Haven Financial Group Radio - 3/2/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've worked hard for your money, but do you know
how to make it work hard for you. You need
a team with experience, vigilance, and a strategy to help
you live the retirement you deserve. Find your financial safe
haven with Haven Financial Group. Today, you're listening to the
new and improved Haven Financial Group Radio Show, where we
bring you comprehensive weekly financial wisdom from the professionals. It's

(00:23):
all about helping you solve retirement problems so you can
make your nest egg last. Your tune to the Haven
Financial Group Radio Show with your host Larry Kolvig and
Kim Karrigan your guides to weekly retirement confidence. If you're
interested in protecting and growing what you have, let us
be your financial safe haven. The fuone nines are always

(00:43):
open at six point two, five oh four eighty four hundred.
Now get your financial questions ready because the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show starts now.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Good morning, and welcome to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.
I'm Larry Kolvig, Founder and CEO of the Haven Financial Group.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Again, thanks for listening. This morning.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
We got guests Mitch Moss on today, a retirement advisor
at Haven. We're going to talk cam about social security,
something that is top of everybody's minds, or at least
should be, because it's a big part of social security. And
once again, great to be with you.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
It is great to be with you as well. And Mitch,
it's so wonderful to have you. And I know that
Larry's been anxious to get you on to talk about
social security. That's sort of your that's your area of expertise,
I know. So we're going to look forward to hearing
from you. Let's give everybody a sense of what's coming
up today, how social Security is taxed, lower inflation and

(01:39):
social Security. Then we're going to talk about the Social
Security colaw and your retirement, and then finally we'll wrap
this show up a little bit later with some of
the updates for social Security in twenty twenty five. Larry,
you said it best. Social Security when it comes to
retirement is sort of where it all starts.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
He really do.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's a number one income stream for retired Americans, and
oftentimes people take it very lightly. You know, Well everybody
turns it on at sixty two. Well, we think it
should have a lot more thought put into it. Ultimately,
is it sixty two or sixty five or seventy or
anything in between. It should be an educated decisions and
you know, and why we teach a lot of social

(02:20):
security classes. Just this last week we had some that
were very full, very well attended, because people want to learn,
they should learn. And then I'm sure Mitchell talk about
when people do come in, they'll leave Haven with a
Social Security maximization report that people find very very beneficial.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Absolutely terrific. Well again, Mitch, it's great to have you,
and I think we'll just start with you if you
don't mind. First off, social Security it certainly is, you know,
a great safety net out there. Unfortunately a lot of
people have started to base their entire retirement on social Security.
And I feel confident that you have people come in
and say, well, I'm not so worried about it because

(02:58):
I've got my social Security that's going to start coming.
Talk to us about what you say to clients who
are depending so much on Social Security payments.

Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, thank you again for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
And just as Larry said, social Security is the number
one income stream for retired Americans, and those folks that
you know tend to be, you know, relying mostly on
social Security. The goal is we want to maximize that
out because again you hear so often you know, hey,
I'm going to collect it at sixty two in a month,
which is the earliest time that you can collect Social Security.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
And then we start to really look at.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
That and we say, well, is that really the best
option for you, because it's about a twenty five percent
pay cut from your full retirement age at sixty two
as opposed to waiting till say sixty seven, with which
is everybody born after nineteen sixty now full retirement age
is sixty seven. So we want to kind of look
at that, and then again if those folks need additional
income or more funds in retirement. A lot of times

(03:53):
we look at well, are you going to continue to
work past sixty seven or is there reasons to delay,
because again it's starting to grow, and if those folks
that take it at seventy are really folks that kind
of have to take it at seventy to get the
most they can out of that soci security benefit.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
So one of the things that I think a lot
of people don't realize is that there is a portion
of Social Security that is taxed. So let's walk through
that if we could, because that may play a really
big role for a lot of people about when they
start to draw. So walk us through which portion is
taxable and who might be affected.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
Well, everybody's going to be taxed at some point right now,
there's a very limited amount of people that will not
be taxed. So if you're you know, your single incomes
under thirty two thousand, there will be no tax on
your Social Security adjusted gross and couples under forty four right,
So we want to start.

Speaker 5 (04:44):
Looking at that again.

Speaker 6 (04:46):
You want to take into consideration obviously with any tax professional,
your CPA, you want to adjust with them as well
to see how much of it. But fifteen percent of
your soci Security tax or a socialecurity benefit is never taxable,
but up to eighty five percent that benefit will be
taxable at.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
The federal level.

Speaker 6 (05:02):
And we're talking the federal level right now. So if
your adjusted gross income as couples is over forty four thousand,
up to eighty five percent of that benefit will be taxed.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Okay, So does that change or is there a better
way to calculate that? Depending on your age and when
you start to draw that.

Speaker 6 (05:19):
It's really based on the income not age.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Okay, all right, and does that include survivor spouse benefits?

