Simply Money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Tonight what twenty twenty five has in store for investors.
You're listening to Simply Money because I am all Worth Financial,
I Memi Wagner along with Steve Ruby and Bob Spawnseller.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Happy new Year everyone. Well, we hope.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
There's a lot of amazing things ahead for you in
the year ahead, and of course we like to focus
on your money. What can you expect for your money
and what can you expect from the financial.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
World in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
I know a lot of people over the holidays talking
to me about President Trump. Of course we're a couple
of weeks away from him being inaugurated, and what does
that mean as.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Far as tariffs?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
You guys, there was a lot of talk about this
on the campaign trail.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
What are your thoughts, So, you know, we've talked about
this recently in saying that there's certainly a difference between
campaign promises and what actually comes to fruition. So obviously
what will happen is to be seen. But we do
know that two weeks from today Donald Trump will be
sworn in as president again. New Congress just started, both

(01:08):
chambers are controlled by Republicans. Big topic on everyone's mind
now is tariffs, you know, if they do come to fruition,
obviously this is going to put some inflationary pressure. Supply
chain costs first and foremost are going to be front
center of my concerns.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
We'll talk about how that works. Right, if you have
companies here in the US or that are importing goods, right,
or we're paying more for things as they're coming from
China wherever we are charging these tariffs coming from, well,
what do we expect these companies to do? They don't
take these things on the chin, right, every single time,
almost they pass these costs on to us. And so

(01:55):
then for the average consumer it becomes do I pay
more or do I not buy it more? You know,
And as these costs then go up, we have, to
your point, Steve, inflation. What have we been trying to
get away from the past couple of years inflation?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
So it begs the question does it put us back
to the place where we have been the past couple
of years? Who knows?

Speaker 1 (02:19):
To your point, campaign trail promises are very different from
what we actually will see in reality.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I think this is one of those situations where you can.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Talk and you can be worried, but we actually don't
know yet what's going to happen.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
A key point, you know, to me is to not
to not get too upset about all of these worrying
reports that are coming out, you know, at the end
of last year and going into this year. I mean,
I think what investors need to remember is President Trump
has already been president for four years. Yeah, and we
all know that he likes to get on the media

(02:55):
and on social media. He likes to talk and you know,
in my opinion, and this is just an opinion, President
Trump has always used and I think will continue to
use the talk of tariffs as a negotiating ploy. He
likes to do deals. So I understand that that rattles
markets and rattles some investors because he can get a

(03:18):
little careless and what he says. But I highly doubt
President Trump is going to come in here with a
mindset of ramping up inflation and tanking this economy. That's
not what he's going to be all about. And he
didn't do it when he was president for four years.
So I also think that in the beginning of his presidency,

(03:38):
there's going to be a lot of other things on
the table, like getting his cabinet appointments in place and
other things. So I don't think in the in the
interim here in the short term, we need to be
worried about the economy tanking due to tariffs. But again
that's an opinion, and I underline the word opinion.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, I think we're all hoping that that opinion is
correct as the bottom line, because you know, not only
is it inflationary tariffs because those costs flow through to
the consumer, but they oftentimes lead to retaliation from other
countries as well, which can disrupt global trade flows. So
there's a whole lot not to be excited about if
the tariff campaign promises come to fruition.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yeah, and to your.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
Point, Steve, I mean, if you look at what has
actually happened during the last week or ten days of
twenty twenty four, we did see some profit taking, you know,
the stock market did go down a little bit, you know,
after having another outstanding year, and we all know the
Fed kind of pumped the brakes on rate cuts for
twenty twenty five. So I don't think the Fed knows

(04:44):
what President Trump is going to do, and that makes
total sense to me. So everybody's just kind of taking
a wait and see and taking a deep breath approach
and let's see what happens.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
I think one of the major reasons why we're talking
about this is because we looked at this at the
end of twenty twenty four. We said, what are investors
most worried about going into twenty twenty five?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Right, there's some Deutsche Bank research on this. Number one
on that list, of course, was these tariffs.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
You know, but I agree with both of you in
the fact that we don't know, and you can worry
about an unknown, but time after time after time, and
certainly you know, Bob, you made the point that President
Trump is sort of a known commodity in this office.
But it doesn't matter whether we know the person as
president or not. We have seen probably one hundred percent

