Ep 196: Putting the Retirement Puzzle Together for the Best Real Life Solutions

Ep 196: Putting the Retirement Puzzle Together for the Best Real Life Solutions

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, and you know, unfortunately, what you see a lot
of times, and this is even you typically have one spouse,
whether it's transitioning to the next generation the wealth, or
whether it's a spouse, you typically have one spouse that
handles everything or that That is the way it is
in a lot of cases, and it becomes very difficult

(00:20):
if you go into retirement with that uh, that same
that same uh, the same process. I think it's very
important to have. You know, communication is essential. It is
the foundation of a relationship, I think, and really without
proper communication, it just creates between money and communication, you

(00:41):
can just throw it out the window in terms of
divorce and just uh scorched earth.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, I would say, and.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hey there, and welcome to Money and You. I'm Michelle Perkins,
your host. My search for more fulfilling work led me
to career in business coaching, where I stumbled upon on
a game changing discovery. Money issues often start with our
mindset and habits. You see, our relationship with money is
the key to overcoming those frustrating financial obstacles. As an entrepreneur,

(01:12):
coach and problem solver, I'm passionate about helping you create
a great relationship with money, because turns out that's the
foundation for a limit free life. Each week on Money
and You, I speak with amazing guests about all things money, mindset,
practical tips, and everything in between. We're here to give
you new insights, education, and empowerment. So money can be

(01:34):
one of your favorite relationships. So join us for some
lively conversations and let's transform your financial life together. Hello, Hello,
and welcome to another episode of the Money and You Show.
I'm Michelle Perkins, your host. Very happy that you're here
with us. I'm thrilled with how wonderful the guests have
been on their show, and I have another one today

(01:57):
for you, and so I'm gonna die. We've been talking
a lot about retirement, so whether you know, I guess,
whatever age you are, it applies. So don't run away
if you're not even close to retirement. But if you
are sort of getting there, this is especially important for you.
So today's guest is Jeffrey Panic. What if your retirement

(02:22):
plan actually fit your life and not just your spreadsheet.
Today's guest, Jeffrey Panic, is a twenty five year of
financial veteran financial advisor. It's also a US Army veteran
and the founder of Balance Wealth Partners, known for breaking
down complex topics into real life solutions. Jeff helps pre
retirees align their money with their values, goals, and family priorities.

(02:46):
If you're feeling overwhelmed by social security decisions, medicare puzzles,
or secession plans, Jeff's here to make it all make sense.
You walk away smarter and more confident about your future.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Jeff, welcome, Thanks for having Michelle.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, so happy to have you. Do you do you
like Jeff or Jeffrey better?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Jeff is probably better.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
The only person that ever called me Jeffrey was my
mother when she was upset with me.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
I know, like being confused with people's mothers except for
my kids. So, Okay, there's a lot here, a lot
to talk about, and I'm really pleased that you're here.
We've been having interesting you know, retirement. It sounds like
it could potentially be sort of adult topic, but it's
actually not at all. And I think a few of
our guests have talked about just well, and I talk

(03:36):
about it all the time, how much our world is changing,
and so this whole concept of retirement that we were
kind of holding on to some old school ideas about it,
and it's really transforming all the time into something very new.
So I really think it's an important conversation. As a
somewhat older person. I also think it's, you know, there's

(03:57):
so much to it. It's so interrelated with everything else
in our lives, and it's not it's not a simple
decision anymore like it was years ago and you somebody
for forty years look forward to that day and you
had your pension plan, and I mean, it's all so changed.
So what are some of your you know, just general

(04:19):
thoughts on retirement today.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think, you know, really it's as you mentioned, it's
it's it's not a one size fits all kind of plan. Everyone,
every family, couple, individual, you know, they have their own
vision of what they want that to be. The concern
I have with a lot of people they just wait
too long to develop the vision and they're in retirement

(04:42):
and it's a very reactive process. The one thing that
I try to focus on with people is to be proactive.
As difficult as it may be, it's really I look
at it, you build your life over time, you get
to retirement, and it's really you have a big puzzle
and it's really a matter of putting that puzzle together,
and that creates a lot of challenges even if you

(05:03):
think that you have the right guidance or the right direction.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
And are you talking more about sort of what you're
going to be doing with your days in retirement or
are you talking more about from a financial standpoint.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I think it really comes together where you hit it
on the head where that's an extremely important component. It
is important when you're walking in to know at least
have some idea of what you want to do. You know,
you want to try out hobbies, you want to try
out volunteering. You know you want to do these things
before you retire, as strange as that sounds, so that

