Health and Wellness Show 07-12-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:31):
And we turn our attention now to your health and
your wellness. It is the Health and Wellness Show on
one of three point five FM and five sixty AMWVS.
Just joining us. My name is Gary David and coming
up we're talking about your health insurance needs and coverages,
Medicare and more with Jeff Howell. He is at Health
Markets over in Lexington. He'll be by. We'll talk to
John Farley, Matthew Terry at preservation Specialist as well. Preserving

(00:55):
what you've sacrificed and built up over the years. Now
you deserve to enjoy it, right, How can you do that?
We'll talk about it. But we got things underway this
morning with Jim Snell from the law office of James Snell.
Good morning, my friend. Now, let me turn your microphone
on and we'll be okay, try that again, all right,
I hear well, Good morning there you are. Good morning
to you man. Sorry to being a dish like that.

(01:15):
Oh we got all our ducks in a row. Now
we're not saying kind of well, I guess that makes sense.
Ducks in a row. Damages we want to talk about. So, yes,
damage it, Yes, you do, personal injury, you do lots
of different types of law. But damages. We're talking personal
injury law.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, we're talking personal jury law and damages you don't
want them, but if if you're gonna have a case,
you got to have them. Yeah, otherwise no, I bother
otherwise right. So so so one of the and I'm
gonna get a little you know, kind of uh law

(01:51):
school uh this morning. So that the the body of
law for areas of injury law, right, certainly things like
car accidents and slipping falls, and you know, even medical
negligence like medical malpractice. Right, it is called negligence, Okay.

(02:15):
And in order to have a case, you have to
have four things. You have to have a duty of care,
a breach of the duty. That breach has to cause, right,
or have a connection to damages. And start talking this
morning about about number four, which is damages. Right.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
And then and number one you said that duty of cause,
and cause could be you don't run into something, doesn't
run into your car.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Duty of care. Yeah, yeah, duty care like if you're
if you're if you're driving, you know, a driver on
the road owes a duty to other motorists to operate
that vehicle with due care. Right, And and I just
just take to take taking a step back. You know,
if if you don't owe someone a duty, you have

(03:07):
no obligation. Two, you know, you can't breach a duty
that you don't owe. So for example, like in just hypothetically,
if you are, you know, driving on the road and
you see a bridge and somebody is falling off and

(03:29):
it's looks like they might be drowning, right, you don't
know who they are, they're not you have no connection
or affiliation with them, right, I mean, you're not legally
required to jump off a bridge and try to save somebody.
I mean right, you know you don't.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well you drive by an accent on the side of
the road, You're not obligated, right, if you have no
involvem in the situation, you know there's no And so
I guess what I'm getting at is there's now.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now, if you were a camp counselor and you're you're
working at a camp and it's a camper is having
trouble right swimming, you absolutely have a due you to
go out there and save the kid, right and help out. Okay,
But but so you have to studio care a breach
causing and we'll talk number four damages. You gotta have
damages to have a case. There are certainly situations, you know,

(04:18):
you know, I hate to see it every day, but
everybody's had the experience with a close call. Like like
earlier this week, I was driving and had somebody tried
to merge and just come right over in my lane
on me what South Carolina, And uh, you know, of
course I hit the brake so hard, I smelled brake pad,
laid on the horn, and I think they came. I mean,

(04:40):
I wouldn't surprise me if they got six inches from
me before they kind of jerked it over. Close call,
if they'd hit me, uh definitely would have had you know,
some body shop bill to fix the vehicle. And and
you know, I know from watching you know, just accidents
and and watching car wrecks on YouTube, you know, you

(05:03):
get you get, you get bumped. Going about fifty miles
an hour, it can it can throw a car off
balance where they start shimming and shaking and they can't
even just roll over right. I mean, so you know,
who knows what could happen, right, but nothing did. And
so obviously this other driver had a duty to watch
out where they're going. They breached the duty by merging

(05:27):
without checking and make sure real safe, but that those
two acts did not cause any damage just because nothing happened.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Right right now, you would have some people who might
try to make it act well, yeah, this person didn't
hit me, but they shook me up so bad that
you know, I've got emotional distress here. That's a damage.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
It no, it no, it is. And and in situations
like car accidents, there are not are you know, car mishaps,
they're they're there really aren't circumstances that present where people
could get a monetary settlement because they almost got hit
by a car. Now, there are situations where, you know,
a close call could result in a case in that regard,

(06:15):
and the emotional damages would be the damages. Right. Say,
for example, somebody, you know, you've got a very rich,
wealthy neighbor who has a who likes to drink and
uh target shoot and uh you know, you go out
there and you know, why are you shooting at five
in the morning, and they take a shot at you, right,

(06:37):
and you hear that bullet you know, just you know,
whistle past your head. Right. That's a close call, right,
you didn't get hit, see you'd say, we are the damages, Well,
you could you could have emotional distress after that, right, yeah,
And so you know they could have they could have
attempt to murder charge. Uh, they could definitely have an attempt
to murder charge you. You'd have all kinds of stuff.

