Simply Money

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Clarity through conversation. Nothing makes sensein this administration. Fifty five KRC the
talk station tonight. We talk aboutthe financial crisis in America pretty often on
the show, but now we havea major financial player who's adding his voice

(00:23):
to that conversation, and we've gothis ideas on what's wrong and how to
fix it. You're listening to Simplywhen he presented by all Worth Financial,
I Memi Wagner along with Steve Ruby, they say talker is cheap. But
when it comes to retirement, Ithink many people were wondering why Okay in
Washington and my boss like, whyaren't they doing all they can to help
us make sure that we can makethat transition and into retirement. Well,

(00:46):
we say it all the time.It's on us. I mean, you
know social Security. We're not sayingyou can't rely on that benefit, but
we are saying, if nothing isdone to fix the system by twenty thirty
four, you can expect seventy seventyfive eighty per of that, you know,
so that part of it is partiallygone. And then my grandpa retired

(01:06):
with a pension. He'd retired fromCincinnati Millicron. I mean most of his
and my grandma's years in retirement werepaid for on the back of his boss.
Not so anymore. And as youlook at these factors stacking up against
kind of the average American, youunderstand why we've got such an issue.
And if you've never heard of adude named Larry Fink, well we think

(01:29):
he's got some good points. Notto be confused with Ed Fink. We're
talking about Larry Fink here, whowas also one of the smartest guys on
the planet that Ed Fink is.But no, we're talking about Larry Fink.
No relation. Yeah, he's thechair and chief executive investment at Blackrock.
So Blackrock is one of the majorplayers in the financial world. It's

(01:49):
actually the largest asset manager ten trilliondollars under management. That's an incredible amount
of money. They have seventy eightoffices in thirty eight country and clients in
one hundred different countries. So thisguy, he is at the top of
controlling a heck of a lot ofmoney. And in his annual letter to
black Rock investors, Larry Fink hecalled on government and business leaders to tackle

(02:15):
the problem of retirement security and raisequestions about the optimal age for what retirement
should be as longevity increases. Andhe's kind of challenging major leaders in our
country, whether you are in government, whether you are a corporate leader,
to say, step out of therealm of what you normally do and sit

(02:36):
down at a table and let's starttalking about real solution to this problem.
And he says, listen, there'syou know, some historical point, like
some reference to this. Right intwo thousand and eight, there was the
financial crisis, and you know,technology CEOs and federal officials kind of came
together, you know, to addressthat problem. Or you know, we
had the semiconductor supply chain issue duringCOVID, you know, and it effected.

(02:58):
It was so far reaching. Itwas like a global problem. And
you hear all these kind of bigweeks sit down at the table and say,
Okay, how are we going tofix this. It's kind of broken
at every point in this chain andevery link in this chain, and together
they came up with a solution.Was it an overnight solution, No,
it took a while. It droveup inflation. We're still dealing with the

(03:19):
aftermath of that. But the keyhere is that the issue was addressed and
it took outside thinking, and ittook a number of people coming to the
table to get it figured out.Yeah, I mean, I think that
this is a great conversation to starthaving. You know, he said,
and this is quoting Larry Fink,we need to do something similar for the
retirement crisis as opposed to what you'retalking about. You're a semiconductors in two
thousand and eight. America needs anorganized, high level effort to ensure that

(03:43):
future generations can live out their finalyears with dignity. Dignity, I mean,
that's a noble cause. You can'tnecessarily disagree with that. But the
question is how so. One ofthe things that he says that might be
a fix here is looking at theoptimal retirement age. Now, there's no
really set age in our country.I think most people think sixty five,
sixty seven because you think of kindof Social Security and your full retirement age.

(04:09):
The interesting thing about it, whenSocial Security the full retirement age was
set at sixty five, it waslike nineteen thirty five, and no one
was living that long. Now weknow that if you live to the age
of sixty five and you're healthy,the likeliness that you live into your upper
eighties early nineties becomes pretty high.And you know, we're living longer,

(04:32):
but we're not living healthier. Wehaven't kind of figured out all of those
issues to optimize our health. Soyou've got longevity on your side, but
not necessarily health. And if you'rehearing me say this, and you're hearing
chi ching chi ching chiching, youshould be because healthcare is astronomical and the
older you get and the more issuesthat you have and the more prescriptions that

(04:56):
you're on, the more expensive itbecomes. Yeah, and to highlight what
you were talking about with longevity,remember if you live past sixty five,
then there are studies that show thatthere is a twenty five percent chance that
a man will live past to theage of ninety two. A woman that
lives until sixty five twenty five percentchance that she will live past to the
age of ninety four. So thisis a massive difference from sixty five.

