Tax Prep Tips

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join this morning by our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, CJ.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Closs and Eric Schwartz.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
You can learn more about Class Financial on their website.
That's Clossfinancial dot com. That's Class k l a as
Financial dot com. Great website again to learn more about
Colss Financial, the team at Class Financial, the separate divisions.
You can also sign up for the weekly Market Pulse
newsletter all at Clossfinancial dot Com. Telephone number remember this
one six oh eight four four two five, six three seven.

(00:28):
Don't forget no charge for that initial gets to know
you appointment at Loss Financial. It will be complementary to
you again their number six oh eight four four two
five six three seven. If you'd like to join the
show this morning, tell for number to get on the air.
Six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six
oh eight three two one thirteen ten and joining us
this morning our CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz. CJ, how
you doing this week?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I'm doing great. Good morning, Sean, Good morning, good to talk.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
With you and Eric. How have you been.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Pretty good? Sean? It's it's Thursday and sunshine and can't complain.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Next week I'm seeing in the forecast two guys, so
it should be it should be a nice one for sure,
and we're going to talk as we're looking into spring,
and of course seasonally this time of year, a lot
of folks taxes are going on, and we're going to
get some getting our taxes in order, specifically planning for
next years and years beyond. I think a lot of

(01:20):
folks start to feel the frustration this time of year
with their taxes. You can do yourself a huge favor
by doing some planning right now for the years to come.
And we'll talk with CJ and Eric about just that
this morning. Another great feature of the program is of
course the clost Quiz. Question the week your chance to
win a fantastic prize. This week, no exception, our friends
from Class Financial have provided a twenty five dollars gift

(01:42):
card to the Darden. Darden restaurants and those are like
Olive Garden Season fifty two Yardhouse those places. So listen
closely to the program because again the question and answer
typically come up during the show. Before we actually get
rolling on this week's conversation about taxes and tax season,
let's actually take a look back at last week's program

(02:02):
and get the question and answer there as well.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Yeah, our winner last week was Kevin from Nuclaris and
Kevin knew the answer to the question which was true
or false. According to a twenty twenty four study by
Mass Mutual, the average actual retirement age in the United
States is closer to age sixty two, and the answer
to that was true. So congratulations Kevin.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
There we go, my mo my buttons messing with me
these days. Really good good work there. Of course, as
we talked this morning with our retirement planning professionals, congratulations
to Kevin from New Glaris. And you know, tax season,
it's we're doing it right now, and of course some
tips to help with doing taxes for this year and
of course better planning for next year.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's a big deal, isn't it, CJ. It is.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah. So you know, many people feel anxious this time
of the year, whether it's they're eager to get their
refund or their dreading a payment because they didn't pay
taxes on on some self employment income. But either way,
we are here to help. And today we're just going
to give you some kind of tips and reminders about
important deadlines and what documents to pull together. Now as

(03:14):
we begin this discussion. While Eric and I don't individually
file income taxes for clients as of twenty twenty four,
so this think of this as the twenty twenty four
tax filing season. We actually as an organization have started
to prepare income taxes for those clients who want us to.
Now it's only for our other clients. It's not just

(03:35):
the only thing we do. It would be for our
wealth management clients who then also want us to.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Do tax prep.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
But that is something new that we're doing this year.
We've hired an enrolled agent who can take care of that.
But that being said, the IRS, so just so some
important information about your taxes. The IRS started accepting tax
returns on January twenty seventh of this year. And this
is again for the twenty twenty four tex even though
we're in twenty twenty five and the tax filing deadline

(04:04):
is April fifteenth of twenty twenty five. Now you can
file an extension, and for those who do file an extension,
that deadline then it is October fifteenth of twenty twenty five. Again,
all these twenty twenty five dates are actually for the
prior year's tax return deadlines. One thing we would say
is be patient when filing, even though you may have

(04:24):
all your tax documents ready to go by January thirtieth
and you're just so excited and you send it in
and you're like, give me my refund. I want to
remind you. The IRS for the twenty twenty three tax
year processed over two hundred and thirteen million tax returns,
with almost ninety one percent of those actually being filed electronically.

