Retirement Ready

October 4th, 2025.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, Saturday, October fourth. Can you believe it? We're
in the last quarter of the year two thousand and
twenty five, which seems hard to even comprehension. I can't

(00:26):
believe it, these says. You get older, time goes by quicker,
and man, I'm telling you, it's speeding by as far
as I'm concerned. We got what ninety days and we're
going to be ringing in the new year. Santa Claus
Christmas Gifts. Walked into Lowe's the other day and there

(00:48):
they were all the Christmas decorations, and Santa Claus, excuse me,
get a little tickle in my throat this afternoon. I apologize.
This is retirement ready. It's a topic specific show, and
I had a whole different topic scheduled for today, had

(01:14):
the outline, had my notes, the whole nine yards, and
I picked up Barons this morning. If you don't know
what Barons is, Barons is a financial publication that comes
out once a week. There's a lot of great articles,
kind of gives you some summary of what happened for

(01:34):
the week, some portfolio manager. There's a lot of financial data,
but it also has great articles in there and great content,
especially for people that are in the financial services industry,
and the headline on one of the bold headlines this

(02:00):
week is this, eighty percent of workers say they're making
little or no progress saving for retirement. This is a
new report, Goldman Sachs Report that finds that the rising

(02:23):
cost of living is pushing retirement further out for millions
and millions of workers. Is that surprising to me? It's
not surprising because we see it every day. We see
the concern and some of the things that we're going
to be talking about is are you prepared. Do you

(02:50):
have your ducks in a row as far as what
needs to get done in order to facilitate a retirement
that is filled with happiness, comfort, not filled with anxiety
stress because of the rising cost of what it's going

(03:12):
to take in today's dollars and in the future in
order to pay your bills. So, some of the key
points in this article, which we're going to discuss in
greater detail, is forty percent of working Americans currently set

(03:38):
one hundred and sixty million people. Forty percent one hundred
and sixty million people are living paycheck to paycheck, and
an additional two fifths are not making progress on their

(03:59):
retirement goals. The total cost of retirement has risen four
percent per year over the past twenty five years, exceeding inflation,
with home ownership now at fifty one percent of post

(04:20):
tax income to just pay your school taxes. Wasn't that fun? Folks, boy,
yummy yummy, can't wait, get down there and give it
to the old school district goal in Sacks suggests that
individuals need to start thinking outside the box. And they're

(04:48):
suggesting that you may have to work a lot longer
than you expected if you can retire it all. And
they basically say that you the US worker, you're caught

(05:10):
in what they call a retirement savings bond, not bond
not b O n D b I n D. So
rising living cost or making it harder to save for
retirement and those expenses right are over and over and

(05:35):
over again increasing. That makes it much more expensive to live.
And what happens you start deferring or you start eliminating
contributions to your golden years. So it's a pretty dismal

(05:56):
picture of the current situation that we're in. We've been
talking about this for the last two to five years
at the Retirement Planning Group. We see it. We see
it on a day to day basis. And when you
hear that forty percent of working Americans are now living
paycheck to paycheck, it's shocking. It's shocking. One hundred and

(06:24):
sixty million people plus so Americans living longer. Right, we're
living longer. We've got a huge burden on our back.
What is that, Well, we have to be responsible for
our own retirement. Were responsible a lot of us for

(06:50):
a good majority to the cost of our healthcare, and
that leaves little room for almost anything else. Right, So
these findings that we're talking about really put a lot
of us into a situation that we're going to have
to try to figure out the math on how we

(07:12):
get to the finish line and to tell people over
and over again. You remember old Nancy Reagan just say no. Well,
the answer is no, because telling work is just to
say save more when they can't do it. It ignores
the reality of what individuals are facing on a day

(07:34):
to day basis. This past weekend, last night, I'm at
my relatives house. I had one of my relatives came
over and said, can I talk to you for a
couple of minutes? They said absolutely, went outside on the porch,
had a little bit of chat. He says, listen, I'm

(07:58):
having a hard time here with healthcare, trying to figure
out what I'm going to do. And I said to him,
do you currently have it? He says, yeah, but I
have to make a decision over in the next thirty
days as far as do I stay with the plan
I'm in or do I start looking outside for other options?