(06:58):
So so there would be situations maybe we're a close call,
but it would really have to be some kind of
extreme situation. And and and damages, you know, it's and
they've got to have a connection. It's it's got to
be reasonable that the damages would connect to whatever the

(07:20):
person did or didn't do. That they should have that
cause the incident. You know, there has to be the
damages have to be reasonably foreseeable, right, And and in
things like car recks, it's pretty straightforward. You know, you hits,
you know, some make somebody runs or redlite hits a car,

(07:41):
causes property damage. You know, somebody has medical bills and
lost wages. It's all, you know, pretty straightforward. And but
there there, you know, there can be you know, you
just kind of make up hypotheticals where somebody does something
and just something so unexpected, so you know, a typical

(08:06):
you know, it could be difficult to hold somebody responsible.
I think there was a there was a law school
case where it was a a train who was unloading
luggage and the and the and the the conductor whoever
it is, is taking the bags and throwing them right right,
and one of the bags was full of explosives, okay,

(08:28):
and it it blew and then way on the other
side of the station there was a scaffold was somebody
working and the vibrations expulsion caused the scaffold to fall
and somebody got hurt. And it's kind of like, is
the train responsible for the scaffold falling? Because you know that, Yeah,
they were mishandling luggage, but is do you expect it

(08:49):
to explode and then cause a one hundred feet away
or two hundred whatever some distance way? Do you expect
that to cause a fall? Anyway? All right? Was the
right answer to that question, by the way, Uh, well,
that that's that was the case they used to. Yeah,
the kind of the foreseeability that you kind of connected.
So in things like car rex right, damages that could

(09:12):
reasonably like be foreseen are things like obviously the the
car repair bills, body shot bills, rental car expenses, uh,
lost wages where people are unable to go to work
for you know.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well and lost wages even if well no, because you
have a rental car, So lost wages will only apply
if they're injured, right or yes. I mean I was
gonna say, okay, you have a car, you couldn't get
to work, but now.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean you could. I mean, write circumstances. I'm not
afraid to you know, would be afraid to ask a
you know, I'm half a client. You know, if somebody
missed a half day right after wreck to get you know,
get things sorted out. But then you have all the
medical bills. You then have pain and suffering, which is

(10:02):
you know, not a economic loss so to speak, but
it's it's an absolute measured damages. And then if somebody
has any kind of permanent impairment right like they they
broke their their shoulder and the shoulders never quite as
good as it was. And then obviously any kind of
scarring or disfigurement.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know, So you have two types of damages that
we hear about lawsuits, and I don't know if they's
apply to what we're talking about here or not, but
you get damages like it's real damages and you get
what punitive damages?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yes, okay, penis yep. So punitives are damages which a
court could award going above and beyond the actual loss
suffered by, say, the injured party. And the purpose of
punitives is to punish the wrongdoer and to deter others

(10:53):
from similar misconduct.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
So, and you hear others a lot in case involving
big corporations and such deep pockets. I guess right.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
But let's say you know, you and I are out
on the road. You know I'm okay, I'm not paying
attention whatever. You know, I'm that I'm that person that
came within six inch of you, but I hit you.
Your car's damaged, you know you're injured. You Am I
liable for punitive damages? Or does it have to be

(11:25):
something really egregious where somebody really almost went out of
their way to cause something, as opposed to just yeah,
it was a momentary thing that someone's in my eyes,
I've you know, merged over and hit you.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Uh So it's got to be egregious. And the actual
legal term you'll hear for egregious is reckless.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Okay, So you.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Have situation you know you know, look, just somebody's just
not paying attention, and it's just I'm gonna call it
just a regular accident.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
But we've we've all done before. You just you're looking
at red of your mirror one time, then you merge
over next thing. You know, somebody's talking to hornet and
and that's that that would be just obohol. Just negligent, right,
that's just negligence, you know, just careless, you know, little
momentary lapse.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
It happens, and you're but but if I'm on my
phone texting, yes, right, if you're on your phone texting,
or if you are oh uh maybe uh driving impaired, right,
or you are let's just say you're not just speeding.
You know, you're not just doing sixty and a fifty five,

(12:26):
but you're doing ninety and a fifty five. Right, that's
reckless and and I'm going off memory, but that's a wilful, wanton,
total disregard for the rights of everyone else. Right, And
you get pedit in that, and then or you could
ask for them, right, And then you also can get

(12:47):
punatives if the claim is based on intentional conduct, like
like like the shooting example, right, like if somebody doesn't
do it accidentally, but they intentionally, you know, maybe they
trespass on your land or they you know, intentionally hit you. Right,

(13:08):
then punitives apply in that situation. And what one little,
one little interesting thing I'll say about penitives in that
context is in situations where there's say, an intentional trespass
to land and somebody, can you follow awsuit against somebody
for trespassing, Well, just because somebody, you know, maybe you know,

(13:31):
trespass on your land, or maybe some company was driving
their trucks back there and you told them not to
and they did it. Anyway, you may not have any damages,
right because somebody you know. And what the courts have
done is they say, well, in those situations, we're gonna
presume nominal damages and and because we're gonna give, we're

(13:52):
gonna assume there is at least some amount of damages.
Then we're gonna be allowed to consider penatives, because that's
the normal rule. You got to have some damages to
have a case in order to get the court and
then to look into whether or not they'll a warder
considered punitives.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
And you hear oftentimes with these especially big corporations, the
punitive damages are way way in excess of what just
the damages for the incidents.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
OLF topic for another conversation. We can talk about the
due process requirements that the punitives have some connection to
the amount of the damages where it can't be you
can't have a thousand dollars worth of damages and a
billion in punitives typically would be allowed. I want to
before we go and talk about how people can find me. Yes, please,
anybody wants to have something we can help them with

(14:36):
criminal or personal injury, give us a call at eight
zero three three five nine three three zero one. Our
visits online at snow Law dot com three yls snow
law dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
All right, you're always good to see you, my friend.
Thank you have yourself a great weekend. Buddy. Hi, this
is John Farling.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Now let me ask you.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Is your retirement inflation proved?