(05:20):
Longevity has gone through the roof.So, you know, we're at a
point here where this Larry Fink guy, you know, he's coming out and
he's saying that, you know,we're about to announce a series of partnerships
and initiatives that are, you know, designed to discuss retirement security here in
America. Mostly one of the issuesthat they even say they're going to run

(05:42):
into is the political climate. Obviously, it can be very difficult to make
changes to the retirement system when nobodycan agree upon anything whatsoever. But there
are other countries that we can lookat as models. What have they done
to address these similar concerns. Netherlands, for exact sample, the retirement age
automatically adjusts with changes in life expectancy. Japan has made it easier for older

(06:08):
people to continue to work longer ifthey so desire to. You're listening to
Simply Money presented by all Worth FinancialImami Wagner along with Steve Ruby, as
we talk about the fact that weknow there is a retirement crisis in this
country. Many people are aware ofthis, but now we have Larry Fink,
who is a major mukeety mock forblack Rock, which is a major

(06:29):
mukeety mock or financial organization. Allof this to be said, he wields
a lot of power, lots ofpeople listen to him, and he is
drawing attention to this retirement crisis andcalling on corporate leaders and political leaders and
why are we talking about this citybecause it all trickles down to us.
I mean, it has a veryreal impact on each of us and our

(06:49):
retirement and how we save. AndI do also appreciated a good sense of
sarcasm, you know. And he'stalking about the retirement age kind of in
our minds, being sixty five,and he says, this is an idea
that originated during these are his words, the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Right. Essentially, he's saying,we are way past this. We have

(07:11):
to start thinking outside the box.We have to start bringing together major thought
leaders and saying, how do wefix this problem you were talking about,
you know, bringing people into Washingtontogether and getting them on the same page.
We have been very blessed, verylucky through the years that we've had
some major political players who have beenpart of the show, who have called
in, who've let us interview themand have been quite candid with us until

(07:33):
the point that we start asking questionsabout the social Security system. And then
it's like this, this switch isflipped and it becomes politics as usual and
it is that political hot potato thatit is, and everyone can admit,
hey, we've got a problem inthis country. But when it comes to
the solution, some solutions are goingto make one group happy and another group

(07:54):
upset. And when you're looking atalienating a potential group of voters, nobody
ones to go there. And thisis why they continue kind of kicking the
can down the road. And itmakes me, honestly, it makes me
furious to think about the fact thatthere are people who are aging that do
not have the means to do itwell, and they are a victim of

(08:15):
politics, they really are. SoI mean this, Sure, it's great
that there's dialogue and that this mucketymucket, a muckety muck company is beginning
to have these conversations. But inthe meantime things have changed. You talked
about your grandfather earlier in the showworking for Millo Crown for his career and
retiring with a pension. Unfortunately,that's not going to be the reality for
most of us, as pensions arefalling to the wayside. So what do

(08:39):
we do in the meantime? Imean planning accordingly, sitting down, making
sure that you have a solid financialfoundation, attacking high interest rate credit card
debts so you can then attack buildingemergency funds so that you can then save
more for your own retirement because atthis point this is falling on our shoulders
as individual investors. That's what happenedwhen we pivoted from pensions to four to

(09:01):
one K plans. So making surethat you're making good decisions with the cash
flow that you have to support maintainingsome kind of a lifestyle that you've grown
used to in retirement, sit downwith a fiduciary financial planner, build out
that that financial plan map out yourfinancial future while you have time. You
don't have to wait until you're sixtyfive years old to sit down and meet

(09:22):
with a planner. You can meetwith somebody when you're fifty to fifty five
years old. Because if we runa plan and we don't like what we
see, then having that time onyour side makes it easier to close gaps
between where you are and where youneed to be. Because, yes,
I think it's great that these conversationsare happening, but in the meantime,
we still need to take care ofourselves. You've got to control what you
can control. Unfortunately, we cannotcontrol what happens in Washington right. We

(09:46):
cannot control who's sitting down at thistable to solve these problems. But we
can look at our financial situation andour financial goals and say, okay,
if I can't get there, wellcan I change now to make sure that
we can? And sometimes that meansyou cut back on spending. Sometimes that
means you save more, you know. But having a plan in place,
it's the only thing you can control. Here's the all Worth advice. We