Speaker 6 (05:28):
It includes any soci security benefit you had have, plus
any qualified distributions from retirement funds. So they're talking about
your adjusted gross income, right, So all the income streams
that you take, distributions from iras, et cetera, those are
going to count towards your income stream, so it's not
just the base social Security.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Mitch Moss is our guest. He is a retirement specialist
with Haven Financial Group. So let's talk about what you
say to your clients when they come in about this
taxable income and how you maximize for them to make
sure that you know it doesn't affect them in such
a negative way.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
Well, again, it's we you know, there's not a lot
we can do with the thresholds that they have, which
really haven't been adjusted with cost of living for the
last twenty plus odd years, so you know, they're really
low thresholds as far as the taxable base. So we
want to make sure that you know, people say, well,
I want to reduce my taxable exposure to Social Security. Well,

(06:26):
most of my clients are living on average of fifty
sixty thousand dollars a year.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
So it's really hard to necessarily get below those taxable thresholds.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
So as far as limiting that, it's it's really tough
to do unless they start changing the thresholds on the
taxable base.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
So I would think that probably your advice would be
to start looking at other ways to protect yourself from
tax because your social Security is going to be taxed, correct, correct.

Speaker 6 (06:54):
So you know, if we're really worried about you know,
a lot of times when clients take their Social Security
or thing before full retirement age, we say, well, maybe
we should live off a little bit of the wroth
something that doesn't qualify for income, so we can lower
thresholds as far as tax going that direction. But again
it's really lifestyle. Now, if you're fortunate enough that you
have everything and you in a non qualified account and

(07:17):
you're pulling from those funds, a lot of your social
Security won't be taxable because we can keep.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Those thresholds below a certain threat level.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
So cam's icking to add. You know, taxes are a
big discussion. We have lots of discussion because it really
does matter where you draw from. Is it pre tax accounts,
is it a savings account, what type of it is it,
and we say taxing of Social Security. It's a progressive tax,
you know, zero percent up to fifty percent up to
eighty five. It's not all of it is going to

(07:46):
be taxed at eighty five, but it really does matter.
And I want to point out we're here in Minnesota,
and you know, we've been discussing the federal taxation, but
we're one of nine states right now as of twenty
twenty five that does tax it, depending upon what your
income is. The state of Minnesota did make a change
here last summer. So if you're under a certain threshold,

(08:09):
I think it's one hundred and five thousand and change,
if you're married and eighty two adjusted gross income, you
won't be taxed at the state level. And if you're
wondering what states are in addition to that, it's Colorado, Connecticut, Montana,
New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
As well as West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
So you're probably thinking maybe I'm going to move to
South Dakota, Arizona, Florida, and.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
However, I always caution people make sure you check out
the applicable taxes in those states, because different states have
different taxes. So it comes back to this, have a
partner that talks about taxes.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Lance is our in house CPA.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
We're in the middle of tax season, but this tax
planning is an ongoing annual thing.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
It's throughout the course of the year.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Again, to make sure that you understand the tax code
where you draw from and that's where us we at
Haven Financial Group, we really want to be part of
that discussion. Just this week, as every week, we have
folks that come in that haven't been given the attention
and it shows up with oh, my goodness, we owe
a bunch of money. Oh my goodness, nobody told us

(09:18):
to withhold more. You know what, have a good partner
that you can lean on so you're not trying to
do it all yourself.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
And Mitch, let me just ask you one final question
on the taxation. Do you find that you have people
who come in and say, listen, I'm ready to draw
Social Security and then when you start to walk them
through this this is a determining factor about when they're
going to draw. Maybe they decide I'm not ready to
take that income if it's going to be taxed at
this point.

Speaker 6 (09:44):
Absolutely, especially with those folks that are still working and
they come in and they say, you know what, maybe
I'm going to double dip a little bit and grab
that Social Security to pay off maybe some debt or
some things like that. And I go, well, you're at
this tax bracket. You add the Social Security benefit on
top of that, now you're going to be pushing into
another tax racket. Maybe we should delay earn those delayed
credits on social Security because the interest they might be

(10:05):
saving to pay down a little bit of debt isn't
going to offset the tax charge that they're going to hit.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah. Absolutely, all the more reason to sit down with
experts like the two of you to talk about when
is the best time to draw when you realize that
not only are you maybe leaving some benefits on the table,
but you also might be facing a tax issue that
you don't want to face. If this all sort of
brings a bell with you and you've had some questions
about social security, any questions about social security, and certainly

(10:34):
about taxes related to social security. Even financial groups number
six one two five zero four eight four zero zero
six one two five zero four eight four zero zero
they teach social security classes on a regular basis throughout
the metropolitan area. There you can go to Eavenfinancialgroup dot

(10:54):
com to find out when one of those those seminars
are going to be held one of those classes to
learn a little bit more and get some answers to
some of the questions that you may have. Don't have
to be a client and they are free, but you
do need to sign up. All right, gentlemen, when we
come back, let's talk a little bit more about lower
inflation and social security, how that affects people's benefits. You're

(11:17):
listening to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and
retirement ways. Devin, The Haven Financial Group Radio Show will
be right back. Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers.
Your tune to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with
your host Larry Kulvig and Kim Karagan. Now back to

(11:40):
the show.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Good morning, and welcome again to the Haven Financial Group
Radio Show.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Give us a call at six one two five zero
four eighty four hundred, or visit us online at Havenfinancialgroup
dot com, where you can find all kinds of as
you mentioned, Kim, all kinds of classes that we're teaching
throughout the metro area. And again, social security is just
one of those discussions that you know, people have questions
on and that's our job description at Haven is to

(12:09):
answer questions.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Later in the show, Mitchell.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Talk about how we put together a Social Security Maximization Report,
and again it's good to have Mitch on discussing about
these really important topics.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Absolutely, Mitch, thank you for joining us this morning. We
wanted to talk a little bit about inflation and its
impact on social security. You know, we have seen what
we believe has been crazy inflation for quite some time.
It does seem to be trending a bit in the
right direction, which is good news for everyone. Talk about
inflation and how it impacts social security benefits.