(08:21):
And I said, wor are you currently He says, right now,
I'm paying almost sixteen one hundred dollars a month for healthcare.
He says, I have a mortgage again. He says, Dave,
I have a mortgage again. And he says, I just
can't do it. So my answer to him was, have

(08:42):
you ever heard of a high deductible plan? And do
you have any money set on the sidelines? You ever
heard of an HSA account? He'll say his account. I mean,
there are certain opportunities that are available to you, just
need to know what they are. What the bottom line

(09:04):
is all I have to do. Home Ownership costs now
consume fifty one percent of household's post income. That's up
from thirty three percent at the turn of the century. Childcare,
you've seen what it costs for childcare today for the
working Americans, that accounts for almost twenty percent. That's coming

(09:28):
out of your wallet in healthcare as much as sixteen percent.
So this is the new world that we live in,
and the question becomes, how are you going to deal
with it? Dave Kopek, this is retirement ready. We're talking about.
Are you making any progress with your retirement? We'll be

(09:48):
right back.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Retirement might feel far off, or maybe it's just around
the corner. Either way, it's never two or to start planning.
The experienced team at Retirement Planning Group makes the process simple,
straightforward and all about you. No pressure, just smart advice
to help you feel confident about what's next. Visit rpgretire
dot com or give them a call at eight eight

(10:15):
eight five eight zero nineteen nineteen to schedule your consultation today.
That's RPG retired dot com. Your future self well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Retirement isn't a Sunday thing, It's a now thing. Whether
you're just starting out or nearing the finish line, the
best time to build your retirement plan is today. Don't
wait for the right moment. Let's create a plan that
works for you. Secure your future and the freedom that
comes with it. Call my office today and take action.

(10:45):
Eighty eight eight five EAD zero one nine one nine.
That's eighty eight five EID zero one nine one nine,
and your future will thank you.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Born on America's darkest day of nine to eleven, the
Tunnel to Towers Foundation has been helping America's heroes. People
who put their lives on the line for our country
and our communities need your help now more than ever.
Join Tunnel to Towers on its mission to do good
in their honor. Never forget nine to eleven or the
sacrifices of this country's heroes and their families. Show your support.

(11:16):
Donate eleven dollars a month at T two t dot org.
That's t the number two t dot org. Your retirement future.
Are you dreaming of a comfortable, financially secure retirement. It's
closer than you think. The best time to start planning
was yesterday. The second best time is now. Even small,
consistent contributions make a huge difference over time thanks to

(11:37):
the power of compound Don't let your retirement dreams just
remain dreams. Start setting up your goals today. Take control
of your future. Call eighty eight fight eight zero one
nine one nine. That's eighty eight fight eight zero nine
one nine for a free consultation.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
All right here back on this beautiful Saturday, no matter
where you're listening, because we're heard throughout the nation on iHeartRadio,
I'm Live. You got a question or a comment about
our topic today? What's happening is the American dream gone?
For retirement? Goldman Sachs headline this week today, eighty percent

(12:26):
of workers say they're making little or no progress saving
for retirement. Eighty eight oh not two oh or one
to five or two five. Eight out of ten people
are having a hard time. The rising cost of living

(12:46):
is draining Americans paychecks and retirees and retirees. And if
the current trend can ten use golden Goldsen Goldman Sachs
estimates fifty five percent Americans will be living paycheck to

(13:11):
paycheck by two thousand and thirty three, fifty five percent
over the last quarter century. And I don't have to
tell anybody that's in their sixties or seventies. The basic
need as a percentage of post tax income has risen

(13:33):
dramatically across the board. Taxes are insane in New York State,
insane you go up root nine. There's a gentleman that
has a construction area. Tax is too high? Is one
hypothetical license plate that he has. The other one says

(13:57):
vampire state. Fifty one percent households postax income. That's up
from thirty three percent at the turn of the century. Childcare,
I don't have to tell you. We just talked about it.
So there's an affordability crisis. Here's the statistic that I'm

(14:22):
flabbergasted by folks, and I don't know where they're getting
their data, but this is from Goldman Sachs. The average
age of a home buyer has risen to fifty six
from thirty six in two thousand and two. Women are
delaying motherhood. We all know that. And couples are what

(14:44):
delay in marriage. They're living in the basement. How many
apartments can they build up here in Clifton Park, half Moon,
where I live. No matter where you go, it's apartments Malta,
where our corporate headquarters is Syracuse. What are we having off?
I don't care wherey we go. Many workers are basically

(15:11):
having a hard time to afford just basic necessities. Go
get a bag of groceries, Go get healthcare. Go out
for dinner. You can't go out for dinner. Now you
go out for dinner, it's one hundred dollars bill. How
many households? How many if when were kids growing up?

