Simply Money

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Prepare to make a right the roadto the White House, and you're writing

(00:03):
shotgun. What do we look forward? Do we listen to fifty five krs
the talk station tonight the biggest fearsthat others have about retirement and maybe how
you can avoid them, regardless ofif you're retiring next year, we're in

(00:27):
twenty years. You're listening to simplyMoney presented by all Worth Financial. I
mean me Wagner along with Steve Ruby, doesn't matter right twenty years away from
retirement, two months away from retirement. Most people have generally the same fears,
and so I think it's important totalk through what they are so first
of all, they don't catch youoff guard. And number one on that

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list always in every bit of researchand with every person that we sit across
the table with, is running outof money in the retirement. Yeah.
One of the main goals of financialplanning that I tell folks that I work
with is making sure that we developa plan where you can live the lifestyle
that you want to live today,but ensure that you have the financial freedom
that makes sure that your money isgoing to last longer than you do.

(01:11):
Always with the expectation that you mightbe around a lot longer than you think
you will be. Talking to aninvestor last week who is actually an airline
pilot for years and years and yearsmanaged the family's own money, did a
really good job. The problem waswhen he was about a year out from
retirement, he had all kinds ofanxiety about do I have enough that I

(01:33):
do everything that I should? Isthere something that I'm missing? And he
ended up coming to work with usand we had this conversation and he said,
I went from not being able tosleep at night to knowing I have
a team of people helping me makethese decisions. And every time I worry
that I'm going to run out ofmoney someday, I pick up the phone.
Right. We run the scenarios forhim again and he's like, and

(01:56):
I am once again sleeping. AndI think that's a very common thing.
There's so much research out there overthis that shows when you get to about
the age of sixty, whether you'reretired or not, for most people,
the number one money concern that youhave is just outliving your money and how
do you do that and how doyou sleep at night when you're worried about
it? Well, you have aplan in place, and I think one

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of the things that I love thatwe do is we run some worst case
scenarios, you know, and it'slike, okay, you can literally throw
anything at this plan and say,okay, if the market's absolutely tanked for
the next fifteen years, if yougot you know, ex return in the
market, if you had to buya brand new house, whatever it is.
If you can do and your planwithstands those things, you should probably

(02:40):
be able to sleep it. Ihave a lot of fun with those conversations.
Yeah, stress testing the plan,trying to find a way to blow
it up, that's what I callit, because you know, I'll throw
people a couple more years of lifein the plan. I'll reduce returns for
like you said, ten or fifteenyears. I'll change let's say that all
of a sudden, life throws atyour curveball and now you're going to be

(03:02):
spending x more dollars each for therest of your life. So that there's
ways that we can stress test afinancial plan when we have one built that
ensures your money will last longer thanyou do, because that is the number
one concern of many, I wouldsay most retirees and for those two are
visual people. The good thing aboutthis plan is, first of all,

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it's right in front of you,but there's a percentage chance of your plan
holding up that comes up every timewe change one of those variables. So
you can be sitting in the roomwith us, right, what about this?
What about that? And we willcome up with some terrible scenarios too.
And if you're looking at this planand there's a ninety percent chance and
a ninety two percent chance and aninety five percent chance and it's going to

(03:46):
be okay, I think you shouldprobably walk over away from that conversation feeling
pretty good. Yeah. And whenyou're working with a fiduciary financial planner,
there's there's different financial planning software thatwe use in the industry. So what
you're talking about here is the probabilityof success that your money will last longer
than you do. It's running simulationsagainst certain scenarios, and like I said,
I get a lot of fun inthat because if we can't blow the

(04:10):
plan up, then you should sleepat night. Quite Yes, you're listening
to Simply Money presented by all WorthFinancial. I mean you Wagner along with
Steve Ruby. As we talk aboutsome of the largest concerns that we see
people having when it gets close toretirement. If this is you, or
maybe you haven't thought about these yet, there's some proactive steps we would say
you can take right now to makesure this is something you don't have to

(04:30):
worry about. And of course thenumber one thing on that list is fear
of running out of money. Butthe next thing is navigating health insurance.
And this is especially if you areplanning on retiring before the age of sixty
five. Yeah, most of usget our health insurance through our employment,
so what employment ends, we needto think about transitioning to some other form
of healthcare when you retire prior toreaching age sixty five, which is when

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we're eligible for Medicare. There's opportunitiesto close that gap, either by going
to the exchange having COBRA, butyou need to take into consideration that COBRA
is oftentimes five times the premium thatyou're paying currently. I'm going to tell
you right now you are probably veryspoiled by your work benefits, including that

(05:17):
health insurance. Most people, onaverage pay ten percent of what your employer
is paying to carry that coverage foryou. You no longer have your employer
picking up that large part of thetab. Suddenly it's all in your lap.
It's eye opening for a lot ofpeople, and for so many that's
kind of the biggest obstacle to retiringearly is do I have a plan for