(04:49):
So we actually have a couple of clients who do
their own taxes and they still do the long for
the kind of the free form wed inc document and
send it in, but at this point ninety one percent
of people are filing those electronically. So the reason we
say to be patient is as much as I make jokes,
and even in meetings clients can attest, I'll be like, oh,
if if you don't pay, they'll throw you in jail,

(05:10):
but they don't send you back your money very quickly.
That's really more tongue in cheek because at the end
of the day, processing two hundred and thirteen million tax
returns and all the supporting documents and schedules, that's no joke.
That is no joke, and it's gonna take some time,
so one thing we would say is be patient. With
that being said, by now for those who haven't filed

(05:32):
their taxes or sent in all their documents. For most
of you, you should have received almost all of your
necessary documents from various investments to take to your accountant.
And if you haven't, under most circumstances, it's probably sitting
on a website somewhere where you could establish a log
in and go download it. So we would just encourage you.
If you haven't received, say you're consolidated ten ninety nine

(05:54):
from a brokerage account at one of your institutions, or
an expected WTI too, most of those should have been
prepared by now, and therefore we would say reach out
to those organizations where you're feeling like you're missing something. Now,
with that being said, here's some tax filing tips, and
this is for again the twenty twenty four tax filing season.

(06:16):
Number one should be obvious. Collect your W two's and
ten ninety nine's and various other tax documents things like
k ones, and as I said, most of those should
be ready to go by now. There could be a
couple of exceptions for those of you who are expecting
a K one. Sometimes k ones can take a little
bit longer. Those can come out in mid March, even

(06:38):
in early April, or sometimes things like schedule cues can
take longer to receive, so be sure that you have
everything pulled together and then provide it to your accountant
or start working on your taxes. Another tip would be
to maximize your deductions and credits. So check for deductions
like student loan interest, medical expenses, or charitable donations. Look

(07:00):
into available credits such as the child tax credit or
energy efficient home improvements that you did this year. Often
those will have tax incentives or tax credits associated with them.
You just have to keep track of it and remember
when you go to file your income taxes. Now, for
those who do like online filing, if they're doing these
on their own, often the like turbo taxes of the

(07:23):
world will prompt you for questions like this. They will
say things like did you install any energy efficient you know,
furnaces this year or windows or anything like that, and
so it kind of prompts you to say, oh, yeah,
that's right, we did do something like that. But if
you're filing this kind of long form or free form
wet ink you're going to have to remember that, or

(07:44):
if you're giving this information to your accountants, you're going
to have to notify them because they they can only
do what you tell them you did throughout a year.
And here's the key, everybody. Most of your core tax
like kind of required tax documents come on a tax
W two's ten ninety nine s K one schedule cues,
but these other things often do not right, like, oh,

(08:08):
I gave money to a charity, but I forgot to
look for the receipt. Well, unfortunately, if you forgot, you're
not gonna be able to even consider a ah, you
know that benefit for the charitable contribution for that itemization. Okay,
so so some things in your tax documents you're just

(08:29):
going to have to remember and notify your accountant and
provide receipts if you have it. Some other tips would
be you actually can still contribute to things like a
traditional ira or a roth ira up until the tax
filing deadline, which again is April fifteenth of this year. However,
any four to oh one K contributions will have had

(08:52):
to be completed by the end of last year in
order to count towards last year so just remember four
oh one k's four oh three b's. Those are employers
sponsored plans. You can only contribute to them, typically out
of your earnings, and therefore you can only contribute up
till December thirty first, but I raise and wroth irays
if you're eligible, those can be contributed to for the

(09:13):
prior year, all the way up until the tax filing deadline.
And then we would just a couple other quick tips.
We would say review prior years returns and tax stocks,
because often the easiest way to know if you're missing
something is just to go back and look at last
year to be like, oh, that's right. Where is where
is my consolidated ten ninety nine from Schwab or Fidelity
because I don't have that and I still have that account.

(09:36):
And then you know, we would encourage you consider e
filing and opt for direct deposit of your refund. These
things will just help to kind of expedite the process
when you when you're waiting for a refund or even
in the case where you owe money, it's just better
to e file, link up your bank account, pull it
out of there, and just be done and move on.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Pretty good stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
As we talk with our retirement playing professionals class and
Eric Schwartz don't forget. You can learn more about COSS
Financial online cossfinancial dot com. That's Coss k l Aasfinancial
dot com. Great website and resource to learn more about
cost Financial. They're telephone number six oh eight four four
two five six three seven. No charge for that initial
get to know you appointment Tax Costs Financial. It will

(10:19):
be complementary to you. So Eric, what should we know
then when it comes to do our own taxes? Or
maybe we should get a tax professional. And the big
question is what is a tax professional? Tax prepare?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
What are they cost in these days?