(15:32):
This is one of the things that I talked about
the other day. I grew up in Scatty Cooke, Right,
that's the h A G H T I c Oka
Scatty Coke, New York. Great place to grow up. We
need go out for dinner. There's no such thing as
getting in the car and we're all going out for
dinner two three times a week. Once a week we

(15:54):
might go out for dinner. We'd either go to Jeans
Beans and Lansingburg or we go to It's Fish Fry
on Friday. That was a big deal. That was a
big deal. So for some of us, with the BMW's
in the driveway, you might end up having to make

(16:16):
sure that that car has got a for sale sign
on it, and you get a Honda and instead of
looking at the house in this neighborhood, you might have
to look somewhere else because of affordability. Nico that works
with us is out looking at homes. Sticker shock, sticker shock.

(16:38):
What they're asking for homes no matter what community that
you live in. So one of the things that we're
going to be talking about today in greater detail is
a plan of action what you need to do in
order to put yourself in a better spot financially in

(17:00):
order to achieve that retirement that you desire. And oh,
by the way, we talked about childcare healthcare. A lot
of young people today that are listening to this or
are children because it was important for them to go

(17:23):
to college already have a mortgage call the college loan.
I think it's like one point eight trillion dollars now
in college loans. So it's important they have a plan

(17:49):
in place, a structure in place in order to basically
deal with this new reality. The government is giving you
opportunities to, you know, as they say, catch up. The
catch up provisions adding more money into the pot as
you age, additional contributions over the age of fifty. That's great,

(18:12):
but you can't you can't pull a rabbit out of
the hat if there's no rabbit. The challenge about catching
up is that it only gets harder. My son Christopher
did an analysis last week on the radio. His analysis

(18:33):
was ten year difference from twenty five to thirty five.
How much of a difference would it be in the
pot for money seven percent net. I think it was
like six thousand dollars contribution pulled Homye to this. But
the bottom line, I remember what it was. It was
about a half a million dollar difference that ten year
window if you weren't making the contributions. So time is

(18:55):
your friend. But do you want to catch up earlier
in life or do you want to catch up later
in life? We all know that there's a lot less
in our wallets at the end of the month than
there was five, eight, ten, twenty years ago. There is

(19:19):
some positive, There is some positive, but that positive has
some possible negativity to it. And what is it? The

(19:40):
Boomer generation is the wealthiest generation in the history of mankind.
The Boomer generation will pass on eighty five trillion dollars
of wealth to the next generation. That could be the

(20:02):
parachute the suspenders in belt. That could be the gift
from God for a lot of these younger X generation
Generation X millennials, that there is this possible windfall for them.
But you got to get there. What do you do
from now until the next twenty or thirty years in

(20:24):
order to have quality of life. My kids, my two sons,
hit that magical age over the last couple of years
twenty six where they were no longer covered under our

(20:46):
group health plan, so they needed to go out and
look for policies that they could afford for healthcare coverage.
Now for them it's affordable because they're young and they
both have good jobs. But healthcare isn't cheap folks, And

(21:08):
unfortunately for the people that need it the most. The
older you get, the more disfigured and out of shape
your body gets, excuse me, more trips to the doctor,
more prescription drugs to be filled, more money spent on

(21:32):
pt health care. It goes up. The average monthly cost
of healthcare right now if your age sixty is thirteen
hundred dollars a month. And it's no surprise to individuals
that are paying these bills right now. So you get

(21:52):
rid of a mortgage and then you pick up another one,
you pay off your house, but you need healthcare. Everybody
seems to think that there's this panacea called medicare at
age sixty five. Well, here's something that Fidelity comes out with.
Every year. Fidelity comes out with a study every year

(22:16):
as far as the health of America and what it's
going to cost you during your retirement years in order
to provide healthcare, healthcare, not long term care, healthcare out
of pocket expenses, et cetera. That number right now is
about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars per individual age

(22:41):
sixty five, So a husband and wife, you're going to
need about three hundred and forty thousand dollars of out
of pocket expenses from sixty five until you go through
the pearly gates. And that does not include the cost
of long term care. Bottom line gets down to is

(23:06):
that there's going to have to be a reckoning here
because healthcare continues to go up. Right now, the average
monthly healthcare if you're forty five at seven hundred dollars
a month. If you're sixty five, it's almost fifteen hundred
dollars a month nationwide. And of course age is one

(23:27):
of the major factors when calculating your premium. And if
you look at the state that you live in and
how that state matches up to the rest of the states,
we're in one of the most costly ones here in

(23:47):
the Great Old Empire. State, top of the top of
the list, top of the list. So this is why
we talk to seven years before retirement. You start building
out the buckets of money. Each bucket has specific goals
and objectives in order to satisfy the cost, the cost

(24:13):
of going into retirement and not worried about do you
have adequate amounts of money in order to satisfy these
expenses that you're going to have depending on your age
and of course other factors. Well, that was a quick
first half hour. Excuse me, We'll be back after the news.