(05:39):
you can have two or three things to really focus on.
And I think unfortunately people wait too long and then they,
you know, it just things get away from them, unfortunately.
And I think that is the most Just like you
should have have purpose while you're working in your life,
it is just extremely important to have purpose when you

(05:59):
retire or if you If you do that, I think
you'll have a much more successful, happier retirement.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
I couldn't agree more. I mean, this is a song
I've been singing for a long time. And you know,
I don't see retirement the same way because I mean
I see it more like you're that chapter where you
have the financial stability and foundational kind of support to
go do whatever you want, you know. I mean, maybe

(06:27):
you were doing certain jobs because you were supporting your
family or whatever, and now you can go and you know,
do almost anything you want, those things that you dreamt
about but never actually did exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
I mean, with the benefit of the Internet and just technology.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
It really gives you the ability.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
A lot of people we call it like downshifting, where
you can try retirement out whether you like it or not,
and you can transition really on your terms. And I
think if you wait and delay just even getting a
general idea of where you stand, it just creates it's
a cascade of issues when unfortunately, in a lot of cases,
you have a health issue or something that comes up

(07:05):
where you're forced out to retire, and then it's very
as I mentioned, reactive process.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, and reactive things are not good. We don't make
our best decisions when we're just reacting to circumstance. So
if you make those decisions in advance, then you know
you have a roadmap basically exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
And that's really what it's about, is building a roadmap
out based upon your specific circumstances. And it's as I mentioned,
it's not a one size fits all. And you know,
for many people, retirement in some instances can be longer
than the period of time they were working. So it's
really you know, it's really important to look and say,
how can I get the most out of this time

(07:51):
Because you've saved your whole life, You've worked hard. How
can you transition and it maybe you continue to work
in a different role or do something different, But it's
important to try these things out before you just jump
right into it.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, what what have you seen in your you know,
long career, both on the like sort of a good
example and a bad example of how people have dealt
with this.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
So I the good example I use is I had
I had someone a few years ago where they were retiring.
They were an engineer. They were so focused on work,
and they just decided, you know, their hobby was going
to be golf, you know, because that's what he expected
and that's what was thought, and so he went out,
you know, he bought golf clubs, he did all these things.

(08:37):
He started playing golf and realized he hated it after
he retired, and you know, it could have maybe tried
it out prior. And really it was a matter of
kind of taking a step back and really looking and saying, well,
you know, what what do I want to do? And
it may not always be obvious, I mean some of
the things that are obvious. Or just spend time with
your family, because that, you know, for a lot of

(08:59):
people that can really escape them during their working years.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, as a woman, I know the other side of
that too, where suddenly your husband is home all the
time and you just you've had this whole life without
them being there in the day.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
And that gets into a separate story where I had
another person that retired. They worked into their early seventies
and they didn't really have a plan either, and they
reached a breaking point with their spouse because the spouse
came back from being out and looked at these they
were getting ready to start cooking and looked at the

(09:35):
spice rack and their spouse had reorganized the spice rack
based upon some sort of formula that he put together.
At that point, it was like enough is enough, And
you know that gets really into couples. As you mentioned,
with work with family, with children, you're not around each
other typically constantly. When you get into retirement. If you

(09:58):
don't have hobbies, that's what's going on to happen, and
any issues that you had prior are just going to
raise their heads and you're gonna there's probably gonna be
a fair amount of frustration. And that's why I think,
you know, it's important that each person really takes an
assessment and really comes up with what goal, you know,
goals they want, what they really want to accomplish in retirement,

(10:19):
and then kind of work from there. And it doesn't
mean they're on One of the spouses are couple. You know,
they may prefer to travel, another may be just happy
staying around reading. But what you want to do is
communicate that and just not have, you know, what, one
of your spouse to book a bunch of trips and
you say, I'm not doing this.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, and you know, I mean where I'm laughing and
as you're explaining this, because part of me is just
I'm hearing my friends talking about this exact thing. You know,
I'm meeting a woman at pick a ball who's playing
five days a week, and she's like, my husband retired
and he's home watching TV too much. I have got
to get out of there. You know, I'm getting depressed,
and so you know, I'm picking on the husband's Obviously

(10:58):
it could go the other way, but but it is
a real thing. And when you don't have those conversations
and when you're still working, some of these things do
sound you know, just perfect to be home all the
time or to be on the golf course when you
really don't and you're right, you haven't experienced it. You

(11:18):
don't actually know how it's going to feel.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
No, And you know, I think the other thing is
you really want to be engaged. I think unfortunately for
a lot of people going to the retirement, they just
kind of introvert themselves and that can create a cascade
of health issues, you know, memory, You just have to
be around other people, and I think it's a great