(10:09):
can control whether government and business leadersare actually ever going to up their game
and help us all retire better.What we do have control over is our
own money. Coming up next detailson a huge settlement that can have a
positive financial impact on you, plusan update. Right, so we're in
it is spring. Now it's timeto watch the reds where you'll be able

(10:30):
to watch red schemes this year.You're listening to Simply Money percented by all
Worth Financial here on fifty five KRCthe talk station the Gidel fifty five KRC.
All Worth Financial a registered investment advisoryfirm. Any ideas presented during this
program are not intended to provide specificfinancial advice. You should consult your own
financial advisor, tax consultant, ora state planning attorney. To conduct your

(10:52):
own due diligence. You're listening toSimply Money percented by all Worth Financial,
I mean Wagner along with Steve Ruby. If you can't listen to Simply Money
every night, you don't have tomiss a thing. We've got a daily
podcast for you. Just search SimplyMoney on the iHeart app or wherever you
get your podcasts. And coming upat six forty three, does it make

(11:13):
sense to gift stock to adult kids? Should you wait for them to inherit
it. We're gonna ask the advisorabout that and much more coming up.
Okay, So you know when yougo shop at a store and you see
that little sign that says, hey, you're gonna pay extra here if you
buy that with a credit card,and I don't think these are common.
I actually think many times we justpay more and we don't even know about

(11:35):
it. Visa and MasterCard just reachedan estimated thirty billion dollars settlement to limit
those fees for merchants, because youknow what they're gonna do, Steve,
If merchants are paying more, we'reall paying more, and we have to
pay more. So you know,merchants, obviously they've they've accused Visa and
MasterCard for a long time of charginginflated swipe fees, interchange fees, you

(11:56):
know when shoppers use credit or debitcards in their store. And this has
created a situation where obviously those costshave flowed through to consumers. And so
there's actually a Nobel Prize winning economistthat was hired by a number of these
merchants as kind of an expert,and so he submitted his research and said

(12:18):
that he thinks this settlement greatly enhanceskind of their freedom to steer all of
US customers using competition prices. Youknow, it's capitalism here people, and
it can lead to very substantial savingsfor merchants. And so I think,
you know, understanding how these thingswork that we do have options, makes

(12:41):
a lot of sense of helping usmake some good informed decisions about our money.
And by the way, this isone of the largest anti trust settlements
that the US has ever seen.This started back in two thousand and five.
This has been a long time coming. Happy belated Opening Day. I
mean, for anyone who's been aroundhere any time, we all know it's
a national holiday for us. Itis. I love this time of year.

(13:05):
You know I'm from it's like whereit's official. Yeah from I'm from
Cleveland originally, and I'm you know, I'm Indians Guardians fan. I will
say that Cincinnati really crushes Cleveland inthis when it comes to Opening Day,
it is a national holiday. Itis a blast. It is so much
fun. Obviously I've gone to itbefore because I'm a Reds fan, secondarily
to to my Cleveland teams, buthard really Cincinnati just they do a great

(13:30):
job with it. It's great.Cincinnati doesn't only crush Cleveland, we crush
everyone else when it comes to OpeningDay festivities. And listen, if you
weren't down there yesterday, where'd youwatch the game? We actually have an
update for you on the saga overwhere you can catch the Reds this season.
Of course, we've got our goodfriend Steve Watkins from the since anti
business career. He's been following thisclosely all along and he's got some updates.

(13:52):
Yeah. So for every Reds gamethat doesn't air exclusively a national network
player or some kind of platform nationallysuch as Fox, Apple TV, ESPN,
nothing has changed regarding streaming availability.If we remember, there was conversations
last year about Bally Sports going bankrupt, so there was going to be some

(14:13):
questions about whether or not we wouldbe able to continue streaming through that service,
and right now that is the case, but only for those that actually
have Bally Ohio through some kind ofa paid TV subscription. This is frustrating.
This is really frustrating to me.I feel like local sports you should
be able to have easy access to. And I guess you know, it
just made so much sense to everyonewhen we started our cord cutting several years

(14:37):
ago and we went away from cableand now we can't even watch the Reds.
This is frustrating. But yeah,I mean, this all comes down
to dollars and cents and who buyswho and who has the rights. And
there was talk and hope maybe thatAmazon was going to pick up streaming rights
for at least maybe a handful ofMajor League Baseball teams and then possibly the
red Schemes eventually. So far nothinghas been finalized. There is talk Amazon

