February 21, 2026 • 41 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Retirement Clinic.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Welcome to the program Saturday mornings here on WISN with
Creative Plannings. Jeff Coolewaal your host. I'm Paul crown Force. Jeff,
good morning. Great to have you hosting the show today.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Goodby, Paul.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm good, raaring and ready to go to talk about
retirement planning.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
A lot coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
In fact, Chauncey Wisensel, who has hosted the show just
a couple of weeks ago. Last week, your son Aaron
hosted the show. By way of background, Creative Planning. Jeff,
after many many years of the Kowal Investment Group, we
now joined forces. So that's why we talk about creative planning.
But nothing in the Milwaukee area has changed. You've got
all of your same locations, your same clients, the same
(00:44):
radio show, the same market reports on the Dan o'donald
show Monday through Friday. All of that stays the same.
The website the Retirement Clinic dot com. And you are
more than willing to answer questions from our listeners.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Jeff, absolutely, And we're growing at the as creative planning.
We're growing and it gives us expands our ability to
provide comprehensive wealth management, investor advisory services, retirement planning services,
wills and trusts, tax planning, insurance planning, all those things
(01:16):
under one roof. So that was a big reason we
went with Creative Planning. It's been over a year now,
it's been a great partnership with them, and again we're
taking on new clients. And for the most part, if
you have over a million dollars in assets, retirement assets,
and we're going to talk about that later in the
show because it's retiring as a million dollars still remains rare,
(01:37):
and I want to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Really, it remains rare. Know what I thought you're going
to say.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I thought you're going to say, retiring with a million
isn't enough that you need like two or more.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That's true too. We're going to touch on that too.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, good. We get a lot coming up, Jeffa.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
As far as questions, we send them right to you
at two six two five two two five two forty
forty with locations in Brookfield. That's a great location on
Blue Mountain Road, Racine, Delafield, Port, Washington up on Ozaki County,
Cape Coral, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona license in fifty states. The
(02:14):
Retirement Clinic dot com. You want to begin the show,
Jeff with some social security topics today.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
That's right. Well, Carol Richmond is a dear friend of
ours and has been on the show countless times. Great
resource for us. She's always given us answers to a
big variety of social security and social security disability questions.
I look at all the things that social security covers
and it's amazing that she knows so many details. And
(02:43):
with that, there was a Kiplinger's retirement report that I
thought was pretty interesting. Ten things you should Know about
Social Security. It starts with more than fifty million retirees
count on it, fifty million. With watching President Franklin Roosevelt
signed a nineteen thirty five Social Security Act. Francis Perkins,
(03:09):
who is a Labor Secretary first woman. Cabinet members might
not have ever imagined its colossal rolled. Ninety years later,
more than fifty five million retired workers and their dependents
receive social Security Ten things you should Know. Elon Musk
calls it the Ponzi scheme, the biggest Ponzi scheme. But
(03:30):
you know what our experience has been. This is one
of the best run. There is fraud involved with every agency,
with every office, there's fraud involved, but I think Social
Security has been one of those that has been better
run than others. Very responsive. Our experience has been very responsive.
Let's start with the first one. Payroll taxes provide financial
(03:51):
help for retirees and others. Social Security is a federal
program that assists people who are retired, disabled, or the
beneficiaries of deceased bread where there's mostly financed by payroll
taxes on workers' earnings. And that's why Carol has Carol
Richard has expressed as well, it's not necessarily an entitlement
(04:11):
because we're paying for it. We paid into it. It
requires employers and employees to each pay six point two
percent wages up to one hundred and seventy six thousand.
I think that's going up for twenty twenty six. But
that's the first part of the number. Two is recipient
by the numbers. As of July twenty fifth to July
(04:34):
twenty twenty five, seventy million people receive Social Security benefits.
According to the SSAY, nearly fifty six million received retirement benefits,
five point eight million received survivors benefits and more than
eight million received disability benefits. Total payouts from the Social
Security Administration about one point six trillion, Paul. That's where
(04:57):
you can see any If you see a number that big,
one point six trillion, it's not gonna be squeaky clean.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
A lot of funny, but that's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That is a lot of money. It's a big agency,
it's a big office, but they do a lot of good.
In my opinion, they do a lot of good. The
third thing is that there are two fund uh social
Security Trust funds payments. These are these are ten things
you should know about social security. So number three is
that there are two social Security trust funds. Flows out
of the benefits flow out of the Old Agent Survivors
(05:34):
Insurance Trust o a SI, which disperses retirement and survivor benefits,
and then there's the Disability Insurance Trust Fund which pays
disabilion benefits that's managed by the US Treasury. Both are
funded by payroll taxes. Let's see the trust The Social
(05:55):
Security Trust Fund continues to collect more in taxes than
it paid out. Like they have total of two point
nine trillion in twenty twenty one. That was the last
year that they recorded that then. So the first three
things are payroll taxes provide, so it's funded with payroll taxes.
Two is there fifty seventy million people receiving benefits total.
(06:16):
Three is that there are two Social Security Trust funds.
Four is that fairness balanced with adequate income. Social Security
benefit formulas designed to ensure people who have worked long
and hard at the highest taxable wage get maximum dollar
benefits if they retire at age seventy. So they're saying
that if you paid less into it, you get less out.
(06:38):
If you pay more into it, you get more out.
And that's why you talk about fairness and balance Again.
That's the fourth thing you should know about social security. Fifth,
it provides crucial protections for women. This is a big
change over the last twenty five years. Social security or
more social security is especially important for women. The Center
(06:59):
for Budget and el Priorities reports women overall or less
than men, take more time away from paid work, live longer,
and have less savings. Seven to ten beneficiaries who are
in their nineties are women. Years ago, they included women
stepping up to the men's benefit the higher earners benefit,
(07:20):
and at that time it was mostly the men, and
there are other things that spouse's benefit has been increased,
especially if you're if you haven't worked for a number
of years, so it says it provides crucial protections for women.
Seventy percent of beneficiaries who in their nineties are women.
Number sixties again, are the ten things you should know about.
(07:43):
Social Security benefits are based on earnings, years worked, and
retirement age. To arrive at your earnings history, Social Security
Administration documents your top thirty five years of changes in
average wages with a tenure minimum, so you have to
be in the system for ten ten years forty quarters
to qualify for Social Security. And then they say, you
(08:05):
know what happens if I retire? What happens if I
work part time after I retire and I'm not putting
as much, and will my Social Security benefit go down?
It won't go down because when they do the calculation,
they take your top thirty five years of wages, so
that presuming of those those top thirty five years were
in the past, your wages will not go down. They
(08:27):
can go up if one of your working years after
age sixty two. If your working years turns out to
be one of the years, you knock out one of
the lower years, so still could increase your benefits. Number seven,
benefits are adjusted for inflation with Social Security, do you
have a inflation protection? Not perfect, but pretty good, he says.
(08:51):
Damn good, says Syracuse professor Kingston. For twenty twenty five,
the adjustment two and a half percent, boosting monthly payments
by about fifty dollars. It's around two point six percent,
I think for twenty twenty six. Number eight Social securities
funding structure exposes it's serious challenges. Several factors explain the
projected social securities shortfall. They're talking about the mid twenty thirties.
(09:16):
But there's more to the shortfall than was explained as
too few workers paying for too many retirees, with fewer
people being, fewer babies being born. They're saying that there
are more people living longer, that there is going to
be a problem. We've talked about this, yes, and even
(09:36):
though number nine, yeah, even though number nine is Social
Security as well managed. But the funding structure is supposed
of serious challenges. And what we've said in the past
is that George W. Bush, Alan Greenspan, Paul Ryan, they
all came up with plans to save Social Security. Some
of it involved privatization of Social Security, but even with
(10:00):
out that, I remember Alan green Span famously said, if
what you do is just decrease the increases for those
who make over a certain amount of income, if you
make over two hundred thousand dollars a year, inflation cost
of living adjustment was three percent, those over two hundred
(10:24):
thousands would get one and a half percent. So if
that's all you do is decrease the increases for those
over a certain level of income, that alone would be
enough to save Social Security.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Hey, Jeff, are there any red flags or concerns about
the millennials, which are a huge, massive generation? As the
boomers are unfortunately passing away and aging fastly, the millennials
are not the largest generation. Concerns that the Zoomers, those
in their twenties, Generation Z isn't large enough to sustain
(10:56):
the large millennial generation. Is that something to be concerned about.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
That's always a concern, But we don't know what both
birth rates are going to be in the future and
who's going to be contributing, and whether there's you know,
the influx of immigrants here is going to change that
structure nobody knows for sure how it's going to work out.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Birth rates are down. You alluded to that, and that
is kind of a concern.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I mean they're way down, but again that could change.