(11:41):
opportunity to really get out of your shell retirement and
just meet people that have similar you know, I wouldn't
say necessarily similar backgrounds, but are looking to try to
expand their group of friends and work from there and
really have you know, whether it's whether it's this couple

(12:02):
having an individual having an accountability partner really someone that
can kind of leave things out and say, well, you know,
it's and it's easier often when the spouse says, you know,
I need you to get out. This isn't good. It's
another thing when you have someone that is a we
would say a colleague or a peer saying the same thing.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, I think this is fascinating. You touched on such
an important point that your health is really at stake
if you're going to isolate yourself or sit too much,
or you know, not engage your mind. I mean, these
are real things that are happening to people both. You know,
they're either they're doing a really good job with it

(12:45):
and they're feeling young at eighty five or ninety, or
they're not doing a good job and falling apart in
their seventies. You know. So it's a it's a huge deal.
And from a retirement standpoint, financially, you know, do you
want to end your money on fun classes and golf
courses or do you want to spend it on an
assisted living place?

Speaker 1 (13:06):
You know, and it's it's difficult often to control, especially
as it relates to memory. But you know, really looking
at about a three to five year window going into retirement.
You really need to if you haven't get a physical,
understand what health issues you may have. You know, look
at your parents and you could it's oftentimes people often

(13:28):
say you become your parents. You know, really it's a
matter of assessing how their retirement was and probably making
some adjustments from there and just doing things to kind
of focus more, as you mentioned, on health, because you know,
doing just certain things will get you a lot further,
and certain illnesses and disease you can't control. But what

(13:49):
you can do is you can be active. And you know,
again you've saved, tried to build as much as you
can to get to the point where you can quit
working in most cases, and the last thing you want
is to just not be able to get out there
and enjoy life.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, that's the whole point of all this, you know,
sacrifice that you make as a saver so that you
can someday retire. And yeah, I mean I took care
of my parents and I remember my dad being I
mean he lived for a long time, but then he
lived for longer than he wanted as a sick person.
And you know, he was very vocal about the fact

(14:29):
that this is not why I saved. I wanted you
guys have the money, or I wanted you know whatever,
but he didn't want it to go to all the
caregiving and all of that.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
So no, that's that's unfortunately with the healthcare system, the
medications and just the ways they can keep you alive
are wonderful and a lot of instances, but unfortunately a
lot of people, if they had their way about it,
they wouldn't live the life that they had, you know,
at the end, and just from a cost and just
end of life your family, it's just it's very difficult

(15:02):
to anyone that's ever had you know, a parent that
has had dementia or park you know, you just you
just feel for anyone in that position, and it unfortunately
becomes even more prevalent. I think when you look at
people now in their forties or fifties, you know, they're
thinking about how am I going to retire? But they
have their parents and they're thinking, well, how do I

(15:23):
manage them at the same time and their retirement And
it's just not something that anyone prepares for, plans for.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, so are you helping clients to prepare for that
kind of thing or kind of what what is your
focus right now in terms of all of this with people?

Speaker 1 (15:38):
So I think what you you know, you have to
be a resource. I think it's and one of the
challenges I always say is when I started in the
financial services business, you had to reach out to someone
to get information, or you have to go to a
library or a bookstore to get a book. You know,
Now Google you can get about three hundred million hits
on a basic financial topic. The problem with that, though,

(16:00):
is everyone is very unique. They have different needs, whether
it's if they have debt, they have children with special needs,
uh what, you know, what they're looking to try to accomplish.
And so I just view it as very important that
it has to be an individualized, holistic approach that takes health,
that takes someone's welfare and what they're looking to try

(16:22):
to do really in the next their next uh, you know,
their next great uh you know, their next great adventure.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
I would call it.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, And I love that because people are living longer,
so you do have an opportunity for this long you know,
span of time that you can be very active in
doing things. And you know, so it's you know, it's
not like it was back in the day when you
were planning for ten years of basically I don't know what,
but no, and and.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
You know, I think the other thing is really to communicate.
And I always say it's it's very important legacy planning,
having a family meeting and just compute, really communicate what
your wishes are to your children so they fully understand
everything and you know, they can act on it and
it you know, it's whether whether it's an only child
or whether you have three or four or five or

(17:11):
however many children, it's important to let them know these things.
You know, what is what do you want an end
of life?

Speaker 2 (17:18):
You know? What do you you know?