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Here's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
In retirement chances are you run a fixed income with
variable expenses. So how do you not run out of
money when the cost of just about everything continues to
go up?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
You inflation proof it.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Our team at Preservation Specialists can show you strategies to
help combat inflation so it doesn't outpace your retirement income.
Call us today at ATO three nine retire to learn more.
Inflation could take a huge chunk out of your retirement savings,
but it doesn't have to. With some simple planning, inflation
can go from being a major disruption to just a

(15:29):
minor annoyance. Call the team at ATO three nine. Retire
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through any ownership.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
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and Lexington, finding that perfect plan is easier than ever,
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(16:09):
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Speaker 5 (16:29):
Covered literally from head to toe.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
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one two one or Jeff howl dot com and let
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Speaker 1 (16:59):
We're back on Health and Wellness Show and thanks for
joining us this morning on one of three point five
FM and five sixty AM w VOC. I'm Gary David.
If you're just joining us, thanks so much. If you
missed the other partner show up until this point, you
can always catch out on the iHeartRadio app just look
for the Health and well and Show w VOC. All
right in now it's the guys from preservation specialist Matthew Terry,

(17:22):
John Farley, Gary Gentleman. Good morning, John just mentioning to
me during the break that putting on his his meteror
I'll just hat there. Today is the first full day
of summer.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Right, yeah, summer started yesterday.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Yeah yeah, so this is it first full day, okay,
and it's.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
All downhill from here.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
The day we've hit our peak. Everything is downhill from here. Boy, Yeah,
I hit that peak twenty years ago. I'm trying that.
We have talked this year on the program on New
Occasions about about volatility, about uncertainty and the economic picture.

(18:06):
We all know the word inflation. We dealt with that
for a number of years.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Now.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
It seems it seems at least the report, the most
recent I guess reports have shown inflation to slow. It
seems like the grocery store prices may maybe thanks to
eggs that have come down so much. So inflation we
know all about. But there's this other word that creeps
into the conversation from time to time, and it is
creeping in right now, and that is stagflation. So let's

(18:37):
talk about, guys, stagflation, what it is and what it
means only to the economy, but to to well what
you guys specialize in retirement savings.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
Yeah, so, so stackflation that certainly, I would say, something
that is concerning for the overall US economy if that
is to happen. And simply what stackflation is is a
period where we see little growth in the US economy,
but yet we continue to see inflation stay up, so

(19:08):
that just means simply things around us will continue to
cost more and more. But really, you know, I would
say the growth of the economy or the growth of
potentially investments, it's not going to be quite as much
as it had been in the past, historically speaking. So
it's certainly something that is concerning. And whenever it comes

(19:28):
to people in retirement, if you think about it, mostly
you know, I'm gonna say retirees is who it affects
the most. You know, you're more so on a what
I'm gonna call a fixed income stream in the sense
that you have Social Security coming in just because we're
in a period of inflation or stackflation, doesn't matter whatever
your Social Security says, they're going to pay you. Well,

(19:50):
that's going to be consistent whenever it comes to your pension.
If you're blessed to have one of those, again, that
is going to kind of be a fixed income stream
that coming to you every single month. So if things
are continuing to go up around you, and maybe some
of the money that you have invested are not growing
quite as much as you would like that are in

(20:11):
the stock market or the public bond market. What are
other things that you should be thinking about? What are
other areas that you should be planning for. And that's
where we like to sit down with our clients and
truly just educate them to say.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well, what are your options.

Speaker 6 (20:26):
So the first thing I'll mention is in a period
of potential stackflation, you want to be thoughtful about your
investment approach and your investment allocation. So, for example, if
things are continuing to cost more around us, well, you
also want to be in types of investments that have

(20:48):
historically performed very well in kind of inflationary periods. So
one of the prime examples would be real estate. Real
estate has proven and has the track record of state.
As things go continue to cost more and more around us,
typically your uh physical asset is going to also appreciate

(21:08):
too to to kind of keep pace with that. So
that is certainly one way that we are helping our
clients plan for a potential uh you know, what is
to come. That's certainly that crystal ball is a little
bit foggy at the moment, but we're we're we're certainly
doing our best to plan for that. Another thing and
another strategy that we certainly want to be having with

(21:29):
our clients, is that you want to be mindful about
your withdrawal approach that you're taking from retirement. So as
you're making withdrawals to live that dream retirement scenario, you
just want to make sure that you're not taking out
too much that it's going to be a detriment to
your overall situation. Let's rewind the clock and and and
put your put yourself in a retiree shoe. Maybe in