(05:40):
health insurance that can cover me throughCobra can last up to eighteen months after
you separate from your current employer,But one hundred percent of the tab is
on you. Is it something thatyou can afford? And if you want
to retire at sixty one or sixtytwo, it's still not enough time to
get you through to that medic carryNow, I want to make sure that
we're not gearing people away from attemptingto retire early age. What you need

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to think thrill? Yeah, buildinga financial plan will shine light and give
you expectations, I should say,of what these expenses will look like for
you. Because there are folks thatI work with that they're so scared of
transitioning away from a constant paycheck andthe medical coverage that they get through their
employer, that I show them onpaper that you can retire five years ago

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and your money will last longer thanyou you ever could because if you lived
to one hundred and ten, it'sstill going to be there. And people
are sometimes so petrified to pull thetrigger in retirement because of the transition to
a different type of insurance. It'snot only though, the fact that when
you you have to have a planup until the age of sixty five,
but also I think there's many peoplewho get to the Medicare age and think,

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well, this covers I've been payingit to this program forever. This
covers one hundred percent majorly wrong,and that can be majorly eye opening for
a lot of people. Medicare cancost a lot more to get kind of
comprehensive coverage like you're used to.I know people who've been even in our
profession for years, and when they'reretiring themselves and actually looking at their numbers

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in front of them, it's like, oh, it's a lot more than
I had really expected to pay.Yeah, a fiduciary financial planner is going
to help you navigate making that transitionto Medicare because there's part A, Part
B. Yeah, what are theyall? Your Part A is your hospital
coverage, Your Part B is yourmedical coverage. There's meticap insurance, there's
pharmacy coverage. So it's making surethat you have a plan laid out in

(07:35):
front of you that's going to setexpectations about how much you're spending on these
insurance, on the cost of insurance, and how you're going to supplement it
to make it more in line withwhat you are used to as far as
what we receive from our employers,because if you're not supplementing Medicare, it's
probably not going to be the samestandard that you've grown used to. Another

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major issue, and I know thisis going to be mine, even though
I'm probably twenty years away from retiring, is mentally transitioning from putting money into
savings, into those retirement accounts tothen taking it out. You're actually kind
of flipping a switch in your head. You're no longer accumulating that money.
You're starting to spend it down.I know myself that is going to be

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a tough one, and it's atough one for a lot of us.
Yeah, and there are some legitimatefears tied to generating a paycheck from your
portfolio assets, because it's just thatit's portfolio assets, which means it's invested.
And if we retire and then themarkets get kicked in the teeth and
we aren't prepared for that by havingdifferent buckets of money to pull from to

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buy against time, which really that'swhat the emergency fund is. When you
transition to retirement, you're buying you'rebuying time against needing to take money out
of a portfolio that just got rocked. So that's a legitimate concern if you
haven't created different buckets to pull fromin retirement, such as your emergency fund,
roth pre tax after tax, brokerageaccounts. The more options you give

(09:07):
yourself, I think, the moreflexibility you have in retirement. And then
a lot of the considerations when itcomes to transitioning from working to being retired
don't necessarily have to be financial.They don't have anything to do with money.
One of the big ones is whatare you going to do with your
time? Right? Battling boredom?Was just talking to someone the other day
and he was talking about how difficultit was for him. Initially, he

(09:31):
had a big job, he hadlots of responsibilities, he had a big
team that reported him, lots ofmeetings, and he went from that to
like kind of drumming his fingers everyday at the kitchen table, like,
what am I supposed to do?He took up a really interesting sort of
hobby painting, and he paints rocksreally yes, actually goes out and hikes
and searches for certain kinds of rocks. There's a really good rock right there.

(09:52):
I could get that. And thenhe goes home to his basement and
paints the rocks. And he's like, this sounds like the weirdest thing in
the world. I understand, buthe's like, I find a lot of
fulfillment from doing this. It's nothingI did when I was in my working
years. I would have made funof myself my working years if this was
what I thought I would do.But he's like, I actually really enjoy
it. It's like, I'm nevergoing to do anything with your strong because

(10:13):
I'm never going to sell them.But he's like, he could do it
at the Etsy store and get somehobby income out of it. Maybe that's
a fantastic idea, but the pointis you never know what you're going to
take to but you've got to trythings and you've got to figure it out.
And I think for people who havea plan kind of before it makes
the transition a little bit easier fromoh my gosh, day one, I've

(10:35):
got all these hours, no meetings, no commute. What am I going
to do with my Yeah, yousaid it yourself. It can be scary
if you're use If a big partof your identity is your working life,
If you carry a lot of weightin your job and it's keeping you occupied
throughout the week and sometimes nights andweekends, and you no longer have that,
you need to have a plan whenyou make that transition into retirement.
It's very important to have it.And you don't just want to say I'm

