Simply Money

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Tonight, is retirement actually a stupididea? A prominent political commentator thinks,
so should you. Of course,we'll tell you what we think. You're
listening to Simply Money, presented byall Worth Financial Amami Wagner along with Andy
Shaeffer. Okay, so lots ofpeople having big responses. Andy to what
columnist, lawyer, author, politicalcommentator? He's got a lot of titles.

(00:30):
Ben Shapiro said on his podcast recently, I'll just give you the quote
and then I'll let you react.He said, frankly, I think retirement
itself is a stupid idea unless youhave some sort of health problem. Uh
yeah. He might not be intouch with the reality of everyday workers,
the people who get out of bedevery Monday and count how many more Mondays

(00:53):
they have to until they can retire, right, I mean, so,
what is this guy? He getsup at what ten am, makes his
coffee and gets on a podcast.I mean, that's yeah, it's easy
for him to say that, youknow, he doesn't has, you know,
probably work until he's you know,eighty, by just talking on the
uh, you know, on thecomputer. So I think it's a little
misguided, you know, I don'tthink he's taken into account blue collar workers.

(01:17):
I have a lot of family andfriends that are blue collar workers,
you know, I have a lotof clients that are blue collar workers.
And you know, you start gettinginto your mid to late fifties, particular,
if you're blue collar and your yourbody just can't handle it anymore.
I have one client in particular I'mthinking about. He has an HVAC company,
and he's in his late fifties,and he's he tells me every time
I see him, he says,man, I don't I just don't know

(01:38):
how much longer I can go.And so, you know, I understand
what he's saying. People are livinglonger, you know, and if you
enjoy your job and you like tobe productive, I understand that. But
to make a blanket statement like that, I think is reckless. Yeah.
First of all, mister Shapiro,he's forty years old, He's worth like
fifty million dollars. He has amedia empire, right, he probably could

(02:01):
retire today if he wanted to,And he could retire today and be just
fine. So yeah, I thinkhe's a little out of touch. You
know, you go back to whenretirement even began. I mean, it
used to be that most Americans workedon farms and until they could no longer
get to the field, and thenit was like maybe they just like expired

(02:23):
while they were in the middle ofthe corn rows, like that's how it
used to be. And then peoplestarted working, to your point in blue
collar jobs like factories making cars forFord, and Ford realized, you know,
first of all, you have topay people so much as they continue
to work and work and work.So they figured out that the pension system
was actually better for them. Second, twenty four year olds on a factory

(02:46):
line probably going to be faster andin better shape than maybe you are going
to be when you're seventy four yearsold. So the whole system sort of
made sense. We sort of changedas an entire country and economy. And
then I think about, you know, mister, have you thought about pilots.
Do you want a pilot piloting theairplane that you're on who's ninety seven
years old? Probably not. Youknow, do you want a doctor who

(03:10):
can no longer see diagnosing you?Probably not. So whatever you think about
this man's political viewpoints, you knowthat aside, I would question what he
is saying about retirement as a concepthere. But I will say some of
the points that he went on tomake, in my opinion, are not

(03:32):
super far from the mark. Yeah, and I think that, you know,
when you know, some of thethings that I think he was actually
trying to say doesn't really reflect youknow, that quote. And I think
what he was trying to say isthat we just really shouldn't rely on social
security when we retire. You know, my grandparents' generation, like you said,

(03:53):
Amy, you know that that generation, they got out of high school,
they worked one job, they workedit for thirty years, and their
their retirement was social security and apension. Yeah. Uh, you know,
my grandparents, you know, didn'thave two nickels to rub together,
and that's what they depended on.You know. But you know, I
think his thoughts, you know,were also about people losing their edge,

(04:15):
you know, if you if youstop working. And I can understand that.
I remember early in my career,I accepted a new position at another
broken's firm, and between the onethat job that I had and the one
that I was starting, there werethree weeks that I had him between those
two jobs. The first week wasgreat, you know, I was being
lazy bones scouts data. It wasawesome. The next week, you know,

(04:35):
I started feeling like I wanted toget back into the workforce. In
the third week, I was crazy. I felt like I wasn't being productive.
I felt like my mind was kindof turning them much to some degree.
So I do understand some of hispoints about staying active, trying to
find you know, activities, andretirement to keep keep your mind sharp,
keep your body sharp. Uh,but I think his delivery was just off

(04:59):
base. One of the points thathe makes about social security is, first
of all, you shouldn't plan onliving off of that. I agree.
Actually, the system was never setup to support more than forty percent of
what you're bringing home. You know, and you're talking about our parents,
our grandparents' generation, they had whatwas referred to in retirement as a three
legged stool. They had the pensionwhich their employer was taking care of.