(24:37):
I'm Dave Kopek. Anything that I'm talking about, if you
want to give us a call at our office eighty
eight five eight zero one nine nine. We'll see after
the news.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
This is retirement ready.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
All right, we are back. This is retirement ready. I'm
Dave Kopek, the president of the Retirement Planning Group. We've
got six locations now in New York State. Coroporate headquarters
is in Saratoga, Malta. And then of course we have
once walls. We have all butiting Oneana Syracuse, and then

(25:22):
we're going to have a new office that we're doing
right now in Hyde Park, Hyde Park, down the southern tier.
So anything that I'm talking about, we do offer a
complementary consultation, face to face, zoom, trained, plane, boat, whatever
it is, will come to you. Get a lot of
clients throughout the United States now, and because of technology,

(25:46):
we can do a lot. Because of that, we can
have clients and the twenty eight states that we're in
right now. So if anything that I'm discussing is of
interest to you trying to build out your own personal
retirement plan and see where you stand, we offer a
second opinion. There were two people in Syracuse this week
and I basically said to him, you're in good shake,

(26:09):
You're in good shape, You're working with a good team.
Stay where you are. There's really not a lot that
we can do for you. But as I said over
and over again, you know, Fidelity is our puttying of
all of our assets. We're actually I'm going to be
in Boston Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for a Fidelity conference

(26:32):
to talk a lot about a lot of the things
that I'm discussing today. How do people get to the
finish line with the cost of retirement progressively increasing every year,
rising premiums for healthcare hard to predict. Out of pocket expenses.

(26:52):
How do you manage assets for an extended period of time.
You could possibly be in retirement longer than you were
during your working years. With technology changes that are happening
in the healthcare industry, people are taking bitter care of
themselves and they say, magical, unbelievable things are going to
happen with AI. So right now, if you're retiring at

(27:15):
fifty five sixty, you could possibly be managing assets for
four to five decades, four to five decades. And if
that is the case, and you're going to have unpredictable
expenses and you are going to have more challenging times,

(27:35):
how do you put all of this together in order
to facilitate what I call baseline income, the ability for
you to have assets that are going to be adequate enough.
You know, no one has a crystal ball, no one
can predict the future. There are black swan events. But

(27:59):
you should have a plan. Say that again, you should
have a plan, and most of you that are listening
today do not have a plan for a lot of reasons.
You're busy, you got kids, you're working, you do want
some time for yourself, you want to have vacation, but
you've got to make your retirement plan as important as

(28:21):
maybe the crews to the Caribbean or that ski trip
out to Colorado. It has to be top of mind,
top of mind. And that's why I said to you
today that with the headline in today's barons at eighty
percent of the population is having a hard time preparing

(28:46):
for retirement. It's a pretty staggering figure, folks. It's a
pretty staggering figure. And if that is the case, what
are what's your goal? What are you going to do?
What's your likelihood is sitting down and building out a
plan in order for you to have success. You know,
I always use the analogy when I built my house

(29:07):
in Half Moon, clept Apart, I went to an architect
and we built out what we call the blueprints. Right,
you got a blueprint, you start put in the footings,
the foundation, you cap it, you frame it, the electrical,
the sheet rock, all the stuff. You go through it.
There's a stages that you go through. It's no different

(29:29):
with buckets of money. After doing this now for forty
three years, I think I have a pretty good idea
what people need to do in order to have success
during the retirement years. That's why I pooh pooh auto.
These screaming monkeys and the people I call the pinocchios

(29:50):
that really have an agenda. They have an agenda. They're
looking out for them. I don't think they're really looking
out for you. They tell you how great they are
at managing money, all the things that you shouldn't do.
But the thing is, guess what when you know what
hits the fan and all hell breaks loose, what are
they going to do? Where are they going to be?