(10:58):
going to golf more. That's notan actual agenda. It's more like,
you know, I'm gonna golf twicea week. I'm going to volunteerin this
league, ye yeah, for tenhours a week. I'm going to tutor
students in my grandchild's school. I'mgonna go get coffee with friends three mornings
a week. You know, it'sactually having some kind of an agenda,

(11:20):
some kind of structure that makes surethat, yeah, that we don't get
complacent, get bored and just kindof sit around. That's not fun.
It's not only though, having aplan with your time. It's also having
a plan with your spouse. AndI think this takes lots of conversations.
I remember several years ago I hada neighbor where the husband had retired for

(11:41):
several several years, but the wifeactually retired. And I'm not lying.
It was two or three weeks intothat retirement that she sent me a text
and she said, is all worthhiring? And I was like, what
do you know someone who's looking fora job. I can't. I cannot
be here with him all day everyday. I love him, but I
will kill him. And she said, I I've got to come back at
least part time. And I've thought, oh, for some people, it's

(12:03):
a much tougher dynamic when you're bothhome looking at each other all day every
day. So what is the conversation. What are both of our schedules going
to look like? What are wegoing to do together and what are we
going to do separately? All ofthat has to be part of the conversation.
Yeah, just like a lot ofother financial topics, it's just communication.
Yeah, it's setting expectations with yourspouse as you make that transition into

(12:26):
retirement, to make sure that you'renot wrangling each other's next. Yeah,
so I think there's a lot offinancial considerations, but a lot of conversations
and planning that go into this.Right, you get it all right,
and the transition is going to bemuch easier for you. Here's the all
Worth advice. Knowing what you couldface and retirement can be an important kind
of first step toward that smooth transitionto a world after work. Coming up

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next, we've got the two largestretirement expenses you need to make sure you're
planning for. Right now, you'relistening to Simply Money, presented by all
Worth Financial here in fifty five KRC, the talk station from the U treed
Fear and Pride where economics equilibrium.Would I buy this if no one ever
saw it? That's your test onthe pride button right and financial finesse.

(13:11):
If your only button to push ismoney, that's great. Our music to
his ears When you get desperate theRamsey Show. Just about twenty seconds later,
after I get desperate, I getstupid, and right after I get
stupid, I get broken. Desperateleads to stupid leads to break. Tonight
at seven on fifty five KARC,the talk station. All Worth Financial,

(13:31):
a registered investment advisory firm. Anyideas presented during this program are not intended
to provide specific financial advice. Youshould consult your own financial advisor, tax
consultant, or a state planning attorneyto conduct your own due diligence. If

(13:52):
you're listening to Simply Money presented byall Worth Financial, I Meany Wagner along
with Steve Ruby. If you can'tlisten to our show every night, you
do not I have to miss athing that we talk about. We've got
a daily podcast for you, sojust search Simply Money. It's right there
on the iHeart app or wherever youturn to to get your podcasts. Coming
up at six forty three from questionsabout five twenty nine plans to raw for

(14:13):
owen Kys, we are asking theadvisor that's coming up, and we talk
a lot about retirement. We werejust discussing all the things that you kind
of need to be thinking about.But there's two major expenses that if you
have a plan for these, thattransition is going to be so much easier.
And I would say, regardless ofhow old, if you're planning for
them now, you're going to bein good shape. Number one on that

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list. Housing, Yeah, whenyour home is fully paid off, that
asset, it's totally under control.You can manage your investments, but the
direction of the stock market is notin your hands. Paying off your home
gives you options in retirement, butwe do need to make sure that we
are keeping it in good shape throughoutthe years. Regular maintenance upkeep make it
not only a better place to live, but obviously something that you can sell

(14:58):
easy if you decide to relocate.Regardless of what age you are, think
about your bills. Now, formost of us, the largest chunk of
change that we shell out every monthis for our mortgage. If you have
a plan to get that paid offby the time you retire, talk about
peace of mind. Money not goingout is the same as money coming in.

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You're giving yourself a raise of whateverthat mortgage payment is every month.
Now, if you are close toretirement and you have recently bought a house
or built a house, it mightmake sense to do the opposite. It
might make sense to stretch out thosepayments over a longer amount of time.
But if there's any way to kindof plan ahead, I would say best
case scenario for most of us isto have that mortgage paid off in retirement.