(05:21):
They had one hundred percent of theirpromised Social Security benefits. So if the
third leg, which was the partthat was on them right, their personal
savings for retirement came up a littleshort, well, that was okay,
we don't have a three legged stoolto anymore. Most of us don't,
right. I mean, one ofthose legs, pension for many of us
is completely gone. Then you talkabout social security and the fact that that's

(05:46):
certain leg and now all of asudden, the leg that you're contributing to
becomes so very important, and soyou know that it has to be on
you to save and plan for retirement. But one of the things he says
is, and he's a proponent of, is raising full retirement age to the
age of seventy. When this systemwas first set up in the nineteen thirties,

(06:08):
full retirement age was sixty five.Guess what, most Americans didn't live
to sixty five at that time.No one got to the point where they
were claiming. There have been somany medical advancements since then, most of
us are living longer. And soI don't necessarily think that raising full retirement
age is the worst idea. Whatwe know is that there is a social

(06:30):
security crisis, and if something doesn'thappen before the year twenty thirty four,
you're likely going to get seventy fiveeighty percent of your promise benefit. This
is a really this is a politicalhot potato. You know, we've been
so lucky on this show that wehave had us senators come on the show
many times and and sort of weighin with different issues and things that are
going on in Washington. Every singleone of them. I have brought up

(06:55):
the social security issue. And youwant to talk about watching a man's tap
dance? Wow, I mean,it just didn't want to go there.
And I would ask repeatedly and manytimes and very pointedly, you know,
and it is something that has tobe addressed, and it is not you
know, any way that you go. Whether you're raising full retirement age,
whether you're taxing people who have savedbetter for retirement, all of these things

(07:18):
are going to be unpopular. Butyou got to think back, this has
been done before, raising full retirementage, and we've all survived it,
right, We've all been okay.And so I don't think that what Ben
Shapiro saying about raising full retirement ageas an option for saving the Social Security
system, it's terrible. It isone option that I think it needs to

(07:41):
be on the table and needs tobe considered. Now, what he's saying
about retirement overall completely off base.You're listening to simply money presented by all
Worth Financial Imemi Wagner along with AndySchaeffer. Sometimes we just see things in
the headlines and things that people aretalking about when it comes to your money
and your retirement and your investments,and we have to sound off, right,
We have to add our voice tothe conversation. And so you know

(08:03):
this, this huge political pundit issounded off saying he thinks retirement is a
joke and if you retire, you'regoing to lose your edge. For many
people, I see incredibly fulfilled livesin retirement. I mean, I wonder
what he is referring to when he'ssaying losing your edge. For most people,
they want to spend more time withgrandkids, They like to travel more.

(08:24):
Are they mentally not as sharp asthey were before? I don't think
so well, Especially if you havegrandkids. You know they'll keep you active.
You know, they'll keep you sharp. You know, when I'm around
my nieces and nephews, you know, the intelligence that they have keeps me
on my toes. You know,they'll recognize things and point things out.

(08:45):
And you know, sometimes I underestimatetheir intellectual capabilities and they surprise me all
the time. But you know,I think you know, to another degree.
You know, when you talk aboutretirement, that doesn't necessarily mean that
you're not going to be productive.Most of Michael when they retire, even
if they retire early, they findother things that they are interested in.
I have one client that works atLLBAN. I have another client that started

(09:11):
woodworking and now he builds guitars,you know. And I have another client.
It was funny because he and hiswife decided that they wanted to work
in Low's garden center. The neatthing about that older generation, and to
the detriment of them to some degree, is that they just wanted to work
twenty hours a week. Said,you know, Andy, we're just going
to work twenty hours a week.The problem is is that generation, super