Speaker 6 (12:41):
Well, absolutely, that's one of the main drivers obviously with
the cost of living adjustment that they look at with
social security. But over the history of social security, it's
never really keeping up with inflation, right. Obviously, we get
a cost of living and we've had a few really
good years these last few years with cost of living adjustments,
but as it starts to tailor down a little bit.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
I mean in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (13:04):
It's two point seven, which obviously sounds good, but inflation
is sitting well over the three percent mark right now
that we can look up you know, obviously I know
just about anything. But again we want to be looking
at that. That twenty twenty four cola was three point
two and even higher those previous years, but we had
high inflation.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
But it doesn't necessarily keep up with inflation.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
The tough part about that is that while it's not
keeping up, that doesn't mean that retirees costs are staying down.
I mean they're still facing a lot of major.

Speaker 6 (13:35):
Costs absolutely, So you know, when it comes to the inflation,
and obviously eggs are a big talk about right now.
You know, just a price of things obviously go up
and up and up, and again that cost of living
is relied on so heavily by really just about any
of our clients, whether low income to high income. It

(13:56):
is one of the major players social security in your
retirement income portfolio.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
So what do you First off, let's walk through what
you're telling your clients. I would imagine you have a
number of people coming in who are very concerned about
the fact that their cost of living raise is not
equaling their costs at the grocery store.

Speaker 6 (14:14):
Well, and as Larry can contest through all these different
shows that he's been doing, and the talk that we
have with our clients is you have to prepare in
other areas to make up for the differences that are
coincided with social Security. You know, nobody necessarily wants to
be living just on social Security, so you want to
be really protected with your other assets and getting that
inflationary growth in those areas as well.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Sure, yeah, Kim, if I may add, you know costs.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
You know, everybody's pocketbook, almost everybody's pocketbook has been hurting
for quite a while. When we say costs, we're talking
housing costs, We're talking, as Mitch said, eggs, food, electricity, hospital, medical,
healthcare services.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
All of those things.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And you should one shouldn't become too reliant on Social Security.
I've said it many times. You know, I understand life
happens and certain things that are out of our control.
But you know, the cost of living adjustment, which we're
talking about this segment.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Is not guaranteed every year.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yes, we've seen some decent ones due to the inflation
that we've had in recent years, but in twenty ten,
there was no increase twenty fifteen, there was no increase
or the history buffs that are listening in nineteen eighty
and nineteen eighty one we had a fourteen point three
and eleven point two percent increase.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Way back in the early eighties.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
It's not guaranteed though, so figure out what you know,
We help people figure out what their other income streams are,
what other assets do.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
They have to deal with?

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Do we need to make some adjustments on their investments,
do we need to make some changes to our strategy,
or does one really need to look at putting pencil
a pen to paper and say, how do we reduce
our expenses? Is there some frivolous spending that we're doing
so creating a budget? Yes, I know budgets are not
fun for anybody, but they're important just as much for

(16:00):
the retiree as it is the young person. Because you know,
our retirees, most of them are on a fixed income.
How can we try to keep up with inflation?

Speaker 3 (16:10):
You know?

Speaker 2 (16:10):
So we want to look at all the different investment
vehicles that are out there to develop a good plan
that can do so we can position ourselves to accomplish
these goals.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
And you know, Larry while we're talking about social security today.
Inflation is something that you and I talk about on
a regular basis because it has been so impactful for
everyone and for people who are just getting ready to
put a good portfolio together. This is really something that
you guys try to build into a portfolio for retirement
because inflation is going to happen, and if you're in

(16:41):
a retirement for thirty years, kits us are very good
you're going to hit some rough spots along the way.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Chances are guaranteed you're going to hit some rough spots
along the way, because that's what happens. It abs and
it flows, It goes up, and it goes down, and
in the moment, it seems like, oh my goodness, we've
never been faced with this before, because that's in the moment.
But we have been faced with this before, maybe not
to the degree uh maybe never obviously to the degree
of what your age is. And oftentimes with age we

(17:07):
notice things differently because we weren't retired before, we were
working before, we had an income before, and now we're
not working and our fixed income is what it is.
So it's part of our process, which I'm sure Mitch'll
talk about here during the show of what one could
expect if they come out to one of our classes,
if if they call in and they want you know,

(17:29):
we're ringing in their ear saying I need to get
more information. We have a proprietary process that we walk
people through to really get to the root of any
potential problems. Come up with some recommendations and people find
that very very valuable and at the end of the day,
they have nothing to lose and only things, only information

(17:49):
to gain.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
So Mitch, let's walk through what happens when you attend,
you know, one of those learning sessions about social security.
What would people how can they benefit from in on
one of those classes.