(15:43):
And then to your point, Steve, though, what you have to
also be planning for is the maintenanceover the course of retiring. And one
of the things I remember the firstfinancial plan that I ever did years ago,
was making sure that there was moneybuilt into it for a new roof
in retail, and I remember thinking, like, gosh, you know,
that's interesting, not something that youthink about necessarily when you're in your twenties

(16:06):
or thirties, but it's an expensivebill to have to pay. Well,
you better believe that. In thefinancial plans that I build with the folks
that I work with, the it'shuge. There's most of the time I'm
going to encourage some kind of agoal tied to a major maintenance upkeep.
Whether it's roof, whether it's windows, maybe it's just painting or remodeling.
It's a goal that I put intoa financial plan to make sure that that

(16:30):
is money that's accounted for leaving theplan, because the reality of the situation
is you're going to be putting moneyinto your home even if it's paid off
in retirement, you know. AndI also have to hand it to my
parents. I was in college whenthey decided to build a new house and
they decided to build a ranch,and I was like, why are you
building a ranch? We've always hadkind of two story floor plans. They

(16:51):
weren't old, you know, theywere in their late forties at the time,
and they were planning on being old. Of a bet, you were
planning on getting old in that house, and it has worked out so well
to have that one story with thatthey're on. And then I think about
a family member of mine who hasa medical situation where she has to be
in a wheelchair, so she stilllives in a two story home, but

(17:12):
she hasn't seen me upstairs in theyears. It's just wasted space. So
kind of planning ahead for what youthink your sort of housing needs will be
and retirement, even if you're fifteentwenty years out, can make a lot
of sense, can really pay off. I ask those questions, Yeah,
I really do, because if you'replanning and living in the same home for
the rest of your life and it'sa two story home but there's no bedroom

(17:33):
on the first floor, then whatare you going to do trying to navigate
those stairs. It's a real topicof conversation that people need to plan for
now. Other things to consider,And we've talked about this on the show
before. What types of home improvementsare maybe better than others. Catch,
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm gettingat here, your kitchen improvement improvement.

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It's not often that you're able torecoup what you actually put in to that
if you make us if you sellthe property, it's like maybe fifty percent
you can get back. So ifyou know that you're going to be sticking
around for a long time and youwant to, you know, have the
kitchen of your dreams, more powerto you. But if you're going to
be selling in the next five years, maybe reconsider putting a ton of money
into something that may not be someoneelse's favorite. And something else to think

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about is I love Cincinnati. Iam born and raised here, super passionate
about this community. I hate wintershere, I absolutely hate them, and
so mild compared to Cleveland, whereI'm from. It's true. I guess
it's all the perspective, right.So I always dream about having a house
somewhere south of here someday, Andyou know, my husband and I always

(18:41):
I get I get Zillo emails allthe time looking at certain areas and then
we were talking recently about the factthat but we would need to look into
what it would cost to ensure likehurricane insurance. If we were looking at
it made price us out of beingable to make a move like that.
So being really kind of logical about, Okay, if I'm going to make
a mover, have a second house, a vacation home in retirement, have

(19:03):
we thought through every part of that. That's also a big part of this
equation. And then medical expenses area huge one. Yeah, Medical is
this is the other major expense thatyou're going to have in retirement, especially
as we get older, things happen, we need to shell out more money
to pay for those things. Andthe other unfortunate reality here is that inflation

(19:27):
hits healthcare expenses more quickly than anythingelse. Absolutely, And I think the
latest numbers that I've seen out ofFidelity or the average couple retiring today would
spend I think it's between two hundredand fifty and three hundred thousand dollars over
the course of your retirement on healthcareexpense average. Too, there are outliers

(19:48):
that you can certainly fall into thatcategory. So making sure that you are
taking care of yourself I mean thisis something that you've heard from friends,
families, friends, family, doctorsyour whole life. You know, if
you're getting cataracts, where sunglasses,pre diabetic, manage your sugar intake.
Yeah, get regular checkups while you'reworking to stay healthy. And I am
a huge proponent of a health savingsaccount, right, So, if you

(20:11):
have a high deductible health care plan, this can be a great retirement planning
tool when it comes to your medicalexpenses. If you have a large enough
emergency fund, you pay for yourmedical expenses now. You make sure that
money that HSA is invested and thenit has time to grow. So when
you get to the point of theseastronomical medical bills and retirement, you have
a place to pull from that HSAand you take the money out for eligible

(20:34):
medical expenses. You're never taxed onthat money. There's nothing else like it.
It's a great option for retirement planningwhen it comes to those expenses.
Here's the all Worth advice. Oneof the most important parts of retirement planning
involves investing in yourself. Coming upnext. When you use credit cards to
pay for large purchases and the warningthat goes along with it, you're listening

(20:56):
to Simply Money present of by allWorth Financial here on fifty five KRC the
station in a year twenty twenty four, in a day, in the next
twenty four, in an instant rightnow now is the time constant cover at
twenty four to seven three sixty fiveround mclock in twenty twenty four year round
this twenty four fifty five krs.The talk stage took. This is fifty

(21:18):
five KARC an iHeartRadio station listening tosimply let me some of my all Worths
Financial. I'mmi Wagner along with DeeRuby Will. We talk a lot about
credit cards and being smart and usingthem as a tool. So if you're
getting ready to make a major purchase, is it smart to put it on

