Can You Retire Among the Top 10% of Americans?

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All topics and securities mentioned on straightTalk from the House or for informational purposes
only, and should not be usedas investment advice. T Anton Investment House
does not offer tax or legal advice. Investments or investment strategies covered are not
a recommendation or solicitation to buy orsell. The security's past performance is not
a guarantee of future performance. Thisis straight talk from the House with certified

(00:22):
financial planner Tracy Anton right here inthirteen ten WIBA. Tracy comes to us,
of course from t Anton Investment House, a fee only fiduciary with offices
right in Middleton. The website teAnton Investmenthouse dot com. That's t A
N T O N Investmenthouse dot com. Great website to learn more about tracing
the team. Also prime opportunity righton the website to schedule appointment with Tracy

(00:44):
and the team at a time tohate. That's convenience to you just heading
over to t Anton Investment House dotcom, or of course you can always
pick up phone give Tracy at callsix O eight five zero one fifteen forty
nine at six O eight five zeroone fifteen four nine one. Joining us
this morning as certified financial planner TracyAnton. Tracey, how are you doing
today? I'm doing super How aboutyour shot? Doing really well? It
is great to talk with you,and we are going to be talking about

(01:07):
a little bit about some of thewhen it comes to people that meet with
you and kind of what mindset inthose type of areas. And I've got
to ask Race, you're kind ofkicking this all off this week. When
people come to you, to clients, they typically have like a number in
their head that they're that they're thinking, this is kind of the goal,
this is what I need to reachin order to retire. Yeah, I
think sometimes people really do have anactual number in their head. And I

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have seen this and it depends onpeople. You know, people come up
with this number of like Okay,I need a million, or I need
two million, or I need threemillions. It ranges, which is interesting.
And this topic today was kind ofinspired by a client who just this
week said that he needed two anda half million, and I asked him,
well, why why do you needthat number? And he laughed and

(01:52):
he said, that's what Yahoo Financesaid I have to have in order to
be in the top ten percent ofall Americans and I don't think he was
one hundred percent serious about it,but you know, we both chuckled and
it's like, Okay, well let'ssee, you know, and and he's
actually on track to do it,and he plans he plans on doing it,
So I mean, I love that. I think he's it's really he's

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really goal oriented. So I thinkthat also depends on the person. But
I find that you know that numberwhat you need for retirement, you know,
it doesn't have to be a certainnumber. And I also find that
if you do certain kinds of planning, obviously that number can change for so
many people, right whether you havea pension or you don't, when you're

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going to take Social Security, what'syour lifestyle, how much debt do you
have? So the number isn't thesame for everyone. And I just again,
it's another plug for financial planning becausethat's what we do. We show
you exactly what will your numbers looklike and in what range? And is
that a comfortable range? You know, as much as I love Yahoo and

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I love reading their new stuff,Yahoo doesn't know me well. I think
I think that's why he laughed,because he recognized it was from Yahoo Finance.
But I was like, I lookedit up too, because I was
like, Okay, what does thatmean? You know, we all we
all kind of want to gauge aboutwhere we're at. And I think that's
a normal like human trait that wewant to know where do we line up

(03:21):
in the mix of things. Andthen I think there's also people that you
know, they are on different spectrumssome people, and it can happen.
Happen particularly in couples where one persondoesn't worry at all and the other person
worries continuously or too much. Soit's like finding that balance for both couples
as they transition to retirement. Thatis absolutely fascinating. It's going to this

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is going to be an exciting showas always, as we chat with certified
financial planner Tracy Anton. Right herein thirteen ten Wiba I mentioned the website
t Anton Investment House dot com.It's a great resource to get to know
tracing the team. Also great opportunityif you ever missed part of the program
you listen back to the podcast usthere, as I mentioned, gets to
know the team as well as scheduleappointment at a time and a date that's
convenient to you when you head onover to t Anton Investment House dot com.