I think Charlie Kirk was onto something. Get married, have kids.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, and that's what he was promoting among Christians and
among young people, you know, getting married, skipping college, Maybe
take a trade, make a lot of money, have get married,
love your wife, have kids and have lots of them.
So yeah, I think he was.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The American It's the American dream. It's what you think about, right,
And there's nothing wrong with that. That's that that shouldn't
be frowned upon. It should be promoted. In my humble opinion, I.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Agree with that. And I think there is a there
hopefully is going to be a trend to that we'll see.
And that's what I mean that we can't tell right
now whether there's going to be more They're going to
have to make adjustments to Social Security one way or
notough that to make it last beyond twenty thirty five
twenty thirty four rate in that range. Number nine is
again ten things you should know about Social Security is
(12:16):
well managed just by Elon must accusations, repeated investigations so
that Social Security is secure and low on frauds and
bookings go to I don't know who the heck that is.
Nor does Social Security contribute to the federal deficit or debt.
It can't by law slashing its operational budget. I mean,
it will help, but it's not going to be the
(12:37):
only thing. Again, I'm all for rooting out fraud. I
think it's still a pretty well run organization. When you
when you have social Security paid dead people, and I
think that that's and you know, that's obviously something that
needs to be corrected, but generally I think social Security
(12:57):
is pretty well man.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I think talk about Musk and Doge, that's or that
that's where that came up, right, yep, one of.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
The places I mean with us AID that also came
up there. Yeah, yeah, I mean you should be able
to clean those roles. And for some reason they'll send
that information onto the Treasury, so I think it stop
sending checks to them. But they're trying to change that.
Number ten is that there are solutions to the crisis.
And again we touch on this a little bit. Policy
(13:29):
experts have known for years about the coming shortfall. Have
come up with a array of plans from across the
ideolgical spectrum, from cutting benefits, raising payroll tax rates, decreasing increases,
privatization and social security. All those things are you know,
but there's there's you know, they need to act quickly
about that not likely to happen because any time you
(13:53):
want to make a change to Social Security, everybody starts
screaming that you're cutting social Security. Even if you don't
cut social Security, even if you decrease the increases, that's
considered a cut. So you know, from a political standpoint,
that's a hot potato. Again, just reviewing the ten things
you should know about Social Security, payroll taxes. It's funded
(14:15):
with payroll taxes, so it's not really the entitlement. Number
two is recipient by the number. Sixty nine point nine
million people overall with retirement, disability and survivor benefits are
receiving it. Number three is there are two social Security
trust funds, Old Agent Survivors Trust Fund, Disability Trust Fund.
Number four fairly balanced. You get more if you put
(14:38):
more into it, if you make more, if contribute more,
you get more. Number five provides crucial protection for women
seventy percent of women over ninety are women. Seven percent
beneficiaries over ninety are women. Six Benefits are based at
earnings years your top thirty five years. Seven benefits are
adjusted for inflation. Eight funding structure of explosive serious challenges
(14:58):
that need to be addressed. Nine is security as we'll managed.
And ten is that there are solutions to the crisis.
Those are ten things according to Kiplingers.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And Jeff going back to it, well, I just wanted
to mention you mentioned Carol Ritson, who is on this
show for years.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This show goes back to.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Two thousand and one, the retirement clinic with you, Jeff,
and she's just become a good friend of yourself, myself
and knows so much about social security. A lot of
our listeners may have questions about what's the best When
do I take it?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You know, I can start at sixty two? But is
that the right idea?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Should social security be relied upon as your only sole
source of retirement income? I would say your answer is,
of course not right. We need to do better than that.
That's not enough to live on.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Bat I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I'm just going to say people are going to have questions.
They can ask you about this.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
You work with people in the retirement plan because social
security is a part of a retirement plan.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right absolutely, And you hit the nail on the head.
It used to be that when it was started at
night teen thirty five, benefits started at age sixty five.
In the life expectancy with sixty seven, that has changed dramatically,
so yes, people are living longer now. It should not
be the only source of income in retirement. Used to
be that you would have pensions, you'd have fully funded
(16:17):
retirement plans, and that's not the case anymore. You are
responsible for your own retirement planning. Social stecurity is one
part of it. It's a big part of it, but
it's not the only part of it. It should not
be considered the only part of it. Be a giver
office call. We address all areas of retirement and investment planning.
We manage over a billion and a half with our
(16:38):
little office, and we manage over four hundred billion dollars
with creative planning. We've got a lot of resources for
tax planning, retirement planning, investment planning, wills and trust, the
state planning making sure that when you accumulate this money
over your lifetime that it's distributed properly once you pass away,
so legal part of it, the insurance part of it.
(17:00):
Create a planning again, give our office call two sixty
two five to two forty forty, or you could set
up an appointment by going online at d Retirement Clinic
dot com. D Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
We're gonna hear from Chauncey Wisenzell after this first break, Jeff,
you summed it up very well, and was I correct
in saying sixty two is that first year of eligibility
to take social right.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Full retirement age now is right around age sixty seven,
but you can start early retirement UH from Social Security
at age as early as age sixty two, and there's
a reduced benefit at age sixty two. Likewise, you can
defer the benefit after full retirement age to age seventy.
You could put then beyond age seventy. It doesn't get
any bigger, so it doesn't make any sense to defer
(17:48):
any any longer than age seventy. That's the full benefit
you can get. That's the highest benefit you can get
at age seventy at discoum benefit at age sixty two.
The maximum benefit at age seventy. Full retirement ages right
around age sixty seven right now.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And I know we're up against the break.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But one quick question I have before that break, Jeff,
do you find it in your experience over all these
years that people are tending to retire earlier than they
did decades ago? Or do you see no change at all?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It varies, And that's a great question, and I think
it's different now that to me practice retirement. They may
take social Security for a while and still work and
stay under that limit. Some want to retire early. We
still see that that you know, people have gotten it,
especially those in stressful jobs that need to pull the
(18:40):
pin just for their own health. Sometimes they have to
take care of a loved one. That's another reason why
it may alter the retirement date. And then you have
people that are blown through age sixty five seventy seventy
five and continue to work because they love it, because
he figured they'd been given a gift by God to
do certain things, so they continue to do it. They
do it at a high level. So it's all over
(19:01):
the map.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And the flip side is people just hate their job
and they want to quit. They mark the calendar with
xes to that retirement day because they cannot wait.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, and you know, like you said, it's all over
the moon for it, right, if you.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Got the mood, if you plan for it, absolutely, if
you can afford it, and you're ready to pull that
pin and retire, well, this is what you do every
day at Creative Planning. Jeff Colewaal hosting today's Retirement Clinic
on WYSN. I'm Paul crown Force coming up, Chauncey Wisensell,
and that's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
A good segment.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Right after the break, Jeff will respond to that, and
then we've got a lot more coming up with regard
to your retirement plan on w ISN called two six
two five two or the Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Thanks.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
What I want to discuss a little bit today, as
you guys mentioned a little bit was the article from
Baron's Until move Over Arizona and Florida. These states may
be the best places to retire for your health. So
I the key word there really is health, right typically
obviously Arizona, Florida. You said you'd ask somebody just off
(20:08):
the cuff, and where's a great place to retire. Everybody's
gonna think Florida, Arizona. Right, the weather is nice in
the winter. We have plenty of clients who go down there,
you know, they they snowbird They go down there for
at least the winter months. A few that live down
down in those places year round as well, but they
aren't necessarily the best places to retire, right. This what
(20:33):
this article really digs into is kind of a lot
of the healthcare rankings that you can find. And so
the first one that I saw here was there was
a survey done recording ninety nine different measures of a
healthcare system, right, everything from you know, cancer screenings to
volunteering at these hospitals, all these different things, and Florida
(20:56):
rank thirtieth, right, which isn't bad, but it's it's definitely
still obviously in the back half. And so you know,
and I've heard that routinely from clients who go down there,
you know there said, oh, you know, it's it's great,
but I do all my healthcare up here in Wisconsin
when I can, before I leave, and then when I
come back usually, you know, So the healthcare in Florida
(21:18):
is kind of generally, i'd say a little bit overwhelmed.