(21:38):
your credit card? Or is theresomewhere else you should turn? Joining us
night is our credit expert Brit Scares. But I think this is something that
most of us face. When doesit make sense to use those cards and
win? Doesn't it? Well?I mean, you know, certainly these
could be great tools. You haveto have a lot of respect for these
because they can also get you ina lot of trouble. So as I'm

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talking about this, I don't wanteverybody, you know, if you're kind
of struggling living paycheck to paycheck,we don't even need to be talking about
getting into you know, credit carddebt. Okay. So, but if
you're someone who you know could certainlypay off whatever you would charge on a
credit card, and you want touse the credit card as a tool to

(22:22):
maybe you know, get some oftheir perks, but you would have the
ability to stroke out a check andpay it off at any time if you
know, if need be. That'swhen you kind of consider this sort of
thing. I know a lot ofpeople like to utilize you know, cards
for you know, Let's say youhave a big purchase that you know you're
going to be making, and youhappen to have a credit card that gives

(22:42):
you, you know, five percentcash back or one percent cash back,
or that gives you miles or somethingof that nature, and you know that,
hey, I'm just going to putit on this thing, and I'm
going to pay it off in sixtydays, you know, just take advantage
of their free perks. That isnot a necessarily a bad use of one
of these credit cards. But againI caution everyone about you know, getting

(23:08):
into the debt. One of thereasons why credit card companies offer these types
of perks is they hope that youkind of get a balance on there exactly,
and then maybe you're not able topay it off. And keep in
mind the interest rates on most creditcards are close to twenty percent, if
not over twenty percent. Yeah,when you use how they properly. When

(23:30):
used properly, a credit card cancome with massive benefits. So we're not
against using credit cards, but beingcautious, like you said, I think
is key here. Talk about someof the risks for those that maybe haven't
been cautious. Well, for onething, let's let's say you get one
of these great officers offers that sayzero percent for you know, eighteen months
or twelve months, and you say, hey, you know, I'm gonna

(23:52):
I'm about to buy four thousand dollarsworth of airline tickets, you know.
So if I could just put thaton a card at zero percent and then
pay that off throughout the year,you know, at zero percent interests,
you know, and you know,I can just kind of divide up the
months and say, Okay, I'mgoing to pay it off the month before
the zero percent is up. ButHere's what a lot of people don't realize.

(24:12):
If you miss that payoff time,a lot of times they go back
and charge you interest from day one. That can be a monster unexpected expense.
Yeah. I've seen people do thezero percent offers at a lot of
the appliance stores and places like that, that they missed the payoff by a
day and all of a sudden,instead of them paying it off and full,

(24:34):
they now owe another five or sixhundred dollars from the back interest.
Great, which makes no sense.I think A great way to look at
this is, Okay, if you'regoing to make a major purchase. You
mentioned, you know, four thousanddollars in airline tickets, or you're buying
a huge appliance, you have thatmoney already set aside in a fund,
and you're using the credit card totake advantage of the perks of the credit

(24:56):
card, one of them being rewarddsand then of course you pay it off
that month. But another is inthe fine print of a lot of credit
cards has some travel insurance in there. It has some extended warranties on things
like appliances, so you don't haveto spend those extra dollars you know.
So what are your thoughts on takingadvantage of those kinds of perks as well?

(25:21):
I think those are those are greatopportunities, you know, taking you
know, the benefits of some sortof like maybe if they throw in travel
insurance like you said, or sometimesthey'll even throw in if you pay with
this particular card, you'll get freechecked bags, like you said, purchase
protection, things, extended warranty,stuff that you normally wouldn't I wouldn't normally
recommend that people you know, purchase, but if it's covered on the card,

(25:45):
just by simply making the purchase withthe card, why not have that
extra little benefit. And if you'reable to pay it off, you know,
the next month or without paying interest, then you're gaming the system.
And that's when it makes sense.Like you said, a lot of the
airline miles and that sort of thingalso can raped up pretty quickly too if

(26:07):
you're making a large purchase like that. So you're advocating for if you have
money on the side set aside readyfor a big purchase, rather than using
that money funnel that expense through yourcredit card to get the added benefits that
exist and then pay it off beforethere's any interest that you're actually owing.
That's exactly right. And as wesaid, there's a bunch of different rewards

(26:30):
type cards out there that you cancertainly take advantage of. A lot of
them will pay one percent to fivepercent, you know, cash back for
everything that you purchase, and aslong as you pay it right off without
interest, you know you're basically gettingfree money that way. But I do
caution again, if you're someone who'sliving paycheck to paycheck and there's a chance
that you might end up revolving thatbalance, not a good idea. I