(05:33):
of the time major promises made on the campaign trail
that has never come to fruition in office. So I think,
you know, it makes sense anytime we have someone new
coming into office to say, Okay, this is what they
said when they were campaign. Let's wait and see write
what actually happens. When we get to that point, you're
listening to simply money presented by all Worth Financial. Imimi
Wagner along with Steve Ruby and Bob Sponseller looking ahead

(05:57):
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
What can we expect as investors?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Should we be worried, should we be changing anything that
we're doing?

Speaker 5 (06:04):
You know?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
On the topic of President Trump, one of the other
major things I think that a lot of people have
on their mind is taxes. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
So this is a legacy of Trump's first term in office,
and that was the tax cuts in Jobs Act. This
is where we've had kind of a looming sunsetting of
that policy, where everyone is expecting tax rates to go
back up in the end of twenty twenty six. So
these Trump tax cuts obviously may roll forwards beyond that.

(06:37):
And this is this conversation has caused a lot of
people to become very educated about roth conversions, specifically because
it's created a situation where they've been a little bit
more beneficial in the near term potentially by locking in
on paying lower taxes now knowing that taxes are going

(06:59):
to go back up in twenty two twenty six, but
that is now yet to be seen if it will
come to fruition. Now, that doesn't mean that roth conversions
will no longer be beneficial. I want to be clear
about that. That's a financial planning topic that's not going away,
but it has the fact that the Trump tax cuts

(07:19):
were going to be sunsetting has created a little bit
of urgency to capitalize on the opportunity in the short term.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Yeah, Steve, I think that's very well said. You know, again,
the main point here is to do your financial plan,
update your financial plans, sit down with your tax professional
and your financial advisor, and just map this out what
your plan and income sources look like, irrespective of any
tax law changes that may or may not happen in

(07:47):
twenty twenty five. That being said, I think it's way
premature to go into the beginning of twenty twenty five
and make some major decisions, in major roth decisions, and
it's based solely on what you think might happen to
tax policy in twenty twenty five, because that's going to
be an ongoing debate and negotiation throughout the year, and

(08:09):
there's going to be plenty of time to do tax
planning by the end of twenty twenty five around whatever
tax rate changes may or may not be coming.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
I think this is a control you can control, right Like,
maybe no, now, if it makes sense great, But if
you are making major decisions based on what might happen,
maybe you want to hold off and see what actually
happens right before you make those decisions. We have been
talking about inflation a lot on the show over the
past few years, and you know, I've mentioned this several times,

(08:42):
but I've been another show for a long time, and
years went by where we never even mentioned inflation. I mean,
it was just not even a blip on the radar,
you know, And so going into twenty twenty five, I
think the question is, can we finally kind of move
inflation off of the radar, off off of the agenda
for discussion, And unfortunately, I think the answer is probably no.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Probably I think you're gonna say probably yes, And I
was gonna be very surprised.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
You were on the edge of your seat, right, I.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Know, I was like, what is she talking about?

Speaker 5 (09:12):
That?

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I completely disagree, But no, we're on the same page.
It will be an ongoing conversation. There's, you know, some
of these policies on the horizon. Some are inflationary, some aren't.
I know, Chief investment Officer Andy Stout all Worth Financial here,
he had some conversations later last year after Trump came
into office about what the markets are doing.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
Why.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
It had to do with some of Trump's campaign promises,
some being inflationary, some not.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
For some foremost.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Tariffs right there in your face, bringing prices up, but
then also tax cuts, you know, the deregulation. There's there's
kind of a balancing act there between what's actually going
to add to inflation what's going to take away from it,
And those conversations aren't going anywhere until we know how
the cards fallow with some of these policy agenda items.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
Yeah, and Amy, I'd go back to the point that
you made just a few moments ago, which is, you know,
control what you can control, and what that means to
me at this point, at this juncture in the year,
is again irrespective of the headlines and what we think
might be coming. The basic blocking and tackling of a
good financial plan is look at what your money needs