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Great questions, Sean, And the short answer is you do
have choices. You If you're comfortable doing your own taxes,
you certainly can do that. If you have a more
complicated return, or you're just not really interested in doing
your own taxes, you can also can also hire a
tax professional. So let's start here with reasons why you
might want to hire a tax professional. I think a

(10:54):
pretty obvious one is they are paid to keep up
with changing tax laws. Our tax laws are changing all
the time, sometimes you know more than annually. And an
accountant can you know that's their day job. That's what
that's what they're reading about. That's what they're making sure
to stay up to date on. Another thing here is
they can help you maximize deductions and credits, potentially covering

(11:17):
their fees. So CJ was talking about, you know some
of these these tax preferred things that you're doing that
can help you get a deduction or a credit that
don't come on a tax form. You don't you don't
think about them. But you know, if your accountant says, hey,
I know you did some work on your house. Did
you do any you know, energy efficient upgrades or something
like that, you know they can help you kind of

(11:38):
discover some of these deductions and credits and like I said,
potentially cover any additional fee that you're paying them. It
definitely saves time. In most cases. The IRS estimates that
the average taxpayer spends thirteen hours on their return. I
will say to me, that does seem like a really
long time. Those must be some complicated returns. But the

(11:58):
accountant can help you cut down some of that. They
can they can provide you with expert answers without having
to wait for an answer from the I R. S.
So if you can ask the accountant rather than trying
to get in touch with with.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
The I R S.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
That's also going to save you some time, minimize stress,
reduce costly mistakes. And I think one of the more
the more important benefits you get from working with the
tax preparer is they can give you tax planning tips
kind of all year long, not just at tax time. Oftentimes,
when you're meeting with the accountant in you know, March

(12:33):
or April, you're you know, you're already what's done is done.
You can't go back and make some changes to help
yourself on the tax return. So if you have someone
to advise you throughout the year, there's a lot of
value in that. They can also look back at your
past returns. They can they can look for missed deductions
or potential errors, and all of this is just going
to help reduce your audit risk and you know, make

(12:56):
sure you're not paying any more than you have to
for your for your annual income tax. Now, from a
cost perspective, right, all these things sound great, but what
is it costing me relative to doing it on my own?
So current trends show us that the average cost of
tax preparation varies by you know, the complexity, the firm

(13:17):
you're working with, your location. But according to the National
Society of Accountants, the average fee for filing an individual return,
so that's Form ten forty without any itemized deductions, is
about two hundred and twenty dollars versus an itemized return,
which is closer to three hundred and twenty three dollars.
And for more complex tax situations so I think, you know,

(13:40):
self employed, maybe you have to file in multiple states,
the fees can be more than five hundred and fifteen
dollars for complete service tax preparation. Now, what I'll say
about these numbers is CGN I work with clients here
and well in the Madison market and around the country.
I would say these numbers seem a little low to

(14:00):
me for our local our local community. But the interesting
thing is pricing varies widely. You know, even just here
in our in our local community. You know, we'll have
one accountant that works with a certain type of return
and it'll cost you know, maybe four hundred and fifty
dollars in the same return with another accountant might be
eight hundred dollars. Right, It really really varies. So I

(14:24):
want to make sure that we're asking those questions upfront
and doing our homework when we're when we're looking at
hiring an accountant. Now, there may be some free filing options. Okay,
so IRS does have something called the IRS Free File.
If your AGI is eighty four thousand dollars or less,
you actually qualify for guided tax software through the IRS.

(14:44):
There are also just the free file fillable forms, so
just fillable PDFs to fill in your your tax information
basically like like doing it yourself with a with a
pen paper, but it does allow you to file it.
This is available for all incomes, but it does require
that you have some tax knowledge. There's no nobody asking

(15:05):
questions in guiding you. And then you know H and
R Block or TurboTax. They will often have what they
call their free versions. This offers kind of basic federal
tax prep in most cases. Generally, if you have itemized
deductions or self employment income, you're going to sort of
quickly move into the paid versions, and you know, when

(15:28):
it comes to filing state returns, they'll often they'll often
charge you for that. Now, if you do want to
do it yourself, but you do want a little bit
of guidance going through the paid versions of a Turbo
tax or an H and R block, those will generally
cost between seventy dollars and two hundred dollars, although I'll
say they're they're kind of adding services that that you