(26:52):
also like being really intentional about whatkind of rewards card do you use.
I mean, you just mentioned there'soptions. I think about Brian James,
one of our advisors, I thinkone of the most brilliant money things I've
ever heard was he said he founda rewards card that put a percentage into
a five twenty nine. They openedthat credit card when they're when they're oldest,

(27:15):
right before she was born, andended up accruing over the course of
all of those years of them growingup, twenty plus thousand dollars because every
credit card purchase went on that creditcard was paid off every month, and
then they had you know, ayear's tuition for college already paid for,
just with stuff they had already bought. So I think it's really smart to

(27:37):
look at what options are out there. Again, you have to pay the
cards off every month or the rewardsare out the window. But I think
at different ages and stages of yourlife, different kinds of rewards cards can
really make sense. I would agree. And you know, my first advice
to folks is to always have youknow, six months of an emergency fund,
six months worth of expenses set aside, you know, having the money

(28:00):
you know somewhere, and utilize thesefree perks you know, from these credit
card companies. I mean, they'regoing to make plenty of money on the
people that aren't going to pay itoff every month. But if you have
the discipline and you're financially savvy enoughto utilize these, there's certainly some benefit
there for you. Now, Iwill tell you that I I as I

(28:22):
talk to you know, people thatare very financially successful, you know,
very few of them ever tell methat they owe it all, you know,
all their success to their you know, to their rewards card. So
use these, you know, sparingly. Don't don't don't think that this is
something that you should that you're necessarilymissing out on. But if you're a

(28:42):
financially savvy person and you have oneof these cards that do pay you some
of these perks, and you know, if you're going to spend the money
anyway, and you're going to justput it right on that card and then
pay it right off, hey whynot take advantage? So what are the
most common, large, perfect purchasesthat you would recommend Folks you know use
credit cards for well, I personallydon't like to use debit cards online,

(29:06):
so when I make online purchases specifically, we were just talking about airline tickets.
So when I buy airline tickets,We're planning a trip out West this
summer, and I'm sure that'll bea three or four thousand dollars expense,
I'll put that on a card thatyou know, provide some benefit, you
know, in protections online that youknow, if for some reason there were

(29:27):
to be some sort of a hackor something, it's it's being put on
my credit card and not coming outof my check account. So I certainly
would would recommend using credit cards foronline purchases as long as you're able to
pay them right off immediately. It'sfunny that you mentioned that, Brittany,
because I will have people come upto me and say, you would be
so proud of me. We paidoff all of our credit cards, then

(29:49):
we cut them all up, andI'm like, oh, you know,
I think the best way to usea credit card as a tool you paid
off every month. But for thatkind of protection that you're talking about of
using a debit card versus a creditcard, you've got much more protection with
that credit card. Can you talkabout that quickly? Yeah? Absolutely.
I mean, you know I've hadthat personally happened to me, where you

(30:12):
know there are protections for your debitcard, but you know, if you
don't report that quick enough, youcould be on the hook. We're on
a credit card, you know,it's a simple dispute, and you know,
you fill out the forms and youknow they end up doing their investigation
and it you know, and itgets taken off of your account. But
if it's coming out of your checkingaccount, well it could be weeks before

(30:33):
that gets replaced back into your checkingaccount. So it's just so much easier
using that credit card. Yes,and using those additional protections great advice as
always from brit Scars, our creditexpert. You're listening to Simply Money,
presented by all Worth Financial here onfifty five KRC the Talk station, Biden,
my memory is not good. Mymemory is fine, present by these

(30:56):
faculties and his memories. You've gota lot of this plates to work at
all, so you can't put twosentences together. Concerns about your mental acuity.
They say that you are too old. That is your charge. Remember
I wanted to be clear. We'reyour twenty twenty four election headquarters. I'm
not going fifty five KRC the talkstation. Men. This is Jeff for

(31:21):
Tri State Men's Health. The oneyou love is the light of your life.
And if you're like most of us, you want to do whatever you
can better figure out what to doabout all this violence recently, or someone
is going to get seriously hurt.Fifty five KRC. Where it's still okay
to tell us what you think.You're listening to Simply Money. If you

(31:42):
then am I all worths Financial?I mean you Wagner along with Steve Ruby,
straight ahead, how to make somethingthat's extremely important but for most of
us not so fun. We're talkingabout the B word budgeting. Maybe you
can make it a little fun.We'll tell you how. And if you
have a financial question you want usto answer, there's a button you can
click on where you're listening to theshow. It's right there on the iHeart

(32:02):
app recorde your question and it's comingstraight to us. Our first question tonight
comes from Andrea, who lives inLiberty Township. Hey, guys, love
your show. We love to hearthat, Thanks Andrea. Our kids are
four and six. We're trying tosee for their college expenses. So should
we use a five to twenty nineplan or a roth IRA? I love
this question more now than ever becausethere's been some recent changes with Secure Act