(10:19):
to do and when it needs to do it. Meaning,
at some point, for whatever reason, we are going to
have volatility in the stock and bond markets. We always
do so, again, without getting into the prediction game, now
is a great time to just sit down and scope
out what kind of resources you're going to need in

(10:39):
twenty twenty five, and if you have financial needs over
the next thirty sixty ninety days, consider getting some of
that money out of harm's way and do not treat,
you know, Navidia stock like your emergency fund, because things
can and do get volatile and the money that you
need in the short term needs to be out of

(10:59):
harm and that way you can sleep at night when
some of these predictions actually some of them turn into headlines.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Another point I think we're making now, and this is
back to control what you can control. But geopolitical events, right,
I mean, there's several that are potentially on the table
for this year, and you know, I have seen many
times where things come out of left field that we
can't even begin to think might happen.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
This year. We've got the ongoing.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Russia Ukraine War, continued tension in the Middle East, and
then of course constant worries about the conflict between China
and Taiwan. How will those things play out? Could those
things impact your four O one K? Absolutely, We've seen
this time and time again. But the interesting thing I
think is whenever a new geopolitical.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Event right comes on the horizon.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
There's usually a blip with your four to one K,
and then companies figure out, Okay, how do we move on?

Speaker 2 (11:55):
How do we figure out ways to make money.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
We've got a wall of worry that we refer back to,
and I think it's a great kind of perspective and
great reminder that we've been through the Great Depression, World
War two, Cold War right, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam nineteen
eighty seven, dot com bubble. I mean, there's such a
long list of things that we have had to worry
about as investors through the years. And the one thing

(12:19):
I think that we should remind you of, regardless, is
that the market every single time, one hundred percent at
the time has rebounded to new highs following each of
those events.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
We don't know what's.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Going to happen in twenty twenty five, but we do
know historically the market has rebounded every single time.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Here's the all Worth advice. History shows a.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Financial plan built for the long term is going to
withstand worries and any major events that maybe we could
see coming or can't see coming.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
So don't act on panic. As we begin the new year.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Coming up next to New Year, means new amounts you
can throw into your retirement accounts.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
We've got details on that next. Plus, we're talking about
a major credit card perk that many of you may
not be taking advantage of.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial
here on fifty five KRC, the talk station.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
I mean you Wagner.

Speaker 6 (13:13):
Along with Steve Ruby and Bob Spon seller straight Ahead
at six forty three, Everyone's favorite retirement fact or fiction
with a focus on your dollars in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Okay, how do you use your credit card?

Speaker 1 (13:27):
First and foremost on the show, we always say, and
this never changes, if you're going to use a credit card,
you have to pay it off every month. Rewards don't
matter if you're paying thirty percent in interest on whatever
you're buying. So, assuming that you are using that credit
card as a tool correctly, you're paying off that balance
every month, then the question becomes are you taking advantage

(13:48):
of the perks?

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Because the answer is some of you aren't.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, this is unfortunate, honestly, because this is such an
easy it's a low hanging fruit. In my opinion, if
you have the cash flow to support using a credit
card and paying it off at the end of every month,
and you're not taking advantage of it, then you're missing
out on free money or free perse. And and you know,
a new bank rate survey showed that one in four
rewards cardholders didn't redeem the rewards points in the last year,

(14:17):
three and five redeemed for cash back or gift cards.
Two and five Americans don't have a rewards card at all.
You know, I'm one of these individuals. I put everything
I possibly can onto my cash back rewards credit card
and it's auto redeemed at the end of every month,
so I can't miss out on it. This is something
that again, if you're paying your credit card bill off

(14:40):
at the end of every month, it is easy money.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
But Steve, if you're if you're using auto redeem, can
I assume you're using a cash back type.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Of cards back?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
That is right?

