Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The information or services discussed on this show is for
informational purposes only, and it is not intended to be personal
financial advice. The investments and services offered by us may
not be suitable for all investors. If you have any
doubts as to the merits of an investment, you should
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
All right, shake your booty? Is that Michael Jackson? Soon?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Definitely? Not?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Definitely not Michael Jackson. Hello, cues, I'm Dave Coopak. This
is the Retirement Planning Show. We're here on the weekends
to edge mkchu. We are live in the studio today.
Can you believe it? On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, We're
stuck in the studio with this unbelievable exceptional staff that
(00:54):
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are coming, girls, one hundred dollars bills are coming. But
if you have any questions at all, even if it's
off topic, if you just want to call because you're bored,
you can give us a call because we'll take it.
(01:15):
Three one five four to two one ninety seven ninety
seven three one five four to two one ninety seven
ninety seven. We are live. That's three one five four
to two one WSYR. If you have a question about
IRA's asset protection, legacy, trust wills, you name it, we
(01:36):
can't take care of it. We'll send you in the
right direction, or we'll get back to you in some capacity.
And again our telephone number is three one five four
to two one ninety seven ninety seven. That it's right
here at the station and we are live. So this
is not Babbel radio. This is talk radio. So if
(01:56):
you don't want us to sit in babbel for an hour,
my son and I pick up that phone and ask
us a question about your own retirement. There's an old
famous phrase from Warren Buffett. It is good to learn
from your mistakes. It is better to learn from other
people's mistakes. So that's a warning. There is a lot
(02:17):
of new information that just came out this week. A
recent survey that came out Wednesday of this past week,
and gen xers are approaching retirement. They have significant problems,
significant forty three percent which they had saved earlier. Two
(02:38):
thirds of the gen xers have less than one hundred
thousand dollars save for retirement and gen xers report that
thirty seven percent right are happy with the retirement savings.
That means that sixty three percent are unhappy and that's
going to be a major problem.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yep, yeah, we It just goes back to procrastination. I mean,
that's that's exactly what has happened with the majority of
those folks. Easier to do nothing than something right, but
doing nothing is also still doing something. The the issue
with that is that people started way too late. You know,
(03:19):
they well, I want to maximize my paycheck instead of
taking fifty bucks a pay period or one hundred dollars
a pay period and just putting it into whatever plan
is offered, and if it's coming out, you know, right
off the rip. You know, when you sign up for
this job, you're never going to notice it, and it's
only going to help facilitate retirement. So if you're plan
around investing and taking these chunks of money out of
(03:42):
your paycheck to start with, you're never going to miss them.
And that's probably what happened with a lot of these
gen xers is they were looking to just maximize the
money coming into their pocket and not thinking about, well,
I'm going to have to supplement retirement over a twenty
thirty year time frame of my life. And where is
that pile of money going to come from? And I'll
do it later. I'll do it later when I'm making
(04:03):
more money or when I get a raise, and that
day never comes. So setting it and forgetting it is
as easier as it's ever been, especially with technology. Now
today you can literally set up a periodic plan to
invest in your four oh one K and it buys
into any type of investment that is offered through your
(04:24):
plan continuously every paycheck, every pay period. So that is
the bare minimum of what everybody should be doing as
far as setting up their retirement plan.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Here's something that's going to blow you out of your seat.
Oh boy, one point eight trillion dollars. Forty two million
Americans are responsible for one point eight trillion dollars. You
know what that is. It's this generation that we're talking about.
(04:57):
It's your brother in law and your sistern, it's your
aunt and uncle that are younger. It's called student loan debt.
It's the second highest category a debt in the country
after mortgages. Yeah, and I know what your position is.
It's your position, correct me? If I'm wrong, and I
(05:18):
don't want to speak for you. You think that a college
cost is a scam?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, bingo, Yeah, I think college for the vast majority
of people is a complete and utter scam. If you're
going to college and you know you want to be
a doctor, a lawyer, an Indian chief, yeah, Indian chief,
if something specific in mind that you want out of
your career already, which most people don't. At age eighteen,
(05:46):
I had no idea what I wanted to do at eighteen.
So that's the thing, Like, it's instead of going to college,
if it was more socially acceptable to go work for
a few years and some different industries from eighteen to
twenty two, and then if you really wanted to get
into a highly skilled workforce like a doctor or a
(06:07):
lawyer or something that you need a degree to get into.
Most most people, most of my peers, even who I've seen,
graduate college, They graduate college and go get a job
that they didn't need a degree for, and now they
have two hundred thousand dollars in debt that they have
to now get themselves out of. So that that is
(06:27):
just to me.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, this past administration thought it was our responsibility as
taxpayers to get college loans off the hook of individuals
personal responsibility, where they were just going to make them vaporize.
A lot of these private institutions, they they basically never came,
you know, these major college institutions. I didn't hear any
(06:52):
of them say is that here, we're going to give
you a rebate. We've got one hundred and fifty billion
dollars in our endowment, so we're going to give you,
you know, a major rebate on the tuition that you
paid for us, you know, over the last four years. Yeah,
so who's gonna who's gonna pay one point eight tr
Because you've got college kids right now that are out,
(07:14):
been out ten eleven, twelve. They have a mortgage. They
don't have a house, but they have a mortgage.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Right We deal with folks in their early forties, late thirties,
and they're still paying student loans. Some of them are
now in jobs where they can afford it, and they
are doing double payments on student loans while paying for
a mortgage on their house. Paying It's just ridiculous that
you graduate college at twenty one, twenty two and now
you're going to be in debt till you're forty five,
(07:44):
sometimes fifty even like you're going to have this debt
now drag on for the entirety of your life to
where you're never going to get above water until those
are paid off. And that's that's something that's I mean,
I see it with my own friend group as well.
There's kids I know that graduated college and now they're
still living at home in their late twenties, making double
(08:04):
payments on these student loans because they don't want to
get wrapped into rent or a mortgage and still have
this other debt obligation that they have on top of
that new debt obligation. So it's just you're compiling debt
on top of debt.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It's well, you can't get rid of it. It's one
if you file for bankruptcy, it never goes away, right,
And the promise of a better life, and you know,
the college degree was going to put you in a
(08:40):
a level where you're going to have more purchasing power,
more income. You're saying, as far as you're concerned, that's
not true.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I mean, you could get you know, a sales job
out of high school and work for four years, or
just any type of job out of high school, work
for four years and be more well positioned. Then I'd
say fifty percent of the people that are get getting
out of college with a degree because they're gonna be
in debt, they're going to get into an an entry
(09:10):
level role job, which right now we're paying forty fifty
thousand dollars a year. It's not like these entry level
jobs out of college are substantially higher paying than you know,
a minimum wage starting job at out of high school.
So it's just to me, it seems like if you
have that direction and you have that mindset of Okay,
(09:30):
I'm gonna go become a doctor or a physical therapist,
or I want to be a nurse, or I want
to be a lawyer or whatever you want to do
out of high school. If you have that direction, then sure,
go to college because you know what you want to do.
But for the I think it should be more acceptable
for kids to say, you know what, I have no
idea what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna go work
(09:50):
for a few years, build up my own money, savings
and income, and then when I get some direction on
what I want to do with my life, then I
will go towards that degree or then I will just
say no, you know what, I don't even need that
continue to work.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So what are these kids going to do? We'll talk
about it when we come back. This is the Retirement
Planning Show. How do they get on track for their
own personal responsibility for retirement. I'm Dave Copek. This is
Retirement Planning Show. We're here live. It gives a fall.
(10:39):
All right, we are back. I'm Dave Copek. This is
the Retirement Planning Show. We're here on the weekends live
in the studio from one to two in the old
Syracuse area. The Orange are in a game right now.
Last time I look, they were down by a touchdown.
It was ten to three. So QS will rally here
(11:02):
and get a w. Big win last week, big win
last week with Clemson. But we're talking about the ball
and chain, the anchor that the generation x Z. They
have this unbelievable hurdle the path and it's called outstanding
(11:26):
debt for student loans to the tune of one point
eight trillion. This number, Folks, is going up. It's not
going down.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, Debt in general is going up. Credit card debt
every year hits a record high. Student loan debt hits
a record high. Debt in general is just growing at
an abnormal rate.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well, you got forty two million Americans to have student
loan debt one point eight trillion dollars, right, you got
to pay it back. You can't file for bankruptcy because
this debt does not go away. You've got all sorts
of economic and social consequences. Right, You're delaying milestones like
(12:08):
what buying a house, saving for retirement, I want to
say that again, saving for retirement, getting married, starting families
because of this unbelievable anchor that's associated with student loan debt. Right,
and you know what it has mental health, I've seen it.