(04:06):
You scroll down a bit a littlewhich it will pop up there you
will see Tracy smiling face. Andfrom that you can schedule appointment right at
a time and a date that's convenientto you, or pick up phone,
give Tracy a team a call rightat the office in Middleton six eight five
zero one, fifteen forty nine atsix eight five zero one fifteen forty nine.
And Tracy, you talk about kindof measuring and comparing and kind of
figuring out how I raid or weraid, and these type of things we

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talk about, like the top tenpercent. What does that mean if you're
in like the top ten percent ofAmericans? I'm doing air quotes that people
can see, right, I seeyes, and I'll raise you air quotes.
Well. According to the Economic PolicyInstitute EPI, the average income to
be in the top ten percent ofAmericans would be roughly one hundred and seventy

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three thousand, according to them intwenty twenty. Then they deduced that depending
on what your income is and thesavings that you would have month, that
you would need to accumulate at leasttwo point five million in retirement savings.
And that would place you in thetop ten percent of Americans. Interesting.
So when we've kind of see thatnumber and hear that, and obviously regionally

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things are different, different circumstances ofpeople, what do you think when you
hear that number. Well, Ithink that most people were shooting not that
long ago for one million. SoI think this article brings up the fact
that, you know, inflation risinghealthcare costs, that maybe the one million
isn't enough. And again, Iwould just suggest doing some real financial planning

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to determine what your number is.To me, two and a half million
can sound kind of daunting if ifyou don't really know how to look at
your numbers, and maybe you haven'tactually stopped taken the time to accumulate everything,
because they're talking about not your realestate holdings, but everything else.

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So what your wife has in herfour one K or four or three B,
your ross and maybe have a brokerageaccount and all these other things.
They're also not probably even discussing inheritancebecause nobody likes to talk about that,
but that's also probably a reality formany people. So again I would just
say that I wouldn't get hung upon a number because we are also different

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from each other. Some people haveno debt, they don't even have a
car debt, and so they likelywon't need to point five million. And
there's also such a wide range ofspending, habits and lifestyle choices. You
know, will you travel, youknow where will you live? Will you
own multiple homes? Will you bothretire at the same time? Will you

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be retiring on the younger age?You know? All kinds of things about
when are you going to take socialsecurity? Will one of you take social
security and the other one? Youknow, will it grow? About a
pension? Is either one of yourpensions? You know hobbies? Are you
going to stay at home and youlike to read and you don't like to
spend a lot of money, orare you somebody who flies airplanes and you

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know it takes world cruises? Allkinds of stuff. So again I would
just encourage you try not to gethung up too much on a number.
Just do financial planning because that solvesit takes a lot of stress out of
the situation. Even if you're nota warrior, it does help you look
at your numbers and also helps you, like plan for what kind of distribution

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rate that you really want. Sometimespeople work so hard at accumulating the number,
then when it comes down to spendingit, they go, well,
we won't need it now for atleast five years or at least ten years
or whatever. And it's like,okay, well that's great. That sounds
great. Let's say if we didthat plan, what is what will the
dollars accumulate to? And at thatpoint what will be your require minimum distribution

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that the government says you will needto take out? Well? Can I
reinvest that? Yes you can,but then who's going to spend it?
Oh? Good point. So it'slooking at it as a distribution planning,
not just accumulation planning. And beforewe get to talking about kind of the
ways to achieve that goal, oneof the things I've known from talking with

(08:09):
you over the years, Tracy,too, is is we are who we
are. And I think sometimes wetalk about these things and we talk about,
you know, are you going tohave multiple homes? Are you going
to take social security? Are yougoing to be taking long tours and cruises
around the world and all that stuff, And are you going to be a
spender? Are you going to bethrifty? One of the things I know

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from you, Tracy, is you'vetalked about this is. If you are
a spender during your working years,you're probably going to be a spender during
your retired years. And if youare a thrifty person during your working years,
you're going to be continue to bethrifty. Like those type of things,
and correct me if I'm wrong.And I do feel like you've talked
about this before. Those things arepretty solid. Those are pretty ingrained in

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who we are. Yeah, it'sreally fascinating. They've done a lot of
studies on this is. Behavioral financeis one of my favorite top to talk
about and listen to other speakers onbecause I find it fascinating. And I
think we've talked about people just don'tchange their stripes. You are who you
are is a perfect example of that. And even when we retire and we