(15:00):
planning to partner with Diamond Sports Group, which is the parent of nineteen of
these Bally not so it's not BallyAcross the country, there's regional sports networks
and that includes Ballely Sports Ohio.You know, I think the thing that's,
you know, really interesting about thisis it's all clear as mud.
You've got Diamond, you've got Amazon, you've got Bally, You've got Bally's

(15:20):
Regional. Like, we just wantto watch a game here, people,
Why is it so hard? Money? That's what it is. It always
comes down to money. Yeah,I mean I can see that. That's
what it is. It's money,and it's frustrating to people around here.
There's situations where, you know,Bally Sports Ohio, it doesn't actually have
the rights to stream games on BallySports Plus for fans that don't have paid

(15:41):
TV subscription through direct TV stream orFubo. So when you say clear as
mud, that's an example of it. And it all comes down to money.
We need to get Steve Watkins backon here, like and maybe it's
just that we just vent to himthat it should be easier, and he
agrees with us, but it shouldbe easier. This is ridiculous. Every

(16:03):
Sunday you're going to find our allWorth Advice in the Cincinnati Inquirer, but
every Friday on the show, welike to give you a preview. Our
first question comes from Carla and ClaremontCounty who says, my father just passed
away. Carla, we're really reallysorry to hear about your loss. And
also I guess that's left your mothera widow, and so Carla is wondering
what financial steps should she and alsomy family take now that she's on her

(16:26):
own. Yeah, I mean,again, very sorry to hear this.
The first advice here is don't rushinto any major financial decisions at this time.
While emotions are high. Grief cancertainly cloud judgment. There are other
more immediate decisions you need to make, mostly tied around paying bills. So

(16:49):
this is making sure that you areas organized as possible. So, Carla,
this is an opportunity for you tostep in and help your mother navigate
some of these changes by going throughand getting organized. This would be gathering
information for bank statements, retirement accountstatements, credit card any kind of financial

(17:12):
documents that you can find you needto take. You need to get them
organized. We all know kind ofthe emotional fog that comes down right after
it just grief brings it. It'syou know, if everything feels overwhelming into
Carla, I love that you're askingthis question because I think This is a
very practical thing you can do fromthe get go. You know, when

(17:33):
you think about how many bills weall pay on a monthly basis, and
where the passwords are and where thoseaccounts are and keeping track of all that,
it can be incredibly overwhelming. Sohelping your mom yes, transfer things
into her name, get that stufffigured out, can be a great first
step. And it has to bethe first step, right, I mean,
bills have to be paid. Andthen also does your mom have your

(17:55):
father listed as a beneficiar arey onany accounts that she still has right now?
How is the time to update thoseas well? And these are things
that can easily fall through the cracks. And then if your mom was the
beneficiary on your father's financial or retirementaccounts, you need to have some kind
of strategy for transferring them to hername. If you've got a life insurance

(18:15):
policy there, make sure you've contactedthat company to let them know about your
father's passing and that payout process started. So there's a lot, a lot
to be done here, and Ithink it can be incredibly overwhelming at this
point. Check check with his employerto ask about unpointed Unplayton salary, bonuses
for vacations, sick days, retirementplan details, and make sure that that

(18:38):
you are getting enough copies of certifieddeath certificates from the funeral home. I
mean somewhere between ten twenty tops,I would say would cover it, depending
on how many different accounts exist ondifferent platforms. But it's all about making
sure that you're not making the hugeemotional decisions right now, but getting organized

(18:59):
and handling some of the smaller thingslike bills. Let's get to Tim's question
quickly from Lawrenceburg. What's your thoughton having more than one credit card?
I mean, this is one whereyou need to look in the mirror,
because I would ask, why doyou have more than one credit card?
If you're responsible and you're using themto capitalize on some of the benefits that

(19:22):
one credit card is going to offerversus another credit card, and you're paying
off those debts, then that's wonderful. Again, we are not against having
credit cards. Amy says this.She saw somebody at a workshop once and
they came up and said, you'llbe so proud of me. I cut
up all my credit cards and it'slike, well, let's pump the brakes.
It's good to have one as longas yeah. I mean maybe if
that person had thirty thousand dollars adebt and they tackled it over several years,

(19:45):
then that's wonderful. But this reallyjust depends on the reason behind why
you would want to have more thanone. And if it's to get points
and you're paying off that debt,then great. More know yourself, right,
and if more than one credit cardis going to get you in trouble,
you stick with one. The keyis paying it off in full every
month. If more than one it'shard for you to keep track of,