Another measure in one of these surveys is you know,
the approximate kind of the number of doctors needed to
take care of all the people there, and Florida was
dead last at sixty seven percent of what's needed. And so,
you know, those are some factors that they're looking at.
There was another part of this regarding health right talks
(21:39):
about kind of climate health in general healthcare. I believe
Arizona was excuse me, Florida was forty eight out of
fiftieth because obviously in the summers, if you snowbird, fine,
but in the summers is extreme heat, the air quality
is you know, rather pour down there, a lot of
power plant to make, and so some of those things
(22:02):
in that survey from a Commonwealth Fund study on climate
health and healthcare put them forty eighth out of fifty
and so for a lot of the same reasons, Arizona ended.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Up forty fifth out of fifty.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And so it's interesting when you look at these different factors, right,
not just oh what's the weather like down there in
the winter's can it can it be a little warmer
than it is here, which isn't difficult to do. You know,
you kind of see some different factors there. Other things
that they kind of looked at was kind of the
cost of long term care. Right, so if people suffering
(22:36):
Alzheimer's dementia can't take care of themselves anymore, whatever it
may be. Highest most expensive places Massachusetts average is aheard
and seventy three thousand a year. Cheapest is Arkansas eighty
six thousand a year for long term care. I don't
know that you necessarily want to end up in Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Though.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
There were some of the best states to retire. Actually
looking at health New England had a few, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts all had relatively high scores. Those are actually the
top three. The order is New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont. It's
a different than what I just said, but a high
number of physicians, you know, metagap premiums are relatively low,
(23:20):
so those those additional healthcare costs. State tax I think
put New Hampshire to the top because it's zero percent
but relatively you know, not bad state taxes.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
And that's another big reason, right we see.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
A lot of clients go to Florida is because of
you know, no no tax, state tax down there as
long as you're a resident for six months.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
In a day so that's the big ones. Some other
ones on here.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
For our good old Midwest here, Minnesota ended up being
being the highest Midwestern. You know, I'm a little offended
that Wisconsin's not on the top ten list here, but
we're pretty close to Minnesota, so I guess, I guess
we'll take it.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Some Minnesota's on there.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
If you go out west, Washington is the highest one
out there, seventh for health rankings and very good physician
adequacy as well. Florida and Arizona they do make the
top ten, even though their health ranks are thirtieth and
thirty second.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Then we run out the top ten.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Texas and New Mexico also not very good health rankings,
but low metagap premiums which helped them out, and then
obviously low state taxes and then weather factors into that
as well. So this kind of interesting thing and just
something to to kind of think about. And I always
tell clients, you know, if you're if you're thinking about,
(24:43):
you know, snowbirding or you know, buying a place or
moving completely, you know, it doesn't hurt to check it out.
Maybe stay there for a while, see what you think
of the area before you just kind of Oh yeah, Florida.
Let's go, you know, spend some time there and get
to know the people and certainly do some additional looking, right,
not just being okay, you know, what does a house cost?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
And what's the weather?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
You know, it pays to dig around and look at
some of these these healthcare research numbers.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
You know, what what are.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
The doctors, what's the cost of the healthcare, what's the
quality do I have to get you know, pre approved
for some of these Medicare things. Possibly there's something else
they looked at, and so there's a ton of factors
that should really kind of go into this. But it's
always interesting to see kind of some of the states
that make these lists. I know, I've I've done a
couple of these down different radio shows over the years,
and they're always fun to look at.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
But yeah, other things to make sure.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
That you guys consider when moving and something that we
certainly talk about with our clients as well. So you know,
be happy to talk about it with you too. I mean,
if anybody's listening and they want to come in get
a second opinion and talk about some of these.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Issues, happy to do so. So with that, you know,
I'll throw it back to you, Jeff and Paul.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Great to hear from Chauncey wisen Cell with Creative Planning.
Jeff Colewall and I'm Paul cronforst. We are back on
the retirement Clinic and now Jeff, we've got something to
talk about.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It's exciting the industry of US taxes.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Not so exciting, Paul, but a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That Chaunton's trying to make it good.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
But every you know this, this chart comes out every
year and it it amazes me. I mean, we had
ninety highest federal tax rate was in nineteen forty four
nineteen forty five, where it was ninety four percent. That
was the top federal tax bracket. So if you made
(26:32):
a certain amount of income, you were paying ninety four
and anyway, add on state taxes on top of that
property taxes, you could be over one hundred percent. That's nuts.
But I was I was just curious who was president
during these times. So Woodworm Wilson started it. He set
up the Revenue Act. I think it was probably the
(26:54):
fun World War One in nineteen thirteen. So at that
time the rate was the top top top one was
seven percent. I saw it. If you made more than
three thousand dollars, you'd pay one percent, but the top
was seven percent. And I was wondering who is the
president from nineteen thirty six to nineteen forty seven, because
(27:14):
the tax rate went from sixty three percent to seventy
nine percent, to eighty one percent to eighty eight percent
to ninety four percent. That was FDR to fund all
the New Deal and the war and everything else World
War two. Nineteen sixty four, we dropped it down to
seventy seven percent. And that was with Linda Johnson in
(27:38):
nineteen Let's see, this was nineteen ninety two. Who was
dropped down to thirty one percent and that was George H. W. Bush. No,
that was Reagan. Twenty got down to twenty eight percent
in Reagan's term. That George remember that now you don't
remember a lot of people in our audience probably don't
remember it, but read my lips. No new tax I
(28:00):
remember that, well, taxes. The taxes went up under George H. W.
Bush from twenty eight percent to thirty one percent, to
thirty nine percent to nine point six And that was
one of the reasons why he lost the election, big
reason why he did. George, No new taxes yep. And
then he raises taxes. They got him on that anyway.
(28:24):
Two thousand and three, George Bush, George w reduced him
with thirty five percent, Obama raised them to thirty nine
point six and then President Trump dropped them down to
thirty seven percent. Then that's where we stand right now.
So I think it's pretty interesting that one point you
were paying ninety some people were paying ninety four percent
in federal income tax. That was or tax their marginal
(28:44):
tax rate. The other topic I want to touch on, Paul,
despite the taxes, retiring with a million dollars remains rare.
How many people reach at milestone. I ran across this
Investipedia article by Peter Grant, and only three point two
percent of retireings then you and I talked about this
earlier have a million dollars in retirement accounts only three
(29:08):
point two percent. Only two point six percent of Americans
in general, Nearly five hundred thousand Americans are four to
one k millionaires. And that's the good news that despite
the overall percentages, there's a remarkable growth at the top end.
Fidelity Investments reports that the number of four to one
(29:29):
k millionaires reached a record four hundred and ninety seven
twenty twenty four, with three hundred and ninety nine thousand
having at least a million dollars in individual retirement accounts,
so the number of four to one k millionaires is growing.
The key to reaching these accounts these amounts, take a guest, Paul.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
The keys to reaching these amounts is consid million dollars,
consistently putting the money away, taking advantage of the match
from your company, and time and time and time.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It adds up.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Exactly, Yeah, very good.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You like that. Don't pass it.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Don't wait when you're twenty two and say, well, I'll
wait tillime in my thirties because i'll build afford it.
And then what do you say in your thirties There's
always going to be an excuse job. The sooner you start,
the better off you are.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Exactly. The key to region is starting early and contributing
consistently over the years. Exactly what you said. But the
average time it takes to reach a million dollars is
about twenty seven years. That's according to Fidelity analysis. Twenty
seven years is how long it takes to reach that
amount high income. Of course, of course, have the have
it's easier to reach that for those with higher incomes
(30:37):
than those are, but it says high income is not
the only way to reach that, living frugally, investment wisely,
and optimizing for taxes. We've got a lot of millionaires
next door as clients of ours, people who worked in factories,
people who worked in manufacturing, and we're not high paid
executives that were diligent put money away on a consistent basis,
(31:00):
and again we've got a lot of them. The bottom
line that happening a million dollars in your account on
the day of your retirement remains elusive goal for the
vast majority of Americans. Far fewer than one in thirty
actually achieve it. No wonder Americans are concerned about their retirement.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But Jeff, it's attainable.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And John the plumber who consistently at age twenty one
when he starts his apprenticeship as a plumber and just
works every day, goes to work. Like you said, just
watch your your your debt. Try to keep that debt
down right. You're paying off that home. It's the Americans, Jeam.