Speaker 6 (18:01):
Absolutely, whether you come to a class or you just
call our direct line and book an appointment. Again, just
like you said, there is absolutely no charge for it.
So what we do is we sit down and I
start to get to know the client. You know, what
is it that you have, what do you have going on?
What is it you're trying to accomplish in the future.
Because soci security at the end of the day, if
you're an average husband and wife that had an average
income per se, you're looking at eight hundred to well

(18:23):
over a million dollars of soci security benefits if you
live to the ages of eighty five and ninety. So
that's a large piece of the puzzle when it comes
to portfolio planning. We have a lot of clients that
come in and they've done really well, say four or
five hundred thousand dollars save they have it in their
four oh one K. But social security actually is a
larger piece of that puzzle going forward. So coming in
we get to know some of these things, what do
they have, what do they need to accomplish, and then

(18:45):
we run a fourteen page report, right good better invest
on how and when to take social security based on
life expectancy and that conversation that we have wanting to
get to really know you because I know on the
Socialcurity website they have a slide bar and you can
adjust that slide bar and get an idea of what
that benefit might be.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
But that's not really telling you.

Speaker 6 (19:03):
Anything in the long run because it all coincides with
all the other aspects that you have inside your portfolio.
Are you going to work you can have a part
time job, should you delay, should you not?

Speaker 5 (19:12):
And again we're always.

Speaker 6 (19:14):
Talking about the text, but it's a way we want
to get to know you again. Fiduciary type investments. Investment
advising is what we want to be talking about. We
want to get to know the client, what their outcomes are,
and how do we produce that. And that fourteen page
report is helpful and those are the numbers that we'll
use when we put any planning together if you decided to.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Do that in the future.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Fourteen page report that sounds like a lot of pages
is a report. I can't imagine there's that much to
report on me at any point. So what's in that
fourteen pages, Well, a lot.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
Of data, so it's you know, it's putting inflation in
on average. I'm using about two percent cost of living
inflation because that you know, over a ten year period,
that's kind of the average.

Speaker 5 (19:53):
We want to put that in.

Speaker 6 (19:54):
Soci security reports that you get online do not right,
they're not factoring in cost of living, so we want
to adjust with that. We're also going to be putting
in an average expense. You know, what are your expenses
and we're going to include those with a cost of
living increase as well. So we're going to get some
real good numbers and everybody who's come in. And I've
had people come in over the years and they're like,
you know, Mitch, I already got an idea. I already

(20:15):
know what I'm going to be doing. We run the
report and nine times out of ten they change their
mentality or their thinking about how and when they take
their Social Security benefits. I'm not trying to change that,
but the numbers don't lie, right, So that fourteen page
report is people are It's just eye opening.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Yeah, Larry, again, this is something that as an individual,
you don't have access to that kind of information and
you don't know about that information, and it's why it's
so important to have a partner.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, well you don't know, You don't know, and oftentimes
you don't know where to turn to. So if you
have questions about what this means for your own financial decisions,
you're not alone, you know. I know there's many listeners
that go, what is that?

Speaker 3 (20:55):
What is the truth? What should we do?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
There's many factors to weigh into this. You have your
own personal, say situation. It's not one gluff. It's all
just because your neighbor did something at sixty four doesn't
mean you should be doing it at sixty four. There's
lots of variables that go into making good sound decisions.
So if that's you, give us a call at six
one two five oh four eighty four hundred. It's a

(21:17):
very laid back approach. I know that fourteen page report
sounds daunting, Kim, but it's really good, better best based
on your circumstances, normal life expectancies, what would be the
best decision for you. A lot of times people take
that right to the Social Security Office when it's their
time to turn it on, because it's really a roadmap

(21:40):
that simplifies the whole process.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Six one two five zero four eight four zero zero.
That's how you get in touch with our friends here
at Haven Financial Group and by the way, Havenfinancialgroup dot com.
That's where you get more information about some of those
classes that Mitch was telling us about. Gentlemen, when we
come back, more Social Security chat. This is the Haven
Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Ready to find your financial safe haven. Your dream retirement
is in reach. Don't go away, The Haven Financial Group
Radio Show.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
Will be right back.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Are you worried that your financial strategy might be missing something, Well,
you're in the right place. Larry Kulvig is back and
ready to help you find your financial safe Haven.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Good morning, and welcome again to the Haven Financial Group
Radio show. I'm Larry Kulvig, founder and CEO of the
Haven Financial Group, on with Mitch Moss, one of our
internal retirement specialists, and of course Kim always good to
be with you, talking about social security, what to do,
what not to do? Do something, a failure to plan
as a plan to fail, we know that one hundred percent.

(22:51):
So just doing something and if that's just getting together
was to have a cup of coffee and.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
A cookie, well so be it.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
But I will tell you you will leave here having
learned something because people find it very insightful and know
there's no cost to come visit with us, not none whatsoever.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
All Right, Mitch Moss is with us. He is our guest.
He's a retirement specialist with Haven. Mitch, you know, we've
had the opportunity here so far to talk about what
I'm going to call a sort of normal social security issues. Typically,
this is maybe a couple that are drawing and making
decisions about when each of them are going to draw

(23:29):
situations like that. Let's talk about some of the specialties,
some of the maybe situations that people run into that
make their situation a little more unique. For example, let's
talk about if someone passes away and the other spouse
begins to draw their social security and how that works,
and maybe you know what happens when there's a divorce,

(23:53):
these kinds of things. So let's talk through some of those.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Absolutely, And these questions come up, you know, pretty much
quite often, because obviously life happens, and you know, we
want to make sure that we're prepared. And obviously it's
just not looking at your social security or a husband
and wife type social security. We want to make sure
that those benefits continue on. So, you know, I like
real world experience because sometimes it kind of brings things
home just a little bit more.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
So. I had a woman she had.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
Come out to one of our classes several years ago,
and she had signed up for one of those one
on one strategies. She came in and she wanted to
give me a little bit of information. Right off the bat,
she goes, you know, match, i lost my husband six
months ago.