(30:11):
It could be five years, could be ten years, could
be twenty years down the road. You need to do
it right on the front end. Setting up your retirement
plan is as important as going to the architect and
getting the blueprints. That's what you need to do. Set
it up right, do the blueprint of your retirement plan,
and that start doing it progressively, bucket by bucket. Each

(30:35):
bucket of money has specific goals and objectives. So we
talk about retirement goals and we talk about most of
you are not doing it the first place. You should look,
of course, as your employer and get the match. We
do a match at the retirement planning group for our employees. Right.

(30:56):
I always tell them, you're getting in it. You want
to get in it or not, you're getting in the
plan because you're not going to leave the money on
the table. Well, they all get in in anyway, but
make sure you always get in the plan and get
the match. That's one hundred percent return on your money
day one dollar one. And the second thing, and I

(31:17):
don't know how they ever did this in Washington that
they didn't screw this up. They came out with an
investment that's probably the greatest thing that's ever come out
of Washington, and it's called the Wroth Wrath four oh
one K and Roth Ira right. The Wrath four oh
one K is a savings program where you basically put

(31:39):
money in after tax. The money grows on a tax
deferred basis, and when you take it out, it's tax
free and it's never subject to what required minimum distribution never.
So if you're still look in the accumulation mode and

(32:02):
you're still looking at ways to tactically allocate your money
through your employer, think Wroth take the match pre tax
with traditional and then anything that you might have on
the sidelines, some additional moneys if you have room, I
would say probably do it in the Wroth because you're

(32:23):
gonna want tax preference money during your retirement years. Critical.
It's critical that you have after tax money because you
want to be able to go in grab the money,
utilize it, and not have a mortgage on it. The
mortgages are friends called the State of New York in

(32:45):
the federal government. The tax that it's always levy down
those dollars for traditional iras four oh one k's four
or three b's TSPs new York State deferred compensation. That
is your achilles heel. It's the asset that will always
be problematic in your lifetime. It's the asset that you

(33:08):
really don't want to leave to your family or your
loved ones because what do you leave it. You're leaving
a tax liability and it's never a step up in basis,
always ordinary income. And when the kids receive it, it's
probably during their heyday they're making the maximum amount of money.
That money you should utilize and the other assets you
should utilize as far as your legacy piece, which is

(33:30):
a whole different conversation into itself. And there was just
an article in the Wall Street Journal about an investment
that I talk about all the time that a lot
of you and it basically said this, you're not utilizing
it anywhere near that you should be. HSA accounts, health
savings accounts, right, pre tax contribution, tax free say that again,

(33:59):
tax fread growth, and tax free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses, right.
And they can be used for out of pocket expenses.
They can be used for all these additional charges that
you're going to have during your retirement years that you're
not even thinking about. Now, what if Fidelity say one

(34:19):
hundred and seventy thousand dollars per individual at age sixty five?
And these contributions, folks have risen dramatically since it came
out in two and twenty five. Individuals single plans can
contribute forty three hundred dollars, and family coverage can do

(34:39):
eight thousand, five hundred and fifty dollars, and individuals fifty
five a dollar can contribute an additional thousand dollars. That's
real money. You do that for a few years and
you get a competitive rate of return, you're going to
have a sizable nest egg, especially if Mama and Papa
are both doing it. Where you have yourself two three
hundred thousand dollars in HSA money. That's totally tax free,

(35:02):
never subject to require minimum distribution. The money doesn't go
away before you go away, and you can leave it
to your spouse. And finally, the topic that no one
wants to talk about, but most of you should talk about,
how do you pay for long term care? And of

(35:26):
course none of the are gonna none of us, we're
never gonna need it. Right now, I mean, she's gonna
take care of me. I'm gonna take care of her,
and if I have to, I'll get in the car
and I'll drive over the bridge. But reality is, if

(35:47):
you can't find the keys, you can't drive off the bridge.
You got to mention. Government data shows that about seventy
percent seven h at two zho or three zero seventy
percent of a adults older adults will require long term
care in their lifetime seventy It's this question, how do

(36:09):
you pay for it? How do you allocate your assets?
I'm going to say that right now, of almost all
the meetings that I go into with existing or individuals
that are thinking about coming to the retirement planning group,
it's the most misunderstood topic, especially if you have large iras.