(12:30):
It has a lot of financial strain and stress on
managing this debt on such a you know, young age.
And I think it has a huge toll on young
young people.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, I mean with inflation growing as well over the
last few years. And adding on top of that the
debt obligation that now a lot of these college students
have coming out of it. And then couple that with
you know, a job that maybe they didn't think you
know a lot. It may may not even be in
the same arena as what you got your degree in
(13:04):
You know, some people go for an economics degree and
they get a finance job where they go in and
get a finance degree and they end up becoming an accountant.
It's just like you don't you don't necessarily know what
you're going to end up working. Or they do medical
sales and they go in and get a finance degree. Like,
there's just so many different avenues that life can take
you as far as when you actually start applying for
(13:25):
these positions and jobs that yeah, the piece of paper,
the college degree, when it's almost become like an entry
ticket to applying for these roles where if you don't
have a degree, it puts you at the bottom of
the list of the applicant pile. But these jobs aren't
aren't facilitating enough income to pay off the debt where
(13:48):
you just went to college for fifty thousand dollars a year,
so now you have two hundred thousand dollars in debt
fresh out of college and you get an entry level
job for fifty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well, the other thing is too, is that you know,
the bottom mine gets down to is that I think
it's kind of hard for a lot of people to
figure out what they want to do with the rest
of their lives when they're in their late teens and
early twenties, right, And I think it's impossible. I mean,
if some people have the ability to pick out what
they want to do for the rest of their lives
when they're young, I wasn't one of them either. I
(14:19):
didn't get into the financial services business until I was
in my mid to late twenties.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and that's why I think it's like, should be
more acceptable to go out and test the work field
out of college or out of high school, not out
of college, and see different jobs and areas that are
out there in the world as far as a work
environment and different roles that you could be in and
(14:49):
kind of market, you know, see the market and look around.
So there was options that are available to people. Okay,
there are certain counties or state programs where the governments
will basically decrease your obligation. They'll actually pick up if
you're in healthcare, if you're in education. So if you've
(15:12):
got this ball and chain on you and you're trying
to figure out how you can get out from underneath it,
there are programs out there, depending on the coupon the
interest rate that you're paying on it. You might be
able to facilitate a longer payment period which will basically
reduce the cost. But you know, like I said, there's
(15:36):
targeted loan forgiveness programs. But you know, the big debate
was over and over again, was you know, the proposal
for student debt to be canceled, And it had been
debated and back and forth by the Biden administration and
with Congress, and the Supreme Court blocked it. I mean,
(15:57):
it's a big number to cancel out. You know, they're
owed that money. There's a lot of people that are
going to be pretty upset if they don't get that
those debt obligations that they're owed.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So what's the answer for your generation and for the
generation above you? Your aunt and uncle still have student
loan debts that they're still paying off and they're in
their early forties, right, So what's the answer to this
in your opinion?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Because I'll tell you what, I don't even know if
there is a good answer. I guess it's been It's
the system, I guess has been this way for so
long that it's like, if you can, obviously and you
want to go to college and you have an idea
of what you want to do, at least try and
get a scholarship or some type of grant or something
to make college as cheap as it possibly can be
(16:48):
with how expensive it is now to go to some
of these universities, if you don't have any idea, you know,
going out into the workfield and getting a job, working
for a few years, saving up some money and seeing
different areas that you could potentially see yourself working in
for you know, the entire entirety of your career, which
(17:10):
it doesn't have to be the entire your entire career,
it's just you know, testing the waters basically for a
few years before you jump into a obligation to now
pay this massive amount of debt back.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Well, I think it's a paradox, and I think it
refers to a lot of people that are out there
that are trying to pay off college loans, that are
still in their you know, late twenties thirties, that are
basically trying to have a career by a house, have
a wife, have kids, and all that stuff. Because they
got to pick. They're gonna make a choice, right, you know,
which which where's the money going Which bad option do
(17:46):
I do? I check off here.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Right, Well, because then it turns into yeah, once you
get out of college, it's get a job, then start
paying off this debt. But then you get you want
to get a house, and then yeah, maybe get married.
Then you have kids, so now you have all these
other bills and obligations to pay for on top of debt,
so that by the time the debt gets paid off,
when you're in your early to mid forties, now you're
(18:08):
focusing on retirement. Well, now it can start really saving
money and putting money aside for retirement. But you're way
behind the eight ball.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You should have been saving since you were twenty twenty
five or whenever you got your first career job, and
now you're forty five and you're twenty years behind the
eight ball because you had all these other obligations in
life that needed to get taken care of first.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, and it's not a common ough folks to see
two working families. When I say two working, both the
both the individuals on the household, the mother and the father,
are working in order to facilitate what is necessary to
cover the expenses. And as we're all quite well aware
(18:52):
to live today, to cover health care, to put some
money away for retirement, page college, college, you know, loans off,
et cetera, et cetera. It's a challenging, challenging proposition. So
I don't think there's any easy answer. But the thing
is is that what I've said over and over again, Uh,
you might have to get a second job. You might
(19:14):
have to do something that you don't necessarily want to do,
you know, the old Dave Ramsey. You might not be
able to afford some of the things that you have too.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Well, yeah, that's that's a huge part of it is,
you know, greens and beans don't feel like yeah, keeping
up with the Joneses is is now more relevant than
ever with social media and technology.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
And how many of your friends have college loans? Would
you say, percentage.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Wise, I'd say the vast majority have till seventy yeah
of college loans. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So that's you know, that's a fairly large percentage of your.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
At least to some degree. You know, some more, some
less than others. But yeah, i'd say most of them.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The positive We're going to talk a little bit about you.
We're talking about what's happening with the younger generation, not
only the young kids that are out there right now,
but also the gen xers that the recent data came
out this week that you know, the average gen xer
right now has less than one hundred thousand dollars saved
in their four O one K programs and four and
(20:21):
five four out of five say they aren't prepared and
they're not confident that they're going to be able to
carry their their present standard living into retirement. It's kind
of scary. It's kind of scary. You know, less than
one hundred thousand dollars saved and their four one K
program So I think that there's going to be some
(20:45):
challenging times here, challenging times, but we're going to talk
about some positives when we come back. But again, we're
live folks live. As I said over and over again,
we usually get a lot of phone calls. I know
there's a big foot ball game going on today, but
our telephone number at the studios three one five four
seven ninety seven. You had any comment and any suggestions
(21:08):
or you want to give your opinion on this topic.
We're talking about this burden of debt that's out there
right now in college loans, How do they get ahead?
How do they basically get on track? If you want
to participate, it's three one five four to two one
ninety seven ninety seven. And again, we have a brand
new office. I'm announcing that we have a brand new
(21:28):
office in Syracuse. Uh. If you want to come in
and have a chat with us, we would love to
have the opportunity. We offer a complimentary consultation at our
office in Syracuse, and it's pretty simple to do. You
just get on the phone. You dial eight eighty eight
five eat zero one nine one nine. That's eighty eight
(21:49):
eight five eat zero one nine one nine, and Jim
Corkoran or someone inside the office, we'd be more than
happy to set that up for you. And again it's
sixty seven hundred Kirkville Road, Suite one A. That's an
East Syracuse, beautiful location, easy to get in out of,
lots of parking. Eight eight eight five eight zero one
(22:12):
nine one nine. If you want to come in and
have a chat, and we'll be right back after this
quick message. This is the Retirement Planning Show. I'm Dave
Copek and I'm here with my son Chris Coo. All right,
(22:45):
we are back I'm Dave Copek. We're talking about the
amount of debt that's out there on the backs of
the younger generation student loan debt and what kind of
an impact it's having. My son, Christopher is here see
(23:05):
un a graduate. It's a complicated conversation because you know,
I remember my mom and dad always wanted all of
us to go to college. All my kids have gone
to college. I still have a daughter that's at FAU Florida.
