Health and Wellness Show 03-01-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good morning, and now we switch gears into the Health
and Wellness Show here on one three point five FM
and five sixty am WVOC and coming up this morning,
and we appreciate you tuning in here on this first
day of March. Jeff hal from Health Markets, the future

(00:30):
of insurance and for those under sixty five, what you
need to be thinking about and concerned about if you've
got needs there. John Frawley and Matthew Terry going to
drop by from Preservation Specialists and well we're going to
start off by welcoming back. A guy who is responsible
for a lot of my wellness every summer, and that's
getting out on Lake Murray is Matt Lyons Carefree Boat

(00:51):
Clubs out of Lake Murray. We had good to see
you again, brother.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Good to see you as well.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
How you been you've been good man. We kind of
took the winner off, but boy, the whether we you know,
we've down down a little bit temperature wise, but it
will bounce back. Whether we had this past week man
made me start thinking about getting back out of the
lake again.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
You're not the only one we went. It was a
pretty rough winner. We had boats on the water all
winter longer you close shop. Yep, very very little usage
all winter long, and then all of a sudden, the
last week our phone has been ringing off the hook.
Members have been going out, people have been considering joining.
So it's been it's been pretty awesome. As we get
the new boats on the water, get their breaking hours

(01:28):
on them, and shake the cobbubs off some.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Of the one year old boats and so forth. Yeah,
I mean, you don't. You basically don't keep a boat
any longer than two years. I think, right, two years
is my max.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
We're allowed to keep it longer if we want, but
that just leads to more maintenance issues and so forth.
So two years is the max we keep them. Some
of them we turn less than a year, depending if
the members like me. Alan. One of the best things
about owning a boat club and being part of a
boat club is I asked my members what kind of
boats they want, and we tried different boats all the time,

(01:59):
and some of them are awesome and we'll keep them
for the two years. Other ones we end up not
liking and then we get rid of them pretty quick.
So it's a democracy, it really is. It really is.
It's your club, not.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Mine, So let's get caught up. It's been a couple
months as we last talked. I can't believe it's been
that long already, but it has been. I know. Twenty
twenty four was a year of great expansion and a
lot of things were going on. I mean, looking forward
to twenty twenty five. What all you got cooking here? Man? Yep.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
What we've got right now currently is twenty seven boats
on Lake Murray, Wow, and four wave runners on Lake
Murray that are all part of the club. We got
locations at the former fraid Not on the north side,
which is on Drea Island Road. We're now calling that
Marina's Fat Frogs Marina. We're located out of there with
Doolittle's watering hole opening up shortly here. She should be

(02:49):
opening operating by April first. And then we're on the
south side at Lake Murray Resort, some of you folks
know it as the former Spinners, and that has a
brand new restaurant open there, plus the Beach Club. Anyone
who joins the boat club gets a free beach club membership.
Opening up this summer there will be the Thirsty Gator
Barn Girl, the only gator on Lake Murray. I don't

(03:10):
care what anyone says. There's there's no other gators here
and so what we're looking for a really really fun summer.
I gotta tell you there's a lot of activity going on.
Talking to a lot of different people sponsoring a few
different things. There's that Wacky Wednesday that happens every every
Wednesday during the summer out there at Sandy Beach. We're
sponsoring three of those days out there. We're providing the food,

(03:33):
collect donations and all the fun stuff that goes with that.
Talking to two promoters that are looking at putting some
music festivals on the lake as well, so we're sponsoring those.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
If you last summers, I recall we did.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
We were a major sponsor for a drift jam and
also for Reggaetron, and we had spots for the members
to park the boats and tickets for them and so forth.
So we do we do a lot more than just
be a way to get on the wall. We really
try to make it as social as we can. We
know there's a lot of new people move into the
area and a lot of people want to find ways

(04:08):
to meet new friends and have fun. And we moved
down here ourselves three or four years ago now, and
we did it because we wanted to live more of
an outdoor, active lifestyle and it's been awesome. I started
the boat club because I wanted to be out on
a boat and I didn't want.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
To own one.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, owning a boat is maybe the world's worst experience ever.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
You can count me in on that. Yeah, that notion.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
People do it and then I appreciate it. Think, I
think boating is awesome. It's just owning a boat that stinks.
I don't want to clean it. I don't want to
charge a battery, I don't want to put the cover
on it. I don't want to do any of the
hard work. It's about one hundred hours worth of work
to own a boat per year, per year, per year,
and that's just a wasted hundred hours that you could
be earning money, spending time with the family, or actually

(04:55):
enjoying the water.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Well, yeah, say, chance is pretty good that your average
bonart isn't spending one hundred hours a year on the
lake or on any other body of.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Water, not even close. Your average boat owner goes out
five times a year. Really, yes, And that takes into
account to people who live on a lake and have
a boat and go out a ton and it takes
into account to people who live off the lake and
putting on a trailer and barely ever let it hit the.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Water, which is an enormous pain. And been there, done that, yep.
And if you're thinking that, well, I'll go run a
slip somewhere, well, news is is you're going to pay
as much to do that as you are going to
pay to be a member of the Lake Murray bowklaw yep.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Without all the other benefits you get, like not having
to own your own boats.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
For example, I own part of two marinas on the lake.
That's one of the advantages of care Free on the
Lake is we we try to own our marinas so
we can be there forever, so the members can always
keep coming back. And at those two marinas we rent slips.
I am happy to rent anyone a slip. It's three
thousand dollars a year, and that's pretty much the going