(21:51):
nineteen ninety nine, everything is going along just fine, right,
I mean, the stock market is booming, everything is going
really really well. Within two thousand hit right, And if
you're a tiree in two thousand and there's a big
downturn and you you see a drastic decrease in your
nest egg, well you should have adapted and changed your

(22:12):
withdrawal strategy, right, You certainly don't want to.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Uh, it's like you lost a job, absolutely got your
hours cut back, your way, just cut back whatever.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Yeah, you're you're you're absolutely right, and you want to
be mindful about that. So yeah, so these are just
some of the few examples I'll give you this morning
to say that's kind of how we're planning for and
talking about stackflation with our clients.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Sag plan for those who are still in the working world.
Stagflation has not only the higher prices, but also we
see job opportunities decline, right and that And let me
ask you this too, because it's the other one of
the other words. It floats about recession. And we've been
hearing that now for a couple of years now. There's
that rule of thumb about what is it three consecutive

(22:52):
quarters of down GDP growth or whatever. But last time
that happened, they didn't call a recession. But it's a
weird thing, and that john that there's not like some
weird committee of a couple of economists out there somewhere
floating around who who who make the call as to
whether or it was a recession. Yeah, kind of appens
like that, an instant replay, you know, let's go to
the booth. Yeah, And sometimes it's years later and say, oh, yeah,

(23:13):
you remember back when, yeah, we were in a recession.
Then oh yeah. So I mean, you keep hearing that
recession thing, but does it really mean anything to us.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
In real life? That's an excellent question. And I think
that the I think the big point is yes, because
I remember, uh, you know, we we have a chance
to listen to different economists and they they do different
spins on that. And yes, sometimes things are really obvious
like two thousand and eight right that you know, you didn't.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
We felt that one.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, But other times it's a lot more subtle, as
you say, and then and and you have these people
who look at the data, and they look at the
data as things are going along, and then they look
after the fact and they say, oh, yeah, this happened.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
So so I think in all of this, I think
going back to Matthew's point is is it's important that
you have peace of mind for yourself and you know,
for where you are in terms of you know, when
you're talking about retirement stuff. Ray dallyio may maybe no, okay,
he does this thing with this all Weather fund, you know,
and and his approach, and we very much agree with this,

(24:13):
which is he's in a million different things.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Maybe not a million, but you.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Know what I mean, he's in all these different categories
because what he's trying to do is he's trying to
set up a strategy so that no matter what what's
out there, you're good you're okay, you're in. And in
the case of our you know who we work with, retirees,
you're good to go because you have dividends coming from
rent in certain real estate or you have you know,

(24:38):
and again it's not necessarily that you own that real
estate exclusively and you're managing it, you know, not like
you have a rental house. I'm talking about like investment
property sort of stuff. So you know, that's one example.
You have things that are involved in funds where you're
collecting loan payments from people who are for whom you

(24:58):
have collateralized loans. Again, you're not issuing those loans. You're
just participating in these things, you know. So you have, yes,
you do have some stuff in the stock market, but
you also have things in dividend producing stocks and you know,
so you're you're you're diversified as opposed to just you know,
just stocks or just bonds, and and you're diversified across

(25:20):
the board such that really this the impact of a recession,
should it come, should it not, whatever, you may not
notice it, or if you do, you don't notice it
as much.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
And you mentioned bonds. Both of you mentioned bonds, and
for a lot of people that are just in the markets,
they feel and especially if they're in retirement, they feel like, Okay,
that's a safe bet. You know, I'll get I'll get
a dividend. You know, I'm not worried about it. Yeah.
But but there's been a lot of a lot of
angst here recently about the bond markets. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, first of all, just just
a couple of things. If you look at the if
you look at the aggregate, you know, the total bond
market in the United States in the last twenty five
twenty four years, the annualized return you the average return
UH is three percent or less. And then if you
factor in somebody managing that for you, that's two percent
or less. That's not keeping up with inflation.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
You can get a better return on the CD right now, absolutely,
no question.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yeah, so that and that's not a bad option. I mean, like,
there are a lot of people we work with and
we say, hey, here's the thing. You're in retirement. If
you're getting four percent UH and that's outpacing inflation and
there is zero risk, that's not a bad place to
be for a certain allocation of what you need. Not
a problem with that at all. Now, there are other
investments that can give you higher dividends. But yeah, but

(26:33):
back to your bond thing. Yeah, and this goes to
this whole you know, Historically, what people have done is
that the when in times when things were a little bumpy,
h the world came to the US to buy US bonds,
US government bonds and and usually in the case like that,

(26:55):
things are very stable. But that you know, with the
recent downgrade of the US credit worthiness, yeah, that's changed
some things. So yeah, yeah, that that's that's got some
people rattled.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
So yeah, yeah, and we also have i mean, other
countries that are they're trying their best to to to
get us off the you know, the US currency is
the gold standard kind of thing, right, That's right, This
is a this is an ongoing thing here. I don't know, well,
I don't know what does that mean to our retirement
savings if if they're successful in replacing US as the
gold standard.