(20:06):
don't go there. And if youare really responsible and you can manage both
cards or a number of cards andmaximize those points, I think the call
is really yours. Coming up next, we've got financial advice for a certain
portion of the population that is oftenlooked down upon. We'll explain. You're
listening to Simply Money, presented byall Worth Financial here in fifty five KRC,
the talk station fifty five KARC,an iHeartRadio station. You're listening to

(20:34):
Simply Money, percent of by allWorth Financial. I'man Wagner along with Steve
Ruby. Some of us envy them. Sometimes they're misunderstood. We are talking
about couples, couples known as dinksdual income, no kids. It's funny
that we're talking about this because sometimesmy husband and I will be talking about

(20:55):
a couple and these amazing trips thatthey're going on or something, and we'll
just look at each other and belike, thinks. You know, dual
income no kids sounds so derogatory.It's not right. It's two people who
are both working, who've never hadkids. They've got two incomes coming in
and not the I will say thisfinancial drain of children. I love I

(21:17):
love mine very much, but Imean, let's face it. I think
the research says that the average costof raising kids to the age of eighteen
is north two hundred and thirty seventhousand dollars for one kid. That's a
lot of vacations that dinks can takethat we can't. You know, it's
like chi ching, chi ching,chi ching. In your mind, you've
got one kid, we've got four, So you multiply that times four and

(21:37):
practically dink compared to you, huhexactly. Yeah, However, you don't
even know what I'm talking about here. But no, I mean, there's
a lot of people who make thisdecision. You know, they get married
or they want to get married,but they decide for whatever reason that they're
not going to have kids, andtheir financial planning is different, their financial
situation is different. Yeah. Imean a couple of our best friends.

(22:00):
Actually they're in this category, andthey lived in northern Kentucky. They were
both they worked in a school districtand they took a job in North Africa
and Morocco. They moved to Marrakesh, where the cost of living is almost
non existent, but they're getting Americanwages. Wow, these two are just
rich, super rich. Yeah,they're making bank they're living in luxury,
they're traveling all over Europe, Africa, Asia. They don't have any children

(22:23):
exactly. There's a little bit ofjealousy there, even though, like you
said, I absolutely adore my daughterand I have an eight year old daughter
at home and she's amazing. Iwouldn't trade her for anything, of course,
but my god, the opportunity whenyou're in a situation where you don't
have to pay for children is unmatched. Yeah. And for many of the
people who fall into thistink category,they're number one thing that they spend on

(22:45):
is travel like kind of like you'rementioning the friends of yours. And I
think that's where it comes down,right, when you've got families with kids,
you're traveling to soccer tournaments. Youknow, maybe you get a few
days at the beach or whatever.These people are in Marrakesh, they are
in Europe, they're doing all thethings or whatever. Their top spending category
is often, yeah, discretionary income. Uh, and it's it's it's the

(23:07):
travel. Hobbies. Hobbies are second. I like this one. Pets came
into a close third. So italmost seems to me like they're trying to
fill a missing niche. You know, they don't have children, So here's
our our fur babies, here's ourcats. And I know some like this,
right, it's like the member oftheir family. All the conversations,
listen, wherever you fall in thespectrum. We're not saying there's anything wrong

(23:33):
with any of the decisions that you'remaking. You know, if you've got
kids and you're spending the money onthem, and if you don't have kids
and you're not spending the money onthem, uh, you know that's the
part that doesn't matter. It's it'show you understand that your financial planning is
looking maybe a little bit different.Yeah, so I thinks that they don't
want to move again. It justfeels a weird saying it, doesn't it
It's like it's derogatory, but it'snot you said it yourself at all.

(23:56):
It's it's a per term. Yeah, exactly. It's a personal decision.
And and obviously planning is a littlebit different. How you spend your money
is a little bit different. There'sthe reality that if you do have children
and you're a dink, oftentimes youwould have to move to a new city
and these people they just to walkto if they do. And I think
it's like, if you're worried aboutthe school district that you're living in,

(24:17):
right, you're in an urban area, you're living downtown. Schools aren't the
best. Now you're looking at movingto the suburbs or figuring out what the
best school district is and moving there, not necessarily where you want to live.
That's exactly what happened to us,is it really? Oh yeah,
we were in cincinnatiya having a goodtimes, Like, okay, we need
to move to the burbs now,yeah, right for the school district.
And then your whole lifestyle. Right, it changes a lot, you know,

(24:38):
and that's just kind of part ofthat decision making. I think a
few things. First of all,we would say, and this is,
I don't know if you're a dink, and if you're not a dink,
if you've got kids as well,that fully funded emergency account, right,
that's going to make such a difference. And if the two of you are
putting money into that, stacking savingsin there, it's just going to give
you so much more flexibility to focuson whatever is important to you. Yeah,