(32:25):
two point zero that open the doorup for some unique opportunities in the future.
Now, with that said, shouldwe use a five twenty nine or
roth ira? I am an advocatefor the five twenty nine. If you
live in Ohio and you're making acontribution to the five twenty nine, then
there's a tax right off of uptatup to four thousand dollars per year on
your state taxes. So when youcontribute to a roth ira, that is

(32:49):
not a deductible contribution to any meanswhatsoever. However, when you're investing in
either of these vehicles tax free games. Now, the exciting change with Secure
Act two point zero is that ifthe dollars are never spent in the five
twenty nine there's some stipulations has tohave been in the account for ten or
fifteen years. You can only transitionup to thirty five thousand dollars over the

(33:12):
life of the individual. But eventuallyyou're able to take the five twenty nine
dollars once the child has earned incomeand start sliding them into a roth Ira
in their own name. It becaveslike a de facto right roth Ira.
Yeah. I like this question becauseI like that you're thinking about, you
know, how to pay for thoseor help pay for those college expenses.
I'm a huge fan of the fivetwenty nine plan, and I think sometimes

(33:32):
on the show right we kind oflaugh about some changes that come out of
Washington that don't make a lot ofsense. But over the past several years,
I actually give kudos to Washington andthe fact that Congress has made some
changes to the five to twenty nineplan giving us more and more flexibility.
One of those things is if youare paying for high school for your kids.
You can pull money out of thatfive to twenty nine to help cover

(33:54):
those expenses. Now you think aboutit, if you're starting a five to
twenty nine when your kids are born, you only have eighteen years right for
that money to grow to pay forcollege. If you're taking money out of
it before then to pay for privateeducation, it doesn't have the time to
grow in compounds, so that maynot make as much sense. But there's
lots of flexibility. Our kids havethem. We've got one that's already drawing

(34:15):
from her five to twenty nine.It covers tuition, room and board.
You can pull money out of iteven for laptops and technology and things like
that that you're going to need forcollege. Lots of flexibility for these accounts.
Yea. And if you have themost brilliant child in the world,
and I know we all do,and they get a full ride to college,
yes, Now that money can eitherbe transitioned into retirement funds for them

(34:36):
or it can be transferred into someoneelse's name. Yeah, that didn't go
away. That's still exacting, y, So that is still an option for
you. So just think lots offlexibility with a five to twenty nine.
It's a great thing. Next questioncoming from Peter who lives in Florence.
Thanks for taking my question. Howdo I choose the best investments for my
four O one K? So?A four O one K is an absolutely
fantastic vehicle for saving for retirement,but unfortunately, when we have one,

(35:00):
the investments are oftentimes limited to whatyour employer gives you to pick and choose
from. Those investments can come withvery low costs oftentimes, you know,
I've seen people that start at fourto one K. They look at the
past returns and they say this onehad the best, so they pick that.
That's the way not to do it, just to be clear, because
that's not going to be a diversifiedportfolio most of the time. There are

(35:22):
I don't like to advocate too muchfor him. Steve Sprovac used to call
them good enough funds. It wasthe target day retirement funds of life cycle
fund If you're not going to bemanaging your your portfolio to any capacity,
if you're not going to be pickingand choosing and meeting different subasset classes and
rebalancing, then maybe that type ofinvestment is good for you. It's kind

(35:43):
of like taking a bus to retirement. You put it into you put all
of your balance into one target dateretirement fund, and it's managed to get
safer the older you get. Iwant to give you some perspective. I
think on the flour one K becausethis drives me crazy. Most of us
spend more time planning our in vacation, our trip to the beach then we
do thinking about our four to oneK. Your retirement is on you,

(36:06):
So I think getting this right isincredibly important. Target date funds are an
option. They're an option that alot of people choose. I do not
like them. I think we havewe don't have a one size fits all
retirement, and this is a onesize fits all approach to how you're investing
for retiring. Find yourself a fiduciaryadvisor, or I had a friend who
came to me and their fees fortheir four one K. We're a little

(36:28):
bit more expensive, but there wassomeone that came to the office that met
with them put them in some great, diverse, perfect kind of funds for
them. So sometimes you're paying alittle more, but if you're getting extra
help, I think it can allpay off. Let's get to one more
question tonight from Corey, who livesin Edgewood. My mom and dad are
in their mid sixties. Is ittoo late for them to look at buying

(36:49):
a long term care policy? It'scertainly on the high end as far as
what these expenses are going to looklike. It's incredibly expensive the older you
get. Yeah, when you're purchasinglong term care, it's worth sitting down
with a fiduciary financial planner to determinewhether or not it's even a need.
If I'm being completely honest, Oftentimespeople will self ensure they'll plan for Medicaid.
That's not the ideal situation, butit's worth sitting down, building a