Speaker 6 (27:28):
You know, that is a that's a loaded question, Gary.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
We have enough time to cover all of that.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Do we have a philosopher in the house.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (27:38):
But but you know what, what what I would say, Gary,
is the beautiful thing about our office, and what we
do and the benefit that we're able to offer retirees
is that we're we're an independent firm and what that
means is we are able to adapt, and we are
able to shift, and we are able to go wherever
is the most advantageous place to be. Uh and whatever

(28:00):
you know, future market, we may enter again the the
the uncertainty, as the meteorologist may say that it's a
little bit cloudy at the moment. We don't we don't
exactly know what what the future holds. But the good
news is is that being that we are an independent
firm and we can offer any and all investments that
are out there, we're gonna bring whatever is best to
our clients as a true fiduciary. And that's just uh again,

(28:22):
one of the privileges of working with us.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Just curious guys. I mean, you've been at this for
a long time now, and you've been with preservation specialists
for a long time. I mean, have you have you
witnessed like major shifts and Okay, our strategy is going
from here to way over here. It doesn't really happen.
I guess that extremely but I guess maybe on a
you know, over time. How often does that that that

(28:46):
outlook have to at least shift some to where yeah,
things are warranting that okay, what we were doing, then
we need to do this now.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
I think it on a regular basis where we're we're
always looking at the situations, say what would be the
best And I would say there are But to your point,
you know, we're we're generally if if we're generally not
blowing up a strategy and then saying, you know, going
on to a different But but I would say we
are definitely you know, changing course on a regular basis,

(29:18):
you know a bit, you know, to say, Okay, we
want to wait a little more heavily in this area,
we want to get a little bit lighter in this area.
We definitely do that on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
That's about saying somebody of us making our four to
one case, we set it and forget it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Now, now if you if you're if you're twenty five, yeah,
you set it and forget it in aggressive growth stocks
and let it ride, you know. But but yeah, but
once you get to you know this this transition time
sometimes you know, five to ten years before you retire,
it certainly would be a time to start transitioning into
into different types of investments that that, and then you

(29:55):
also take the pulse of the person you say, okay, listen,
here's the thing, and I do this, you know, we
do all the time we said, is somebody, okay, here's
you're going to retire and let's call it three years
or five years. How is the twenty percent pullback going
to make you feel? How is the twenty percent?

Speaker 2 (30:10):
You know?

Speaker 3 (30:11):
So it's it's kind of like one of these things,
you know, pilots off and say I'd rather be on
the ground and looking up at the sky and wishing
I were flying than in a plane wishing.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I were on the ground, right, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (30:22):
So so, and it's the kind of thing and you
have to ask people, you say, okay, look at markets
are going to be up and down no matter what.
They will be up and down less and more in
certain times, and on and on. But the question is
there are other types of investments that we can get
you too that will be less up and down. Now,
you may forego some growth, okay, and growth is a

(30:42):
wonderful thing. But if you're shooting for growth all of
the time, and you can that has that has risks
with it too, so so yeah, so it and it
also it depends on the person. But generally speaking, yes,
you want to shift as you get closer.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
And my home run hitters often strike out. That's it, right,
that's right, yeah an defense. Yeah, up the gent you're
gonna actually whip it three yeah, instead of taking the
safe play.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Right, look at Schwarber this year.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
I mean, Kyle Schwarver is just I mean he's like
the guy is the guy's a home run machine, but
he's also a striker.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Even that's yeah, way, it always go right, Yeah, same
thing applies here. Yeah, And we got just about a
minute or so left. But I did want to go
back to something you mentioned collateralized loans, which brought by
attention Matthew. You guys offer and have a have a
have access to investments that if you're in the in
the public markets, you don't get to. And you talk
about some of these investments where yeah, you're investig in

(31:36):
companies and these are collateralized loans. I mean, if if
they go better, you're getting your money absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
And this is not something you can just get in
the public market, right, as opposed to a bond where
you know, almost all bonds are non collateralized loans. You know,
some company says, you know, whatever the name of the company,
they'll say, we will pay you back, but there's no
collateral to back that. So we like, we like the
collateralized loans stuff. Yeah, yeah, because there exactly what you said.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Preservation specialists in particular. Yeah, if you're it doesn't matter
what your age is, but boy, if you're within about
ten years of retirement either way, I think John, you've
said that that's the key area, right, you want to
sit down in a conversation. How could folks get a
hold of you guys.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, just give us a call.

Speaker 6 (32:17):
We'll be happy to sit down and chat at aight
oh three non retire that's aight oh three non retire guys.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Always good to see you, hey, Gary.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Likewise, Yeah, the hunt for quality insurance is more important
than ever, and with Jeff Howell and the team at
Health Markets in Lexington, finding that perfect plan is easier
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(32:46):
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their help is at no cost to you. They work
with nationally recognized insurance companies to give you the affordable insurance.
So whether you're self employed or in a small business,
an individual or seeking a family plan, they have you

(33:06):
covered literally from head to tone. Called Jeff Howell in
Health Markets at eight O three six seven eight eight
one two one, or visit Jeffhowell dot com that's eight
oh three six seven eight eight one two one, or
Jeff Howle dot com and let them find the right
insurance for you.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
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 AFA with a ten and an

(33:49):
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

(34:10):
dot com. That's three lsspell Law dot com. The Law
Office of James Snell since two thousand and four, with
offices in Lexington and Columbia.