(05:57):
rate on a Lake Murray. Yeah, so at that you're
pretty expensive just to have the slip. You don't have
a boat, you don't have maintenance, you don't have insurance,
you don't have anything that you got a slip. You
got a slip for three thousand bucks.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Then you add on the cost of getting buying the boat,
ensuring the boat. Oh, there's some talk over the state
house about trying to reduce which you probably like to
hear a guy who home's twenty seven boats. Absolutely, the
taxes could do.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
The tax is different, no question about that. They should
do the taxes different. I think they actually will. But
it's still a cost you wouldn't have in a boat club, right,
So yeah, it really the difference is roughly per month
for you to have a slip, or per month for
you to be a member of Carefree Boat Club is
one hundred bucks. So for one hundred bucks more than

(06:50):
the cost of your slip, you can have access to
twenty seven boats, unlimited access to twenty seven boats, access
to one hundred and fifty locations across America that you
can go. Those boats are free, you know, including Hilton Head, Charleston,
Amelia Island, fifty or so clubs in Florida. So we
actually have one member that plans his vacation. Him and

(07:12):
his wife plan their vacation to go to other care
Free clubs just to see other bodies of water. And
have one on those lakes, and I think that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, so let's talk about how this works. And depending
on what boat club you become a member of or
what have you, it may be different. Here. Let's talk
about the way it works at the care Free boat clubs.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Sure, yeah, not a problem. So all boat clubs are
very similar. There's a one time initiation fee and then
there's a monthly fee. Those are the two costs that
go into every boat club on the planet. Some boat
clubs have a whole bunch of hidden fees in there,
like a training fee and an annual fee, and a
fuel recharging fee and all these other little fees. We

(07:56):
don't have any of that. Basically at Carefree on Lake Murray,
I built the club I wanted when I moved here
and couldn't find so I've kept my member to boat ratiow.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
So you came down here, you look to join it
on the boat club.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Walked into the only boat club on the lake at
the time with the check book in my pocket and said,
I'm here to join. I was a member of a
boat club in the Midwest, and I didn't want to
own a boat because I'm the world's worst boat owner ever.
And I knew that about myself, and my wife knew
that about me, and so we came down here. My
plan was to join a boat club. There was one
on the lake at the time, and the reason I
didn't join it was pretty expensive. They had fourteen different

(08:31):
levels of membership that got real confusing. Yeah, like you
could pay more and get this nicer level of boat,
or you could pay less and not use it on
the weekend, or you could all these different levels that
I found confusing. And then they would never tell me
their member to boat race show. I asked four times
with four different people over the course of a month,
what is your member to boat RACEIOW, and they refused

(08:53):
to ever give a number. They would have got me
as a customer if they would have said twenty to one,
which is way too many. At least I would not
have to buy a boat or start a club on
my own, because it still would have been cheaper to
join the club that was there.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
So that ratio self explanatory. Yep. For every one boat
you got twenty members.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yep, which I mean the math on that your access
is going to be real bad. Period. So at care free.
Since I started We have never gone above four and
a half members per boat.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Wow. Okay, that's a major difference.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
That's a major difference. It really is, because again, whenever
anyone thinks about joining the boat club, the first question
is what does it cost? But the real question they
want to know, are you going to have a boat
when I won it Saturday fourth of July. And the
only answer to that question is, here's my member to
boat ratio. You tell me if that gives you access
or not. Right, So, a properly run boat club could

(09:50):
have up to ten members per boat and still run
really well. But that's the max that you could have
and still have a functioning boat club where members are happy,
they're getting access to boats, they're using it. We keep
ours at less than half that, just because I want
people to get out on the lake more. It's a
simple enough thing.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
People are happy. Let's say somebody signs up. If they
spend a year with you and they've only been able
to got a boat two or three times when they
wanted to, they're not coming back, Nope.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
And they're gonna hate the boat club model. And it
leads to a very bad situation all around. The hardest
thing about owning a boat club is getting people to
understand what it is and getting people to trust that
it is a better, safer, more cost effective, and hassle
free way of boating.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Period.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
It's an awesome business model that makes a ton of
sense as long as the boat club is run well. Period.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Now, for somebody who has always wanted to learn how
to drive a boat, let's say this is really a
this is a good option here. And I suppose are
those people who say, yeah, i'd like to, you know,
get the family out of the lake and learn how
to drive a boat. But then they're concerned that, well,
no boat club's going to let me get on one
of their boats.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
That's the hardest thing about the boating industry is trying
to get people to become boaters that have never owned
a boat before. If you didn't grow up in a
household where your family had a boat and you went
out all the time, and all of a sudden, you're
thirty eight years old and you've got two young kids
and a wife, and you're thinking, what are you going
to do? How are you going to interact with your
family more? What are you going to do to have

(11:27):
fun this summer? And you think maybe I'll buy a boat,
but you've never owned a boat. You have no idea
how to drive a boat. It's daunting, it's scary, and.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
You can The reality is you can go buy that
boat and ride right out there and drop in the water.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yep. Absolutely before absolutely, I have wrecked the boat the
first day I owned it. It was a number of
years ago. It was a Yamaha jet boat and it
sucked up the bottom of the Illinois River. So my
wife can share that story with you if you ever
want to make fun of me. But we include at
Carefree Boat Club, we include free training all of our members.