(23:26):
At Lanti University in Florida. David did two years and
said that's it. He got an associate's degree, and he says,
I'm not I don't need any of this. I need
some of it. But you know, I'm sitting there and
I'm playing tittaly winks. And he was a pretty much
(23:48):
a straight a student. Christopher here, my son went to Siena,
and I think if you summarized it, you would say
some of it was good, but most of it you
just you don't think a lot of it was practical.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, it just doesn't apply to like real life. Once
you get out of college, you kind of get hit
with this like realization that ninety percent of the classes
you took have no real relevance in your life. And
there's no, it's not applied. You can't apply anything that
you just took out of there. I mean, I'm taking
(24:23):
a class. I took a yoga class in school. I mean,
what is it? What does that have to do with anything?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then, well, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for
you to do yoga. Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That was my Well, you need got to do what
you fill out these arts credits, So all these courses,
you're just you take whatever is the easiest.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
One beautiful and I feel good about that.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, pass me that bottle of voka yep. But it's
it's true. I think that there's a lot that is
not taught that could be taught in college, whether it's
you know, this is how you take out a mortgage,
This is how you file attack. This is how you
do things that you're going to use in your your
day to day life now that you leave and join
(25:06):
your career. This is how you make investment decisions.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
College should be real school and classroom. Real school means
that you're actually doing the job somewhere you integrate both.
Like Northeastern University in Boston, they have like a work
program where you work, you do the job, and you
also go to the classroom. Yeah, that's, in my opinion,
the way you should do it.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I think that would make sense. And I also think
that it would it would help people realize if they
want to be in that position long term with their career,
instead of getting out of college, getting an entry level
role in some job that they just went and got
a degree in, absolutely hating it, and then transitioning fields
and going into some role or position that they like
(25:50):
more that has nothing to do with the degree that
they just went and spent all this money on.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Well, here's the gidea. Okay, here is the sugar, sugar,
here's the frosting on the cake, here's the cherry on
the Sunday. Trillions of dollars will pass What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
This thing is popping off.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, trillions of dollars is going to pass over the
next twenty to thirty years from my generation to your generation. Trillions.
So bottom line gets down to is that there's gonna
be a whole heck of a lot of money that
we be transferred to your generation. And the question becomes,
(26:39):
how do they do it? And how do you pass
that money? So it stays within the bloodline. And also
it does what you wanted to do is to protect
protect the family. But guess what, we actually have a
woman that broke the ice, Michelle. Michelle congratulates you are
(27:00):
the winner.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Thank you. What did I win?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You can come in it make you, you can see
you can come. You can come see our brand new
offices in circus.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
No I wrote, I wrote it down.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
That's beautiful. They did a beautiful they did a beautiful job.
Were very, very very happy with the end results.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So I have a couple. I didn't go to college.
I took college prep courses because the business courses were
like a snoozefest, and so I took college prep. But
then I thought, I don't want to go to college,
and I just worked. And that's what I've done all
of my life. And so I'm thinking, who determines what
classes go into the curriculum? Like you're saying, so you
(27:44):
take yoga. Why are there so many things involved in
the education system in the colleges that's unnecessary? And are
we not, as taxpayers, subsidizing these colleges. And I kind
of wonder if some of the employers don't bear some
responsibility in this. I mean, you have to have a
(28:05):
college degree for so many things that don't have anything
to do with what you're going to school for.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I agree, I think they do hold responsibility. To be
honest with you, I think they're basically pushing kids out
of college that are unprepared, that don't have the skill set.
It's obvious they don't have the skill set because you
got kids that are the Boomerangs. They graduate, they go
(28:33):
back to mom and dad and they're living in the basement.
I don't know if that's because mom and dad are
not forceful enough, but I think that the colleges that
are receiving subsidies, which they do from the government, should
be more responsible as far as the end product that
they're putting out with our kids.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I'm wondering. I know that they get subsidized, but
when I'm hearing that, like say Harvard for example, are saying, well,
you're kind of funding, we're not going to be able
to do research. Yeah, why did they have to do
it anyway?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well it's not only that, but they're sitting on like
one hundred billion dollars in their endowment. Now, every kid
that goes to Harvard that probably doesn't even have to
pay a tuition, you know, because they have so much
wealth that has accumulated in their in their endowment. I
think what it gets down to is that we've created
(29:27):
this thing, this perception that you need a college degree
in order to justify the job that you're going to
be applying to, which I think, you know, I've been
doing this now in the financial services business for forty
three years. I look at the person, you know, I
can't when I hire somebody, I could care less about
(29:48):
the financial or whatever their degree is. I want to
know who the person is, what their personality is, and
what's their background, what have they done in order their
with their work history?
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Well, you know what? That leads me to another thing
that I wonder about. Well, two things. Number One, when
I grew up and I'm old, my father had a
paper on the desk and it was a budget. And
a budget is not spend, spend, spend. A budget is
this is how much money I have and this is
what I have to pay in it. And so I
(30:21):
learned early on what a budget was. And then I'm
wondering if the parents are teaching their children those things
when they're growing up, and that you don't need the
newest cell phone, the newest iPhone, the newest computer, a
new car every two years. You don't need any of
that stuff. And I wonder if that's part of it.
And everything I've seen is please respond online for your job.
(30:48):
You don't know who this person is by a piece,
Like you said, you have to meet them and see.
You can be the laziest slug in the world and
somehow skated through your college education and you're not going
to work. So how do you get passed back?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I agree, here, here's the biggest I think, the biggest
cancer out there than anything else. I got a thing
in the mail today. I'm going through my emails. I
fly Jet Blue because they travel to a lot of
the cities that we have clients in. And they got
to incentive for me, right that if I if I
(31:24):
get this new card, it's only five percent on my balance,
which I don't carry balance anyway, but it says that
at the end, at the end of May, then my
balance the interest rates goes to almost it's twenty seven
point nine percent. That's a hell of a deal, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Oh yeah, if you're rich that's crazy. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
But and people that can't afford to get a credit
card get them offers all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
How much is in credit card debt right now, Chris,
there's over a trillion. I mean, there's a one point
eight trillion in college debt. Credit card credit card debt
is well over a trillion dollar dollars right now. And
you know, some of these people will never get out
from underneath these high interest rates that they try. I
(32:14):
think it's it should be against the law to be
perfectly honest with you. Hey, we gotta go. We gotta
take a heart Come visit me at our new office.
Thank you, God bless we'll see it. We got to
take a hard break. This is the Retirement Planning Show.
I'm Dave Kopek, your host. I'm here with my son
Christopher William. Hey, give us another call. Three point five
(32:37):
seven ninety seven. We are live in the studio.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
A FM.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
All right, we are back. It was a nice conversation
from with that wonderful woman. Can't wait to meet you.
Why I didn't say hi to us at our new location.
Total credit card debt right now one point two one
trillion as of quarter two trillion represents a significant increase
(33:29):
up right driven in general upward trend in debt. The
people are just stacking on their monthly expense. Yeap, and
it says, well, it's twenty seven billion in the second
quarter credit card debt.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, and the average credit card balance for card holders
with unpaid balances in quarter one was seven and twenty
one dollars, which was up about five point eight percent
year over year. So it's it's always in. The average
credit card debt per person is going up again. So
(34:08):
in terms of debt compounding and growing on each other,
it's just it's it's consistently growing.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh, it's a cancer. I think it should be against
the law for them to charge. It's not different than
going down to the corner and talking to the guy
I want to borrow a few bucks. You know, I'll
give you a X number of dollars on a weekly
basis the loan shark, And what the hell's the difference
between that? The average credit card rate in twenty and
(34:37):
twenty four, folks was twenty nine percent.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yep, you're not going to get that out of your investments.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Twenty nine percent. How do you get out somebody that's
making fifty sixty thousand dollars a year that got a
nine to one one event. Then they put it on
a credit card. So, you know, trying to scare you today,
But the reality is is that there is a lot
of financial stress out there. There's a lot of interests
(35:09):
by individuals on how to get this burden off your back.
I wish I had a magic wand and I wish
I had a way in order to facilitate that because
I can see the anxiety, the stress, the tears, the
heartache from individuals. The bottom line is that you're going
to have to Basically, you got to get a budget.