Speaker 3 (14:51):
You know, I don't mess around with any of the
travel perks. Maybe in some situations I could find, you know,
better deals somewhere, but that the ease of the cash
back is is just that it's it's simple and get
you get your money back no matter what.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
Well and simple is good. And according to Ted Rossman,
who's the senior industry analyst at bank Rate, who did
this survey, you know, they looked at how are people
what kind of credit card perks are people using? And
the overwhelming favorite with you know, over fifty percent of
users is just cash back. So I love the fact

(15:27):
that you've got it on auto redeem and you don't
have to think about it. I've got a different kind
of card where I use hotel points and all, and
I won't get into the details, but I think I
think the important thing here and I hate this kind
of stuff. You know, we're whether we talk about receiving
gift cards in the mail or travel points. You got

(15:47):
to look at the fine print on this stuff because
these points start to evaporate and sometimes disappear altogether. So
you know, this is a good time at the beginning
of January to look at all those gift cards you
received as Christmas gifts and take a look at which
credit card you're actually using and make this, unfortunately, yet

(16:07):
another financial planning item you need to just sit down
and take a look at for this year and make
sure you've got these things aligned so you could take
advantage of whatever whatever benefits you've signed up for.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
I think another good way to look at these is
earn and burn, baby like, as soon as you earn them,
you want to use them as quickly as possible. I mean,
we talk about inflation, you know, cash back. If you
hold onto that cash for a year or two, is
it going to be worth what it was? You know?
I also use a credit card with perks, but mine
are also travel when my kids were little.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Give me all the cash back right now? I want
to travel more.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
I can't remember the last time we paid for a
hotel room or a flight. But it is funny because
my husband and I will, you know, look at our
sky miles or something.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
We'll be like, you.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Remember how you know how many miles it used to
take versus how many it takes now, you know. So
there's inflation even with these perks of you know how
many miles or how many points you might need to
stay in that hotel.

Speaker 7 (17:05):
But listen, we do like to travel, and travel is
a lot more affordable when we're not paying for flights
or hotels. So I think the key here is know
what your perks are, Know what makes maybe the most
sense for your lifestyle, and use them.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Do not sit on them.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
It does not pay off in most cases to wait
on those. Okay, And New Year means new opportunities, right,
Many of you will have financial goals, financial New Year's
resolutions this year, and hopefully one of them has to
do with retiring and retiring well. And part of that
is knowing how much can you put into these accounts

(17:41):
and also in what order is it important to save,
because that can also make a big difference.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah, So each year, the IRS looks at indexing how
much we're allowed to save in our text defer retirement
vehicles like your HSA r iras four one K, and
occasionally they'll make these increases. For twenty twenty five, we've
seen some of that. For four oh one K four
three B four to fifty seven that's your government retirement

(18:09):
savings plan went from twenty three thousand up to twenty
three thousand, five hundred, so it's extra five hundred bucks.
If you turn fifty this year, you also get your
catch up contribution seventy five hundred. And then the secure
C two point oh introduced this new catch up for
those between the ages of sixty and sixty three. Again,

(18:31):
this isn't your employee retirement savings plan an additional eleven thousand,
two hundred and fifty dollars.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
Yeah, I just turned sixty in December. In December, so
I'm going to go to my wife right now and say, hey, honey,
you're not allowed to spend any money this year. So
I can put eleven thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars
extra into the four to one K. That'll probably go
over real.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Wellness, can you report back on all that conversation.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Let's let's call it right now.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
Amy, that conversation will last less than thirty.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Seconds out, let's call it right now. But it is
important to know how much can you put aside? You know,
what are your priorities with this money?