Speaker 5 (24:29):
I'm sixty five years of age.

Speaker 6 (24:31):
I'm a hairdresser, I work out of my house, and
I'm not above what we call the earnings limit, because
there is an earning limit on Social Security that you
can make before they start reducing your benefit. And she goes,
I don't know what to do. He was the higher wager.
Should I start collecting his? Should I start collecting mine?
And you know, with the information that she had already
given me, I said, you know what. I already knew
what we were going to do. But I said, let's

(24:52):
run the report. Let's see what the report said. The
report said exactly what I thought it was going to say.
E said, for her to start her benefits now she
was below the earning we need to get some income
in and who knows that when you lose somebody, Is
this the right time to start making major financial decisions?
Absolutely not right. We want to get the right information.
You know, the logical choices take the higher benefit. But
in her situation, we wanted to try to grow that

(25:14):
widow benefit. So in about a year and a half,
she started her benefit. First, got the income coming into
the house. Then in about a year and a half
we switched from her benefit over to the unreduced window benefit,
which was at her full retirement age. What that did
has got her an extra fifty eight dollars a month
in her check for the rest of her life. Now,
I know for some of our listeners, fifty eight bucks
is fifty eight bucks, but when you're on more of

(25:35):
a fixed income, right, that's a tank of gas, it's
a week's worth of groceries. If she would have taken
his benefit first, she would have been out that fifty
eight dollars for the rest of her life.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Now, that was the only thing that we actually.

Speaker 6 (25:46):
Helped her out with, but it was a big impact
on her. We did the math on it, and it
was somewhere over you know, eleven twelve thousand dollars over
her lifetime. But if she would have done it the
other way, she would.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Have been out.

Speaker 6 (25:56):
Then she would have just missed out on that that situation.

Speaker 4 (25:59):
If you would Number one, good for you that you
were able to help that woman in to bring those
extra benefits to her. But number two, I think a
lot of people who are listening, I'll bet they didn't
even realize that you can draw your own until a
certain point and then you can draw the higher even
if that person is gone. I know I did not

(26:19):
realize that. So you can change your.

Speaker 6 (26:20):
Benefits absolutely, and it's a strategy we want to look at,
you know, quite often because the example that I used was, actually,
you know, it's fifty eight dollars, but I see where
it's not hundreds, if not thousands of dollars more, because
we always want to be maxing out that higher benefit.
Another example, I had a woman come in she had
lost her husband and she was going to start on

(26:41):
that benefit, and they had done quite well.

Speaker 5 (26:43):
They had plenty of.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
Income, they had plenty of savings saved up, retirement funds,
et cetera. So the strategy that we're going to use
is we're going to use some of those benefit. Were
going to take the lower benefit, which was hers early
even though it wasn't going to cover all of her
needs for the month, for her monthly needs, but we're
going to start taking some draw down on her iras
and things of that nature. Then we were going to
wait and grow his, and by growing his we actually

(27:06):
got that up probably almost one thousand dollars more a month,
which then in turn lessen the drawdown on the iras
for the rest of her life. So it's a position
we start looking at prior to getting the max benefit
out of Social Security, using some of your qualified funds
first and letting that other benefit continue to grow.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
POY and again, this is one of those things that
people don't realize or maybe they don't know how to
put the strategy together unless they have a partner to
do that. And certainly the folks that have in financial
group can partner with you. What happens in divorce situations?
Is anyone entitled to Social Security benefits?

Speaker 5 (27:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (27:42):
Absolutely there is a benefit. So if you've been married
for ten years and divorced for at least two years,
you may qualify for up to half of your ex
spouses What that really means, it's not in addition to yours.

Speaker 5 (27:53):
It's up to half.

Speaker 6 (27:54):
So if your ex spouse has a benefit of say
three thousand dollars a month, and your benefit is a thousand,
you may qualify for an extra five hundred dollars right
up to half, not in addition too, But you have
to been married for ten years and divorced for two.
So now I know there's a lot of folks out there,
And I actually had a client she had been married
twice over ten years and divorce for two. From both

(28:18):
of those folks, I said, please pick the higher one, right,
So a little bit of joke there, but again we
want to make it.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
I guess we're getting the right benefit that we can.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
And what if your if your former spouse is remarried
and you're not, are you still entitled.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Absolutely you are. You're still entitled to that.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
And if and again, if you're divorced and your ex
spouse passes away and you have not been remarried, you're
still entitled to a full widow benefit. So you're not
only getting half of the ex spouses but you're entitled
to that full expouse benefit if they happen to pass away.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
And Kim there, if you're dealing with X situation divorce situation,
and you think, well, does it affect my ex? You
may want it to affect him or her negatively, but
it does not. It has no effect whatsoever. And technically
for a married couple, we talk about strategies. There's over
seven hundred different ways that you can actually take social Security. Now,