(09:33):
disciplined, shows up on time,and before you know it, they're asked
to be the manager and they're workingforty hours a week. So if you
do decide that you want to findsomething that you enjoy, whether it's working
on a golf course or volunteering orthings like that, make sure you set
boundaries and guidelines for the hours thatyou want to put in because that generation

(09:54):
particularly is very disciplined, works veryhard, and so you want to make
sure that you do have guidelines ifyou do go back to work. To
some degree, I think retirement meansdifferent things to different people. I mean,
for some, you've been working fortyfifty sixty hours for years now and
you just want to be done.You don't ever want to have to clock
in, you don't ever want tohave to be responsible for anything, and

(10:15):
you're not worried about a paycheck.That's great if that's what works for you.
To your point, Andy, there'sa number of people that use it
as a way to pivot. Maybeyou know, you've been doing something for
years that you're no longer passionate about, but in the background, you actually
really love woodworking and making guitars andmusic, and so that gives you the
opportunity to do that if you makea little extra money on the side.

(10:37):
Absolutely. I was in Subway lastweek with my son. He was grabbing
a sandwich between basketball games, andthe man in front of us and line
said, you know, are youAmy Wagner. I listened to you all
the time, and he said,I'm retired. Well, I'm kind of
retired. He said, I actuallyhave a small lawn cutting business. And
he said, and I do thatto pay for my Bengals tickets. Cool,

(10:58):
brilliant, Right, Bengals tickets aren'tcheap, right, any any admission
tun NFL Stadium never cheap. Heenjoys that. I don't know if he
could afford it with his retirement ornot, but he does something on the
side that it's fun, he says, my wife loves it. It gets
me out of the house, paysfor my Bengals tickets. Win win.

(11:18):
You know, I don't know ifhe considers that fully retired. He still
got some paycheck coming in. Buthe has the flexibility to do what he
wants to do. And I don'tthink you can overstate that. So,
mister Shapiro, we don't agree withyou when it comes to retirement. We
think it means lots of different thingsto different people. I do not think
it means losing your edge, andI do also, though, agree,
social Security is a system that weneed to look at that may include raising

(11:41):
full retirement age. Who knows.We'll see what they come up with in
Washington. Here's the all Worth advice. We believe everyone's financial journey is unique,
not one size fits all. Comingup next, we're gonna tackle specific
mindsets that could hurt your financial progress. You're listening to Simply Money presented by
all Worth Financial here in fifty fiveK see the talk station. You're listening

(12:03):
to Simply Money presentably all Worth Financial. I mean, we Wagner along with
Andy Schaefer. If you can't listento our show every night, you do
not have to miss a thing.We have a daily podcast where you just
search simply Money. It's right thereon the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. Coming up at sixforty three, we've got four questions that
we would say that you and yourspouse need to be asking each other,

(12:24):
especially maybe if you have just retired. We'll get into that. Okay,
so financial independence it requires making smartmoney decisions. But there's a mental component
to this as well. Andy.It's having the right kind of mindset.
And you know, we kind ofcome across some mindsets, you know,
after working with people for so manyyears, and you're like, yeah,

(12:45):
that's probably not going to cut it. Let's get into some of those.
Yeah, it's interesting that and thisis something that is interesting to me too.
The psychological aspect of money is somethingthat I'm learning more and more about
the way that you think about money, how you approach money, and a
lot of times it can be counterintuitiveto the way that you should really approach
it. You know, a lotof times people say, you know,

(13:09):
more money will solve all my problems. Well, that mindset can be harmful
because it can lead to neglecting nonfinancial aspects of your life. So,
just because you strive to make moremoney, that is not going to make
whatever problems that you have in yourlife go away. That is not the
answer. You know, you wantto make sure that you do prioritize a

(13:33):
little bit of continuing growth in yourfinancial plan, but you don't want that
to take precedence over, you know, the expense of your personal relationships,
your health, and your personal fulfillment. So it's really important to find a
balance between money and happiness, youknow. You know, I work with
a lot of people that you know, enjoy simple things in life. I

(13:56):
like going to Frish's that doesn't costa lot of money. So, you
know, just because you've accumulated moremoney, that is not the answer to
your health, of your life andthe problems that you might be dealing with
from every day challenges. Well,I think you can you can make more
money, but you can also spendmore money. So it's this vicious cycle
that you're never going to get outof. So I think you have to