(12:02):
We actually make I'm the water training mandatory, and we
cater that to your level of experience, whether you've been
voting your whole life and it takes thirty minutes, or
you've never boted in your life before and it takes
four hours and you do it three or four different times.
Whatever it's going to take to make you feel comfortable.

(12:22):
A safe member is going to be a happy member,
and a living member is going to pay their dues.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
So at the end of the day, call it self serving.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
What's funny is there's a boat club in the world
that charges for training, and I laugh about that, and
I say, my average MSRP for a boat we own
here on Lake Murray Carefree is over eighty thousand dollars.
Why am I going to charge you to learn how
to drive that boat effectively and not reckon? Like I'm
happy to invest in you being a better driver exactly

(12:54):
to save wear and tear and damage on really expensive boats.
I mean, we have two boats that are over one
hundred and thirty thousand dollars each and they're part of
the club.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well, and as you mentioned earlier, when you first came
down here and you looked at it, what was the
only club on the lake at that time, they had
a different membership level. So yeah, if you were going
in as an entry level or whatever, you're not getting
access to one hundred three thousand dollars boat. But what
about it care Free.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
At Carefree, you get access to all our boats under
the same exact program. And one of the reasons is
I wanted to keep it simple. I wanted to keep
it affordable. But I also knew myself well enough to
know if you sign up for a lower level program
that doesn't include the double deckers for double decker try Tunes,
for example, and your five year old shows up with
you and points to the coolest boat in the world

(13:35):
a five year old's ever seen, and says, hey, Dad,
I want to take out that boat. I'm never going
to be the one sitting there going yeah, your dad
didn't sign up for that program. Sorry, son. I knew
I'd say, yeah, no problem, you can take it out today.
So if I'm going to do that, I might as
well just make it all one level. So we've got
three of the double decker try tunes, all with two
hundred horse powery you get three now slides off the back. Yep,

(13:56):
We've got a wake surf boat. We've got a twin
engine twenty four foot center console. We have fifteen or
more Try Tunes of all different layouts and designs which
are really fun to drive.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
They really are very easy to drive.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
Too, and where I come from, they're not the normal boat.
Most of them are bow riders, which we have four
boy riders in the fleet that are twenty four footers
with three hundred horsepower engines. If you want to drag
the kids along on a tube and throw them thirty feet,
they'll let you do that. But we have more try
tunes than anything else, because that's what people want. We
actually this year stepped up and got a fishing try tune,

(14:30):
so a little more comfort for those that want to
put a line in the water. But they're more about
the comfort than they are about the fish they catch
on the lake.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
So this time of the year, I mean we're March.
We're in March, now, March first. This is a I
would think this is that this is a really good
time to join. You get anything any specials running we do.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
We do Actually, this is our preseason special. We call
it get complete access to everything about the boat club,
so it's not limited in any way, shape or form.
We've lowered our initiation fee by sixty percent, so you're
getting in less expensive than you'd ever get in, and
we give you the month March for free.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Now, is this this initiation fee? This a one time deal?
It's an annual deal. How does that work?

Speaker 3 (15:15):
It's one time, you pay it one time, you never
pay it again. As long as you stay a member
of the club, you never pay it again. And then
our term is a one year term. After that it
goes month to month. You can quit at any point
no more than a text email or phone call to
me saying hey Matt, this isn't a good fit for me.
I'm out. If you choose to buy a boat, we

(15:35):
will sell you a boat from our fleet and credit
you back your initiation fee off the cost of that boat.
Oh wow, yep, So I will save you probably twenty
five to thirty five percent off MSRP on a one
year old, slightly used, really well maintained boat and give
you your initiation feedback. Well, that's very magnanimously Well, mister lion,

(15:55):
I say that because if you join a boat club,
you're never buying a boat.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well, that's true.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Third the cost of owning the boat, and it's zero
off the hassle zero that, which is yeah, really is
a no brainer. Again, if the boat club is run white, right,
if they're if they're doing what they promise they're going
to do, if they're keeping a low member to boat ratio,
if they're maintaining the boats properly, and they're making it
truly hassle free boating, you'll never own a boat. There's

(16:21):
no reason to.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
All right, I don't plan to. Yeah, it's been I
can't wait to get back out there. I'll never own
a boat even if I well, actually you do twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Seven down there. Therefore the business they are attacks right
off at this point.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
All right, folks want to get to signed up right
or just get more information? Matt, what's the best thing
to do?

Speaker 3 (16:40):
You can go to carefreeboats dot com. Or you can
give us a call at eight three three the number
four boat for four.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, Matt, great to see you man, Great.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
To see you as well. We'll see on the water shortly.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
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Speaker 2 (17:08):
You inflation proof it.

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(17:30):
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(18:10):
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Speaker 1 (19:20):
Jeff Howe from Health Market's good morning to you, sir.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
Good morning, Jarry.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
You're through all the open enrollment stuff, right. We've had
the Medicare open enrollment, We've had the open marketplace open enrollment.
So open enrollment is done for a while and again
unless you, I guess have a change in your employment
situation and need to be in the open marketplace or
you're getting ready to turn sixty five need to get
into Medicare. But other than that, the big rush is

(19:45):
done for a few months.