(29:10):
it's not that complicated. Okay, most of them are not relevant.
We helped simplify that process for folks, meaning just keep
it simple. And I'll give you another example too. We
had a lady in that long ago and she came
in thinking she qualified for an ex spousal benefit, and
it didn't take long in the conversation to figure out

(29:32):
she did not qualify. But in the conversation it came
out that her ex was deceased. Now, she quickly pointed
out she had nothing to do with him being deceased,
nothing to do with.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
It, But she qualified for the ex survivor's.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Benefit, which was better than what would have been the
ex spousal benefit. So you're saying, well, how do I
know that if this is applicable to me? Social Security
does not call you in say why aren't you doing
it this way? Why aren't you doing it this way?
Did you know that this makes more sense? And listeners,
how many of you have ever read the Social Security Handbook?

(30:08):
I bet not too many. How many of you know
that social Security doesn't always make sense, similarly to the
tax code doesn't always make sense? So how do you
figure this out having conversations with somebody that deals with
this all the time. And I'll tell you, I just
read a study that seventy six percent of advisors don't

(30:30):
feel comfortable talking about our topic today, which is social Security. Now,
how could we be retirement specialists. If we don't talk
about the biggest income stream for retired Americans, and why
are we comfortable? Because we're having this discussion in every
single meeting. And if you're dealing with twenty year or
thirty or forty or fifty year olds, you're probably not

(30:51):
talking about social Security. And if you don't talk about
something in a regular basis, you don't have the confidence.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Over the wherewithal.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
We have longtime advisers that come in and go, we
know nothing about Social Security, and that's fine, but it's
our duty to help them in this area for sure.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
Absolutely. By the way, I'm about to go on vacation.
Maybe i'll get that handbook and read it on the beach.
That sounds like some real great reading, right.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
Boy, I can't imagine that'll be Kim, that's.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
Gonna be a terrible vacation. If that's the case, all right?
If you if you yeah, right, then there you go.
Now that's when I might need to read it. If
any of this is ringing a bell with you, and
I feel confident that there's many of you listening and
you're saying, Wow, they are answering some of my questions,

(31:41):
but I have more You can call them at Han
Financial Group at six one two five zero four eight
four zero zero six one two five zero four eight
four zero zero. You know, there's no question that is silly.
Don't don't be embarrassed, don't hold off because you think
you should know it, because again, as as we have
made very clear, most people don't read the handbook or

(32:03):
for that matter, stay up on some of the changes
that occur when it comes to social security. Hevenfinancialgroup dot com.
You can also get more information there. So, having said that,
in our next segment, we're going to talk about some
of the changes and the updates coming up here in
twenty twenty five when it comes to social security. Before
we go to the break real quickly here, Mitch, let

(32:25):
me ask you this. I asked this of Larry all
the time. I'm going to ask you, is social security solvent?

Speaker 5 (32:33):
Short answer is yes? Right? Is social security going away? No? Right?
Are they going to make changes to soci security? Absolutely right?
Are we going to like the changes? No right?

Speaker 6 (32:43):
But they've been making changes since the inception of social security.
You know, for one instance, you know when you first
when socialecurity first came out, the full retirement age was
sixty five.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
Well, and then they changed it. Houston, we have a problem.
Adam A.

Speaker 6 (32:55):
Fuller was the first recipient of a sociecurity check. She
lived to one hundred because life is and see back
in the day was sixty seven to sixty eight for males. Right,
they only thought they were going to pay two or
three years, so they made changes. Right now, it's sixty
seven full retirement age for anybody born over nineteen sixty
most logical choice. And again this is just me thinking
about it. They're probably going to extend the age out

(33:18):
a little bit longer. Right, for those folks that are
nearing soci security, it's not going to affect them.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Is it going to affect me?

Speaker 6 (33:24):
I was born in nineteen seventy three, Absolutely right, But
my full retirement age might go from sixty seven to
sixty seven and four months. Is that going to be
a major impact on my?

Speaker 5 (33:35):
Right? So again, they are going to make.

Speaker 6 (33:36):
Some changes, and you know, we just have to see
what those will be coming down the pipe.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
All right.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
Mitch Moss is our guess to heat is a retirement
specialist with Haven Financial Group, and we're going to talk
about some of those changes that are occurring. In twenty
twenty five, update everybody on social security updates. When we
come back right here on the Haven Financial Group Radio
Show with you.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Don't go too far. We're gathering more important insights and
retirements government Haven Financial Group Radio Show.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Stick around. You've got questions, We've got answers. Your tune
to the Haven Financial Group Radio Show with your host
Larry Kulvig and Kim Karragan. Now back to the show.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Good morning once again, and welcome to the Haven Financial
Group Radio Show. I'm Larry Culvig, founder and CEO of
the Haven Financial Group, on with Mitch Moss, a retirement
specialist here at the Haven Financial Group. If you're looking
for more information or something that we're talking about today
or maybe other shows, key retirement topics that you have questions, worries, concerns,

(34:38):
reservations you just don't know, how about you get those
questions answered. Feel free to come on and visit with us.
Because if you've been having a question for years, why
didn't you get it answered because you probably never asked
it or nobody knew you had the question. So again,
that's the purpose of what we do in retirement and We're.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Very proud to do it. So updates.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Just when you figure things out, they make changes, some good,
some bad, some indifferent. And how do you find out
about those changes.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Well, you find out about them through folks like you,
I think, because otherwise you have to go and read
that booklet like you said, and I don't think too terrible,
and many people are planning to do so. So let's
start with this, Mitch. Obviously, cost of living adjustment in
twenty twenty five, we talked about this at the start
of the show, but let's recap that and where that
stands this year.