(14:18):
figure out how to have a positive, really healthy relationship with money. And
if you don't, and you're continuingto spend and you're in debt and you're
thinking, well, you just needmore, more money will help solve these
problems. Absolutely not. You've gotto figure out exactly what the problems are
and solve them yourself. But there'salso been research done on money and happiness

(14:39):
and it shows you know, afteryou get passed, it depends from year
to year seventy to ninety thousand dollarsin income, you're no happier. So
you might think if I make more, I'll be less stressed, right,
and that's going to make no,no, no, no, it actually
doesn't. It doesn't solve any moreproblems. There's research that shows this,
so terrible minds that to have moneydoesn't not solve problems. You have to

(15:01):
solve your problems, and if youhave them with money, they're not just
going to go away on their own. Lots of people also have this mindset,
I'm going to get to retirement later. I'm gonna start saving for it
later. You know, I thinkabout Andy, you and I we're both
in our forties, and you know, for many who have you know,
kids at this age, it's youknow, they played travel sports and it's

(15:22):
expensive, or you think you're goingto start saving after they finish with this
sport, or you're going to startsaving after you finish that big trip to
Europe next year. Well, there'salways going to be a next thing,
and so you have to start now. And even if you're starting small,
it's better than nothing. Yeah,I think the most important thing is just
getting in good habits. You know, when I was a kid, I

(15:43):
remember my mom and dad just puttinga little bit away when I was a
kid, whatever they could do,even if it was five dollars a month,
right, just to get in thosegood saving habits. Now that being
said, I will say this,and this is the case in my fam
in my parents' case as well.Most people actually don't start accumulating real wealth

(16:06):
until their forties and fifties. Andso I get it right, It's hard,
especially if you're raising a family andyou have kids. You know,
most people are just trying to keeptheir head above water, trying to pay
the bills, you know, makesure that their kids are taken care of,
and a lot of those things.And usually once the kids are out
of the house and hopefully off thepayroll, that's when you start accumulating real

(16:27):
wealth. So I do see thatoccurring with my experiences with my clients.
However, again, I think it'simportant to getting good saving habits and being
able for a little bit of moneyaway when you can, and also increasing
those savings as you continue on.You know, if you get a raise
at your job, reward yourself witha little bit of extra money in your

(16:48):
bank account, but also try toadd a little bit more to your four
to one k. You know,after the first couple of months of those
savings, you're not going to missthat money. So I think there is
a sweet well, I think ifyou think about it, if you're someone
who's like, I'm gonna wait untilthe kids get out of college and then
I'll start saving, many of usare having kids later and later in life,

(17:10):
so that runway between your child graduatingand you retiring is becoming shorter and
shorter, and you are missing outon that sort of magical power of compounding.
So I love the point that youmade about your parents. Even if
they're saving just five dollars a month, it's something. And then that money
has more time to grow. So, and here's another one that can really
get you in a hole. Spendingless is the same as saving more.

(17:36):
Now I say this often money notgoing out is the same as money coming
in. So you know, ifyou pay off your mortgage before retirement,
you're essentially giving yourself a raise.However, not spending money is not the
same as investing that money in givingthat money the chance to grow, you
can put it under your mattress.Great, you know it's not ever going

(17:59):
to outpace inflation that way. Yeah, and this is where the psychology gets
interesting to me. You know,when you think about save spending less is
the same as saving more. Thepsychology behind this mindset can limit your financial
growth. And one of the waysthat it can do that is it can
prevent you from seeking growth and exploringopportunities to increase your income. It can

(18:22):
hinder your drive to continue to achieveand exceed your financial expectations from an income
point of view. So if youthink, well, instead of trying to
achieve my financial goals through hard work, discipline, capitalistic approaches. Instead of
achieving those types of goals, I'mjust going to limit my outflows that can

(18:47):
hinder some of your personal growth andfinancial growth. So that's the type of
psychology and mindset that is very curiousto me, but it does make sense
to me as well. Another harmfulmindset is about keeping up with the Joneses.
Now, I'm betting if I askedone hundred of you, if you
actually try to keep up with theJoneses, you'd be like, no,
I do not. And I'm gonnacall BS on that one. Because most