(35:31):
Like Chris said, you got to get a budget. You
got to put yourself in a position that you know
X number dollars is coming in the door and you
might have to make some hard decisions. You might have
to do some things you don't want to do well.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Also, part of our initial appointment is we always ask
within the confidential questionnaire, it says what are your annual
current annual expenses? And the reason we asked that is
because when we build out projections for retirement, it's based
on spend level, an annual spend level and retirement that
we're looking to facilitate to maintain quality of life for clients.
(36:07):
And a lot of the appointments that I have had
over the years when I ask folks, hey, I see
you didn't fill out the annual expense portion in the
booklet here. Do you have a ballpark idea just you know,
ballpark what you're currently spending right now? And some people have.
They come in with spreadsheets and they did their budget
(36:29):
and they have it down to the dollar. But then
some other folks, you know, they walk in and they say,
to be honest with you, I have no idea what
I'm spending currently right now. And that's you know, that's
part of the problem. If there's if you have no
idea what's going out the door, and you're just you know,
spending on credit cards and spending here, spending there, and
(36:49):
you don't necessarily keep track of anything, well, then that's
how it it gets out of hand, and that's how
people get into credit card debt where it just compounds
on itself and then you're you're kind of trapped in
that that loop of a twenty nine percent interest rate
on your debt.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I can tell you right now, I've seen it. I
had a doctor's wife that came into me not that
long ago, and she sat down in the conference room.
We have two conference rooms, and they said, you know,
we'll bring her down closer to your office. She seems
like she's pretty upset. So brought her into the conference
room by my office, and I no longer sat down,
(37:29):
you know, closed the door, and I couldn't couldn't talk
to her in great detail, simply because simply because I
knew that she was in duress, and she had accumulated
(37:51):
about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in credit card debt.
She was flipping cards around, doing this and doing that.
She was a spender, she had an addiction to spending shopping.
Her husband was a very successful doctor and had no idea,
(38:11):
none whatsoever that she had accumulated this type of debt,
and she was afraid to tell him. So she was
doing everything that she could possibly do. And the end
result was is that I told her, I said, listen,
I would love to be able to say that I've
got a magic wand in my closet there in order
to make all this go away. But the reality is
(38:33):
is that you're going to have to go home and
have a hard conversation, probably maybe one of the hardest
conversations that you've ever had with your husband. And I
never saw her again. We reached out to her see
how she was doing. She didn't return her phone calls.
So you know, just just be careful, folks. Okay, you know,
(38:55):
there's no pantas out there, there's no one what you
should do. Nothing's one hundred percent correct, But you know
you've got to live with live within your means, especially
today with so much personal responsibility on your back. Okay,
you're gonna be responsible for healthcare, You're gonna be responsible
(39:16):
for your four oh one k You're gonna be responsible
in order to put a roof over your head, pay
the bills, all the insurances, and everything else. The taxes
that we have in this Empire state, which a lot
of people call the vampire state because of the tax
burden that they put on us. But I wish I
could paint a rosier picture for you, But the reality
is for a lot of people, things are tough.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Chris, Yeah, yeah, it's and inflation has really gone wild
within the last five years post COVID because of all
the money that got dumped into the market, we had
stimulus and you know all this other free money that
they were handing out, so we saw things jump, you know,
not only at the grocery store, but within the real
(39:58):
estate market and a lot of other areas. And now
it's more important than well, it's always been important. I
wouldn't say more important than ever, but it's it's critical
that people are setting money aside in these investment plans
to facilitate their retirement because if they're looking to hit
their goal of you know, getting out the door at
sixty two, sixty five, even sixty seven or just pre seventy,
(40:24):
you gotta do all the legwork on the front end
because the numbers with compound interests are staggering. Even if
you got a ten year delay. You know, he didn't
start investing in instead of twenty five, he started at
thirty five. You know that person at twenty five has
already got a ten year jump on you, and you're
gonna drastically feel the difference in your overall return.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Well, you know you've seen these numbers delaying put a
money aside for your retirement. You know, if you do
it at twenty five rather than starting at thirty five,
it's a huge difference, Solks, it's a huge difference as
far as the pool of money. Okay, But like I said,
you know, I'm a Dave Ramsey fan. You know, there's
nothing in this for me to basically promote Dave Ramsey.
(41:07):
But you know, there's some things I like that Dave does,
and there's some things that I don't like that Dave does.
But overall his messaging, stay within your lane, stay within
your boundaries, right, Greens and beans, don't be buying stuff
that you can't afford. And that's true. And it's no
different with credit cards and those. You know, the thing is,
what can you do about credit cards? Well, you can
(41:28):
call them and ask them if you can negotiate, right,
and you know, you can do transfers on the cards
where you go from this card to that card to
a zero percent introduction rate. That's playing the inevitable. You know,
you might have to file for bankruptcy. No one wants
to do that. It's a last resort. But with this
overwhelming amount of debt that's out there right now, you know,
(41:51):
sometimes you need to breathe, Sometimes you need to breed
and get the stress off your back.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
So yeah, and I ran a quick comparison just versus
what's someone starting at twenty five versus thirty five? And
it just ran it for contributing six thousand dollars a
year into a IRA account. And if you get a
seven percent annualized return on this money and you invest
it for forty years, so you invest it from twenty
(42:17):
five to sixty five, Ye, what does that number look like?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
It's got to be a million bucks?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
One point two million is the future value of that
at sixty five?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
What's it at thirty five?
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Scenario two at thirty five, the same six thousand dollars
a year, the same seven percent annual return rate five
hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars by half, Yeah, less
than half, and.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It's ten years.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
You say, well I can wait till my thirties. Well,
that that's the difference of waiting. It's called lost opportunity cost. Right,
You've lost the opportunity for that growth because you got
the BMW in the driveway, or you got these high
credit cards, or you got the fancy phone, or whatever
it may be you're gonna I can't overemphasize this enough.
If you're young and you're listening. Even if you're middle
(42:57):
aged and you're listening, you're not doing anything about it.
The average balance right now there's one hundred thousand dollars
or less.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
And I feel that there's no reason that people shouldn't
be able to hit these numbers if you're doing one
hundred dollars a week. You know, one hundred dollars a
week now is just going out to dinner or going
and grabbing drinks with your friends. Like everything seems to
be one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
You know, I'll tell you what, when your mother and
your father were young, we never went out to dinner, right,
went out to dindrry once in a while, right, you know,
we eat at home, or we'd go over to grandma
and grandpa's house, you know, and have a dinner with them.
But you know, there's this tendency today is that you know,
we're going here, we're going there, we're doing this, we're
doing that, and you're exactly right. You go out today,
(43:40):
it's one hundred dollars bill yep, for two people. So
but listen, folks, I'm that Debbie Downer here. But what
we try to do is to be realistic and give
you a pretty good picture of the landscape that's out
there in the pre and post retirement world. I've been
doing it a long time. This is my forty third
year in business. I love what I do. I'm not
(44:02):
retiring and a plan on retiring. The bottom line gets
down to is that if you feel you're in a
situation where you need some help and assistance, that's what
we do. We help people develop a plan, implement the plan.
And as I said, we have the ability to sit
down with you at our brand new offices, which I love.
(44:24):
Six seven zero zero Kirkville Road, Sweet one A that's
in East Syracuse. It's right off the exit. Jimmy's all
excited because it's right off the exit Quirkrand.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yeah, it's a great spot. Quick on, quick off, kick.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
On, you know, because our corporate headquarters is in Slash Saratoga, Malta,
which is about a two hour drive from Syracuse, but
we're out there all the time. So but again, it
would be an honor to sit down with you. Even
if you want to come in and just have a chat,
that's okay too. We'll make some time for you. Six
seven zero zero Kirkville Road, Sweet one A. October first,
(44:58):
our brand new offices a opening. We're very excited. We
love Syracuse the surrounding area. We've got a lot of
clients out there now. So how do they get ahold
of us? Chris?
Speaker 3 (45:09):
They call us at eight eight eight five eight zero
nine one nine, or you can reach out to us
on our website www dot rpg retire dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
And again, Syracuse is not doing too good. They're down
twenty four to three. Not a good game so far.
But listen, we'll see you next week if the creek
don't rise.