(36:32):
The common thing that I hear over and over again.
My IRA is protected from a Medicaid spend on. It's
not true. It's one not true. So if you think
you're IRA, a large IRA, you put your money in
a trust and they can't go after your IRA, you're wrong.
You're one hundred percent wrong. I just had a chat

(36:53):
with an attorney this past week about this, and if
she goes, Dave, you're one hundred percent right. Know your options,
know your downside, take action. The way you can do
that is give me a call at my office eight
eight eight five eight zero one nine one nine. You
offer complimentary consultation at any of our six offices. I'm

(37:13):
Dave Copec. This is retirement Ready.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
The biggest mistake in retirement planning waiting too long. The
sooner you start, the more options and peace of mind
you'll have. Dave Kopek and the Retirement Planning Group are
here to help you build a smart plan that grows
with you. Whether you're five years out or just getting serious,
now is the time.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Don't put it off.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Visit rpgretire dot com or call eight eight eight five
eight zero nineteen nineteen to schedule your consultation today. Start early,
retire better.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
We are living through the greatest wealth transfer in the
history of mankind. Trillions of dollars of wealth will change
hands from one generation to the next. Your money for alove,
children and grandchildren. Are you ready? Your future isn't written
by chance, It's written by action. Now's the time to
build your plan, protect your assets, and position yourself for
the opportunity. Don't wait, take action. The future favors those

(38:14):
that are prepared. Call eighty eight five eight zero one
nine one nine. That's eight eight eight five eight zero
one nine one nine. Your retirement future. Are you dreaming
of a comfortable, financially secure retirement. It's closer than you think.
The best time to start planning was yesterday. The second
best time is now. Even small, consistent contributions make a
huge difference over time thanks to the power of compound

(38:36):
Don't let your retirement dreams just remain dreams. Start setting
up your goals today. Take control of your future. Call
eighty eight five eight zero one nine one nine. That's
eighty eight five eight zero nine one nine for a
free consultation.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Portions of the following program were pre recorded.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
All right, it is a beautiful day out there in
the neighborhood. It is ten four, twenty twenty five, twelve
forty seven in the afternoon, eighty degrees out in sunny,
and I'm doing a radio show. What I will be

(39:20):
on the boat soon. I will be on the boat
in Linke, George within a very short period of time.
So hopefully you found this informative, educational. That's our job
is to try to tell you this new world that
we live in, this new responsibility that we have as
far as our own personal responsibility to succeed in retirement,

(39:46):
not to have stress and anxiety. And as I just
said at the beginning of today's program, Retirement Ready, a
new Golden Sacks report finds that eighty of workers say
they're making little or no progress saving for retirement. With

(40:12):
paycheck to paycheck, the cost of retirement has risen through
the roof, as we're all quite well aware over the
last five to ten years. And guess what, a lot
of us do not have pension benefits, then a lot
of us do not have healthcare. That's why if you

(40:34):
work for the state or a municipality or the government
and you have healthcare and a pension benefit, I know
you're in a really good spot. You're in a really
good spot because you're well, you're already on the backstretch
and we're just getting out of the starting gate. And
rising costs are making it harder for individuals, hard working savers.

(41:02):
A lot of the people that we work with, hard
working savers, that it's going to be much more difficult
to set money aside for your retirement years because you
gotta live. You gotta live. I went to Market thirty
two the other morning, usually the first one in there
at six am when they opened the doors, because I

(41:22):
get up early, and I wait, I make my list,
I think of the things that I want to get.
And I'm in there the other day and I'm odds
and ends, not a lot of stuff. I wanted to
make a ratitui. I get a nice little piece of fish,
odds and ends. I go up to the counter. One
little bag of groceries. I know, susan girl that grew

(41:44):
up in Scatty Cook, that's the cash here there I
want at Market thirty two and in Clifton Park. And
she goes, that will be seventy five dollars and change, Dave,
and I said, what one little small bag of groceries
seventy five bucks and I hate to say it, folks,

(42:06):
and this is not to be pompous or pat myself
in the back. I can afford to spend the seventy
five dollars my kids are going. They're out of college, right.
But there's a lot of people out there. I really
wonder how they make it. How are they making it? Healthcare,

(42:28):
a mortgage, food on the table, setting money aside for retirement,
an automobile. Taxes, I mean, taxes are crazy. I just
can't believe that there isn't a revolt. I just paid
my school taxes. I'm going to pay for my house
like two times over from what I paid for and

(42:49):
what I'm paying right now at taxes and half more.
It's insane. It's insane what it takes to live today,
especially in the land of taxation called the Empire's date.