(19:07):
of us are on social media andthere is just something that gets in and
you may not even be aware ofit, but you start to think,
wait a second, I went tocollege with him, and he can afford
that house. I should be ableto afford that house, or that vacation
or that kind of car. Youdon't know what I will say. If
they could put on Social Security whatsomeone's credit score is or credit card debt,

(19:30):
then maybe you could say, okay, should we should be able to
afford that? But don't try tokeep up with the Joneses. Here's the
all Worth advice. The key tofinancial freedom. It's really not just about
money. It's about how you thinkof those dollars and what you'll ultimately do
with them. Coming up next,the rules of thumb when deciding who's going
to become your power of attorney.It's incredibly important. You're listening to Simply

(19:51):
Money and presented by all Worth Financialhere on fifty five KR see the talk
station listening to Simply Money, presentedby all Worth Financial. Immi Wagner along
with Steve Riby. I think thisis something that's probably on your list of
things to do if you don't haveall of your estate planning documents in order,

(20:14):
one that maybe people tend to putoff, but it's incredibly important.
Tonight we're joined by Mark Reckman,our state planning expert from the law firm
of Wood and Lamping, talking abouta power of attorney. Mark, I
want to get into what exactly thepower of attorneys are, why you need
them, and also, more importantly, how do you know who to choose?
Oh? Exactly And a lot ofpeople are confused by the phrase power

(20:37):
of attorney because they think it requiresa lawyer. And while a lawyer prepares
this document, the document actually isdesigned to appoint someone else to be your
agent to make decisions for you,and it isn't usually the lawyer. So
when would you talk Let's talk aboutwhen you would need these, So this

(21:00):
would act on your behalf, ifyou're on vacation, if you're sick,
if you are temporarily indisposed for anyparticular reason. Also, sometimes in partnerships
or in marriages, you have oneparty who does most of the money managing
or most of the financial decisions,and if the other partner in the marriage

(21:22):
signs of power of attorney, thenthe acting partner can sign for both of
them and make decisions for both ofthem, which for many people that's constructive.
For other people, they prefer tomake their own decisions. Lots of
reasons. Right as you mentioned whyyou would want these. I think you
even brought up one time your sonwas hiking the Appalachian Trail, not so
easy to be found there. Hemade you his power of attorney. Well,

(21:45):
and most people who hike the trailtry to minimize their weight and carrying
a cell phone. And you know, nowadays, Amy, I think people
probably do carry a cell phone.But ten years ago you didn't carry a
cell phone. You didn't carry anythingyou didn't need every day. But a
power of attorney was very helpful tomy son because it took him four months

(22:07):
to walk that trail from end toend, and something came up while he
was gone, something that he didn'treally expect. It was a glitch.
He had eye surgery before he didit, so that he didn't have to
wear contacts, and he had setup the payment plan for the surgeon,
and sometime while he was gone,the payment plan failed for some reason.
I don't remember what, but Iwas able to call the bank and call

(22:30):
the doctor and get the thing rightback on track, and everyone was in
good shape. In that case,he picked me to be his agent.
He was single at the time,and I was available and glad to do
it for him. And you know, I think many people think of a
power of attorney as sort of endof life, you know, incapacitated,

(22:51):
that sort of thing. You know, and you are going to need in
that situation, someone who can makedecisions for you, both both medical and
financial. Well, that's exactly right. And for married people it's usually the
spouse, but it doesn't have tobe. It's often children and when,
as you said, if you're elderlyor infirm. Your kids may be the
logical place to go for this,if they're adults and they're good at this.

(23:15):
And what I tell people is thatit's important to pick someone that you
trust to act in your best interest. And this is one of what I
call the seven rules of choosing anagent in your power of attorney. You
got to start with the single mostimportant thing, and that's trustworthiness. People
have to act honestly, deliberately,and transparently, and that list is everybody.