The information or services discussed on this show is for
informational purposes only, and it is not intended to be personal
financial advice. The investments and services offered by us may
not be suitable for all investors. If you have any
doubts as to the merits of an investment, you should
seek advice from an independent financial advisor.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
All right, shake your booty? Is that Michael Jackson? Soon?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Definitely? Not?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Definitely not Michael Jackson. Hello, cues, I'm Dave Coopak. This
is the Retirement Planning Show. We're here on the weekends
to edge mkchu. We are live in the studio today.
Can you believe it? On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, We're
stuck in the studio with this unbelievable exceptional staff that
(00:54):
iHeartRadio provises. They're all smiles. The one hundred dollars bills
are coming, girls, one hundred dollars bills are coming. But
if you have any questions at all, even if it's
off topic, if you just want to call because you're bored,
you can give us a call because we'll take it.
(01:15):
Three one five four to two one ninety seven ninety
seven three one five four to two one ninety seven
ninety seven. We are live. That's three one five four
to two one WSYR. If you have a question about
IRA's asset protection, legacy, trust wills, you name it, we
(01:36):
can't take care of it. We'll send you in the
right direction, or we'll get back to you in some capacity.
And again our telephone number is three one five four
to two one ninety seven ninety seven. That it's right
here at the station and we are live. So this
is not Babbel radio. This is talk radio. So if
(01:56):
you don't want us to sit in babbel for an hour,
my son and I pick up that phone and ask
us a question about your own retirement. There's an old
famous phrase from Warren Buffett. It is good to learn
from your mistakes. It is better to learn from other
people's mistakes. So that's a warning. There is a lot
(02:17):
of new information that just came out this week. A
recent survey that came out Wednesday of this past week,
and gen xers are approaching retirement. They have significant problems,
significant forty three percent which they had saved earlier. Two
(02:38):
thirds of the gen xers have less than one hundred
thousand dollars save for retirement and gen xers report that
thirty seven percent right are happy with the retirement savings.
That means that sixty three percent are unhappy and that's
going to be a major problem.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yep, yeah, we It just goes back to procrastination. I mean,
that's that's exactly what has happened with the majority of
those folks. Easier to do nothing than something right, but
doing nothing is also still doing something. The the issue
with that is that people started way too late. You know,
(03:19):
they well, I want to maximize my paycheck instead of
taking fifty bucks a pay period or one hundred dollars
a pay period and just putting it into whatever plan
is offered, and if it's coming out, you know, right
off the rip. You know, when you sign up for
this job, you're never going to notice it, and it's
only going to help facilitate retirement. So if you're plan
around investing and taking these chunks of money out of
(03:42):
your paycheck to start with, you're never going to miss them.
And that's probably what happened with a lot of these
gen xers is they were looking to just maximize the
money coming into their pocket and not thinking about, well,
I'm going to have to supplement retirement over a twenty
thirty year time frame of my life. And where is
that pile of money going to come from? And I'll
do it later. I'll do it later when I'm making
(04:03):
more money or when I get a raise, and that
day never comes. So setting it and forgetting it is
as easier as it's ever been, especially with technology. Now
today you can literally set up a periodic plan to
invest in your four oh one K and it buys
into any type of investment that is offered through your
(04:24):
plan continuously every paycheck, every pay period. So that is
the bare minimum of what everybody should be doing as
far as setting up their retirement plan.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Here's something that's going to blow you out of your seat.
Oh boy, one point eight trillion dollars. Forty two million
Americans are responsible for one point eight trillion dollars. You
know what that is. It's this generation that we're talking about.
(04:57):
It's your brother in law and your sistern, it's your
aunt and uncle that are younger. It's called student loan debt.
It's the second highest category a debt in the country
after mortgages. Yeah, and I know what your position is.
It's your position, correct me? If I'm wrong, and I
(05:18):
don't want to speak for you. You think that a college
cost is a scam?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, bingo, Yeah, I think college for the vast majority
of people is a complete and utter scam. If you're
going to college and you know you want to be
a doctor, a lawyer, an Indian chief, yeah, Indian chief,
if something specific in mind that you want out of
your career already, which most people don't. At age eighteen,
(05:46):
I had no idea what I wanted to do at eighteen.
So that's the thing, Like, it's instead of going to college,
if it was more socially acceptable to go work for
a few years and some different industries from eighteen to
twenty two, and then if you really wanted to get
into a highly skilled workforce like a doctor or a
(06:07):
lawyer or something that you need a degree to get into.
Most most people, most of my peers, even who I've seen,
graduate college, They graduate college and go get a job
that they didn't need a degree for, and now they
have two hundred thousand dollars in debt that they have
to now get themselves out of. So that that is
(06:27):
just to me.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, this past administration thought it was our responsibility as
taxpayers to get college loans off the hook of individuals
personal responsibility, where they were just going to make them vaporize.
A lot of these private institutions, they they basically never came,
you know, these major college institutions. I didn't hear any
(06:52):
of them say is that here, we're going to give
you a rebate. We've got one hundred and fifty billion
dollars in our endowment, so we're going to give you,
you know, a major rebate on the tuition that you
paid for us, you know, over the last four years. Yeah,
so who's gonna who's gonna pay one point eight tr
Because you've got college kids right now that are out,
(07:14):
been out ten eleven, twelve. They have a mortgage. They
don't have a house, but they have a mortgage.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Right We deal with folks in their early forties, late thirties,
and they're still paying student loans. Some of them are
now in jobs where they can afford it, and they
are doing double payments on student loans while paying for
a mortgage on their house. Paying It's just ridiculous that
you graduate college at twenty one, twenty two and now
you're going to be in debt till you're forty five,
(07:44):
sometimes fifty even like you're going to have this debt
now drag on for the entirety of your life to
where you're never going to get above water until those
are paid off. And that's that's something that's I mean,
I see it with my own friend group as well.
There's kids I know that graduated college and now they're
still living at home in their late twenties, making double
(08:04):
payments on these student loans because they don't want to
get wrapped into rent or a mortgage and still have
this other debt obligation that they have on top of
that new debt obligation. So it's just you're compiling debt
on top of debt.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It's well, you can't get rid of it. It's one
if you file for bankruptcy, it never goes away, right,
And the promise of a better life, and you know,
the college degree was going to put you in a
(08:40):
a level where you're going to have more purchasing power,
more income. You're saying, as far as you're concerned, that's
not true.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I mean, you could get you know, a sales job
out of high school and work for four years, or
just any type of job out of high school, work
for four years and be more well positioned. Then I'd
say fifty percent of the people that are get getting
out of college with a degree because they're gonna be
in debt, they're going to get into an an entry
(09:10):
level role job, which right now we're paying forty fifty
thousand dollars a year. It's not like these entry level
jobs out of college are substantially higher paying than you know,
a minimum wage starting job at out of high school.
So it's just to me, it seems like if you
have that direction and you have that mindset of Okay,
(09:30):
I'm gonna go become a doctor or a physical therapist,
or I want to be a nurse, or I want
to be a lawyer or whatever you want to do
out of high school. If you have that direction, then sure,
go to college because you know what you want to do.
But for the I think it should be more acceptable
for kids to say, you know what, I have no
idea what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna go work
(09:50):
for a few years, build up my own money, savings
and income, and then when I get some direction on
what I want to do with my life, then I
will go towards that degree or then I will just
say no, you know what, I don't even need that
continue to work.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So what are these kids going to do? We'll talk
about it when we come back. This is the Retirement
Planning Show. How do they get on track for their
own personal responsibility for retirement. I'm Dave Copek. This is
Retirement Planning Show. We're here live. It gives a fall.
(10:39):
All right, we are back. I'm Dave Copek. This is
the Retirement Planning Show. We're here on the weekends live
in the studio from one to two in the old
Syracuse area. The Orange are in a game right now.
Last time I look, they were down by a touchdown.
It was ten to three. So QS will rally here
(11:02):
and get a w. Big win last week, big win
last week with Clemson. But we're talking about the ball
and chain, the anchor that the generation x Z. They
have this unbelievable hurdle the path and it's called outstanding
(11:26):
debt for student loans to the tune of one point
eight trillion. This number, Folks, is going up. It's not
going down.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, Debt in general is going up. Credit card debt
every year hits a record high. Student loan debt hits
a record high. Debt in general is just growing at
an abnormal rate.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Well, you got forty two million Americans to have student
loan debt one point eight trillion dollars, right, you got
to pay it back. You can't file for bankruptcy because
this debt does not go away. You've got all sorts
of economic and social consequences. Right, You're delaying milestones like
(12:08):
what buying a house, saving for retirement, I want to
say that again, saving for retirement, getting married, starting families
because of this unbelievable anchor that's associated with student loan debt. Right,
and you know what it has mental health, I've seen it.