(15:48):
can pay more for. So oftentimes you really need to
think about how much you're actually saving by paying for
a tax software and doing it all yourself.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Really good information. Good to get some of those numbers.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I guess it's interesting about the how much it costs
and how and how varied those costs are. Is that
is fascinating for sure. Talking this morning with Eric Schwartz
and CJ.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Closs.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
They are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial. Their
website coss financial dot com. That's coss k l a
a s Financial dot com. Great website and resource to
learn more about COSS Financial. Also, if you missed any
part of today's program or you want to get caught
up with previous shows, you can listen to as well
as subscribe to the podcast right at cossfinancial dot com. Again,

(16:29):
that website Coss k l a a S Financial Financial
dot com. Telphone number six O eight four four two
five six three seven no charge that initial gets to
know the appointment deck Class Financial. It will be complementary
to you well to your conversation with Cjen. Eric next
has money in Motion with Coss Financial. Continues here on
thirteen ten Wi b A talking with our retirement planning

(16:49):
professionals from Coss Financial CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz. Of course,
you can learn more about Colass Financial on the website
Coss financial dot com. That's Coss k l a A
S Financial dot com. Telling for number six oh eight
four four two five six three seven. No charge for
that initial get to know the appointment deech Loss Financial.
It will be complimentary to you again their number six

(17:09):
oh eight four four two five six three seven. Talking
taxes this week, talked about some great tips for doing
your taxes this year, and let's take a look ahead
and kind of, you know, once we get this year
taken care of, how can we start looking towards twenty
twenty five in the of course this year and next year,
and of course simple things to maybe simplify taxes for

(17:31):
next year or ways to save more.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
CJ.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'm gonna leave this one with you because there's a
lot going on here, isn't there?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
There is so just a little bit of history, even
for myself everybody. So I when I first got into
this industry, taxes was not my strong suit. I have
dramatically increased my kind of tax awareness and tax knowledge
in the last twenty years of doing this, but initially
it wasn't a kind of a high understanding form. So therefore,

(18:01):
even in my own tax returns twenty some years ago,
it was super stressful. I didn't know what the Turbo
tax website was asking me about. I didn't know where
to get copies of the things that I had bought.
I wasn't saving anything throughout the year, and so when
it came to tax time, I would just sweat profusely.

(18:21):
Not so much because I was doing anything wrong, but
rather I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know
if I was going to owe money or get money back.
I didn't know where any of the documents were or
what it just this kind of like lack of knowledge
or lack of understanding drives fear and anxiety. We've talked
about this on the show before, so over time I

(18:41):
just kind of paid attention, like, oh, okay, I need
to beware of these W two's and these ten ninety
nine's and oh, my mortgage interest matters, and if I'm
going to give money to charities, I should notate that somewhere,
and then I should look for the receipts at the
end of the year. And so I just started creating
an electronic fula called twenty twenty four taxes or twenty

(19:02):
twenty five taxes, and I would just dump as I
got things throughout the year that I knew I would
need or even might need. When I go to file
my income taxes, I would just dump the electronic file
in there. Now, this is the version that worked for me.
Your version might be a physical file at home, where
it's a physical file called twenty twenty five taxes. So

(19:23):
now we're done talking about last year's taxes. Now we're
talking this year. So you might create a physical file
and you might just dump some of your papers in
there as you do things throughout the year. But here's
what I'd say, just to give you hope for those
of you who have fear or anxiety around filing taxes.
I went from not knowing what to expect, not knowing

(19:43):
what documents I needed to now I have zero anxiety.
Zero Legitimately I know within a few hundred dollars if
I'm going to get money back or oh, and I
know why, and if I didn't want, you know, oh,
I know how to pay more. And now I do

(20:04):
have an accountant that actually files the tax return for me,
but legitimately even the file or the account in doing
that is really just I want somebody who's in the industry.
I could do it myself and have just zero anxiety.
Now some of you are rolling your eyes going, well, yeah,
because you're in the industry, that's true, touche. I'm with you.