Speaker 1 (19:17):
You know, many many times we come across people who
when their kids were younger, it was just hard to
make ends meet, and so these catchup contributions become huge
as to being able to retire and retire while So
you know, this might be to your point, Bob, that
the sixty to sixty three this might be a game
changer for a lot of people, but it will also

(19:38):
be a lifestyle changer if you're going to try to
max it out, So planning for these things can make
a huge difference. Here's the all Worth advice. You've got
an incredible opportunity to save really thousands of dollars in
accounts that can serve you well once you decide or
are forced to stop working, so have a plan be
intentional about how you take advantage of those accounts.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Coming up next, we're.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Explaining why it's so important to have as much detail
as possible in your estate plan. You're listening to Simply
Money presented by all Worth Financial here in fifty five
KRC the talk station. You're listening to Simply Money presented
by all Worth Financial.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I'm Emy Wagner.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
For those who have never thought about estate planning, I
understand it can be low on your list of things
to do. It's not necessarily fun to think about what
can happen after you're gone. But I call this an
act of love for the ones that you're leaving behind.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
And there's lots of ways you can approach it.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Some of them you may have never thought about before,
but someone else has. And that's our estate planning expert
from the law firm of Wood and lamping. Mark Rekman Mark,
you've been doing this for a long time. I'm sure
you've seen just about everything. So let's talk what are options.
And we're looking at dividing up our stuff.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
So there are several Amien. And when we're talking about stuff,
we're talking about your personal possessions. We're talking about furniture, art,
household goods, your car, your clothes. I'm not talking about
money like securities or cash or real estate. I'm talking
about the things you have in your house. And that

(21:18):
is always tricky because there's so much of it, and
because it's a moving target. Your personal possessions change over time.
And so the answer is that lawyers don't normally itemize
those things in your will. They're just there's too much
of it and there's too much opportunity for change. There
are exceptions if you have rare peace. You know, for example,

(21:41):
I did a will not so long ago for a
family that had a grand piano. I mean, this thing
was worth I don't know, seventy five thousand dollars. And
when you're talking about something of that kind that you will,
you would go ahead and put that in a will.
But I'm really talking about most smaller items are not
itemized like that. So typically what the state lawyers will

(22:04):
do is we will offer some alternatives. What we often
do is put a paragraph in the will that says
the executor gets to decide who gets what, and then
the executor can use one of several methods. Probably the
most common one is that the executor has discretion to
decide who to give it to. And this is by

(22:28):
far the most popular. It's simple, it's effective, and in essence,
it puts the executor in charge. And that works well
if the executor is a FANNIE member, a child, maybe
the oldest, or maybe the wisest or the fairest or whatever.
And by the way, one of the great things you
can do is you can give that person a handwritten

(22:48):
list that's not in the will. In other words, that
you make a list of the important things that you
want to go and you give it to the executor
separately and say, when I die, discretion and here's who
I here's I want you to use this list as
a guideline. And that's by far the most popular way.
Some people in their will, they'll insist that everything be

(23:12):
sold and that the money gets divided up equally. Or
according to whatever percentage you.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Want, which is nice.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
But I'm a sentimental person as well, and there's certain
things that I don't necessarily want sold.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
So how do you deal with that stuff?

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know. I have a metal
pot that sits next to my heart. That was my
great grandmother's back in the days when people wash their
clothes on the stove top on a wood stove, these big,
big metal urns and they would put them on top
of the stove and boil the water and how you
got your whites clean. And that piece sits next to

(23:50):
my fireplace and I keep my firewood in it, and
you know, I would break my heart to lose it.
So you're right. So one other choice, a third alternative,
is to give these things away while you're alive. You know,
I love this one because it simplifies your life. If
you get to be older and you're downsizing, it gives
you a way to reduce the amount of stuff you've got.

(24:15):
It sort of comes naturally. It also means you have
the joy of watching other people enjoy these items so
that you can see them in use in the next generation.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
You know, Mark, there's one thing that I've seen people do,
and I kind of want to get your take on
this too, and it's, hey, we're going to take turns
going into our parents' house. Maybe the oldest goes first,
I don't know, Maybe you draw straws, but and then
we each get a turn.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
At taking what we want. It can work.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
I've also seen you got the one thing that was
the only thing I cared about.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Yeah, and that can create some hard feelings. And that's
that's why you've got to have somebody in charge, like
your executor. After if there's something that is that important
for the kids, then you might address it in the will.
But still, Amy, you know that does happen. And let
me tell you, if you've got kids who don't get along,

(25:12):
this is where the friction usually hits. And it's it's
consistently odd to me why people would care so much
about a particular item. But it isn't about that item.
It's about some other conflict in the family, and there's
nothing a lawyer can do about that.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, yeah, what are our other options?