(12:30):
It has a lot of financial strain and stress on
managing this debt on such a you know, young age.
And I think it has a huge toll on young
young people.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, I mean with inflation growing as well over the
last few years. And adding on top of that the
debt obligation that now a lot of these college students
have coming out of it. And then couple that with
you know, a job that maybe they didn't think you
know a lot. It may may not even be in
the same arena as what you got your degree in
(13:04):
You know, some people go for an economics degree and
they get a finance job where they go in and
get a finance degree and they end up becoming an accountant.
It's just like you don't you don't necessarily know what
you're going to end up working. Or they do medical
sales and they go in and get a finance degree. Like,
there's just so many different avenues that life can take
you as far as when you actually start applying for
(13:25):
these positions and jobs that yeah, the piece of paper,
the college degree, when it's almost become like an entry
ticket to applying for these roles where if you don't
have a degree, it puts you at the bottom of
the list of the applicant pile. But these jobs aren't
aren't facilitating enough income to pay off the debt where
(13:48):
you just went to college for fifty thousand dollars a year,
so now you have two hundred thousand dollars in debt
fresh out of college and you get an entry level
job for fifty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Well, the other thing is too, is that you know,
the bottom mine gets down to is that I think
it's kind of hard for a lot of people to
figure out what they want to do with the rest
of their lives when they're in their late teens and
early twenties, right, And I think it's impossible. I mean,
if some people have the ability to pick out what
they want to do for the rest of their lives
when they're young, I wasn't one of them either. I
(14:19):
didn't get into the financial services business until I was
in my mid to late twenties.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and that's why I think it's like, should be
more acceptable to go out and test the work field
out of college or out of high school, not out
of college, and see different jobs and areas that are
out there in the world as far as a work
environment and different roles that you could be in and
(14:49):
kind of market, you know, see the market and look around.
So there was options that are available to people. Okay,
there are certain counties or state programs where the governments
will basically decrease your obligation. They'll actually pick up if
you're in healthcare, if you're in education. So if you've
(15:12):
got this ball and chain on you and you're trying
to figure out how you can get out from underneath it,
there are programs out there, depending on the coupon the
interest rate that you're paying on it. You might be
able to facilitate a longer payment period which will basically
reduce the cost. But you know, like I said, there's
(15:36):
targeted loan forgiveness programs. But you know, the big debate
was over and over again, was you know, the proposal
for student debt to be canceled, And it had been
debated and back and forth by the Biden administration and
with Congress, and the Supreme Court blocked it. I mean,
(15:57):
it's a big number to cancel out. You know, they're
owed that money. There's a lot of people that are
going to be pretty upset if they don't get that
those debt obligations that they're owed.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So what's the answer for your generation and for the
generation above you? Your aunt and uncle still have student
loan debts that they're still paying off and they're in
their early forties, right, So what's the answer to this
in your opinion?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Because I'll tell you what, I don't even know if
there is a good answer. I guess it's been It's
the system, I guess has been this way for so
long that it's like, if you can, obviously and you
want to go to college and you have an idea
of what you want to do, at least try and
get a scholarship or some type of grant or something
to make college as cheap as it possibly can be
(16:48):
with how expensive it is now to go to some
of these universities, if you don't have any idea, you know,
going out into the workfield and getting a job, working
for a few years, saving up some money and seeing
different areas that you could potentially see yourself working in
for you know, the entire entirety of your career, which
(17:10):
it doesn't have to be the entire your entire career,
it's just you know, testing the waters basically for a
few years before you jump into a obligation to now
pay this massive amount of debt back.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Well, I think it's a paradox, and I think it
refers to a lot of people that are out there
that are trying to pay off college loans, that are
still in their you know, late twenties thirties, that are
basically trying to have a career by a house, have
a wife, have kids, and all that stuff. Because they
got to pick. They're gonna make a choice, right, you know,
which which where's the money going Which bad option do
(17:46):
I do? I check off here.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Right, Well, because then it turns into yeah, once you
get out of college, it's get a job, then start
paying off this debt. But then you get you want
to get a house, and then yeah, maybe get married.
Then you have kids, so now you have all these
other bills and obligations to pay for on top of debt,
so that by the time the debt gets paid off,
when you're in your early to mid forties, now you're
(18:08):
focusing on retirement. Well, now it can start really saving
money and putting money aside for retirement. But you're way
behind the eight ball.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You should have been saving since you were twenty twenty
five or whenever you got your first career job, and
now you're forty five and you're twenty years behind the
eight ball because you had all these other obligations in
life that needed to get taken care of first.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, and it's not a common ough folks to see
two working families. When I say two working, both the
both the individuals on the household, the mother and the father,
are working in order to facilitate what is necessary to
cover the expenses. And as we're all quite well aware
(18:52):
to live today, to cover health care, to put some
money away for retirement, page college, college, you know, loans off,
et cetera, et cetera. It's a challenging, challenging proposition. So
I don't think there's any easy answer. But the thing
is is that what I've said over and over again, Uh,
you might have to get a second job. You might
(19:14):
have to do something that you don't necessarily want to do,
you know, the old Dave Ramsey. You might not be
able to afford some of the things that you have too.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Well, yeah, that's that's a huge part of it is,
you know, greens and beans don't feel like yeah, keeping
up with the Joneses is is now more relevant than
ever with social media and technology.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
And how many of your friends have college loans? Would
you say, percentage.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Wise, I'd say the vast majority have till seventy yeah
of college loans. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So that's you know, that's a fairly large percentage of your.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
At least to some degree. You know, some more, some
less than others. But yeah, i'd say most of them.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
The positive We're going to talk a little bit about you.
We're talking about what's happening with the younger generation, not
only the young kids that are out there right now,
but also the gen xers that the recent data came
out this week that you know, the average gen xer
right now has less than one hundred thousand dollars saved
in their four O one K programs and four and
(20:21):
five four out of five say they aren't prepared and
they're not confident that they're going to be able to
carry their their present standard living into retirement. It's kind
of scary. It's kind of scary. You know, less than
one hundred thousand dollars saved and their four one K
program So I think that there's going to be some
(20:45):
challenging times here, challenging times, but we're going to talk
about some positives when we come back. But again, we're
live folks live. As I said over and over again,
we usually get a lot of phone calls. I know
there's a big foot ball game going on today, but
our telephone number at the studios three one five four
seven ninety seven. You had any comment and any suggestions
(21:08):
or you want to give your opinion on this topic.
We're talking about this burden of debt that's out there
right now in college loans, How do they get ahead?
How do they basically get on track? If you want
to participate, it's three one five four to two one
ninety seven ninety seven. And again, we have a brand
new office. I'm announcing that we have a brand new
(21:28):
office in Syracuse. Uh. If you want to come in
and have a chat with us, we would love to
have the opportunity. We offer a complimentary consultation at our
office in Syracuse, and it's pretty simple to do. You
just get on the phone. You dial eight eighty eight
five eat zero one nine one nine. That's eighty eight
(21:49):
eight five eat zero one nine one nine, and Jim
Corkoran or someone inside the office, we'd be more than
happy to set that up for you. And again it's
sixty seven hundred Kirkville Road, Suite one A. That's an
East Syracuse, beautiful location, easy to get in out of,
lots of parking. Eight eight eight five eight zero one
(22:12):
nine one nine. If you want to come in and
have a chat, and we'll be right back after this
quick message. This is the Retirement Planning Show. I'm Dave
Copek and I'm here with my son Chris Coo. All right,
(22:45):
we are back I'm Dave Copek. We're talking about the
amount of debt that's out there on the backs of
the younger generation student loan debt and what kind of
an impact it's having. My son, Christopher is here see
(23:05):
un a graduate. It's a complicated conversation because you know,
I remember my mom and dad always wanted all of
us to go to college. All my kids have gone
to college. I still have a daughter that's at FAU Florida.