Speaker 6 (35:28):
The average cost of living or the cost of living
for twenty twenty five is two point five percent increased
this last year, twenty twenty four was three point two
So obviously we've seen a reduction in the cost of
living from last year to this year because obviously inflation
is starting to dwindle a little bit.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yep. Absolutely, what you think are some of the biggest
changes this year that people really need to be aware of, Well, a.

Speaker 5 (35:52):
Couple of things.

Speaker 6 (35:52):
Obviously, the maximell taxable earnings went from one hundred and
sixty thousand to one seventy six. There's a max benefit
that you can receive from Social Security based on you know,
your years of service, right, how much have you made
over those years and paid into Social Security. The max
last year was one sixty eight six, and this year
it jumped to one seventy six because there is a
max benefit. I've always had people come in and they say,

(36:14):
how come I got a little bit of pay raise?
They were high way journers in you know November December
is because they hit that one hundred and seventy six
or one hundred and sixty eight number, and then they
got a little bit more because they weren't paying into
the Social security industry. So that's a big change. The
other thing is the tax credit or the credits. Right,
you can get four credits a year. So in twenty
twenty four the MAXIMUMORIU was seventy two forty for four credits.

(36:37):
In twenty twenty five it's went up to eighteen ten.
So you've had to earn a little bit more to
earn those credits. That obviously goes up every year because
again they're just making changes.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Which what are those credits? Explain that if you will, So.

Speaker 6 (36:50):
You need a ten year work history to qualify for
Social security and that ten year work, you can get
four credits a year based on basically call it what
is it two and forty dollars a year. So those
four credits over ten years gives you forty credits, and
that's how you qualify. I know Larry has a story
about somebody who came in and she didn't have full credits.

(37:12):
But again that's you know, you have to have ten years. Now,
if you get to nine years and nine months, do
you qualify. No, it has to be ten or more.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Okay, So full retirement age. We talked about that. It
has gone up correct.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
The full retirement age, and we've known that these were
the calculations several years. I've had a sheet on my
desk that states, you know, they say this year obviously
now that if you were born over nineteen sixty, your
full retirement age now is sixty seven. If you were
born in fifty nine at sixty six and ten months,
if you're born in fifty eight at sixty six and
eight months, et cetera. But now it's sixty seven, right,

(37:47):
and that's the max that we have right now. They
haven't made any changes to extend those out. Like I
was saying, earlier. The changes I think that are coming
down the road is they're going to change that again,
So it might be sixty seven in some months, maybe
all the way up to sixty eight, depending on the
year of birth.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, Cam, if I could summarize, you know, earliest, you're
going to take it at sixty two. From sixty two
to sixty six, it grows by six percent plus the
cost of living adjustment whatever that applicable number is. From
sixty six to seventy we call those delayed credits, it
grows by eight percent plus the cost of living adjustment.
So the reality is longer the wait, the bigger the check. Now,

(38:25):
for a married couple, maybe the lower bread winner takes
it earlier, the higher bread winner maybe just waits a
little bit longer because the surviving spouse is going to
get that higher amount. If you take those security early,
there's going to be a reduction, no way around it.
There could be for you, of course, and then your
spouse if they take it early. So that's why we

(38:46):
want people to make an educated decision. Just don't take
it because everybody else in your family's taking it. Are
we trying to steer people to make them wait?

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (38:56):
Not.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Susie Orman thinks that pretty much everybody should wait till seven.
For some that's the right answer, and for many that's
the absolute wrong answer. It's really individual your variables in
your life. Are your variables? Are you going to continue
to work, are you not going to work? Is it
a part time job? What are the other income streams?
All of these are variables. Maybe you have longevity. Everybody

(39:18):
in your family lives past ninety, well, I would hope
that you might be waiting till seventy. Then right again,
it's just giving this making a thoughtful, educated decision because
over time, that's a lot of dollars.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Absolutely so, Mitch, we've talked about some of the changes
in twenty twenty five, and I'm sure there's a lot
of people who are listening who maybe didn't know about
those or have some questions about them. And again, you
can call six one two five zero four eight four
zero zero, that's a Heaven Financial group and tell them
that you heard us here on the radio, that you
heard Mitch Moss talking about Social Security and some of

(39:54):
the changes in twenty twenty five, and you've got some
questions about them. I want to ask you, though, which
about what you think is the biggest mistake that people
make when it comes to social security.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
It's taking it right away at sixty two and not
knowing the ramifications or the benefits that will help them
going forward. One of the biggest things I always kind
of ask my clients. I go, well, what did your person,
maybe the person that you're working with, what did they
say about sociecurity? And I usually get well, we've never
really talked about it. You know, and as Larry's talked
many many times over this radio show that socialcurity is

(40:28):
a number one incomestry for retired Americans. So if you're
not talking about the benefits of social security, I get
this a lot of times. You know, those folks out
there that have pensions, you're going to love that pension.
Larry talks about it all the time too, But would
you take a reduction in your pension by taking it early?
And those people that have pensions are absolutely like, no way,
I'm going to get the most I can out of
that pension. Well, we want to do the same thing

(40:48):
on social security because again I've got lots of clients
they have a good pension.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
Again, you're going to love it.