Speaker 6 (19:46):
Right, that's correct, That's correct. It was a great open enrollment.
You know, we had a lot of people who are
new to health insurance or under sixty piles signed up,
and we had a lot of people on medica Care
who found new plans. So it was a very it
was a very busy open enrollment. We're then got extended

(20:07):
by some I would say some marketplace disruption with at
non Lexum Medical Center fighting, so that kind of extended
the open rollment well into late January. But that has
been resolved, which is good news. So at my and
Lexa Medical Center, you know, right before February first did

(20:28):
sign a contract, so is Lexa Medical Center is a
network with that, So that's CAWS.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
As I recall, I mean that that parting of the
ways came right after open enrollment was was finishing up
back in December, didn't it, which was kind of unusual,
very unusual.

Speaker 6 (20:46):
So normally when we go into the annual enrollment for Medicare,
which is October fifteenth to December seventh, normally the beginning
of October at the latest, we know which hospital systems
are to be in network with which insurance companies. So
that way, you know, certainly as the agents, I can
advise my clients, but just as individuals out there on

(21:08):
Medicare advantage plans, they know, you know, which hospital systems
are going to be in network with their insurance policies. However,
this year, you know, it was around December the seventeenth,
well after December seventh, when we got news that ATNA
we no longer want to be accepted by Lexa Medical

(21:29):
Center as of February first, So essentially all my clients,
of course, they went out there at ETNA and who
used lect Medical Center as their main provider or one
of their providers. We're scrambling in the month of January
to make a one time switch, which you're allowed to.
It's called open ROLLMA. Between January one and March thirty one,

(21:51):
a person on a Medicare advantage plan is allowed to
make a one time switch, and it's for circumstances just
like this.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
When we've had other issues. Though it seems like in
the last year, give or take a MUSC and an
issue with someone. Oh, prison I had an issue with somebody,
didn't they?

Speaker 6 (22:07):
That's right. So last year United Healthcare Prison I went
through this contract to feed and that was eventually reconciled
on April first of twenty twenty four. So prison on
healthcare of fine now and right now currently at West
said here, Humana and m USC are in a contract

(22:28):
dispute with the Humanita contract running out on March thirty
first with the m USC. So someone has m USC
A lot of people. You know, even if you're in
an election area, you go over to the m USC
Providence Heart Hospital a lot. You know, they have a
very renowned heart you know, heart cardia cardiologist program over

(22:50):
Providence which is owned by m USC now, so those
people still have a chance to make a switch before
March thirty. First, it looks like that contract you know
here today, that contract has not been renewed as a mersary.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
First, So I don't want to have you ask you
to assign blame here, but I mean, what what's behind
all this is this rates going up. These hospitals are
charging our insurance companies just wanting to say more of
their money on their or a combination of both.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
You have to look at a combination both with the
lean towards the insurance companies unfortunately have to take a
lot of this blame. So and that's what we see
on a national scale. So the company I work for,
health Markets is a national company with you know, we're
all we're in all fifty states, and so we have
offices all across the country, and we see this, you know,

(23:43):
in Alabama and Texas and Florida and Georgia, you know,
and then of course in non southern states all across
the country where you know, these companies they're Fortune fifty
companies right at Humanity and Healthcare. The companies we've just
been talking about of course, their their bottom line is
to make money for their shareholders, right, and so one

(24:06):
way they make more money for their shareholders is by
paying hospital system as little as possible, right sure for profit.
And so these hospital systems, such as Elections in medical Center,
one of the few ways they have to fight back
and their contract negotiations is to say, we just wan't
take your insurance here anymore. You can call it Trump

(24:28):
style negotiating, right, We're just going to walk away from
what's going to walk away from the table and then
and see if that gets your attention. And a lot
of times it does get their attention. And that's how
compromises are made through negotiations. Do we unfortunate yes?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Do we typically see a winner in these things? Is
it one side over the other normally prevail in these negotiations.

Speaker 6 (24:51):
That's a good question. I know for a fact who
the losers are. The losers are my clients are are
the people of lexing in County? You know, the policy holders?

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Well, you know now now that we're we're done with
open enrollment and all that, and we've got most of
these issues settle at least for the time being, except
for the humanity and the USC issue as we look ahead,
Uh you got have you have you grabbed your crystal ball. Recently,
Jeff and tried to discern what the future of healthcare
in this country might be. Uh, the new administration and

(25:25):
everything else going on. I mean, do we look for
any changes.