(23:41):
Most people know someone who can dothat, and for those people who
don't, you're going to need toget professional help. I think another part
of this, too, Mark,is this needs to be someone who can
remain level headed in a time ofcrisis. Now, with the example of
your son and the applation Chail,that was not a crisis. But if
it is your parent or your spouse, your loved one in a you know,

(24:03):
a medical emergency, you know youcan't talk to them, and this
person just you know, cannot keepit together, cannot remain cool in order
to make you know, smart decisions, probably not your person. And I
think I think that's right, amyof course, but I think it also
comes down in sort of two waysthat that's important. One, the person

(24:26):
has to have the emotional capacity,which is what you're talking about, the
ability to stay level headed and makedecisions that are tough and do so promptly.
But also it's important that someone hasthe time, had the emotional capacity,
and the time to take to findout what they need to know before
making decisions. I think about mybest friend who is incredibly cool, calm

(24:51):
and collected under the worst kinds ofcircumstances, and when she makes a decision,
she she's on it like she's decisive, she will execute, She's insanely
organized and thinking. Those are probablyall great characteristics for someone if you're looking
for in this kind of situation.Well and being well organized is important.
On my list, it's item numberthree on my seven lists of an item

(25:14):
list. But that doesn't mean thatthey need to be an accountant. They
don't need to be a lawyer ora financial planner like you. They just
you can hire those skills. Theyjust need to be organized enough to know
where to get the help they need. I think sometimes you know, for
parents, particularly parents who have multiplechildren, if you're trying to think through
which ones should act in this kindof a way right as a power of

(25:37):
attorney, And sometimes I think thatthere's no agreement among the kids, like
why did you choose that one.One component of it is if there's other
kids that are out of town,but one that's closer to you, it
just makes it easier. You know, that's becoming less and less important,
but it certainly is still relevant tomost of us, helpful at least important.

(25:57):
It's just playing easier for someone wholives in your community to go to
the banks, to collect to addyour accounts, to collect your mail.
There's a lot of very routine dayto day things if you're sick that you
can't handle. If there's someone local, it's easier. Now, that's a
lot can be said for setting thesethings up out of town. Both of

(26:21):
my boys are strong technologically. Theycan do things from afar that I can't
do here, So I don't wantto rule that out, but it is
an advantage to be close by.And what about too, I kind of
mentioned if you've got multiple children andyou're choosing one, should you worry about
the fact that someone else might gettheir feelings hurt or is it going to

(26:42):
stir up any kind of controversy inthe family. Well, sure you do
think about that, but you reallycan't be controlled by that. I think
it's important to be sensitive to themembers of the family who are included or
excluded. On the other hand,you have to pick the person based on
these objective criteria that you and Iare talking about. You can't try to

(27:03):
avoid looking like you're playing favorites.I'm a big fan of using co agents,
and what I mean by that isthat you have one person that you
name, and then you name anotherperson as a backup. I am not
a fan of having two simultaneous agents. That is a nightmare. You don't
want to have two people acting atthe same time. On the other hand,

(27:26):
it is important to have a primaryagent and then a backup agent.
And if you have two kids,then they're that way, they're both involved.
Or if you have more than twokids, you know that you can
list two or three backups. Eventually, you can include everybody if it's not
a gigantic family. But again Iwould not include people who are not well
suited for this kind of work.There are people who just aren't interested in

(27:51):
the drudgery of balancing people's checking accounts. And paying bills online and this is
not fun stuff. Yeah, sodon't hesitate to skip somebody who's not good
at it or not interested in it. Mark. For those listening who were
saying, well, I'm young,healthy, this is not something I need

(28:11):
to worry about, what do yousay to them, Well, I'm a
big fan in having these things donefor everybody. As I said before when
we were talking about my son beingon the Appalachian Trail that he was probably
twenty five at the time. Itell people, as soon as you get
eighteen, you ought to have yourkids sign a power of attorney. And
amy this conversation is about financial powersof attorney. There are powers of attorney

(28:36):
for healthcare as well. That's adifferent document, but those documents are just
as important because if you're injured,somebody needs to make medical decisions for you.
And so I tell people, whenyour kids turn eighteen nineteen twenty,
you ought to have them signed botha financial POA as well as a medical
POA. Great advice as always fromour estate planning expert, Mark Rekman from

(28:59):
the law firm of Wood and Lamping. Everyone needs a power of attorney.
How to make sure that you choosethe right agent for you. You're listening
to Simply Money presented by all WorthFinancial. You're in fifty five KRC,
the talk station. You're listening toSimply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I Meani Wagner along with Andy Schaefer. If you've got a financial question,