Speaker 4 (25:33):
By the way, another variation on the plan you just
mentioned is you have a lottery or or you take turns,
or you hand you pick straws. And that each person
picks an item, so that I pick, and then my
brother picks, and then my sister picks, and then you
rotate over and over again so that you go through
that way. And finally, I have seen family who will

(25:54):
do bids. They'll have sort of an auction kind of thing.
They can do it with real money, although that's not
usually the case. You usually do it with you know,
chips or monopoly money or points that says, you know,
to hear, you have one hundred thousand dollars of monopoly
money to spend, and everybody spends it, and then you
bid how much of your monopoly money you want for

(26:15):
each item. Now, of course this requires everyone to be together.
It requires them to work together cooperatively. And last, but
not least, I have seen people who have put color
coded stickers on big pieces that says yellow is green
while they're still alive, and then stickers stay on them

(26:37):
around their house. It is. It struck me as odd,
but it was very effective.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Great, Like your color is yellow, and anything that has
the yellow sticker on it, that's what you get. Your
sister's blue, that's hers.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
It works. It's weird, but it works.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
How often Mark do you have to then handle disputes
these situations. I mean, I think even families who get
along really really well, when there's grief involved, timbers can.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
Flare, they can, and it's misplaced grief, of course. And
the answer is not. The vast, vast majority. And I've
been doing this for forty years now. The vast majority
of people get along fine and they work it out,
and yeah, there might be a little hurt feelings here
or there, and they talk it out. The vast majority,

(27:30):
But I'd say less than five percent of the cases
do I have open conflict. I've bet a lot less
than five percent have I seen open conflict over the
division of personal property?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Good to know, so much to think through.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
And that's my say again and again, it is really
an act of love when you provide some guidelines before
you're gone, so that when you're no longer here, it's
not left for your loved ones to figure it out
amongst themselves. So I do think there's great insights into
at least thinking through which option that Mark's just talked
about feels the best for you and your loved ones.

(28:09):
Great insights, as always from our estate planning expert, from
the law firm of wood and lamping, Mark Rekman, you're
listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial here
on fifty five KRC, the talk station. You're listening to
Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial. I mean you Wagner,
along with Steve Ruby and Bob Sponsaler.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Do you have a.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Question that you really like to get figured out with
your money in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, there's a red button. You can click them while
you're listening to the show. It's right there on the
iHeart app. Record your question and it's coming straight to us.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
So okay, for the first time in twenty twenty five,
we have some retirement fact or fiction with the focus
on your dollars in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Bob, We're going to you first fact or fiction. The
stock market will experience twenty percent growth in twenty twenty five.
Sounds good.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
There's where I have the opportunity to share some breaking
news with you.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
Amy.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
This is a fact. I flat out guarantee you the
stock markets going up twenty percent this year, So plan accordingly.
So all joking aside, we don't know. These people in
the media don't know. Nobody knows, and we talk about
that all the time, so obviously that is fiction.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
I mean we've seen lots of predictions. We look at
a lot of headlines in doing this show Deutsche Bank,
there's a number of major banks that made predictions on
where the S and P five hundred would go this year.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Many of them.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Look pretty good, look like maybe we could see twenty
percent for growth, but man, you never know.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Again, this is one of those control what you can control.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Things would be great if it happens this year, but
I always like to build a boat when there's calm,
And so does your plan still work if markets are
down twenty percent this year, if they're up twenty percent
this year? Right, don't make any changes based on what
could happen. You only make changes based on what your
plan needs, Okay, Steve Ruby, Fact or fiction. More retirees