You've got a family and by the time you're in
your sixties, all of a sudden you're look.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And you got two million dollars.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
It's very attainable, and that's what you're saying that we
started this with it. It may mean that everybody's different.
It may take a million and a half two million,
three million dollars to match what you're looking for in retirement.
So a million dollars is probably a starting point for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yea, and hopefully your your home is paid off for
that thirty year mortgage by the time you're that age.
A lot of things just fall into place, the kids
are moved out, and it's you know, not everything works
out according to plan.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
But that's where you guys come in.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Jeff, you help with a retirement plan at Creative Planning.
So we've talked about we talked about social Security, we
heard from Shauncey. You just had this great segment. What
are you got coming up next? In our wealth management
preservation segment?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Women live longer than man. It's the great horizontal wealth
transfer that's coming going sideways to women because again, they
tend to live longer.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You got me on that one. I'm now looking forward
to hearing what you have to say about this. Two
six two five two two. That's the number to call
or check out The Retirement Clinic dot com with Jeff
Coolewall hosting today's show. I'm Paul cronforst On, Wisconsin's most
listened to radio station WIS and Milwaukee. All right, it's
time for that segment when you hear the bear naked ladies,
(32:54):
if I had a million dollars, Jeff Colewall, welcome back
to the Retirement Clinic. We call it the Wealth, Health,
Management and Preservation Segment.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Jeff yep.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
This segment, or to show us for everybody. This particular
segment is for those with over a million dollars. Once
you've reached that pinnacle, how do you preserve it, grow it,
take income from it, and pass it onto your ears.
That's the emphasis of this segment. No two people are alike,
and certainly an entire gender, the entire gender does not
(33:25):
think the same about investing and planning or anything. This article,
this is a Baron's article, talks about a great wealth
transfer that's in the process and will amount to trillions,
with most of it going to women. Let's get started.
Women live longer than men. The great horizontal wealth transfer
is coming more than eighty trillion dollars is slated for
(33:47):
offspring and charities, but most of it will go to
the widows first. And they just look at some of
the statistics and mortality rates. The children in the country's
oldest generations, along with countless charities, are in line to
inherit more than eighty four trillion dollars by twenty forty five.
(34:08):
That's only twenty years away, nineteen years away. But in
many cases the wealth won't go directly to them. Since
women statistically outlive men, a significant chunk of the great
wealth transfer will go first to widows. Research from Surrealia
Associates estimates that the eighty four point four trillion will
(34:28):
be transferred, seventy two point six will go to family
members and other errors. Twelve million dollars will be donated
to charities. The generations preceding the baby boomers are projected
to transfer fifteen point eight trillion, most of it over
the next decade, So fifteen point eight trillion over the
next decade, fifty three trillion after that. Total, really they
(34:52):
could go as high as eighty four trillion dollars. And
you know they say financial female females should be yeah,
attending what we feel in our office is that the
female should be coming along for meetings. A lot of
times it's the female who makes the financial decisions. Many
(35:12):
times it's the male and the relationship. But you know,
it's important that they pick up their financial intelligence and
a lot of times it's just attending meetings. Forward taking
advisors seek to involve both spouses and often their errors,
in planning it as early as possible. If this is
(35:33):
according to Obermeyer Wealth Partners, she says, if women feel
like they're a client and not just their spouse, they
make sure that women stay engaged. Casual needs might change
because of reduced travel, a widow may downsize real estate.
When widows start spending less, they may choose to provide
(35:56):
more support for family members. This is a key part
of this article. It says estate plans need to be
revisited over time to make sure beneficiaries are up to date.
Even if you if as a couple a husband and wife,
you did your planning, you did your state planning together.
When one spouse passes away, the male or female, it's
(36:17):
important to update the Wilson trust. This article focuses on
the women and it just says that there's a there's
a there's a gap in knowledge between the female and male,
according to the article, and they say women and again,
no too, women are alike, and I'm not suggesting that
(36:39):
at all. But the article says women as a group
tend to describe themselves as careful investors, with ninety seven
percent identifying as conservative or moderate according to Fidel Investments survey.
But gen Z those aged thirteen to yeah, thirteen to
twenty eight born from nineteen ninety seven to twenty two, Well,
(37:00):
gen Z women are proving to be less conservative, so
they tend to be more gross. There oriented few women
describe themselves as aggressive investors. That probably isn't a bad
characteristic for an average investor to have because you can
lose your shirt by engaging in short term training. Many
successful long term investors use a buy and hold strategy.
(37:24):
And again the article says this, the women tend to
focus on their financial goals. Goals, their financial goals versus
how did the market do today? So I think that
that's important. It's important to stay engaged with your financial advisor.
It's important for the financial advisor to make sure that
(37:45):
both parties are involved in the planning and the reviews
and shown up to meetings just again, just to learn
the terminology, get to know the person you're going to
be working with. Should want to spouse's pass away.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, making sure you're on the same page, your spouse,
your partner, whatever the case is.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Jeff.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
And you said something too about the state plans, keeping
those up to dates. Sometimes those tend to fall by
the wayside. You just kind of put it on the
back burner. You can't let that happen. And I think
after the break we'll talk about working with a financial planner,
just to remind you of these important things in life.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
It's really good stuff.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Jeff.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Today's Wealth Management Preservation segment, Jeff Cowal will be back
on WISN. This is the retirement clinic talked about so much.
We heard from Chauncey. You've got a wealth of advisors
in all areas of planning at Creative Planning.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
That's why we have producier advisors. We've always put our
clients interests first at Creative Planning. You know, we're already
into the new year, well into the new year, and
you said, boy, my newish resolution I was gonna get start,
was going to do the planning and here is you
still have it started. Give our office calls schedule something.
It's most important that we get it on the schedule.
We could take it from there. That's very important. With
(39:00):
the estate planning, with retirement planning, with investments, with insurance again,
Wilson Trust, accounting, taxes, all those things under round roof
creative planning, the Retirement Clinic dot com. Give our office
call two six two five two to four zero four
zero two six two five two to forty forty or
(39:21):
the Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Boy, Jeff, you are right about New Year's resolutions. Today
is February twenty first. We're closing in on March and
soon spring. I remember back it was January ninth. They
call it National Quitting Day. It's when most Americans drop
their resolutions only nine days into the new year.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
National Quitting Day. Yeah, so forget about the resolution. It is.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
It's not surprising. You're right, but all joking aside. Forget
about a resolution, just do it. Reach out to create
a planning and get it done. Two six to two
five to two forty forty, Jeff Colwall this year, I'm
Paul Crown for us back next week in the meantime.
Tune in Monday through Friday during the Dan o'donald Show.
Those market updates in the three and five pm news block.
WS Milwaukee News is up next.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
The preceding program is furnished by Creative Planning, an SEC
registered investment advisory firm. Creative Planning, along with its affiliate
United Capital Financial Advisors, currently manages or advises on a
combined three hundred and twenty five billion dollars in assets
as of June thirtieth, twenty twenty four. The host works
for Creative Planning, and all opinions expressed by the host
and or their guests are solely their own and do
(40:30):
not necessarily represent the opinion of Creative Planning. The show
is designed to be informational in nature and does not
constitute investment, tax or legal advice. Different types of investments
involve varying degrees of risk, and there could be no
assurance that the future performance of any specific investment or
investment strategy, including those discussed on the show, will be
profitable or equal any historical performance levels. The information contained
(40:53):
herein has been obtained from sources deemed reliable, but is
not guaranteed. If you would like our help request to
speak to an advisor by going to creative planning dot com.
Creative Planning, tax, and legal are separate entities that must
be engaged independently.