(29:21):
it's keeping you up at night.You and your spouse maybe just aren't on
the same page. There's a redbutton you can click them while you're listening
to the show. Right there onthe iHeart app record your question. It's
coming straight to us and straight aheadsigns you may be addicted to costco and
spending too much money there. Iactually know from people that I could say,

(29:41):
I think you have a bit ofan addiction. We talk all the
time about the importance of talking aboutmoney in your relationships, and we've said
it in the past, like,hey, when you're getting ready to or
your children or grandchildren are getting readyto get married, that has to be
a conversation with that person. Andit's not though even you know getting married
and then you're going to have kids. It is an ongoing conversation that continues

(30:04):
throughout the course of that relationship,even later in life, even when you
get to retirement, and so Ijust want to give some some ways to
figure out maybe if this is ahealthy conversation that you're having in what it
should look like. And one ofthem is how often do you talk about
it. I'm not saying this hasto be a daily basis, which probably
in my house, my people wouldbe like, oh my gosh, mom's
talking about money again. And that'sjust how my brain works. But you

(30:27):
know, I think about people likeAl Riddick that we have on our show,
right from game time budgeting. Ithink he and his wife sit down
monthly and they run their home likea business. They look at cash flow,
you know, they look at theirnet worth and they say, you
know, have we given our dollarsa job? And they're they're very serious
about that. What do you guysdo? Well, we have a very

(30:48):
specific approach. I pay the billsand she pays for all the fun things
that we do. Right, soyou keep money separate. We do keep
money separate. And so you know, my my our focus is you know,
when I tell Kender, I say, listen, you know, she
works two jobs. She's a veryhard worker, and for her, she

(31:08):
has specific goals that she wants toachieve. You know, we just recently
moved into a new house and oneof her financial goals was I want to
pay for all the new furniture.And I think that's great, right,
So we just divide kind of ourapproach. You know, I take care
of certain bills and she takes careof other bills. We don't have a

(31:30):
joint bank account, and I thinkpeople will always ask her, why wouldn't
you have a joint bank account.She always says, well, I don't
want Andy to know what I'm spendingmy money off. Whatever works for you.
But I also noticed that we aretalking about this. You're telling me
what financial goals are. You're awareof what each other's goals are. I'm
sure that you have some that lineup with each other. And that's part

(31:52):
of an ongoing conversation. If you'renever talking about money goals, how are
you going to get any closer toaccomplishing them? Right, So figure out
what your financial plan is. Andfor couples who it's really difficult to get
on the same page, I liketo look at this from like a values
based standpoint, figuring out maybe twoor three things that are important to both

(32:12):
of you. If you both lovetravel, if you prioritize family, if
you have family, and maybe educationis one of those. Okay, then
you look at how you're spending moneythrough those lenses. Is it helping us,
you know, spend time together asa family, or are we getting
to take these trips if we wantto help our kids get educated, are
we putting money into a five twentynine to help them do that? You

(32:35):
know? And if someone comes upwith something out of left field, like
I want to join a country clubbecause I want to play golf, well
I don't think so if the moneyisn't there because it doesn't line up with
what we've talked about, kind ofthat we're on the same page with.
So I think that's one thing thatyou can do. Investment risk, Are
we on the same page? Thisis a tough one. As you know
my ex husband and I, hedidn't have a ton of risk tolerance.

(32:58):
He was super conservative. I'm not, you know, I'm like, gosh,
I'm in my forties. I've gotplenty of time to save. But
it is it happens quite often wherenot everyone's on the same page. Yeah,
And when I meet with people forthe first time, it's interesting,
you know, going through a risktolerance you know, exercise and a lot
of times you'll you'll see surprise oneach each spouse's face when they are a

(33:22):
little bit unaligned, and it forcescouples to start to have conversations about,
you know, how aggressive can webe? What is our risk tolerance?
Is there a sweet spot there?And you can tell that these conversations haven't
been had before. But I thinkthat's why it's important to go through exercises

(33:43):
like this so it develops discussion andconversation. It's okay to have differing opinions,
but I think having an assion ishealthy and coming to some type of
conclusion is good for everybody. I'mgoing to tell you something that I've seen
happen several times, and that iswhere I say, Okay, you have
your own floral one k at work, and you have your own floral one
k at work. If you wantto be conservative, you be a little