(09:13):
go, Okay, well now I'mreally going to spend some money, It's
surprising how it's it's really hard tospend a lot more than when you're typical
you might spend a little bit more. I mean I even have clients that
their their friends are also clients,and they'll be like, well, you
know, I try to get herto spend more money. You know.
It's kind of a running joke,and it's like it's just because she's not

(09:37):
used to she goes, well,I actually did go to the spah with
the girls, you know, butit's kind of a one off. It's
just really hard for people who typicallyyou know, don't don't don't spend a
lot of money, or they spendwithin a certain range. And that's that's
true for everybody. We we usuallylike what do you call that, self
identify or self control ourselves no matterwhat. And we're used to spending within

(09:58):
a certain a certain level, andif it gets too much, it's just
a natural tendency, I think forus to go, oh yeah, okay,
we don't need to spend that much, or we don't need to go
or you know, it's just andhow many trips can you take in a
year? You know, because atsome point it becomes probably less fun.
It's like it's not as exciting.I've done there, I've I've been there,

(10:20):
that kind of stuff. I've talkedto people would be like, well,
I try to spend, but I'mpretty happy not spending because I'd like
to do these things hiking's camping,you know, things like that. So
I find it interesting and I findthat what my job is is to just
try to point out how the moneyI think will accumulate or or not.

(10:46):
And where are you in the spectrumof do you need to be concerned that
you might run out of money?Or do you need to be concerned you
might have too many dollars? Andif so, do you want to consider
charity? Do you want to considergifting to or grandkids or others, you
know, things like that. That'smy job is to just show you,
you know, your cash flow overtime, how does that look? And

(11:09):
I incorporate everything your soul, security, your pensions, and your investment investable
assets, and what's the likelihood theassets are going to grow? And we
can assume different rates of return,but even assuming lower rates of return,
say six to seven percent on ahealthy stock bond portfolio, that's still usually
large numbers for people when you lookout five, ten, fifteen, twenty

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years. It's a fascinating, definitelyan interesting exercise and human behavior, that
is for sure. As we talkabout working with Tracy, working with somebody,
of course, get to these numbers, We're going to talk about the
ways to achieve your goals working withsomebody that knows you, knows your lifestyle,
knows exactly what you want to do, and wants to work with you
to achieve those goals. It's agreat reminder. Today is a great day

(11:52):
to set up that a point withTracy Anton and the team. If you're
looking for money management or portfolio management, they'd love to work for you.
They'd love to talk with you,and tracing the team make it super easy
to do. Just head on overto the website to t Anton Investment House
dot com. That's t A Nt O N investment House dot com.
From the website, you can setup an appointment at a time and a
date that's convenient to you, orsimply pick up phone give Tracy a call

(12:13):
six O eight to five zero onefifteen forty nine. That's six O eight
five zero one fifteen forty nine.We talk about aiming for that number,
aiming for that goal. We're gonnaget some tips from Tracy on how to
achieve that goal. We will dothat next to Straight Talk from the House
continues right here on thirteen ten WIBAStraight Talk from the House win certified financial

(12:39):
planner Tracy Anton right here thirteen tenwi BA talking this week about setting targets
and goals and things that folks wonderwhen it comes to that number, when
it comes to retiring, and we'retalking with Tracy about that this week.
If you ever have questions, ofcourse looking for money management portfolio management,
Tracy and the team at t AntonInvestment House would love to work. They'd
love to talk with you. Oh, I gotta do sade on over the

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website t Anton Investment House dot comor pick phone called the office right in
middle ten at six eight five zeroone fifteen forty nine at six o eight
five zero one fifteen for nine intrace. We left off that last segment
talking about about the target number andachieving those goals. What are some of
the steps people should do and whatare some of the best ways folks can
imply implore to achieve a goal?Well, I think you know, starting

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early obviously makes things a lot easier. And then also where are your assets
invested? And are there assets thatare not growing that should be growing,
that are for retirement but you havethem in two conservative places? And also
how do you diversify? How muchdo you have in stocks versus bonds?
And obviously when you're younger, youwant to be mostly stocks because stocks tend

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to do double what a bond does. So no, those are some simple
tips that most people know. AndI would just say, you know,
make those contributions into accounts. Andmost people will say, we'll make sure
you do your four one K becausethat's that's that's a typical saying. And
obviously you want to do your matchthe match contribution that your employer's doing.