(25:03):
I mean, you still have toplan. And that's the thing because
part of think it is dual income. Yeah, so there's oftentimes situations where
it can be easy to live alittle bit more extravagantly, to spend money
on these vacations because you don't haveto spend money on children. But you
do need that emergency fund, youneed that financial foundation. You both should

(25:26):
be saving in four o one case. You both need to take advantage of
the savings opportunities that are available toyou, you know. And I think
one of the things you have tokeep in mind here too is if everyone's
on the same page, right,dual income, and you are aligned on
your goals, it's just that mucheasier to get there. Much of the
show we talk about, Okay,you're helping kids save for college pay for

(25:51):
college at the same time you're savingfor your own retirement. When that's out
of the picture, it's what areyour goals, let's work on them together,
and I think you can get there, you know, a lot faster.
And then I think it's then youcan look at, Okay, we're
fully funding retirement accounts, we're doinggreat with that. We also want to
go to Europe. Maybe that becomesthat much easier. So I think it's

(26:11):
just aligning on those goals, gettingon the same page. But then I
think estate planning looks very different becauseyou don't have children or inheritance necessarily that
you're thinking through. And so Ithink estate planning becomes more important because think
about it, if you don't havea will in place, and this goes
through probate, they're going to findyour closest living relative. Maybe you're close

(26:33):
to them, maybe you're not.Maybe you want your money to go to
the college that you went to,or a philanthropy or a nephew or something
like that. You need to makesure that that's very clear and all of
your estate planning so that your wishesare carried out when you're no longer here
a state. Planning is always animportant part of the financial planning conversation,

(26:55):
but you're right, it is alittle bit different. If anything, it
becomes a little bit more important becauseyou need to have an idea of where
you want your money to go inthe event that something were to happen to
you and your spouse prematurely, Sositting down having that conversation drafting up the
proper documents to get your assets inorder is a major planning maneuver that anybody

(27:15):
needs to do. But with thingsin particular, who's that money going to?
Is it going to a niece,a nephew, a brother, a
friend, a child of a friend. These are real conversations that you need
to have. And you know,I have plenty of folks that I work
with that don't have children. Thereality of the situation is, obviously,
there's less money that you need tospend on children if you don't have them,

(27:37):
obviously, and you have incredible savingspotential when you have double incomes without
that added expense. I have peoplethat have retired early. They've lived the
lifestyle that they wanted to live.They've traveled, they've had their hobbies,
and then they retired early because theysaved very aggressively. It is an opportunity
when you find yourself in a positionwhere you are ad it just gives I

(28:00):
think, more flexibility, you know. I mean that's a lot of money
when you look at about two hundredand forty thousand dollars per kid to raise
them to the age of eighteen.So yeah, I think you've got that
flexibility. I think on the flipside, though, long term care insurance
and things like that become that muchmore important. I mean, for most
of us, when we have kids, we would say the goal is not
that our kids are taking care ofus someday, but if it were necessary,

(28:23):
I think our kids probably would fullystep up. When you don't have
that option, that conversation about whathappens to one of us or both of
us if we can no longer takecare of each other. You know,
we don't have that next generation comingbehind us that we can lean on,
So a long term care insurance policybecomes more important, or figuring out at

(28:45):
least if you can self fund thosesituations if you need to go into like
a skilled care facility. So there'sjust different nuances I think that come along
with this situation. Lots of opportunitiesas well. The key is to understand
them fully. Here's the all Worthadvice. While those without kids may have
some financial advantages, you still needproper planning to make sure you can maximize

(29:08):
what you have. Coming up next, we're answering your questions. We are
asking the advisor. You're listening toSimply Money, presented by all Worth Financial
here on fifty five KRC, thetalk station. Welcome to you here.
Why do we keep letting thousands ofpeople come over and do nothing about it?
My family's safety is at risk.Fifty five KRC, the talk station.

(29:33):
You're listening to Simply Money, presentedby all Worth Financial. I meani
Wagon. You're along with Steve Rubystraight ahead. We're looking at whether this
might be something you want to trypaying your credit card every two weeks rather
than once a month. We'll getinto that. Do you have a financial
questions keeping you up at night?You and your spouse Maybe you aren't on
the same page. There's a redbutton you can click on while you're listening

(29:53):
to our show. It's right thereon the iHeart app. It's really easy.
Record your question. It's coming straightto u. Ask. We'd love
to help you figure it out.In fact, we're answering some of your
questions right now. The first onecomes from Dale and Colborn Township, who
says, I'm torn between paying formy kids schooling and saving for retirement.
What should I do? Figure outif you can afford to say for both.