(37:13):
plan and making sure it's even aneed before you pull the trigger on making
a purchase of a policy that's goingto have some pretty high premiums at that
point. Coming up, if youhate budgeting, we've got some apps that
can change all that. We'll tellyou what they are next. You're listening
to Simply Money, presented by allWorth Financial here in fifty five KRC,
the talk station, the election,the economy, crisis at the border,
severe weather. What you'll want.My name's Joe Biden. No I won't

(37:38):
get out if I lose it'll wewant to Hampshire and what you'll need the
crisis of the border important negotiation getsmoney to Ukraine. Check in and catch
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every day. What you want andwhat you need every day. Listen to
here a lot of clear fifty fiveKRC the talk station. Hope enrollment is

(38:01):
coming gone, but it doesn't matter. If you're in reasonably good health,
are welcome to here. Why dowe keep letting thousands of people come over
and do nothing about it? Myfamily's safety is at risk fifty five KRC
the talk station. You're listening tosimply money, because I'm by all worth

(38:21):
financial, I mean me Wagner alow whisky Ruby. I would venture to
say most people aren't excited about budgeting. It's like the dreaded B word that
goes along with money. Not themost fun thing. But there are some
apps out there that can either makeit easier or maybe at least a little
more fun, a little more enjoyableto budget. So we've done our research
for you and kind of sifted throughand we would say here's some of the

(38:45):
best of the best that we like. If you try one of these and
it's not working for you, Iwould say try another one and see if
you can find a better fit.I must feel like I'm punishing folks I
work with when I hand them alittle budget booklet. The thing is so
unappeal Yes, I know that.I'm glad that there's a niche where people
are stepping up and that they're creatingtechnology and apps that we can use to

(39:07):
make it a little more entertaining.First one is called LUCY. It stands
for Let's Use Compound Interests. It'sactually set up kind of like a space
travel game. It takes you throughsetting and achieving savings goals and paying down
debt. There's courses that you cantake to learn more about managing your money,
and it's free. I think thisis a kind of know yourself situation.

(39:28):
Right. If you like kind ofplaying games on your phone, this
can be a great one that canlead to some better money habits. And
if you also like kind of apat on the back, right, it
kind of shows you, you know, sort of as you hit each goal,
some progress there. That can bea great thing. Cleo is an
interesting app and this is I thinkfor those who have a kind of different

(39:51):
sense of humor. It actually usesartificial intelligence to either kind of give you
a hype, you know, sendyou messages Okay, you saw you,
you know, put some more moneyinto your savings account, good for you,
or hey, loser, you spentone hundred bucks last week on eating
out? Was that the smartest decisionthat you could make. This app will

(40:12):
actually roast you if you make thatfinancial decisions, which I live with four
teenagers. I don't need anyone roastingme anymore than I have on a daily
basis. But hey, if thissounds good to you, Cleo is definitely
an option. Yeah, if youhave younger children, busy kids. It's
an app specifically for children. Ithelps It helps people save a little bit
of money by doing the chores thatthey do, and tries to make it

(40:36):
entertaining. So it's an option forchildren. I'd like it in the sense
too that it gets kids thinking aboutbudgeting, not that every dime that comes
in from their chores needs to bespent immediately on legos or whatever it is,
but introducing them to hey, maybeyes, spend a little bit of
this, but also save a littlebit or donate a little bit to church

(40:57):
or a cause is near and dearto your heart. So I like that
it takes you through all those things. One thing that drives me absolutely crazy
in this day and age is howmany subscription services we all have. And
there's another app out there called RocketMoney, not specifically about budgeting, but
it helps you manage all of thosesubscriptions, and let's face it, if
you can keep track of those,that can be saving money. Oh yeah,

(41:17):
because it can help you identify whichones you're not using and you can
unsubscribe and save that cash flow.Zeta that's a budgeting app. It's built
specifically for a family unit, sofamily members they create combined budgets and track
they're spending together. They can alsodo it separately, but it's it's a
means to have an open line ofcommunication, which is a trend. I'm
always talking about the importance of communicationwhen it comes to your money, So

(41:40):
using an app to track it alltogether as a family could be beneficial as
well. Keeping everyone on the samepage right, working towards the same goals
makes a lot of sense. Thanksfor listening tonight. You've been listening to
simply money because I'm by all WorthFinancial here on fifty five KRC the talk
station. In a year twenty twentyfour, let's watch year in a day,
next twenty four hours, twenty fourhours a day, in an instant

(42:02):
right now, moment to moment.Now is the time constant coverage everything everywhere,
all the time, continually round theclock, minute by minute throughout the
day, changing by the hour.In twenty four hours year round twenty four
to seven, three sixty five andtwenty twenty four fifty five krs E the
talk station get more twenty four.It's easy to see we're being conned by

(42:27):
the institutions. We