(23:26):
At Lanti University in Florida. David did two years and
said that's it. He got an associate's degree, and he says,
I'm not I don't need any of this. I need
some of it. But you know, I'm sitting there and
I'm playing tittaly winks. And he was a pretty much
(23:48):
a straight a student. Christopher here, my son went to Siena,
and I think if you summarized it, you would say
some of it was good, but most of it you
just you don't think a lot of it was practical.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, it just doesn't apply to like real life. Once
you get out of college, you kind of get hit
with this like realization that ninety percent of the classes
you took have no real relevance in your life. And
there's no, it's not applied. You can't apply anything that
you just took out of there. I mean, I'm taking
(24:23):
a class. I took a yoga class in school. I mean,
what is it? What does that have to do with anything?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Then, well, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for
you to do yoga. Yep.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
That was my Well, you need got to do what
you fill out these arts credits, So all these courses,
you're just you take whatever is the easiest.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
One beautiful and I feel good about that.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, pass me that bottle of voka yep. But it's
it's true. I think that there's a lot that is
not taught that could be taught in college, whether it's
you know, this is how you take out a mortgage,
This is how you file attack. This is how you
do things that you're going to use in your your
day to day life now that you leave and join
(25:06):
your career. This is how you make investment decisions.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
College should be real school and classroom. Real school means
that you're actually doing the job somewhere you integrate both.
Like Northeastern University in Boston, they have like a work
program where you work, you do the job, and you
also go to the classroom. Yeah, that's, in my opinion,
the way you should do it.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I think that would make sense. And I also think
that it would it would help people realize if they
want to be in that position long term with their career,
instead of getting out of college, getting an entry level
role in some job that they just went and got
a degree in, absolutely hating it, and then transitioning fields
and going into some role or position that they like
(25:50):
more that has nothing to do with the degree that
they just went and spent all this money on.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Well, here's the gidea. Okay, here is the sugar, sugar,
here's the frosting on the cake, here's the cherry on
the Sunday. Trillions of dollars will pass What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
This thing is popping off.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, trillions of dollars is going to pass over the
next twenty to thirty years from my generation to your generation. Trillions.
So bottom line gets down to is that there's gonna
be a whole heck of a lot of money that
we be transferred to your generation. And the question becomes,
(26:39):
how do they do it? And how do you pass
that money? So it stays within the bloodline. And also
it does what you wanted to do is to protect
protect the family. But guess what, we actually have a
woman that broke the ice, Michelle. Michelle congratulates you are
(27:00):
the winner.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Thank you. What did I win?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
You can come in it make you, you can see
you can come. You can come see our brand new
offices in circus.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
No I wrote, I wrote it down.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
That's beautiful. They did a beautiful they did a beautiful job.
Were very, very very happy with the end results.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So I have a couple. I didn't go to college.
I took college prep courses because the business courses were
like a snoozefest, and so I took college prep. But
then I thought, I don't want to go to college,
and I just worked. And that's what I've done all
of my life. And so I'm thinking, who determines what
classes go into the curriculum? Like you're saying, so you
(27:44):
take yoga. Why are there so many things involved in
the education system in the colleges that's unnecessary? And are
we not, as taxpayers, subsidizing these colleges. And I kind
of wonder if some of the employers don't bear some
responsibility in this. I mean, you have to have a
(28:05):
college degree for so many things that don't have anything
to do with what you're going to school for.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
I agree, I think they do hold responsibility. To be
honest with you, I think they're basically pushing kids out
of college that are unprepared, that don't have the skill set.
It's obvious they don't have the skill set because you
got kids that are the Boomerangs. They graduate, they go
(28:33):
back to mom and dad and they're living in the basement.
I don't know if that's because mom and dad are
not forceful enough, but I think that the colleges that
are receiving subsidies, which they do from the government, should
be more responsible as far as the end product that
they're putting out with our kids.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I'm wondering. I know that they get subsidized, but
when I'm hearing that, like say Harvard for example, are saying, well,
you're kind of funding, we're not going to be able
to do research. Yeah, why did they have to do
it anyway?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well it's not only that, but they're sitting on like
one hundred billion dollars in their endowment. Now, every kid
that goes to Harvard that probably doesn't even have to
pay a tuition, you know, because they have so much
wealth that has accumulated in their in their endowment. I
think what it gets down to is that we've created
(29:27):
this thing, this perception that you need a college degree
in order to justify the job that you're going to
be applying to, which I think, you know, I've been
doing this now in the financial services business for forty
three years. I look at the person, you know, I
can't when I hire somebody, I could care less about
(29:48):
the financial or whatever their degree is. I want to
know who the person is, what their personality is, and
what's their background, what have they done in order their
with their work history?
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Well, you know what? That leads me to another thing
that I wonder about. Well, two things. Number One, when
I grew up and I'm old, my father had a
paper on the desk and it was a budget. And
a budget is not spend, spend, spend. A budget is
this is how much money I have and this is
what I have to pay in it. And so I
(30:21):
learned early on what a budget was. And then I'm
wondering if the parents are teaching their children those things
when they're growing up, and that you don't need the
newest cell phone, the newest iPhone, the newest computer, a
new car every two years. You don't need any of
that stuff. And I wonder if that's part of it.
And everything I've seen is please respond online for your job.
(30:48):
You don't know who this person is by a piece,
Like you said, you have to meet them and see.
You can be the laziest slug in the world and
somehow skated through your college education and you're not going
to work. So how do you get passed back?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I agree, here, here's the biggest I think, the biggest
cancer out there than anything else. I got a thing
in the mail today. I'm going through my emails. I
fly Jet Blue because they travel to a lot of
the cities that we have clients in. And they got
to incentive for me, right that if I if I
(31:24):
get this new card, it's only five percent on my balance,
which I don't carry balance anyway, but it says that
at the end, at the end of May, then my
balance the interest rates goes to almost it's twenty seven
point nine percent. That's a hell of a deal, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Oh yeah, if you're rich that's crazy. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
But and people that can't afford to get a credit
card get them offers all the time.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
How much is in credit card debt right now, Chris,
there's over a trillion. I mean, there's a one point
eight trillion in college debt. Credit card credit card debt
is well over a trillion dollar dollars right now. And
you know, some of these people will never get out
from underneath these high interest rates that they try. I
(32:14):
think it's it should be against the law to be
perfectly honest with you. Hey, we gotta go. We gotta
take a heart Come visit me at our new office.
Thank you, God bless we'll see it. We got to
take a hard break. This is the Retirement Planning Show.
I'm Dave Kopek, your host. I'm here with my son
Christopher William. Hey, give us another call. Three point five
(32:37):
seven ninety seven. We are live in the studio.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
A FM.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
All right, we are back. It was a nice conversation
from with that wonderful woman. Can't wait to meet you.
Why I didn't say hi to us at our new location.
Total credit card debt right now one point two one
trillion as of quarter two trillion represents a significant increase
(33:29):
up right driven in general upward trend in debt. The
people are just stacking on their monthly expense. Yeap, and
it says, well, it's twenty seven billion in the second
quarter credit card debt.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, and the average credit card balance for card holders
with unpaid balances in quarter one was seven and twenty
one dollars, which was up about five point eight percent
year over year. So it's it's always in. The average
credit card debt per person is going up again. So
(34:08):
in terms of debt compounding and growing on each other,
it's just it's it's consistently growing.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Oh, it's a cancer. I think it should be against
the law for them to charge. It's not different than
going down to the corner and talking to the guy
I want to borrow a few bucks. You know, I'll
give you a X number of dollars on a weekly
basis the loan shark, And what the hell's the difference
between that? The average credit card rate in twenty and
(34:37):
twenty four, folks was twenty nine percent.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yep, you're not going to get that out of your investments.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Twenty nine percent. How do you get out somebody that's
making fifty sixty thousand dollars a year that got a
nine to one one event. Then they put it on
a credit card. So, you know, trying to scare you today,
But the reality is is that there is a lot
of financial stress out there. There's a lot of interests
(35:09):
by individuals on how to get this burden off your back.
I wish I had a magic wand and I wish
I had a way in order to facilitate that because
I can see the anxiety, the stress, the tears, the
heartache from individuals. The bottom line is that you're going
to have to Basically, you got to get a budget.