Speaker 7 (34:20):
Good morning, this is Larry Harris with Classic Systems. I'm
a certified mold inspector. We can help you test the
air in your home ten minutes per sample, one sample inside,
one sample outside. If we do it in the morning,
we'll have the lab report that afternoon, and then we
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(34:41):
to clean the air in your home, particularly if you
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(35:02):
have any airborne issues in your home. This is Larry
Harris with Classic Systems eight three six two six two
seven four eight eight O three six two six two
seven four.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
Eight Welcome back in.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
It's the Health and Wellness Show on one of three
point five FM, five sixty AMWVOC and around the world
of the iHeart Radio app. And we appreciate you joining
us this morning. As always. Jeff Howell now joins us
from Health Marcus out in Lexington. Jeff, good morning, my friend.

Speaker 8 (35:46):
Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
How are you man?

Speaker 8 (35:49):
I am well, you sir, hope you are well.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You know I'm a year older now. I hit sixty
five earlier this week.

Speaker 8 (35:55):
Yes, that's exciting.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
My brother in law texted me and he said, happy
Medicare Day.

Speaker 8 (36:02):
That's right, every every day in my world Medicare days.
They're welcome to my world.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Exactly right now. You you that's you know, you handle
all sorts of health insurance needs for for folks that
may need to sign up on the Open marketplace, which
by the way, is something Yes, you can go to
the government website and do that, but you know I
wouldn't suggest it. Uh, you know, what I mean, because
well for for for knowing the reason, you know, get

(36:29):
the get the right information you need. And by the way,
how expensive is it to talk to you, Jeff?

Speaker 8 (36:35):
My services are free to the consumer. If they go
to Healthcare I Go and mess up is free. They
come to me and get it right is free.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
So yes, ain't like you're going to sell them something
they don't need. Right, You ain't gonna make nobody. You're
not judging anybody for this.

Speaker 8 (36:51):
No, Healthcare I Go is so complicated, it's and there's
there are many different companies on there, and many companies
on there have a tear of the network. And so
you pick a company you've really never heard of, that's
an out of state company. And you want to go
to a dermatologist, and you can go to one, but
you've got to go to North Charleston, you know, you
go to the dermatology, you know, but if you go

(37:13):
with if you sit down with me, I'll show you
the best options or for that particular clients clients, you know,
doctors that particular clients, prescriptions, you know, every every plan
that I sit down and talk to consumer about is
tailored to their specific needs. And Blue Cross Blushields South
Carolina is a fantastic company based here in Colombia and

(37:38):
you can never go wrong with them. And it's just
just which Blue Cross plan there. There's there's hundreds, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
And there's no one that's all right you still the
words right of my mouth. There is no one size
fizz all. I think it's a misconception. People think, well, hell,
the church is all the chance.

Speaker 8 (37:55):
Right right, I'm just going to get Obamacare, And Obamacare
is not even a health insurance policy, is just an
investable law. The health insurance policies with Lucross Blue Shield
and whether or not the federal government pays money towards
your health insurance policy is through you know, the Affordable
Care Act. And there's many different, many different things to

(38:16):
look at zip code, age, you know, income, et cetera
that we look at to see if the person gets
financial uh subsidy paid towards their health insurance to ease
the burden.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
But now once you hit my age, you know, the
rip p old age of sixty five, then it becomes
a different question.

Speaker 8 (38:34):
Yes, yeah, So three months before a person turns sixty five,
they need to contact Social Security, either through Social Security
SOI Security dot gov the website, or by calling one
eight hundred medicare, or by going to a local SOB
security office such as a strong Thurment building in Columbia,
or there's many actually smaller offices in the you know,

(38:58):
near the Inland Midlands.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Time listen carefully to this advice right here.

Speaker 8 (39:03):
Okay, yes, so you can go Strong thurm And Building Columbia.
You can also go to so scurity at Aigen and
get in and out a whole lot quicker, or so
just Clinton is another one. So you know a little
a little drive may actually save your time.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah, even factoring in the travel time, you're probably in
and out quicker than you are to go to Strong
Thurmon building. Been there, done that. I don't care if
I ever do again. Matter of fact, I will never
do again.

Speaker 8 (39:30):
Actually go first thing in the morning if you're going downtown.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
I tried that one time too. I didn't want to
go any anyway. So when you get there, then you
uh and again. Hopefully you've heard Jeff speak before or
you've spoken to Jeff in person. But there's some there's
some some some research you need to do before you
hit the age of sixty five because it's not just
the simplest thing. Okay, yeah, I'm signing up for Medicare.

(39:57):
There's a lot of options and a lot of decisions
that have to be made correct.

Speaker 8 (40:01):
So the first thing to know is do you even
need to get on full Medicare right now? So, for example,
if you are working, or you're on your spouse's group
health plan, and you or your spouse will continue working
past your age of sixty five, you may be able
to defer Part B and stay on the group health

(40:22):
plan you're on because it has credible coverage, credible health
and drug coverage. So essentially Medicare is Part A and B.
A is three if you've worked in this country ten
years or more, forty quarters. Part B for most people
one hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy cents a month,
or it could be more dependent upon your tap your income.