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Why are you giving someone a friend something that you're
not giving them? You know, the biggest thing I see
is jewelry. You know, there's just jewelry was sent to me.
It doesn't even have to be an expensive jewelry. I've
seen situations where it's very inexpensive, but really, you know,
because of the emotions around it, you know, people will

(17:40):
fight till the end over it, and you know, you
you kind of bring up money. Money can be a
great resource and something that's wonderful if it's.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Used the right way.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
But it also it can be very evil from the
standpoint of friction and just destroying if it's not.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
I've been shocked how many families I've seen and sort
of break apart over you know, it's not even so much,
it's the whole managing of the estate and you know,
going through whatever there is there, the distributions of it,
and it or the or the caretaking of parents, one

(18:18):
person typically does a lot more than other people, and
it becomes the it's funny. I mean, it's not funny,
but the families have been so close and so tight
for decades, Well it come apart in a year because
of this stuff.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
It's yeah, it's and it's you know, and it's very difficult,
and it's typically there's a triggering event.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
And I'm going to use example myself. My mother. I
was the only child.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
My mother, she had an accident and she started having
memory issues kind of right around the same time. And
she was in a position where she was extremely independent,
where it was like the last thing you would ever
want is for her, The last thing she ever wanted
was to be in having help someone assists her. And

(19:01):
you know, it reached the point where I had to
put her into assisted living. And I always thought, well,
at least I didn't have to worry about the decision
process because no one's going to say this is what
you did. But then you worry. You're like, well maybe
I'm making a bad decision. So it's just you know,
you really want there again, there should be more resources
and there's not. And because mainly it's geographic, because every

(19:24):
one area may be completely different than another other area,
and different people have different spending long term care all
these things. And the more that you can have and
understand every what is going on on the front end,
it makes it a lot easier because often there's very
little time in terms of the decision process. It's like
to put I have to put my parents somewhere, but

(19:47):
I didn't really have to spend six to twelve months
to think about it. You know, like if you're moving somewhere,
I always say retirement. If you're thinking about moving, you
probably need to rent a little bit, look at a
few places. That's usually not the case when you're trying
to find someone care. It's more of a very another
reactive situation where you're just on your heels trying to
do the best you can, especially if you have there's

(20:10):
other siblings involved, because you know, anything that's gone wrong
in the past is going to probably rear its head
at that point.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
So true. Yeah, that's that's something that I haven't heard before,
but it's so true. All these things that you know,
you've sort of shoved down about how you're feeling about
your siblings definitely surface at that time. So yes, yeah,
communication is so important. I do. One thing that was
very grateful for is my dad. My mom and dad

(20:40):
were both sick at the same time, but my dad
was caught you know, as far as his brain, he
was going in good shape and he I mean, he
had a stroke. That was the crazy part of that.
But but he introduced me to his financial planner and
we had several three way conversations and he was he's
been a smart investors whole life, and he had certain

(21:01):
you know, protocols that he liked that he wanted, you know,
to continue and and it was so helpful to know
her to have these conversations. So part of what you
were saying, then I didn't have to feel like, what
if I'm doing something he totally doesn't want, like he
laid it out to her with me on the phone,
and we continued on with investing the way he wanted

(21:22):
and it was really a help.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
And you know, unfortunately, what you see a lot of times,
and this is even you typically have one spouse, whether
it's transitioning to the next generation the wealth, or whether
it's a spouse, you typically have one spouse that handles
everything or that. That is the way it is in
a lot of cases, and it becomes very difficult if

(21:45):
you go into retirement with that uh, that same that
same uh, the same process. I think it's very important
to have. You know, communication is essential. It is the
foundation of a relationship, I think, and really with out
proper communication, it just creates between money and communication, you

(22:05):
can just throw it out the window in terms of
divorce and just scorched earth, you know, I would say,
And you know, I look at especially starting out that
often has not thought that much about But you have
a couple they're starting out and they usually don't talk
about money right away. And I think because people are
getting married later now there's probably a greater focus on that.

(22:27):
But what you end up in a situation is you
have people raised completely different, completely different viewpoints on money.
And then merging everything together and to think that there's
not going to be problems. There there are, and really
a retirement I look at it kind of similar in
the fact that you know, you haven't a lot of
people really don't. They just get used to a certain

(22:49):
way of budgeting and they don't really think about it,
you know. So starting out you budget, you have to
learn how to do that and work through that. At
a certain point it just becomes second nature. But then
you hear retirement, you don't have the income coming in,
so you really need to revisit budgeting, and that's where
it gets into just communication, which oftentimes, as you mentioned,