Speaker 6 (25:28):
It's it's so hard to predict right now, because of
course we just were just you know, getting through with confirmation, certainly,
and so we have the new administration and then you know,
certainly the new Department of Health and Human Services head
and CMS, you know, Center for Medicare, Medicaid Services. You know,

(25:50):
they will take office here very you know, and they'll
have their own agendas, their own policies, and so it's
going to be interesting. Of course you have Department of
Government efficiency and see how does that affect Medicare? You
know how that how does that effect the system? Right?
You know? And so for for a long time, you know,

(26:12):
the thought was, well, if you had original Medicare and
a supplement, you were kind of shielded from some of
these evils of medicare managed so to speak. And it's
not my word, but you know other people's words, and
those evils being things like prior authorizations, or denials or
having to go through for example, if you needed a

(26:35):
back surgery, maybe the back surgery does not get approved
right away. Maybe the insurance comeing ask you to go
through more rounds of physical therapy, yes, eple giral steroids,
things like that. And so when you're on original Medicare
with a supplement, you know, the whole you know, government,
you know, a thousand dollars hammer, right, you know, no
one's really guarding the hint house, you know, But maybe

(26:57):
that's going to change. Maybe Medicare now we'll have more
of a watchdog look over medical treatment and maybe you know,
those type procedures are going to have more pre authorizations
or maybe even denials and Medicare advantage of Medicare suptims
start looking very similar in those respects. I think that's

(27:19):
one prediction that I've certainly seen a lot of our
industry pundits talk about, is Medicare supple on Medicare advantage
looking very similar to each other.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Something we talked about a while back, and maybe we've
already passed that time, but assumedly there was some there
were some things that were set to sunset at some
certain point in time of we got anything like that
coming up to say you in this calendar year, for example,
any kind of legislation that was in place for a
certain number of years that will expire if not renewed,
by the end of twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (27:50):
Yes, great question. So that's on the under sixty five
market of the individual health market. On December thirty first,
twenty twenty five, these expanding subsidies which we have you know,
given to us through the COVID laws are going to
set to expire. So if nothing, if they're not extended,

(28:13):
these expanded subsidies, we'd go back to the old way
of looking at subsidies, which means we had a very
bright line. For example, a family of two, if their
household income in twenty twenty six, there's going to be
a penny over seventy eight thousand, for example, seventy eight
thousand of one, they get no subsidy, you know, seventy

(28:34):
eight thousand unless they do. Now you know, these expanded subsidies,
has been able to say if they were in their sixties,
a family of two can make up the two hundred
thousand or maybe even a little more and get a subsidy.
So that's a lot of people between that seventy eight
thousand line and that two hundred thousand line for getting
subsidies who will no longer get subsidies if the substeds

(28:56):
are not expanded, you know, continued to expand itself, pose
are not continued.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
And I'm just I just guessing here that with with
the Trump administration, that more than likely that will probably
sunset at the end of this year. I mean, would
if you had to bet, is that what you would say?

Speaker 6 (29:15):
I would say so, I would say so. So I
believe we will probably go back to the old way
of doing the subsidies. And so that's going to hurt
a lot of people. You know, a lot of a
lot of people were able to retire early. You know,
if you're you know, if you're in your way, if
your early sixties and you're not quite a medicare yet
at age sixty five, and say your spouse is working,

(29:38):
because even though the spouse may have group health insurance,
here's an individual you can go on the marketplace and
get a subsidy, but you certainly have to count your
spouse's income. So with the person social securities, say at
sixty three and their spouse is income that puts you
over that seventy eight thousand and eighty thousand dollars mark,

(29:59):
but you're still getting a great subsidy. With the demanded
substy the person was able to retire well. Now with
the expanded subscy's most likely sunsetting. That scenario may not
be in place anymore for a sixty three year old
so due to the high cost of their individual health insurance.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Okay, so let's uh for a moment to make the
assumption that these will sun sat at the end of
the year. Does that impact premium starting in twenty twenty
six or twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
That's a good question. So the counter point that a
person would say is that with a new administration, hopefully
different insurance policies will come back into the marketplace. So,
you know, when Trump was in office, before he brought

(30:51):
back some type of you know, he had allowed policies
to come in to the marketplace that were not marketplace policies.
So they were essentially at insurance policies. They excluded previous
and conditions, but if a person was healthy, they could
purchase the policy and have a lower premium. So maybe

(31:11):
that some of those policies come back to the marketplace,
which will be an option for a person who would
not qualify for a subsidy, but would have the option
of having lower priced health insurance compared to what a
full priced marketplace insurance policy would cost. Whether we get
those policies back in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty
seven hard to say.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Well, I'm sure that no matter what happens, if if that,
if these laws are the sunset, people will be giving
ample warning, right, I mean, it's not gonna be a
big surprise to anybody, I hope, unless you're just not
paying attention.

Speaker 6 (31:47):
It could be a big surprise, you know, with the
open rollment coming November first. I mean, that's just right
around the corner. A lot of times insurance companies have
to get their rates and their policies, you know, to
see mess by April or you know, by early May,
and so that's you know, very much so right around
the corner. So there could have been there could be

(32:09):
a lot of uncertainty and a lot of a lot
of surprises come up in a roll when in that
scenario is saved for the last three years, a couple
who's you know, say making ninety thousand dollars. Is they
paying very little for health insurance. They're coming to my
office and suddenly there are substancy is gone and they
have a thousand dollars a month. Bring them. That's gonna

(32:29):
be a big shot.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
So you say that these these insurance companies have to
get their rates locked in by April and May of
this year for next year. But yet they're going to
have to do this based on no certainty is to
whether what the subseas will be.

Speaker 6 (32:46):
Hmm, it's a tough it's a tough situation. I believe
that I believe that everyone is operating under this under
the assumption right now that those subsidies that were expanded
under COVID will not will not be extended it. So
you know, we'll never know.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
But does that mean the insurance companies look to try
to lower their premiums in order to keep more of
that business or we will How would they approach this?