Speaker 6 (40:54):
Along with Social Security, all those benefits that every dollar
you take out of social Security is less a dollar
we have to worry about taking out.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Of your iras or your ross or your other accounts.

Speaker 6 (41:03):
Maybe you want to plan for legacy that might leave
more money to the kids, or more money for vacations,
or more money for whatever it might be by taking
those benefits at a later date and getting the higher benefit.
And again, like Larry says, longevity and things of that nature,
we want to get the most we can out of it.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
Sure, absolutely. And so when someone comes in and sits
down and talks with you, what are the questions they
should be asking about their own personal situation? What are
the things that they need to be aware of to
share with you so that they can make the most
out of drawing social Security?

Speaker 6 (41:35):
Well, I ask some qualifying questions, right, They're going to
be ballpark type questions.

Speaker 5 (41:39):
I don't need to know super specifics. What do you
have here? What do you have there? What are your goals?
What are your objectives and retirement?

Speaker 6 (41:45):
And based on those qualifying questions, we can go through
and start figuring out, Okay, what are going to be.

Speaker 5 (41:50):
The income needs going forward? Right?

Speaker 6 (41:53):
Is there a reason should we have to do we
have to max out social security? Is there a reason
to work a little bit more? Is there a reason
to draw off your qualified funds first to let that
soci security benefit grow? And we'll do some basic math
and kind of show you what those those outcomes really
will be down we'll come out to.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
One of the things we haven't talked about, but I
know that, Larry, you've talked about in previous shows, and
that's the fact that it's not both of you, if
you comes in as a couple, not both of you
need to turn it on at the same time.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
Yeah. Absolutely, we do this strategy a lot.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
So husband and wife might come in and you know,
one might not have had as good a work history
as the other one, so we might start collecting that
benefit early. We always want to start on the smaller
benefit and max out the higher of the two benefits.
And we might shift and say, all right, well we're
gonna even though you both might be retiring at the
same time, we still might collect that lower benefit first,

(42:49):
live off of some of those qualified funds, and then
pick that other one up at a higher rate because
the higher benefit always lives on And don't you want
to leave your spouse or significant other the higher benefit
for the rest of their life.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
If something got for will God forbidding happen to you?

Speaker 4 (43:06):
Absolutely? All right? So what would your gentlemen like our
listeners to walk away from this show knowing today?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Well, I think most importantly that it should be an
educated decision. It's a big decision, and it's oftentimes thought
of so flippantly, Well, I'm just going to turn it
on because that's what I do, and that's the wrong
way to look at it. We don't have to make
it complicated, we certainly don't, but put some thought into it,
because numerous times, almost every single week, people come in

(43:34):
with this idea, this notion that this is what they're
going to do, and with conversations that they have with
us and Mitch specifically, they leave there going, well, my
idea wasn't the right idea, and had I not add
this conversation, we would have probably made the wrong decision.
That's hey, if that's what a conversation can bring bring
out is a possible right decision, why not take advantage

(43:57):
of it? You know, social security is the gushing today,
it has been. It's one of the retirement puzzle pieces.
There's numerous retirement pieces, puzzle pieces, if you will, that
need to be discussed, this one being one of them.
Taxes being another one. We're in the middle of tax season,
forward thinking tax planning lance. Our CPA is it's his

(44:19):
favorite time of the year because he's doing taxes. He's
as happy as ever making sure Uncle Sam doesn't get
any more than they deserve. So the taxes, the investments,
if you're worried about the markets, we've had volatility lately,
stress tests that portfolio and medicare if you're retiring this year,
or maybe you got a pink slip that you didn't

(44:39):
see coming. Healthcare is a big discussion that it's people.
They don't talk about it and think about it enough.
So there should be coordination in all these retirement areas,
more so in retirement than ever. And up until this point,
if you've not been retired, you probably haven't thought of
it that way.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Mitch, about out of time here very quickly, any final
thoughts from you.

Speaker 5 (45:03):
Come on in.

Speaker 6 (45:03):
Get that fourteen page report. It's going to help you
out in any of your planning.

Speaker 4 (45:07):
I love that. Mitch Moss Retirement Specialists, thank you. So
much for being a part of the show today. Six
one two five zero four eight four zero zero. That's
the number and that's how you can get some of
these questions that you have lingering answered. Come in and
visit with the specialists there at Haven Financial Group. Larry
enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Thanks Cam, I have a great week. We'll see you
next week.

Speaker 6 (45:30):
Investment advisory service is offered through Guardian Well Strategies LLC.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
Haven Financial Group and Guardian Well Strategies LLC are not
affiliated companies, and investments involve risk, and, unless otherwise stated,
are not guaranteed. Please consult with the qualified financial advisor
and or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein
and comments regarding it safe and secure.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Investments and guaranteed income streams only refer to fixed insurance products.
They do not refer in any way to securities or
investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are
subject to the claims painability of the issuing company.