(23:09):
can be a lost art.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, and you know, to your point, if you have
those budgeting in retirement conversation long before you're actually retired,
I mean, that's kind of a shakra if you do
a budget after retirement and realize, oh, my whole lifestyle
is about to change, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, I mean when we unfortunately have you know, you
put inflation and longevity together and they are the you know,
it used to be I would talk about inflation and
I would have to bring up you know, the uh,
the payphone or the uh you know, you get into
these things. This stamp you can go up and people understood.
Now everyone understands inflation, so that's that's definitely something that

(23:48):
everyone's aware of. And then you get into longevity. It's
very difficult with retirement planning because no one knows how
long they're.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Going to live.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
They don't know what their expenses are really going to be.
As you get you get into healthcare, especially if you
haven't done long term long term care planning, it can
be extremely expensive.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Especially with two spouse.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Is the likelihood you're probably about seventy five to eighty
percent of one of them having a long term care issue.
So how do you handle that? And it's oftentimes no
one wants to think about that, But if you have
time ahead of retirement where you can talk through that,
really it'll help put some of the pieces at least
together of your puzzle.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
Yeah, what are your thoughts on long term care insurance?

Speaker 1 (24:33):
So I think what you want to do is you
definitely want to look at you want to get it
typically early, and you want to understand what it covers,
and that's really the biggest thing. You definitely want to
make sure it covers home care. You want to make
sure you understand if there's inflation involved, getting back to inflation,

(24:53):
and you don't if you turn all the money over
to if you say, I'm just going to pay for
the gold plant and plan, you know you're going to
pay a lot. So really it's a matter of balance
with with any any type of coverage where you have
to take into account your other income sources and you
really use it to supplement that. In a long term

(25:13):
care issue, I think, you know, if you can start
around the time that you're thinking about retiring three or
three or five years before that, that's optimal and really
look into, you know, what your health, what are your circumstances,
and really you really work from there. And just because
someone you know, they say, well, neither of my parents,
they're still alive, they've never had any issues, Well you

(25:35):
know that that can change on a dime for their
parents as well as for them.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, that's what happened to me. My parents were completely fine,
but quite old actually, but completely fine, driving, functioning, didn't
need me for anything, And within two weeks they weren't
doing any of that anymore. And I didn't see nobody
saw it coming, you know, And of course where they
lived was set up for young people, you know, wasn't
set up for meeting care after the fact. And you

(26:03):
know anyway, you're exactly right. I love that you had
a little bullet here on your one sheet that said
financial freedom begins when you stop chasing perfect, which I'm
curious about because I agree with you, but I want
to know no.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
So you know, we would say, I don't know if
it was.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
I have to think about the person that said perfect
is the enemy of great or good and really nothing.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Especially when you have a couple.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Each person's version of perfect is completely different, and it's
really a matter of really.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Laying it out.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
I would almost call it, well, I call it in
the book a financial life inventory plan. The purpose of
it is really to take a step back from your
life and really inventory everything. And I always say, you know,
over a period of twenty five thirty years you can
collect things. It's like moving, but it's moving like you've
never done before in terms of your finances, everything, and

(26:57):
really looking at how does everything work together and what
makes the most sense for you and your spouse or
just you. But don't pay attention to what your colleague,
your friend. Different people have different viewpoints and completely different
life expectations and just financial resources. And that's why it's

(27:18):
so important really to take your individualized situation into account
and really, whether it's Medicare, social security, all these things.
You know, there's a lot of gotcha's and there's not
a whole lot of do overs. And that's what I
always tell people.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Yeah, I was surprised, And do you help people with
Medicare and socials because there are decisions to make there and.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, and I mean a common decision that I see.
You know, one of the biggest decisions I see is
that even if you're still working, you say, well, I'm
just going to go on to Medicare at sixty five,
because there's a perception that you've paid into Medicare your
whole life, so one might expect it to be free
in retirement. Well it's anything but that. And you know,
again really understanding even if you're still working and you

(28:05):
plan to work into your seventies, you know, getting into
if it's a business owner, a person that is independent,
self employed, they really understand, well, I can continue to work,
but what's my exit strategy if I have a health
issue that comes up? And that that is more the
rule where somebody gets into their late sixties seventies and
they have to just transition without really you know, people say, well,

(28:28):
I'm just going to sell it my business. Well, it
may be a terrible time to do that. So you know,
doing the proper planning really avoids a disaster in some
cases with your biggest asset, you know, and in the
case of a business.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, yeah, there's so many factors. It is. It is
very interesting to I mean, Medicare also what I found.
I mean, you know, we have businesses, so health insurance
was always insanely expensive. There was private insurance. It was
you know, I would get the bill every month and think,