Speaker 6 (33:15):
I'm I think that's to be determined. We don't. We
don't know. So that's that's that's a great point, because
a lot of business could get lost with the premiums.
Picker shocked that a lot of people are going to
have in November for sure.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Well, no, no, certainly yet.

Speaker 7 (33:34):
No.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
May maybe they do, you know, get extended, but my
guess is they probably won't, but we'll we'll find out
when we find out. All right meantime, Okay, so you're
under sixty five and you need some help in the
open marketplace, or you're getting ready to turn sixty five
and you need some help with with with medicare sort of.
These are all things you can do on your own,
but chances are you won't find the best deals. This

(33:55):
guy can help you do it. Jeff how to folks
reach you at health Markets.

Speaker 6 (33:58):
My friend, Yes, free to the consumer, So ye come
see me. My office is right in the flight Deck
shopping center in Lexington, outside the front door of the
flight Deck Restaurant. My phone number eight zero three six
seven eight eight one two one.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Jeff, thank you so much, and have yourself a great weekend, buddy,
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (34:18):
Gary.

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(35:16):
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Speaker 1 (36:34):
Welcome back to the Health and Wellness Show on one
O three point five FM at five sixty am WVOC
and welcome in John Farley and Matthew Terry from Preservation Specialists. Gentlemen,
Good morning.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Porny Gary, Hey, good morning.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Good to see you both as always. Yeah, March first.

Speaker 7 (36:50):
Wow, can't believe it, big snuck up on us, right man.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Wow, we're already sixth the way through the year.

Speaker 4 (36:59):
Wow. Think about that. Yeah, this that this, uh this,
I saw this thing the other day. This one was
like you know this year, I I always forgot that
January was you know, eight months long in February is
two days right, So.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Well, uh, I mean, what's what's what's your take on
the year? Here? We've got a new administration in DC,
we got doge cuts, we got you know, uh, all
sorts of things means so much good. It's hard to
keep keep your mind wrapped around all of them, you know.
And that leads to, uh, you know one thing usually,
and that is what we're going to talk about today, right,
Uncertainty you get, you get you get in that sense

(37:37):
from the from the folks y'all talk to, is there uncertainty?
Is there uneasiness or qualms or their fears or their
hopes and aspirations?

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Yeah, I think I think that you know they're there.
Uncertainty would be a good way to cover it.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Gary.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
So that the issue is in in times of uncertainty,
what is the best strategy? And and really when you're
talking about that, the best strategy for uncertainty is that
the reality is when you go forward, there's uncertainty all
the time. There are very varied amounts of that, right,

(38:11):
So the best way to handle that is to diversify
and diversify into a lot of different things in terms
of when you you know your investment strategy and and
so that's really a good approach. Now, you know a
lot of people when they talk about diversification. They say, well,
I'm going to do a certain amount of diversification into
public stocks and bonds and so. And there have been

(38:35):
several analyzes that have been done, for example, on bonds,
and you know the in the last twenty years, twenty
five years, the annualized return, so that you know yearly
return on bonds when you factor in fees, you know
it's coming out a little less than two percent.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Okay, I can get better down on a CD, can I.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
Yes, yes, yeah, one hundred percent, yes, yes, Now it's
hard to access a CD in your four O one
k right, right, but absolutely right. I mean, if you're
gonna so remember a CD is an FDIC insured vehicle
that that's guaranteed, right, And a bond is a non
collateralized loan mostly, I mean some of them have some collateral,

(39:18):
but most of the time when you're talking about a bond,
say you know some big company call it you know
whatever for it or own depot or x on or whatever. Uh,
those guys say they need they need money. So they
go to Wall Street and they say, here, this is
what we're gonna do. We're gonna take some of your
money and we're gonna pay you an interest rate along
the way, and then we'll give you all your money
back after twenty years something like that. But there's no
collateral backing that up.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
And you could buy a preferred bond, but that still
doesn't mean, Yeah, you're hiring live than somebody else to
get the money back of his any money to.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Get back, right, yes, yes, yeah, so so you know,
like the the common you know, the common uh one
common story that people look at is what happened when
General Motors declared bankruptcy in two thousand and nine. Right
at that time. The people, now, you know, there's there
are some ways to do the math, but generally speaking,
this is kind of an accepted range that the people

(40:10):
who owned the stocks got about three percent of their
original investment on average. The people who own the bonds
got about twenty percent of their original investment. But the
people who had given them the collateralized loans, which is
which is at the top of the stack, they got
one hundred percent of their money back. So yeah, now
they were not Now, if you're a collateralized loan person,

(40:30):
you're not going to get the returns that you can
get in stocks, right, you know, you're not going to
get the growth, but you're not taking the risk. And
that's that's the whole thing. So the idea of diversification,
it's it's diversify in as many places as you can.
And one of the things that you can do is
if if you are a person who there are a

(40:51):
couple of ways that you can move your money out
of a four oh one K into your own individual
retirement account and access these other investments. For example, if
you what's called if you terminate employment with somebody, so
if you if you move from job to job, now
you're free to take that money and put it into
your own individual retirement account. If you're north of fifty

(41:12):
nine and a half, then you can take in most
cases all are a very large portion of it and
put it into an individual retirement account. This gives you
now all many more options as opposed to just straight
up what's available in most four on one cases, which
is some form of stocks and bonds, and they have
some what are called real estate investment trusts once in
a while that they're you know, yeah, in those things.