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But then I would say, Ithink it's really crucial to build kind of
three kinds of accounts and retirement,a brokerage account, a wrath account,
whether that's a wrath I WROTH fourone K or wrath fourth r B,
and a regular I rate or fourone K, so basically sean something that's
brokerage where you're getting capital gains rates, and then after tax money would be

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the wrath component, and then traditionaliras or four one ks would be pre
tax. And I just think it'sa better tax planning for most people to
not put one hundred percent of theirdollars in pre tax vehicles, because the
question is is always what is thattax rate going to be in the future,
and you might be at the sameor higher rate than you you know,

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you thought you were because most mostpeople think, well, I'll be
in a lower tax bracket because Iwon't be working. Well, the reality
is the way people have been accumulatingmoney as well as getting so security and
potentially even like state pensions things likethat, you might not be in a
lower bracket. So then assuming that, and especially taking a consideration your spouse

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as well. So I would sayit's nice to have this flexibility in retirement,
or you have three kinds of accounts, it also allows for that flexibility
along the way. You know,so a lot of people go, I'm
just going to maximize my four ohone K. That's not always the best
advice, it really is not.And as I see these numbers play out

(15:37):
for people over the decades in retirement, I can tell you their eyes kind
of get big too when they see, Wow, that's how much I'm going
to have to pull out from myrequire minimum distribution? And what is the
rate at that tax? What's thattax rate? And even if they assume
today's tax rate, you'd be surprisedat what people are thinking, you know.
So I would just say, tryto have three kinds of accounts rokwarch

(16:00):
account that allows that flexibility for todayand for a retirement a ROTH account where
you're getting after tax money. Yes, you have to pay the taxes today,
so you have to be okay withthat. You might be in a
little bit higher tax bracket, butstill I think it's nice to have that
flexibility along the way with the WROTHaccounts as well as in retirement and then
obviously retirement, I still think it'sit's okay to have that traditional money as

(16:25):
well. Great stuff this morning fromcertified financial planner Tracy Anto on the website
t Anton Investmenthouse dot com the telephonnumber six O eight five zero one,
fifteen forty nine. That's six Oeight five zero one, fifteen forty nine.
Let's talk about obstacles. Tracing someof the obstacles folks may face in
retirement. Well, I think thehardest one is market downturns, So learning

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that staying the course with your investments, even if you hear a lot of
negativity about the economy or markets,remember that recoveries in the stock market have
been much longer and much stronger thandownturns. Of course it's not gearing,
but on average, since nineteen fortynine, the SMP five hundred bear market
has lasted only twelve months, wherethe average bull market has lasted sixty seven

(17:10):
months, and the average return ofa bear market yes down thirty three percent,
whereas the average return of a bullmarket, though was up two hundred
and sixty five percent as a totalreturn on average. So I just keep
telling people, you know, Iknow it's hard to invest or hard to
stay invested if you're not savvy andyou're not used to it. Market declines

(17:30):
are always hard on everybody, addsanother level of stress. Some people deal
with it better by just simply notlooking at it, not paying attention.
They've been through it before, though, and that helps. So when you
get through a few of them,I think it's much better for people.
But it's for the people kind ofmore starting out that I think it's harder.
And I would just say, youknow, there's no bell that goes

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off and let you know when bullmarkets are starting, So don't time the
market. Just basically consistently invest inthe market and have a good plan and
just and just have that faith.That is a great advice and great information
this week from certified Financial planner TracyAnton right here thirteen ten WIBA. As
we talked with Tracy, a greatopportunity to get to know tracing the team

(18:15):
all on the website t Anton Investmenthousedot com. That's t A N t
O N Investmenthouse dot com. Greatwebsite and resource again t Anton Investment House
dot com. And also schedule employmentright from the website at a time and
a date that's convenient to you.You can also call the office right in
Middleton six eight five zero one fifteenforty nine. That's six O eight five
zero one fifteen four nine. We'regonna switch gears a bit in the next