(29:04):
how do people pay this? And but so you know,
I kind of look forward to going onto Medicare, which
I did recently, but those prices get going up. You know,
at least with my blue gield it would only go up.
I may to go up enormously about once a year.
And Medicare is a sort of ram. I mean, I've
been surprised so that it started out great, but you know,

(29:24):
it just keeps rising.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Yeah, And there's also a thing called IRMA that catches
a lot of people off guard in terms of their
income you know, if you make above a certain amount
of money, you're subject to IRMA. So in some cases
you can pay a lot more. It's a two year
look back on it, meaning that they take your income
from two years ago for example this year. So it
gets extremely complicated. And that's the thing I you know,

(29:47):
even with medicare, I'm like, you know, at some point
they're going to have a plan double y or something,
you know, because of just how they've had plan, they're
just adding plans and it just makes a very confusing
decision process. And if you don't do the right things
as you approach these dates, you just really open yourself
up for some really you know, pretty bad mistakes. And

(30:08):
you know, social security is another one that I see
a lot where people just say I'm going to take it.
I'm going to take it when I can get it,
and you know, you have to really look at in
some cases, if you're still working, you're not getting if
your income is above a very small amount, you're not
going to get anything. So you have to, you know,
really look and you eventually get that obviously get back
the credits and everything. But you can't just go in

(30:30):
thinking that just because someone next door did something or
they're suggesting it. And that's the other thing, you know,
with Google and these other websites, they're great for information,
but a lot of times things are sponsored. You know,
someone's trying to sell you a product, or they're trying
to make you do something so that they can get
something else from a different direction. And that's really important

(30:52):
to be mindful of when you look at some of
the search engines that are out there.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Yeah, it's it. Yeah, that's challenging. I try to day
away and you know to some extent, because it does
boggle your mind a bit. And people have arguments for,
you know, the opposite sides of things that both make sense.
So there are great arguments for taking your social security
as soon as you can, and there are great arguments
for not and then you just leave confused and do nothing.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
And you really you know that we say it's everything,
the decision process really in the weeds, if you will.
But really what you want to do is like take
it early. Well, if you have health issues and you
expect to have a shorter life expectancy, that it could
make sense that for a lot of people, especially the
higher earning spouse. If it's a couple they really want

(31:37):
to try to, they should consider delaying because the chances
of one of them living into their mid to late
eighties or nineties is probably pretty significant. And that increased
amount is significant because not only is it a larger
amount you're starting with, but it's also typically going to
be increased for inflation, So the numbers going up at
a you know, a much higher number as well because
you're starting at a higher point.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Yeah, and you know, you you've talked about making sure
that you know your own lifestyle and yourself basically, and
people will say, well, you know, you can take it
and invest it and you'll make more and whatever, but
you have to know yourself, you know. I mean they
say that about you know, taxes as well. But if
you're not a person who's really going to come through
on that one, then.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
You're just going to spend it, and you know, And
that's what the other thing I always come back with
is people always say, well, what is my number or
what is what is what is the thing that I
need to be at to retire? And the answer is
it's hard to say because everyone is different. And again,
it really has to do with what your debt, your

(32:41):
goals are in retirement. If you're looking to travel around
the world and you're going to do that consistently, well
you need to have some money put aside for that
specific purpose, because if you don't, the rest of everything
is going to collapse at some point.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Yeah, it's very interesting. I want to make sure we
talk about your book. So the future is now out
and how new is that?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Or so have I have I had a book or
I do have a book and it's an introductory guide
to finances for young adults, and so I came out
with that last April, and so that's out on Amazon, Barnes, Noble,
anywhere you would buy a book, and it's mainly for
young adults, whether they're coming out of high school.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
College.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Really is a guide because, like I mentioned before, you're
expected to make all these decisions with no real education.
And because of my background, I went in the Army
to pay off my student loans because I just had
a huge amount of student loans and really no real
experience to get something that would be put me in

(33:46):
a position to be I think successful. So the Army
had a program where they paid off the loans. So
I'm very sensitive to someone starting out because I was
the first one to go to college in my family
really didn't have a good direction, you know. And now
I look back and I would say, well, if someone
starting out, you want whether you're a grandparent, you're their parent,

(34:07):
you want them not only to use you as a resource,
but you want them to find mentors, and you want
them to try things out, whether it's through an internship,
whether it's I always say, you know, if someone wants
to be a medical professional, they should really consider doing
volunteering in high school at a hospital, because they may
find out they hate blood, you know, which means in
most cases good.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
So you know, that's that book.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
The new book really is for people approaching retirement, pre
retirees and retirees. And really what I try to do
was create a roadmap that would help someone try to
put all the pieces together and really understand not in
granular detail where you're just getting into situations where you
get more confused than where you started, but really to