(35:31):
Like Chris said, you got to get a budget. You
got to put yourself in a position that you know
X number dollars is coming in the door and you
might have to make some hard decisions. You might have
to do some things you don't want to do well.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Also, part of our initial appointment is we always ask
within the confidential questionnaire, it says what are your annual
current annual expenses? And the reason we asked that is
because when we build out projections for retirement, it's based
on spend level, an annual spend level and retirement that
we're looking to facilitate to maintain quality of life for clients.
(36:07):
And a lot of the appointments that I have had
over the years when I ask folks, hey, I see
you didn't fill out the annual expense portion in the
booklet here. Do you have a ballpark idea just you know,
ballpark what you're currently spending right now? And some people have.
They come in with spreadsheets and they did their budget
(36:29):
and they have it down to the dollar. But then
some other folks, you know, they walk in and they say,
to be honest with you, I have no idea what
I'm spending currently right now. And that's you know, that's
part of the problem. If there's if you have no
idea what's going out the door, and you're just you know,
spending on credit cards and spending here, spending there, and
(36:49):
you don't necessarily keep track of anything, well, then that's
how it it gets out of hand, and that's how
people get into credit card debt where it just compounds
on itself and then you're you're kind of trapped in
that that loop of a twenty nine percent interest rate
on your debt.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I can tell you right now, I've seen it. I
had a doctor's wife that came into me not that
long ago, and she sat down in the conference room.
We have two conference rooms, and they said, you know,
we'll bring her down closer to your office. She seems
like she's pretty upset. So brought her into the conference
room by my office, and I no longer sat down,
(37:29):
you know, closed the door, and I couldn't couldn't talk
to her in great detail, simply because simply because I
knew that she was in duress, and she had accumulated
(37:51):
about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in credit card debt.
She was flipping cards around, doing this and doing that.
She was a spender, she had an addiction to spending shopping.
Her husband was a very successful doctor and had no idea,
(38:11):
none whatsoever that she had accumulated this type of debt,
and she was afraid to tell him. So she was
doing everything that she could possibly do. And the end
result was is that I told her, I said, listen,
I would love to be able to say that I've
got a magic wand in my closet there in order
to make all this go away. But the reality is
(38:33):
is that you're going to have to go home and
have a hard conversation, probably maybe one of the hardest
conversations that you've ever had with your husband. And I
never saw her again. We reached out to her see
how she was doing. She didn't return her phone calls.
So you know, just just be careful, folks. Okay, you know,
(38:55):
there's no pantas out there, there's no one what you
should do. Nothing's one hundred percent correct, But you know
you've got to live with live within your means, especially
today with so much personal responsibility on your back. Okay,
you're gonna be responsible for healthcare, You're gonna be responsible
(39:16):
for your four oh one k You're gonna be responsible
in order to put a roof over your head, pay
the bills, all the insurances, and everything else. The taxes
that we have in this Empire state, which a lot
of people call the vampire state because of the tax
burden that they put on us. But I wish I
could paint a rosier picture for you, But the reality
is for a lot of people, things are tough.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Chris, Yeah, yeah, it's and inflation has really gone wild
within the last five years post COVID because of all
the money that got dumped into the market, we had
stimulus and you know all this other free money that
they were handing out, so we saw things jump, you know,
not only at the grocery store, but within the real
(39:58):
estate market and a lot of other areas. And now
it's more important than well, it's always been important. I
wouldn't say more important than ever, but it's it's critical
that people are setting money aside in these investment plans
to facilitate their retirement because if they're looking to hit
their goal of you know, getting out the door at
sixty two, sixty five, even sixty seven or just pre seventy,
(40:24):
you gotta do all the legwork on the front end
because the numbers with compound interests are staggering. Even if
you got a ten year delay. You know, he didn't
start investing in instead of twenty five, he started at
thirty five. You know that person at twenty five has
already got a ten year jump on you, and you're
gonna drastically feel the difference in your overall return.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Well, you know you've seen these numbers delaying put a
money aside for your retirement. You know, if you do
it at twenty five rather than starting at thirty five,
it's a huge difference, Solks, it's a huge difference as
far as the pool of money. Okay, But like I said,
you know, I'm a Dave Ramsey fan. You know, there's
nothing in this for me to basically promote Dave Ramsey.
(41:07):
But you know, there's some things I like that Dave does,
and there's some things that I don't like that Dave does.
But overall his messaging, stay within your lane, stay within
your boundaries, right, Greens and beans, don't be buying stuff
that you can't afford. And that's true. And it's no
different with credit cards and those. You know, the thing is,
what can you do about credit cards? Well, you can
(41:28):
call them and ask them if you can negotiate, right,
and you know, you can do transfers on the cards
where you go from this card to that card to
a zero percent introduction rate. That's playing the inevitable. You know,
you might have to file for bankruptcy. No one wants
to do that. It's a last resort. But with this
overwhelming amount of debt that's out there right now, you know,
(41:51):
sometimes you need to breathe, Sometimes you need to breed
and get the stress off your back.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
So yeah, and I ran a quick comparison just versus
what's someone starting at twenty five versus thirty five? And
it just ran it for contributing six thousand dollars a
year into a IRA account. And if you get a
seven percent annualized return on this money and you invest
it for forty years, so you invest it from twenty
(42:17):
five to sixty five, Ye, what does that number look like?
Speaker 2 (42:19):
It's got to be a million bucks?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
One point two million is the future value of that
at sixty five?
Speaker 2 (42:24):
What's it at thirty five?
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Scenario two at thirty five, the same six thousand dollars
a year, the same seven percent annual return rate five
hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars by half, Yeah, less
than half, and.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It's ten years.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
You say, well I can wait till my thirties. Well,
that that's the difference of waiting. It's called lost opportunity cost. Right,
You've lost the opportunity for that growth because you got
the BMW in the driveway, or you got these high
credit cards, or you got the fancy phone, or whatever
it may be you're gonna I can't overemphasize this enough.
If you're young and you're listening. Even if you're middle
(42:57):
aged and you're listening, you're not doing anything about it.
The average balance right now there's one hundred thousand dollars
or less.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
And I feel that there's no reason that people shouldn't
be able to hit these numbers if you're doing one
hundred dollars a week. You know, one hundred dollars a
week now is just going out to dinner or going
and grabbing drinks with your friends. Like everything seems to
be one hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
You know, I'll tell you what, when your mother and
your father were young, we never went out to dinner, right,
went out to dindrry once in a while, right, you know,
we eat at home, or we'd go over to grandma
and grandpa's house, you know, and have a dinner with them.
But you know, there's this tendency today is that you know,
we're going here, we're going there, we're doing this, we're
doing that, and you're exactly right. You go out today,
(43:40):
it's one hundred dollars bill yep, for two people. So
but listen, folks, I'm that Debbie Downer here. But what
we try to do is to be realistic and give
you a pretty good picture of the landscape that's out
there in the pre and post retirement world. I've been
doing it a long time. This is my forty third
year in business. I love what I do. I'm not
(44:02):
retiring and a plan on retiring. The bottom line gets
down to is that if you feel you're in a
situation where you need some help and assistance, that's what
we do. We help people develop a plan, implement the plan.
And as I said, we have the ability to sit
down with you at our brand new offices, which I love.
(44:24):
Six seven zero zero Kirkville Road, Sweet one A that's
in East Syracuse. It's right off the exit. Jimmy's all
excited because it's right off the exit Quirkrand.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yeah, it's a great spot. Quick on, quick off, kick.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
On, you know, because our corporate headquarters is in Slash Saratoga, Malta,
which is about a two hour drive from Syracuse, but
we're out there all the time. So but again, it
would be an honor to sit down with you. Even
if you want to come in and just have a chat,
that's okay too. We'll make some time for you. Six
seven zero zero Kirkville Road, Sweet one A. October first,
(44:58):
our brand new offices a opening. We're very excited. We
love Syracuse the surrounding area. We've got a lot of
clients out there now. So how do they get ahold
of us? Chris?
Speaker 3 (45:09):
They call us at eight eight eight five eight zero
nine one nine, or you can reach out to us
on our website www dot rpg retire dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
And again, Syracuse is not doing too good. They're down
twenty four to three. Not a good game so far.
But listen, we'll see you next week if the creek
don't rise.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.