(20:24):
I get to see more of this and understand it more.
But we have walked many of our clients through this
just to say, hey, here's the document, set up the folder,
do this, do this, and over the course of about
three or four or five years, people go, oh.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
This is not complicated. So with all of that kind
of like story out of the way, let me just
give you some some tips. Number One, if you owed
in twenty twenty four the last year, a just year
withholding on your income sources, this is a simple one, like, oh,
I'm working still and I owed five thousand dollars. That
was not fun. It means you're not withholding enough. And

(21:00):
if you're not working and you still owed, then you
might want to increase your withholding on your pensions, Social
Security or IRA distributions. There's one simple things. Number two,
track your expenses and deductions throughout the year. I kind
of already mentioned this, but just do it throughout the
year and put it in a folder. Number three, maximize
your retirement account contributions if you're still working, and your

(21:23):
HSA contributions if you're still working. And consider because some
people will meet with them and they'll go, oh, I'm
just I'm always owing at the end of the year
and it's just really frustrating, and we go, well, one
of two things, either increase your payroll deduction with holdings
or number two, oh, you're putting money into the wroth
for a one k, just swap that around and put

(21:45):
it into the pretax for one K. Now, I'm oversimplifying
that decision, by the way, it does have to be
back up by some academic research that you need to
do with an advisor. But the point being, we often
find the anxiety that people have around their taxes at
the end of the year are super super super easy
fixes change this change that, boom, We're done. Another one

(22:07):
would be stay up to date on tax law changes. Now,
Eric and I would both attest, yeah, you do want
to do this. I mean, we have to do this professionally.
But I would just say it's pretty hard to stay
up to date on tax law changes because you have
to be able to decipher what is a rumor versus
what is law. Let me give you an example of this.
There is a rumor, you know, based upon fact, there

(22:29):
is a rumor that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris when
she was running for office, both wanted to remove taxes
the tax ability of Social Security at a federal level.
I just want to say, soci Security income will not
be taxable. That is not law right now. That may
become law, that is not law right now. So this

(22:50):
can be a tough one. You've got to be able
to separate rumor from reality. And then that's often why
we would say you might eventually want to have an
accountant who can do this professionally, or at least have
your advice. You know, be able to decipher what has
been passed and what is not, which leads into the
next one. You might want to consider working with a
tax professional. I understand it's going to be more expensive.

(23:11):
I understand you might pay three to six hundred dollars
for a standard return, somewhere in that range. But my
comment would be, if that accountant can help you understand
what to prepare file the income taxes, make you prepared
for knowing what to expect, I'd say it's some of
the best money you'll spend throughout the year. And then, finally,
I already mentioned this at the beginning, but let me

(23:32):
just re emphasize it again. Create your twenty twenty five
tax file now and start tracking all of your charitable
giving all of your purchases that have tax benefits associated
with it, for energy efficiency or whatever it might be.
And by the end of this year, you will be
so thankful that you did.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
It's a little gift you can give yourself for the
end of the year. It is interesting once you start
doing this and CG. I think you'll lay it out perfectly.
Not only are you doing yourself a huge favor, but
you start to kind of see the bigger picture and
kind of understand some of the benefits, and of course
can put together a strategy, just like any game plan.
Have that strategy put together. It's so important to start

(24:14):
that conversation.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Great day.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
As we talked this morning with CJ. Closs and Eric Schwartz,
our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, great data, start
that conversation. They're telephon number six So eight four four
two five six three seven. Don't forget no charge for
the initial gets to no appointment that loss Financial. It
will be complimentary to you again their number six oh
eight four four two five six three seven. So, Eric,
what about some folks. I know there's probably people listening

(24:36):
saying do I actually need to file a tax return?
And of course how long should we hold on to
those old old tax returns?

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, that's another great question. And no, not everyone is
required to file taxes. So if you're in if your
taxable income is low enough, you are not required to.
In twenty twenty four, for single folks, the income threshold
for filing an income tax return is fourteen six hundred dollars.

(25:05):
If your income is below that threshold, you generally do
not need to file a federal return. But please check
with a tax professional before you just decide not to
file anything, and get some guidance on your own situation,
and even if your income is low, there are certain
benefits that can come from filing your taxes. You know,

(25:25):
you might be able to claim tax credits that are refundable,
which means you know they actually even if you don't
owe taxes, they would they would be a financial benefit
to you. And any overpayment that you that you made
from withholding throughout the year, you want to make sure
you get that back you need you need to file
a return to do that. And regarding the keeping of
your old tax returns, the IRS tells us that you

(25:49):
should keep tax records for three years from the date
you filed your original return or two years from the
date you paid the tax, whichever is later. And when
I say tax tax records, we're talking about, you know,
the supporting documentation for your return, so receipts from a
charitable organization or a ten ninety nine or whatever it