(34:52):
provide an overview at a high level that makes someone
more comfortable with these decisions that also at the same
time point O out that it's important really to look
at everything. You know, your assets, your liabilities, what your
expectations are in retirement, you know what are you looking
to volunteer? I have a whole chapter just talking about

(35:14):
what is your you know what really your health, your
your goals. I think it's extremely important to lay out
goals before you go starting to deal with the retirement
planning process and really communicating that whether you have an
accountability partner, if you're an individual or with spouses, or
even having accountability partner with a spouse, and we would

(35:36):
say in some cases the financial advisor in certain cases
is really the accountability partner to get you know, the
individuals or families through the planning process. And what I've
tried to do is use in both books examples of
things that work well and things that don't.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
And we always say people learn from stories.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
And they learn from other people's mistakes, and so that's
where try I've tried to leigh out with both books.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
I love that and I love both. I really love
that you're trying to help young people because while we
learn from our mistakes, you know, I think that's a
sad way that we do money in our country is like,
let you make a whole bunch of mistakes and then
at forty five, you've learned a few things, and you
know you've lost so much time and money and time
are just really connected now.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
And I mean I look at home formation, that's that
is the indication of what there's a lot of things
that matter where you don't have people forming families because
they just can't afford it and they're trying to figure
out how they can get their debt or to try
to get in a better position. And I've said you
have if you have someone that is financially literate coming

(36:45):
out of high school, going into college, technical school, or
whatever they do, they're going to be miles ahead. It's
you know, I look at life going from the start
through retirement really as a marathon and different people. And well,
fortunately for the people, unfortunately for a lot of people,
they start out a different spot. They just stand there

(37:06):
and you get other people that are three or four, six,
twelve miles ahead of them, right, And this system doesn't
do a good it does a lot of people with disservice.
As it relates to looking at student loans, looking at
just how you know, credit cards, if you go to
a college outside the bookstore, there's credit card offer it

(37:26):
just inundate you and you look at the capital capital,
all these card companies and.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
The kids.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
You know, you can go both ways with weather responsibility
and everything, but if you're coming just completely oblivious, it
creates its own set of you know, issues that when
you figure out what's going on, oftentimes it's too late
to course correct.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, and yeah, you know, you can't really be held
accountable to being responsible for something nobody ever teaches you.
And maybe maybe you're you're doing exactly what your parents did,
but they didn't know what they were doing. So you're
making the same you know stakes, trying to be responsible,
but it wasn't the right thing to be doing in
the first place.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
So yeah, and I always go back to communicating, whether
you're starting out, you know, whether you're working.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
The one thing I learned in the military was that
it's essential to communicate and if you make a mistake,
you own the mistake, you work through that, and everyone
is in better spot. Because that's that's the thing that's unfortunate.
And I think that it's it's easy to make mistakes,
it seems like it's even harder these days to kind
of own up to them.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Yeah, I agree with that, and I think there's an
awareness level too. You have to be involved with your money.
I mean, it's it's easy enough to accept that credit card,
and sometimes that's even wise to help you build your credit,
to have a credit market. If you don't know what
you're doing and and you're not paying attention, so you know,
you go from a zero balance to a ten thousand
dollars balance before you even know it, and you're not

(38:56):
even paying attention to you start getting That's the thing
where I you know, if they have the U literacy
from an early age, they'll know to be on the lookout,
so they'll get the apps so they can see what
they're spending and they'll you know, because we can't just.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
You know, avoid it.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Basically no.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
In the book for the young adults, I really lay
out you know, how do you how they even figure
out your credit score. It's like out of some sort
of you know, it's out of some sort of maze
where they come out out with it.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
I also talk about just credit cards.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
As you mentioned, I don't think debt is bad if
it's used appropriately, but you really have to go in
eyes wide open, because unfortunately it ordered oftentimes to build
your credit you have to you have to have debt
to build that that by having that, it creates its
own set of problems in terms of just getting in

(39:49):
over your head.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
Right right, Yeah, I love both and I agree with you.
I think bottom line with all of this is communication.
And I think that is how you build relationships, whether
it's human relationships or even your relationship with money. I mean,
not talking to your money, but you are interacting with it,
and maybe you're also.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Looking to it.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
But you know, you have to communicate even with yourself
or with your advisors and your tax people. And I
mean you've got to learn. And it's the communication piece
I really loved because, especially for couples, if you are
in this sort of you know, if your relationship with