This is the Retirement Clinic.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Welcome to the program Saturday mornings here on WISN with
Creative Plannings. Jeff Coolewaal your host. I'm Paul crown Force. Jeff,
good morning. Great to have you hosting the show today.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Goodby, Paul.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm good, raaring and ready to go to talk about
retirement planning.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
A lot coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
In fact, Chauncey Wisensel, who has hosted the show just
a couple of weeks ago. Last week, your son Aaron
hosted the show. By way of background, Creative Planning. Jeff,
after many many years of the Kowal Investment Group, we
now joined forces. So that's why we talk about creative planning.
But nothing in the Milwaukee area has changed. You've got
all of your same locations, your same clients, the same
(00:44):
radio show, the same market reports on the Dan o'donald
show Monday through Friday. All of that stays the same.
The website the Retirement Clinic dot com. And you are
more than willing to answer questions from our listeners.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Jeff, absolutely, And we're growing at the as creative planning.
We're growing and it gives us expands our ability to
provide comprehensive wealth management, investor advisory services, retirement planning services,
wills and trusts, tax planning, insurance planning, all those things
(01:16):
under one roof. So that was a big reason we
went with Creative Planning. It's been over a year now,
it's been a great partnership with them, and again we're
taking on new clients. And for the most part, if
you have over a million dollars in assets, retirement assets,
and we're going to talk about that later in the
show because it's retiring as a million dollars still remains rare,
(01:37):
and I want to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Really, it remains rare. Know what I thought you're going
to say.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I thought you're going to say, retiring with a million
isn't enough that you need like two or more.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
That's true too. We're going to touch on that too.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, good. We get a lot coming up, Jeffa.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
As far as questions, we send them right to you
at two six two five two two five two forty
forty with locations in Brookfield. That's a great location on
Blue Mountain Road, Racine, Delafield, Port, Washington up on Ozaki County,
Cape Coral, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona license in fifty states. The
(02:14):
Retirement Clinic dot com. You want to begin the show,
Jeff with some social security topics today.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
That's right. Well, Carol Richmond is a dear friend of
ours and has been on the show countless times. Great
resource for us. She's always given us answers to a
big variety of social security and social security disability questions.
I look at all the things that social security covers
and it's amazing that she knows so many details. And
(02:43):
with that, there was a Kiplinger's retirement report that I
thought was pretty interesting. Ten things you should Know about
Social Security. It starts with more than fifty million retirees
count on it, fifty million. With watching President Franklin Roosevelt
signed a nineteen thirty five Social Security Act. Francis Perkins,
(03:09):
who is a Labor Secretary first woman. Cabinet members might
not have ever imagined its colossal rolled. Ninety years later,
more than fifty five million retired workers and their dependents
receive social Security Ten things you should Know. Elon Musk
calls it the Ponzi scheme, the biggest Ponzi scheme. But
(03:30):
you know what our experience has been. This is one
of the best run. There is fraud involved with every agency,
with every office, there's fraud involved, but I think Social
Security has been one of those that has been better
run than others. Very responsive. Our experience has been very responsive.
Let's start with the first one. Payroll taxes provide financial
(03:51):
help for retirees and others. Social Security is a federal
program that assists people who are retired, disabled, or the
beneficiaries of deceased bread where there's mostly financed by payroll
taxes on workers' earnings. And that's why Carol has Carol
Richard has expressed as well, it's not necessarily an entitlement
(04:11):
because we're paying for it. We paid into it. It
requires employers and employees to each pay six point two
percent wages up to one hundred and seventy six thousand.
I think that's going up for twenty twenty six. But
that's the first part of the number. Two is recipient
by the numbers. As of July twenty fifth to July
(04:34):
twenty twenty five, seventy million people receive Social Security benefits.
According to the SSAY, nearly fifty six million received retirement benefits,
five point eight million received survivors benefits and more than
eight million received disability benefits. Total payouts from the Social
Security Administration about one point six trillion, Paul. That's where
(04:57):
you can see any If you see a number that big,
one point six trillion, it's not gonna be squeaky clean.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
A lot of funny, but that's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
That is a lot of money. It's a big agency,
it's a big office, but they do a lot of good.
In my opinion, they do a lot of good. The
third thing is that there are two fund uh social
Security Trust funds payments. These are these are ten things
you should know about social security. So number three is
that there are two social Security trust funds. Flows out
of the benefits flow out of the Old Agent Survivors
(05:34):
Insurance Trust o a SI, which disperses retirement and survivor benefits,
and then there's the Disability Insurance Trust Fund which pays
disabilion benefits that's managed by the US Treasury. Both are
funded by payroll taxes. Let's see the trust The Social
(05:55):
Security Trust Fund continues to collect more in taxes than
it paid out. Like they have total of two point
nine trillion in twenty twenty one. That was the last
year that they recorded that then. So the first three
things are payroll taxes provide, so it's funded with payroll taxes.
Two is there fifty seventy million people receiving benefits total.
(06:16):
Three is that there are two Social Security Trust funds.
Four is that fairness balanced with adequate income. Social Security
benefit formulas designed to ensure people who have worked long
and hard at the highest taxable wage get maximum dollar
benefits if they retire at age seventy. So they're saying
that if you paid less into it, you get less out.
(06:38):
If you pay more into it, you get more out.
And that's why you talk about fairness and balance Again.
That's the fourth thing you should know about social security. Fifth,
it provides crucial protections for women. This is a big
change over the last twenty five years. Social security or
more social security is especially important for women. The Center
(06:59):
for Budget and el Priorities reports women overall or less
than men, take more time away from paid work, live longer,
and have less savings. Seven to ten beneficiaries who are
in their nineties are women. Years ago, they included women
stepping up to the men's benefit the higher earners benefit,
(07:20):
and at that time it was mostly the men, and
there are other things that spouse's benefit has been increased,
especially if you're if you haven't worked for a number
of years, so it says it provides crucial protections for women.
Seventy percent of beneficiaries who in their nineties are women.
Number sixties again, are the ten things you should know about.
(07:43):
Social Security benefits are based on earnings, years worked, and
retirement age. To arrive at your earnings history, Social Security
Administration documents your top thirty five years of changes in
average wages with a tenure minimum, so you have to
be in the system for ten ten years forty quarters
to qualify for Social Security. And then they say, you
(08:05):
know what happens if I retire? What happens if I
work part time after I retire and I'm not putting
as much, and will my Social Security benefit go down?
It won't go down because when they do the calculation,
they take your top thirty five years of wages, so
that presuming of those those top thirty five years were
in the past, your wages will not go down. They
(08:27):
can go up if one of your working years after
age sixty two. If your working years turns out to
be one of the years, you knock out one of
the lower years, so still could increase your benefits. Number seven,
benefits are adjusted for inflation with Social Security, do you
have a inflation protection? Not perfect, but pretty good, he says.
(08:51):
Damn good, says Syracuse professor Kingston. For twenty twenty five,
the adjustment two and a half percent, boosting monthly payments
by about fifty dollars. It's around two point six percent,
I think for twenty twenty six. Number eight Social securities
funding structure exposes it's serious challenges. Several factors explain the
projected social securities shortfall. They're talking about the mid twenty thirties.
(09:16):
But there's more to the shortfall than was explained as
too few workers paying for too many retirees, with fewer
people being, fewer babies being born. They're saying that there
are more people living longer, that there is going to
be a problem. We've talked about this, yes, and even
(09:36):
though number nine, yeah, even though number nine is Social
Security as well managed. But the funding structure is supposed
of serious challenges. And what we've said in the past
is that George W. Bush, Alan Greenspan, Paul Ryan, they
all came up with plans to save Social Security. Some
of it involved privatization of Social Security, but even with
(10:00):
out that, I remember Alan green Span famously said, if
what you do is just decrease the increases for those
who make over a certain amount of income, if you
make over two hundred thousand dollars a year, inflation cost
of living adjustment was three percent, those over two hundred
(10:24):
thousands would get one and a half percent. So if
that's all you do is decrease the increases for those
over a certain level of income, that alone would be
enough to save Social Security.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Hey, Jeff, are there any red flags or concerns about
the millennials, which are a huge, massive generation? As the
boomers are unfortunately passing away and aging fastly, the millennials
are not the largest generation. Concerns that the Zoomers, those
in their twenties, Generation Z isn't large enough to sustain
(10:56):
the large millennial generation. Is that something to be concerned about.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
That's always a concern, But we don't know what both
birth rates are going to be in the future and
who's going to be contributing, and whether there's you know,
the influx of immigrants here is going to change that
structure nobody knows for sure how it's going to work out.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Birth rates are down. You alluded to that, and that
is kind of a concern.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I mean they're way down, but again that could change.