(30:04):
will work part time jobs in twenty twenty five than
ever before.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Fact. Yeah, this one is not a trick question like
Bob's that one could be fact or fiction.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
This is a fact.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
You know. It's a combination of things like inflation and
folks living longer than ever. You know, the old three
legged stool doesn't quite exist anymore. That's where folks would
have pensions, they would have social Security, and they would
have their own retirement savings. Now it's more like one
and a half legs, I guess. So you know, this
comes into play where some people not only have to work,

(30:40):
but you know the fact that people are living longer
than ever before that they want to and part time jobs.
That doesn't mean you're working forty hours a week. This
means that you're supplementing your income to some capacity, or
maybe keeping a job to stay social also to some capacity.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
You know, I have a really good friend I was
with last week who's thinking about retiring early, and she
kept saying, well, I'm just going to get a job
in Costco. Like I'm just going to work at Costco.
And I was like, great, here's the problem. You actually
show up for work all the time and you are
super responsible. So you're leaving a job where you have
a lot of responsibility and managing people because you think
it's going to be easier to go somewhere else. But

(31:18):
many times, at least the clients that I work with
end up being asked to be managers and to take
on leadership roles even in these kind of part time jobs.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Because they do. They bring so much experience to the table.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
So if that's part of your plan, just to keep
in mind, maybe a few months down the road, you
could be asked to be a manager of these people.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
So if that's.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Not kind of what was on your plate or what
was on your plan, you may want to be really
clear about that up front. All Right, Factor fiction, Amy, I.

Speaker 5 (31:49):
Think you're a great example of this. You do such
a great job hosting the show that they keep piling
on hosts like you've got to babysit two of us
now instead of just one, and that's just you know,
more responsibility for Amy.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
I did not sign up for this.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
I need to go to our producers and remind them that,
all right, Bob Factor fiction.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
The average re tiree is going to spend more on
travel this year than on healthcare.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
This is fiction. And I'm looking back as I answered
this question on several meetings that I've had with actual
clients over the last year, and there's to me a
couple reasons for this. Some folks, you know, unfortunately, are
dealing with some healthcare concerns where they're just not able
to travel. They have got to focus all their time

(32:37):
and attention on just getting healthy you know, either one
or both spouses. There are other meetings, however, where sometimes
people are afraid to travel even though they'd like to travel,
because they're afraid of running out of money. And I've
had more than a few meetings over the last year
where we've modeled out, hey, if you you know, if

(32:59):
you really want to take a trip to Europe or
a cruise in Alaska, you can afford to do that,
and you know the window is closing on the number
of years left that you're going to be healthy enough
to do it. So I can remember several meetings over
the last year where I've actually encouraged people, Hey, take
that trip when you're in your sixties and seventies, because

(33:20):
by the time you get in your mid eighties, you
might be in the other category where you won't have
the ability to take that trip, and wouldn't that be
a shame, you know, as you head into the latter
years of life.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
I love brainstorming with folks. I work with ideas and
ways to spend money because some people are afraid to
do it. But if we sit down, we flesh out
the financial plan and we show them that it's completely
feasible to the point where it really won't move the
needle to any capacity at all to take a trip
to Europe. Then you know, you really see people's eyes
light up sometimes.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
It's nice.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's a fun part of what we do, isn't it, Steed, Yes,
it's opposed to the flip side. Hey, we've got to
pinch pennies out a way to make your money less.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Not as much fun, yeahh figuring out how to spend
that money. But I'd like to flip this question too
and say, you know, we're talking about retirees spending more
on travel, but I think the average person spends more
time thinking about travel or planning for travel, than they
do thinking about what retirement's going to cost, or what
healthcare and retirement will cost. So I think, regardless of

(34:25):
what age you are, know these things. Spend time planning
for retirement, planning for health care and retirement so that
you can.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Afford travel when you get to retirement.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
Right, Amy that that is a great point in all
joking aside. You know, in my over thirty year career
in this industry, the one thing that remains the biggest
shock to me is the number of people that actually
don't know what they spend. Yeah, And the people that