(40:31):
money is one where you kind of abdicate responsibility and
the other spouse or partner whoever, can just take it
on and you don't even know what's going on, that's
not going to work well. You know. Now, it's not
going to work well in retirement either, because that whole
being retired and having that freedom, you're never going to
really feel that because you're not going to really know

(40:52):
what's happening and you're not in control. So and only
one person's making decisions, and that doesn't create a good.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Name at all.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
No, And I see that a lot where you have,
you know, people have we always use the beach or
the mountains where they just you know, they fantasize about
it while they're working in their work life that they
want to just go there, and one of the spouse
is just as happy staying where they're at or there
they look at. One wants to go to the mountains,
one wants to go to the beach, and in the end,

(41:21):
the dominant spouse typically wins. But what I see a
lot of times they just don't do. The most important
thing is not to go there on a weekend and
say this place is great. It's really to really live
there for a month two months and try out three
or four similar places and really see which one really
fits you. And it's a good idea if you can

(41:41):
slowly not you know, not in retirement, but as you
approach retirement and maybe you're slowing down working, it's not
a bad idea to maybe remote given all the opportunity
and see how that works from different places that you
may want to live, but do it in a fashion
where both of you are on the same page, and
it's just not like, you know, you start one of

(42:03):
the spouse that starts packing boxes and the other ones like,
where are we going?

Speaker 3 (42:07):
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And if you don't communicate that,
one spouse packing the boxes might just think that you're
cool with that and you want to be doing this
and you know, so the community, I think the two
themes here communication is just huge. And also I'd love
the idea of trying things out. I don't. I think
my parents always did that. We moved a lot, and

(42:27):
they always would rent in whatever new city it was,
so they figured out the city and where they really
wanted to be to buy, and it was kind of
annoying to be staying in rentals for a little while.
So we figured things out. But it was smart, you know,
and where they ended up was typically not the place
they would have ended up if they hadn't done that exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
And I always say, you know, I'm in Atlanta, so
I see people that move here and they're say, it's
only twenty minutes away, Well, you know at rush hour
that it takes a life of its own where they
end up in traffic for an hour and a half
sitting there wondering why they didn't probably you know, drive
around during a work day.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's great. Well okay, so Jeff, how can
people can buy your book The future is now? And
then how else can they connect with you?

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
So, my firm's name is Balanced Wealth Partners, So I
have a website for that that is that name. I also,
as you met, it's Jeffreypanic dot com Panic No C
but with a K, so a little bit different. But
I have a website there that has all the book information, everything,
helpful videos, trying to just design to provide information.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Yeah that's great. So so really it sounds like the
goal is to help people well on the early side,
to just get that financial education that everybody needs, and
on the later side to retire as well as possible
for who they are.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, they always say, you know that you want to
retire on your own terms. That's a that's a you know,
that's like a quote. But at the end of the day,
how do you do that? It's just not something that
is where it's not a one size fits all where
everybody has the same you know, same family situation, same saving,
same debt, and just layers upon layers and people just

(44:13):
shut down and then it becomes like we mentioned, where
you're on your heels reactive and you just end up
in a situation where you're worse than you were when
you were working.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Yeah. Yeah, And if you can answer that question of
how do we do this? Because almost the whole financial
industry is full of these terms that sound great or
these stories, you know, success stories about people. But you're right,
everybody's just listing this going that sounds amazing. How do
I do it? So having somebody like you who can
guide that, I don't think we're very good at doing

(44:45):
it on our own.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
It's just it's almost like it's just very difficult because
there's so many moving parts and things are constantly changing
and evolving, which is the other thing.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
So it's right now. Yeah, okay, well, thank you so
much for joining me. I love this conversation. And you know,
do you like most of the guests coming on here,
pretty much all of them are very invested in helping people.
You know, there's much less about selling a product and

(45:17):
much more about you know, you're using what you've seen
in your experience and your knowledge to help people live
their best lives. So I really appreciate that, and thank
you for coming on it.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
I really appreciate you having me and enjoyed the conversation.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Thank you. Okay, well this was great and audience, thank
you so much for listening to the Money and New Show.
Please subscribe, rate and review the show. All of that
helps us to continue to bring great guests like Jeffrey
Panic onto the show. And all of this is for
your financial education. It's a pretty broad array of topics

(45:53):
and I really feel like if you know, if you
if a great relationship with money is about learning more
and interacting more. This gives you a launch pad at
least to find what interests you and what you need
to learn more about and who you can go to
for the resources that you need. So thanks so much
for listening and we will see you next week.