(30:15):
Yeah, that's that's a lot ofsharing kind of Yeah, sit down,
work with a fiduciary financial planner,build out a financial plan, map
out your financial future, find abalance between your competing financial goals. Obviously,
we want to have a situation forour children where they were better off
than we were. That's a bigmotivation for me. You know, I
would love to be able to helppay for my daughter's schooling when the time

(30:37):
comes. But you they can borrowfor school if they need to. You
cannot borrow for retirement if you putyour savings off and didn't save enough.
Help comes in many different forms,anythink. For so many of us parents,
we think of it as just financialhelp. I just want to help
them pay for college. But sometimesif we're doing that to the detriment of
our own future and our own retirement. It can look like conversations about Okay,

(31:02):
what can you truly afford? Youknow, I think about my daughter
who's going to be a freshman incollege next year, starting in middle school.
She literally saw a school on Instagramthat had palm trees and was like,
that's where I want to go.Go in there. It's out of
state, not not necessarily had themajor that she wanted, or she knew
anything about it. She just sawthe palm trees. And we had to
have these tough conversations about the factthat, Okay, an out of state

(31:26):
school, right, you're going topay out of state tuition. In Kentucky,
we've got keys money that goes towardin state schools, like, so,
out of state isn't an option foryou. There's no money for that.
If you go farther, farther enoughsouth in Kentucky. Can it support
a palm tree in some of theseareas, Maybe, I don't know,
Maybe for a couple of months inthe summer and then you bring it inside.
I should just do that. Justtake a palm tree to one of

(31:48):
these campuses, take a picture,send it to her. She's good,
But no, as she's gotten older, she's realized that's not something that we
can afford. And so I thinksome of the conversations are some of the
help that we can give are justreally truthful conversations about what can be afforded,
and then talking to them about whatthey're planning on doing after school.
The simply money rule for all ofthis is always, Hey, don't take
out more in total student loans thanyou can expect to make in an income

(32:13):
and that first year. So ifyou're taking out eighty thousand dollars in student
loans and you're going to be makingforty thousand dollars that first year out of
college, likely probably not the bestthing that you can do. It's a
big challenge to overcome. Yeah,maybe you don't live on camthus, maybe
you stay at home. These aretough decisions, but again I think parents
can be involved in helping their kidsmake smart financial decisions without necessarily paying for

(32:37):
everything. Next question comes from Carland Cindy and cleaves from a tax standpoint,
should we gift shares of stocks toor adult kids now or just let
them eventually inherit? Those shares froma tax standpoint, and no doubt about
it. Letting them inherit the sharesis a bigger benefit because those shares will
receive a step up and basis whichis that base lying to calculate the tax

(33:00):
liability once those shares are sold.So if you sell the shares on the
day to death, then ultimately there'sno tax liability because there's been no gains.
So it's a big opportunity. Nowif you're charitably inclined and you're looking
to maybe get involved with a charity, then then you can give your appreciated
shares away in life and you don'thave to pay the capital gains taxes once

(33:23):
you make that donation to your children. Not the same story. They would
have to pay the capital gains taxeswhen they sold those shares if they were
received in life. I like thatCarlin Sandy are asking this question because we
are really fortunate here in the Cincinnatiarea and the fact that we've got huge
companies Procter and Gamble, Kroger age sentas where people are you know,

(33:45):
feel really strongly about maybe working forthose companies or they buy that stock because
we know and we love these companiesand how much they do for our area.
And you know, so, Ithink there's a lot of people in
this situation where they do have alot of company stocks. So I think
that the probably most if you wantto give something to your adult children while
you're still alive, is cash isprobably your best option at that point.

(34:08):
Knowing that that stepped up basis ofwhen they inherit that stock, that it's
much more tax friendly to them makesa lot of sense. Next question comes
from Tony and Westwood. I justdiscovered my husband has a vastly different sense
of what retirement looks like, andhey, we're about five years away.
Any suggestions for how we can findsome common ground. I love this question

(34:30):
because years ago, the first timemy now ex husband and I sat down
to have this conversation, we werenot only on different pages, we were
on different planets. How bad wasit? It was really bad. You
know, I wanted to retire youaround sixty five. I wanted to travel
and spend time with the grandkids.And you know, he, you know,