(41:34):
But by getting the money into your own individual retirement account,
then you have much more control to get into a
lot of vehicles, including a CD, right, you know, CD.
If you're guaranteeing yourself, you know, four percent right now
for the time that things are uncertain, that's not bad, not.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
Bad at all. And this again, Matthew, that's one of
the things we talk about a lot, is that our
most investors view, and unless I mean your serious hardcore
you know, study this stuff, you know and live it
every day, our definition of diversification is nowhere near broad enough.

Speaker 7 (42:13):
No, no, it's not. You know, many people, as John mentioned,
they believe that they're diversified whenever they divvy up their
money and a couple of different funds within their four
to one K. But the reality is is that you
are fishing in the public market pond. Right if the
public market goes down, it doesn't matter how much diversification

(42:34):
that you have. Those investments too, because they're part of
the public market are going to go down. To What
John is speaking to is that we're just looking to
give you access to a completely different pond. That way
that if the public market goes down we see a
pullback potentially that this private market pond, hopefully it's going

(42:56):
to react differently. And that's what history has told us.
That's what the statistic I've told us, And that's just
the added value of diversification within a time period where
there's a lot of uncertainty out there. You know, we
all watch the news. We know that there's a new headline.
It appears every single day about some new proposal or
some new change, and it has a lot of people

(43:17):
on edge. And the reality is, we have new crystal ball.
We don't know what's going to happen next week, three
months from now, nine months from now.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Or tomorrow for that matter.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Amen.

Speaker 7 (43:29):
But the reality is what it all boils down to
is that as you're continuing to get closer and closer
to retirement or either you're already in retirement, you need
to have a game plan and you need to make
sure that you feel confident on the path that you're
heading down, and if there is some type of downturn,
if there's some type of negative event, that you're prepared

(43:49):
for that. Okay, we don't want you to say I
was just about to put in my notice at work
that I was going to retire, but all of a sudden,
the market pulled back, and now I think I need
to work another two years, Right, come work with us.
We're going to develop you a plan to make sure
that that doesn't happen. Right, That's our job. Our job
is to plan for all these different scenarios to give
you and bring you peace of mind as you're continuing

(44:11):
to walk towards that future retirement day and time.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
So, John, we talk about public markets and private markets
and the risk and the risk of the private markets too.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
Right definitely is yeah. I mean, I mean there's there's
there are upsides and downside you and the rules are
a little bit different, right, you know, in terms of
for example, I mean one of the things about the
private markets is is liquidity. Right in the public markets,
you can sell anything that you own and get the
money that day or the next day, you know, maybe

(44:40):
two days whatever. In the private markets, depending on what
you're in. Sometimes you're in for you know, you put
in your order to sell and you don't get your
money for funds. Oh okay, yeah, Yeah, it's a whole
different it's a whole different animal. But you know, there
are trade offs, so you wouldn't want to put all
of your money in any one thing, right, But typically

(45:01):
speaking like in fact, we just had a little thing
at our office last night where we had a you know,
a lot of our clients came and we were talking
about a lot of these things. And you know, there
are around a million private companies that are investable or
we can invest in in the United States. There are

(45:21):
around six or seven thousand public companies you can invest
in the United States invest in. There's a ginormous difference.
And we're not talking about just small companies in you know, remember,
a private company has the same needs as a public company.
They need cash, they need you know, they need stuff
to grow, they need you know. But think about let
me give you you know, eighty seven percent of the

(45:45):
companies in the United States that have at least one
hundred million in revenue are private.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Really yeah wow, think.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
About Public's new Balanced, Staples, Dunkin Donuts, SpaceX. You can
get down the list, right, Yeah, you know, there's a
there are a lot of target Uh, there are a
lot of no targets public. Sorry, uh, I'm I had
a list of them, and I'm mixing up the list.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
But but I mean those are names that we would
most of those think are publicly trading companies.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Look a look at something like Dell. Dell was you know,
every time you turn around, Dell is going public. No,
now we're private. We're public now, right, you know? So so,
but there are a lot of private companies and and
the advantage of a private company, now there are disadvantages.
But the advantage of a private company is now you
can't you can't get to it on a stock market,
so you have to go through certain channels. But the

(46:37):
advantage of a private company is the managers, generally speaking,
are not marching to the mantra of quarterly returns that
Wall Street demands, so they can step back and say, hey,
you know what, we want to do a longer strategy
that is better off for a longer term growth strategy.
And and most of the time that that is an
advantage to being a private company. But there are disadvantages, right,

(47:00):
But I will say this, over the five, ten, twenty
five and so on, at every interval, the returns from
the private companies have outpaced the public markets.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Interesting. So, Matthew, you know it's just an individual investor.
How do you find these companies? How do you go
about investing in them?