I think Charlie Kirk was onto something. Get married, have kids.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, and that's what he was promoting among Christians and
among young people, you know, getting married, skipping college, Maybe
take a trade, make a lot of money, have get married,
love your wife, have kids and have lots of them.
So yeah, I think he was.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The American It's the American dream. It's what you think about, right,
And there's nothing wrong with that. That's that that shouldn't
be frowned upon. It should be promoted. In my humble opinion, I.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Agree with that. And I think there is a there
hopefully is going to be a trend to that we'll see.
And that's what I mean that we can't tell right
now whether there's going to be more They're going to
have to make adjustments to Social Security one way or
notough that to make it last beyond twenty thirty five
twenty thirty four rate in that range. Number nine is
again ten things you should know about Social Security is
(12:16):
well managed just by Elon must accusations, repeated investigations so
that Social Security is secure and low on frauds and
bookings go to I don't know who the heck that is.
Nor does Social Security contribute to the federal deficit or debt.
It can't by law slashing its operational budget. I mean,
it will help, but it's not going to be the
(12:37):
only thing. Again, I'm all for rooting out fraud. I
think it's still a pretty well run organization. When you
when you have social Security paid dead people, and I
think that that's and you know, that's obviously something that
needs to be corrected, but generally I think social Security
(12:57):
is pretty well man.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I think talk about Musk and Doge, that's or that
that's where that came up, right, yep, one of.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
The places I mean with us AID that also came
up there. Yeah, yeah, I mean you should be able
to clean those roles. And for some reason they'll send
that information onto the Treasury, so I think it stop
sending checks to them. But they're trying to change that.
Number ten is that there are solutions to the crisis.
And again we touch on this a little bit. Policy
(13:29):
experts have known for years about the coming shortfall. Have
come up with a array of plans from across the
ideolgical spectrum, from cutting benefits, raising payroll tax rates, decreasing increases,
privatization and social security. All those things are you know,
but there's there's you know, they need to act quickly
about that not likely to happen because any time you
(13:53):
want to make a change to Social Security, everybody starts
screaming that you're cutting social Security. Even if you don't
cut social Security, even if you decrease the increases, that's
considered a cut. So you know, from a political standpoint,
that's a hot potato. Again, just reviewing the ten things
you should know about Social Security, payroll taxes. It's funded
(14:15):
with payroll taxes, so it's not really the entitlement. Number
two is recipient by the number. Sixty nine point nine
million people overall with retirement, disability and survivor benefits are
receiving it. Number three is there are two social Security
trust funds, Old Agent Survivors Trust Fund, Disability Trust Fund.
Number four fairly balanced. You get more if you put
(14:38):
more into it, if you make more, if contribute more,
you get more. Number five provides crucial protection for women
seventy percent of women over ninety are women. Seven percent
beneficiaries over ninety are women. Six Benefits are based at
earnings years your top thirty five years. Seven benefits are
adjusted for inflation. Eight funding structure of explosive serious challenges
(14:58):
that need to be addressed. Nine is security as we'll managed.
And ten is that there are solutions to the crisis.
Those are ten things according to Kiplingers.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
And Jeff going back to it, well, I just wanted
to mention you mentioned Carol Ritson, who is on this
show for years.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This show goes back to.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Two thousand and one, the retirement clinic with you, Jeff,
and she's just become a good friend of yourself, myself
and knows so much about social security. A lot of
our listeners may have questions about what's the best When
do I take it?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You know, I can start at sixty two? But is
that the right idea?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Should social security be relied upon as your only sole
source of retirement income? I would say your answer is,
of course not right. We need to do better than that.
That's not enough to live on.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Bat I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I'm just going to say people are going to have questions.
They can ask you about this.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
You work with people in the retirement plan because social
security is a part of a retirement plan.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right absolutely, And you hit the nail on the head.
It used to be that when it was started at
night teen thirty five, benefits started at age sixty five.
In the life expectancy with sixty seven, that has changed dramatically,
so yes, people are living longer now. It should not
be the only source of income in retirement. Used to
be that you would have pensions, you'd have fully funded
(16:17):
retirement plans, and that's not the case anymore. You are
responsible for your own retirement planning. Social stecurity is one
part of it. It's a big part of it, but
it's not the only part of it. It should not
be considered the only part of it. Be a giver
office call. We address all areas of retirement and investment planning.
We manage over a billion and a half with our
(16:38):
little office, and we manage over four hundred billion dollars
with creative planning. We've got a lot of resources for
tax planning, retirement planning, investment planning, wills and trust, the
state planning making sure that when you accumulate this money
over your lifetime that it's distributed properly once you pass away,
so legal part of it, the insurance part of it.
(17:00):
Create a planning again, give our office call two sixty
two five to two forty forty, or you could set
up an appointment by going online at d Retirement Clinic
dot com. D Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
We're gonna hear from Chauncey Wisenzell after this first break, Jeff,
you summed it up very well, and was I correct
in saying sixty two is that first year of eligibility
to take social right.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Full retirement age now is right around age sixty seven,
but you can start early retirement UH from Social Security
at age as early as age sixty two, and there's
a reduced benefit at age sixty two. Likewise, you can
defer the benefit after full retirement age to age seventy.
You could put then beyond age seventy. It doesn't get
any bigger, so it doesn't make any sense to defer
(17:48):
any any longer than age seventy. That's the full benefit
you can get. That's the highest benefit you can get
at age seventy at discoum benefit at age sixty two.
The maximum benefit at age seventy. Full retirement ages right
around age sixty seven right now.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
And I know we're up against the break.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
But one quick question I have before that break, Jeff,
do you find it in your experience over all these
years that people are tending to retire earlier than they
did decades ago? Or do you see no change at all?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It varies, And that's a great question, and I think
it's different now that to me practice retirement. They may
take social Security for a while and still work and
stay under that limit. Some want to retire early. We
still see that that you know, people have gotten it,
especially those in stressful jobs that need to pull the
(18:40):
pin just for their own health. Sometimes they have to
take care of a loved one. That's another reason why
it may alter the retirement date. And then you have
people that are blown through age sixty five seventy seventy
five and continue to work because they love it, because
he figured they'd been given a gift by God to
do certain things, so they continue to do it. They
do it at a high level. So it's all over
(19:01):
the map.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And the flip side is people just hate their job
and they want to quit. They mark the calendar with
xes to that retirement day because they cannot wait.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, and you know, like you said, it's all over
the moon for it, right, if you.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Got the mood, if you plan for it, absolutely, if
you can afford it, and you're ready to pull that
pin and retire, well, this is what you do every
day at Creative Planning. Jeff Colewaal hosting today's Retirement Clinic
on WYSN. I'm Paul crown Force coming up, Chauncey Wisensell,
and that's gonna be.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
A good segment.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Right after the break, Jeff will respond to that, and
then we've got a lot more coming up with regard
to your retirement plan on w ISN called two six
two five two or the Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Thanks.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
What I want to discuss a little bit today, as
you guys mentioned a little bit was the article from
Baron's Until move Over Arizona and Florida. These states may
be the best places to retire for your health. So
I the key word there really is health, right typically
obviously Arizona, Florida. You said you'd ask somebody just off
(20:08):
the cuff, and where's a great place to retire. Everybody's
gonna think Florida, Arizona. Right, the weather is nice in
the winter. We have plenty of clients who go down there,
you know, they they snowbird They go down there for
at least the winter months. A few that live down
down in those places year round as well, but they
aren't necessarily the best places to retire, right. This what
(20:33):
this article really digs into is kind of a lot
of the healthcare rankings that you can find. And so
the first one that I saw here was there was
a survey done recording ninety nine different measures of a
healthcare system, right, everything from you know, cancer screenings to
volunteering at these hospitals, all these different things, and Florida
(20:56):
rank thirtieth, right, which isn't bad, but it's it's definitely
still obviously in the back half. And so you know,
and I've heard that routinely from clients who go down there,
you know there said, oh, you know, it's it's great,
but I do all my healthcare up here in Wisconsin
when I can, before I leave, and then when I
come back usually, you know, So the healthcare in Florida
(21:18):
is kind of generally, i'd say a little bit overwhelmed.