(40:44):
So you may be able to defer the part that
costs money, the one seventy four seventy, But you've got
to tell Social Security that it doesn't just happen automatically.
They just don't know that you're on a group health plan.
They're not that good, so you know, so for example,
let's say that you are a self employed carpenter, you're

(41:04):
turning sixty five, but your wife is a school teacher
in the Lexi one school district. If she's going to
continue working and you can just stay on her plan,
or or if she's working at you know, you name
it at a Michelan or dominion, so you know, if
you or your wife are will continue working and you're
on a good group health plan, you can just let

(41:27):
Medicare know that you're going to defer Part B. Then
one day, if your spouse or you stop working, you're
going to lose that group health insurance. Then about sixty
days before that retirement day, you would call Medicare back
or go see them in person and say, okay, my
group healthcare is ending, let's say June first or twenty

(41:47):
twenty seven, that's why I'm going to need my Part B.
And then once you have that A and B put
in place, then you would come see someone like me
and we get the insurance to go along with it.
But now there are many people who do not get
group health insurance on their own or through their spous
and they need to go ahead and get on Medicare
for a and B when they turn sixty five and

(42:10):
it's the first it's the first day of your birthday month.
So if your birthday is July twenty seventh, and your
Medicare is going to start, AABS going to start July first,
the first day of your birthday month. He turned sixty five, and.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
As you mentioned, you need to start working on this. Actually,
guess there's a there's a three month window either way though, right,
isn't there?

Speaker 8 (42:32):
I mean, if you if you right, So if your
birthday month is July, I will start. You want to
start working on April one. If your birthday month is December,
I started working on September one, So I usually you know,
three months before the first day of your birthday month
is the time to start getting in contact with Medicare.
Because eleven thousand people a day turn sixty five in

(42:54):
this company, really a thousand people a day, so Medicare
has a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
They're all line up of the Strong Thurman building right now.

Speaker 8 (43:04):
Exactly eleven thousand times thirty. You do the math, that's
how many people per month, you know, or during sixty
five on the month of your turn sixty five, so
three hundred and thirty thousand a month, right, So there's
a lot of people that for Medicare to handle.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
So all right, so you got your okay, I'm going
to have to have it. I got my party, I
got my part B. And then you find out, wait,
that's not the end of the story here.

Speaker 8 (43:31):
That's correct. And a lot of people I meet with
for a prize one that they've got to pay one
hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy ten for Medicare.
So they say, what are all those taxes have been
taken out my whole life from Medicare on my paycheck
because I was sixteen years old, right, right, So that's
a shot. Remember, the second shot comes they find out
that Medicare A and B only covers essentially eighty percent

(43:54):
of their healthcare costs, does not cover prescription drugs, does
not cover dental in hearing, and you're left with twenty
percent risk on what you would have to pay should
something happen to you. So you go in the hospital,
you get one hundred thousand dollars bill. You know you're
going to have at least twenty thousand of it's want

(44:14):
to probably be on you, if not more.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
So let's back up a second, because Part A covers
that hospital stay, but only up to eighty percent.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
Right, Essentially, essentially there's a deductible, a hospital deductible, and
then you would pay so much money per day, and
that's just for room and board, that's just for overnight's day.
Then the part B is everything else that happened to
the hospital, the surgery, the MRIs, the doctors coming in
and out, et cetera, et cetera. So essentially A and

(44:45):
B work together the two, but they work together to
essentially cover eighty percent of the medical with some extra
deductibles thrown on top of that. So people need insurance
to cover all those gaps, and a popular way to
cover that gap is through what's called a Medagap policy

(45:07):
or a Medicare supplement, it's another name for it. That
covers that twenty percent the Medicare does not cover. And
so there are many good options to go with with
medicap Medicare supplement coverage. And then that person would have
to buy a separate drug plan, a separate drug card,
because the Medicap insurance is not cover prescription. So since

(45:29):
you down three cards, your Medicare card, your Medicicap card
and your prescription.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
So this is this is getting complicated now, all right,
So what we know so far, Part A is free.
Part B. You gonna if you're the typical South killing,
you're gonna be a undred, say four dollars a month
for correct Then the metagap thing, I mean, what's that
going to set you back?

Speaker 8 (45:52):
So a Medicare supplement typically is going to run around
one hundred and twenty dollars a month these days there
are many different companies and we shop it for a person,
but what's just for easy math, which is called one
hundred and twenty dollars?

Speaker 1 (46:05):
Okay, so now it's about three hundred a month. And
that's before you get to part which.

Speaker 8 (46:10):
Is the party prescription drug card exactly. You know, right
now there's a card on the market, probably fifty cents
a month for a prescription drug, which is great for
a person may doesn't have a lot of brand prescriptions
some as it maybe eve just generics or not any prescriptions. However,
someone who's taken brand prescriptions, that fifty cent drug card

(46:33):
may not be a great fit. You may have to
look into a more expensive drug card that may costs
around the seventy five, you may have to one hundred
dollars a month for a drug card. So this very
depends on the person. We do expect in twenty twenty
five for drug card premiums to go up. I don't
think it's going to be fifty cents anymore. Next year.

(46:53):
I think they're all going to go up. It's just
every year is different, and so we will know when
October what the twenty twenty five drug cards look like.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Okay, so now I'm just doing the math in my
head here as we're talking. So now we're up to
somewhere are four hundred bucks a month probably for the
average person you could be. But they're alternatives to that.