(26:11):
might be. You should keep records for seven years whenever
you're you're claiming a loss on your tax return, and
you should keep tax records indefinitely if you did not
file an income tax return. The IRS generally audits within
three years, but if they want to they can they
can definitely go go back as far as six years.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Really good guidance this morning in important years to keep
in mind. As we talked this morning with Eric Schwartz
and CJT.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Coloss.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
They are our retirement planning professionals from Closs Financial. Learn
more online the website Coss Financial dot com. That's coss
k l a as Financial dot com and they're telephone
number six, So eight four four two five six three seven.
We'll head on over and check out the Money and
Motion listener question corner as well as do the class
quiz question leak. We'll do that with you next as

(27:01):
Money in Motion with Class Financial continues here on thirteen
ten wiv A talking this morning with CJ.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Closs and Eric Schwartz.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Of course, they are our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial.
You can learn more about Class Financial their website class
Financial dot com. That's coss k l aas Financial dot
com and they're telephone number six, So eight four four
two five six three seven. We have to the Class
quiz close Question of the week and just a moment,
but first it's the Money in Motion listener question corner

(27:28):
and Coreen right sin she says, I'm retiring next year
when I'm sixty two one would be the best time
to start collecting my Social Security benefit.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
CJ.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
I'll leave this one with you.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, well, great question. I appreciate you you submitting that question, Kareen,
And just a good reminder to everybody. You can go
to our website and submit any question that you want,
or of course you can call into the show and
air your question live as well. But crean to answer
your question. Yes, if you're if you're going to be
turning sixty two, you're starting to think about social Security one,
should you draw it? And and if you've listened to

(28:01):
our show, you know that the answer is it depends.
Every good answer begins with it depends. Now, if you
want an individual answer, talk to your account and talk
to your financial advisor and they should be able to
sit down and look at all. Right, are you still working?
So let me just give you high level. Here's why
we have to say it depends. If you draw at

(28:22):
sixty two Korean, you're limited on how much you can
earn separately from that at a W two paying job.
If you earn too much, then they actually start reducing
your Social Security benefits. So you know there would be
an example of why you have to you know, somebody
has to ask some questions about this, and then beyond that,

(28:42):
like are you married, is your spouse drawing Social Security?
Is there any spousal benefit available, any former widow's benefits?
Is there a value in delaying your Social Security draw
D eight till your full retirement age or maybe even
up until age seventy to get those delayed retirement credits
of eight percent? Of course, things like health concerns come in.

(29:04):
Are you healthy or are you unhealthy? How long did
your parents live? All of these things, believe it or
not impact our advice around around when to draw soal security.
Now again, some people go, oh, my goodness, you're over
complicating this. Not really, In about a ten minute conversation,
we can boil down to some pretty clear general guidance

(29:28):
on when you should draw. So this isn't doesn't have
to be an hour long conversation, but in about ten
minutes with somebody who knows what they're doing, who has
experienced like we do, you can just whittle it down
to say, seems like, well, from what you're telling me,
somewhere between sixty five and sixty eight would be ideal
and we'll just reevaluate it when you get there. So, Karin,
I hope that's helpful. I realize I'm not answering your

(29:49):
question specifically because the answer to your question is I
don't know. It depends. But for all of you listening
out there, make sure you're talking with somebody about when
to draw SOL security because it matters.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Very important decision there, and great question, Karine, don't forget
You too can be like Areena CJ mentioned. You can
submit a question right online at Class's website class Financial
dot com. That's coss k l a as Financial dot Com.
Telph number for Class Financial Office right here in Madison
sixt' oh eight four four two five six three seven
if you want to hold on to that telephon number
because it's time out for the Class Quiz question the week.

(30:23):
It works like this, In just a moment, I'll ask
you the Class Quiz question the week. You will then
have thirty minutes from the today's program to call the
Class Financial Office right here in Madison at six oh
eight four four two five six three seven. If you
are the first call with correct answer, win this week's prize,
which is a twenty five dollars gift card to the
Darden Restaurants to the Class Quiz question week This week
is this true or false? You can make a twenty

(30:46):
twenty four contribution to an IRA up until April fifteenth
of this year. Is that true or is that false?
Telephone number six oh eight four four two five six
three seven first cost correct answer win this week's prize.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Don't forget as well.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
That's Class Financials Office right here in Madison, that number
six O eight four four two five six three seven CJ.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Eric. It's always great chatting with both of you guys.
Have a fantastic day, Thanks Sean, Thanks Sean, and.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Uh Marty Greer. Check out Veterinary. She comes your way
next year on thirteen ten WIB eight