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seyment. We'll talk about the recessionword and what the talk is and the
scuttle bud is over there with adetails from Trace. We will do that.
Next. Straight Talk from the Housecontinues right here on thirteen ten WIBA.
This is straight Talk from the Housewith sort of five financial planner Tracy
Anton here on thirteen ten WIBA.Of course, Tracy comes to us from

(19:02):
t Anton Investment House. The websitet Anton Investment House dot com. That's
t A N t O N InvestmentHouse dot com. Great website, schedule
appointment to right online or pick aphone call the office in Middleton six O
eight five zero one, fifteen fortynine. That's six O eight five zero
one, fifteen forty nine, Tracy. I know there's been a lot of
talk of recession. Are we stillhearing that or what's kind of the current

(19:26):
status of that conversation. Well,everyone's still talking about will it happen?
Will it be a recession that theykeep calling but never happens. You know,
it's a good question. I thinkmost people are saying, if it
does happen toward year end, itwould be mild, and some say that
they've really reduced the probability of havingof that we will have one. So

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I just listened to a webinar andthey made a good point that we've had
already had many recessions that have ruledacross different industries and sectors, but at
differ diferent times. So I lookedat this chart and like, for example,
travel fell in twenty twenty obviously becauseof COVID and the lockdowns, but
it's now up. And housing felldramatically in twenty twenty two because of rising

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interest rates, and now it's up. Semiconductors fell in twenty twenty two and
it's now up and hopefully you'll stayup. And manufacturing fell in twenty twenty
and then it was back up intwenty twenty one and then down in twenty
twenty three. So we've had thesemini recessions in different industries. So that's
interesting. But whether or not,you know, we will have a true

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mild recession, you know, againthe LIKELIOD scenes like it's going down at
this point. It is interesting.And what is kind of keeping us then
from a recession, Well, it'sreally the strong consumer. They really are
have a lot of cash on thesidelines. You know, cash held across
every income level is forty to sixtypercent higher than pre pandemic level shun.

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So that's incredible. It has beenincreased last quarter. The cash has probably
due to tax refunds. But thehousehold debt is also much lower than in
past recessions. I think I sawa chart that was like nine percent or
nine point seven percent, so peoplehave to pay off there. There's less

(21:17):
income that's going right to paying offdebt, so that's good. Also,
unemployment levels are low and consumer wagesare up. Inflation is moderating, which
is good, and there's also reallystrong corporate balance sheets, and that all
these things would usually signify really astronger recovery. And you know the companies

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also, they really because there wasso much talk about recession, they really
prepared themselves as well. So it'llbe interesting to see if this actually happens,
by Yarin, but it's the likelihoodis going down. People who have
been touting it are now kind ofgoing well, maybe not. So it's
interesting. Some amazing insight as alwaysfrom c fied financial planner Tracy Ontown right

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here on thirteen ten WIBA. Aswe're talking then about the economy, a
lot of cash on the sidelines orwhat's going on there. Yeah, we
have about five point four three trillionin money market funds right now, which
is very high. Cash peaked intwo thousand and nine through the global financial
crisis and has gone down ever sinceuntil twenty nineteen. The chart shows started

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going up and the pandemic obviously spurredthat on, and it was up four
point seven nine trillion in like inthe height of the pandemic. But it's
gone up since then, and obviouslybecause interest rates are higher, people are
investing more dollars in the cash andthe money markets. But still I think
there's also this concern of recession.Will markets pulled back, But obviously the

(22:48):
people who stayed invested and believed inthe market has done have done extremely well
this year. It's been a greatyear. It's been a really good run.
As we talked with certified financial plannerTracy Antown this morning, A lot,
in this week's show A lot andall the shows. You can always
listen back both at the radio stationwebsite as well as at t Anton Investmenthouse
dot com. Also, while you'rethere, you can learn more about the

(23:08):
team. You can also schedule apploymentat a time and a date that's convenient
to you. If you're looking formoney management or portfolio management, all you
gotta do is out on over tot Anton Investmenthouse dot com. That's t
A N t O N Investmenthouse dotcom or back phone called the office right
in Middleton six O eight five zeroone, fifteen forty nine. That's six
O eight five zero one fifteen fortynine. Tracy. It's always great chatting

(23:30):
with you. You enjoy this beautifulday. Thanks Sean. You two