Another measure in one of these surveys is you know,
the approximate kind of the number of doctors needed to
take care of all the people there, and Florida was
dead last at sixty seven percent of what's needed. And so,
you know, those are some factors that they're looking at.
There was another part of this regarding health right talks
(21:39):
about kind of climate health in general healthcare. I believe
Arizona was excuse me, Florida was forty eight out of
fiftieth because obviously in the summers, if you snowbird, fine,
but in the summers is extreme heat, the air quality
is you know, rather pour down there, a lot of
power plant to make, and so some of those things
(22:02):
in that survey from a Commonwealth Fund study on climate
health and healthcare put them forty eighth out of fifty
and so for a lot of the same reasons, Arizona ended.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Up forty fifth out of fifty.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And so it's interesting when you look at these different factors, right,
not just oh what's the weather like down there in
the winter's can it can it be a little warmer
than it is here, which isn't difficult to do. You know,
you kind of see some different factors there. Other things
that they kind of looked at was kind of the
cost of long term care. Right, so if people suffering
(22:36):
Alzheimer's dementia can't take care of themselves anymore, whatever it
may be. Highest most expensive places Massachusetts average is aheard
and seventy three thousand a year. Cheapest is Arkansas eighty
six thousand a year for long term care. I don't
know that you necessarily want to end up in Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Though.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
There were some of the best states to retire. Actually
looking at health New England had a few, Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts all had relatively high scores. Those are actually the
top three. The order is New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont. It's
a different than what I just said, but a high
number of physicians, you know, metagap premiums are relatively low,
(23:20):
so those those additional healthcare costs. State tax I think
put New Hampshire to the top because it's zero percent
but relatively you know, not bad state taxes.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
And that's another big reason, right we see.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
A lot of clients go to Florida is because of
you know, no no tax, state tax down there as
long as you're a resident for six months.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
In a day so that's the big ones. Some other
ones on here.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
For our good old Midwest here, Minnesota ended up being
being the highest Midwestern. You know, I'm a little offended
that Wisconsin's not on the top ten list here, but
we're pretty close to Minnesota, so I guess, I guess
we'll take it.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Some Minnesota's on there.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
If you go out west, Washington is the highest one
out there, seventh for health rankings and very good physician
adequacy as well. Florida and Arizona they do make the
top ten, even though their health ranks are thirtieth and
thirty second.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Then we run out the top ten.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Texas and New Mexico also not very good health rankings,
but low metagap premiums which helped them out, and then
obviously low state taxes and then weather factors into that
as well. So this kind of interesting thing and just
something to to kind of think about. And I always
tell clients, you know, if you're if you're thinking about,
(24:43):
you know, snowbirding or you know, buying a place or
moving completely, you know, it doesn't hurt to check it out.
Maybe stay there for a while, see what you think
of the area before you just kind of Oh yeah, Florida.
Let's go, you know, spend some time there and get
to know the people and certainly do some additional looking, right,
not just being okay, you know, what does a house cost?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
And what's the weather?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:04):
You know, it pays to dig around and look at
some of these these healthcare research numbers.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
You know, what what are.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
The doctors, what's the cost of the healthcare, what's the
quality do I have to get you know, pre approved
for some of these Medicare things. Possibly there's something else
they looked at, and so there's a ton of factors
that should really kind of go into this. But it's
always interesting to see kind of some of the states
that make these lists. I know, I've I've done a
couple of these down different radio shows over the years,
and they're always fun to look at.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
But yeah, other things to make sure.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
That you guys consider when moving and something that we
certainly talk about with our clients as well. So you know,
be happy to talk about it with you too. I mean,
if anybody's listening and they want to come in get
a second opinion and talk about some of these.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Issues, happy to do so. So with that, you know,
I'll throw it back to you, Jeff and Paul.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Great to hear from Chauncey wisen Cell with Creative Planning.
Jeff Colewall and I'm Paul cronforst. We are back on
the retirement Clinic and now Jeff, we've got something to
talk about.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It's exciting the industry of US taxes.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Not so exciting, Paul, but a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
That Chaunton's trying to make it good.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
But every you know this, this chart comes out every
year and it it amazes me. I mean, we had
ninety highest federal tax rate was in nineteen forty four
nineteen forty five, where it was ninety four percent. That
was the top federal tax bracket. So if you made
(26:32):
a certain amount of income, you were paying ninety four
and anyway, add on state taxes on top of that
property taxes, you could be over one hundred percent. That's nuts.
But I was I was just curious who was president
during these times. So Woodworm Wilson started it. He set
up the Revenue Act. I think it was probably the
(26:54):
fun World War One in nineteen thirteen. So at that
time the rate was the top top top one was
seven percent. I saw it. If you made more than
three thousand dollars, you'd pay one percent, but the top
was seven percent. And I was wondering who is the
president from nineteen thirty six to nineteen forty seven, because
(27:14):
the tax rate went from sixty three percent to seventy
nine percent, to eighty one percent to eighty eight percent
to ninety four percent. That was FDR to fund all
the New Deal and the war and everything else World
War two. Nineteen sixty four, we dropped it down to
seventy seven percent. And that was with Linda Johnson in
(27:38):
nineteen Let's see, this was nineteen ninety two. Who was
dropped down to thirty one percent and that was George H. W. Bush. No,
that was Reagan. Twenty got down to twenty eight percent
in Reagan's term. That George remember that now you don't
remember a lot of people in our audience probably don't
remember it, but read my lips. No new tax I
(28:00):
remember that, well, taxes. The taxes went up under George H. W.
Bush from twenty eight percent to thirty one percent, to
thirty nine percent to nine point six And that was
one of the reasons why he lost the election, big
reason why he did. George, No new taxes yep. And
then he raises taxes. They got him on that anyway.
(28:24):
Two thousand and three, George Bush, George w reduced him
with thirty five percent, Obama raised them to thirty nine
point six and then President Trump dropped them down to
thirty seven percent. Then that's where we stand right now.
So I think it's pretty interesting that one point you
were paying ninety some people were paying ninety four percent
in federal income tax. That was or tax their marginal
(28:44):
tax rate. The other topic I want to touch on, Paul,
despite the taxes, retiring with a million dollars remains rare.
How many people reach at milestone. I ran across this
Investipedia article by Peter Grant, and only three point two
percent of retireings then you and I talked about this
earlier have a million dollars in retirement accounts only three
(29:08):
point two percent. Only two point six percent of Americans
in general, Nearly five hundred thousand Americans are four to
one k millionaires. And that's the good news that despite
the overall percentages, there's a remarkable growth at the top end.
Fidelity Investments reports that the number of four to one
(29:29):
k millionaires reached a record four hundred and ninety seven
twenty twenty four, with three hundred and ninety nine thousand
having at least a million dollars in individual retirement accounts,
so the number of four to one k millionaires is growing.
The key to reaching these accounts these amounts, take a guest, Paul.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
The keys to reaching these amounts is consid million dollars,
consistently putting the money away, taking advantage of the match
from your company, and time and time and time.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It adds up.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Exactly, Yeah, very good.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
You like that. Don't pass it.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Don't wait when you're twenty two and say, well, I'll
wait tillime in my thirties because i'll build afford it.
And then what do you say in your thirties There's
always going to be an excuse job. The sooner you start,
the better off you are.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Exactly. The key to region is starting early and contributing
consistently over the years. Exactly what you said. But the
average time it takes to reach a million dollars is
about twenty seven years. That's according to Fidelity analysis. Twenty
seven years is how long it takes to reach that
amount high income. Of course, of course, have the have
it's easier to reach that for those with higher incomes
(30:37):
than those are, but it says high income is not
the only way to reach that, living frugally, investment wisely,
and optimizing for taxes. We've got a lot of millionaires
next door as clients of ours, people who worked in factories,
people who worked in manufacturing, and we're not high paid
executives that were diligent put money away on a consistent basis,
(31:00):
and again we've got a lot of them. The bottom
line that happening a million dollars in your account on
the day of your retirement remains elusive goal for the
vast majority of Americans. Far fewer than one in thirty
actually achieve it. No wonder Americans are concerned about their retirement.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
But Jeff, it's attainable.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And John the plumber who consistently at age twenty one
when he starts his apprenticeship as a plumber and just
works every day, goes to work. Like you said, just
watch your your your debt. Try to keep that debt
down right. You're paying off that home. It's the Americans, Jeam.