Speaker 8 (47:14):
Too, right, that's true. So that's one way to do
your insurance. And of course, on this first way it's
called that option number one, we have being touched on
dental vision and hearing coverage. So if you wanted to
coverage for those things, that would be another other, another
insurance preum to call another sixty dollars a month on
top of that.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Okay, so.

Speaker 8 (47:36):
That's option one. Option two is what you see all
these commercials about called Medicare advantage, or what's called Part
CE and the Medicare advantage plans cover health insurance, prescription
drug dental, vision, hearing, all these services, all these services
all in one card. And most Medicare advantage plans have

(47:57):
a zero prem so you never out of paying your Medicare.
You have to pay that one hundred and seventy four
dollars and seventy cents for a Part B, that's non negotiable, right,
But the Medicare advantage plans do lessen the premium burden
with the zero premiums, You're not paying the money for
the medigap, the prescription drug card, the dental division, all

(48:18):
those extra premiums.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Does the advantage plans step in similar to what the
meta gap card does to cover that other twenty percent?

Speaker 8 (48:28):
No, okay, so there's always a given a take, right,
So there's no free lunch. The Medicare advantage plan, whereas
it either as your premium burden, it has more risk. So,
whereas your medagap plan mainly have a risk of a

(48:50):
chundred forty dollars deductible called a Part B deductible on
the health side, a Medicare advantage plan could have an
out of pocket ranging from five thousand dollars twelve thousand
dollars a year, depend upon what plan and whether you're
in or out of network. There are many different factors
and what your risk would be with that Medicare advantage plan.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Both sound like your risk is capped though.

Speaker 8 (49:10):
Right it is. It is so every Medicare advantage plan
does have a max amount of pocket which most people
are familiar with on the you know, if you have
a group health plan or an individual health plan. So
there is a ceiling to your risk with the Medicare
advantage plans. But for some people even that ceiling, that
risk that with the ceiling is just a little bit

(49:31):
too much risk, and they're talksible with so every persons different.
I will say that the trend over the last five
years has been more people turning sixty five or getting
on Medicare advantage plans choice two in our scenario than
the traditional choice one medigap plans. But you never know,

(49:55):
trends can go back, you know, they can go back
and forth. But that is the trend of late.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
And so to go back for a second. Now again,
if I'm on the traditional plans and I do have
the metagap card, then Let's say you're hospitalized and you
know everything else, you're talking aout lets, say five hundred
thousand dollars, which is not unusual, you know, make it
happen right that that metagap plan kicks in and covers

(50:27):
that gap. You know that twenty percent right from on advantage.
I don't have that luxury. However, still rather than you
know whatever, twenty percent of one hundred thousand dollars, right,
I'm not going to get if I'm on the advantage plan, max.

Speaker 8 (50:44):
You can out of pocket, that's right.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Twelve thousand. I'm not doing one hundred thousand. I'm doing
twelve thousand.

Speaker 8 (50:51):
That's correct. And that would be usually in an out
of network scenario. So let's say that you I don't know,
you had to travel to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston,
and the particular Medicare advantage plan you were on they
were out of network. Let's just say for example, then yes,
then you would hit your max amount of pocket at

(51:13):
twelve thousand, and then that would be it. So that's
why I'm always very very certain to always sell what's
called a PPO in the Medicare advantage field rather than HMO.
So that's a very important distinction. A PPO means that
you can go in or out of network and the

(51:35):
insurance company will cover it, or if you go in network,
you will get lower cost sharing lower out of pocket.
An HMO means that you have to go in network,
and if you go out of network, you essentially do
not have any coverage. That's a big distinction. Yeah, because
if let's say, if you're an HMO and MD Anderson

(51:57):
Cancer Center in Houston's not a network, then you would
have to pay that whole twenty percent. If you're in
a PPO, well, let's say that Lexa Medical Centers in
network and you're MAXI amount of pocket six thousand in network,
but you're max amount of pocket out of networks twelve, Well,
then you would have a choice, right, So, Okay, i
can stay here locally and I can cap it at six,

(52:19):
but maybe there's a specialty treatment and so I'll go
ahead and choose to go out of network and just
know I have higher risk, but at least has covered
you up to in twelve thousand be your worst case scenario.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Will you do a terrific job explaining this, Jeff, It's
still so pease you do a lot of folks. So
my suggestion is sit down face to face with this
guy right here, Jeff Hall, and talk about it. How
can folks reach you health Marcus, Jeff.

Speaker 8 (52:41):
Glad to help. So my office is right beside the
Flight Decker restaurant in Lexington. Health Market Insurance. My phone
number text or call is eight zero three six seven
eight eight one two one. That's eight zero three six
seven eight eighty one twenty one websites by name j E.
F F. Howl E.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
And remember Jeff will not send you a bill. He's free,
all right, Jeff, thanks buddy, having yourself a good weekend.

Speaker 8 (53:05):
Man, Thank you too, Gary Bet.

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 as settlement that's unfairly low. The Law Office of
James Snell recognized by AVA with a ten and an

(53:31):
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

(53:52):
dot com. That's three l's spell law dot com. The
Law Office of James Snell since two thousand and four
with off. This is in Lexington and Columbia.