. But overall,
as far as you just being on your own that
that's a really good zone, and that's a great milestone.
And that's where I come in as an advisor because

(01:07:08):
some people say, LV, I have no clue what I need.
I have no clue what I'm going to be, what
the world's gonna look like in fifteen years, twenty years
when I retire. Can you help me map all this
out and put a plan together. That's what a certified
financial planner does, So don't feel overwhelmed that you have
to know all this. When you work with a good professional,
we do all that mapping for you. We put the
plan together, structure the investments, plan for the taxes, help

(01:07:29):
optimize everything you're building. That's what a good planner does,
so you don't have to. So if you are overwhelmed
on those five milestones and you're like, man, I just
need to know how to get started. That's what those
first consultations before and what I'm usually happy to talk
to clients about so we can start setting a roadmap together.

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Okay, all right, good work today, LV. We appreciate you brother.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
Thank you, be Hey. I appreciate you and I look
forward to the next show again, Bev, and I'm going
to try to see you in person next time.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
Okay, I miss your smiling face.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Thank you. I miss you too bad. All right, Elbo,
I'll try to make it in next month.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
All right, have a good day and be safe out there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
Thank you you too, best Bye bye bye bye.

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
That's LB Plumber, our certified financial Planner, practitioner and lp
Elthwest strategist. You want to call l V nine zero
one seven four eight zero zero five zero or email
him PWS Planning dot com. We're getting ready to go
to the other side of the Bev Johnson Show right

(01:08:35):
here on double d i A.

Speaker 5 (01:08:39):
Whether you're in Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi. On Facebook, Twitter
or Instagram, thank you for listening to the Bev Johnson
Show on doub d i A Memphis, The bevj.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
Show over the Perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
In the.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Bass Have ever cover