(43:14):
So we all know we're living longer. We all know
we want to spend a few bucks in retirement. And
the answer to this puzzle, Dave, what's the answer? You're
giving us a lot of negative Well, here here's the answer, Okay,
and it sounds kind of corny. Sooner's better than later.

(43:35):
Sooner is better than later. The quicker you get after it,
the better off you're going to be. It's like anything
in business. The more you can go after it when
it happens, the better off you're going to be. Don't
sit on the sidelines because it's going to take a
while for you to catch up. We all know we
got less in our pocket. Some of us are going

(43:57):
to have to make some hard decisions. I hate to
say it. For some people. You might have to leave
the state. You might have to leave the state of
New York. Millions of people have, not necessarily because they
wanted to. They left the state because it was just unaffordable.
Three out of my four kids living for David lives

(44:21):
in Tampa, My oldest daughter, Caitlin, lives in Sarasota, and
my youngest daughter is living in Boca Ratun. I don't
like that. My wife doesn't like it. The reality is
is that we fly down to visit. It's not like
we take a ride to Scatticoke or who's it Falls,

(44:43):
or over to Mechanicville or you know, up over the
hill over to Amsterdam, Galway to see our kids. And
with technology today, handheld devices zoom, ring central, the one

(45:05):
on your phone where you can stare at him and
you can talk. As you can tell. I don't spend
a lot of time on the telephone. That's how you
communicate now. But the possibility, the reality is sometimes if
you want to have quality of life and you want
to do things, you're going to have to make hard decisions,

(45:28):
hard decisions. This is a beautiful steak. This is I
go hither and Yon Tip to Bobbom, all the way
out of the island, all the way out to Buffalo.
The Southern Tier has become very big for us right
now down Hyde Park, White Plains, that whole area because

(45:53):
of our relationship with another radio station down there. That
is a beauty. I actually mentioned the other day. I
think this morning I mentioned it. I had lunch the
other day. I stopped for lunch and Rinebeck coming up
routin on because I had to stop in Malaysia on

(46:14):
my way back. What a beautiful little community, beautiful right
by the river. Came up through Hyde Park, past the
Vanderbilt mansion. It's just this is a gorgeous state. But
they're chasing this out, folks. That's the reality. These politicians,
in my opinion, should run a business for ten years

(46:36):
before they can run for a public office and find
out what the burden is on our back every single
day in order to pay the bills, do health insurance
for our employees, the whole nine yards. And this is
not a political statement, but the reality is we're in
a sad situation right now. That's the reality. We're becoming

(46:56):
a society in a lot of ways of the haves
and the have nots. And I've got a lot of
family members. My background isn't farming, and then we got
stupid and bought a restaurant. But my background is hard
working savers. My mother and her they were dirt port.

(47:17):
My father didn't come from too much grander than that.
But all they did morning, noon and night was work.
But things got better for them. Things got better. You know.
There's the old famous phrase, It's amazing how lucky I've
become by working hard. But I can tell you right

(47:38):
now for someone that's been doing it for forty three years,
and hopefully the good Lord upstairs is going to give
me at least another ten. The bottom line is this,
If you do nothing, that's what you're going to get.
If you sit on the fence and play tittaly, you're

(48:01):
going to get to the wee winks. But when a
major investment banking firm such as Goldman Sachs comes out
with a report that finds that the rising cost of
living is pushing retirement out of the reach of millions
of hard working savers, it's kind of scary. It's kind

(48:28):
of scary. In my opinion. It's scary. So you need
to take action. As we're quite well aware. I say
this every week. Excuse me, folks. This is the year

(48:49):
from now until two thy and twenty seven. And this
year alone, every single day, eleven thousand and four hundred
of our fellow Americans will turn sixty five every day,

(49:09):
every single day. It's a milestone. Four point one eight
million people reaching retirement age in a single year, the
highest on record. It's the peak. It's what they call
America's peak sixty five zone. Look it up. What's your plan?

(49:32):
You should use this time, especially if you have five
to six to seven to ten years, as an opportunity
to get ready. Readiness is beneficial for your generation. Gives
a call. We offer a complimentary consultation at any of
our six offices. Eighty eight five, eight, zero, one nine

(49:56):
one nine. That's eighty eight I've met zero nine, one nine.
I'm Dave Kopek. Be safe, enjoy this absolutely beautiful weekend,
and God bless you all