(34:57):
are the biggest that are the most guilty of this
or the are the high earning, high net worth people
because when you're making, you know, high six figure incomes
and what you don't need to worry about when you're
what you're spending. Most people don't when they're making seven
hundred to one million dollars a year. But they they

(35:18):
fall under the false sense of security that the day
they stop earning that high income, their lifestyle is going
to be able to continue with no changes. And we
run into that all the time. So to your point, Amy,
you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be back down
to the detail of how much you are going to
spend on a pack of gum or a cheeseburger, but

(35:41):
you do need to know, you know, within a within
a range of thousands, what your household spending needs need
to be so you can do some good planning.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, which is the whole foundation of that plan, right,
how much are you going to need? Is how much
you spend? Coming up next, we have some big.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
News about this show and maybe.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Some changes for twenty twenty five. Stay tuned for that.
You're listening to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.
Here on fifty five krs the talk station. You're listening
to Simply Money presented by all Worth Financial.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
I mean me when you're along with Steve Ruby and
Bob Sponseller.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
You know, I've been doing the show for a long
time and one thing has never changed about the show.
When Ed Fink and Nathan Backrax started doing the show
thirty plus years ago, probably now at this point, it
was to make people understand money, to take complex topics

(36:42):
and make it understandable. And I think that will never
change about the Simply Money Radio show. But from time
to time we do make changes, and sometimes that's in
the lineup, the voices that you hear. Now, I'm not
going anywhere. I've been doing the show for a decade now.
I love it so much. But we do have an
al it's meant to make with a co hosting, which

(37:02):
is Steve.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
You've been doing the show with me for a couple
of years now.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
It's been so much fun to get to know you
and to do the show along with you.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
You are going to take more. You're going to.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Step up and be doing more with clients and Bob
sponseller then is going to step into your shoes as
kind of regular co host of the show.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Yeah, I've decided to pass the torch along. You know,
it's been a blast. I've really enjoyed my year two
years here almost you know, it was with Steve Sproback
at first, and then and then with you Amy. You know,
I look back over the span of my career. I
started in the industry over ten years ago, and I've
explained this before. When I first started, I was in
a customer service role in a big brokerage firm for

(37:42):
four and one k planned participants. And you know, one
of the reasons why I did the show in the
first place is because those phone calls, they were constant
all day long. There was always a red light and
those people calling in and saying, you know, I saw
something on the news. I heard something that spooked me.
It's time for me to shut off my contributions and
move everything cash. And because that was in a four
to one K customer service role, I had to step

(38:03):
back and say, hey, that's great, you reach the right place.
I'm happy to help you with that. Anything else you
can do I could do for it. Yeah, it's crushing
and and you know, obviously not everybody in this region
is going to be a client somebody that we work with.
But if if what we say resonates to some folks
and they step back, they pause, and they don't make
a decision like that that could derail their financial future,

(38:25):
and then that's a huge success with success in my eyes.
So it's it's been a lot of fun. But you know,
as you said yourself, I want to make sure that
I'm able to work with as many clients as I
possibly can. So we have folded Bob spot Cellar into
the mix this past month and he's going to be
stepping up to the plate to fill fill in for me,
stepping forward, moving forward.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Well, thank you and Steve, I'll just say this, these
are going to be huge shoes to fill. You do
a great job on the show, and whether it's seeing
you around the office or listening to you on the show,
you know, your passion for taking great care of clients
comes through each and every day and you do a
great job. So the fact that you're going to be

(39:05):
working with more and more clients, that's good news for
the you know, the greater Cincinnati area because you do
a fa fantastic job and Amy, you know it's an
honor to share the airwaves with you. You're a true professional.
I just hope to not get in your way and
add something of value here.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Glad we'll have both of your voices on the show
and twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Thanks for listening. We're off tomorrow for ian Ku basketball.
Back at it on Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
You've been listening to Simply Money, presented by all Worth
Financial here in fifty five KRC, the talk station