(34:52):
was like, I never want toretire. You know that didn't necessarily
feel like, you know, needto plan for it, because you know,
the thought him was it, We'lljust keep working, and it was
like and I just felt like,gosh, do we really even know each
other? And that didn't end upworking out, not in this situation.
It didn't work out for our situationin Western Yeah, I'm not saying that

(35:14):
that is the path that you're goingdown, but I'm saying that many people
have found themselves in the same page. Right, you're just doing life,
and life doesn't always involved talking aboutwhat's going to happen twenty years in the
future or even five years in thefuture. But now you have this information,
I think what needs to happen nextis a lot of conversations about figuring
out what a middle ground looks like. Well, maybe you're both giving up

(35:37):
something, but you're also getting somethingand just kind of trying to get in
some kind of alignment. You builda plan. I mean, I sound
like a broken record for some ofthis, but you need to sit down
with a financial plan or build aplan and understand when, not necessarily when
retirement is, but when financial freedomis. Because once you have that financial
freedom, it opens the door upto have slightly different perspectives on how you're

(35:58):
going to spend your time in reachretirement. But yeah, this is not
just a retirement planning conversation. Thisis almost a counseling one. You need
to have some serious conversation. I'mglad you said that because I actually think
that as financial advisors, that's oftenwhat we do. Right. A lot
of that has to do with justhelping to figure out the way forward and
knowing that we've helped many other couplesget there too. Coming up next,

(36:19):
are there benefits to making two creditcard payments each month instead of one?
We're looking at that. You're listeningto Simply Money, percented by all Worth
Financial here on fifty five KRC,the Talk Station. Would I have to
choose between groceries for my kids orgas for my car? Talk about it
here fifty five KRC, the TalkStation. Yeah, you're listening to you

(36:43):
Simply Money, persented by all WorthFinancial. I'm Emy Wagner along with Steve
Ruby. Does your budget include acredit card payment once a month? What
would happen then if you stepped itup and you made a credit card payment
twice a month? Now, someof you might think that sounds crazy,
but it actually can make sense fora lot of us. Yeah, I
mean interest is constantly accruing. Thisisn't every day. Yeah, it doesn't

(37:05):
build on end a month. Okay, here's all your interest. It is
calculated on a daily basis based onyour current balance, so that interest is
building throughout the month, each andevery day. If you wait to make
that payment, then what it doesis it can affect your credit utilization ratio.
This is something my husband makes sunof me all the time for whatever

(37:28):
reason. I will umit for manyreasons, but one of them being I'm
obsessed about my credit score. Okay, and one of the major components of
our credit scores is credit utilization,and that means how much available credit is
out there for you in the formof loans, and how much is the
entire amounts that you can put onthat credit card, right that credit card
limit? And then how much areyou actually taking advantage? And the lower

(37:50):
that ratio is the better. Infact, the people who've got the highest
credit scores often take advantage of lessthan ten percent of what's available to them.
If you're having a month that youhad an extra large expense on that
credit card, right, I oftenwell, and I look at our credit
card bill, probably at least oncea week. But if it's a little
higher than it normally is paying itoff now so that that credit ratio looks

(38:15):
better on that credit report can actuallymake a lot of sense. It does
because it lowers the credit utilization ratio, especially in a high expense month.
I do want to highlight something herethat I did, and this is based
on feedback that we had a showmaybe last year. You can call your
credit card company and say can Ihave a higher credit limit? Yes,
And if you're a good customer,it's like a large percentage of the time

(38:37):
they'll say okay, yeah. IActually I did it online through the app
and it took a couple of minutes. I put a stupid high number,
yeah, I did, and theycame back and said, well, here's
a slightly less stupid high number.Yeah, And I said okay, and
my credit utilization ratio went down,my credit score ran up, just by
clicking a button on the phone app. That's a great point, and I
think, yes, some of it, it's just some of the time,

(38:58):
it's just kind of taking some stepand making sure that you're educated on how
best right to manage your credit score. And then I also think that just
checking that balance on a weekly ora bi weekly basis gets you much more
in touch with your spending and yourbudget. So if things feel out of
control and you're carrying a balance,looking at that, maybe then that next
purchase, when you whip out thatcredit card, you're like, do I

(39:20):
really need this? Right? Ilooked at my balance this month and it's
already really high. Do I reallyneed so? I think for a lot
of reasons, being more in touchand maybe making two credit card payments a
month can make a lot of sense. Thanks for listening tonight. You've been
listening to Simply Money Pause some ofit all worth Financial here on fifty five
KRC, the talk station. That'sanother presidential election.