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (47:23):
Absolutely, great question. So, as John mentioned, you can't access
these sorts of investments through your traditional four one K
or retirement plan that is offered through your employer. The
only way to access those is through us at our office.
In most cases, you have to move that money out
of your retirement plan or four one K, and once
it's in that IRA account, we can give you access

(47:46):
to these private investments. Within the private world. You can
access a number of different sectors. I know we've talked
about that. What those different sectors are, you know in
previous talks, but you know that can be things that
are in the private real estate world. It could be
things that are private stocks. It can be private loans
kind of like private bonds for example. So we open

(48:09):
up this access to a lot of new places that
you otherwise couldn't tap into. The tremendous benefit of going
into the private world is just as John mentioned is
historically speaking, it gives you higher returns. And part of
the reason for that is that if there's a downturn

(48:30):
in the market, you really win by not losing these
Based off the statistics, these specific companies, these specific funds,
these specific investments within the private world, they typically just
do not go down as much as a public market.
They are just not quite as volatile, and that's why
we have so much conviction for this. And when I

(48:52):
say volatility, I mean up and down movement. Right, you
are in retirement, the last thing that you can stomach
is a huge drop. Right if you think about whenever
you are working and during your working years, we were
all told to put your blinders on, put as much
money as you can afford into your retirement plan and

(49:12):
just keep going. Don't worry about what really the market does.
Don't really worry about the performance. If the market goes down,
that's okay, just think about it. You're buying on sale
at this moment in time. But as you get closer
to that retirement date, it becomes more and more important
to really evaluate how is your money invested, and you

(49:33):
need to really be focused on the biggest piece is
not always about how much money you're making, but if
a downturn was to come, how much would your money
actually decrease? And you can't stomach a fifty percent drop
if you're looking to retire next year or three years
from now or five years from now, because that's certainly
going to change the outlook and the projections on your
overall retirement and what that means.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
So John, I can't just like to pick up the
phone and call to Elon Musk until I want to
invest in space ax.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
In other words, now you can't. That's the ise you
like that. It's it's really interesting these these the private
it's they they often refer to these things is some
sort of private equity. It's you know, it's private stocks.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Right.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
There's there's a whole secondary world of people who trade
in that who are fund managers on things like you know,
endowment funds or there are these other fund managers who
work for there's a term called family offices, uh that
that that refers to people who have very deep pockets.
You know, it's it's their family office.

Speaker 7 (50:29):
Right.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
So there are you know, but there are people, there
are these secondary uh, there are these these secondary markets
that that we call them that that we as as
there's no central clearing house for us to go and trade,
like like the stock exchange, so you have to go
through these people. And there are there are you know,
that's a huge, a huge market of that that just

(50:52):
when you're dealing in your four to one K and
we don't know anything about it. It was it was like
so a couple of years ago, longer story. But I
was paperboy growing up, so I was not a dog fan. Okay.
So when we moved, when we moved to South Carolina
many years ago, my daughter in particular, my kids, but
my daughter in particular, she negotiated a dog into the move.
They negotiated a dog in a pool, which okay for Yeah.

(51:14):
So so I you know, it took me probably about
two or three months and then I was all in,
I love the dog. I am now the dog guy.
I love dogs. Okay, but but I mean, you know,
having been bitten, we don't have papers anything. Yeah, they
liked me, but anyway, but the issue was is so
then you know, I go to the store and I'm like, wow,

(51:34):
there's a dog aisle, there's a pet isle, there's a
you know, I didn't know that it existed, right, it
was out of my out of my normal world. But
it's a billion, billion, billion dollar industry in the US alone. Right,
So there are there are things that maybe we're not
familiar with, but when you open when when they when
you get exposed to them, like oh wow, there's a

(51:54):
lot here. So that that's that's like the private markets.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Yeah, so point of today's lesson is this in times
of uncertainty? And I said, we always have times of
uncertain Yes, sometimes it's a little more incerted than others. Yes, Uh, diversify,
but expand your your knowledge, expand your universe when it
comes to diversifying, because yeah, a lot of different things
out you may not know about.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
Right, and that and that is that is the thing
that that can give you peace of mind. Because if
you look historically at at really these big diversified I mean,
you know some people follow like this guy Ray Dalio
who did this All Weather fund. Right, you look at
that fund. There are things in all these places, right,
and and it does a nice relative to the stock market.
It's a much smoother ride. So these are the kinds

(52:37):
of things that we're talking about. Yeah, and so if
you can look at that and say, okay, I'm I'm
diversified truly, and what we're going for is is peace
of mind. We're going for. Hey, this is this is
good for you.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Preservation specialist Matthew head to host, get a hold of
you and John and the folks over there and uh
and get on the road to peace of mind.

Speaker 7 (52:58):
Amen. Yet, please give us a call at atoh three
non retire. That's atoh three non retire.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
All right, you'll have a great weekend.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
Thanks Garry, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
The lawyers and staff at the Law Office of James
Snell are there to help those with injuries and workers'
compensation claims, car accidents on the job and other accidents
resulting in injuries. They want to help everyone resolve their
claim as quickly as possible, but they'll never recommend you
accept a settlement that's unfairly low. The Law Office of
James Snell recognized by AVA with a ten and an

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eight plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. There's no
cost to speak to them. Insurance companies make their money
by denying and minimizing otherwise valid claims. The Law Office
of James Snell can help. They're not looking to try
to take every small mishap, but focus on real injuries
that deserve to be taken seriously. The Law Office of
James Snell. I'm Jim Snell. Contact me at Snell Law

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dot com. That's three l's spell law dot com. The
Law Office of James Snell since two thousand and four,
with the office is in Lexington and Columbia