(34:06):
more conservative in yours. And ifyour spouse tolerates more risk, let them
take on more risk. And thefunny thing is it ends up sort of
evening itself out, not only justbecause of what they're invested in, but
also over time, as they're communicating. In times that markets are up,
the one that's more conservative is like, you're starting to amass more money in

(34:27):
your account than I am. Onthe flip side, when the markets are
down, the one who is morerisky is looking at the other one.
So they tend to kind of cometo the middle over time. If they're
talking about those things. Another goodthing to figure out is are we keeping
good financial records? Right if somethingwere to happen to one of the other
ones, do we know where everythingis? Are we keeping good records?
That's all incredibly important. And Ialso just think both of you understanding what

(34:51):
the plan is so that if oneof you is incapacitated, the other one
can just jump in and not skipa beat. Yeah, it's important to
both have some exposure and participation infinancial matters, particularly within your investment portfolio
and your total financial portfolio. Ialways encourage my clients to come together as

(35:12):
a couple. Usually what you seeis there's one particular spouse that is the
driver for most financial decisions, andthey handle most of those conversations. But
as you continue to get older,it's important that the other spouse is on
the same page. So that notonly do they know who to go to
talk to, but where the recordsare, how the accounts are titled,
how they're registered, what about ourstate documents and so on. So I

(35:37):
know a lot of times that peoplekind of divvy up those roles. But
as you age, I think it'simportant that you get on the same page
and include the other one in thosefinancial decisions. Here's the all Worth advice.
Consistent communication along with an understanding ofhow the other person feels about money,
can go a long way toward achievingfinancial freedom. Together, it is
a place where you can get carriedaway and spend, spend and sped,

(36:00):
how to cut back and how toknow whether it's time to cut back.
Next, you're listening to Simply Moneypresented by all Worth Financial. Here on
fifty five krs the talk station.You're listening to Simply Money presented by all
Worth Financial a Memi Wagner along withAndy Schaeffer. Costco is so popular it
almost has like a cult like following. And if if you or someone you

(36:22):
know goes there, you may actuallyhave an addiction. We'll talk about what
that looks like. In my family, we were kind of late adapters,
late adopters to a Costco. Wegot a membership about a year and a
half ago. I can see howit's really dangerous to go in. You
get certain things that you know thatyou're saving on, but then like something

(36:42):
pops up in the middle of thatstore and it's just cool and you want
to buy it, And I thinkthat's where you can get into a little
bit of trouble. You said yourecently got a Costco membership. Yeah,
my wife and I got a Costcomembership, you know, but we live
kind of out in the country,so there's really not a lot of Costcos
around, but we use their deliveryservice for paper goods and things like that.

(37:04):
I've often wanted to go into thosestores to kind of see what it's
like. My sister is a Costcoenthusiast. She's you know, even bought
tires and trips and things from fromCostco, So I get it. But
my wife and I don't have kids, so we don't really have a big
need for bulk products, and youknow, we want to make sure that
we do a good job of notbeing wasteful, so we haven't really taken

(37:25):
full effect of everything that Costco hasto offer. But I'm sure we'll probably
step in there pretty soon. Yeah, all right, Well this is going
to sound like the beginning of ajoke. But you know you have a
problem when it comes to Costco ifyou cannot resist their limited time offers.
Right, It just that sense ofurgency gets you every time. You may
not even need it, but it'snot going to be there in a month,

(37:46):
so you should buy it now.Don't buy that if you don't need
it. If you are going thereall the time, even unplanned trips,
just to see what they've got inthe store, or maybe your pantry looks
actually like a Costco warehouse itself,and you could never eat or use all
of that stuff before it expires.It just makes zero sense. And if
you're trying to justify unnecessary purchases,if I would say, this is the

(38:12):
lens that you look at everything,do we need it? Do we need
it? If we don't? No, I mean I was even telling you
golf balls are actually a good dealat Costco. Well, if you're gonna
buy golf balls anyway, and they'rea good deal there, of course,
by them there. If you don'tneed golf balls, don't buy the golf
balls. Well, you always needgolf balls, and we have read the
show Birthday's Christmas, whatever, happyto get golf Well, we will leave

(38:37):
the show with that you'll always needgolf balls. Thanks for listening, even
listening to Simply Money presented by AlwaysFinancial here in fifty five KRC, the talk station