You've got a family and by the time you're in
your sixties, all of a sudden you're look.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And you got two million dollars.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
It's very attainable, and that's what you're saying that we
started this with it. It may mean that everybody's different.
It may take a million and a half two million,
three million dollars to match what you're looking for in retirement.
So a million dollars is probably a starting point for
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yea, and hopefully your your home is paid off for
that thirty year mortgage by the time you're that age.
A lot of things just fall into place, the kids
are moved out, and it's you know, not everything works
out according to plan.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
But that's where you guys come in.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Jeff, you help with a retirement plan at Creative Planning.
So we've talked about we talked about social Security, we
heard from Shauncey. You just had this great segment. What
are you got coming up next? In our wealth management
preservation segment?
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Women live longer than man. It's the great horizontal wealth
transfer that's coming going sideways to women because again, they
tend to live longer.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
You got me on that one. I'm now looking forward
to hearing what you have to say about this. Two
six two five two two. That's the number to call
or check out The Retirement Clinic dot com with Jeff
Coolewall hosting today's show. I'm Paul cronforst On, Wisconsin's most
listened to radio station WIS and Milwaukee. All right, it's
time for that segment when you hear the bear naked ladies,
(32:54):
if I had a million dollars, Jeff Colewall, welcome back
to the Retirement Clinic. We call it the Wealth, Health,
Management and Preservation Segment.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Jeff yep.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
This segment, or to show us for everybody. This particular
segment is for those with over a million dollars. Once
you've reached that pinnacle, how do you preserve it, grow it,
take income from it, and pass it onto your ears.
That's the emphasis of this segment. No two people are alike,
and certainly an entire gender, the entire gender does not
(33:25):
think the same about investing and planning or anything. This article,
this is a Baron's article, talks about a great wealth
transfer that's in the process and will amount to trillions,
with most of it going to women. Let's get started.
Women live longer than men. The great horizontal wealth transfer
is coming more than eighty trillion dollars is slated for
(33:47):
offspring and charities, but most of it will go to
the widows first. And they just look at some of
the statistics and mortality rates. The children in the country's
oldest generations, along with countless charities, are in line to
inherit more than eighty four trillion dollars by twenty forty five.
(34:08):
That's only twenty years away, nineteen years away. But in
many cases the wealth won't go directly to them. Since
women statistically outlive men, a significant chunk of the great
wealth transfer will go first to widows. Research from Surrealia
Associates estimates that the eighty four point four trillion will
(34:28):
be transferred, seventy two point six will go to family
members and other errors. Twelve million dollars will be donated
to charities. The generations preceding the baby boomers are projected
to transfer fifteen point eight trillion, most of it over
the next decade, So fifteen point eight trillion over the
next decade, fifty three trillion after that. Total, really they
(34:52):
could go as high as eighty four trillion dollars. And
you know they say financial female females should be yeah,
attending what we feel in our office is that the
female should be coming along for meetings. A lot of
times it's the female who makes the financial decisions. Many
(35:12):
times it's the male and the relationship. But you know,
it's important that they pick up their financial intelligence and
a lot of times it's just attending meetings. Forward taking
advisors seek to involve both spouses and often their errors,
in planning it as early as possible. If this is
(35:33):
according to Obermeyer Wealth Partners, she says, if women feel
like they're a client and not just their spouse, they
make sure that women stay engaged. Casual needs might change
because of reduced travel, a widow may downsize real estate.
When widows start spending less, they may choose to provide
(35:56):
more support for family members. This is a key part
of this article. It says estate plans need to be
revisited over time to make sure beneficiaries are up to date.
Even if you if as a couple a husband and wife,
you did your planning, you did your state planning together.
When one spouse passes away, the male or female, it's
(36:17):
important to update the Wilson trust. This article focuses on
the women and it just says that there's a there's
a there's a gap in knowledge between the female and male,
according to the article, and they say women and again,
no too, women are alike, and I'm not suggesting that
(36:39):
at all. But the article says women as a group
tend to describe themselves as careful investors, with ninety seven
percent identifying as conservative or moderate according to Fidel Investments survey.
But gen Z those aged thirteen to yeah, thirteen to
twenty eight born from nineteen ninety seven to twenty two, Well,
(37:00):
gen Z women are proving to be less conservative, so
they tend to be more gross. There oriented few women
describe themselves as aggressive investors. That probably isn't a bad
characteristic for an average investor to have because you can
lose your shirt by engaging in short term training. Many
successful long term investors use a buy and hold strategy.
(37:24):
And again the article says this, the women tend to
focus on their financial goals. Goals, their financial goals versus
how did the market do today? So I think that
that's important. It's important to stay engaged with your financial advisor.
It's important for the financial advisor to make sure that
(37:45):
both parties are involved in the planning and the reviews
and shown up to meetings just again, just to learn
the terminology, get to know the person you're going to
be working with. Should want to spouse's pass away.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, making sure you're on the same page, your spouse,
your partner, whatever the case is.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Jeff.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
And you said something too about the state plans, keeping
those up to dates. Sometimes those tend to fall by
the wayside. You just kind of put it on the
back burner. You can't let that happen. And I think
after the break we'll talk about working with a financial planner,
just to remind you of these important things in life.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
It's really good stuff.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Jeff.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Today's Wealth Management Preservation segment, Jeff Cowal will be back
on WISN. This is the retirement clinic talked about so much.
We heard from Chauncey. You've got a wealth of advisors
in all areas of planning at Creative Planning.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
That's why we have producier advisors. We've always put our
clients interests first at Creative Planning. You know, we're already
into the new year, well into the new year, and
you said, boy, my newish resolution I was gonna get start,
was going to do the planning and here is you
still have it started. Give our office calls schedule something.
It's most important that we get it on the schedule.
We could take it from there. That's very important. With
(39:00):
the estate planning, with retirement planning, with investments, with insurance again,
Wilson Trust, accounting, taxes, all those things under round roof
creative planning, the Retirement Clinic dot com. Give our office
call two six two five two to four zero four
zero two six two five two to forty forty or
(39:21):
the Retirement Clinic dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Boy, Jeff, you are right about New Year's resolutions. Today
is February twenty first. We're closing in on March and
soon spring. I remember back it was January ninth. They
call it National Quitting Day. It's when most Americans drop
their resolutions only nine days into the new year.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
National Quitting Day. Yeah, so forget about the resolution. It is.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
It's not surprising. You're right, but all joking aside. Forget
about a resolution, just do it. Reach out to create
a planning and get it done. Two six to two
five to two forty forty, Jeff Colwall this year, I'm
Paul Crown for us back next week in the meantime.
Tune in Monday through Friday during the Dan o'donald Show.
Those market updates in the three and five pm news block.
WS Milwaukee News is up next.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
The preceding program is furnished by Creative Planning, an SEC
registered investment advisory firm. Creative Planning, along with its affiliate
United Capital Financial Advisors, currently manages or advises on a
combined three hundred and twenty five billion dollars in assets
as of June thirtieth, twenty twenty four. The host works
for Creative Planning, and all opinions expressed by the host
and or their guests are solely their own and do
(40:30):
not necessarily represent the opinion of Creative Planning. The show
is designed to be informational in nature and does not
constitute investment, tax or legal advice. Different types of investments
involve varying degrees of risk, and there could be no
assurance that the future performance of any specific investment or
investment strategy, including those discussed on the show, will be
profitable or equal any historical performance levels. The information contained
(40:53):
herein has been obtained from sources deemed reliable, but is
not guaranteed. If you would like our help request to
speak to an advisor by going to creative planning dot com.
Creative Planning, tax, and legal are separate entities that must
be engaged independently.
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